Biofield Therapy and Reiki: Scoping Review with ☸️SAIMSARA.

Name: SAIMSARA Evidence Object mental::BIOFIELD_THERAPY_PM
Creator: SAIMSARA
License: https://saimsara.com/license/

SAIMSARA

doi:10.62487/saimsara6c35e336

SAIMSARA Journal

Machine-Readable Science • ISSN 3054-3991

Biofield Therapy and Reiki: Scoping Review with ☸️SAIMSARA.

Mental & Neurological Health

Issue 4, Volume 1, 2026

Chat with this issue

DOI: 10.62487/saimsara6c35e336

Editorial note

• Last update: 2026-05-14 22:28:03

What is this paper about

Biofield therapies show their clearest signal not as curative medicine, but as low-risk supportive care for stress, anxiety, pain, burnout, and oncology-related symptom burden, while sham-controlled null findings and retracted evidence sharply limit certainty. The full SAIMSARA evidence map is worth reading because it separates plausible symptom-focused signals from weak, heterogeneous, non-replicable, or overstated claims across Reiki, Healing Touch, Johrei, distant healing, and laboratory biofield models.

Human-verified editorial review Verified by World ID proof-of-human. This editorial layer was submitted from a SAIMSARA account verified as a unique human.

saimsara.com

Abstract: To synthesize evidence from experimental and clinical studies regarding the efficacy and mechanisms of biofield therapy on physiological markers, psychological symptoms, and biological substrates. The review uses 45 references and builds its evidence map from 31 original studies with 17375 total participants (topic-deduplicated ΣN). Across diverse clinical and laboratory contexts, biofield therapies were most consistently associated with improvements in psychological symptoms, pain, and stress-related wellbeing, with supporting neurophysiological signals such as alpha-wave modulation and HRV changes. Signals were strongest for Reiki and distant energy approaches in anxiety, burnout, and supportive oncology care, while dermatologic applications such as wart treatment showed no advantage over sham. Preclinical work suggests plausible biological correlates, including extracellular-matrix and cancer-cell pathway changes, but findings remain heterogeneous and at times non-replicable. These observations indicate a possible role for biofield interventions as low-risk adjuncts in symptom-focused supportive care, though they do not establish definitive efficacy. Future work should prioritize adequately powered, sham-controlled trials with standardized reporting and longer follow-up to clarify which modalities, doses, and populations yield durable benefit.

Keywords: Biofield therapy; Reiki; Energy medicine; Integrative oncology; Distant healing; Pain management; Okada Purifying Therapy; Psychological wellbeing; Neurophysiological effects; Complementary and alternative medicine

Review Stats

Final search date and database lock: 2026-05-12 18:31:16 CEST
Plan: Pro (expanded craft tokens; source: PubMed)
Source: PubMed
Total Abstracts/Papers: 95
Downloaded Abstracts/Papers: 95
Included original and non-original Abstracts/Papers (all): 52
Included original Abstracts/Papers (Vote counting by direction of effect): 31
Reference Index (links used in paper): 45
Total participants (topic deduplicated ΣN): 17375

Get access to the full paper

Unlock the full evidence map

Full paper access includes the complete human-readable review, figures, reference index, PDF export, and machine-readable Evidence JSON download.
Evidence JSON can also be purchased separately if you only need the LLM-ready object for agent, AI, or RAG workflows.
Institutional or library access? Sign in with your institution email to open all available SAIMSARA papers under your institution access arrangement.
Need a SAIMSARA review on your own topic? ☸️Request.

Reference Index (45)

[1] Reiki therapy for pain, anxiety and quality of life. — https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjspcare-2019-001775
[2] The use of biofield energy therapy as complementary and alternative medicine in human health care system: a narrative review and potential mechanisms. — https://doi.org/10.1515/jcim-2024-0027
[3] Nontouch biofield therapy: a systematic review of human randomized controlled trials reporting use of only nonphysical contact treatment. — https://doi.org/10.1089/acm.2014.0017
[4] Biofield Therapies Clinical Research Landscape: A Scoping Review and Interactive Evidence Map. — https://doi.org/10.1089/jicm.2024.0773
[5] Biofield therapies: Guidelines for reporting clinical trials. — https://doi.org/10.1016/j.explore.2023.08.001
[6] No efficacy of biofield therapy in the treatment of warts of the hands and feet in adults: a randomized controlled trial. — https://doi.org/10.1111/ced.14623
[7] Challenges for Preclinical Investigations of Human Biofield Modalities. — https://doi.org/10.7453/gahmj.2015.013.suppl
[8] Perception of Subtle Energy “Prana”, and Its Effects During Biofield Practices: A Qualitative Meta-Synthesis. — https://doi.org/10.1177/27536130231200477

Unlock the full paper to view the complete Reference Index.