cover image The Energy Healing Experiments: Science Reveals Our Natural Power to Heal

The Energy Healing Experiments: Science Reveals Our Natural Power to Heal

Gary E. Schwartz, with William L. Simon. . Atria, $25 (260pp) ISBN 978-0-7432-9237-5

A re energy fields real? And if so, can they be used for healing and health? Yes, according to Schwartz ( The G.O.D. Experiments ), a professor of psychology, surgery, medicine, neurology and psychiatry at the University of Arizona. He tells marvelous stories of such healings and uses experiments to confirm that the human body is a bundle of energy that can be healed by another such bundle of energy. One story is of a four-year-old boy, Philip, whose heart rate dropped precipitously following surgery; a Hindu avatar, by merely touching Philip, increased his heart rate to 80 beats a minute. Through experiments with EEGs and EKGs, Schwartz says, he and others have found that our bodies are masses of biochemical energy, that such energy connects us to plants and other animals, that this energy can be harnessed for healing and that some people are in touch with their energy and use it to heal others. Schwartz's research has not appeared in peer-reviewed journals (due to their bias against such work, he says), so skeptics will want to wait for his experiments to be replicated. But those disposed to believe in the healing touch will find support for that belief. (Aug.)