About the interview

Dr. Santosh Rao is an oncologist, professor, researcher, and former President of the Society for Integrative Oncology.

What makes Dr. Rao’s perspective especially unique is that his understanding of energy healing extends beyond research and medicine. For decades, he has explored practices including meditation, Reiki, and Healing Touch firsthand, both personally and in his work with patients.

He joined us at Phenomena for a conversation about what these experiences have taught him, what we currently understand about biofield therapies, why they may work, and what it will take for science to investigate them with the rigor needed to bring energy healing further into mainstream cancer care.

What you'll take away

How an oncologist’s path led to energy healing. From martial arts, meditation, and yoga in college to training in Reiki and Healing Touch as a physician, Dr. Rao shares the personal journey that brought two seemingly separate parts of his life together.

An early experience using energy healing in cancer care. Faced with a woman with advanced ovarian cancer in severe pain who could no longer tolerate more opioids, Dr. Rao decided to try something different. He turned to energy healing, and the results surprised even him.

What we know, and still don’t know, about how energy healing works. Dr. Rao shares what decades of practicing energy healing have led him to believe about what might actually be happening during a session, and why we still don’t have a scientific explanation.

What it could take to bring biofield therapies into mainstream cancer care. Dr. Rao explains why rigorous research is essential to understanding whether therapies like Reiki and Healing Touch are safe and effective, how they might work, and where they could eventually fit within evidence-based oncology.