Dear Readers,
In July of 2020, I encouraged you to check out the Consciousness and Healing Initiative 2020 Report compiled by the Consciousness and Healing Initiative (CHI) — a nonprofit collaborative of scientists, practitioners, educators, innovators, and artists. You can find the link to the report and my recap at Report: Healing Initiative 2020.
The CHI collaborators support a resource library that anyone can use with a link on their website including these articles from a special issue they published. They offer courses, articles, and training to encourage the integration of the whole person into modern medicine. Their goal is
“…to advance scientific understanding and increase acceptance of evidence-based subtle energy and biofield healing modalities as healthcare options.”
This Month…
I want to introduce you to the CEO and founder of CHI, Dr. Shamini Jain, and her new book, Healing Ourselves: Biofield Science and the Future of Health. Published by Sounds True on September 14, 2021.
Shamini Jain, PhD
In addition to founding the collaborative CHI, Dr. Shamini Jain “…is an Ivy League-trained clinical psychologist, an award-winning research scientist in psychoneuroimmunology and integrative medicine, and adjunct faculty at UC San Diego.”
Dr. Jain is well respected in our industry of natural healers.
Healing Ourselves
I found Healing Ourselves: Biofield Science and the Future of Health to be a wonderful book that provides scientific evidence for consciousness-based healing. For me, it confirmed that we are much more powerful than we think we are.
The peer-reviewed research in Dr. Jain’s book demonstrates the devoted relationship between consciousness and health.
Her discussion on the placebo effect confirms further the power of consciousness in healing ourselves. Scientific studies praise the placebo effect. In fact, multiple research studies report that 75% of the effects of antidepressants relieving depression come from the user’s belief that the drug works – in other words “the placebo effect.” (Page 69
She also describes extensively what over 100 published research studies say about the healing power of holistic practices such as yoga, tai chi, meditation, and energy healing.
Energy Healing
Dr. Jain conducted a research study herself to determine if biofield energy healing was “just a placebo.” She wanted to know. Her study group were women who had survived breast cancer; yet suffered from fatigue.
In the short term, there was some truth to the placebo effect. They looked at the physiology of fatigue and measured the cortisol levels over time and saw improvement in the actual participants who believed they received treatment along with those who received treatment. What they found astounding was the “normalization of cortisone rhythms over time – but only for the women in the energy healing group!” (Page 127)
About the same time, a professor at the University of Iowa conducted a similar study. (Page 129) This time it was with ovarian and cervical cancer patients going through chemotherapy and/or radiation. This study group was divided into healing touch therapy, relaxation therapy, and traditional medical treatments.
They found that only the group that received healing touch therapy maintained their natural “killer cell” function in their immune systems during chemotherapy and radiation treatments. With the other two groups, their natural killer cells declined reducing their ability to fight off the cancer cells.
Much of the cancer healing treatments for my clients focus on building their immune system for this very reason — to fight off the cancer cells. We also work on countering the effects of chemotherapy and radiation drugs on their bodies. We work on everything from depression to neuropathy.
What does the scientific evidence say?
Does non-touch healing modalities work? Check out the dynamic infographic that shows the results from many of the studies compiled for Dr. Jain’s book.
Health and Interconnection
This July 15, 2022, TEDx Berkley presentation by Dr. Shamini Jain is an excellent introduction to her research work.
She opens talking about our connected experiences — the isolation we felt during the pandemic and now, our mutual struggle to grasp the “atrocities of war.” She uses these as real-world examples of how we do not need to be in the same room to “feel each other.”
“It’s simply a human connecting with another biological system, channeling the currents of compassion to generate a healing response.”
I recommend this book
The book is an excellent read if you are a health practitioner needing a reason to expand your practice into a holistic approach to healing. It explains why balancing the whole person is important. In addition to medical personnel — caregivers, teachers, massage therapists, yoga instructors, and people from all walks of life have added bioenergy healing therapy to their list of services offered.
If you’re interested in natural healing for any reason — you want to better understand alternative medicine for yourself or for a loved one — this book would be good for you to read about the effectiveness of alternative medicine.
One of the reasons I am so excited about Dr. Jain’s work is because it scientifically supports bioenergy healing.
So, if you want better health, freedom from chronic pain, or a more natural way of healing, consider bioenergy therapy. Give me a call to find out more at 416-203-2744.
Meanwhile, enjoy your learning quests through books. I do.
~~Ellen