Touch for Health & Therapeutic Touch

From: Exposing Spiritualistic Practices in Healing

by Edwin A. Noyes M.D., MPH

TOUCH FOR HEALTH

Touch for Health is another variant therapy and is explained on the same concept as for acupuncture, i.e., the flow of chi through meridians. Instead of using needles or massage, this form of therapy involves determining approximately which meridian is involved, then running the hands up and down the meridian, to correct the energy imbalance. Gentle massage is applied by the practitioner’s finger to the same energy centers as pierced by the tiny acupuncture needle. This finger massage is known as acupressure.

The practitioners of therapeutic touch say that they can improve a wide variety of medical conditions, such as decubiti ulcers (pressure sores), Alzheimer’s disease, and thyroid disorders, etc., by correcting the energy-field disturbances, which they are able to feel and re-pattern:

by passing their hands over a patient’s body at a distance of 5–10 cm. ²⁾ McCarthy, Michael, Therapeutic Touch Fails Child’s Test, The Lancet, April 4, (1998), (A British Medical Journal).

The originator of this type of energy medicine is Dora Kunz, a past president of the Theosophical Society.

Dora Kunz is herself a ‘spiritualist’ who looks to ‘invisible intelligences,” ‘angels’ and theosophy’s “ascended Masters’ for inspiration and guidance.” ³⁾ Kunz, Dora, The American Theosophist, Dec. (1978), Viewpoint, reported in Ankerberg, Can You Trust Your Doctor? op. cit., p. 393.

Delores Krieger R.N. credits Dora Kunz for her knowledge of this practice. Krieger also had additional training in occult healing techniques. She studied yoga, Ayurvedic medicine (Hindu occultism applied to medicine), occultic Tibetan medicine, and Chinese traditional medicine. ⁴⁾ Ankerberg, op. cit., p. 393. Delores Krieger has been a leading promoter of therapeutic touch in the nursing profession. Therapeutic touch is an example of the Hindu concept of prana (vital energy, chi), under a new guise. Krieger stated that the Hindu version of universal energy is the basis for healing energy that is said to be transferred. She comments that the practitioner of this so-called art is the conduit not the generator, of the energy believed to be present.

…prana may be transferred from one individual to another and may not be so readily apparent to us unless we have gotten into the practice of and literature of hatha yoga, tantric yoga, or the martial arts of the orient. ⁵⁾ Krieger, Delores, The Therapeutic Touch, p. 13; Reported in Reisser, Paul C. M.D. , Reisser, Teri K., Weldon, John, New Age Medicine, Global Publishers, Chattanooga, TN, (1088), p. 45.

The therapeutic touch technique is based on four steps:

a. Centering type meditation by therapist prior to applying treatment.
b. Assessment–scanning the patient’s energy fields with the hands, feeling for energy imbalances.
c. Unrufling the field–checking for stagnant energy and sweeping this energy away with the hands.
d. Transfer of energy–moving energy via the hands to the patient so as to correct energy imbalance.

Whatever their initial appeal, energy therapies inevitably beckon the budding healer into more hard core ‘New Consciousness’ thinking since these systems are in essence profoundly mystical. ⁶⁾ Reisser, op. cit., pp. 47–48.

In April 1998, three medical journals, Journal of the American Medical Association, British Medical Journal and Lancet (also a British medical journal), reported a study done by Emily Rose, a nine- year-old girl testing the ability of practitioners of therapeutic touch. In her test, the therapeutic touch practitioners put their hands through a small hole in a shield that prevented them from knowing if anyone was on the other side or not. Then a person’s hand would be put very close to the therapist’s hand and the therapist was asked to tell when a hand was near his or her hand. The results were no better than guessing. This was done as a school project and the quality of the experiment was such that when written up by adults it was accepted and placed into three prestigious medical journals. The conclusion of the journals editors were:

Twenty-one experienced Therapeutic Touch practitioners were unable to detect the investigator’s energy field. Their failure to substantiate Therapeutic Touch’s, most fundamental claim, is unrefuted evidence that the claims of Therapeutic Touch are groundless and that further professional use is unjustified. ⁷⁾ Linder, Rosa, BSN, Rosa, Emily, Sarnor, Larry, Barret, Stephen M.D., The Journal of American Medical Assn. April 4, (1998), pp. 1005-1010.

As we close this section concerning various massage methods a little should be said concerning various mechanical apparatuses that are sold to effect massage. Swedish type massage by hand or by machine can and may be a desirable experience and should not be considered as “spiritualistic.” It is when the therapist may describe or explain benefits and actions of the massage as being a method of unclogging, diffusing, or imparting energy we know we have a therapist that is connected to the power of Satan. Therapy from this person then becomes of concern.