Energy medicine is a term used to describe the many energetic healing practices that have emerged from diverse cultures and healing traditions. These healing modalities are based on the belief that humans and other animals have a vital energy force within and around their bodies. This energy is believed to be responsible for the body’s innate ability to heal itself. Energy medicine practitioners believe that when this energy becomes dislodged from its normal flow, illness arises.
Most of the modalities classified as energy medicine work to restore balance to this vital energy field by manipulating and transmitting this energy. Energy medicine modalities include acupuncture, acupressure, therapeutic touch, Reiki, qigong healing, biofield energy therapy (BFE), magnetic healing, healing touch, spiritual healing, prayer and intercessory healing. These modalities differ in their beliefs about the nature of this putative energy, but most agree that when it is disturbed, health and disease develop.
While the science behind these practices is minimal, casual evidence suggests that they do produce beneficial effects, such as reducing pain and anxiety and improving measures of autonomic nervous system function, such as heart rate and blood pressure. In addition, researchers like Valerie Hunt have found that, in general, healthy people have balanced and coherent energy patterns that run the full spectrum of frequencies. These energy patterns are called signature fields. In contrast, individuals with chronic health problems tend to have disharmonious energy patterns. When these energies are restored to balance, the body’s innate healing processes are able to take over and bring about restoration of health. energy medicine