BACK to the Resonance Page

Like all human beings I have suffered illness personally and seen its effects on loved ones. These experiences, especially those occurring early in life, had much to do with forming my attitudes towards disease. Because ill health thwarted my own plans and separated me from loved ones, my earliest attitude towards disease was to regard it as an enemy. This led me to take up studies on how the body functions to fight disease.

I trained as a conventional scientist and gained a doctorate in biology. However, I also had and continue to have, an interest in what is commonly referred to as "energy", especially when it is used by those working with complementary therapies. This energy is not restricted to conventional ideas of electromagnetic energy but is something of wider significance and is connected in some way with our emotions, feelings and bodily sensations. For example, when we are unwell, we feel the lack of energy and when we recover from disease, we experience the resurgence of this energy.

Like other people, I first experienced this energy in early childhood. However, one experience, which occurred when I was in my mid-twenties, made me take special notice. This involved the sudden and unexpected perception of an energy circulating in my body which made such a strong impression on me that it led me to inquire further. I subsequently came to see that it was possible to study some aspects if this energy in the lab, which I eventually undertook.

In 1957, I met a man who claimed to be able to heal by the laying on of hands. He claimed that when he brought his hands close to the body, he felt an energy pass from his hands to the patient. His bioenergetic explanation of how his healing worked led me to invite him into my laboratory for further study on animals and plants.

He remained in my lab for seven years during which time I learned that he could accelerate the healing of skin wounds in mice, inhibit the growth of goitres fed an iodine-deficient diet and promote the growth of barley seeds living under specified conditions. During that time and later, I met other healers and conducted experiments using other biological parameters. I worked with healers because almost invariably they spoke of an energy as being central to their healing work

Each healer appeared to emit an energy, characteristic of their individuality, and each had their own personal healing style. Some healed by touch, others by passes and still others healed with their "intention". And there are other ways. There were even instances when healers had preferences for treating specific diseases. Almost every healer had some spiritual component in their make-up. For example, the man with whom I started this work on healing felt himself to be religious. Yet he never prayed for any particular outcome in our lab experiments. However, as a biologist, my primary focus was what effect he had on specific targets in the lab.

I subsequently learned that biological effects could be obtained with most people, that is both healers and non-healers. I came to see that the emotional state of the person at the time of the experiment was a critical factor in obtaining results and that a feeling of calmness was important not only in the investigators, but also in the animals under study. That is, positive emotional states yielded positive results, while negative emotions yielded negative results.

This is a summary of my studies on healing:

This is a summary of my studies on healing:

Experiments on the healing of skin wounds in mice demonstrated that the laying on of hands (LH) can accelerate this process. The controls were treated in every way like the LH-treated animals. That is, they were housed in the same room, lived in similar cages, fed the same diet and when the LH-treated animals were moved from their cages to holding trays used for treatment, the controls were similarly moved but not treated. Indeed, the only procedural difference between the LH-treated animals and the controls is that the latter were not LH-treated.

The controls consisted of two groups, one of which received no other treatment while the other received the same amount of heat from electrothermal tapes as the LH-treated mice received from the hands of the healer. The experiments clearly demonstrated that the wounds healed significantly faster in the LH-treated group than they did in both control groups. There must have been some energy radiating from the hands of the healer and that radiation was not heat [1].

I also conducted experiments which studied the effect of LH on mice that had been rendered goitrous by feeding them a diet low in iodine as well as goitrogen, which inhibits the entry of iodine into the thyroid gland. These experiments showed that LH can significantly inhibit the development of the goitre. In addition, this effect can be produced not only by the direct application of the hands to the mice but also indirectly by having the healer hold some cuttings made of wool and cotton material in his hands for 15 minutes and then placing the cuttings in the cage with the mice for one hour morning and evening six days a week throughout the experiment. In these studies also, heat did not significantly inhibit the development of the goitre whereas LH did [2].

Experiments Conducted on Barley Seeds

In these studies, the barley seeds were not LH-treated directly but indirectly by initially watering the seeds with 0.9% salt solutions which had themselves previously been LH-treated, that is, held in the hands of healers and other people. In preliminary experiments, the solutions were held in the hands for 15 minutes while in an open beaker. In later experiments, the solutions were treated for 30 minutes. In these experiments the solutions were stored in reagent bottles closed with ground glass stoppers and later still were stored under vacuum in sterile sealed bottles. In all these experiments there was a significant stimulation of growth of the plants when watered by solutions treated by healers. These experiments demonstrated that bioenergy could be passed into aqueous solutions and stored there for long periods [3].

The emotional state of the person at the time of holding the bottle was critical to the outcome of the results. That is, people in a positive emotional state produced significant accelerations of growth in the barley seedlings while people in a negative emotional state, such as depression, produced significant inhibitions of plant growth [4]. Other experiments were conducted on the effect of LH on other plants such as yeast [5] and bananas (not published).

These experiments played a role in raising the consciousness of the health community to the therapeutic potential of this energy, with the consequence that it has gradually found increased use among health professionals. Moreover, I see this work as being complimentary, and not antagonistic to the more conventional therapies provided by the medical community. That is, complimentary medicine can provide additional tools in the battle against disease. Moreover despite my interest in energy medicine, I still have an interest in the more conventional aspects of healing the sick, even to the extent of conducting research and writing papers in this field.

I began these experiments on healing in 1957 and came into Subud 16 months later. My interest in "energy" led me to Subud because I felt that spiritual training was necessary, at least for me, so as to be able to work safely with body energy. Part of this was the feeling that while I was in charge of the animals and plants in a conventional laboratory, I was also in need of another "laboratory", a spiritual one, where I in turn was the "guinea pig". That is why I came to Subud and stayed with the latihan.

I see my studies with this energy as part of my work and I see my life in Subud as related to my spiritual development. That is, I have kept my interests in the work with this energy separate from my interest in Subud, although I know that my experience in Subud had, and continues to have, an impact on my work.

Bapak was reported in Saudara Saudara [6] to have stated that you can cure yourself through latihan, but if you don't act in accordance with the needs of your body, you will still get ill. I believe this energy is intimately involved in maintaining the body in good health; this involvement has been one of my primary interests in working with it.

From a broader human perspective, I see sickness as a way of catching our attention, diverting us onto pathways different from the ones down which we may be rushing. Serious illness can frighten us and also make us bitter, resentful and rebellious but it can also be an antidote to feelings of arrogance and omnipotence. It may even promote spiritual purification, broadening our understanding of life, deepening our appreciation of what we still posses. In short, it can be a blessing in disguise. However, despite all our cleverness, everything ultimately is in the hands of God.

[1] Grad, B "Some biological effects of the laying on of hands: A review of experiments with animals and plants" The Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research 59: 95-127 1965

[2] Grad, B "The biological effects of the laying on of hands on animals and plants. Implications for biology" Parapsychology: Its Relation to Physics, Psychology and Psychiatry. Edited by Gertrude R Scheidler, The Scarecrow Press, Inc. Metuchen, N.J., 76-89 1976

[3] Grad, B " Some biological effects of the laying on of hands: A review of experiments with animals and plants" The Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research 59: 95-127 1965

[4] Grad, B "The laying on of hands: Implications for psychotherapy, gentling and placebo effect." The Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research 61: 286-305 1967

[5] Grad, B "PK effects on the fermentation of yeast" Proc. Parapsych Assoc. 2 15-16 1965

[6] Saudara Saudara (September 1996, page 3) is a Subud Canada Publication. Quote taken from And Other Secret Things, p 168, by Dominic Rieu

Other publications of interest: Grad, Bernard Raymond "The laying on of hands: Some clinical and experimental concerns." Theta: Contemporary issues in parapsychology 17: 13-17, 1991

Go BACK to the Resonance page.