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Updated March 20, 1999
THE CONCEPT OF MISAHA THE LATEST LESSON AND THE NEXT STEP
Savely Savva
As our readers know, MISAHA's objective is to clinically study the healing effects of the most efficacious psi healers with respect to chosen diseases and to try to make sense of the phenomenon in terms of medicine, biology and physics. For eight years we have been trying to do this with our limited funds and we learned a lot about what doesn't work. Now we think we know what to do in order to accomplish our goal. But first
WHY MIX SCIENCE AND BUSINESS?
Many scientists whose work is funded by the government or private funds tend to perceive a blend of science and commercial activity as something less than pure science. In the process of learning we recognized that the only way to study the phenomenon of psi healing is by establishing a self-sustaining, businesslike operation where the services of really efficacious healers are offered to society on a fee for services basis. We discovered that there was no way (and this has not changed as yet) to get funded either by the Government or by institutionalized philanthropy. Oh yes, miracles do happen at times. The last time was when the U.S. Congress enacted legislation obligating the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to establish the Office of Alternative Medicine (OAM) in 1992. The Office of Alternative Medicine is still struggling for recognition by the medical community. It did a great job by establishing ten centers nationwide for the study of alternative and complementary medical practices in treating selected medical conditions such as cancer (M.D. Anderson hospital in Houston), AIDS (Bastyr University in Seattle, WA), stroke (Kessler Rehabilitation Research Institute, University of NJ) and others. But with financing at approximately $1 mil over three years neither of the centers can pick up our tab (if they like our project, that is). There are plenty of alternative therapies that are worth studying and are much more conventional than psi healing: herbs, vitamins, mechanical and electrical devices or any previously untested substances or standardizable procedures. These alternative therapies do not challenge the paradigm. If proven effective, they will immediately become conventional therapies. Even engagement of the patient's mind as a curative agent is becoming more and more acceptable. Guided imagery, hypnotherapy, group support and the like are presumed to be standardizable procedures and studies in these fields are being funded.
Now, imagine that a controlled clinical trial of a psi healer shows a miraculous result. How to interpret such a result? One cannot really present it as science without explaining the mechanism of the cure. But the mechanism, the understanding of the way the mind works may come a century from now when physicists find a place for the mind in their description of the world, when biologists fathom the structure of control in living organisms and when medicine gets to the roots of pathology in chronic diseases. Finally, yet another logical reason for NIH not to mess with psi healing. If psi healing is an art and only a few "great artists" can perhaps produce miraculous results, what value may it present to society with millions of suffering people?
Philanthropic funds are distributed with the same concerns. The professionals in philanthropy are not about to take risks exploring scientific frontiers. Thus, the only realistic way is to find exceptionally efficacious healers, test them in clinical trials and sell their services to society based on the outcome data and then channel the proceeds to the further study of the psi phenomenon. How I wish another John Fetzer would come forward with an endowment of $250 mil. MISAHA aspires to accomplish exactly what John Fetzer dreamt of.
PSI healing is really different -- it is not standardizable.
First, psi healing is essentially an art, not a pure technique teachable to anyone and, therefore, not standardizable. The results of a clinical trial of a healer, whether spectacular or insignificant, cannot be extrapolated on other healers or on a modality of psi healing such as Qigong, Yoga, "Energy Healing," Reiki, etc. Like any other attribute of living beings such as size, strength, longevity or, in humans, IQ, musical or mathematical abilities, the ability to heal by volition is unevenly distributed within a population. Only those born with the gift can be taught a technique to enhance their talent. You cannot make an opera singer of one without the vocal gift.
Actually, the ability to influence physiological processes in other people by intent is not very rare. Studies of contemporary indigenous tribes in India revealed that each tribe has a shaman or a "medicine man" who provides medical services to the tribe.1 The same was found in many anthropological studies on all continents (those interested may find thousands of references on Shamanism in the index of American Anthropology). Studies by Dr. Kriger on the effect of, as she calls it, "therapeutic touch" indicate that even a mild and widespread psi ability in people can produce a substantial physiological effect in patients. In her controlled experiments randomly selected nurses who used her technique, which is essentially an intent to help, to heal by the laying on of hands, produced a statistically significant (p<.001) increase of hemoglobin values and hematocrit ratios in patients compared to those in a control group.2 However, the phenomenon is so alien to the contemporary description of the world that a scientific inquiry should first and foremost be aimed at a phenomenological description of it in its strongest manifestation.
Here is an analogy. Were a scientific study planned on the emotional and, possibly, physiological effect music can produce in people, I would suggest trying Beethoven, Bach, Moussorgsky and the like rather than hard rock, and to limit the population studied to those receptive to this kind of music. This would not preclude a study on the effect of the best of rock (I don't know what that is) on a population of rock lovers.
Another example, closer to medicine. It is well known that in traditional Chinese medicine acupuncture is used to treat serious chronic conditions and acute diseases such as diabetes, heart and lung diseases, etc. Hundreds of studies were conducted in the U.S. and Europe on the clinical efficacy of acupuncture. Meta-analyses of published reports in England3, Germany4, the Netherlands5 and the USA6 were presented at a meeting at the OAM NIH in 1995. Studied were acupuncture practitioners licensed in their respective countries. The meta-analyses revealed that the effect of acupuncture, if any, is limited to pain control and drug rehabilitation. A methodology that disregards the artistic nature of the ancient culture has clearly brought the result down to the smallest common denominator. These meta-analyses responded not to the question "What can acupuncture do?" but "What the population of Western licensed acupuncture practitioners are able to do on the average." Acupuncture as a medical culture developed in ancient China in association with Qigong philosophy. Qi was perceived as a vital force that freely circulates in a healthy organism through acupuncture meridians (6000 "Naddies" in Indian tradition). Cure of a disease is achieved by restoring and enhancing the free circulation of Qi by imparting it to appropriate sensitive points of the body -- the acupuncture points. Needling of the acupuncture points perhaps diminishes resistance in the Qi transfer (psi communication in our terms). Qigong Waiqi (external Qigong) masters are those who possess the gift of emanating and transmitting Qi. Only those individuals with special sensitivity and ability to emanate Qi were selected by acupuncture Masters for apprenticeship. These apprentices became Masters after learning the techniques and perfecting their natural talent. The artistic nature of the ancient culture was lost in the transfer to Western civilization. To learn the limits of acupuncture as a traditional art one must find the Great Masters and study the clinical outcome of their treatment of selected diseases.
The same applies to psi healing: in order to determine its limits and, eventually, its mechanisms, the phenomenon must be studied in its highest manifestation.
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