A New Vision for Healing

We all experience healing in some form or another throughout our lives. We heal our physical bodies with healthy food, vitamins, herbals and medications. We heal our minds with positive thinking, affirmations and healthy thoughts. We heal our spirits with prayer, intention, and meditation. All of these methods of healing affect our existence in some way. All work to keep us from succumbing to disease.

Many of these methods seem disparate in nature as if they had nothing to do with one another, yet all claim to be successful. For example, an energy method such as Reiki seems to work completely different than say, a nutritional supplement. Meditation and prayer have seemingly different effects than medications or nutritional supplements. One affects the mind or spirit while the other affects the cells of the body. With all of these methods working in seemingly different ways to heal, how could they ever be explained by a common theory? Is there a fundamental process that connects all systems of healing?

In order to find such a common underlying process we must look deep into the essence of life. We must look deep into our bodies and the molecules that combine to form them. When we do we find a fundamental process that all living systems share. We find that life has the special ability to become more complex over time. This ability is special because life exists in a universe that becomes more disorganized over time. Life's special ability has to do with having a constant supply of something that keeps it from degenerating into disorder. That something is called information.

A growing number of elite scientists now believe that all matter and energy consist of information. Information is the essence of all things. All living systems must have a constant supply of information from the universe in order to survive and evolve to higher levels of complexity. The ability of life to receive and integrate information is what makes it so special. We exist in a field of potentially active information. Whenever we breath, act or think we are in essence communicating with this field.

We commonly think that the information contained in life resides in DNA. Yes, DNA is an incredible repository of information and a product of billions of years of evolution. But you may have the intuitive sense that you are more than your DNA. Your existence extends beyond your cells and physical body. Your being extends out making connections with the universe around you. These connections communicate information between you and the universe.

Even the relatively new science of epigenetics has discovered other complex information systems that reside outside of DNA and yet affect how DNA is expressed. These systems connect with our bodies and minds producing a kind of an information feedback system to DNA. Your actions and even your thoughts can affect how your DNA is expressed.

You are an informational system. In order to keep on living you must somehow gather and integrate information into your being. The same goes for healing. Healing is an extension of the same underlying process of living. Think of how one heals. Generally there is some sort of process in the body that causes disorder. For example a cancerous tumor may spread disorder throughout the system. Healing occurs when order is restored. Decreasing disorder is a result of the infusion of information. Perhaps a sick individual uses a number of information sources to restore order or heal from the cancer. They may consist of medications, nutrients and mind-body techniques.

We can view ourselves as existing on several informational levels. For example, the molecules of your body contain information in how they are put together. Exposing these molecules to information sources such as nutrients constitutes an exchange of information. The molecules of the nutrients interact with the receptors on cells and transfer information to elicit changes in the cells. Nutrients can be seen as information sources with the purpose of restoring order to the body.

Likewise healing prayer may also restore order by sending information non-locally to the body. There are a large number of studies examining healing prayer as well as the effects of intention on others and machines. The work of researchers such as Dean Radin at the Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research center has opened up whole new vistas of how human intention can affect the physical world. All of this research serves as support for the existence of a nonlocal communication of information.

What are the prospects of understanding healing in terms of information? For one, all healing systems can be described as essentially doing the same thing, which is sending healing information to the body. Alternative and mainstream systems become part of the same underlying information-transferring process. Second, we can organize sources of information according to levels of complexity such as molecular, energy, mind and spirit so that all can be used to support healing. Third, we can apply concepts of the science of information theory to fine-tune the exchange of information for each individual.

If all healing systems are seen as information transferring systems then seemingly disparate systems have equal footing when contributing to a healing program. Reiki is now seen to be as important as medication because it works on the nonlocal level while medication works on the molecular level. Both spirit and molecular levels of existence contribute to the overall human being. The same can be said for meditation and nutrition. Meditation works on the mind level while nutrition works on the molecular level. Both work by transferring healing information to the body, which in turn, reduces disorganization or disease.

Understanding healing in terms of exchanges of information may open up new fields of study such as informational medicine or informational healing. New systems of healing could emerge that combine techniques that may have previously seemed unrelated. In the future alternative and mainstream practitioners may be able to communicate and work together with a common understanding of healing. If science is already beginning to understand matter and energy in terms of information perhaps the healing arts will soon follow.