The History of Energy Healing

Energy healing is sometimes called psychic healing or spiritual healing, depending on the level of work that is being done. We know that the human energy field is a unique receiver and transmitter of vibrational energies. There have been reports throughout history of human beings who are capable of healing by utilizing energies. This has had many names through the centuries including laying- on –of- hands, psychic healing, spiritual healing, and therapeutic touch.

There is evidence of laying-on-of-hands in ancient Egypt in Ebers Papyrus dated at 1552BC. The Greeks used Therapeutic Touch in their Asklepian healing temples. The Bible references Jesus laying-on-of-hands and saying, “These things that I do, so can ye do and more”, implying that everyone could do this. In the early Christian church laying on of hands was combined with the sacramental use of holy water and oil. Laying- on -of hands was done by English Kings for seven centuries, and ended with the reign of the skeptical William IV.

One of the earliest proponents of a magnetic vital force was the controversial physician Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim, otherwise known as Paracelsus (1493-1541). After his death, the magnetic tradition was carried on by Robert Fludd, a physician and a mystic. He emphasized an invisible force that manifested in all living things that entered the body through the breath. He also emphasized the role of sun in health.(Debus 1965) This is similar to the Indian concept of prana, the subtle energy within sunlight which is assimilated through the process of breathing. In 1778 a radical healer named Franz Anton Mesmer claimed healing results using universal energy he called fluidum. He considered it to be of a magnetic nature and felt the palms of the hands were the most active points of energetic flow. He performed “magnetic passes”.

Many observers felt that his results were due to suggestion, and the terms hypnosis and mesmerism became intertwined. In 1784 the King of France appointed a commission to test the presence of fluidum. They did not evaluate the results of his work, only stated that their tests could not detect the fluidum, thus his work was discredited. In 1831 the medical section of the academy of sciences accepted Mesmer’s viewpoint, but his work never achieved widespread recognition. Direct measurement of these energies is still difficult today.

Carol L. Bowman, MD (If someone has email id of Carol Pls share, want to acknowledge his work)