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The
Science Behind Healing Intention
Have you ever been to a healthcare practitioner you were really
comfortable with? Perhaps you experienced faster healing by working with this
person. Or maybe your church congregation prayed for you and you found yourself
recovering from an illness faster than usual. Maybe you helped another person
heal by your positive attitude or consciousness. If you experienced any of the
above situations you have first hand experience with a mysterious phenomenon
known as healing intention.
Just what is healing intention? Intention can be thought of as having and acting
with a purpose. In the case of healing, it is having the purpose to heal. The
purpose to heal can be directed at one's self or to another as in a
practitioner-patient relationship. Healing intention also works over great
distances.
Early research on healing intention was done with simple living systems such as
plants. In one early study conducted by Bernard Grad (1) two different kinds of
saline solutions were given to plants. One sample consisted of normal unaffected
water while the other consisted of water exposed to healing intentions given by
a healer. The plants given the healing water showed more sprouting were taller
than those given the untreated water.
Another series of studies by Grad showed that skin wounds in mice healed faster
in mice treated by healers who simply laid their hands on them. (2) This effect
of faster wound healing by the laying on of hands has also been found in human
subjects.(3) More recently a study conducted by Randolph C. Byrd, a cardiologist
at San Francisco General Hospital showed that healing prayer affected the
recovery of cardiac surgery patients. (4) The prayed for patients experienced
less complications and less morbidity than those who were not prayed for.
A clue as to how healing intention works may be found in the way intention
affects machines. A number of experiments have been done with machines that
generate a string of random numbers. These machines called random event
generators or REGs spew out millions of random numbers that should all
statistically cancel out. Experiments show that these numbers deviate from
randomness with human intention. Human subjects can actually influence the
machine's output by just thinking about it. The effect is small but
statistically sound. This effect also occurs over great distances.
The important point is that somehow intention decreases randomness in the
universe. There is some kind of mysterious link between someone's intentions and
physical reality. At present we know this connection exists but we don't know
exactly what it is or how it works.
Disease can be thought of as the body moving toward a state of greater
randomness. Think of an infection or something more serious like cancer. The
body's cells become more disorganized, more random with disease. It may be that
intention works by decreasing the randomness produced by the disease.
Intention is also a non-local phenomenon. A non-local phenomenon does not happen
according to the laws of physics. In other words it does not obey the laws of
space and time. For example, if you drop a ball you can measure a number of
properties related to the event of dropping the ball. You can measure the speed
of the ball, the acceleration and so on. In non-local events you cannot measure
these properties because they appear to transcend physical attributes such as
mass, speed and acceleration. Non-local events are instantaneous and can extend
to any distance in space. If intention is non-local then it elicits its effects
instantaneously and over any distance.
Intention can be used by anyone to heal or to help others to heal. We have seen
that prayer is a form of intention but there are also other ways to use
intention. First of all you must make a decision deep inside you to heal or to
help someone else heal. Then you must hold the intention for a period of time.
That means that you can concentrate on healing or just know in a deep way that
you are healing. If you are using intention to help others you should focus on
their health and well-being.
Some techniques go as far as having a group of people such as family members use
guided imagery to help a loved one through surgery. Instead of nervously waiting
in the visitor's lounge the family members work together by performing an
imagery exercise. The exercise begins by imagining the patient entering the
operating room and then continues by forming an image of a successful operation
and recovery. In my opinion this is time well spent and gives family members a
sense of control over the procedure.
Intention is a great addition to any healing program and should be considered by
anyone wishing to heal or in helping others to heal. It is simple to do, works
over any distance and is supported by a number of studies. Although the actual
mechanism is not known it may work by somehow reducing the disorganization
caused by disease.
References
1. Grad, B. Some biological effects of the "laying on of hands": A
review of experiments with animals and plants. JAM Soc Psychical Res
1965;59:95-127.
2. Grad, B. Cadoret, R. J., Paul, G. I. The influence of unorthodox method of
treatment on wound healing in mice. Int J Parapsy 1961; 3:5-24.
3. Wirth, D. Unorthodox healing: The effect of noncontact therapeutic touch on
the healing rate of full thickness dermal wounds. Paper presented at the 32nd
Annual Parapsych Assoc Convention, San Diego, 1989.
4. Byrd, R. Positive therapeutic effects of intercessory prayer in a coronary
care unit population. Southern Med J 1988; 81:826-29.
Dr. Bruce Forciea is an author, educator and chiropractor. His new book
"Unlocking the Healing Code" presents a new paradigm for healing. His
site:
http://www.informationalhealing.com
contains more information, free newsletter, free guided imagery download and New
Age music downloads.
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