There’s Something Between Us | The Science of the Healer-Patient Connection at Harvard
Phenomena Podcast: The Science & Stories of Energy HealingShow Notes
What actually happens between a healer and the person they're healing?
It starts at a dinner table — energy healer Laurie Nealon and her old friend Alan Brown, visiting from Brisbane. A 20-minute kitchen table session leaves him changed: heat through his head, a jolt through his chest, and a connection he says he'd never truly felt before. That moment leads us to two researchers taking the question seriously. Tor Wager (Dartmouth) argues that trust and connection aren't noise in healing — they're the data. Vitaly Napadow (Harvard) proved it by scanning clinician and patient brains simultaneously during treatment: the more their brains synced up, the more pain relief the patient felt.
Science has found the instrument. It hasn't found everything that plays through it.
More from Phenomena Podcast: The Science & Stories of Energy Healing
What role could energy healing play in cancer care? Oncologist Dr. Santosh Rao shares his firsthand experiences with energy healing and what they’ve taught him about its potential role in cancer care. From surprising patient experiences to the science still waiting to be uncovered, Dr. Rao explores what it could take to bring biofield therapies further into mainstream medicine.
What is the “energy” in energy healing? Every healer in this series uses the word. Every patient reaches for it. Ancient traditions built entire systems around it. But what is it — biologically, physically, measurably — and how does it move through the body to heal?
What happens when traditional medicine leaves veterans behind? In this episode of Phenomena, host Ivy Ross dives into the intersection of PTSD, military research, and energy healing. We share the moving story of Ron, a 79-year-old Vietnam veteran who spent seven years battling debilitating trauma following ICU delirium—until a single session with intuitive healer Maggie McIlvaine changed everything.
What if healing isn't something that happens to you — but something you're always doing for yourself?
Rick Axelson spent his career teaching research methods at medical colleges. He also spent decades suffering from debilitating migraines that even his team at the Mayo Clinic couldn't resolve. Then he tried one session of Reiki with a practitioner named Natalie Dyer. Forty-five minutes. And his migraines have never come back.