NIH Funds Research into "Distant Healing" for 150 HIV Patients
 
 

Amherst, NY (February 20, 2001) In the new March/April 2001 issue of Skeptical Inquirer, Martin Gardner examines the "distant healing" claims of Elisabeth Targ and highlights the National Institutes of Health's (NIH) funding of her upcoming three-year study through its National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM). Targ directs the Complementary Medicine Research Institute (CMRI), which is part of the California Pacific Medical Center.

In a 1997 paper published in Alternative Therapies, Targ speculates that healers can effect healing at a distance through "the agency of God, consciousness, love, electrons, or a combination." She is the daughter of parapsychologist Russell Targ-who in the 1970s claimed proofs of "remote viewing" and Uri Geller's psychic abilities. In 1998 Elisabeth Targ published a study in the Western Journal Of Medicine claiming that HIV subjects who unknowingly received distant healing showed significantly improvement over the control group. Her NCCAM-funded study will include 150 HIV patients and is intended to build clinical evidence for distant healing.

According to Gardner, the funding for the first year alone of Targ's clinical trials is expected to reach $243,228 U.S and will likely amount to more than 2 million dollars of federal funds over the next few years. Judging by federal appropriations, Congress shows no skepticism of federally funded alternative medicine research. According to a December 2000 AAAS R&D Funding Update, the NCCAM's FY 2001 budget is $89 million-a 29 percent increase over last year's and the largest increase of any NIH institute appropriation for FY 2001.

Results for clinical trials of medical prayer and other distant healing claims have proven inconsistent and are often criticized for methodology. A study of distant healing on patients with skin warts published in the April 15, 2000 issue of the American Journal of Medicine (108 (6): 448-52) found no difference between the group subjected to distant healing and the control. Healing prayer proponents touted a study by William Harris et al. in the October 25, 1999, Archives of Internal Medicine (159 (19): 2273-8). However, in a review of these tests by Jack Tessman and Irwin Tessman for the March/April 2000 issue of Skeptical Inquirer, the authors concluded that Harris et al. "failed to show any significant benefit of intercessory prayer" and found that one of his tests "directly contradicts" earlier studies by intercessory prayer researcher Randolph C. Byrd.

CONTACT: Kevin Christopher
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E-mail: kchristopher@centerforinquiry.net