Biofield detection: role of bioenergy awareness training and individual differences in absorption.
OBJECTIVE
To measure health care providers' capacity to detect biofields before and after bioenergy awareness training in relation to individual differences in the personality trait of absorption.


METHODS
Twenty-seven (27) physicians, psychologists, and nurses participated in a 5-day intensive bioenergy healing training course with Rev. Rosalyn Bruyere. The course was part of the Associate Fellows Program in the Program in Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona. Blindfolded participants received a 24-trial hand biofield detection test (HBDT) pretraining and post-training. The experimenter placed his or her dominant hand a few inches above the participant's left or right hand for 30-second trials. After each trial, the participant guessed which hand was being tested. Blocks contained two right- and two left-hand trials in different orders. Participants filled out Tellegen's Absorption Scale, a measure of the capacity to focus attention in tasks.


RESULTS
Percent HBDT accuracy for the entire sample was 50.8% (standard deviation [SD] = 12.24) at pretraining (50% is chance); accuracy increased to 55.5% (SD = 12.38) at post-training (t = p = 2.08, p < 0.05). Pretraining absorption (mean = 23.9; SD = 5.52) was significantly correlated with degree of detection accuracy increase (r = 0.42, n = 22, p < 0.05). High absorption (mean = 28.2 n = 11) participants increased to 58.3% compared to 52.7% for low absorption (mean = 19.2 n = 11) participants.


CONCLUSIONS
The findings support claims of energy healers that (1) training can improve bioenergy awareness, and (2) there are substantial individual differences in response to training.
Schwartz
Gary E
GE
Center for Frontier Medicine in Biofield Science and Department of Medicine, University of Arizona, Tucson, 85719, USA. GSCHWART@U.ARIZONA.EDU
Swanick
Summer
S
Sibert
Willow
W
Lewis
Daniel A
DA
Lewis
Sabrina E
SE
Nelson
Lonnie
L
Jain
Shamani
S
Mallory
Laurel
L
Foust
Linda
L
Moore
Kay
K
Tussing
Deboray
D
Bell
Iris R
IR
D000222:Adaptation, Physiological; D000328:Adult; D001676:Biofeedback, Psychology; D002983:Clinical Competence; D004502:Education, Medical, Continuing / Q000379:methods; D004734:Energy Metabolism / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007318:Inservice Training / Q000379:methods; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012881:Skin Temperature; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013997:Time Factors; D014481:United States