Bengston's Healing Instructions

[Guest guest]

Here is the copy in the PDF file that Dr. Bengston sent me. It was published in

the journal below.

THE JOURNAL OF ALTERNATIVE AND COMPLEMENTARY MEDICINE

Volume 13, Number 3, 2007, pp. 329–331

© Ann Liebert, Inc.

DOI: 10.1089/acm.2007.6403

Commentary: A Method Used to Train Skeptical

Volunteers to Heal in an Experimental Setting

WILLIAM F. BENGSTON, Ph.D.

This paper is meant to serve as a companion piece to the

paper entitled " Resonance, Placebo Effects, and Type

II Errors: Some Implications from Healing Research for Experimental

Methods " (pp. 317–327). That paper reports

anomalous phenomena in my work on the effects of a healing

method applied to experimental mice injected with fatal

dosages of mammary adenocarcinoma. Specifically, in

addition to a very high percentage of remissions in the

treated experimental animals, a significant percentage of untreated

control animals also mysteriously remit. Furthermore,

in three of five experiments reported in the paper,

these remissions were seemingly produced by nonbelieving

volunteers with no previous experience in healing. I explain

this as an instance of resonant bonding of the experimental

and control groups, wherein a treatment given to the experimental

group inadvertently results in a treatment given to

the control group. I speculate that this resonant bonding may

be produced either through consciousness or by shared experiences

on the part of experimental subjects.

I suggest a parallel to anomalous placebo effects that have

been widely reported in the literature, and the possibility that

similar resonant bonding might be at play there. In fact, resonant

bonding may be widespread in many fields. If that is

indeed the case, many researchers may be unknowingly

committing type II errors in their research, wherein they fail

to observe that a significant event has occurred because at

the end of an experiment there is no significant difference

between experimental and control groups.

The major point of the paper is that resonant bond formation

may be a widely occurring, yet not recognized, phenomenon.

I challenge researchers in all fields to reexamine

their data through the prism of resonant bonding.

I fully recognize that the data portion of the paper on resonant

bonding claims extraordinary rates of remissions in

laboratory animals apparently produced by a type of handson

healing. Although outside of the scope of the resonant

bonding thesis, readers may very well want to know the

methods used by the volunteer healers. This paper describes

the training methods used in those experiments.

Although there are many places and organizations that

claim to teach healing, from an empirical standpoint whether

or not healing can be taught is still an open question. Thus,

in presenting the techniques used in my experiments, two

caveats are in order. First, if the resonant bond hypothesis

is correct, it is a very difficult problem to determine whether

healing can indeed be taught. Simply put, if a resonant bond

has been formed among experimental subjects, it becomes

problematic whether each healer who has practiced a technique

has individually produced the observed healing. It may

be that, like the control group subjects, any individual volunteer

healer's apparent positive effect might be due to a

resonant treatment given by another.

Second, it is logically possible that the apparent healing

in my research is not actually learned through the techniques

described, but is rather somehow passed on from person to

person. At this point in my research, I simply don't know

how important the above two caveats are.

STAGE 1: RAPID MENTAL IMAGING

The techniques described here were developed in conjunction

with a New York–based healer, Mayrick,

in an attempt to replicate his apparent natural ability to heal.

Mayrick did not study healing, and was himself not particularly

familiar with either the literature on healing or the

techniques used by other people who claimed to be healers.

Essentially, while watching many of his clinical cases, I

prodded him to explain what he was doing, and whether it

might be possible for others to do what he did. His answers

were intuitive, and did not stem from any specific theoretic

model or school of thought. Via our discussions, the techniques

described here gradually evolved over the course of

several months. We called the first stage " cycling, " which

St. ph's College, Patchogue, NY.

was meant to represent rapid mental imaging. This technique

did not require belief of any sort, but it does require a great

deal of practice.

Step 1—Each volunteer was required to make a list of at

least 20 things that he or she wanted, and to write them down

without regard to when or how they might be realized. There

was no upper limit to the number of items. Each item was

required to be specific and could involve material things,

health issues, and other people. There is a strict ethical rule

that any list items involving other people must have the other

person's knowledge and consent, although the other people

do not have to practice the technique.

Step 2—The items on the list were translated into images

of the things already accomplished, without regard to when

or how. Each item was required to be be an end goal, not a

means to an end. To illustrate, many people say they want

money. Upon reflection, it is really that they want money

because they want to buy something. It is that something

that is the image, not the money. If there are health issues,

the images that are constructed imply that the health issues

have already been resolved. For example, if the person has

bad knees that prevent he or she from taking part in a particular

sport, it is the image of playing the sport rather than

wanting to fix the knees that is required. If the image becomes

realized then the health issues have been resolved.

And, when the image becomes realized it should be taken

off the list because it is already accomplished. Each of these

images is unique to each individual, and considerable time

is usually spent in the construction of each cycling list.

There have been exceptions to this. When the experiments

involved volunteers, it was requested that each person have

as one item on his or her list the image of us collectively

raising glasses of champagne to toast success. If the image

became realized, the mice would have already been remitted.

Notice that the image does not contain the questions of

how or when we would have been successful in the experiment,

nor does it matter whether the volunteers believed

the image might come to be realized. The cycling technique

is manifestly not an attempt to get people to think positively.

Step 3—The images must be memorized so that they can

be recalled without effort. This also takes considerable time

and practice before the person does not struggle with trying

awkwardly to recollect or reconstruct the images.

Step 4—all of the previous steps have been preparation

for the actual practice of image cycling. Once they have been

mastered, cycling is the process of going through the images

for an instant at a time while experiencing any emotion.

It makes no difference whether the emotion being experienced

by the person is positive or negative.

It is important to cycle through the list as rapidly as possible

for as long as the emotion is experienced. After considerable

practice, an experienced subject should be able to

cycle through at least a couple of dozen images per second.

Obviously, at that rate, there is no dwelling on any particular

image, nor is one image considered to be more important

than any other.

If practiced successfully, the rapid imaging should not detract

or significantly distract from the experience of the emotion.

This is akin to the multitasking ability of people to

walk, talk, and gesture simultaneously without considerable

focus, or even sometimes awareness, of any individual task.

Although the initial learning of each ability, for example,

how to walk, may have taken much practice, once it was

mastered, it could be experienced without conscious effort.

Walking can become the background task occurring when

consciousness itself is experiencing emotion and the person

is talking and gesturing. Practice is required to make cycling

similarly effortless and automatic.

An individual, after much practice, will have an idea that

some mastery has been achieved when he or she is in the

midst of experiencing an emotion and becomes vaguely

aware that he or she is cycling in the background.

STAGE 2: HANDS-ON HEALING

The hands-on healing technique involved little more than

the intent, with as little effort as possible by the volunteer,

to feel an energy flowing out of the palms of their hands.

Because my volunteers had no experience or belief in handson

healing, in the group sessions they had to practice this

technique on one another to help each other get over the initial

sense of feeling foolish. Typically, they would stand behind

one another and place their hands on each other's shoulders

for approximately 15 minutes. Each volunteer, and I,

would go around the room and treat every other person during

the course of a training session. Of course, when they

felt foolish they were to practice the cycling technique. After

much practice, some, but not all, volunteers experienced

what they thought was a change in their hands. Some, but

not all, reported a sensation of something flowing out of

them. They were encouraged to practice this technique on

friends and even pets between training sessions.

STAGE 3: ACCELERATED IMAGE CYCLING

Once the volunteers had achieved some mastery of the

cycling technique and practiced the hands-on healing technique,

I introduced an accelerated form of image cycling.

The images that were already practices were then put on a

kind of " mental filmstrip loop " and played through a mental

" projector. " These images were, of course, unrelated to

each other, so the playing of the mental projector did not

produce anything akin to that of a coherent " movie. " Now

when experiencing an emotion, the volunteer experienced

the " running " of the " projector " and accelerated the spinning

of the mental loop of images into an even more hazy

blur. Using this technique, volunteers were able to cycle

many hundreds of images per second. As with the individual image-cycling

technique, it was to be practiced simultaneously

with the experience of emotion.

As described elsewhere,1 when the mice experiments actually

began, volunteers would go into the laboratory and

practice these techniques while placing their hands on the

sides of a standard mouse cage for approximately 1 hour per

day until their mice were fully remitted. Subsequent experiments

have suggested that 1 hour per day may be more than

is required to produce remissions.

The simple act of doing the hands-on treatment created

considerable emotion, particularly at first, and so cycling

would often be practiced simultaneously just as it would

throughout the day in any other emotional situation. I encouraged

volunteers to try to come to the laboratory in pairs

so that they would feel less conspicuous and more comfortable

doing the treating. Sometimes they would bring in a set

of headphones and listen to music for the duration of the treatments.

Of course, as they became more comfortable and less

emotionally anxious, the amount of cycling diminished.

Logs kept by volunteers indicated no consistent level of

confidence that these techniques had been mastered. Some

volunteers reported that they actually enjoyed cycling; others

said that they struggled. Similarly, some reported that

they felt something when doing the hands-on healing; others

reported nothing.

Finally, it must be emphasized once again that all training

of the volunteer healers in these experiments took place

in group settings and lasted for an average of 6 weeks. Furthermore,

the techniques were molded to the idiosyncrasies

of each of volunteer. However simple the techniques appear

to be, every individual misinterpreted the instructions and

needed correction and much practice. The most common

tendency was to confuse means and ends in the image cycling.

Some volunteers could not get used to the idea that

however important a particular image on the list was, all images

were to be cycled equally. Some volunteers kept forgetting

to cycle during the course of the day and only remembered

when they thought about their experimental

animals. With the hands-on technique, there was also a tendency

to attempt excessively to make something happen by

force of will rather than to allow it to occur as a consequence

of simple intent.

To date, no one has ever tried to learn these techniques

simply via written instructions. That having been said,

should anyone be interested in attempting independently to

replicate my results, I would be happy to consider providing

training to their volunteers on their home campuses. I

would also welcome information on any systematic studies

on the relationship of mental imaging to hands-on healing.

REFERENCE

1. Bengston W, Krinsley, D. The effect of the " laying-on of hands "

on transplanted breast cancer in mice. J Sci Explor 2000;14:

353–364.

Address reprint requests to:

F. Bengston, Ph.D.

St. ph's College

155 W. Roe Blvd.

Patchogue, NY 11772