Body Mapping the Somatic Experience: Somatization of Disease, Disorder and Distant Healing Intention Participation

Introduction:  “Body mapping is a visual, narrative, and participatory methodology that has several names and is used unevenly by health researchers” (Gastaldo et al., 2018).  

The purpose of this study is to garner a greater understanding of how pain and illness are expressed and experienced somatically pre and post virtual attendance of a distant healing intention group session.  A Body Mapping Index (BM-I) was created to examine the shared psi-somatization of the distant healing intention relationship. Within the healing relationship, the shared psi-somaticizing experience is often overlooked in favor of empirically measuring living system effects. This study aims to determine if the shared experience of the distant healing relationship, specifically the shared psi experience, can effectively be measured. The Body Mapping Index has been designed to guide the participant in their description by providing a physical representation for expressing the psi experience. Preliminary analysis indicates that a shared psi-somaticizing experience does occur and is independently reported by both the practitioner and the sitter/healee. 

Methods: A comparative analysis was performed to gain an initial understanding of the practitioner’s and sitter/healee’s overlapping experience.  

Results: Preliminary results show a high degree of overlap (82% of respondents) in reporting of symptoms in concentrated areas of the body between both Distant Healing Intention Practitioner’s and sitter/healee.    

Fig. 1 Q167 – During my energy session I felt a oneness/merging (of consciousness/mind/feelings/physically) or a connectedness with another person/being sensation on the following areas of my body (if this is not something you experienced during your session you may skip to the next question):