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Dose Response. 2018 Jul 11;16(3):1559325818782843
Transcriptional Changes in Cancer Cells Induced by Exposure to a Healing Method

Sarah Beseme (1, 2), William Bengston (3), Dean Radin (4), Michael Turner (5), John McMichael (1, 2)

1 Beech Tree Labs, Inc, Providence, RI, USA
2 The Institute for Therapeutic Discovery, Delanson, NY, USA
3 St Joseph’s College, Patchogue, NY, USA
4 Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS), Petaluma, CA, USA
5 Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, MDT Consulting, Huntsville, AL, USA

Abstract

Energy healing, or healing with intent, is a complementary and alternative medicine therapy reported to be beneficial with a wide variety of conditions. We are developing a delivery technology for a method previously tested in mouse models with solid tumors (the Bengston method) independent of the presence of a healer. The goal of this study was to assess whether stored or recorded energy has an impact on breast cancer cells in vitro, using energy-charged cotton and electromagnetic recording of healers practicing the method. Expression of genes involved in cancer and inflammation pathways was measured by quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). Treatment of cells using energy-charged cotton resulted in statistically significant changes <1.5-fold. In cells exposed to an electromagnetic recording, 37 genes of 167 tested showed a >1.5-fold change when compared to the control, and 68 genes showing statistically significant fold changes. Two genes, ATP citrate lyase (ACLY) and interleukin 1ß (IL-1ß), were consistently downregulated at 4 and 24 hours of exposure to the recording, respectively, in 3 independent experiments. Both ACLY and IL-1ß were also downregulated in cells exposed to a hands-on delivery of the method, suggesting these 2 genes as potential markers of the healing method.

Free full text:
http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1559325818782843


Excerpts:

"Virtually all recorded societies report that certain individuals appear to have the ability to heal. Oftentimes this healing has been associated with spiritual disciplines of one sort or another, and the healers themselves have sometimes been accorded a special status within the culture. Healers have utilized various methods of practice, including laying on of hands, prayer, and induced altered states of consciousness, to name a few..."

"Historically, the source and mechanism of the healing evaded systematic research even as the number of clinical cases greatly increased. The foundation of modern Western healing research can be traced to the pioneering work of the late biologist Bernard Grad at McGill University. In carefully controlled experiments, Grad found that selected healers could influence the germination of plant seeds, the growth rate of plants, and the curing of seeds that had been shocked by saline solution. In addition, he was able to measure the ability of healers to reduce goiter and stimulate wound healing in mice.2–4

"Since Grad’s initial work, there have been innumerable preclinical studies of healing, sometimes categorized by the target of the intended healing. Benor, for example, discusses healing action on enzymes, cells in the laboratory, fungi/yeasts, bacteria, plants, single-cell organisms, and animals that have been subjected to controlled study.5

"The proliferation of healing studies has continued to rise in recent years. At present, there are several peer-reviewed journals devoted exclusively to the burgeoning field of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), publishing both preclinical and controlled clinical studies of healing of a wide variety of conditions. In addition, there is an increasing number of peer-reviewed journals which are not focused exclusively on CAM but that are open to publishing controlled studies in these areas.

"Presently, there are a wide variety of healing methods in active practice, the most well known probably being Reiki. There is virtually nothing known about how the various methods of healing converge or diverge in terms of healing efficacy. Nor are there data which can distinguish whether there are differing mechanisms of action utilized by the different healing methods. Anecdotally, Reiki, for example, is thought to be efficacious for pain and anxiety, but not for conditions such as cancer. The method utilized in the present study seems to be somewhat unique in that it has a history of apparent efficaciousness with some cancers as well as a variety of other disorders."

"The term 'energy healing' is somewhat presumptuous in that no 'energy' has been isolated in any healing modality. The use of the term 'energy' in the Bengston method is for practical reasons, in order to conform with common parlance. The method came about 45 years ago, when Bengston began to observe a New York-based healer treating a wide variety of conditions in a clinical setting and to investigate the possibility of developing specific healing techniques which might become reproducible by others.

"After years of exploration, a method of very rapid imaging was developed that seemed to be efficacious in others reproducing the patterns produced by the original healer. Detailed descriptions of these rapid imaging techniques have been described elsewhere.6,7 Among the more interesting observations with the New York-based healer as well as those who practiced the rapid imaging healing technique was clinical success in malignant growths and lack of success with benign growths. Equally interesting, the healing could apparently be transferred and 'stored' in materials and applied later without the healer present. These patterns were similar to those found experimentally by Grad, with cotton, water, and crystals apparently being especially receptive to healing storage.

"In the mid-to-late 1970s, Bengston began looking to follow Grad’s experimental approach to healing and moved into systematic experimental work with animals...The syngeneic model of C3H/HeJ mice engrafted with mammary carcinoma cell line H2712 was used, which normally results in 100% fatality of recipient mice within 27 days.

"These in vivo experiments involved inexperienced and skeptical faculty and student volunteers trained for 6 weeks in the Bengston method placing their hands around mice cages for approximately 1 hour per day while practicing the rapid imaging techniques. Instead of the predicted fatality within 27 days, they found reliable full lifespan cures of the mice.8–11 Engrafted mice developed tumors within 14 days, as expected. Around day 21, tumors in treated mice started to ulcerate, and between day 28 and 35, tumors resorbed until full remission.

"Because of the unconventional nature of the research, Bengston insisted on independent replication by disinterested researchers in independent labs. As of this writing, more than a dozen healing experiments using the Bengston Energy Healing method on this cancerous mouse model have been conducted in 6 independent labs.6,7

"Subsequent to the determination that the healing effect was reliable, secondary correlates involving the effect of distance, dose, and whether healing can be stored were introduced. In brief, healing does not seem to diminish with distance; there is a minimum dose necessary to produce the healing effect; and treated water and cotton seem to be able to reproduce cancer cures without further human intervention..."

"Studies of the biological effects of the technique on human healers and healees have been conducted to investigate its effects on brain activity by electroencephalogram (EEG)12 and functional magnetic resonance imaging.13 Those studies indicate reliable physiological changes in both healer and healee. Paired recordings of the healer and subject done both with the subject at a distance and in proximity to the healer showed harmonic frequency coupling across the spectra, followed by between-individual EEG frequency entrainment effects, and then by instantaneous EEG phase locking. These results suggest the presence of a connection between the healer and healee and may thus provide a mechanism for phase coupling.12 This connection seems to be stimulated by the needs of the healee more than the conscious intention of the healer.13

"Additional physical correlates to healing using the Bengston method have included anomalous magnetic micropulsations14 in the surrounding space of healing events which may indicate a reduction in entropy when healing occurs. If this is the case, then perhaps it is 'information' rather than 'energy' that is being transmitted in the healing process."

"Sterilized 4 oz cotton rolls were acquired from a local pharmacy and treated for 30 minutes by healers trained in the Bengston method.6 100 000 cells (MDA-MB-231) were seeded in 6-well plates. After 18 hours, a 4 × 6 in piece of treated cotton was placed on top of the 6-well plates for 24 hours. Cells were collected in TRIzol and processed for qRT-PCR analysis (see below). For the control, cells were not exposed to cotton."

"Three people practiced the Bengston healing method on cotton inside a solid steel, double-walled, electromagnetically shielded chamber...for 5 minutes. As the treatment of cotton took place, magnetic and electromagnetic signals were recorded using 4 types of sensors...Each of these 38 analog signals was digitized by a 24-bit analog-to-digital converter at 44.1 KHz...and custom PC software converted and saved the incoming sensor signals into the .wav audio format."

"1 × 10^6 cells (MDA-MB-231) in three T25 flasks were placed in an incubator at 37°C for 5 minutes to 72 hours. Two passive speakers...were placed inside the incubator and connected in phase with 18AWG speaker wires...to an amplifier...itself plugged into the speaker connector of a computer from which the recording was played repeatedly using Windows Media Player...Speakers were placed facing down on the top shelf and cells were placed on the lower shelf, directly underneath the speakers. In control settings, the same protocol was followed except that no recording was played, using the ambient background noise as control conditions.

"Hands-On Treatment of Cancer Cells

"750 000 cells (MDA-MB-231 and 4T1) were plated in T25 flasks and placed in a plastic chamber in the incubator for 18 hours before initiation of treatment. For the treatment, 3 healers practiced the Bengston method: 1 healer held the chamber, while the 2 other performed the treatment remotely. During the whole time, the 3 healers were on a conference video call. Treatments took place in sessions of 1 hour."

"Because the mechanism of the therapeutic effect of the Bengston method is unknown, we initially screened for markers using a qRT-PCR assay comprising 84 genes involved in cell growth and cancer."

"Significant change in expression was found in 6 genes: CASP9, E2F4, HMOX1, IGFBP3, MCM2, and PPP1R15A (Table 1), suggesting the viability of the storage of healing information. While statistically significant, these changes in expression were all <2, suggesting a modest effect of cotton on transcriptional activity in MDA-MB-231 cells. The next step focused on the evaluation of a recording of the healing process."

"In an attempt to capture the energy transferred when healers practice the Bengston method, a custom-made apparatus was designed at the Institute of Noetic Sciences. In brief, it allowed the recording of energy fields using multiple sensors while healers practiced the Bengston method to charge substances such as cotton. To isolate from surrounding contaminants, the system was set inside a Faraday chamber. Recorded data were converted into audio files and spectral and temporal analyses were performed to identify potential variations between a control situation (empty chamber or chamber containing a neutral material) and an active situation (healers practicing the Bengston method inside the chamber)...Recording R18, where 3 healers were engaged in treating pieces of cotton, showed the most consistent spectral differences versus the control."

"For recording R18, the only region where significant differences were observed was at frequencies below 20 Hz, and in particular below 5 Hz."

"Because R18 displayed highly unusual spectral content, we then investigated whether this recording could produce biological activity...We exposed MDA-MB-231 cells to R18 and looked for gene expression changes by qRT-PCR."

"Of over 167 genes tested, exposure to R18 induced statistically significant changes (P < 0.05) in the expression of 68 genes when compared to the control, for at least 1 time point tested. For 37 of these genes, the change was >1.5-fold. This interesting result suggests that the recording may exert an activity on cancer cells, though there was no clear pathway emerging from the genes affected.

"There were 17 genes selected for further analysis in 2 new independent experiments based on the amplitude of the fold change, the significance of the change, and the number of time points where the changes were observed. Among them, the gene ACLY coding for ATP citrate lyase (ACLY), was consistently and significantly decreased at 4 hours of exposure to R18 in the 3 independent experiments (Table 2). ATP citrate lyase is an enzyme involved in lipid metabolism that plays a role in cancer growth...In addition, IL-1ß, coding for Interleukin 1 ß, an important immune mediator, showed a trend to decrease at 4 hours and was consistently and significantly decreased at 24 hours of exposure to R18 (Table 2). These results identify ACLY and IL-1ß as possible markers of recording R18 activity. The cells exposed to R18 did not show any phenotypical change as it relates to growth rate, apoptosis, or morphology, compared to the control samples."

"The identification of reproducible changes induced by R18 led us to assess the expression of these genes in cells treated directly using the hands-on Bengston method. We reproduced conditions in which R18 was recorded, that is, 3 healers practicing the Bengston method...Interestingly, ACLY was decreased to the same extent as with R18 at 1 and 2 hours of exposure. IL-1ß however did not show significant expression change (data not shown).

"As the next step of these investigations will be to test the anticancer activity of R18 in vivo, we also tested the expression of ACLY and IL-1ß in 4T1 cells...IL-1ß was decreased 2 to 4 fold, suggesting a greater effect of the healers themselves compared to R18. Expression of ACLY was not affected in this cell line..."

(Discussion)

"The first vehicle that was investigated was cotton, as it has been clinically used to transfer the 'energy' and reproduce healing properties previously. However, we did not identify strong transcriptional changes in breast cancer cells treated with cotton compared to control cells.

"We then assessed another method of storage by recording magnetic and electromagnetic signals originated from healers practicing the Bengston method...The recording of 3 healers charging cotton induced singular signals in low frequencies that were not observed in control conditions, such as an empty chamber or the chamber containing untreated cotton...This recording (R18) was selected for further investigations."

"When cells were exposed to R18 at various time points, 68 genes showed a significant fold change (P < 0.05), of which 37 were >1.5. Most of these genes belonged to the cancer pathway assay. This observation was somewhat expected, as we used cancer cells and not immune cells. Among those selected for confirmation in independent experiments, 2 genes presented a significant and consistent pattern: ACLY and IL-1ß."

"The decrease in ACLY observed in this study may indicate an anticancer effect of the recording."

"The decrease in IL-1ß expression observed when cells were exposed to the recording was modest in this study. However, it was consistent across 3 independent experiments.

"It is important to note that we did not demonstrate the healing properties of recording R18. The transcriptional changes indicate that R18 may have a biological effect on cancer cells. The therapeutic impact of the recording remains to be elucidated."

"Interestingly, the transcriptional changes associated with the hands-on method occur earlier (1-2 hours) than with the recording (4-24 hours). For IL-1ß, the amplitude of the change was much greater when using the hands-on method than the recording. These 2 observations combined suggest that some 'information' may be lost in the process of recording and delivering the energy, compared to when it is delivered directly by healers.

"While suggesting a potential therapeutic effect of the recording, this study emphasizes the need for a more complex model including immune cells to study the effect of the recording on tumor growth."

"There is little doubt but that some biological response has been stimulated by both the healer and the recording of healing energy."