Richard Hammerschlag, PhD

Scholar Project (2007-2013)

Dr. Hammerschlag’s work as a Nova Institute Scholar focused on the physiological basis of biofield therapies, such as reiki, external qigong, johrei, and healing touch, whose purpose is to balance the energy fields that surround and permeate the therapy recipient. The project’s overarching goal was to frame biofield physiology as an area of study. It was guided by a working definition of the biofield as a confluence of electromagnetic as well as other conventional and non-conventional phenomena to which living systems contribute and within which they exist. The project sought to illuminate the role of biofields in the maintenance of health and to summarize current understanding of how the body generates and responds to biofields. Dr. Hammerschlag’s Scholar project included the performance and publication of two systematic reviews and a roundtable discussion:

• Randomized controlled trials of human biofield therapies that report use of only non-physical contact treatment (Hammerschlag et al. BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine 2012).
• Biofield-based therapies: a systematic review of physiological effects on practitioners during healing (Baldwin & Hammerschlag. Explore, February 2014).
• Biofield research: a roundtable discussion of scientific and methodological issues. (Hammerschlag et al. Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine 2012).

The roundtable discussion resulted from Dr. Hammerschlag’s contacts with a community of research scientists who share an interest in biofield research: Drs. Ann Baldwin, Gloria Gronowicz, Shamani Jain, Susan Lutgendorf, James Oschman and Garret Yount. The discussion reflects these researchers’ presentations at a symposium, organized by Drs. Hammerchlag and Jain, at the third International Research Congress on Integrative Medicine and Health, held in May 2012 in Portland, OR. The symposium examined the evidence for biofield healing, for biofield therapy-related changes in healers and healees, and for physiological mechanisms related to endogenous and exogenous electromagnetic fields. Dr. Hammerschlag, the first member of the Institute’s Scholars & Fellows Program, concluded his tenure as a Scholar in August 2013, with the inaugural Capstone presentation, “Biofield of Dreams: Energy Physiology as a Basis for Integrative Health.” His talk explored the possible role of connective tissue as a whole body network that monitors and regulates the flow of energy, integrating the biofields inside the body with the biofields around it.