Quacks and quackery-oriented healthcare practitioners were not happy with that study, however. Cynthia Hutchison, “DNSc, RN, CHTP/I, Research Coordinator for Healing Touch International, Inc., Lakewood, CO” (later Assistant Program Director), for instance claimed, in an “Official Response from Healing Touch International … to the April 1, 1998 JAMA article ‘debunking’ Therapeutic Touch” that the study was flawed because the researcher’s mother was a critic of TT and therefore biased and because a rigorous study like this didn’t take into account that the effectiveness of TT is a function of the practitioner’s intention of doing good for the patient: “What you do in your mind and heart far surpasses any kinesthetic experience in your hands”, said Hutchison: “Some practitioners sense a client’s energy intuitively or are able to see, or hear subtle aspects of (clairvoyance). Each person is unique in her or his abilities as a practitioner.” Or in other words: no study can debunk TT since it’s magic: practitioners shouldn’t worry about numbers or statistics or reason or facts but “embrace the mystery” and let go of “the need to understand”.
As for the alleged bias, it wasn’t a matter of study design flaws; rather, the problem was that since people in the Rosa household were critical of TT, their “thoughts may have blocked her own energy field from being perceived based on her belief that the practitioners could not be successful. Practitioners are keenly aware of people’s ability to block or close down their energy fields with their thoughts”. And to really drive it home, Hutchison attacked the study set up for its mechanistic underpinnings; Hutchison, however, appealed to quantum: as opposed to old-fashioned mechanistic ideas, “quantum physics of today describes us as fields within fields, as vibrating waves and particles, as equal to about 2 grains of sand in solid matter were we to be totally compressed.” It does … not. But as Hutchison’s sees it, therefore “[m]odern physics supports the use of energetic therapy, most notably in the sentences: ‘Thought precedes form. Thought is a form of energy. Attention (presence) changes the object being observed.’[she neglected to provide a reference] … Spirituality and science have been kept separate since the scientific era, but more and more we are seeing the holism of all creation, the connectedness of everyone and everything, and the re-emergence of science and spirituality as different perspectives of the same thing.” Wheee!
Then she recommended people to consult, instead of Rosa’s study, “Vibrational Medicine by Richard Gerber, MD, or some of Deepak Chopra’s books”. Oh, yes. Perhaps dimly realizing the somewhat flailing nature of her response, Hutchison finished by stating that “[w]e encourage solid research to study all aspects of energetic healing in order to understand how it can best serve humanity”. That sentence, however, is just a boring, baldfaced lie and thus a disappointing ending to an otherwise gloriously delusional stream-of-consciousness piece of choprawoo. It is, however, noteworthy that Hutchison was not only research coordinator for her … cult(?) but ostensibly taught all levels of the Healing Touch International curriculum, including Instructor Training and Advanced Practice 1 and 2. She is also the author of Healing Touch Meditations: Guided Practices to Awaken Healing Energy For Yourself and Others.
Diagnosis: A chaotic mess of incoherent feel-good New Age blather and pseudo-religious confusion. You’d think she’d be mostly harmless, but people – including real nurses – continue to get caught up in this twaddle.
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