Distant healing's effect on human physiology

...Numerous studies have addressed the question whether physiological activity in humans might be susceptible to distant healing. One series of experiments measured electrodermal activity (EDA) fluctuations--the same factors measured in lie detector tests. Because of these EDA fluctuations are involuntary, are easy to measure, and reveal much about the activity of the nervous system, they're extremely useful and relevant to the area of healing research. Studies using these measures give us a consistent series of results that can be analyzed in comparison with on another.

Beginning in the 1970s, William Braud and Marilyn Schlitz conducted a series of experiments in which skin resistance was measured in the target person while an "influencer" in a separate room attempted to interact with the distant person by means of calming or activating thoughts, images, and intentions.

While the specific details of the experiments differed slightly, the general method across studies had one person generate specific intentions toward another person, whose nervous system was simultaneously measured to detect unusual activity. Throughout the experiment, the two persons occupied separated, isolated rooms, and all conventional communication between them was eliminated to ensure that the results were truly attributable to distant intention.

Simple physiological measures across thirty studies showed a highly significant and characteristic variation during periods when the subject was being "prayed for" by the influencer, compared with randomly interspersed control periods. Researchers at many other institutions have now replicated these studies. With a high level of consistent findings from different laboratories, it is extremely unlikely that the results are due to some systematic methodological flaws. While the effect sizes are small, they are compare to (or, in some cases, eight times larger than) those reported in some recent medical studies that have been heralded as medical breakthroughs.