The study reported on your March 31st program which 'debunked' Therapeutic

Touch was interesting, but not scientific in the strictest sense. What it set out to prove really had nothing to do with the efficacy or value of Therapeutic Touch. It was simply a test to see if the practitioners (whose credentials were not given) could determine which hand had a body closest to it. Due to the design of the project, BOTH of the practitioner's hands were within the girl's energy field (which extends for about 3 feet in all directions from the body) at all times. All that could be assessed is whether or not the practitioner could tell some difference based on physical proximity. One of the FIRST lessons learned in energy therapy is that energy follows intention. The energy field is composed of physical, mental, emotional and spiritual energy .Clearly, the girl who designed the experiment (and her mother) had an agenda--to disprove Therapeutic Touch. Since it was her INTENTION for the practitioners to fail the test, she was very likely inclined to focus her mental and emotional energy on the opposite hand from the one selected. I find it instructive that the practitioners were MORE likely (56%) to select the hand that had the attention focused on it rather than the one with a body in proximity. This is a predictable result from such an unscientific design, since the practitioners were actually being asked to evaluate the difference between her physical, mental and emotional energies--a skill not claimed, taught or practiced in any energy therapy.

One of the most prominent teachers of Therapeutic Touch, Janet Quinn, was

selected to develop a video instruction series on Therapeutic Touch for the National League for Nursing. Janet freely admits that during the first two years that she practiced Therapeutic Touch, she was unable to sense ANYTHING from people. The therapy still had a beneficial effect on her patients, even though her skills in assessment were admittedly missing. What the design of the science fair project set about to test is the most minor aspect of energy therapy, and a skill that varies considerably from practitioner to practitioner. The WAY it set about to test even that skill was designed to fail… and constituted a 'sucker bet' for those who were gullible enough to participate.

Shame on this young girl (and/or her mother) for setting out to trick and confuse the public. Shame on those practitioners who went along with the farce for not thinking through the design before assisting her. Shame on the AMA and the news media for letting this poorly-designed, quasi-science gain more attention than serious, genuine medical studies done in controlled environments by Ph.D. researchers. If you want REAL medical studies showing the results of Therapeutic Touch, there are about 10 or more published each year. These use scientific methods, careful design and double-blind studies to control for just the sort of intentional confusion that this science fair project used as its primary objective. How quickly we are ready to turn on accepted, documented methods if given even a poor reason… and this project qualifies as poorly-reasoned.

Maureen Gamble

Wichita, Kansas

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Healing Touch research survey at: CCHT, 12477 W. Cedar Drive, Suite 202,

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