The ‘healing’ industry is booming and its profits are soaring. I put the word ‘healing’ in quotes here because I’m not talking about actual healing of mental and physical illness through still-inadequate but well-vetted and well-regulated modalities (such as allopathic medicine, physical therapy, psychotherapy, somatic therapies, etc.), I’m referring to the countless forms of so-called ‘energy’ healing that constitute a multibillion dollar industry[1] but so far have no compelling evidence of consistent efficacy and yet claim to solve real (and imagined) problems of both mind and body. Here the term ‘energy healing’ is interchangeable with ‘energy medicine’, ‘shamanic healing’, ‘quantum healing’, and similar terms.
All of these phrases boil down to a simple claim: some special, gifted individuals can feel and manipulate an energy field unknown to science that pervades and affects the human body through an unknown mechanism, or some specially attuned people can channel a unique type of energy unknown to science that can accomplish real-world effects. These amount to claims that magic works, magic being a word for a domain untouched (and possibly untouchable) by science. We can repudiate these magical claims because anything that works consistently, even if it’s only 5% of the time, can be shown to work through carefully designed tests, even if we don’t yet understand how it’s working. That is to say, the scientific community is open to and interested in the demonstration of any consistent effect, especially effects that are not understood and are therefore likely to attract research grants. Our system is set up in such a way that if any form of ‘energy healing’ was consistently effective, we would know that by now, and there would be incentives to figure out why.
Am I embracing the scientific method dogmatically and claiming that it can explain everything? Am I claiming that we can know for sure that energy healing never works? Absolutely not, to both questions. All I’m saying is that magic (call it what you will), if it exists, doesn’t work consistently or predictably. Therefore, those who make specific claims for the efficacy of any form of energy healing are fooling themselves and others. And if they charge everyone who walks in the door the same rate, that’s an implicit claim of consistent efficacy, or an implicit claim that the likelihood of effective treatment is reasonably high, neither of which have been shown to be true in the case of anything labelled as ‘energy healing’ or its synonyms.
None of these facts rule out the possibility of outliers—practitioners who are getting consistent measurable results with their clients, even through completely mysterious means. It’s just that we can confidently say that such practitioners are rare enough that they don’t produce statistically significant results when averaged against the mass of non-effective practitioners. They don’t raise the signal above the ambient noise floor, as it were.
Why, then, are these energy healers and alternative wellness practitioners found everywhere, in every major town and city? Is it because the general public is so pathetically gullible, so uneducated, and so desperate? I would say no, that’s not the reason. The general public in the US and the UK is fed up with the limitations of an outmoded health care system that for the most part can only deal with the ailments that are both extreme and well-studied, and has no time for conditions that are difficult to diagnose and are not visibly debilitating. But we need to dig even deeper to understanding why the various forms of ‘energy healing’ are flourishing. <SNIP>
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FOOTNOTE:
[1] Acupuncture alone constitutes a $50BN (annually) industry worldwide: "Acupuncture Market Share, Size Global Industry Revenue, Business Growth, Demand and Applications Market Research Report to 2023". MarketWatch. Retrieved 19 October 2021. Dietary supplements, the vast majority of which have not shown any measurable effect beyond placebo, constitute a $75BN (annually) industry which is rapidly growing towards the $100BN mark.
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What are ‘near enemies to the truth’? Borrowing this phrase from Buddhism, I use it to refer to slightly distorted versions of spiritual teachings—statements that are close to a profound and subtle truth, but are distorted just enough to make a big difference over time. When we’re talking about deep and fundamental truths, getting it a little bit wrong doesn’t matter in the short run, but it does in the long run, just like a tiny adjustment to the rudder of your boat makes little difference at first, but after 1000 miles, it lands you on a different continent.
Now, some people object to the use of the word ‘wrong’ in the previous sentence, subscribing as they do to the idea that the only necessary criterion for truth is it feels true to me. This view is as dangerous in spirituality as it is in politics, because it usually means I want it to be true, so I'm going to believe it, regardless of the facts. If you don't see how dangerous this is, or if you doubt whether there really are facts or universal truths, please read the second half of the first blog post in this series.
Understanding the Near Enemies to the Truth, and why they are near enemies and not the truth itself, is hugely important for any spiritual seeker who wants to get past the beginner stages and into the deep (and deeply fulfilling) spiritual work. Having said that, it’s important to note that if a Near Enemy is near enough, it can be a Temporary Ally for a beginner. But as the stakes get higher in spiritual practice, there is no such thing as ‘close enough’ anymore, and your comforting affirmations must be sacrificed on the altar of truth, or else your spiritual progress stalls.