What is Energy Medicine?

Energy healing is a practice that recognizes that energy is a vital, living, moving force, which is instrumental in determining health and well-being. The primary function of energy healing is to change the frequency of the body’s three main energetic anatomic features—energetic fields, channels, and centers (Dale, 2017)

Energy medicine is a domain that deals with energy fields of two types (Dale, 2017):

  • Veritable energies can be measured, and they include vibrations (e.g., sound) and electromagnetic forces, including visible light, magnetism, monochromatic radiation (e.g., laser beams), and rays from other parts of the electromagnetic spectrum. The body produces or is affected by all of these types of energies.
  • Putative energies, also referred to as biofields or subtle fields, are difficult or almost impossible to measure. These energy fields are believed to explain the presence of vital life energy.

Therapies involving veritable energies use specific, measurable wavelength frequencies to treat clients. Therapies involving putative energy fields are based on the concept that human beings are infused with a subtle form of energy. This vital energy is known under different names in different cultures, such as:

  • Chi or qi (pronounced chee) in traditional Chinese medicine.
  • Ki in the Japanese Kampo system.
  • Doshas in Ayurvedic medicine.
  • Prana, etheric energy, fohat, orgone, odic force, mana, and homeopathic resonance elsewhere in
  • the world

Practitioners of energy medicine posit that illness results from disturbances of these subtle energies
(the biofield). The concept that sickness and disease arise from imbalances in the body’s vital energy
field has led to many forms of therapy. For example, traditional Chinese medicine balances the flow of
qi through a series of approaches, such as herbal medicine, acupuncture, Qigong (pronounced chee
gong), diet, and behavior changes