Science Meets Energy

By Mary Jo Ruggieri, Ph.D., RPP

Life force, earth medicine, chakras, auras, and meridians are words often expressed when discussing the Human Energy Field.

The classical Chinese acupuncturists believe that channels of energy run through the body and when these channels are blocked or out of balance pain and disease can result. The therapeutic touch practitioner use their hands to balance the Human Energy Field believing that, when in balance, the body will begin to automatically heal. The Reiki Master working with Universal Life Energy uses light hand placements which they believe will change energy, giving the recipient the ability to bring optimal health to their body.

The Polarity Practitioner using varied touches, rocking movements or specific acupressure or reflex points believe energy follows form and has distinctive patterns of flow and when in balance create health and healing. The Brennan healing techniques, which were developed by a former NASA physicist, uses specific hands-on techniques that work with balancing energy centers throughout the body to create a natural form of healing.

Science Meets Energy

The research surrounding the practices of energy medicine is profound. Results of numerous studies show energy therapies can relieve pain, speed up healing from trauma based injuries, positively affect people during surgery as well as influence the healing process of cancers, arthritis, fibromyalgia and many other auto-immune problems.

According to James Oschman, PhD, in his new book "Energy Medicine" in a few decades scientists have gone from a conviction that there is no such thing as an energy field around the human body to an absolute certainty that it exists. Moreover he states, science is explaining the roles of energy fields in health and disease.

Involved in the unique theories and science of Polarity Therapy, is the concept that life energy must flow in and through the body in a smooth and uninterrupted pattern to maintain optimal health. Dr. Randolph Stone, the founder of Polarity, suggests in his writings that the energy fields existing in and around the physical body are where the mind, and emotions reside in physical space. Therefore, what we experience is recorded in our energy field and reflected in our physical body as structure, form and function.

What does this mean to us individually? We just may want to include on our top ten health care providers list an Energy Medicine Practitioner. Why wait until a disease manifests on a physical level? Prevent it! There is knowledge that each organ in the body and every functioning process of the body generate certain energetic characteristics and fields of electrical patterns that can be detected through self awareness, therapeutic touch and now certain measuring devices. Prevention works!

Our future in Energy Medicine is in realizing that our current medical tests wait until the problem can be seen only in our physical body - blood tests, pap tests, chest x-rays, and brain scans. By the time we detect cancer in our bones, or our colon it is already a major problem.

By becoming aware of different characteristics of energy pulses and energy patterns in the body we could map the way diseases alter these patterns and discover the problems on an energetic level before it manifests on a physical level. What an insight to disease control! Energy Medicine Practitioners can help the client sense distorted energy fields and locate the origin and reason for the pain.

In Polarity Therapy, we look for where energy is blocked and where there are pain patterns that are not open for optimal energy movement. Through applying certain contact points, or using techniques that will release these painful holding patterns the energy returns to normal flow and the physical body heals. Turn on the Circuit Breakers!

Yoga as well as Tai Chi and Qigong practitioners feel that a sense of health and well being can be created through the study of the human energy field. By doing a daily practice of yoga, for example, a personal awareness is created that keeps the lights burning and personal energy in balance.

For starters, I am recommending Energy Awareness Practice - try it once a day. Sit comfortably in a chair, take your own pulse on your wrist or your neck with one hand. Close your eyes and breathe deeply while holding your pulse. Now get in touch with your pulse and your breath, feel it, listen to it, and observe its patterns. Continue for two or three minutes. Next, continue sitting in a chair, keeping your eyes closed, rub your palms together continuously for one minute and then slowly separate your hands, holding them slightly apart. Breathe deeply while observing what is going on between your hands. Energy Awareness Techniques are just the tip of the iceberg that can melt away some of our old fashion ideas on healing.

NEXT: Energetic Touch Therapy and Stress Reduction