The Healing Energy in Your Hands

The Curious Case of the “Dead Zone” Knee

When I scanned the energy in Paul’s leg after his knee replacement surgery, I couldn’t feel anything in the area of his new knee. The joint itself felt like a dead zone between cell phone towers, energetically disconnected from the rest of his leg. It was as if the flow of life-force energy between Paul’s femur and tibia had been disconnected.

Resting one hand above his knee and the other below it, I set the intention for the energy to reconnect between my palms. After several minutes, the energy in Paul’s leg began to flow again. At his follow-up appointment, his doctor was delighted that Paul’s recovery was progressing faster than expected. 

The opportunity to help people like Paul is the reason I began studying energy healing in 2019. But, to my surprise, the first person I healed was myself. Energy healing alleviated my chronic headaches and improved my sleep. As my stress decreased so did my weight. I lost over twenty pounds without trying. 

In the last issue we explored lifestyle medicine—one of the three core concepts in my book, Eight Intentions for Self-Healing. In this article, we’ll look at another: energy healing.

What is Energy Healing?

Energy healing—also known as biofield therapy—refers to a group of healing modalities designed to support the body by strengthening its subtle energy field. Referred to as chi in Tai Chi and prana in yoga, all living beings are animated by an intangible life-force energy. The National Institutes of Health adopted the term biofield to describe the “massless field, not necessarily electromagnetic, that surrounds and permeates living bodies and affects the body.” Scientists have measured this energy extending six or more feet from the surface of the body.

Examples of biofield therapies include Therapeutic Touch, Reiki, acupuncture, and qigong. I am trained in Healing Touch, a program developed by a Navy nurse, Janet Mentgen, in the 1980s. Healing Touch is endorsed by the American Holistic Nurses Association, the Canadian Holistic Nurses Association, and the Watson Caring Science Institute. It is taught in nursing schools and offered to patients in hospitals worldwide.

In Healing Touch, we use our hands to clear and strengthen a client’s biofield, thereby facilitating self-healing. I am also trained in Healing Touch for Animals, which incorporates tuning forks along with hands-on techniques.

Offering Healing Touch Post-Surgery

Isn’t It Just the Placebo Effect?

Skeptics often dismiss biofield therapies as the placebo effect—suggesting that people feel better simply because they expect to. Researchers frequently cite the placebo effect when participants in pharmaceutical studies experience improvement in symptoms despite receiving only a sugar pill.

My experience working with animals, however, suggests that this explanation does not fully account for what happens during energy healing. Animals often show clear improvements even though they have no idea they are receiving a healing session. 

In addition, energy healing has been shown to influence cancer in laboratory mice and disembodied cells in petri dishes. In 2000, William Bengston and David Krinsley published repeatable results curing breast cancer in mice. Across four separate experiments, the remission rate was 87.9%. Prior to their research, mice injected with mammary adenocarcinoma never lived longer than 27 days. The healed mice not only lived a typical life span, they also failed to contract cancer when reinfected. 

Preliminary results from an as-yet unpublished study conducted at MD Anderson, a cancer research center at the University of Texas, in late 2025 found that pancreatic cancer cells in a petri dish respond to energy healing. Researchers chose pancreatic cancer in part because it is the third leading cause of cancer-related death and has the lowest survival rate. 

Energy Healing in a Bottle

Manufacturers are developing devices that mimic the energy emitted from a healer’s hands. Eliminating the need for human healers creates a scalable solution that encourages wide-spread adoption. It’s expensive to conduct medical research, especially the gold standard—randomized controlled trials--on human healers. Funding is more available for a marketable product that will yield a return on investment. 

In 1979, the FDA approved the clinical use of Pulsed Electromagnetic Field (PEMF) devices to stimulate bone growth in fractures that fail to heal with standard treatment. A 2003 article in the journal Techniques in Orthopaedics reported that the magnitude of the waveforms produced by PEMF devices is comparable to the energy emitted from the hands of Therapeutic Touch and qigong healers.

Other emerging technologies use energy in different forms. The Safe and Sound Protocol mixes healing frequencies with music to address depression, learning challenges, and chronic anxiety. SONU is a headband device that uses resonant sound waves to relieve nasal congestion. In 2023, the FDA approved the use of focused ultrasound waves—known as histotripsy—to destroy certain inoperable liver tumors.

Bengston himself has experimented with playing back recordings of inaudible frequencies produced by healers’ hands to infected mice. His research yielded statistically significant results with breast cancer and melanoma.  

How to Feel Your Body’s Energy Field

You can explore your own biofield with a simple exercise. Hold your hands in front of you with your palms facing each other. Slowly move them toward and away from each other without touching. As your palms draw closer, you may notice warmth, pressure, or a tingling sensation. How would you describe what you feel?

If you have a willing partner, you can try another experiment. Begin with your hands about eighteen inches away from theirs and slowly move closer. Notice when you begin to sense the energy emanating from their palms. Then, keeping your hands about six inches away, gently move them around their body. If they have a painful area—such as a headache or a sore knee—see whether the space around that area feels different to you. With practice, many people find they can learn to sense biofields.

The good news is that anyone can use biofield techniques to support their own healing. The next time you experience a headache or minor pain, try placing your hands over the area and setting an intention for relief before reaching for an over-the-counter medication. Self-healing is free and has no unwanted side effects.

The human body is far more than chemistry and mechanics. Beneath the surface lies a dynamic energy system that supports the body’s natural capacity to repair and restore itself. When we learn to work with that energy—whether through simple self-care practices or guided healing sessions—we open the door to deeper levels of wellness. Try it for yourself using my Guided Biofield Tune-up. This recording is from a live Peace Practice gathering on March 9, 2026.

If you’re interested in experiencing Healing Touch, I offer sessions in conjunction with lifestyle medicine and behavior-change coaching. In my experience, the benefits of energy healing are even greater when integrated into a holistic wellness program.

The first step is a discovery call to discuss your health goals so I can recommend a personalized approach.

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Recipient of a 5-Star review from Reader Views, Eight Intentions for Self-Healing is available in paperback, ebook, and audio versions.

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References

Rubik, Beverly et al. “Biofield Science and Healing: History, Terminology, and Concepts.” Global Advances in Health and Medicine vol. 4,Suppl (2015): 8-14. doi:10.7453/gahmj.2015.038.suppl. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/284160171_Biofield_Science_and_Healing_History_Terminology_and_Concepts

Bengston, William F. And Krinsley, David. The Effect of the “Laying On of Hands” on Transplanted Breast Cancer in Mice. Journal of Scientific Exploration, Vol. 14, No. 3, pp. 353–364, 2000. https://www.fourmilab.ch/documents/gtpp/Documents/jse_14_3_bengston.pdf

Prestwood, Karen M. M.D.. “Energy Medicine: What Is It, How Does It Work, and What Place Does It Have in Orthopedics?” Techniques in Orthopaedics 18(1):p 46-53, March 2003. https://journals.lww.com/techortho/abstract/2003/03000/energy_medicine__what_is_it,_how_does_it_work,_and.9.aspx

Bengston, William & Cizdziel, Paul & Tanaka, Akane & Matsuda, Hiroshi. (2023). Differential In Vivo Effects on Cancer Models by Recorded Magnetic Signals Derived From a Healing Technique. Dose-Response. 21. 155932582311799. 10.1177/15593258231179903. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/371263576_Differential_In_Vivo_Effects_on_Cancer_Models_by_Recorded_Magnetic_Signals_Derived_From_a_Healing_Technique

Healing Touch at Veterans Administration (VA) Facilities. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Jp46IopzZ8

Biofield Tune-up: Guided Energy Medicine Techniques to Restore Calm Peacefulness. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fqxejn2Nvs4

The Healing Touch Program. https://www.healingtouchprogram.com/

Healing Touch for Animals. https://www.healingtouchforanimals.com/

Trailer for upcoming movie Phenomena. https://www.phenomenahealing.com/watch