CULTURED HUMAN BRAIN TUMOR CELLS DO NOT RESPOND TO JOHREI TREATMENT

Abstract

Patients faced with grim diagnoses, such as glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), an incurable brain tumor for which standard therapy is debilitating, are increasingly using alternative healing practices that purportedly involve the manipulation of some form of healing energy. To evaluate the possibility that such practices can affect biological targets, adherents of one alternative healing practice, Johrei, were invited to treat GBM cells in culture. Such in vitro models effectively eliminate the factor of psychological cueing. We conducted 40 experiments involving Johrei treatment and 28 control experiments in which a person with no training as a healer substituted for the practitioners. Each experiment incorporated strict randomization and blinding techniques. Johrei treatments were delivered from an average distance of 30 cm. We used timelapse microscopy to investigate the rates of cell death and proliferation before, during, and after treatment. We found no significant differences between Johrei and control experiments for either tumor cell death or proliferation.