Energy Healing, Energy Medicine, Energy Psychology, Laying on of Hands, Reiki, Therapeutic Touch, Pranic Healing, Healing Touch.....all of these techniques have a core element in common. They are all connected to Divine Energy, Universal Energy.... GOD energy.
This is my personal opinion. If you talk with practitioners or trainers of some of these various techniques you may get a very different opinion. Many of them want to distinguish their technique from all the other energy practices. That is well and good. But where does the energy come from in the first place? We may each manipulate it a bit differently, we may each access it a bit differently, but In My Humble Opinion, in the end we are all connecting to the same source of healing energy....GOD.
Another thing about Energy Healing is that it is a talent that is built in to each and every one of us. Yes, taking a class will probably enhance the skill, or make it more easily available to us on a conscious level. But the knowledge was already there. Mostly what the class does is REMIND US OF WHAT WE FORGOT!
If you are interested in some of the science behind various of the energy techniques, a good source is a book by Dr. Richard Gerber called Vibrational Healing. Dr. Gerber has done an excellent job of validating many of the techniques used by Alternative Health Care Practitioners. He did the research that we all wished we had the time or energy to do in order to legitimize a particular modality.
On the website of Share International in an interview with Dr. Gerber he explains Vibrational Medicine this way:
Vibrational medicine is a diagnostic and healing approach to illness using energy in various forms and frequencies. As a therapy, vibrational medicine is the application of different types of energy for healing, including approaches as traditional as X-ray and radiation therapy for cancer, the use of electrical nerve stimulation for treating pain, and electromagnetic field stimulators for accelerating the healing of fractured bones. Even full spectrum light is used for treating seasonal affective disorders or the ‘winter blues’. However, vibrational medicine also covers the more subtle forms of treatment such as acupuncture, homeopathy, flower essences, therapeutic touch, and that sort of genre. The latter involve using subtle life-force medicine, but they are energetic therapies nonetheless. This is the spectrum from the more traditional to a range of therapies that stress treatment of the whole person, sometimes referred to as ‘complementary’ medicine.
If you would like to read this interview in its' entirety click here.