Bioenergetic Fields, The Scientific Review of Alternative Medicine, Spring/Summer, 1999:
The exact nature of the bioenergetic field is not specified, even as a speculative hypothesis, in Rogers or the other literature on holistic healing. On the one hand, the biofield seems to be identified with the classical electromagnetic field; on the other it is confused with quantum fields or wave functions. For example, Stefanatos (1997, 227) writes: "The principles of energy medicine originate in quantum physics. Bioenergetic medicine is the study of human and animal bodies as dynamic electromagnetic fields existing in an electromagnetic environment".
...and:
Stefanatos (1997, 228) tells us that the "electromagnetic fields (EMF) emanating from bacteria, viruses, and toxic substances affect the cells of the body and weaken its constitution." So the vital force is identified quite explicitly with electromagnetic fields and said to be the cause of disease. But somehow the life energies of the body are balanced by bioenergetic therapies. "No antibiotic or drug, no matter how powerful, will save an animal if the vital force of healing is suppressed or lacking" (Stefanatos 1997, 229). So health or sickness is determined by who wins the battle between good and bad electromagnetic waves in the body.
Now it would seem that all these effects of electromagnetic fields in living things would be easily detectable, given the great precision with which electromagnetic phenomena can be measured in the laboratory. Physics can measure the magnetic dipole moment of the electron (a measure of the strength of the electron's magnetic field) to one part in ten billion, and calculate it with the same accuracy. Physicists have measured the magnetic dipole moment of the electron (a measure of the strength of the electron's magnetic field) to one part in ten billion, and calculated it with the same accuracy. They surely should be able to detect any electromagnetic effects in the body powerful enough to move atoms around or do whatever happens in causing or curing disease. But either physics nor any other science has seen anything that demands we go beyond well established physical theories. No elementary particle or field has been found that is uniquely biological. None is even hinted at in our most powerful detectors.
...and:
Referring to well known authorities such as Fritjof Capra and Ken Wilber, Stefanatos (1997, 227) tells how "Einstein's quantum model replaced the Newtonian mechanistic model of humankind and the universe. "Thus holistic healing is associated with the rejection of classical, Newtonian physics. Yet, holistic healing retains many ideas from eighteenth and nineteenth century physics. Its proponents are blissfully unaware that these ideas, especially superluminal holism, have been rejected by modern physics as well.
Never mind that Einstein was not the inventor of quantum mechanics and objected strongly to its anti-Newtonian character, saying famously, "God does not play dice." Never mind that electromagnetic fields were around well before quantum physics and it was Einstein himself who proposed that they are composed of reductionist particles. And never mind that Einstein did away with the aether, the medium that nineteenth century physicists thought was doing the waving in an electromagnetic wave, and a few others thought might also be doing the waving for "psychic waves." The bioenergetic field described in holistic literature seems to be confused with the aether. Or, perhaps no confusion is implied. They each share at least one common feature - nonexistence.
Excerpted from Reality Check: The Energy Fields of Life, Skeptical Briefs, June, 1998:
Even veterinary medicine has not escaped the inroads of holistic bioenergetics and its phony basis in quantum physics. In "Introduction to Bioenergetic Medicine," chapter sixteen of Complementary and Alternative Veterinary Medicine: Principles and Practice (Allen M. Schoen and Susan G. Wynn, eds. Mosby-Year Book, 1997), Joanne Stefanatos says: "The principles of energy medicine originate in quantum physics. Bioenergetic medicine is the study of human and animal bodies as dynamic electromagnetic fields existing in an electromagnetic environment. Based on Einstein's theories of quantum physics, these energetic concepts are being integrated into medicine for a comprehensive approach to disease diagnosis, prevention, and treatment."
Stefanatos and Patterson are each blissfully unaware that Einstein was deeply opposed to the very interpretation of quantum mechanics that they attribute to him and rely upon to support their delusions about a holistic universe. It was Einstein who destroyed holism by showing that the whole notion of simultaneous action throughout space, the very concept of an absolute "now," is meaningless. He derided the claims that quantum fields act instantaneously across space as "spooky action at a distance." Furthermore, Einstein opposed the indeterministic trends in quantum physics. He desired a return to something like the very mechanical picture of Newtonian physics that these authors decry.
But the physics ignorance of Patterson and Stefanatos goes even deeper than this. They, as many alternative therapists, seem to equate the bioenergetic field with the electromagnetic field. Their notion sounds very much like the "animal magnetism" of Friedrich Anton Mesmer, who died in 1815. We've come a long way in the 183 years since, but you would never know it from reading articles by writers such as Patterson and Stefanatos.
See also: A Review of the Physics of Complementary and Alternative Medicine, A paper submitted to the meeting of the American Association of Equine Practitioners in San Antonio, November 26-29, 2000 (requires Adobe Reader in order to access.)
For other pertinent on-line articles by Dr. Stenger, see:
Quantum Quackery, Skeptical Inquirer magazine, January/February 1997
Quantum Metaphysics, The Scientific Review of Alternative Medicine 1(1), 26-30, 1997
Victor J. Stenger is professor emeritus of physics and astronomy at the University of Hawaii and the author of Not By Design: The Origin of the Universe (Prometheus Books, 1988), Physics and Psychics: The Search for a World Beyond the Senses (Prometheus Books, 1990), and The Unconscious Quantum: Metaphysics in Modern Physics and Cosmology (Prometheus Books, 1995).
