See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.

net/publication/11473703

How healing happens: Exploring the nonlocal gap

Article in Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine · March 2002

Source: PubMed

CITATIONS READS
14 2,213

1 author:

Larry Dossey
Independent Researcher
229 PUBLICATIONS 1,446 CITATIONS

SEE PROFILE

All content following this page was uploaded by Larry Dossey on 08 April 2015.

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

NOTES ON THE JOURNEY

HOW HEALING HAPPENS:

EXPLORING THE NONLOCAL GAP
Larry Dossey, MD
Modified from a paper presented at “Bridging Worlds and Filling Gaps in the Science of Spiritual Healing,”
Conference on the Big Island; November 29-December 4, 2001; Keauhou Beach Resort, Kona, Hawaii

or the entire history of the human race, people have in Mountain View, a tiny town located in the beautiful Ozark

F believed that healing can take place at a distance. How

does healing happen remotely? The short answer is:
nobody knows. The situation is rather like that
described by Sir Arthur Eddington, 1 the British
astronomer-physicist, who said, in speaking about the uncer-
tainty principle in modern physics, “Something unknown is
doing we don’t know what.”
Mountains of northwest Arkansas. At the time this sleepy little
community did not have a good downscale restaurant, and
whether or not it was ready for an upscale establishment was
debatable. But my friend was enthusiastic about bringing culi-
nary excellence to town.
One of the choices he offered on the menu was beef
Stroganoff. The problem was that nobody knew what it was, and
The reason we don’t know how healing happens is that the not a single person ordered it. It was a complete failure. But
task is remarkably daunting. We have bumped up against what instead of tossing out all the beef Stroganoff, the next day he
may be the 3 most mysterious entities in the universe: conscious- reprinted the menu, changed the name of beef Stroganoff to beef
ness, space, and time. As we shall see, understanding spiritual or and noodles, and made it the special of the day. Beef and noodles
distant healing requires penetrating these mysteries, about was a huge hit and a constant menu feature thereafter. From this
which we remain appallingly ignorant. We are like the blind men event we can derive what I call the Beef Stroganoff Principle: If
who encounter the elephant: every expert in healing seems to be you want to sell something, be careful what you call it.2
feeling different parts, and the version we report represents a dif- Much depends on the audience. The rules for a menu in
ferent point of contact. A “whole-elephant” perspective is lack- Mountain View, Ark, would not be the same for Los Angeles.
ing. So what can we say about how these events happen? The Los Angeles Times recently featured an article on how to
The question of how healing happens is tightly connected design a restaurant menu. The writer says, “‘Spaghetti, $14,’
with language and taxonomy, because the language used in this sounds steep and not very appealing. But ‘Spaghetti with
field often presumes or implies a mechanism—as when we say grilled sardines, pine nuts, currants, and wild spinach, $14’
“nonlocal healing” or “energy healing.” sounds worth it.” Other guidelines: never say “boiled,” which
I don’t enjoy talking about the importance of language in sounds like you’ve cooked the life out of the food; say “stewed”
healing, because this subject stirs powerful emotions. People or, better yet, “roasted.”3
take their language personally. We use language to describe what In the young field of spiritual or distant healing, we are in
we do, and what we do is connected with our self-image, how we the process of designing the menu, deciding what to call it. We
define who we are. To question someone’s choice of language can know that people are attracted or repelled by certain terms. The
be perceived as a personal attack or threat. I have seen nice, problem is that there is no accepted taxonomy and the vocabu-
serene researchers go ballistic in formal meetings when their lary is a muddle. We seem to be making it up as we go along,
healing language is questioned, and it is not a pretty sight. often with little forethought. Metaphors and poetic images min-
Language both attracts and repels. W. H. Auden used to say gle with facts, and it is difficult to tell one from the other. Some
that when he didn’t want to talk to someone sitting next to him of the terms we hear are psychic healing, psychokinesis (or PK,
on an airplane, he simply told them he was a medievalist. I have mind over matter), prayer healing, healing intentionality, energy
been experimenting with this tactic lately. I have discovered I can healing, vibrational healing, quantum healing, nonlocal healing, con-
achieve Auden’s result by telling someone I’m an explorer of sciousness-based healing, and just plain healing.
nonlocal mind. That usually turns them away. But if they ask, Like my friend’s beef Stroganoff, which did not pene-
“What’s that?” I respond, “Mind that is everywhere in space and trate the market in Mountain View until he found a name
time.” That always does it. that was comprehensible and acceptable to the surrounding
I had a lesson in the power of language a few years ago world, it may be that the market we want to penetrate with
when a friend of mine decided to open a sophisticated restaurant spiritual healing—conventional medicine and the scientific

12 ALTERNATIVE THERAPIES, mar/apr 2002, VOL. 8, NO. 2 How Healing Happens: Exploring the Nonlocal Gap
community—will not respond positively until we begin to physical form of information transmission, virtually all of
speak a proper language. these have explicitly presumed a space/time reference
matrix. The demonstration of negligible attenuation of the
THE LANGUAGE OF HEALING empirical effects with distance, along with the precognitive
To illustrate how language can be twisted and run amok in and retrocognitive capacities, would seem to call this pre-
the culture, consider the term quantum. It has captured the popu- sumption into question, and specifically to preclude their
lar imagination and is being used to describe everything in sight. attribution to any known form of field radiation, be it elec-
In a shopping center near my home, a health foods store advertis- tromagnetic, geophysical, or even subtler physical vectors
es products for “quantum nutrition.” Close by is a beauty salon [emphasis added].…5
advertising “quantum perms.” It is impossible to escape “quan- The literature of psychic research abounds with attempts
tum” these days. When I recently scanned the books in my to transpose various physical formalisms [to account for
library, I saw books on quantum psychology, quantum healing, these effects]: electromagnetic models, thermodynamic
quantum physics, quantum reality, and the quantum body. I did a models, mechanical models, statistical mechanical models,
quick search of the Internet and turned up 1354310 entries for and others.… Although these comprise an interesting body
“quantum.” If you try this, you’ll discover thousands of listings for of effort, none of them seems fully competent.… Indeed, it
items such as quantum CDs, quantum fishing equipment, quan- appears that no simple application of existing physical theo-
tum consulting, quantum marketing, quantum workshops for ry is likely to prevail. In order to encompass the observed
success in business, quantum employment opportunities, quan- effects, a substantially more fundamental level of theoretic
tum creativity, quantum fashions, and quantum comic books. model will need to be deployed, one which more explicitly
Why do people use quantum? Attaching “quantum” to your prod- acknowledges the role of consciousness in the definition of
uct or service implies that it is chic, modern, and a major physical reality.6
advance—a quantum leap—beyond your competitors. It is obvi-
ous that there is a psychology behind naming, which applies not No one has been clearer about the importance of language
only to commerce but also to the field of spiritual healing. in healing than psychologist Lawrence LeShan. LeShan has spent
Of course, we expect advertisers to take liberties with lan- more years studying healers, doing healing, and teaching healing
guage and to blur metaphor and fact. But in science we are sup- than anyone alive. He says:
posed to follow a different standard. We are supposed to use
terms that mean what they say. One factor adding to the complications of this particular
But in spiritual healing, we don’t. Consider the term energy term [“energy”] is the fact that we often take concepts
and its variants, which crop up in terms such as energy healing, meaning something fairly familiar that are used in other
vibrational healing, subtle energy healing, and the efforts of healers ways of construing reality and apply them as if they are syn-
to balance the “energies” or the “frequencies” of a person in onymous for [the scientific concept of ] “energy.” I think
need. Physics currently acknowledges 4 kinds of energy: the elec- here of such words as “prana,” [“chi”], “wakanda,” “gray
tromagnetic, the gravitational, and the strong and weak nuclear force,” and “orenda.” These are terms that make sense in
forces. Are “energy healers” referring to these types of energy, or the particular way of organizing and construing reality in
to metaphors? Almost never do the healers define what they which they originated. They make no sense when translated
mean when they use these terms. Even if they are referring to directly into others. Whatever it is that manifests in a
known types of energy, can “energy” explain spiritual healing? “meridian,” it is not the same thing that makes an electric
Certainly not distant healing. In the physics-and-parapsy- light bulb glow. You confuse the two at the peril of your pos-
chology community, there is near-unanimity on this point. As a sibility of constructive thinking.7
single example, here’s what physicists Elizabeth A. Rauscher and Unless we recognize the problem [of language] and that it
Russell Targ4 say in their article, “The Speed of Thought,” in the is not only confined to the one word [“energy”] … our
Journal of Scientific Exploration, in their discussion of the distant, progress will continue to be hampered. And for those who
nonlocal behaviors of consciousness, including distant healing: do not think it has been, I might point out that if I have an
“We recognize that every ontology is perishable.… However, we appendicitis attack, it will make a crucial difference whether
are confident that two factors will remain: namely that these my physician has been trained in 1990 or 1590. In one case I
phenomena are not a result of an energetic transmission, but rather will live, in the other I will die. However, if I … go to a psy-
they are an interaction of our awareness with a nonlocal hyper- chic healer, it will not make any difference in which century
dimensional space-time in which we live [original emphasis].” the healer was trained. The results will be about the same.
Robert G. Jahn, Brenda J. Dunne, and Roger D. Nelson of the Nor have we learned anything much about understanding,
Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research (PEAR) lab agree: training, or using telepaths or clairvoyants in the past cen-
turies. (I know of no other field—except possibly political
[W]hile there have been many attempts to interpret con- science—of which this can be said). This is pretty shocking
sciousness-related anomalous phenomena in terms of some when you come to think about it and when you consider the

How Healing Happens: Exploring the Nonlocal Gap ALTERNATIVE THERAPIES, mar/apr 2002, VOL. 8, NO. 2 13
 existence, yet the conscious mind itself remains a stranger
NONLOCAL MIND: within that construct, it has no living space in it, you can spot
WHAT SCIENTISTS SAY it nowhere in space. We do not usually realize this fact,
because we have entirely taken to thinking of the personality
e do not have to wait for scientists to endorse of a human being, or for that matter also that of an animal, as

W nonlocal mind: they already have done so. The

following quotations are from some of the most
prestigious and respected scientists of the 20th century. They
affirm the view that the mind is infinite, eternal, and one.
located in the interior of its body. To learn that it cannot real-
ly be found there is so amazing that it meets with doubt and
hesitation, we are very loath to admit it.… It is very difficult
for us to take stock of the fact that the localization of the per-
sonality, of the conscious mind, inside the body is only sym-
bolic, just an aid for practical use.”8
ERWIN SCHRÖDINGER
Schrödinger is one of the patriarchs of modern physics. He
was awarded the Nobel prize for his wave equation, which lies at
the heart of quantum mechanics. One of his deepest concerns
“S ubject and object are only one. The barrier between
them cannot be said to have broken down as a result
of recent experience in the physical sciences, for this barrier
was the role of consciousness in establishing physical reality. does not exist.”8

“T o divide or multiply consciousness is something

meaningless. In all the world, there is no kind of “[T] he ‘statistical theory of time’ [and] … the theory
of relativity … [imply] a liberation from the
tyranny of old Chronos.… But some of you, I am sure, will
framework within which we can find consciousness in the
plural; this is simply something we construct because of the call this mysticism.… [But] we may, or so I believe, assert
spatio-temporal plurality of individuals, but it is a false con- that physical theory in its present stage strongly suggests
struction.… The category of number, of whole and of parts the indestructibility of Mind by Time.”8
are then simply not applicable to it; the most adequate …
venture to call it [the mind] indestructible since it has
expression of the situation is this: the self-consciousness[es]
of the individual members are numerically identical both “I a peculiar time-table, namely mind is always now.
There is really no before and after for the mind.”8
with [one an]other and with that Self which they may be
said to form at a higher level.”7

“T here is obviously only one alternative, namely the

unification of minds or consciousness. Their multi-
plicity is only apparent, in truth there is only one mind.”8
serious work that has gone into such areas as psychic heal-
ing and spiritual development by intelligent, dedicated and
hard-working human potential people. It illustrates that
something … [is] very wrong. Our attitude towards lan-

“M ind is by its very nature a singulare tantum. I should

say: the overall number of minds is just one.”8
guage appears to be one of them.”11

Now I realize that most healers are bored stiff by questions

“C onsciousness is a singular of which the plural is

unknown. There is only one thing, and that which
seems to be a plurality is merely a series of different aspects of
of language and consider this debate a needless haggling over
terms. The main thing, they say, is whether healing works, not
what we call it. I disagree. We face serious obstacles in advancing
one thing, produced by a deception … as in a gallery of mir- healing work, and we do not need to compound our problems by
rors.”9 adopting a language that other scientists find impenetrable and
which has no accepted currency in mainstream science.
We can create horrendous problems by playing fast and
“I f we decide to have only one sphere [of existence], it has
got to be a psychic one, since that exists anyway.…”10 loose with terminology. Consider the flap over therapeutic touch
(TT) that took place at the University of Colorado a few years
ago. For years TT researchers and practitioners have referred to
“S o we are faced with the following remarkable situa-
tion. While the stuff from which our world picture is
built is yielded exclusively from the sense organs of the mind,
“energy patterns,” “energy flow,” “energy fields,” “blocked ener-
gy,” and “energy balancing,” as if these concepts empirically have
so that every man’s world picture is and always remains a been demonstrated beyond reasonable doubt. But whereas there
construct of his mind and cannot be proved to have any other is considerable evidence for the clinical efficacy of TT,12 the criti-
cal experiments that might clarify the underlying mechanisms
have simply not been done. Most TT practitioners (there are

14 ALTERNATIVE THERAPIES, mar/apr 2002, VOL. 8, NO. 2 How Healing Happens: Exploring the Nonlocal Gap
notable exceptions) do not appear to realize this, and make no
attempts to distinguish metaphor from fact. In adopting this ALBERT EINSTEIN
stance, TT proponents at the University of Colorado played into Einstein is perhaps the most famous scientist who ever
the hands of so-called skeptics who despise the idea of distant lived. His publication of the special theory of relativity in
healing. The skeptics launched a campaign to ban the teaching 1905 forever changed the classical, mechanical, Newtonian
of TT in state-funded institutions and caused immense distress worldview.
to the nurse scholars who were involved.
As a further example of how confused language evokes criti-
cism, consider the hostile paper by Chibnall et al13 published in a
recent issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine. One of their tar-
“A human being is part of the whole, called by us ‘uni-
verse,’ a part limited in time and space. He experi-
ences his thoughts and feelings as something separate from
gets is the undisciplined used of energy and subtle energy. When the rest—a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness.
researchers in distant healing use such terms, one can almost see This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our
the cynics gloating, saying “Gotcha!” personal decisions and to affection for a few persons nearest
Is it possible to arrive at a language of healing that is true to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by
the experimental findings? widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living
creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.”20
THE THREE PHASES OF DISTANT HEALING
It is helpful to divide spiritual healing into 3 phases. feel such a sense of solidarity with all living things
The first phase involves the activities and intentions of the
individual who is attempting the healing. This usually involves
“I that it does not matter to me where the individual
begins and ends.”21
entering a meditative, prayerful state that healers sometimes call
“centering.” Healers describe a variety of experiences when they
enter this psychophysical state: feelings of serenity, empathy, com-
passion, warmth and tingling in the extremities, and so on. We
“T he individual feels the futility of human desires and
aims and the sublimity and marvelous order which
reveal themselves both in nature and in the world of
know a lot about this stage. For nearly half a century, researchers thought. Individual existence impresses him as a sort of
have described the physiological changes that are involved, includ- prison and he wants to experience the universe as a single
ing electroenceaphalogram patterns, magnetic resonance imaging significant whole.”22
and positron emission tomography scan data, cardiovascular
changes, immune modifications, and so on. What’s the mecha-
nism? Most researchers are comfortable using the energy-related
framework of conventional science in describing these events— bridged by the intentions, empathic wishes, and compassionate
biology, chemistry, classical physics, anatomy, physiology. prayers of healers, as well as by conscious and unconscious
Let’s jump to the third or “downstream” phase of spiritual thought, it remains a domain of great mystery. These nonlocal
healing. This involves the response of the individual to whom behaviors of consciousness also have the ability to generate
the healing is directed. These changes may involve a variety of intense emotional and intellectual revolt on the part of those
physical sensations as well as physiological changes. Controlled wedded to a thoroughly local view of reality.
studies have documented positive responses in cardiovascular But these objections are destined to become a footnote in
disease,14,15 advanced AIDS,16 infertility,17 and so on. In nonhu- history, because there is nothing in the whole of Newtonian
mans, studies have demonstrated increased healing rates in sur- physics that can explain how this nonlocal gap is bridged. There
gical wounds in animals, increased germination rates in seeds is no hope, even in principle, of applying classical, causal, local,
and the growth rates in plants, increased replication rates of vari- energy-based explanations to this in-between phase of spiritual
ous types of microorganisms, decreased hemolytic rates of red healing. Although energy-based models may do quite well to
blood cells, altered kinetics of biochemical reactions, and so explain what happens within healer and healee, they don’t work
on. 18,19 As with the initial phase of spiritual healing, most in explaining what happens in this strange world between the
researchers believe these third-phase changes also can be healer and healee. So this is why no single mechanism is going to
described within the local, classical framework that underlies explain spiritual healing.
modern physiological research. The conventional view within science, of course, is that con-
sciousness is completely local—in other words, it is confined to
THE NONLOCAL GAP specific points in space (the brain and body) and time (the pre-
Between the initial and final phases of healing lies the most sent moment). In brief, modern science assumes that conscious-
intriguing phase of all: the distance between the healer and ness and the brain are identical. Thus astronomer Carl Sagan23:
healee. We can call this phase the “nonlocal gap,” because it can “[The brain’s] workings—what we sometimes call mind—are a
be described only by invoking the concepts of nonlocality, as we consequence of its anatomy and physiology, and nothing more.”
shall see. Although we know that this spatial separation can be And Francis Crick24: “[A] person’s mental activities are entirely

How Healing Happens: Exploring the Nonlocal Gap ALTERNATIVE THERAPIES, mar/apr 2002, VOL. 8, NO. 2 15
 as God, Goddess, Allah, the Tao, Universe, and so on. By “heal-
FREEMAN DYSON ing” I simply mean the restoration of a sense of wholeness, from
Renowned physicist Freeman Dyson, known for his work in which the term “healing” is derived. Healing involves a sense of
deep space propulsion, has been outspoken on his views of the oneness of mind and body within the person, but can also include
centrality of consciousness in the universe. a sense of oneness with all there is, a condition of which the great
mystical traditions have always spoken. Healing may or may not
be associated with the eradication of a particular disease.
“T he universe shows evidence of … mind on three lev-
els. The first level is the level of elementary physical
processes in quantum mechanics. Matter in quantum
The differences of opinion about the nature of healing are
profound. Most people in our culture believe that healing has
mechanics is not an inert substance but an active agent, something to do with spirituality and prayer. But J. B. Rhine, the
constantly making choices between alternative possibilities founder of modern parapsychology, disagreed. Rhine believed
according to probabilistic laws. Every quantum experiment that intercessory prayer was nothing more than psychokinesis or
forces nature to make choices. It appears that mind, as man- PK—mind acting directly on matter. He saw no reason to put
ifested by the capacity to make choices, is to some extent God in the loop. As he put it, “[r]eligious communication is basi-
inherent in every electron. The second level at which we cally psi communication, pure and simple.… All the physical
detect … mind is the level of direct human experience. Our miracles, whether in the healing of disease, the miraculous
brains appear to be devices for the amplification of the men- movement of objects, or the control of the elements, had to be
tal component of the quantum choices made by molecules manifestations of PK [psychokinesis].”28
inside our heads.… There is evidence … that the universe as
a whole is hospitable to the growth of mind.… Therefore it is ABOUT DAT
reasonable to believe in the existence of a third level of Other experts disagree with Rhine’s position on psychoki-
mind, a mental component of the universe. If we believe in nesis, and say that PK is vastly overrated. This view most recent-
this mental component of the universe, then we can say that ly has been elaborated by Ed May, Jessica Utts, and James
we are small pieces of God’s mental apparatus.”25 Spottiswoode in their Decision Augmentation Theory, or DAT.29
According to this view, people don’t push the world around with
their intentions or prayers. Instead, they intuit what is going to
happen in the future and align their intentions with these devel-
due to the behavior of nerve cells, glial cells, and the atoms, ions, opments, giving the illusion that their intentions caused the pat-
and molecules that make up and influence them.” tern of events that ensues. So DAT essentially abolishes
Yet the confidence exuded by presumptuous statements psychokinesis in favor of precognition.
such as these is premature. We are appallingly ignorant about DAT is at odds with the views of most researchers in healing
the connections between consciousness and the brain. Thus and parapsychology. Almost all of them believe that consciousness
philosopher John Searle26: “At the present state of the investiga- can both insert information nonlocally into the world and therefore
tion of consciousness we don’t know how it works and we need to actually do something “out there,” in addition to acquiring informa-
try all kinds of different ideas.” And philosopher Jerry Fodor27: tion or knowledge from the environment. Some researchers have
“Nobody has the slightest idea how anything material could be lined up strenuously against DAT—such as physicist York Dobyns
conscious. Nobody even knows what it would be like to have the of PEAR30,31 and philosopher and Whiteheadian scholar David Ray
slightest idea about how anything material could be conscious. Griffin of Claremont College, who accepts the evidence for psy-
So much for the philosophy of consciousness.” chokinesis but rejects precognition in principle.32
If DAT permits only precognition, can it account for heal-
A MODEST PROPOSAL ing? I believe it can, at least for certain kinds of healing. Evidence
So I have some very simple suggestions. If we choose to do suggests that individuals precognitively can acquire information
science in this field, let’s use the language of science. Let us not that is relevant to their health and that of loved ones. If they
invent a private vocabulary for which there is no shared meaning acquire this knowledge before the unhealthy event takes place,
in the scientific community. Let us not assert mechanisms of they may take action to avoid future illness or even death. For
healing that are inconsistent with empirical findings. And when example, surveys of parents of babies who died of sudden infant
we are in the dark about mechanism, let’s admit it. death syndrome reveal that these parents have intuitions or pre-
monitions of the impending death of their infant 10 times more
IS SPIRITUAL HEALING SPIRITUAL? frequently than do parents of normal infants.33 If this precogni-
What do we mean by the term spiritual healing? By “spiritu- tively acquired information were acted on, the deaths of the
al” I mean the sense of connectedness with a factor in the uni- babies might be avoided. Even groups of individuals appear pre-
verse that is wiser and more powerful than the individual sense of cognitively to acquire information of impending disasters, and
self and that is infinite in space and time. I choose to refer to this
factor as the Absolute. In the great religions it is often referred to Continued on page 103

16 ALTERNATIVE THERAPIES, mar/apr 2002, VOL. 8, NO. 2 How Healing Happens: Exploring the Nonlocal Gap
 can’t explain how distant healing works. For some reason, many
SIR ARTHUR EDDINGTON of us think it is fatal to operate in a theoretical vacuum. So rather
One of the most famous astronomer-physicist-mathemati- than say, “We don’t know how this stuff works,” we pretend to
cians of the 20th century, Eddington was one of the most pas- have all the answers. But it is not lethal in science to admit igno-
sionate writers about how consciousness was involved in rance about mechanism. This is particularly true in medicine, in
constructing reality. which we often have known that something works before we
understand how it works. For centuries we knew that drugs such
as quinine, colchicine, and aspirin worked before we figured out
“T he idea of a universal Mind or Logos would be, I
think, a fairly plausible inference from the present
state of scientific theory; at least it is in harmony with it.”56
how. We still don’t know how general anesthetics work, but this
fact has hardly retarded their use.
One of the most common reasons people reject distant heal-
ing is that there is no generally accepted hypothesis in science
“N ot once in the dim past, but continuously by con-
scious mind is the miracle of the Creation
wrought.… To put the conclusion crudely—the stuff of the
that permits it. This leads researchers in distant healing and
parapsychology to imagine that if we just had a super-duper the-
world is mind-stuff.”57 ory explaining all these anomalous happenings, all the skeptics
would come over to our side. To those researchers who actually
believe this, I say, “Dream on.” It is not the lack of an explanato-
“R ecognising that the physical world is entirely abstract
and without ‘actuality’ apart from its linkage to con-
sciousness, we restore consciousness to the fundamental posi-
ry theory that retards this field so much as the innate resistance
to changing one’s worldview.
tion instead of representing it as an inessential complication In fact, there is an abundance of hypotheses supporting
occasionally found in the midst of inorganic nature at a late nonlocal manifestations of consciousness. These have recently
stage of evolutionary history.”57 been advanced by first-rate scholars in a variety of disciplines.
Dean Radin has reviewed some of the main ones in his book The
Conscious Universe,60 as have I.61 Douglas Stokes has reviewed
“A ll through the physical world runs that unknown
content, which must surely be the stuff of our con-
sciousness.… And, moreover, we have found that where sci-
more than 40 theoretical models of psi phenomena,62 and a
recent review also has been offered by Beichler.63
ence has progressed the farthest, the mind has but regained Some hypotheses deserve special notice. One is that of
from nature that which the mind has put into nature. William A. Tiller, who long has been at the forefront of hypoth-
We have found a strange foot-print on the shores of esis development and research in this field. Tiller, most recently
the unknown. We have devised profound theories, one with Walter E. Dibble, Jr, and Michael J. Kohane, suggests, on
after the other, to account for its origin. At last succeeded the basis of experiments, that a single person or a group of indi-
in reconstructing the creature that made the foot-print. viduals can create an “elevated and tangible ‘field of conscious-
And Lo! it is our own.”58 ness’” in a specific spatial region by creating a “metastable
condition in the ‘vacuum state.’” Such intentions can be cumu-
lative; if these intentions are repeated daily over years, this
process can “raise the local vacuum state” to a “stable phase
quantum nonlocality with human nonlocality, we commit change” that may continue indefinitely. This can convert a mun-
what Whitehead called a category mistake. Or as the linguist dane site to a “sacred space.”
Alfred Korzybski said, we confuse the map with the territory. Tiller, Dibble, and Kohane suggest that physical objects
Here’s an example of the category mistake in action: similarly can be conditioned, and that such objects may function
as intermediary devices; when moved to other locations they can
All of these mystics have said in one way or another, “We’re “condition” the new space in the same way that they have been
all interconnected.” Well, we have discovered a mechanism conditioned by the original intentions of the humans involved
for that in science called non-locality. The first discoveries, (written communication, William A. Tiller, PhD, October 2001).
which were made at the particle level, found that particles Tiller64 proposes the existence of multidimensional spaces: “emo-
that were ever entangled in a process, if they go apart from tional (9D), mental (10D) and spiritual (11D)” spaces that, in his
each other, forever remain correlated. We’ve recently dis- view, “give rise to subtle energy fields.” These hypotheses are
covered a mechanism in science that is non-local called elaborated in great mathematical detail. One may object to all
quantum holography, which carries the information about these multidimensional spacetime manifolds—but when we
every physical object. It serves as the basis, it now appears, compare them to the multidimensional theories that are all the
for what we call the inner experience.59 rage in string theory within modern cosmology, for example,
they can begin to seem downright conservative.
SPECIFIC HYPOTHESES One of the most fertile hypotheses about how healing happens
We really should stop beating up on ourselves because we has been advanced by Robert G. Jahn, former dean of engineering

106 ALTERNATIVE THERAPIES, mar/apr 2002, VOL. 8, NO. 2 How Healing Happens: Exploring the Nonlocal Gap
 hypothesis accounts for both vectors of consciousness—its
GREGORY BATESON capacity to insert information into the world and to extract infor-
Gregory Bateson, with roots in anthropology and biology, mation from the world. In their words:
was concerned with the concept of information flow in nature
and how consciousness interacted with the physical world. He [Ours is] a geometrical model of space-time, which has already
originated the “double bind” theory in modern psychology. been extensively studied in the technical literature of mathe-
matics and physics. This eight-dimensional metric is known as
“complex Minkowski space” and has been shown to be consis-
“T he individual mind is immanent but not only in the
body. It is immanent also in the pathways and mes-
sages outside the body; and there is a larger Mind of which
tent with our present understanding of the equations of
Newton, Maxwell, Einstein, and Schrödinger. It also has the
the individual mind is only a sub-system. This larger Mind is interesting property of allowing a connection of zero distance
comparable to God and is perhaps what some people mean between points in the complex manifold, which appear to be
by ‘God,’ but it is still immanent in the total interconnected separate from one another in ordinary observation.… [Our]
social system and planetary ecology.”65 model … describes the major elements of experimental para-
psychology, and at the same time is consistent with the pre-
sent highly successful structure of modern physics.4

at Princeton University, and Brenda J. Dunne of the PEAR lab.66 The systems theorist Ervin Laszlo also proposes that dis-
They propose that we must take into account not only conscious tant, nonlocal, events are related to the zero point field and the
intentions in the entire spectrum of nonlocal, consciousness-medi- quantum vacuum.67
ated events, but the unconscious as well. They furthermore distin- Nobel physicist Brian D. Josephson and physicist Fotini
guish between the tangible and intangible levels of the material Pallikara-Viras have proposed that nonlocal subatomic events
world. As they state: “The model … lends itself to representation of and our capacity to find or create meaning may underlie nonlocal
various alternative healing modalities such as therapeutic touch, consciousness-mediated events.68
remote diagnosis and healing, and prayer therapy … or even to David J. Chalmers of the University of Arizona has pro-
acupuncture and homeopathy, where stimulation of rather abstract, posed that consciousness may be a fundamental property in the
essentially intangible physiological information paths or processes universe, not reducible to anything more elemental, not deriv-
appears to yield a variety of demonstrable clinical benefits.” able from anything else.69 This hypothesis, though not actually
The role of the unconscious too long has been neglected in endorsing the nonlocal operations of consciousness such as dis-
hypotheses of how healing happens. We make much of “inten- tant healing, nevertheless appears cordial to them.
tionality” and lodge it almost exclusively in conscious awareness. Astronaut-engineer Edgar Mitchell proposes that the non-
But Jahn and Dunne also emphasize the unconscious: local manifestations of consciousness can be understood
through quantum holography. As he says, “[t]he Quantum
Whatever the form of environmental conditioning, the oper- Hologram is that which survives. It has the characteristic of car-
ator would need to achieve a delicate balance between main- rying and retaining all the events of Life’s experience. In other
taining some teleological sense of intention or desire for a words, the event history of the self is in the Quantum
particular experimental outcome, while still surrendering Hologram. All those events are retained and, since the
conscious control or responsibility for the achievement of Quantum Hologram is non-local, are propagated throughout
that goal to the unconscious mind and its deeper resources.… the universe as available information. Thereby, Nature does not
[A] particularly effective strategy … is to establish a paradoxi- lose its experience, Nature retains information … A Law of the
cal environment which inhibits the operator from focusing Conservation of Information.”70
on any particular reality.… From this state of “innocence” (i.e., British zoologist Rupert Sheldrake, who advocates nonlo-
not tainted by any preconceptions, prejudices, or consensus cal, immaterial “morphogenetic fields” that can be structured by
realities), the mind and the machine [or distant individual, in conscious intention.71
healing] could establish a new shared reality that would man- Physicist Amit Goswami of the Institute of Theoretical
ifest as anomalous in both sectors.… [I]n this bonded state, Physics at the University of Oregon suggests that consciousness
the mind does not directly query or instruct its environment, is associated with some sort of “potential” that nonlocally can be
it “dances” with it, each partner sensing and conforming to transferred from one brain to another.72
the other until a new resonance is reached.66 Then there is DAT, offered by May, Utts, and Spottiswoode,
as mentioned.29
One of the most sophisticated hypotheses compatible with
nonlocal knowing and nonlocal healing has been proposed by INFORMATION
Rauscher and Targ. They acknowledge that consciousness is fun- Many of these hypotheses employ the concept of informa-
damentally nonlocal—not just in space, but also in time. Their tion in describing the nonlocal behaviors of consciousness.

How Healing Happens: Exploring the Nonlocal Gap ALTERNATIVE THERAPIES, mar/apr 2002, VOL. 8, NO. 2 107
 waves? Rauscher and Targ have this to say: “Although this model
PAUL DAVIES has received repeated investigation—with regard to permissible
Physicist Paul Davies is one of the most respected scientists bit rates and signal propagation—it fails to provide any explana-
currently writing books on new physics for the lay public. He has tion for precognitive psi, which … has the same reliability and
explored the potential spiritual implications of quantum physics efficacy as real-time psychic perception.”4
and cosmology.
THE FUTURE
In 1992, three of the nation’s 125 medical schools offered
“I n the emerging picture of mankind in the universe, the
future (if it exists) will surely entail discoveries about
space and time which will open up whole new perspectives
courses exploring the relationship of spirituality and health; in
2001, a total of 75 offered such courses.74 The impact of follow-
in the relationship between mankind, mind, and the uni- ing a religious or spiritual path on health and longevity is
verse.… But what is now? There is no such thing in physics; becoming common knowledge and is documented by nearly
it is not even clear that ‘now’ could ever be described, let 1600 studies in the rapidly developing field of the epidemiology
alone explained, in terms of physics.… Notions such as ‘the of religion.75,76 Double-blind controlled studies of spiritual heal-
past,’ ‘the present’ and ‘the future’ seem to be more linguis- ing are being done at major medical schools throughout the
tic than physical.… There is no universal now, but only a per- country.14,16,17,77 Five positive systematic or meta-analyses attest to
sonal one—a ‘here and now.’ This strongly suggests that we the validity of distant healing.12,78-81 These are historic develop-
look to the mind, rather than to the physical world, as the ments in which we can take great pride.
origin of the division of time into past, present, and future.… One of the surest ways of derailing these monumental
There is none of this in physics.… No physical experiment advances is to claim more than we can demonstrate, such as by
has ever been performed to detect the passage of time. As playing fast and loose with indefensible explanations of how
soon as the objective world of reality is considered, the pas- these events take place. This will alienate open-minded physi-
sage of time disappears like a ghost into the night.73 cians and scientists, provide scoffers the opening they are look-
ing for, and prolong the time when spiritual healing is
available. It is far better if we simply stick with the facts, focus
on empirical findings, and acknowledge the tentative nature of
the hypotheses we offer.
What is information? According to Jahn and Dunne, informa- To those theologians who are concerned that healing
tion is “any array of stimuli that the consciousness, or the envi- research will debase spirituality and prayer: you need not
ronment, is capable of sensing and reacting to.” Information, worry. Virtually all the researchers participating in this field
they say, is “the sole currency of reality.” As they put it, consider healing research to be sacred science, not an exercise
“[n]either [the] environment nor [the] consciousness can pro- in materialistic reductionism. They are acutely aware that for
ductively be represented in isolation; only in the interaction— every question answered by healing research, a dozen pop up
in the exchange of information between the two—are palpable to take its place. Healing research is not about proving, dis-
effects constituted.”53 I am reminded of the definition of infor- proving, or testing God, as some cynics mistakenly claim. It is,
mation given by anthropologist Gregory Bateson: a difference however, an exercise in restoring a majestic dimension to
that makes a difference. nature that has been forgotten in modern science. With few
A final comment about hypotheses of distant healing: Most exceptions, healing researchers rightfully defer on questions of
scholars reject electromagnetic theory as an explanation for the mechanism, or they cautiously speculate on how these events
mind’s nonlocal activities, but physicists Rauscher and Targ urge happen. Their primary strategy is to investigate whether or not
caution. In electromagnetic theory, Targ states, there are mathe- healing is real, and then to step aside and invite people to
matical equations that suggest time reversibility. In the 1920s, interpret the how of healing in their own way.
for instance, physicist Paul Dirac developed a mathematical Although the field of nonlocal healing is in its infancy, the
description of the relativistic electron that functioned as an baby is healthy. Yet the great unknowns of this field—the nature
“advanced wave” that appears to travel faster than the speed of of consciousness, space, and time—remain shrouded in mystery.
light. This could conceivably permit a person to experience pre- As we go forward, then, let us be bold and creative, but let us
cognition. But the gain in temporal advantage would be only one also be humble. As a nudge toward humility, we might adopt as
nanosecond per foot of distance, whereas the precognitive phe- a motto for this field the above comment of astronomer-physi-
nomena studied by parapsychologists usually involve hours or cist Sir Arthur Eddington: SOMETHING UNKNOWN IS
days. So the advanced wave, Raushcer and Targ state, would pro- DOING WE DON’T KNOW WHAT.
vide an hour’s warning, only for events at a distance of 109 miles A word about the future. We need a Manhattan Project of
or greater. Thus “[a]ll electromagnetic or radio wave descrip- Healing, a coordinated research effort that brings together the
tions of psi suffer from these same limitations.”4 And what about best and brightest researchers in this field to examine methodol-
the proposal that remote perception could be explained by ELF ogy, protocols, and hypotheses. Currently researchers are doing

108 ALTERNATIVE THERAPIES, mar/apr 2002, VOL. 8, NO. 2 How Healing Happens: Exploring the Nonlocal Gap
 vision of great scientists. An example is Erwin Schrödinger, the
ROBERT G. JAHN Austrian physicist who was awarded the Nobel prize for his wave
Robert G. Jahn, former dean of engineering at Princeton equations that underlay quantum physics. I close with his vision:
University, founded the Princeton Engineering Anomalies
Research (PEAR) laboratory. He and his colleagues have assem- A hundred years ago, perhaps, another man sat on this spot;
bled the largest database in the world demonstrating the ability like you, he gazed with awe and yearning in his heart at the
of consciousness to introduce change into the physical world. dying light on the glaciers. Like you, he was begotten of man
and born of woman. He felt pain and brief joy as you do. Was
he someone else? Was it not you yourself? What is this Self of
“[A n individual] may report that his consciousness
seems to have been totally liberated from its cen-
ter to roam freely in space and time.… [R]ather than form-
yours?… What clearly intelligible scientific meaning can this
“someone else” really have?… Looking and thinking in [this]
ing its experiences in the ‘here and now,’ consciousness may manner you may suddenly come to see, in a flash, … it is not
choose to sample the ‘there and then.’ [In quantum possible that this unity of knowledge, feeling, and choice
physics], there is little mathematical distinction between which you call your own should have sprung into being from
spatial and temporal behavior, so that any [explanation of nothingness at a given moment not so long ago; rather this
the] acquisition of information remote in distance would knowledge, feeling, and choice are essentially eternal and
equally well apply to information remote in time. Finally, of unchangeable and numerically one in all men, nay in all sensi-
course, we might recall Einstein’s and Eddington’s tive beings. But not in this sense—that you are a part, a piece,
reminders that the concepts of space and time are them- of an eternal being, an aspect or modification of it.… No, but
selves constructions of consciousness.”53 inconceivable as it seems to ordinary reason, you—and all
other conscious beings as such—are all in all. Hence this life of
yours which you are living is not merely a piece of the entire
existence, but is, in a certain sense, the whole; only this whole
their own thing, using research designs that are so disparate that is not so constituted that it can be surveyed in one single
it is not surprising that some result in positive outcomes and glance.… Thus you can throw yourself flat on the ground,
some do not. Some studies require healers or pray-ers to devote stretched out upon Mother Earth, with the certain conviction
an hour or more to healing intentions, whereas other studies that you are one with her and she with you. You are as firmly
require as little as 5 minutes of prayer daily. Some studies recruit established, as invulnerable, as she—indeed, a thousand
healers with decades of experience, other studies recruit healers times firmer and more invulnerable. As surely as she will
with virtually no experience. No wonder results vary. These dis- engulf you tomorrow, so surely will she bring you forth anew
parate methods result in a lot of wasted time, energy, and scarce to new striving and suffering. And not merely, “some day”:
funds. We can do better. now, today, every day she is bringing you forth, not once, but
Above all, let us try mightily to avoid the curse of prag- thousands upon thousands of times, just as every day she
matism as healing research proceeds. Some people seem to engulfs you a thousand times over. For eternally and always
regard the positive findings merely as a new tool in the physi- there is only now, one and the same now; the present is the
cian’s black bag—a “new penicillin,” as it were, for eradicating only thing that has no end.8
illness. Distant healing is about healing and we should use it
pragmatically. Indeed, the failure to employ distant healing in
concert with other proven techniques may be unethical. Yet
healing research goes beyond using healing intentions or
prayer to cure disease. The most important issue in this
research is not how large the effect sizes are in any given
experiment, but whether or not the effect exists at all. If it does,
the universe is utterly different from the picture given to us in
modern science. Why? If consciousness, through whatever
mechanism, can exert nonlocal effects elsewhere in the world,
then it is, itself, in some sense nonlocal. And if consciousness Larry Dossey, MD
is nonlocal, then it is infinite, because a limited nonlocality is Executive Editor
a contradiction in terms. Nonlocality implies infinitude in
space and time, and thus eternality and immortality. This
References
realization dwarfs whether or not we can use prayer or inten- 1. Eddington A. Quoted in: Wilber W. Quantum Questions: The Mystical Writings
tions to benefit a particular disease. of the World’s Great Physicists. Boston, Mass: Shambhala/New Science
Library; 1982.
Sometimes the realization of the infinite, nonlocal nature of 2. Dossey L. The forces of healing: reflections on energy, consciousness, and the
consciousness springs forth nearly whole and complete in the beef Stroganoff principle [editorial]. Altern Ther Health Med. 1997;3(5):8-14.

How Healing Happens: Exploring the Nonlocal Gap ALTERNATIVE THERAPIES, mar/apr 2002, VOL. 8, NO. 2 109
 3. Komaiko L. Writing up menus: it’s a subtle art. Los Angeles Times. November 42. Bohm D. Interview by Thia Bell. Ojai Valley News. December 30, 1987.
28, 2001:H1-H2. 43. Bohm D. Interview by John Briggs and F. David Peat. OMNI. January 1987:68ff.
4. Rauscher EA, Targ R. The speed of thought: investigation of a complex space-time 44. Bohm D. Quoted in: Rawlence C, ed. About Time. London, England: Jonathan
metric to describe psychic phenomena. J Sci Exploration. 2001;15(3):331-354. Cape; 1985:147.
5. Dunne BJ, Jahn RG. Experiments in remote human/machine interaction. J Sci 45. Bohm D. Quoted in: Bull Mind-Being Res. September 1988:3.
Exploration. 1992;6(4):311-332. 46. Bohm D. Quoted in: ReVision. 1981;4(1):26.
6. Jahn RG, Dunne BJ, Nelson RD. Engineering anomalies research. J Sci 47. Bohm D. Interviewed in: Davies PCW, Brown JR, eds. The Ghost in the Atom. New
Exploration. 1987;1(1):21-50. York, NY: Cambridge University Press; 1986:124.
7. Schrödinger E. My View of the World. Woodbridge, Conn: Ox Bow Press; 48. Stapp HP. Quantum physics and the physicist’s view of nature: philosophical
1983:22. [Originally published in 1964] implications of Bell’s theorem. In: Kitchener RE, ed. The World View of
8. Schrödinger E. What Is Life? and Mind and Matter. London, England: Cambridge Contemporary Physics. Albany, NY: SUNY Press; 1988:40.
University Press; 1969:133. 49. Bell JS. On the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen paradox. Physics I. 1964:195-200.
9. Schrödinger E. Quoted in: Rauscher EA, Targ R. The speed of thought: investiga- 50. Nadeau R, Kafatos M. Over any distance in ‘no time’: Bell’s theorem and the
tion of a complex space-time metric to describe psychic phenomena. J Sci Aspect and Gisin experiments. In: The Non-local Universe. New York, NY: Oxford
Exploration. 2001;15(3):331-354. University Press; 1999:65-82.
10. Schrödinger E. What is real? In: My View of the World. Cambridge, England: 51. Vasilescu E, Vasilescu E. Experimental study on precognition. J Sci Exploration.
Cambridge University Press; 1960:62-63. 2001;15(3):369-377.
11. LeShan L. Language in the human potential movement. Network (The Scientific 52. Wald G. Quoted in: Bull Found Mind-Being Res. September 1988:3.
and Medical Network Publication, UK). August 1996;61:11-14. 53. Jahn RG, Dunne BJ. Margins of Reality. New York, NY: Harcourt Brace;
12. Astin JA, Harkness E, Ernst E. The efficacy of ‘distant healing’: a systematic 1987:280-281.
review of randomized trials. Ann Intern Med. 2000;132(11):903-910. 54. Dossey L. Healing and modern physics: exploring the small-is-beautiful assump-
13. Chibnall JT, Jeral JM, Cerullo MA. Experiments in distant intercessory prayer: tion [editorial]. Altern Ther Health Med. 1999;5(4):12-17,102-108.
God, science, and the lesson of Massah. Arch Intern Med. 2001;161(21):2529-2536. 55. Jeans J. Physics and Philosophy. New York, NY: Dover; 1981:204.
14. Harris W, Gowda M, Kolb JW, et al. A randomized, controlled trial of the effects 56. Eddington AS. Defense of mysticism. Quoted in: Wilber K. Quantum Questions:
of remote, intercessory prayer on outcomes in patients admitted to the coronary Mystical Writings of the World’s Great Physicists. Boston, Mass: Shambhala/New
care unit. Arch Intern Med. 1999;159(19):2273-2278. Science Library; 1984:206.
15. Byrd R. Positive therapeutic effects of intercessory prayer in a coronary care unit 57. Eddington AS. The Nature of the Physical World. Ann Arbor, Mich: University of
population. South Med J. 1988;81(7):826-829. Michigan Press; 1978:241-244.
16. Sicher F, Targ E, Moore D, Smith HS. A randomized double-blind study of the 58. Eddington AS. Space, Time and Gravitation. Cambridge, England: Cambridge
effect of distant healing in a population with advanced AIDS—report of a small- University Press; 1978:200-201.
scale study. West J Med. 1998;169(6):356-363. 59. Mitchell E. Interview with Chris Butterfield. Prophet’s Conference, Victoria, BC,
17. Cha KY, Wirth DP, Lobo R. Does prayer influence the success of in vitro fertiliza- Canada; 2001.
tion-embryo transfer? Report of a masked, randomized trial. J Reprod Med. 60. Radin D. Theor y. In: The Conscious Universe. San Francisco, Calif:
2001;46(9):781-787. HarperSanFrancisco; 1997:277-287.
18. Dossey L. The case for nonlocality. In: Reinventing Medicine. San Francisco, Calif: 61. Dossey L. Emerging theories. In: Be Careful What You Pray For … You Just Might
HarperSanFrancisco; 1999:37-84. Get It. San Francisco, Calif: HarperSanFrancisco; 1997:190-192.
19. Benor DJ. Healing Research. Vols 1-2. Munich, Germany: Helix Verlag; 1993. 62. Stokes DM. Theoretical parapsychology. In: Krippner S, ed. Advances in
20. Einstein A. Quoted in: Bloomfield H. Transcendental meditation as an adjunct Parapsychology 5. Jefferson, NC: McFarlane; 1987:77-189.
to therapy. In: Boorstein S, ed. Transpersonal Psychotherapy. Palo Alto, Calif: 63. Beichler JE. To be or not to be! A ‘paraphysics’ for the new millennium. J Sci
Science and Behavior Books; 1980:136. Exploration. 2001;15(1):33-56.
21. Einstein A. Quoted in: Born M. The Born-Einstein Letters. New York, NY: Walker; 64. Tiller WA. Science and Human Transformation: Subtle Energies, Intentionality and
1971:151. Consciousness. Walnut Creek, Calif: Pavior Publishing; 1997.
22. Einstein A. Ideas and opinions. Quoted in: Wilber K. Quantum Questions: The 65. Bateson G. Steps to an Ecology of Mind. San Francisco, Calif: Chandler Press;
Mystical Writings of the World’s Great Physicists. Boston, Mass: Shambhala/New 1972:467.
Science Library; 1982:102. 66. Jahn RG, Dunne BJ. A modular model of mind/matter manifestations (M5). J Sci
23. Sagan C. The Dragons of Eden. New York, NY: Random House; 1977:7. Exploration. 2001;15(3):299-329.
24. Crick F. The Astonishing Hypothesis. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster; 1994. 67. Laszlo E. The Interconnected Universe: Conceptual Foundations of Transdisciplinary
25. Dyson F. Infinite in All Directions. New York, NY: Harper and Row; 1988:297. Unified Theory. River Edge, NJ: World Scientific Publishing; 1995.
26. Searle J. J Consciousness Stud. 1995;2(1). 68. Josephson BD, Pallikara-Viras F. Biological utilization of quantum nonlocality.
27. Fodor J. Times Literary Supplement. July 3, 1992:20. Found Physics. 1991;21:197-207.
28. Rhine JB. Quoted in: Tart C, ed. Body Mind Spirit. Charlottesville, Va: Hampton 69. Chalmers D. The puzzle of conscious experience. Sci Am. 1995;3(6):80-86.
Roads Publishing; 1997:104. 70. Mitchell E. IONS workshop; July 1999; Orlando, Fla.
29. May EC, Utts JM, Spottiswoode SJP. Decision augmentation theory: applications 71. Sheldrake R. A New Science of Life: The Hypothesis of Formative Causation.
to the random number generator database. J Sci Exploration. 1995;9(4):453-488. London, England: Blond and Briggs; 1981.
30. Dobyns YH, Nelson RD. Evidence against decision augmentation theory. J Sci 72. Grinberg-Zylberbaum J, Delaflor M, Attie L, Goswami A. The Einstein-Podolsky-
Exploration. 1998;12(2):231-258. Rosen paradox in the brain: the transferred potential. Phys Essays.
31. Dobyns YH. Overview of several theoretical models on PEAR data. J Sci 1994;7(4):422-428.
Exploration. 2000;14(2):163-194. 73. Davies P. Space and Time in the Modern Universe. New York. NY: Cambridge
32. Griffin DR. Parapsychology, Philosophy, and Spirituality: A Postmodern Exploration. University Press; 1977:221.
Albany, NY: SUNY Press; 1997. 74. Puchalski CM. The role of spirituality in health care. Baylor Univ Med Center
33. Henslee JA, Christenson PJ, Hardoin RA, Morse M, Sheehan C. The impact of Proc. 2001;14:353-357.
premonitions of SIDS on grieving and healing. Pediatr Pulmonol. 1993;16:393. 75. Koenig HG, McCullough ME, Larson DB. Handbook of Religion and Health. New
34. Watson L. The Dreams of Dragons. Rochester, Vt: Destiny Books; 1992:27-32. York, NY: Oxford University Press; 2001.
35. Eccles J, Robinson DN. The Wonder of Being Human: Our Brain and Our Mind. 76. Levin J. God, Faith, and Health. New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons; 2001.
Boston, Mass: Shambhala; 1984:36-38. 77. Krucoff MW, Crater SW, Green CL, et al. Integrative noetic therapies as adjuncts
36. Stapp H. Harnessing science and religion: implications of the new scientific con- to percutaneous intervention during unstable coronary syndromes: Monitoring
ception of human beings. Res News. 2001;1(6):8. and Actualization of Noetic Training (MANTRA) feasibility pilot. Am Heart J.
37. Herbert N. Quantum Reality. New York, NY: Dustton; 1987. 2001;142(5):760-767.
38. Nadeau R, Kafatos M. The Non-local Universe. New York, NY: Oxford University 78. Abbot NC. Healing as a therapy for human disease: a systematic review. J Altern
Press; 1999. Complement Med. 2000;6(2):159-169.
39. Margenau H. The Miracle of Existence. Woodbridge, Conn: Ox Bow Press; 79. Braud W, Schlitz M. A methodology for the objective study of transpersonal
1984:111. imagery. J Sci Exploration. 1989;3(1):43-63.
40. Bohm D. Wholeness and the Implicate Order. London, England: Routledge and 80. Jonas WB. The middle way: realistic randomized controlled trials for the evalua-
Kegan Paul; 1980:175. tion of spiritual healing. J Altern Complement Med. 2001;7(1):5-7.
41. Bohm D. Quoted in: Weber R. Dialogues With Scientists and Sages. New York, NY: 81. Schlitz M, Braud W. Distant intentionality and healing: assessing the evidence.
Routledge and Kegan Paul; 1986:41. Altern Ther Health Med. 1997;3(6):62-73.

110 ALTERNATIVE THERAPIES, mar/apr 2002, VOL. 8, NO. 2 How Healing Happens: Exploring the Nonlocal Gap

View publication stats