Healing as a Way of Life | Qigong, Meridians, and the Science of Qi at Harvard
Phenomena Podcast: The Science & Stories of Energy HealingShow Notes
What if healing isn't something that happens to you — but something you're always doing for yourself?
That question sits at the heart of Qigong, and this episode. Anne Hering has practiced every day for over twenty-five years. Her doctor told her at 22 she'd spend the rest of her life in pain. But he was wrong, and she'll tell you it wasn't a treatment that changed things. It was a practice.
At Harvard, researchers Andrew Ahn and Peter Wayne have spent years trying to understand what Qi actually is — and whether the body's energy pathways, called meridians, have any physical basis. When Dr. Ahn injected fluorescent dye at an acupuncture point on the wrist, it traveled up the arm through no known vessel and arrived exactly where the ancient maps said it would.
Two Harvard scientists and a Qigong teacher in the Netherlands arrived at nearly the same definition of Qi from completely different directions. What they found might change how you think about your own health.
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 actually happens between a healer and the person they're healing?
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.
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.