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Touch Therapy - Fact or Fraud? |
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What is Touch Therapy? Supporters of touch therapy claim it can treat and cure a wide variety of illnesses, including heart failure, diabetes and infections. The "theory" is that people who are ill have disturbed "energy fields," and that by moving trained hands over the patient's body (without contact), a touch therapist can detect malalignments and repattern energy fields to create "energy balance." It is important to stress that this is not the same as manipulative treatments such as massage or relaxation techniques. Massage can reduce stress in some people and meeting and talking with a concerned, caring individual can have a calming effect. But this is far different than the claims of "touch therapists" claiming to treat and cure diseases by aligning energy fields without even touching a person. Is there any scientific support for touch therapy? No, there are no properly done studies supporting touch therapy nor is there even theoretical support that it should work. People claiming to detect and treat "disturbed energy fields" are claiming magical abilities. Is there evidence against touch therapy? Until recently no well controlled studies had been done to see whether touch therapists could detect the presence of a person's "energy field". Then a study, initially proposed by a sixth grade girl for her science class, was conducted and published in JAMA (April 1,1998). The question posed by the young investigator was simple: Can experienced practitioners of therapeutic touch, when blindfolded, accurately identify the presence or absence of a person's "energy field?" Fourteen practitioners were tested 10 times each and seven practitioners were tested 20 times each. In each test, participants were asked to identify whether a young girl had placed her hand close to their left or right hand. A coin toss determined where the girl placed her hand each time. By chance alone, the practitioners should have received a score of 50 percent. If the practitioners had the abilities to sense "energy fields," as they claim, they would have answered correctly 100 percent of the time. How did these experienced therapists do? They got 44 percent correct — somewhat less than chance alone. The authors concluded that therapeutic touch is "groundless" and that further use of it by health professionals is "unjustified." Doctors Corner INternet Group, Inc. 1997-2004
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