A Close Look at Therapeutic Touch

This is a peer reviewed article by Linda Rosa, Emily Rosa, Larry Sarner and Stephen Barrett published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, reporting a controlled experiment testing whether practitioners of Therapeutic Touch could detect a human energy field, notably including a study designed and conducted in part by a child researcher whose result formed the basis of the published test. Its strength is exactly that it is a controlled, peer reviewed empirical test of a specific claim, published in one of the most rigorously reviewed medical journals, rather than an anecdotal or promotional account. Its limit is scope, it tests one specific claimed ability under one experimental design, and it should be read as evidence about that particular tested claim rather than a comprehensive verdict on every form of energy healing practice.