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Sometimes there's heat, sometimes cold. Some clients report swarming colors.

Some call it energy, some call it prayer.

Skeptics call it the placebo effect, but those who've experienced the phenomenon will tell you it works.

"It's kind of like a warm hug from God," said Dottie Bitterly smiling. Bitterly, a Victoria (TX) nurse, practices alternative healing processes like reiki and BodyTalk. She's used both processes as a means of stress and pain reduction after a surgery.

"It feels very secure, very safe," she said. "You feel focused, and you feel very, very calm."

Reiki is a traditional Japanese practice of spiritual healing that translated means universal energy life force. The hands-on method relies on practitioners "laying hands" on a client and channeling the energy of the universe to provide physical or emotional healing.

A handful of practitioners in Victoria offer the process to complement traditional medical treatments.

"Stress interferes with our body's ability to heal," said Kathy Perez who practices BodyTalk and reiki at BodyTalk Victoria. "Things like BodyTalk and reiki, massage, help reduce stress without introducing meditation or procedures."

The business also offers BodyTalk, an energy-consciousness healing system that relies on a light tapping technique and neuromuscular biofeedback. Practitioners often use BodyTalk with reiki to communicate with a client's body and uncover physical or emotional parts of the body that need healing.

In the office, a person lays on a table in a minty-smelling room. The practitioner places her hands on the client, where the client may feel pain. They tap the head and the chest and touch the forearm to feel for muscle feedback.

"They just move their hands over different parts of the body and focus energy," said the Rev. Dan Zellmer, 54, pastor of Salem Lutheran Church in Port Lavaca, who's done BodyTalk sessions for two years.

To Zellmer, BodyTalk and reiki are a form of spiritual healing, much like prayer. The energy at work here is no different than what can be found in a religious setting.

"I would say it's frame of reference," he said. "When I am visiting someone in a hospital room and I pray for them, I'm asking God's spirit to heal them. When I'm getting BodyTalk, I perceive that God is working through that person. I think it's the same spirit, it's the same energy, it's the energy of life, of God."

But skeptics call the "energy" something different.

"We call it placebo," said Dr. William Campbell, a Victoria preventive cardiologist. "People tend to think very poorly of that, but it is very, very real."

Campbell credits the placebo effect for the change of health people might see.

"Is there a role for it? Absolutely," Campbell said. "But it all gets down to if you're convinced something is helping you. If you've convinced your mind that it will get well, then it will get well. The key point is your mind has a strong impact on your general wellbeing, and your mind can positively or negatively impact your health."

Nevertheless, alternative methods of holistic, spiritual healing are emerging as people, tired of conventional medicines, search for different health options to treat any number of ailments.

"I think as nurses, we're always looking for something simple, something to give besides a pill," said Sandra Pierce, a registered nurse who practices BodyTalk and reiki. "I see more people are trying to find something that is non-harming, or you don't have side effects. You don't have adverse reactions. (Something) simple but effective and non-invasive."

But perhaps what these processes do best is effect breathing, which can effect state of mind, alleviate stress and reduce stress-induced ailments, said Dr. Ed Esparza, a doctor of natural medicine at Ancient Remedies in Victoria.

"When you can reduce stress levels, there's many symptoms you're going to alleviate from yourself," he said.

More than 20 million Americans live with chronic stress. Ailments caused by stress can range from depression to heart disease, he said.

But no matter the method, everyone agrees alternative spiritual healings, such as prayer or reiki, should be used only to complement traditional medicine, not to replace it.

"It's not going to cure people of severe diseases, but there is a role for it," Campbell said. "I want people to get well, and I really don't care how they get well."

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Copyright (c) 2010, Victoria Advocate, Texas 

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