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Where Does Energy Work Belong?
The comment period for the second draft of the Massage Therapy Body of Knowledge ended a week ago. I’ve made comments on both drafts, and I hope you have too.
A number of my own comments were in regard to the amount of energy work-related statements that were included. I don’t think most of it belongs there. Before anyone gets their chakras in a twist at me, let
me state that Healing Touch was the very first class I ever took, back
in 1993. I went on to follow that up with classes in Reiki, polarity,
and a few other energy modalities. I’ve also studied and used Shiatsu
for years. I have in fact in the past taught a lot of Reiki classes
myself, but I’ve decided not to teach it anymore. I blogged that
decision on my FB page a few months ago. Some of these scientific minds
around here are rubbing off on me.
I honor anyone who lays their hands on another, or directs energy at another, with the intent for the highest good to take place, whether that’s to heal, to comfort, or to ease someone’s passing. I don’t have
any objections to energy work, either giving or receiving. I just think
it’s a separate body of knowledge.
Yes, I know that plenty of massage therapists use energy work, not only from my own past experience, but also from spending a few hours surfing through the approved provider pages on the NCB’s website
recently. It appears that there’s more energy-related classes than
hardcore bodywork and/or evidence-based classes. Obviously there’s a
demand, or that wouldn’t be the case. READ MORE.....
Views: 268
Comment
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Comment by Mike Hinkle on March 25, 2010 at 11:27am
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Which modailities have been studied? Which energy modalities have been studied? When were they studied? What technologies have been created since then, that might allow us new insight if they were applied to the study. Many of the studies I've seen do not specifically focus on a modality. But yet we have enough to "debunk" it.
To me that's like researchers going into the forest, finding a flower. Studying it with the forthought and premise it is useless and then destroying every cousin of that particular flower because a flower is a flower (energy massage is energy massage) right?
But it turns out one of the cousins had a make up of one less part of a strain that cured diabetes. But researchers had already dismissed the plant and a parking lot now stood in their place.
Research laws have been made and later have been proven wrong, many times. But folks like Newton and others stayed the course and now their theories are the laws. I'm not grasping for anything except research on specific modalities of massage. I do not feel it ethically or financially wrong to challenge the existing research, as little as there is.
People can believe whatever they want. If people want to talk about and work in energy work, I don't care. I am right there with you on that one. I do not even do energy work. But as long as therapists are practicing it, it needs researched, so they can promote it. There has not been enough energy work studies. You say there has been. Show me there has been and I will move on.
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Comment by Vlad on March 25, 2010 at 10:57am
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I feel ALL massage needs to be researched.
Mike, I'm very, very neutral here since I know the 2 of you care, basically, but when you say this, are you saying that all modalities need to be researched?
So. Even if there are modalities that have already shown to have no effect, we should just plough more money into showing that they do? Is there not something ethically wrong with that?
That's issue that gets me. Why do people grasp at straws and keep on doing study after study, wasting money and time on trying to show that something works when it has been shown to not work?
People can believe whatever they want. If people want to talk about and work in energy work, I don't care. If the placebo effect works for some, that's OK - so what? But why waste time and money on research in it, if it has already been shown not to work?
You keep saying there hasn't been research in it.
There has.
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It's not about winning or losing. It is a debate that we disagree about. One that, just using verbage will never change. I want to see enormous amounts of studies - that therapists can be armed with to convince the public that massage therapy should be a vital part of their weekly maintenance program.
I understand, someone else has done some studies and they were enough for you. It's just not for me. There have not been enough studies for me to accept that we have begun to research massage. Too many people are begging for funding and studies. There just is not enough of it, energy or EBP. You say there are few researchers. Let's change that. I think money can change that. Not for a million dollar prize but for the improvement of the profession.
I am not saying I know it all either, Christopher. But I do know, we need a heck of a lot more massage therapy research and I am going to make sure that happens.
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Comment by Christopher A. Moyer on March 25, 2010 at 10:09am
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Mike -
YOU WIN. I admit defeat. I know now that I didn't even realize the rules of this game, so I never had a chance to win. See, all this time I've been thinking we were attempting to have a dialogue, a discussion, or perhaps just a flat-out argument. But that wasn't it at all. Now I realize that to you, this is symbolically some kind of South Carolina head-knocking playground fight. And that just doesn't interest me.
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Comment by Darcy Neibaur on March 25, 2010 at 8:39am
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Just some thoughts to ponder: Progress for the greatest number depends on UNITY, Protect Minorities and assure that they be heard, remember Place PRINCIPLE ABOVE PERSONALITIES.Sarcasm the ripping of flesh.
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It was difficult to answer all you questions but if you read from the bottom up, you get your answers.
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I don't know it all, Mike, not even in my narrow area of expertise. But I have used what I know to try to point out things that you are misinformed about from time to time, and the result is always the same - you ignore them wholesale, and then you question my motives and, eventually, even denigrate my character. It's weird, frankly, and I'm tired of it. There's nothing weird. We don't agree. If you continue to attack, bet your last dollar you will be attacked back. Because I don't respond the way you wish does not give you that right. I am from SC and if someone slaps me, I knock their head off. So if, you're tired of it, quit prompting it.
One last note - I'm not an Associate Professor yet. I'm only a lowly Assistant Professor, at a lowly branch university. (But I don't care about that, and neither should you - the only thing that counts are my words and my work.) Let us hope your work is better than your words Christopher, because words like, "But, whether it was right or wrong of me to do that, I tried to combine it with substance." hurts you more than you know.
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Not to upset. Frustrated, perhaps. Exasperated, yeah. Because your posts in threads in which I am involved always take this form. You ignore what has been posted previously. I am going line by line here to address your issues Christopher.You state your theories and positions on matters, which you're entitled to, but you never support them with any facts, even after you have been presented with counterevidence. You said this last time to. My words are based on facts. Because we don't have researchers enough in the field now, does not mean if there are additional funds made available for all research that researchers will not come forward. I feel confident they will.And you go on, and on, and on, talking confidently on subjects that you don't know much about, namely, science, research, and the processes involved in research.
And for me to say that is not an ad hominem, as I have pointed out. I've given you credit for knowing other things, and I've also pointed out that there is plenty of important stuff I don't know. It's fairly plain to see that you don't know about the research process from the things you say about it. And, funnily enough, you'll state yourself that you don't know about it, and then in the next sentences you'll state, unequivocally, all the things about it that you are certain of! And you don't to this once - you do it over and over again. Christopher, this is called "promoting". It is done when you feel an issue should be addressed. I feel ALL massage needs to be researched. There is not enough going on and I am going to promote it. I don't know how to do massage research. Doesn't mean I will stop saying the things that I feel will promote it. I do know promotions and that is what I will continue to do.
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Of course I did. (You got the amount wrong, incidentally. I donated $120, the cost of two massage sessions by the MTF guidelines. That would be in addition to the time I volunteer to the MTF, which varies from year to year. Then there is also the money from my pocket that I sometimes add to research projects; it's not a whole lot in the scheme of things, but it adds up cause I'm not rich, either.) Running a foundation takes money. I'm glad I can donate a little, and I'm grateful that I have occasionally benefited from funds that the MTF can provide. None of this is incompatible with my position that one can test the claims of energy work with hardly any funds at all. I know your position - acknowledged. It takes a lot of money for massage research but not for energy massage research, I got it!... But you being a researcher, you are not influencing funding by saying this... I acknowledge your position
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They're posted not once but twice in this very thread. It's fine if you don't want to answer them, actually - I don't expect that you can, to be perfectly honest. The important point is that you will go on ignoring the points that the questions themselves make. What point?(e.g., that energy work research isn't actually as spooky and difficult as some would have you believe, that it has actually been done many times, that it can be done without big bucks grants, that any researcher who validates them would stand to make boatloads of money and earn the top prizes in science and yet almost no researchers are interested in them - weird, that - and that the practices themselves resemble pyramid schemes). Was there a question in that opinion? I do not think energy work is spooky. You are asserting energy studies can be done cheaply, ok... so no machines to monitor heat or anything because it's cheap, ok.. and since no one's figured out a way to get all that money, well, that's scientific enough I guess. Yeah, uh, that's enough to convince me.... right.
It's all his same ranting and opinions.
Of course they are my opinions. So what? Like you said to me yesterday Christopher, "I don't think I'd object to this if you weren't so vocal about it. But when things are repeated over and over, some people are apt to think they must be true."
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