Vol. 9, No. 7, 1992

Articles on the New Age

The following is a brief excerpt from a radio interview with Christian author and physician, Paul C. Reisser, conducted by Watchman Fellowship's James Walker. Dr. Reisser is one of the nation's leading experts on New Age Medicine from a Christian perspective.

Watchman: Paul... exactly what is New Age Medicine?

Dr. Reisser: We could talk at length about a lot of different therapies, but to summarize what New Age Medicine represents, I'd have to say its a thrust in health care of the philosophy and thinking of the New Age Movement but expressed in terms of healing. In general the kind of therapies that are involved are meant to be alternatives to tradional medical practice although not necessarily so.

But as the movement started several years ago many of the therapies and many of the ideas that were promoted were put forth as ways to avoid some of the things that people didn't care for in traditional medicine, particularly surgical and drug therapies, or radiation therapies.

It is an outgrowth in some ways of some of the alternative therapies that have been around for many years but is has a particular philosophical slant that sets it apart....

Watchman: Paul, I was recently in North Georgia and a number of nursing students-- Masters level nursing students - came to me and said that they were learning color therapy and also touch therapy. Is that similar? Tell me about that.

Dr. Reisser: Well, therapeutic touch is still making the rounds among nurses... Therapeutic touch was taught by a PhD nurses aid Doloris Krieger. It is an extremely mystical concept. This concept is based on another type of energy flow, not ch'i this time, but one called Prana which is the East Indian version of ch'i [or the theory that there is an invisible energy which flows through the universe and all things, including human bodies] but it flows through different channels [not meridians as ch'i does]. It is the same kind of idea. It involves an extremely subjective assessment of a patients energy flow using your hands by passing them over the patient and feeling the little warm and cold areas, supposedly rough spots, then willing this correction to take place in your mind.

Krieger claims all sorts of results of various sorts, but the basis of it is extraordinarily mystical. It is a complete buy in to the concept of the energy flow. Krieger has been influenced by some strong psychic people over the years, unless she has changed recently which I doubt. The concept that you can make your patient better through this type of touch is very appealing especially to nurses who often get stuck doing more paperwork than talking to patients. And the idea that they could really effect, by this touch method, the patient's health is wonderful. The touch itself is very therapeutic. Just to touch someone or lay a hand on them can create a lot of physiological good will. It doesn't have supernatural powers.

Watchman: What I asked those nurses is, "What was the physiological connection between touching a shoulder and making the cancer in that shoulder go away." And the bottom line to me is that there is no physiological connection. The only thing that leaves is psychic.

Dr. Reisser: Well, I don't know if the therapeutic touch people would claim they can cure a cancer by just touching. They claim more subtle kinds of things than that, but they still feel like their patients do better. I haven't kept up with their program, except I keep seeing them advertised in nursing brochures. They're out there...

Phone Caller: I got myself in a situation... I lived in another state and the only reason I went to this woman is because some of the very foremost leaders in my church told me about her and told me these miraculous things that were happening that were just absolute miracles.

Dr. Reisser: What kind of therapies were going on?

Caller: It's a touch therapy and the lady calls herself an energy runner. Now I have rhumatory arthritis so I have consequently suffered a lot of pain. I suppose that was probably why I thought, "I'll try anything once." But I really did it alot out of curiosity, and I prayed a lot about it before I went. But I really questioned while she was giving me the treatment and she explained that she was an energy runner. Have you heard that expression?

Dr. Reisser: Well, it's another variation on the theme we've been talking about, which is the idea that they are manipulating, moving, unleashing or unblocking energy flow.

Caller: When she would touch me in certain areas you could not see her hands vibrating but I felt them vibrating. Also, another thing that she said is that she did not realize until she was about eight or nine years old that when she looks at people she does not see skin. She sees bones, nerves, muscles - that type of thing.

Dr. Reisser: How long did you go to this?

Caller: I just went one time.

Dr. Reisser: This is not someone you are currently seeing?

Caller: No, it's been probably two years ago that I went.

Dr. Reisser: ...the fact that the lady claims to be able to see inside the body or to get some sort of knowledge that is not available to the rest of us mere mortals would put her into the category of the psychic diagnostician. There is a lot of cross over. A person who feels they have psychic abilities will endorse a lot of the energy flows. They feel they can actually see and manipulate these energy flows... For her to claim that means... she is seeing something inside of her head which puts her into the realm of the psychic which means that by definition the psychic realm, psychic diagnosis, psychic treatment is off limits as far as the Christian community is concerned. I think the Bible is extremely explicit about there should be no fooling around with forces of the supernatural.