something I am grateful for today

[johncomic]

This morning, via a combo of acetaminophen, ice packs, and Therapeutic Touch, I was able to shake a stubborn nasty headache which had resisted even Toradol over the previous 24 hours. So I feel substantially better now.

Why do I keep forgetting that TT is something I can do?


If you followed the above link about TT, you may note that most of the space is devoted to debunking its pseudoscientific basis. For the record, I want to say my bit about this “therapy”, if you'll kindly indulge me:

I have taken one introductory course in TT techniques (didn't cost much), primarily because of my curiosity about my experiences with “human energy field” phenomena. Here are some of the key points I gleaned from my instructor. Maybe the way it was taught to me doesn't correspond with mainstream TT teaching, I dunno, but anyhoo here's what I got out of it:

• we were taught about the human energy field because it's the original teaching that TT arose from, and many practitioners find that approaching TT this way was a useful tool for focusing their techniques. We were also taught that it doesn't really matter whether any of it is actually true, we don't have to believe in it.


• TT does not heal. TT is not a substitute for medical attention or treatment. It is a pain relief technique, and not the only valid one.


• TT doesn't always work, but it's worth a try because if it does work, then hey there ya go.


• it's kinda irrelevant if TT is actually a placebo effect or whatever the real explanation is for what's going on: if you try it and the person feels better, that's all that counts.


• it is good to try when traditional treatments like drugs aren't working or aren't available, or if it will allow you to avoid drug side effects.


• most of the evidence for the effectiveness of TT is anecdotal. But when you're dealing with a fundamentally subjective concept like the experience of pain, it's hard to get really solid evidence anyway. And all that matters is whether it works for you or not. It's not about proof or evidence, it's about results or lack thereof.


• I was told that experiments have been done that suggest that whatever is happening is not a placebo effect. Double-blind screening was done which allowed people who didn't believe in TT to be treated without their knowledge by people who had been taught the techniques but didn't believe they would work -- and results still happened anyway. (Wish I could find the references for that research... but suspect that it wasn't well-reproducable anyway.)


• bottom line: I was taught that TT is of unpredictable usefulness -- sometimes it works, sometimes not. When it does work, no one really knows why it does. And people treated with TT should not be instructed to quit taking their meds or quit seeing their doctor, etc. It's just one more tool to try to help people feel better.

I find it hard to argue with much of that approach, and that's how I do it. So for me, when studies debunk the ability of TT practitioners to actually detect the human energy field, I kinda shrug and think “So what?”

BTW, the teacher told me I had an unusually strong knack for it (and no, she didn't say that to everyone). And I've had positive reports from family and friends that I've treated, more often than not. I don't pretend to know what exactly is happening, but my experiences tell me that something is, even if it's all in our minds.