On Friday, November 8, 1996, there was a preliminary testing of the Therapeutic Touch concept at the Frankford Campus of the Frankford Hospital in Philadelphia. This test was jointly sponsored and conducted by the Jamed Randi Educational Foundation and PhACT, the Philadelphia Association for Critical Thinking. Frankford Hospital, while providing the location for the testing, had no other role in this endeavor.
Therapeutic Touch (TT) is thought by many in nursing to be an "energy- based" healing system. According to the TT hypothesis, the human body radiates an energy field 4-8 inches from the skin. The practitioners are supposedly able to feel, assess, and correct, abnormalities in this field. They claim that they do this simply by waving their hands over the recipients without ever actually touching them.
An award of $742,000 was offered to any TT practitioner (TTP) who could prove that they could detect a "human energy field." Invitations were sent out via mail and e-mail to over 60 individuals and organizations that promote TT. These included the National League for Nursing (NLN), American Nurses Association (ANA), Dr. Mehmet Oz's Office for Alternative Healthcare at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center and TT co-founder Dolores Krieger, RN, Ph.D.
Among a potential 40,000 TTPs, only Californian Nancy Woods, a massage therapist and TT therapist and teacher, was willing to be tested. Nancy followed through on the strength of her honest convictions and belief in the TT technique.
The test had to be modified from its original design to accommodate Ms. Woods' abilities. A fiberglass construction used in the test has two sleeves and allows either one or both arms to be inserted into it. The original test was to have this unit hidden under a sheet and the subject behind a screen. On the basis of a coin toss, either the left or right arm would be inserted in the unit. The TTP would assess the energy fields through the sleeves and declare which sleeve was occupied. After successful preliminary tests, a score of 20 out of 20 would win the $742 ,000 award.
Ms. Woods' abilities differ from the average TTP. She states that, to her, a normal arm or leg does not have a field or sensation she can detect. In other words, she said that a normal limb would feel, to her, the same as no limb at all. She said that an injured or painful limb, however, to her could feel like a cold, hot or "pulling" sensation.
Available for the test were several individuals who were presently experiencing painful conditions. These included chronic right wrist pain and tarsal tunnel syndrome with plantar fasciitis causing pain in the foot and ankle. Nancy said that testing with these people would be quite difficult for her. The "fields" or "sensations" from these affected limbs, she said, kept changing, or in trying to detect the "energy field," she would inadvertently "heal" or correct the problem. However, she agreed that she would be able to successfully determine the difference between the woman with the chronic wrist pain and a man without any pains or medical problems in his arms at all. This was the mutually agreed plan.
In an open test -- where she could see which subject was in place -- Nancy was able to correctly identify the field or sensations through her TT technique, 10 out of 10 times. In the "closed" test, when the identity of the subject was unknown to her, she was correct 11 out of 20 times. This is an example of a purely chance result and did not qualify for an attempt at the $742,000 award.
While this test result hardly invalidates the TT concept, it does show that the notion of someone being able to feel "human energy fields" should not be assumed to be true. To our knowledge, this is the very first time that a double-blind test of this TT claim has EVER been tested.
More important, we believe, is the fact that ALL of the other "pros" in TT have declined to be tested in this manner. We are available for anyone else willing to be tested, and the award money is still available . Contact Bob Glickman, RN, at PhACT, PO Box 21970, Philadelphia, PA 19124. Phone (215) 533-4677.
Once your organization understands the physiology of the technique then perhaps a valid test will in fact be instiuted. That however is the tricky part because I don't think anyone really know how it works.
Perhaps if you took ten people with migraines, hooked them up to something that could measure skin temp, brain acitivity, measure the amount of endorphins released and what ever else that can be measured then had a therapist do the technique and then compare the hard numbers before and after TT and document wether the headache was gone---then you would have thearpists flocking to your door to see just how it works.
I had nothing to prove other than to hopefully teach something about the technqiue. I know this technqiue is effective. My paitents/clients prove that every day. As you may have noticed from my card, there is no charge if the headache not completly gone when I am done. Not only is the guarantee good for that particular moment I am there, I follow up 4-6 hours later to see how they are doing and see if the headache has returned (this period is also covered by the gurarantee) My results are --payment every time. This is all the valididty I need to continue.
I think more energy should be expended in learning just how the body utilizes endorphins, and how the release of those endorphins are expidited and/or directed to the affected areas when TT is used. I think relaxation and the release of endorphins should be investigated. These kind of investigations are useful.
Certainly most people do not want to participate in a test whose agenda (in the case of Randi) is to debunk or put down someting one believes in. I participated because I like a challange and I am secure in the knowledge that the technique is valid.But most people are not that secure with themselves (tt aside). It is scary to place oneself into a situation where one such as Randi is involved because his motiviation is not to learn, but to put down.
I guarantee you that if you do any of the above mentioned positive, knowledge seeking tests and drop the Award, which I think further hinders your creditibility and is certainly not offered in a scientific tests conducted by most institutions ( I have participated in clinical studies at Stanford Hospital in 1973 for the study of diabetes) and never is there anything remotely associated with a reward/award etc. the most you can expect is maybe a physical. (I participated in the diabetes test because I thought it would be interesting. ) The results, by the way was I was an unlikely canidate for diabetes--Guess what--they were wrong, I was diaganosed with diabetes last year!! So you see even real, true tests by the medical community can be incorrect, or valid only for that day or a specific period of time.
Because YOUR intentions are honorable, unlike Randi, I would recommend disassociating yourself with him. Refocusing on trying to discover what takes place when the technique is being used. If you do that it will surely generate the respect and creditibility you are trying to achieve with the therapists in your area. area.
Keep in touch. Thanks again
Nancy Woods Nancy can receive comments at
This page has been hit times.
since Nov 15 1996.
Go Back to Therapeutic Touch page ,
Comments can be sent to eric@voicenet.com I'm happy to publish critical responses to my claims.