These results do exclude an explanation based on the common placebo. Since healers and patients are separated from each other, and the ‘influence’ vs. ‘non-influence’ periods are based on random schedules, the patients have no way of knowing when it is an influence vs a noninfluence period; differences in physiological activity between these two periods cannot be provoked by the isolated patients themselves.

But there’s a catch: what if patients are not truly isolated from the healer’s mind? True, the subjects in these experiments have no ‘normal’ way of distinguishing influence from non-influence periods -- but what if they have a ‘paranormal’ means for knowing this? While they cannot hear, see or sense the healer, nor logically infer which periods are ‘influence’ vs. ‘noninfluence’, perhaps they really do have this knowledge -- on the basis of a telepathic contact with the healer. At the moment the influence period begins, healers undoubtedly have thoughts like ‘okay, now I must focus on the person’; when the rest period begins, she or he may think ‘now I can relax’. If there is some telepathic rapport between the two persons, then one (the patient) may simply be acting as a ‘receiver’ in a telepathy experiment, unconsciously picking up information from the ‘sender’ and then inducing slight shifts in his or her own physiology. In this case, we are back to a form of self-induced healing - a telepathically induced placebo effect!

Am I’m splitting hairs here? What’s the difference between telepathically triggered self-healing, vs. a healing truly based on another person’s influence, i.e., based on psychokinesis (mind-over-matter)? Well, there are several theoretical issues here; but there’s also at least one important practical concern. In real instances of illness or disease, a patient may not have the resources, mentally, psychologically or physically, to induce self-healings, even given the kinds of suggestions which usually trigger placebo effects. By contrast, if healing - and not just healing suggestions - really comes from an external source, then a vital, confident healer could still input positive ‘energy’ into the patient’s organism and restore health.

So, it would be nice to know if lab results are pointing to telepathy or to psychokinesis. Given the complexity of human minds, and the different possible interactions between them, it would be very difficult to answer this question as long as the ‘patient’ - the recipient of the healing effect - is a person. But researchers have also been exploring psychokinesis (PK) on other kinds of biological systems, which are not likely to ‘self-heal’ through suggestion, placebos etc. If we find that healers can induce such ‘bio-PK’ effects on these simpler organisms, then there’s a good chance that the healing effects observed with humans indeed are based on a true ‘healing force’.

Additional Sources of Information:
Distant Healing Therapy Helps AIDS Patients

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