Review: The Energy Healing Experiments by Gary E. Schwartz
“Is it possible that we might be looking at a first step towards universal healing?” – Gary E. Schwartz
Gary’s credentials stands out like chocolate stains on a white pair of denims.
A Harvard PhD, former Yale professor of psychology and psychiatry—he holds a professor title in psychology, surgery, medicine, neurology and psychiatry at the university of Arizona.
The book starts off by his own experiences of witnessing the then mysterious and impossible healing events.
The questions were never about if they happened, but rather, “how?”.
“Though I was originally taught that such healing miracles do not and can not happen, the fact is that they do.
Science can now help us to understand and celebrate them”
He appears to be one of those rare individuals who dares to delve into a taboo research area—and remain open-minded to what he might find.
With child-like curiosity and a rich toolbox of scientific means, Gary sets out to throughoutly not only prove the reality of energy healing—but also its means.
Let’s take a closer look at The Energy Healing Experiments, part by part.
Part 1: Everything Has Energy And Conscious Intention
“Would you believe that a healer removed the pain of a broken wrist and bone in fifteen minutes?
Would you believe that another healer removed an ovarian tumour in a matter of weeks?
Would you believe that a third healer regenerated the nerves of a broken spine in a few months, remotely, on a person thousand of miles away?”
Starting off with a strong hook—what follows doesn’t disappoint.
The chapter starts off with Gary’s own accounts of witnessing the healings described above. He pertains to their impossible stories and how it peaked his interest to verify the phenomenon in a lab and once and for all explain—how is this possible?
The book continues to describe further accounts of healing and his own take on their possible explanations.
He then movies on and starts talking about invisible energy fields and his own experiments to prove their validity.
He also separates the two ideas of energy sensing from intention sensing while explaining why.
This part ends with the extraordinary scientific tests of “Jason”.
Jason claimed he could sense and speak to crystals, and asked Gary to investigate investigate his ability.
Gary, while dubious regarding the claims—agrees.
What follows are the explanations of hundreds of elaborately constructed tests along with their results.
To make a long story short—Jason had the uncanny ability to detect empty boxes from those with a crystal or a fake crystal in it, with an average of above 95% accuracy!
Flabbergasted and in disbelief, Gary requests that the tests be repeated. Jason agrees, and the the same rate of success is continuously shown.
Part 2: Our Energy Fields Connect Us With Everything
While the book takes a progressive turn towards the more technical side (with some sections dedicated solely to the self-proclaimed technically prominent readers), here he starts to lose me a bit.
Even if just for awhile.
It’s the technical readers dream. The conversation steers over to topics such as EEG, SEA, ARC and QRS waveforms.
While everything is explained throughoutly—the content itself holds a limited interest in comparison to the technical demand of my understanding.
And it doesn’t get any easier.
Next the topics includes frequency signals of the human body, and how it may affect tv satellites.
The technical jargon and I must admit—I’m on the verge of giving up on the book itself.
While I’m intent on getting the deeper scientific understanding of energy healing—it’s getting very dry and technical. Not a good combination for a scientific layman.
However, my perseverance pays off.
The content lightens up and Gary proceeds to design his own energy healing experiments in the laboratory.
I’m all ears!
Some tests include the healing effects on heat-stressed E. Coli bacteria, noise-stressed rats and water.
They’re throughoutly investigated and discussed. The results are astonishing.
The second part of the book ends by exploring and examining the phenomenon known as Medical Intuition.
Part 3: All Healing Involves Energy And Conscious Intention
Things only get increasingly interesting at this point.
Part three starts with a discussion of energy healing and the placebo effect.
Gary introduces a ladder of explanations—which he created from the observation of how people come to explain different phenomena through the lens of their own disciple.
For example, the theoretical success of energy healing will be very differently explained between a neurologist, biologist and psychologist. Though the effects remain the same, the model they use—and open mind, will vary.
The ladder looks as follows;
Step 0. There are no observed effects and therefor no need for a ladder.
Step 1. The observed effects are the result of spontaneous remission.
Step 2. The observed effects represent belief or expectancy (placebo).
Step 3. The observed effects are the result of electromagnetic fields.
Step 4. The observed effects are the result of quantum fields.
Step 5. The observed effects are the result of advanced physical phenomena.
Step 6. The observed effects require new physics.
Step 7. The observed effects require spiritual mechanisms.
Since we prefer to read from left to right and in a downward fashion, this looks more like a reverse ladder.
But picturing it as a “true ladder” starting with 0 from the bottom and working out way up—it’s a ladder of belief based of experiences and exposure to scientific studies.
With the bottom representing the most ardent of “skeptics”. I put skeptic in quotation marks as it would seem that a skeptic would be equally skeptical to his/her own current beliefs as to what’s presented in front?
While each climb continues to open up the fields of possible explanation—or lack of.
Most of these steps and throughoutly discussed and reviewed in the book and make for absolutely terrific reading.
The book ends with some attempts for foresee the future of energy healing in society, and a discussion on how we’re all energy healers.
Summary of The Energy Healing Experiments
Is the book worth the read?
If you’re scientifically inclined and interested in energy healing—I’d go as far as to say that The Energy Healing Experiments is a must-have!
But if you’re of a more practical nature and theory doesn’t tickle your fancy, the book is likely to feel dry—despite Gary’s transparent enthusiasm.
If you’re looking for “ammunition” to coerce your skeptical friends—I’d instead take a look at the following article:
16 Studies That Proves Energy Healing is Real
I read the book on Amazon Kindle (which is how I prefer to read the majority of my literature).
(This is an affiliate link, it means that a small percentage of the possible book purchase goes to the maintenance of this site)
All in all—it’s an absolutely thrilling albeit technical read. Gary’s genuine child-like sense of exploration doesn’t go unnoticed—and keeps you wondering on the possibilities of energy healing.
As Richard Gordon puts it;
“We don’t yet know the limits of this work”.
