Quantifying Biofield Therapy through Biophoton Emission in a Cellular Model

Abstract

Biofield therapy has shown positive results over a broad range of pathology from preclinical research to human studies. However, biofield therapy investigation is limited by an inability to quantify the therapeutic effect. This study aimed to measure the effects Reiki had on mice intervertebral disc (IVD) cells compared with sham and to quantify Reiki by measuring photon emission. We treated mice IVD cells with ten-minute sessions of either Reiki or sham on three successive days. During treatment, we placed the cells in a specifically constructed box with an installed photomultiplier tube (PMT). Reiki significantly increased the photon emission of the cells post-treatment compared with Reiki pre-treatment and sham (p < 0.05). Real time PCR (RT PCR) showed an increase in collagen II and aggrecan (p < 0.05). We present a means to quantify biofield therapy by measuring the post-treatment photon emission. We concurrently demonstrate Reiki's effect on the anabolic healing response.

Figure 1.. Design of the light box that was tailored to measure biofield therapy from the hands of practitioners.

The practitioner placed their hands through the cutouts, within the elevated wooden tray and underneath the cell plate tray. The cells lay on the cell plate tray. The PMT box houses the PMT (not shown); the cables thread through the upper window flaps. The schematic details the connection of the PMT via the counting unit to the laptop PC. All measurements are in millimeters.

Figure 2.. Biophoton emission measuring protocol.

Protocol was completed each day for 3 days. Sham was conducted before Reiki.

Figure 3.. We measured the internal validity of the light box by comparing the BE of stressed intervertebral disc cells with TNF-α to unstressed cells over a three-day period.

The results on Days 2 and 3 were as expected. Day 1 was not as expected, but we attribute this to a short time period to allow the stress to produce BE (*p < 0.05, #p < 0.05).

Figure 4.. The average number of biophotons emitted per second for Reiki and sham groups over the three treatment days.

Post-treatment photon emission was significantly different from both Reiki pre-treatment and Reiki post-treatment. Photon emission was significantly different between Reiki post-treatment and sham post-treatment (+p < 0.05, #p < 0.05, *P < 0.05).

Figure 5.. Comparison of photon emission for post-treatment groups of Reiki and sham on days 1, 2, and 3.

Reiki increased photon emission compared with sham on each day measured (# p < 0.05, *p < 0.05, +p < 0.05).

Figure 6.. Reiki enhanced intervertebral extracellular matrix gene expression.

At day 3, total RNA was extracted and gene expression of COL1, COL2, and aggrecan was evaluated by real-time PCR (*p < 0.05). Reiki showed a significant difference in COL2 and aggrecan from sham. Although increased from sham, gene expression for COL1 was not significant.