INTERPERSONAL HAND-ENERGY REGISTRATION: EVIDENCE FOR IMPLICIT PERFORMANCE AND PERCEPTION

Abstract

Treatments such as Non-Contact Therapeutic Touch are based on the hypothesis that the hands can send and receive energy and information. From a dynamical energy systems perspective, the hands can be viewed as rich generators of complex patterns of biophysical energy and information, including electrostatic movement effects, electromagnetic potentials (muscular, cardiac, skin potentials, etc.), and temperature (e.g. infrared). Two experiments (n = 20 and n = 41) were conducted to determine whether blindfolded subjects could detect the presence of an menter's hand placed a few inches above one of their hands. A 2 x 2 within subject counterbalanced design (left and right subject's hands by left and right experimenter's hands) was employed. The average correct detections was 66% (chance = 50%, P < .00001). Subject's average estimate of their performance was 54%. Poor and low performance subjects correctly estimated their actual performance, whereas medium and high performance subjects seriously underestimated their performance. However, even for subjects who performed at or below chance, their ratings of confidence per trial were significantly higher for correct versus incorrect trials, suggesting that they had implicit perception of hand-energy. Subjects who spontaneously reported some awareness of temperature (but not tingling or pressure) reported higher overall estimates of performance. Implications for future research on interpersonal hand-energy registration are considered.