Alternative healing is directly linked to psi. In a 2001 paper, Daniel Benor, MD, uses the term “psi healing,” in fact, to describe various healing techniques. He says:This paper accepts the existence of psi healing (also called spiritual, mental and paranormal healing) to be an established fact. The author has found 152 published studies of healing (Benor 1990; Benor in press). More than half of these demonstrate significant effects. There is thus more research on healing than on all the other complementary therapies combined, with the exception of hypnosis and psychoneuroimmunology. Psi healing demonstrates that the mind of a healer can alter the conditions of organisms, including cells in vitro, bacteria, yeasts, plants, animals and humans. In addition, there is evidence that healers may influence water, crystallization of salt solutions and enzymes. Some of these studies show significant effects of healing at a distance.
In terms of popularity in the mainstream world, what Benor calls “psi healing” may be one of the rare examples where the believers are coming close to balancing out the skeptics. For example, according to the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, approximately 38 percent of adults and approximately 12 percent of children in the United States were using some form of complementary or alternative medicine (CAM) as of 2007, and the figure is steadily rising. These therapies include yoga, tai chi, massage, meditation, Reiki, acupuncture, shamanism, etc.
In this issue, we hope to illuminate some of these healing techniques. Dr. Katherine MacDowell, respected author and the founder of Ocean Seminary College, gives an overview of shamanic practice and techniques, especially as related to her personal tradition. Additionally, Dagmar Ehling, licensed doctor of Oriental Medicine, gives an extensive overview of acupuncture, Chinese medicine, and their guiding principles. Reiki, an energy healing technique that originated in Japan, works with the same conceptual understanding as acupuncture, and from my experience as a Reiki Master Teacher, I give a brief introduction to Reiki in an interview.
Jane Katra, PhD a renowned healer from the northwest United States, shares two powerful stories with us. In one, she describes a distant healing experience with Russell Targ, one of our recent speakers and the founder of remote viewing in the United States. In the other, she describes an extraordinary afterlife visit from Dr. Elisabeth Targ, associated with healing and comforting at a distance. You will have to read for yourself to understand the uniqueness of these interactions.
Some of our most common therapeutic experiences are the healing interactions we have with animals. We include two powerful examples in this issue. Sally Rhine Feather, Executive Director of the Rhine Center, shares with us a miraculous story of a human, Anthony Swaney, healing a small kitten through an energy healing technique. In the reverse, my article titled “The Healing Power of Dolphins” discusses the powerful ways in which an animal species heals us.
Jack Hunter, the editor of Paranthropology: Journal of Anthropological Approaches to the Paranormal, shares with us a powerful commentary on anthropologists and their experiences during field work. If an anthropologist is fully immersed in a ritual, the intended results of that ritual are typically undeniably experienced. In this way, anthropologists may sometimes be our closest scientific link between the worlds of mainstream science and ancient practices (such as shamanism, energy healing, and the like).
Finally, we want to bring you closer to the current personalities and activities at the Rhine Research Center through a number of interviews:
Christine Simmonds-Moore, PhD, our visiting researcher, sheds light on her research, her interests, and her entrance into the world of parapsychology at a young age. Bob Gebelein, our featured volunteer this quarter, describes the work he does at the Rhine Center, his decision to move here to be closer to the Center, and his viewpoint about parapsychology and Harvard University.
Last but not least, we give an overview of the Rhine events from this spring and summer with an in-depth sample of two programs as experienced by Dave Roberts, managing editor of the Journal of Parapsychology, and an extensive interview with Joe McMoneagle, a recent popular speaker and workshop leader renowned for his acumen in remote viewing.
We hope you enjoy the issue. Please e-mail me at Jennifer@Rhine.org or my co-editor, Mark A. Schroll, PhD, at Mark@Rhine.org with any comments or suggestions for future issues, and do drop by the Rhine Center whenever you are in Durham, North Carolina.
