Even mainstream medicine recognizes the placebo effect as an example of the power of the mind to heal. The placebo effect is demonstrated by giving a patient a dummy pill, which is a pill without medication in it, that creates an expectation of healing so powerful that symptoms vanish.

A landmark study conducted by Irving Kirsch, Ph.D. showed that “the difference between the effect of [a] placebo and the effect of an antidepressant is minimal for most people…whatever difference is clinically insignificant. People get better when they take the drug, but it’s not the chemical ingredients of the drug that are making them better, it’s largely the placebo effect.” Kirsch discussed this on 60 Minutes, where the interviewer said to him, “You are throwing a bomb into this (pharmaceutical companies). This is huge.” (Treating Depression: Is there a Placebo Effect?)

The Newtonian level of reality upon which mainstream medicine rests ignores the unified nature of the body. Matter is ultimately organized energy, and our bodies, therefore, function as dynamic energy systems. Your body has more than 60 trillion cells. Contemporary bioelectromagnetics tells us that each and every one of your cells operates as a little wireless transmitter and receiver of electromagnetic energies, including visible light. We are quite literally beings of light.

This energy is also referred to as life force. Eastern cultures have been quite familiar with it for ages. It is called prana in India, qi or chi in China, and ki in Japan. Prana was referenced in the 3,000-year-old Chandogya Upanishad.