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Archive for the ‘Noetic Sciences’ Category

In the first and second installments of this series, we looked at how REG devices were used to measure both an individual’s focused intent and the focused attention of global consciousness. In today’s post we are going to cover why this experimental model is inadequate for studying the effect of energy healing.

What physics can’t accurately measure, physics can’t study with great precision. That is the limit of physics, but not the limit of reality. One of the most frustrating aspects of setting up experiments to show the effectiveness of energy healing is the ability to accurately assess and measure both the intent of the healer and the affect on the receiver.

The bottom line on this problem comes down to two types of questions, with variations depending on the experiment. Those basic questions are: 1) How do you measure a dose of prayer, and 2) Do you feel better after having received it?
Countless experiments have been conducted over the last forty years in an attempt to set up a controlled environment in which data can be gathered and analyzed to show whether or not energy healing has any real effect.

One of the aspects of a controlled experiment is to compare data between at least one test group that receives the healing that is being studied and a control group that only receives standard care. In all such studies, the statistical norm for the placebo, or power-of-belief effect is known to be established at 35%. This means that a study showing healing among the test group must first discount 35% of the positive results due to the placebo effect. The same 35% must be deducted from the control group. The odd thing about all of this is that to gather statistical data for analysis, a full one-third of those who had positive results in each group must be discounted. That begs the question about priorities. Is the point to heal, by whatever means, or to discount something known to heal? If the placebo effect statistically brings some favorable results, why not include it as standard treatment in addition to any other treatment delivered? After all, it has no ill side effects.

Another statistical bane for these studies is accurately measuring how much better someone feels after receiving treatment. In many cases this measurement is anecdotal, meaning that it is somewhat subjective in nature. If the patient was in pain, for example, they may be asked to assign a number to their pain level both before and after treatment. Considering that everyone’s pain threshold is different, there is no way to absolutely quantify the result stated.

One of the biggest hurdles faced in these types of studies also lies with the significant paradigm difference in allopathic and energetic healing models. In allopathic treatment, for example, a pill is given with the expectation of quickly relieving the physical symptoms and/or affecting remission of the underlying physical cause. Energetic healing primarily deals with the underlying cause, which may be rooted in the psychological or emotional state of the patient. The illness is considered a physical manifestation of an unbalanced energy state and not, in and of itself, the problem.

Energy healing often takes time to bring about a real cure. As most any energy healer can attest, instantaneous healing is atypical. In fact, the first few visits with an energy healer may only result in reframing the mindset of the patient to receive healing, take responsibility for their own health, and become willing to have the root cause surface. This is especially true if they are uneducated in energy work in general and are fully indoctrinated to allopathic expectations of something outside of them, be it a doctor or a drug, bringing about the relief of symptoms.

In effect, energy healing studies are being conducted on a model that does not suit the real conditions in play. In other words, they are comparing apples to oranges while maintaining that fruit is fruit and healing is healing.

In the last installment of this series, we’ll have a look at why controlled studies of energy healing and focused intent do not usually display the dramatic results found in everyday life.

The Sage Age – Blending Science with Intuitive Wisdom, was featured in Publishers Weekly shortly after its debut. Visit www.SageAge.net for more information and to read articles on many of the topics covered in the book.

In the first installment of this series, we looked at how REG devices (or Random Event Generators) were used in mind-over-matter experiments. Today we’ll look at the difference in early studies and recent studies that show the difference between focused attention and focused intent.

The experiments at the PEAR lab began in 1979, but physicist and parapsychologist Helmut Schmidt had been using REG devices in consciousness studies since the 1960s. For the most part, all of these studies involved a strictly controlled environment where a person focused their intent on causing the REG device to deviate significantly from random. Many variations on this theme were run including having the person be miles away or focusing their intent long after the REG data had been run and sealed. Regardless of distance or time, the results were still the same. The “intender” had the same effect on the REG as if they had been sitting in the room with it while it was running.

The natural evolution of such studies became what is now the Global Consciousness Project (GCP), which monitors field REG devices all over the world. The data they have archived for the past decade clearly shows a significant shift from random in the REG devices just before a major event happens somewhere in the world.

There are important differences between the PEAR and GCP studies. In the PEAR experiments, the person attempting to affect the device used focused intention. There was a specific goal, or target, that they were trying to achieve. With the GCP study, there is no specific goal and the recorded events are in reaction to an event.

In other words, the PEAR study measured focused intent. The GCP measures focused attention. The PEAR study measured an individual’s intent. The GCP measures global consciousness.

The difference in these studies brings to bear an entirely new aspect to future experiments and helps scientists develop trials that distinguish what type of data they are gathering. This is especially important in studies on energetic healing.

In the next installment, we’ll look at healing studies and why the PEAR and GCP models are inadequate models to show the whole picture of what is transpiring.

The Sage Age – Blending Science with Intuitive Wisdom, was featured in Publishers Weekly shortly after its debut. Visit www.SageAge.net for more information and to read articles on many of the topics covered in the book.

Some of the most famous mind-over-matter experiments were conducted over a twelve year period at the PEAR labs. PEAR is an acronym for Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research. Their experiments centered on a person as the controller who was attempting to influence the behavior of a REG device, which is a Random Event Generator. Basically, a REG acts as the computer equivalent of a coin flipper. Statistically, a coin will land on heads half the time and tails the other half. Instead of heads or tails, a REG spits out 1s and 0s at random with the same statistical split as the coin. (An early REG device is shown to the left.)

The target of the experiment was to get the REG to spit out either more 1s or 0s in a consistent stream, indicating that the events were no longer random. Over the course of the study, scientists were able to acquire enough data to show conclusively that a person could influence a machine.

The Global Consciousness Project (GCP) uses field REG devices placed all over the globe. Some may know it as the EGG Project. Recently they’ve recorded spikes just before the great tsunami that wiped out Indonesia and just before the 9/11 events. Notice that the spikes occurred just prior to the event. (Modern field REG device made by Psyleron shown to the left.)

This means that the GCP brings to light two important aspects of consciousness studies. The first is that focused attention can influence a REG device, even if that is not that target or intention of the ones holding the thought, as it was in the PEAR experiments. The second is that the collective consciousness of humans is aware and reacting to a major event just prior to it actually manifesting in linear time.

There have been many such studies under strictly controlled conditions that all show, irrefutably, that focused attention can affect matter and that awareness can precede an actual event. However, none of these studies reflects the dramatic results of anecdotal evidence displayed with focused intent, especially when there is a sense of urgency or great need between two people who are closely bonded.

In the next installments of this series, we’ll look at the difference in focused attention and intent and why healing with intention experiments are so difficult to conduct.

The Sage Age – Blending Science with Intuitive Wisdom, was featured in Publishers Weekly shortly after its debut. Visit www.SageAge.net for more information and to read articles on many of the topics covered in the book.