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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: 277
Comment
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Comment by Vlad on March 23, 2010 at 6:17pm
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Stephen,
Oops. Here it is.
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Comment by Christopher A. Moyer on March 23, 2010 at 4:28pm
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No, you really won't. I may continue on the site more generally, but I'm definitely not going to address your remarks anymore. That was the policy I had before, and now I remember why I had that policy. Your most recent longer message demonstrated all of the concerns I pointed out, most especially the tendency to ignore and sidestep all substantive questions or concerns that are posed to you or that relate to the discussion at hand. That message pegged the needle on the Hinkle factor meter.
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Comment by Mike Hinkle on March 23, 2010 at 12:47pm
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No you don't! We'll see you next time!
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LOL, I give up. It's hopeless. Rules of the Internet 11-15 are clearly in effect.
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Chris, My analogies and conclusions come from sources that are repected within the research and massage profession. Joseph E. Muscolino in his "Anatomy of a Research Article" for the Massage Therapy Foundation says more research is needed. He says the massage world is stepping up to the plate and is increasing the amount of research.
He also says, "Conducting research studies shows the world that the beneficial effects are many and are reproducible." So not to worry. I do not need to know research. But I will learn. Just not through your skewed ideologies. I will not be doing the research but there are researchers that have been in contact with me that are looking forward to these efforts. And they are doing research at major institutions and academic levels rather than small branch colleges.
I'm sure the Research Foundation would not agree with you that "money has little to do with it." Money can mean more research Chris. Politics, exist in the system, better get used to it.
You use the same excuses everytime why the research shouldn't be done. And maybe we can't prove it.You have no way to stop it though. The research will take place. You say, I am in no position to say more research needs done. Well, if you are right and if no more needs done, you need to be fired.
The Massage Therapy Research Foundation says they need money for research. Pages of donors names say the same thing. Your name is even on the list, as a Friend, that you donated $1-$99 to the Foundation. EBP researchers have gone on extensively about the shortage of research dollars. Money is a huge factor in the lack of research in all professions. Come on Chris, you are not that naive.
"want all massage recognized and protected" and may be proving them challenged? Great! Then I will believe. As I've said from the beginning, show me the research. All you've written is your repetitive opinion, since the beginning of our discussions.
Others believe research should be expanded, studied and made part of the fabric of massage. We have asked for further research and if you think it's done, fine. We will persevere..
And not to compare myself to Galileo either but I don't need your knowledge, others are just as versed in research and I am sure some are above your level. I can get researchers, they can do studies and findings can be published and recognized. There are many researchers in the US that will adapt nicely to the massage research.
We are going to disagree about energy and it's place in massage. Like Terry said Yin and Yang!
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Comment by Stephen Jeffrey on March 23, 2010 at 11:49am
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Vlad your directions and dilemas link is broke ?
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Hi all, number three here :)
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Three is the threshold? I'm not at three yet.
Do you have anything substantive to add?
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Comment by Emma Torsey on March 23, 2010 at 11:01am
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Who's so vocal about what?
My best friend told me years ago"If you run into more then three a-holes in one day,you have to go home and take a good look in the mirror"
Just sayin'
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Mike, you are continuing to illustrate the very problems I highlighted earlier. It gets pointed out to you that you are not well informed on some of these matters, but you just ignore that and go right on going. 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.
You confidently assert that "researchers will come as money enters the system". You're simply incorrect on this; money has little to do with it. The reasons for this are that 1) there just isn't that much money at stake to influence people strongly. Top-quality researchers aren't interested in energy work research because they see it as a scientific dead end (correctly, in my opinion). Another is that 2) it does not actually take much money to do sound research on what is claimed by energy work. I (or whomever) could do a very valid test with a couple of days, my two-room lab space, some volunteer energy workers, some volunteer students, some wire or coat hangers for building a canopy, and some stretchy nylon fabric.
Some people may not believe me that it could be so simple, so let me give an example that shows there is no correlation between the funds needed to conduct research, and the importance of that research. When Galileo wanted to test the influence of gravity on objects of differing mass, he didn't need a grant; he didn't need years; he didn't need to hire experts. All he had to do was go to the top of a tower and drop objects of differing mass at the same time. This test continues to be reported in science textbooks hundreds of years later.
My intention is not to compare myself directly with Galileo. My point is that it is not automatically the case that one needs money to conduct a solid scientific test. There are hundreds of similar examples.
But it's even better than that. As I pointed out earlier, and which was summarily ignored, any scientist who can demonstrate that energy work does what its thousands of practitioners claim stands to make HUGE AMOUNTS OF MONEY and gain TREMENDOUS FAME AND ACCOLADES. If any scientist were able to show the existence of human biofields, let alone that they can be manipulated for health benefits, that person would stand to claim the MILLION DOLLAR JREF prize and would certainly be in line to win THE NOBEL PRIZE. Last I heard, the Nobel comes with several million dollars. Such a scientist would be a lock for either the physiology & medicine prize, or the physics prize, and maybe even both.
Easily testable hypotheses, huge financial rewards, and true scientific fame... I can't speak for you, but that leaves me wondering why the world's best scientists aren't already working on this. (Actually, that isn't honest - I actually do know why they aren't working on it.)
You state unambiguously that you "want all massage recognized and protected". If this was your position and you left it at that, I could respect that. It's a political position, and it's clearly stated. The world needs advocates and politicians. The problem is that you go on to call for research, too, without realizing that much research is likely to challenge, and not protect, the things you are advocating for. In other words, your position is often contradictory and incoherent. You can't have it both ways - you can't say (I'm paraphrasing here) 'I defend these modalities no matter what' and also say 'we've got to do research on these modalities', because conducting research only makes sense when hasn't already decided what the result is going to be. See how those things are not compatible?
Finally, you state that "I do not have to be a researcher to understand research". Technically, that's true as written; one need not do research to know about and benefit from research. But the fact is, you don't know much at all about research. I'm sorry to be so blunt, but it needs to be stated plainly. You have incorrect ideas about how it gets done, how it gets funded, what it is likely to conclude, what has been done already, and what is known.
Here are but a few examples to illustrate my point. I expect you'll ignore them all, but who knows? And, even if you do, maybe someone else will benefit from them:
-Did you know that Benjamin Franklin served on a royal commission, along with some of the best scientists in history, to investigate a popular form of energy medicine? In other words, energy work research has been going on for over 200 years. (Their conclusion in that study was unequivocal - they found no evidence at all to support what the practitioners were claiming.)
-Did you know that many of the claims of energy medicine modalities would invalidate the laws of thermodynamics? Not the hypotheses of thermodynamics; not the theories of thermodynamics; scientists reserve the word law for observations that have never, ever been violated. The laws of thermodynamics were codified by Newton. No one has found a single exception to them in hundreds of years.
-Did you know that a test of one form of energy medicine appeared in the Journal of the American Medical Association in the 1990s? (The result was a clear failure.)
Et cetera, et cetera.
You are very fond of saying that "more research is needed". But you're not in a position to know whether more research is needed, or how much is needed. There does actually come a point when more research is NOT NEEDED. Almost any working scientist would point out to you that more research on energy medicine is not actually needed. (Similarly, we don't need more research on perpetual motion machines.)
That doesn't mean you need to take my word, or their word, on it. (You are absolutely correct when you say that "Moyer is not the only choice here", and thank the gods for that - you're probably even right when you say "others can do the job and be a lot nicer about it", cause I've run out of patience for this.) A great thing about our free society, and the incredibly free and open society of science, is that anyone can conduct the research. You picture science as some kind of secret cabal, where people like me and my 'crew' (whom I've never met - I wish I had one) enact our schemes to keep people we don't like out in the cold, or something. But again, this is a case where you don't know what you're talking about. Run the test, or work with an interested researcher to run the test. Get your results. Send them to Science (the journal), or wherever. If your method is logical and clear and replicable, and your results are good - they demonstrate that one has a biofield, or that one can detect a biofield, or that one can manipulate a biofield, et cetera - Science will publish them. Science (the activity) is the ultimate meritocracy.
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