Context: Various forms of "energy healing" have become popular in the United States.
Objective: To test the assertion that an energy healer can, without physical contact, distinguish the presence or absence of internal organ pathology in individuals who lack overt physical findings.
Design: Observational randomized study, in which we tested the assertion by a well-recognized alternative healer that he had particular skill in using energy transfer to detect the presence or absence of fertility disorders in women.
Patients: Convenience sample of 37 women, 28 of whom had documented pathology resulting in infertility, and 9 of whom were fertile.
Outcomes: The healer was provided with no medical history and performed diagnostic evaluations without physical contact with the blindfolded, clothed, and silent subjects. We compared to random chance the ability of the healer to establish a diagnosis of fertility or fertility disorder.
Setting: Teaching hospital.
Main results: The healer was unable to distinguish the presence or absence of fertility disorders in the study subjects.
Conclusion: This study points to further need for fair yet rigorous assessment of claims that energy transfer can lead to accurate clinical diagnoses.