Real Healing

Didn't 11 year old Emily Rosa totally debunk "therapeutic touch' in her 1997 experiment, reported in the April 1, 1998 edition of the Journal of the American Medical Association, and written about by Gina Kolata in the New York Times edition of that date?

How does anyone take this stuff seriously?

I would refer you to a large number of studies that show benefit and clinical efficacy of touch / energy therapies such as Healing Touch. The Cochrane database which looks at this issue reviews such studies and for example in a 2008 review noted: "Touch therapies have been found to be useful in pain relief for adults and children." While research in this area is still in its infancy, the advantage of using these therapies is that they have little or not negative benefits, unlike some of the therapies used in conventional medicine and they often improve the quality of life of people with serious and life-threatening illnesses. For example, Reiki therapy has been shown in one study to have a positive benefit in treating depression and anxiety (Bowden D, et al. 2011).

I always caution against discounting treatments just because we don't understand how they work or because the research studies are still in progress. Try it, you too may find that you like it and that it has some benefit. Certainly, it fits the principle "Do No Harm."