Science Vs Airy Fairy

For several years, I despised the words ‘Research and Evidence.’

Life is full of mystery and sweetness. Many things are incomprehensible to the logical mind. Existence would be very mechanical and boring if we required research to validate every aspect of it.

Yet, there are certain areas of life that bring large-scale benefits only when they are backed by strong evidence.

It took at least a hundred debates with Suraj, years of prolonged discussion, putting the ego aside, and finally compiling everything together in our book ‘When Spirit Meets Science’ to truly understand the meaning of ‘Research and Evidence.’

It all started way back in 2008-09 when some of my healer buddies told Suraj they had cured people of cancer, diabetes, and hypertension through energy work. He told them he needed convincing evidence for the same – not just a link to a website, an article claiming a cure, or a testimonial from a client. He wanted proper objective documented evidence.

I took it personally whenever he said he needed evidence – it felt like a rejection.

Until I realised one day that he was neither rejecting my friends, nor energy healing, nor me.

He was only living up to the high standards that are the norm in science and medicine.

And the fact is that these are the standards that have helped science advance by leaps and bounds today.

Science often fails too. But scientists accept their failures and try again. They don’t decide beforehand that an experiment ought to be a success at any cost and create evidence based on their desires and preferences. They detach from their personal preferences and objectively see if an experiment actually turns out to be a success or not.

He wrote this in our co-authored book ‘When Spirit Meets Science’-

“The willingness to fail is part of research efforts. More often than not, various trials in science and medicine do not fetch the results hoped for. A large number of drug-related trials fail to generate the expected outcome. A drug that showed promising results in the lab may not work when tested on actual patients. When an experiment fails, it is important not to feel disheartened. In spiritual terms, this would amount to not being attached to the outcome. It is crucial to persist with ongoing research.”

On another note, he wrote –

“When a therapy is used as a personal choice to facilitate emotional healing or spiritual growth, it may NOT need research to validate it. However, research is required when something needs to be executed with exacting standards. It is most certainly required to validate a therapy before it is offered as medical treatment.”

Now, it is clear to me that strong evidence is required when we make very specific claims that have the potential to impact the life of a person in significant need.

Today, Reiki and other forms of energy healing are offered as complementary support in some hospitals across the world. At the moment, energy healing therapies may seem too subjective and airy-fairy. Yet, many patients look forward to receiving these airy-fairy therapies because they see the value it brings them in terms of overall healing.

Those who receive Reiki or any other form of energy healing, know that something shifts within them – physically, mentally, emotionally, or spiritually – and such shifts cannot always be explained logically.

And that’s the whole beauty of this kind of healing – experiencing deeper expansive healing without necessarily having to explain how it occurred.

Just as there is value in objectivity, there is value in subjectivity too. Knowing when to be objective and when to be subjective is perhaps what we must discern.