Contrasting Classical and Modern Physics

As a healing modality Pranic Healing has a strong track record of producing consistent results and benefiting people. This is possibly one of the reasons where there are thousands of Pranic Healers all of the world. Specifically, within India we have over 1,00,000 healers. However, there are some who say that Pranic Healing does not have any scientific foundation based on what physics teaches us.

However, what we study in school (and in part during college) are based on the perspectives of Newtonian Mechanics which makes up what is called Classical Physics. According to Classical Physics, the world is made of matter and the forces acting on them. Classical Physics assets that while matter can be divided into smaller particles (up to the level of atoms and subatomic particles), but all particles (from very small to the largest celestial bodies) follow the same classical physics’ laws. The worldview that Classical Physics brings is that reality is what we can perceive (or manage to perceive) through our five sensory channels. If anything is beyond this level of perception, it does not simply exist. According to Classical Physics we are only solid objects.

However, Quantum Theory is the theoretical basis of modern physics that explains the nature and behaviour of matter and energy on the atomic and subatomic level. The worldview proposed by Quantum Mechanics is very different from Classical Physics. The fundamental premise of Quantum Theory is that everything is ultimately nothing but energy. The ideas of Einstein’s Theory of Relativity and Quantum Physics tends to reveals the Universe to be a single gigantic field of energy in which matter is just a ‘slowed down’ form of energy. Therefore, according to Quantum theory we are all energy beings. Particles at the quantum scale seem to do things that human-scale objects do not do. They can tunnel through barriers, spontaneously arise or annihilate, and occupy discrete energy levels. The experiments in the field of Quantum Mechanics has revealed that the electrons orbiting around a nucleus of an atom can exist simultaneously as a possible particle or an energy wave packet. Moreover, any single electron can exist simultaneously at more than one places (this is really bizarre and difficult to accept when you are exposed to this information for the first time). An electron can jump from one energy level (orbital, shell) to an another energy level, without actually moving through the space in between. It just changes its energy state.

So if everything is energy, then why shut out the possibility of an energy based healing modality?

Many people also raise the question if there can be any scientific basis around the existence of an aura? According to Classical Physics when you pass an electric current through a conductor a magnetic field is generated around the conductor. This is called the Right-Hand-Rule and helps predict the direction of the magnetic field around a current-carrying wire. Now let’s examine this rule in the context of the human body. The human body consists of polarized molecules (including water, cell membranes, minerals and proteins). Electrical potentials are associated with this polarity. Then there are neurons in the brain and nervous system which are connected with filamentous axons and dendrites to conduct electrical currents. Due to these electro-chemical processes occurring in the body, bio-electrical fields are generated.

If there can be a magnetic field generated by a current-carrying wire, then why shut out the possibility of a energy field created because of this bio-energy?

Does science explain everything?

Science is an amazing, wonderful undertaking. It teaches us about life, the world and the universe. In several cases science has enriched the quality of lives of mankind. But there are several questions that science in its current form cannot answer such as why the universe came into existence nor what preceded its birth in the Big Bang. Biological evolution has not yet helped us understand why consciousness arises in living things. Science yet is nowhere near to explaining these deep mysteries. Modern science is looking for answers… but is yet to unravel all the answers.

According to MCKS, “One’s ignorance does not change reality; it simply alters the perception of reality, resulting in misperception and misconception of what is and what is not, what can be done and what cannot be done.” Just because science today does not detect Prana, it does not mean that Prana does not exist. Science cannot also prove that soul and spirit exist. But it cannot disprove it either.

Also, for a scientist to say, “We have no evidence of a God” and thus implying that a God must therefore be non-existent is to suppose that anything beyond the physical can somehow be located and dissected with physical instruments and investigations. Also, do place in context the fact science has at one time accepted all that it now denies and has denied all that it now accepts. “The science of today is the ignorance of tomorrow,” as Madam Blavatsky had once remarked.

So how we we figure out what is reality? According to MCKS, “An intelligent person is not closed-minded. He does not behave like an ostrich burying his head in the ground to avoid new ideas and developments. An intelligent person is not gullible. He does not accept ideas blindly. He studies and digests them thoroughly, then evaluates them against his reasons; he tests these new ideas and developments through experiments and his experiences. An intelligent person studies these ideas with a clear objective mind.”

There is one such experiment on Pranic Healing which was carried out years ago by an eminent Physicist. His name was Dr. Joie P Jones.

A lab experiment on Pranic Healing

A very interesting series of experiments were formed over a decade ago by Dr. Joie Jones (Professor of Radiology Sciences at University of California, Irvine). Dr. Jones was a renowned scientist and also served on President Jimmy Carter’s scientific advisory board. He played a similar role in President Barack Obama’s first campaign and served as an advisor to the Obama administration on energy and medicine. He was also a consultant to the Department of Energy on the BP Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

Working with Pranic Healers in a laboratory setting, Dr. Jones conducted pioneering controlled experiments to establish the healing power of Prana using HeLa cells. As part of the research model HeLa cells in petri dishes were divided into two groups. Half are being allowed to die under the influence of lethal dosage of gamma radiations, while the other half (in separate containers but in the same space) were receiving Pranic Healing. Survival rates after radiation were calibrated. This is what the results showed:

• Survival rate with no healing = 50%
• Survival rate with healing after radiation = 70%
• Survival rate with healing before radiation = 80%
• Survival rate with healing before and after radiation = 88%

In some cases, the Pranic Healer was close by, and in other cases, far away. The amount of improvement in cell survival did not weaken with the distance. This established the fact that Distant Pranic Healing worked.

Is Prana an electromagnetic energy?

Experiments were also carried out in which petri dishes were protected by shielding which excluded all electromagnetic radiation, including X-rays and gamma rays. Even in these cases, the Pranic Healing was effective. It was not stopped or even reduced by shielding. This proves that the energy responsible for healing is not electromagnetic. According to Dr. Jones, “This fact, together with the insensitivity to distance, proves that the healing energy is unlike any force known to science.”

What about Energy Hygiene?

One of the things that Pranic Healers talk about is energetic hygiene. What this means is that if you were to live in an energetically contaminated place then the dirty energy will effect your health. Before beginning the experiments, Dr Jones invited several Pranic Healers to evaluate his laboratory. They observed that it did not seem “etherically clean” and recommended a program which would cleanse the laboratory of this dirty energy. As a test idea, Dr. Jones conducted 50 similar experiments without conditioning the laboratory space, that is without ‘etherically cleaning”. In that case, he found no healing effect in 90% of the experiments. Dr. Jones experiments lead to a conclusion that subtle energy can exist in negative form and it must be removed on cancelled in a similar way before energy healing can be ultimately be successful.

What about Karma?

As Dr. Jones has continued the experiments over the years, he found that upper limit on the survival rate in the presence of Pranic Healing was about 88-90%. While, most researchers would be thrilled by this high success rate, Dr. Jones was troubled. What prevented all the cells from surviving? Why was the survival rate not 100%? Then one day the idea occurred to him: what if it was karma of the cells?

Dr. Jones reasoned that the HeLa cells, because they are actually derived from humans, might be subject to the Law of Karma too. Perhaps their karma can be improved. To test the idea, while the Pranic Healer was sending energy to the cells, Dr. Jones used a credit card to donate money to a charity mentally setting his intention that good karma from his gift would be transferred to the cells. Amazingly, this “karmic gift” had the effect of greatly increasing the survival rate! It jumped from 88% to 96%! This proves that Karma is also real and that illness and healing have important spiritual connections.

The combination of subtle energy, in the form of Pranic Healing, plus the gift of “good karma” from the phone call, resulted in a miraculous healing rate for the cells. This experiment has been repeated more than 100 times with consistent results. For those interested, his research paper (Presented during the Seventh World Pranic Healers’ Convention at Mumbai, India, May 12-14, 2006) is available here. You can even access a series of YouTube videos where Dr. Jones talks about his research here.

Conclusion: Pranic Healing is Compatible With Physics!

According to Dr. Jones, 

These findings are quite remarkable and are difficult if not impossible to explain in terms of the standard scientific paradigm. A Newtonian physics world view, which serves as the basis for contemporary biology and Western medicine, is incapable of explaining these experimental results; however, the data are quite consistent with a quantum mechanical world view. 

MCKS anticipated this convergence between science and spirituality several years ago. Below is an excerpt from his book ‘The Existence of God is Self-evident’ (2006):

At the present moment, science sometimes seem to be incompatible with spirituality. What we call science is actually physical science. What we call spirituality is actuality inner sciences or sciences not actually dealing with the physical world. The process of the union between science and spirituality is already in progress. This can be seen int he field of quantum physics merging with mysticism, in homeopathy, in acupuncture, feng shui, chi kung, vibrational medicines and others. Pranic Healing and Arhatic Yoga can examples of union of science and spirituality. This trend is inevitable and will become stronger in the future.