Hands-On Healing: A Training Course in the Energy Cure Audio CD – Unabridged, October 1, 2010

My view of Bill Bengston's book, and especially the CD set, is that they are vitally important. By all means buy several and give them away - that's what I've done. Bengston is a stickler for tight experimental protocols and publishing in peer-reviewed journals so his results are well documented and quite credible. Still, it's amazing this work has gone on for forty years without catching the baleful eye of the closed-minded professional skeptics.There are a number of other reviews posted here that do a good job describing Bengston's method in some detail. In this review I will provide some additional information, based on a workshop I attended, that may not be found in the book or CD set or in the other reviews (there are 48 reviews of the book at this writing and I didn't read them all).After reading the book and working through the CD set (I recommend going directly to the CD set if you're serious) I really couldn't understand how Bengston's method is possible. I'm not saying I couldn't understand how it works - I knew there was little chance of that at the present - but rather how his actual mental algorithm, continuously cycling through a list of at least 20 mental images in a fraction of a second per cycle, could be performed by a typical human. That quandary caused me to sign up for one of Bill's occasional workshops, held in late 2013. It was reasonably priced - he's clearly not in it for the money - and it turned out to be a great experience. Much was revealed in the way of small details that are important for clarity and could make the difference between success and frustration. The information I give here is my best recollection and interpretation of what Bill said; I believe these points are accurate but I may have misunderstood something, and there were many times when Bill emphasized he was speculating or providing anecdotal information.Addressing my misgivings about the process of extremely rapid cycling, Bill said that as you accelerate the rate at which you go through your image list you reach a point where you are no longer seeing discrete images or even a blur of images; what remains is a "physical sensation." It seems that this "phase transition," as Bill calls it, like the transition of water to ice, is the key to learning this method. The second most important issue would seem to be learning to cycle in background mode while going through your normal daily activities. To perform actual healing, according to Bill, you "form a fleeting intention to heal and then let it go, step out of the way, and let the universe take care of it." We humans with our "pea brains" couldn't hope to carry out anything so amazingly complex, he emphasized. While "healing," he said, carry on a conversation, have an argument, watch TV, do anything you like but don't think about healing.Asked if there was any way to know you are cycling properly other than to heal he said, not so far as he knew. However, some encouragement may be had if items on your cycling list (things that you want to happen or to have) begin to occur in surprising ways - at which time you should take those items off your list. He keeps his list up to date and also removes any items that "don't feel right" as he cycles; he said the last time he had updated his list was on the airplane traveling to the workshop. As to the question of when to cycle, he told the workshop, "You've never seen me not cycling." Bill says he cycles pretty much constantly while he's awake.When asked what percentage of the "volunteers" who had taken part in his published lab experiments over the years, mostly grad students and faculty at the various universities where the experiments were performed, had succeeded in curing cancer in laboratory animals, Bill responded, "All of them." Remember, he did not select volunteers who were already healers or who claimed to be psychic or unusually intuitive, or even individuals who were enthusiastic and believed it could work. He selected ordinary scientific-skeptical students and faculty members who thought it sounded like nonsense (as indeed it does). From this it is reasonable to infer that most normal skeptical people, after six weeks of training (the normal time period used by Bill), should be able to cure cancer, at least in mice. While this seems like a reasonable inference based on the evidence it is still not certain because of a lack of understanding of exactly what is going on in this deeply mysterious process.Bill's answer to many questions was, "I don't know," and he would frequently tell participants to, "Read the manual." The "manual," which he handed out at the beginning of the workshop, was a blue glossy business card with "Avoid Ritual!" printed on one side and "Be Playful!" printed on the other.In the CD set Bengston covers 90% of what is covered in the workshop. He drills you in his technique, just like in the workshop, and covers most of the same issues. However, working through the CD set I did not develop the enthusiasm that the live workshop generated, largely because there was no way to get niggling questions answered (I hope this information helps you avoid some of the frustration) and also because I found Bill to be an amusing and entertaining teacher when he wasn't cracking the whip and exhorting the group to, "Cycle faster! Faster!" If somebody reported a problem he often responded, "You're not cycling fast enough!"Near the end of the workshop Bengston emphasized ethical issues (primarily, never do anything for another person without their permission) and legal issues (he emphasized protecting yourself if you want to offer healing and suggested a few attorneys who are knowledgeable about the issues involved). These issues are also covered in the CD set, without the specific suggestions.Late on the second day we had a brief practice period where we partnered up just to get a feel for the overall process (or you could opt out - no pressure). I found it encouraging that my practice partner (for 15 minutes) was an oncologist. I hoped I was getting a glimpse of the future when mainstream medicine embraces a pragmatic, open-minded, evidence-driven healing approach, with a renewed emphasis on the directive, "First, do no harm."

I've updated my book review The Energy Cure: Unraveling the Mystery of Hands-on Healing since I've purchased and listened to the CD set. Like the book most of the CD tells the story of how Bengston got interested in energy work, how his method developed, what it does and does not do, and some speculation on how it works and Bengston states he doesn't know or understand it all. Bengston's lack of understanding about how energy healing works it is part of what fuels his fascination into energy healing. Bengston's method does not require belief on the part of the patient. His research and findings on cancer are interesting such as once cured of cancer it has never re-occurred so there appears to be some kind of immunity developed or perhaps whatever the underlying cause is it has been resolved. The cancer remits at the rate of its onset so if it came on quickly it will remit slowly and if it came on quickly it will remit quickly. He also describes resonant bonding which basically the interconnectedness of life. Through resonant bonding the healing of groups (mice) are effected by even the brief presence of the healer or when they are in close proximity to each other (such as in the same building). Resonant bonding possibly might explain the placebo effect mainly thought of as a psychological effect, but through resonant bonding the placebo effect could be thought of as shared healing effect.Bengston's method is a bit different from most of the other alternative healing methods I have come across. Professor Bengston is a sociologist at St. Joseph's College, New York. Unlike a lot of others who claim to be able to heal everything and anything, Bengston is honest in what his method seems to work on and what it does not. Mainly his cycling technique appears to work very well on malignant cancer. It can help with such things as diabetes, arthritis, and Parkinson's, but can't cure these conditions. I found this experiments with "charging" or energizing cotton and water for healing interesting. It made me think of Masaru Emoto's water experiments in his books like The Hidden Messages in Water. Bengston also insists healing should be fun and and playful and we should experiment with healing.His cycling technique uses a minimum of 20 personally totally selfish desires or wishes and the list is cycled very rapidly through the mind of the healer in around a second, so fast your mind can't dwell on it or even really perceive it sharply. This takes some practice as the healer must cycle the list faster and faster until it can be accomplished in a second. Like the book, only a small portion of the CD is devoted to actually showing Bengston's healing method, but I found it more helpful than the book as you get a better sense of how to perform the cycling so if you're interested in actually trying his cycling method I suggest you skip the book and purchase the CD. The other parts of his healing technique and the hands-on part bears some similarities to other energy work techniques. On the CD set Bengston assumes you may want to open a practice so he goes into ethics, state licensing/certification and other areas. The CD set is more expensive though so if you're just interested in reading about his research and method the book is fine.I thought about what this lightning cycling does and I have read some articles on brainwaves that indicate some effective healers go into a gamma or hyper-gamma state and perhaps even faster when healing. Bengston's cycling may take the healer's mind to those brainwave frequencies. As it takes practice to cycle the list of 20 or more things in a second this is not a method most people will be able to do instantly. I have not tried his method as it will take some practice to cycle effectively, but he certainly made me want to give it shot.

Dr. Bengston makes it clear that his healing method is not easy to learn and does require commitment and practice. On the other hand, everything he has discovered has been laboratory tested for effectiveness, and I don't think any other healing modality has had the rigorous examination that this one has had. So, if you want to learn a healing technique that does not rely on anecdotal stories, this is the gold standard. That said, you should read the book first for an overview of the method, and to discover whether you want to go further. If you do, you should definitely buy the training course and do the process right along with Dr. Bengston. There is so much more than can be told in the book, and it's a great help to go through the entire process with him as many times as need be until you feel competent enough to move on to the next section. Purchase of the course will give you access to an online forum where the method is discussed by both novices and experienced practitioners, and you'll receive answers to your questions and suggestions for when you get stuck. For me, the information in this course was so fascinating and suggestive that I would have been glad I'd bought it and listened to Dr. Bengston's experiences even if I had not decided to try to learn this technique myself. Highly recommended.