Of all the intent-mediated phenomena we are aware of, there is no doubt that self-healing carries the most significant potential, or that (fortunately) it is the closest to becoming integrated into our medical system, thanks to decades of research into the body's neuroimmunologic and electromagnetic control mechanisms. While the substrate of the biofield may continue to defy intuitive understanding for decades to come, we are at the moment in a position to focus quite effectively on the principles regulating psychosomatic modulation and even bioinformation resonance between proximal systems (Gotovski, 2000; Sidorov, 2001). But it is doubtful that we will make meaningful progress along this path until we come up with a working (experimentally-friendly) definition of consciousness - and the great mystery of consciousness is, of course, its apparent non-locality.

That the brain can produce specific effects on the body, or even an adjacent organism, by some form of frequency entrainment, is a stretch by current standards of thinking - but a conceivable possibility within our current spacetime framework. However, that similar effects can be achieved across thousands of miles, or through the agency of an adjunct such as a photograph or a piece of cotton, defies our intuition to such an extent that institutional science considers it more dignified to ignore than to admit such evidence in its present curriculum. And yet there is no more fertile ground for the investigation of consciousness than the hundreds of studies on spiritual healing (in the west) and qigong (in the east) that have been pouring out over the past several decades.

What do we know to date? Starting with Abrams' work almost 100 years ago, there has been an enormous amount of research and empirical evidence supporting the notion that living organisms are regulated by characteristic types of resonance in the electromagnetic and possibly other, more subtle spectra; that such forms of resonance are constantly modulated by the internal and external environment; and, finally, that imbalances in this resonant blueprint can be corrected by deliberate application of external frequencies, be it with the help of instruments such as radionic and MRT (microwave resonance therapy) devices, or through the agency of another organism, such as in therapeutic touch, external qigong or distant healing.

What we don't understand is the mechanism of this entrainment, in particular where distance becomes a factor. We are all familiar with the notion of phase-locked pendulums, where the largest one in the room ends up dictating the motion of every other clock in that room. But when the room spans thousands of miles, and when the regulating "frequency" is emitted not by a 300lb piece of brass, but by sheer thought - where do we begin our analysis? One way to go about it, we believe, is by "looking for the other clocks" - that is, by focusing on the specificity with which the target is identified in such distant interaction scenarios. How unique is the correlation between healer and target? How effective is this link, and what factors can be identified that modulate this effectiveness?

There are two classes of distant healing: 1. where the target is found by the healer on the basis of a name, location, birth date, etc (in remote viewing language, this would amount to a "coordinate"); and 2. where an adjunct (an object previously treated by the healer, such as water, cloth, a crystal, etc) is used by the patient with or without the healer's knowledge. What we propose is to look at the empirical "working principles" associated with these modalities, as well as the objective measurements performed so far on such adjuncts, and see what, (if any) conclusions can be drawn as to the substrate of distant mental action.