“If you want to find the secrets of the universe, think in terms of energy, frequency and vibration.”

• Nickola Tesla

It is now globally accepted by common people as well as the scientific community, that there is a flow of energy in our body which drives our being. Modern science is only now discovering (or rather proving scientifically) what ancient cultures and civilizations had known all along…..The presence of a subtle energy field that exists all around us and flows through us. The ancients have even charted the direction of the flow of this energy in our space through energy meridians or naadis.

This energy has been known by many names across time and places; life force, chi, prana, spirit, chi, ether, orgon, pneuma, mana, élan vital, odyle, ki, fohat, odic force, homeopathic resonance, bio-cosmic energy, to name a few.

Today we use a broad term called energy because we are dealing with the subtle bio-energies of our body. We call them ‘subtle’ because we have not yet been able to create instruments that can completely measure these energies that humans are capable of generating and controlling which seem to influence both the physical as well as the physiological functions of the human body.

Do you know the kind of energy that is flowing through you right now???

Every cell in your body has a minus voltage on the inside and positive voltage on the outside. Every live cell is a battery, every cell has about 1.4 volts. Not too much!  So 50 trillion cells in the human body, times 1.4 volts, is 700 trillion volts of electricity in your body right now! (Dr. Bruce Lipton).

That’s massive amount of energy. But we still call it the subtle energy and Energy medicine has been defined as that branch of integrative medicine which studies the science of therapeutic applications of these subtle energies.

The International Society for the Study of Subtle Energies and Energy Medicine (ISSSEEM), an interdisciplinary organization that focuses on the study of the basic sciences and medical and therapeutic applications of subtle energies, defines energy medicine as follows:

‘Energy medicine includes all energetic and informational interactions resulting from self-regulation or brought about through other energy linkages to mind and body’.

Simply put, this means it is the use of the subtle energy fields of our body to therapeutically assess/diagnose the issue and treat energetic imbalances to help bring the body’s systems (cardiovascular, respiratory, neurological, musculo-skeletal, endocrinal, emotional/psychological, etc) back to homeostasis. It can be human touch based or device-based or as the recent pandemic has taught us so well it can be distant as well.

Energy medicine is based on physics instead of biochemistry. Modern medicine has focussed mostly on the chemistry of our body but Physics does not override biochemistry, it drives it. The basic science that governs our Universe is physics, because we are primarily energy. Physics is the study of energy. When you add matter to that force you get Chemistry and when you add life to it you get Biology. Biology and chemistry behave according to the laws of physics.

The basic tenet of Energy Medicine is that all Dis-ease stems from a disturbance in the energy field that flows around us and through us. Some scientists also call this the human biofield or Human Energy Field (HEF). The energies of this field are electro-magnetic in nature, a system of wave-particle matter, which send and receive information about the physical matter of the body. Stressors and imbalances create dis-tortion and dis-harmony in the wave patterns which lead to dis-ease. Healing is achieved by sending coherent, concordant and harmonic waves to settle the distortions and so heal the disease.

Today the scope of Energy Medicine is broad and vast. It includes a whole array of healing modalities like touch therapies (Reiki, acupressure, accupunture, Access consciousness, reflexology, Jin Shin Jyutsu), movement therapies (yoga, tai-chi, karate), object/device-based therapies (crystal healing, magnet field therapy, light therapy), self-activity-based therapy (EFT/tapping, graphotherapy, metaphor therapy) and non-touch therapies (Pranic healing, hypnotherapy, distant healing). These modalities cannot be compartmentalised and categorised as such. Each of them could fall into multiple categories at the same time. We cannot exclude spiritual methods of healing like laying on of hands, shamanic practices, ceremony rituals across cultures, etc. There are so many healing modalities, from various parts of the world and different cultures which we are not even aware of but all these modalities affect the patient’s internal and external energy to help achieve healthy homeostasis.

We are right now just skimming the surface of the proverbial Energy Medicine Ocean. And recent advances in the fields of quantum physics, epigenetics, cellular biology, neuroscience, quantum psychology all are providing us with proof and explanations of the science behind the subject, the deep science behind Energy Medicine. All of us as healers and humans, mostly as students of Energy Medicine are in for a joy ride, as new vistas open up for us, exploring, expanding, learning, unlearning and re-learning again. The time for Energy Medicine is here and it’s here to stay.

Dr Sophia Dsouza (MD)