Physical evidence that energies associated with psychic or spiritual healing can be detected and measured, using standard laboratory equipment, may be “one of the most exciting developments of this decade.” Furthermore, these subtle energies seem to be electrical in nature. They also may be more than that (many healers contend the source of their energies is divine), but experimenters are beginning to use a term for healing energies coined by the late Baltimore healer Ambrose Worrall—para-electricity, meaning “beyond electricity.”
Authority for the preceding statements is Dr. Robert N. Miller (Ph.D.), industrial research scientist, who heads a team of physicists and healers attempting to determine how these energies are generated, how they are stored, and how they may be used with maximum efficiency. Dr. Miller and the research team, including Dr. Philip B. Reinhart, chairman of the physics department at Agnes Scott College in Atlanta, Georgia, proved that the para-electricity transmitted by a healer can be directed to a particular location and detected by an appropriate laboratory device.
Olga Worrall’s Psychic Healing Powers Tested
The device was a modern cloud chamber (a modification of the Wilson cloud chamber invented by British physicist and 1927 Nobel Prize winner Charles T. R. Wilson), ordinarily employed to study the paths of subatomic particles made visible in saturated air and alcohol vapor. Dr. Miller and Dr. Reinhart first tested the device’s ability to detect psychic energies when healer Olga Worrall visited the college in January 1974.
For many years, Olga worked with her husband, Ambrose, and has continued her free healing services and research with physicians and scientists since his death in 1972. She and Dr. Miller reported on their experiments, including those in the laboratory and subsequently at a distance, before an audience of some 1,700 persons at a symposium on “Thought As Energy” at the beautiful Founder’s Church of Religious Science in Los Angeles in February 1976. The Ernest Holmes Research Foundation sponsored the program, which honors the church’s founder and provided funds for the project. The Miller-Worrall presentation was titled “Scientific methods for the Detection and Measurement of Healing Energies,” admittedly a bold statement of accomplishment in an area usually considered entirely paranormal.
Cloud Chamber Experiments and Psychic Healing Techniques
Dr. Worrall (she has two honorary doctorates) described what happened when she placed her hands near the cloud chamber but did not touch it. “I visualized healing energy flowing from my hands,” she said, “just as I do when treating a patient. After about half a minute, we observed a wave pattern forming in the chamber’s sensitive zone. The waves were parallel to my hands and seemed to be moving from the right hand toward the left.” She had previously said she does her most effective healing work with her left hand.
“After several minutes, I shifted the position of my hands 90 degrees. The waves began to change direction and soon were moving at a right angle to their original path. Other members of the research team placed their hands around the cloud chamber to see if they could produce a visible effect. Nothing happened.”
Psychic Healing Verified at a Distance
Several weeks later, the experiment was repeated at a distance of some 600 miles. Dr. Worrall was at home in Baltimore, Maryland, while the cloud chamber remained at the college in Atlanta. What happened was not precisely according to plan, but the results perhaps were even more meaningful than if the plan had been strictly followed.
Dr. Worrall explained, “Dr. Miller asked me to concentrate my thoughts and energies on the cloud chamber at exactly 8:50 P.M. He also suggested that I mentally hold my hands at the sides of the chamber for several minutes and then change the orientation 90 degrees as I did when I was actually present in the physics laboratory.”
“But I was not able to reverse the flow because they forgot to tell me they had changed lab rooms. So when I projected my mind into the original room, it was dark, and I had to go down the hall to find one that was lit. I was quite annoyed with them because they didn’t tell me where it would be. So I forgot to reverse my hands!”
Nevertheless, the experiment was a success in more ways than one. At 8:53, the mist in the cloud chamber began to pulsate, and the wave motion continued for approximately seven minutes. Then, the motion subsided but did not change direction. “It was their fault,” said the healer. The scientists waited expectantly for a change in the direction of the wave motion. It never came, thus eliminating any idea that their suggestion was affecting the results.
A second “transmission” of healing power to Atlanta from Baltimore a few minutes later produced similar results, and eight minutes were required for the unidirectional undulations in the cloud chamber to subside. This further verified the physical effect of psychic healing energies, including absent healing. The implication is inescapable: it is reasonable to believe such energies may profoundly influence body cells.
Plants Responding to Psychic Healing Powers
What comes next after Dr. Robert N. Miller and his team’s success with using cloud chambers to track psychic healing energies? They looked for other ways to make these mysterious energies more noticeable and measurable. They figured, why not try using plants? Plants are alive, grow quickly, and respond clearly to their environment. Maybe they could serve as natural detectors of subtle energies emitted by healers.
Under carefully controlled laboratory conditions, healers focused their intentions and energy on several types of plants, such as lettuce and beans, known for their sensitivity. The researchers closely monitored shifts in the plants’ physiological processes and internal electrical activities, hoping to capture evidence that the plants were responding to the healers’ energy.
When healers directed their energies toward the plants, they showed noticeable changes, including fluctuations in electrical activity and increased biophoton emissions. Over time, plants exposed to regular healing sessions grew faster and healthier than untreated plants, demonstrating the tangible effects of psychic healing powers on living organisms.
Encouraged by these findings, Dr. Miller’s team sought to explore whether healing energies could affect other substances, such as water.
Energized Water and the Scientific Meaning of Psychic Healing
Dr. Miller explained: “Water in the normal state has many hydrogen bonds normally distributed. When energy is added, whether by a healer or through magnets, bond energies change. This causes a change in the surface tension of water. However, energized water eventually reverts to its normal state.”
“What it means,” he said, “is that we have successfully brought psychic healing from folklore into modern science. We have provided the missing pieces in the puzzle of how healing occurs. Our results indicate that the healer either transmits energy to the patient or mentally creates conditions that allow the patient to absorb energy from their surroundings. The cells and organs in the body resume normal functions, and healing occurs.”
Psychic Healing Enters Mainstream Science
Dr. Miller, a former Georgia Institute of Technology professor, is now a research scientist for Lockheed Aircraft Company in Georgia. He is also on the advisory committee of the Ernest Holmes Research Foundation, a unique organization dedicated to scientifically verifying spiritual healing and the relationship between body, mind, and spirit.
Dr. Thelma Moss, internationally known parapsychologist from UCLA, also provided substantial visual and medical evidence for the existence of psychic healing energies, using Kirlian photography to document the energy fields emitted by healers.
Despite initial skepticism, even prominent critics like Dr. William Tiller acknowledge that psychic healing and related phenomena now merit scientific investigation. With experiments validating psychic healing effects across multiple laboratories, what was once dismissed as superstition is steadily entering the realm of credible scientific inquiry.