Thoughts on Research Methods

Toshiaki Harada, Ph.D.

The double-blind statistical method is commonly adopted as an objective approach in studying the efficacy of various healing modalities. The control group and the test group, with large enough number of subjects, are studied with respect to the chosen "marker"(s). Numerical data are subjected to statistical tests to assess the differences. If the p-value is less than a preset criteria, e.g., p=0.05, the difference is considered "significant". By such a statistical approach, be it double-blind or otherwise, virtually no clue is obtained as to how the healing process actually works. All it says is that the odds for the observed difference to be realized by chance are estimated to be quite small and that therefore it is more natural to ascribe the difference to the intervention of the healing that was applied. It does say something about the overall deviation of the test group from the control group. However, a concern about a particular individual who receives the healing is outside the scope of such an approach. Little insight is obtained about the mechanism or how the subtle energy works in the process of the healing. Conventional physiological measurements can pick up the changes in familiar markers such as blood pressure, blood flow, heart rate variability, etc. However, this situation may be likened to blind men scratching the surface of a large elephant. Each piece of information is only a tiny fraction of the entire elephant, never sufficient to show what the elephant actually is. This is inevitable in a way because no instrument capable of detecting the subtle energy itself has been available.

We believe the situation is somewhat different for cases where some changes are anticipated in the Qi-energy condition of the meridians of traditional Chinese medicine. For such cases the AMI can be the instrument of choice. It does not measure the Qi-energy itself directly. However, it does measure the physical variable which sensitively reflects the changes in the Qi-energy conditions in the meridians. With this capability it enables the study of Qi-energy movement in a particular subject in sessions of a particular healing protocol. The experimental studies conducted in our Subtle Energy Research Lab strongly support this statement. We'd like to propose this approach for the study of various healing modalities as applied to particular individuals -- one step ahead of the prevalent statistical approach -- which potentially provides deeper insights into the mechanisms involved.