Energy Healing, Minus the Nonsense

Highlights

Many spiritual practices reference a “life force” that permeates and flows through the body.

Its flows are allegedly mapped by the chakra system and the meridians of acupuncture.

Even after a tremendous number of clinical studies, there’s no consensus as to whether energy-based therapies are truly effective, or just esoteric placebos. Worse, claims made by the most fervent believers (and the most shameless grifters) are overblown to the point of being dangerous.

practices like Reiki and acupuncture do seem to provide stress and pain relief, especially when compared with a control group that receives zero treatment. But the effect becomes smaller (and sometimes disappears) when compared with “placebo” treatments that have the same form: a session with an enlightened Reiki master seems to have roughly the same effect as any care provider gently placing their hands on your skin. There are similar findings for acupuncture and reflexology.

Touch-based healing simulates the most archetypal care gestures. Several scientists I interviewed mentioned the way their mother would lay a hand on their head when they had a fever.

I’d like to propose an alternative explanation, one that coheres strongly with my own first-hand experience: these therapies “work” because they focus our attention on bodily sensations.

I want to emphasize, very clearly, that *most* illness has a physical cause. You should never treat a broken bone, a viral infection, or a tumor with energy work.

People do this sometimes! One study found a 250% increase in mortality for cancer patients engaging in alternative therapies. Famously, Steve Jobs died of liver cancer after trying to treat it with acupuncture and a strict diet.

Energy healing is a *psychological* intervention. It can only help physical illness to the degree that the illness is psychogenic. It can help you deal with the *emotional stress* of cancer, but it will not prevent the tumor from killing you.

I will say, I’ve had some experiences with romantic partners that stretch my imagination here. And the body does generate and respond to electromagnetic disturbances. I’m default-skeptical on the subject of energy transfer, but would love to see more research.

Metaphysics, as always, should be understood metaphorically. If visualizing tactile sensations as a life force or as a divine snake helps you, by all means, go ahead. But remember that it’s just a provisional model of reality, not reality itself.

I’d love to see some enterprising neuroscientist prove, once and for all, that the sensation of *qi* is correlated with an electrical pulse in the associated body part, or with a tiny seizure in the cortical homunculus, or with some other physiological indicator. Until then, any description of *qi* is entirely anecdotal, and all we can do is compare anecdotes.

It’s unfortunate that language demands every verb have a corresponding noun. It would be uncontroversial for me to say “when I sit quietly, I can feel movement”. But we’re left with the obvious question: what, exactly, is moving? Is it my nerves? My muscles? My awareness? *Me*?

The general vibe from meta analyses is “it seems like there’s something here, but studies are low-quality, and we should do more research.” I also have the impression that the people who do these studies and meta-studies tend to be biased towards alternative therapies.

It’s really hard to trust the literature. Or, more specifically, it’s hard to trust your own ability to navigate the literature without bias.