Exploring the Science and Stories of Energy Healing

Join us where rigorous science meets extraordinary human experience, as modern researchers increasingly reveal promise for chronic pain, cancer, and beyond.

Exploring the Science and Stories of Energy Healing

Join us where rigorous science meets extraordinary human experience, as modern researchers increasingly reveal promise for chronic pain, cancer, and beyond.

Episode 1

The Healer in the Lab | Studying Energy Healing and Cancer at MD Anderson

In Episode 1, we explore the work at MD Anderson Cancer Center, one of the largest and most respected cancer research institutions in the world, where something remarkable is happening in the laboratory.

Reiki versus Fakey | A Clinical Trial on Chronic Pain with Harvard and the University of Utah

Rick Axelson spent his career teaching research methods at medical colleges. He also spent decades suffering from debilitating migraines that even his team at the Mayo Clinic couldn't resolve. Then he tried one session of Reiki with a practitioner named Natalie Dyer. Forty-five minutes. And his migraines have never come back.

The evidence is accumulating. The stories are extraordinary.

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IVY ROSS

Meet Your Podcast Hosts

Ivy Ross

Ivy Ross has held a range of executive positions, from head of product design and development to CMO and president, at companies including Mattel and Gap. Ross co-authored the New York Times bestselling book Your Brain on Art.

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Meredith Sprengel

Meredith Sprengel is currently Research and Program Director for the Subtle Energy Funders Collective & PhD Candidate in Cognitive Psychology at Leiden University.

See Full Bio

Meet Your Podcast Hosts

Ivy Ross

See Full Bio

Meredith Sprengel

Meredith Sprengel is currently Research and Program Director for the Subtle Energy Funders Collective & PhD Candidate in Cognitive Psychology at Leiden University.

See Full Bio

Previous Episodes

EPISODE TWO

“SAMPLE TEXT | Studying Energy Healing and Cancer at MD Anderson”

At MD Anderson Cancer Center—one of the largest and most respected cancer research institutions in the world—something remarkable is happening in the laboratory. Scientists are bringing energy healers into controlled experiments to measure what happens to pancreatic cancer cells when a biofield therapist (another term for energy healer) goes to work. What they're finding is measurable, repeatable, and difficult to explain: biofield therapy slows the ability of cancer to spread. Not in one study. In multiple, with multiple healers, multiple cell lines, and rigorous controls.

Episode 2

Test Audio

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Episode 3

Healing as a Way of Life | Qigong, Meridians, and the Science of Qi at Harvard

Episode 4

No One Left Behind | PTSD, Healing Touch, and the Military's Research Into Finding Relief

Episode 5

There's Something Between Us | The Science of the Healer-Patient Bond at Harvard

Episode 6

Not a Machine but a Flame | The Biology of Energy at Columbia and Beyond

Sounds True is a mission-driven learning and media company and a leader in wellbeing and spiritual development. Through partnerships with world-renowned teachers and authors, it reaches millions globally via programs, digital experiences, and events. Its platform, Sounds True One, serves a global community across 125+ countries. Sounds True is a Public Benefit Corporation and home to the Sounds True Foundation.

Phenomena Healing was created by the non-profit Merraki Media and the Subtle Energy Funders Collective to thoughtfully explore energy healing, using rigorous scientific inquiry, in an endeavor to help reduce suffering and promote wellbeing. "Merraki" is a Greek word that means “doing something purely for the love of it."

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Episode Two

"Reiki versus Fakey | A Clinical Trial on Chronic Pain with Harvard and the University of Utah"

That story on its own might be easy for some to dismiss. But new research from the University of Utah and Harvard—the most comprehensive study of its kind ever conducted—sheds new light on the possibilities of Reiki for chronic pain. What they found in patients with chronic knee pain matched the effectiveness of treatments medicine already accepts, like opioids. Lead researcher Dr. Adam Hanley puts it simply: he didn't expect to see anything. Now he's scrambling to understand what happened.

And there's one more thing about Natalie Dyer that changes this story in a way that is fascinating. She’s not just a healer, she’s also a neuroscientist.