Doctors Gde Thera Tou

This is a brief introduction to a noninvasive healing technique that, contrary to its name, does not involve touching. Therapeutic touch, developed in the 1970s by theosophist Dora Kunz and nursing professor Dolores Krieger, gets a stamp of approval from Wager, a Seattle physician who has been using it for over a decade. She briefly explains the technique's philosophical basis, how it is performed and its most common effects. Practitioners pass their hands over a patient's body a few inches above the surface, assessing the energy flow from the body, balancing that energy and transmitting outside energy to the patient. An adjunct to traditional medicine, therapeutic touch is said to promote relaxation and a sense of well-being, to relieve pain and to accelerate the body's natural healing processes. The scientific evidence is not compelling (eliminating the placebo effect and conducting double-blind studies pose significant research problems), but Wager gathers the available evidence to describe how the technique has helped, among others, premature babies and AIDs, cancer and Alzheimer's patients. (Nov.)