Biofield Therapies Clinical Research Landscape: A Scoping Review and Interactive Evidence Map.
Clinical Research Landscape/Evidence Map
Explore the more than 350 studies on subtle energy and biofield healing published to date, and see how this growing evidence base points toward the strongest path forward to deepen the science, elevate research quality, and support a new generation of rigorous and influential work in this emerging field.
Research Question:
- What does the current scientific landscape of healing therapies (like Reiki and Therapeutic Touch) look like?
- How can we create a public tool to make this research easy for everyone to find and understand?
- What are the main health conditions and populations being studied in this field?
Key Findings: Researchers identified 353 major studies on energy-based therapies. Nearly half of these studies (48.7%) reported exclusively positive results for every health outcome they measured. The top most studied named biofield therapies identified in the sources are Reiki (n = 88), Therapeutic Touch (n = 71), and Healing Touch (n = 31). Other interventions that appeared frequently in the research landscape include intercessory prayer (n = 21), External Qigong (n = 16), and Spiritual Healing/Spiritual Passé/Laying-on-of-hands (n = 14).
Design: The researchers utilized a systematic search of the PubMed, Embase, CINAHL, and PsycInfo databases from their inception through January 2024 to identify peer-reviewed interventional studies on Biofield Therapies. A team of ten screeners evaluated 13,406 citations against strict eligibility criteria, which required that the therapy be non-invasive and involve a practitioner working with a living system's biofield to facilitate a healing response,,,.
Articles Included for Review: 353 studies. These studies involved thousands of participants, most commonly focusing on healthy volunteers, people in pain, and cancer patients.
Biofield / Energy Healing Intervention: For this review, biofield therapies (BTs) are defined as nonphysically invasive and noninstrumental therapies where a practitioner explicitly works with another living system’s biofield to facilitate a healing response. This interaction can occur locally or remotely and involves working with a recipient such as a person, plant, animal, or cell.
Results:
- There has been a steady increase in research since 1965, with a major surge in publications over the last two decades.
- Out of the 353 studies, 172 reported entirely positive results, 95 reported mixed results, and 71 reported nonsignificant results.
- Most studies focused on how these therapies help with mental health (77.3%), physical symptoms (65.4%), and pain (34.8%).
Discussion:
- There is a clear and growing interest in healing therapies within hospitals and the VA system.
- To be fully accepted in mainstream medicine, researchers need to be more consistent in reporting details like the practitioner's training and the exact "dose" of the therapy.
- A new, free "Evidence Map" (www.biofieldsciencemap.org) now exists to help patients and doctors explore this research for themselves.
- The evidence suggests these therapies are safe and potentially very effective for various conditions.
Conclusion: There is a substantial and growing body of evidence showing that energy-based therapies can benefit patients. This review provides a roadmap for bringing these therapies further into standard healthcare.
Link to Publication: https://doi.org/10.1089/jicm.2024.0773
More Research
Reiki & Mindfulness for Chronic Knee Pain
In a rigorous placebo controlled trial of energy healing, Reiki and mindfulness were both more effective than a waitlist control for knee osteoarthritis pain, with Reiki reducing pain by 32 percent. Reiki showed improvement at the one month follow up that was comparable to mindfulness, an evidence based complementary approach to pain management.
Healing Touch & Guided Imagery for PTSD
Combining Healing Touch with guided imagery for active duty soldiers with PTSD led to significant reductions in clinical symptoms, lowered cynicism and improved quality of life, demonstrating a meaningful impact on the effects of trauma, and illustrating how multimodal approaches may strengthen the benefits of energy healing.
Systematic Review on Non-Touch Biofield Healing
This review examines randomized controlled trials of biofield therapies delivered without physical contact. The results are encouraging, but the small pilot studies highlight the need for larger and more rigorous trials to determine true efficacy.
Biofield Therapy for Breast Cancer Survivors
This RCT in breast cancer survivors found that a 4-week biofield therapy program significantly improved fatigue and diurnal cortisol variability for many participants. Interestingly the patients’ expectation about whether they received real healing did not predict who improved, suggesting results may not simply reflect placebo.
Spiritual Energy Healing Intervention for Knee Pain
The study assessed a non contact version of the spiritual healing tradition known as “laying on of hands” for older women with knee osteoarthritis and found that when delivered with a spiritual component, patients experienced significantly improved functional capacity, reduced anxiety, and better long term outcomes compared to both the nonspiritual version and a no intervention control.
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