The Definition
Healing and diagnosing by hand-hovering, is one of the oldest alternative healing practices. It’s described not only as a form of healing, but also as a way of diagnosing patients (accessing information of their internal state), simply by laying your hands on their body, or slightly hovering over it.
How is it practiced? Well, it’s pretty simple….
When it comes to healing the patient, it usually begins with (1) a self suggestion, like the healer saying to themselves, “my hands are getting warm,” or “healing is on.” The healer then simply (2) lays their hands on the patient’s body or hovers over it. As they do this, their hands may start to feel warm or tingle, which is often seen as confirmation that the healing is actually working.
When it comes to diagnosing the patient during the session, there’s many practices. One of the most common is (1) tactile feelings in the healer's hands, as they hover over certain parts of the patient's body—like temperature changes (cold or warm), or vibrations or tingles. But, there’s also (2) visual perception—like seeing colors around the patient’s body, and even (3) telepathic reading—literally feeling what the patient is feeling.
This diagnosing is called “Byosen scanning” in the Reiki method, here’s a Facebook post explaing the common feelings Reiki practicioners experience. Source: The Minnesota Reiki Center for Healing and Training. (2024).
That’s pretty much it! The entire session might last 20 minutes to 1 hour, although several sessions are usually done—especially for some more severe conditions.
This healing technique can potentially be used for improving physical conditions (inflammation, chronic pain, wound-healing and fractures, red-blood cell or T-cell levels, cancer, etc.), vital functions (digestion, sleep patterns, etc.), emotional states (anxiety, depression, etc.), psychosomatic disorders (eating disorder, post traumatic stress disorder, etc.), and general health & quality of life. In the last decades, there’s been many scientific studies done to confirm these healing effects.
Names and Methods Throughout History
These names get tossed around today due to different healing and diagnosing techniques, as well as distinct underlying metaphysical or physical explanations. But, when you get down to it, they basically all have their roots in the same “hand-hovering” healing and diagnosing technique.
•
Jesus Touch — From the Christian Bible, in the gospels like Mark and Luke, written around 100 CE or 1900 years ago. In these texts, Jesus is reported to have healed people simply by laying his hands on them.
•
“Reiki” (霊気) (”Spiritual Energy”), “Reiki Ryoho” (霊気療法) (“Spiritual Energy Therapy") or “Teate” (手当) (“Hands-Placing”) — A spiritual belief system with some hand-hovering healing and diagnosing techniques, originally developed in the 1910 in Japan by Mikao Usui, then modified and brought to the United States in the 1930s by Hawayo Takata. It mainly heals and diagnoses with hand-hovering techniques, but also includes distant healing with visualization techniques, and even Japanese symbols. There’s 3 levels of “mastery,” and one must pass through an initiation ritual (“attunement”) to join each level. The underlying explanation is spiritual/metaphysical, with a spiritual life-force energy (Reiki), and bodily spiritual energies like haras, chakras, or auras (Reiki.org).
•
•
Healing Science — From 1978 by Barbara Brennan. Its underlying explanation is spiritual/metaphysical energies, like chakras and auras.
•
Healing Touch — From 1989 by the nurse Janet Mentgen and the American Holistic Nurses Association. Its techniques use elements of the therapeutic touch and healing science. (explanation) (website).
•
SHEN Therapy — From 1977 by Richard Pavek. The underlying explanation is a “biofield conforming to natural laws of physics, with a discernible flux pattern through the body.” It uses a “sequence of paired hand placements, directly on the body, arranged according to flux patterns, usually with one on top and one underneath.” To diagnose, it uses normal medical and psychotherapy instruments with questions designed to discover repressed emotional states.
•
Hand-Hovering Healing and Diagnosing — A phrase coined by me, which is neutral to any specific method or technique, and emphasizes the two functions of this practice—(1) diagnosing illnesses and discomforts, and (2) healing, alleviating, or treating illnesses and discomforts.