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field of parapsychology research, there has been high-quality, well-replicated laboratory evidence for over forty years documenting the existence of a mind-to-mind connection. The evidence for mind-to-body influence is much less robust at this time. In addition, there is much uncontested evidence that both hypnosis and placebo effects can alleviate pain and enhance healing, and that they both can be, and are, stimulated by mental activity and can be seen as forms of mind-to-mind connections. |
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It is possible that the nondistant healing that Jane and others have done may be due to the power of suggestion, even though they have not been trained in hypnosis. It's important to point out that no one really understands how ''hypnosis" or "suggestion" actually works. Founding member of the British Society for Psychical Research and prominent psi-researcher Frederic Myers wrote in 1903 that such words are by no means explanations, even though they may help us describe the conditions under which the phenomena occur. He said they are "mere names which disguise our ignorance" concerning the nature of mind and consciousness.
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We have not explained all or even most of the mysteries of healing. I (Jane) do not believe that research experiments explain the role of prayer, or what seem to be spirit helpers, in healing. We certainly don't know the mechanism for clairvoyant diagnosis and prescription. Scientists have not yet proved or disproved the existence of a life energy that millions of people for twenty-five centuries have called prana, chi, ki, or bioenergy. Nor have they shown that the intention to harm is greater or less than the power of loving intentions to help or heal. |
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What is true for me is that the research we have described here has inspired me to continue to practice healing interactions, despite the skepticism of our times. My deepest belief is that there is meaning in illness, and that a primary element inherent in our physical and emotional dis-ease has to do with the opportunities it presents for expanded awareness of our mind-to-mind connections. This idea been beautifully expressed in a quotation from Larry Dossey's Meaning & Medicine: |
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We tend to think that the purpose of prayer [or healing] is to terminate sickness, but we forget that the purpose of sickness may be to |
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