Energy healers are people who believe that they can harness the Earth’s energy to heal people, and/or that they can use energy within themselves to influence the workings of other people’s bodies. In most cases, these people supposedly heal by touching their hands to an afflicted area of the body or by holding their hands over that area. One kind of energy healer who uses this approach is a practitioner of a Japanese tradition called Reiki (Japanese for “spirit life force”), whereby the practitioner’s hands, held over or lightly touching afflicted areas of the body, are believed to channel the energy forces of the universe through the air and into the body for healing purposes. In some cases, though, healers claim to be able to effect healing from a distance of as much as 100 feet (30.5m) away, by directing energy to affect the subject’s brain waves. Such was the case with Ostad Hadi Parvarandeh, one of the most famous energy healers. Born in Iran in 1926, he discovered at age sixteen that sick people felt much better when in his company. He then found that by concentrating his mental energy on a person in pain, he could reduce or even eliminate the pain. Eventually he was able to sense when a person was in pain, and in some cases to diagnose a person’s illness simply through psychic powers. Sceptics call such feats tricks and believe that sick people feel better around these supposed healers only because of wishful thinking. In other words, the healers’ effect on their patients is psychological, not physical.

SEE ALSO:

• Earth Energy
• Faith Healing

SOURCE:

The Greenhaven Encyclopedia of Paranormal Phenomena – written by Patricia D. Netzley © 2006 Gale, a part of Cengage Learning