Therapeutic touch

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Therapeutic touch (TT) is a mostly secular variant of faith healing, started by Dolores Krieger in the early 1970s. The TT practitioner moves his or her hands over the patient’s body, specifically the affected area, without actually touching the patient. The claim is that this allows the practicioner to direct the flow of chi, allowing the patient to heal. It is based on the belief that humans, or all living things, have an energy field or aura extending beyond the surface of the body that can be manipulated by the therapist. However, under scientific testing, no evidence has been found establishing either the existence of Qi, or these energy fields. Additionally, no double blind clinical trials have established that TT is more effective at healing patients than placebo.

[edit] Scientific Testing

In 1998, Emily Rosa, at 11 years of age, became the youngest person to have a paper accepted by the Journal of the American Medical Association for her study of therapeutic touch. Her study consisted of testing 21 practitioners of TT to determine their ability to detect the aura they claim surrounds everyone. The practitioners stood on one side of a cardboard screen, while Emily stood on the other. The practitioners then placed their hands through holes in the screen. Emily then flipped a coin to determine which of the practitioner's hands she would place hers near (without, of course, touching the hand). The practitioners then were to indicate if they could sense her biofield, and where her hand was. Although all of the participants had asserted that they would be able to do this, the actual results did not support their assertions. After repeated trials the practitioners had succeeded in locating her hand at a rate not significantly different from chance. They were right about half the time.