by William Bengston

Created on: December 31, 2010   Last Updated: January 02, 2011

I have paid only casual attention to the other energy healers because most of their supporting evidence - as presented in books and seminars - is anecdotal, whereas my own obsession is with the underlying fundamentals of healing.

Many of these healers trace their lineage back to a single revered teacher. Reiki (Japanese for "life force") was founded by Mikao Usui, who reportedly received his healing powers in 1922 after three weeks of fasting and meditation on Japan's Mount Kurama. Reiki healers, possibly numbering in the millions worldwide, channel universal energy, which is said to be infinite and intelligent. They channel this energy through their palms, which are placed on or near their clients to stimulate the client's own self-healing. Some Reiki masters say they can not only heal at a distance, but also backward and forward in time.

Therapeutic Touch (TT) is a Western-based healing system that has been taught to an estimated seventy thousand professional caregivers and is offered to patients in some North American hospitals. It evolved from experiments that Dolores Krieger, a professor of nursing at New York University, did with psychic Oskar Estebany, demonstrating that hands-on healing significantly increased hemoglobin in the blood of sick people, suggesting an immunological response. As with Reiki, TT practitioners hold or move their hands a few inches from their patients, with the intent of activating their immune system.

In the West, the most popular hands-on healing tradition is founded in the miracles of Jesus Christ, as written in the New Testament in John 14:12. After restoring sight and curing the lame, Jesus told his followers: "He that believeth in me, the works I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do."

Among early Christian cults, healing was an ordinary part of preaching, often utilizing oil and water. European kings like England's Edward the Confessor, who claimed to rule by divine right, exercised the royal touch to heal their subjects. Even Napoleon was said to have tried his skills, to little avail.

Today, faith healing remains a popular part of the Christian Evangelical movement. It's also endorsed, with caution, by the Roman Catholic Church, which expects miracles from those traveling the path to sainthood. I have sometimes thought of how convenient it would be for me to reclassify myself as a faith healer, especially when I'm asked in a doubting voice, "If you can do what you say you can, why haven't you

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