The studies described above offer some preliminary evidence that biological structures possess subtle regulating mechanism which can be modulated by mental intent and/or electromagnetic fields loaded with a donor's bioinformation. If that is the case, the next question has to be: how uniquely is the target affected by a specific intent? In other words, what is the medium of transfer and what accounts for the effectiveness with which the true target is acted upon, if indeed every action can potentially modulate the substructure of every object?

The difficulty of this question is compounded by the possibility that we may be dealing with several complementary mechanisms. Indeed, there are early indications that mental healing has both energetic and informational components, and that these may not always be at work together.

For example, in the course of his studies on healer-treated water, Douglas Dean found that healers who produced a strong effect in the UV range generated weak results in the IR range, and vice-versa (Benor, p 153). Are these effects the result of different physical pathways? Another issue is raised by the apparent "toll" healing takes on different practitioners. In (2) it is stated: "the practitioner, by effort of will, extends the biofield (principally from the hands) into the recipient's body with increased force, sometimes from a distance of several feet. Chinese qigong masters are considered especially adept at this. The process appears to be draining...". On the other hand, healers like Oskar Estebany (above) reported that they could see up to 40 patients a day with no significant diminution in the effect felt by the patient. Some practitioners claim that during distant healing one should not try to transmit personal energy, but only intent, as "energy does not travel" across large distances (Master He, personal communication). Finally, there are accounts that qigong masters can draw either on their own energy or on "universal energy" during the healing process, with considerable differences in their immediate post-session metabolic profile. For example, masters who claimed to draw on their own energy during emission showed increased levels of venous blood cortisol, adrenaline, noradrenaline and dopamine, and a decrease in NK cell activity (with the opposite effects measured in their patients); at the same time, masters using "universal qi" showed a decrease in the levels of the first four parameters and increase in the last one (while their patients demonstrated a decrease in ALL factors!) (Higuchi & al 1999, a,b). While it is true that much more research is needed before such conclusions can be generalized, one has to begin asking pertinent question about the source and directionality of bioinformation flow in nature, and the observations listed above are as good a starting point as any.

It is conceivable that some practitioners may use one form of mental healing (intent only), while the others are actually generating and concentrating body frequencies in addition to the intent - such as in waiqi, which draws extensively on the healer's resources. Indeed, certain parallels can be easily noted between mind-mediated and non-ionizing, nonthermal exogenous EM field effects (1; Sidorov, 2001): for example, the organism's response to such fields is highly frequency specific and the dose-response curve is non-linear; also, extremely weak fields can, at the proper frequency and site of application, produce large effects that are either beneficial or harmful. The fact that many of these healing/enhanced growth effects can be reproduced by magnetic resonance therapy and other devices involving artificial electromagnetic fields (see section III) suggests that part of the mechanism involved in spiritual healing may be simply of a matter of learning to focus such specialized frequencies via different meditative techniques, producing an entrainment of oscillations between the healer's qi (either brainwaves or Laogong bioemissions, such as in therapeutic touch) and the patient's biofield. Furthermore, the fact that so many cultures use the hands to imprint a healing object or transmit healing effects to a body (see section II) suggests that the hand's Laogong point is an effective "convergent lens" or filter of these healing frequencies, and also that proximity between such a "lens" and the patient's disease areas is beneficial.

Our working hypothesis is that we are dealing with two different mechanisms: while adjacent healing draws on the healer's energy (entrainment of biofield frequencies), in distant effects the healer's intent is carried via a non-energetic substrate (quantum holographic network) to the target site, where its information is converted to electromagnetic (hence physical) signals using the patient's own energy. Thus, we can expect that direct healing may demonstrate some degree of inverse relationship between effect size and distance to target, while non-local healing would remain distance independent, but would likely demonstrate a different time of onset compared to the local processes, corresponding to the mechanism of "transduction". The time to onset may, in fact, be lesser or greater than with local healing - it is conceivable that direct EM entrainment may take longer than transfer of intent coupling directly to the organism's EM field. Of course, the simultaneous exercise of both functions in local healing cannot be ruled out (it is hard to imagine the complete lack of mental intent during Therapeutic Touch or similar modalities!), but might be taken into account by an experimental protocol such as (E2). We hope that experimental work along the lines suggested below will help confirm or disprove this hypothesis. Preliminary studies on "tohate"/physiological/ EEG synchronization between sender and receiver are already an important first step in this direction (see section V), and provide a good foundation for this type of protocol. ( Note: It is important to use quantifiable, instantly measurable physiological parameters in as nearly-identical as possible targets in simultaneous measurements of the same "run").

Experiment 2: We suggest comparing the effect size/time to onset on skin conductance fluctuation on lab mice (identical line) placed as follows: M1 - in nearest proximity to Qigong master; M2 - still in proximity, but a little further; M3 - at same distance as M1, but with master unaware of its presence (assume all mice placed in opaque cages); M4 - placed 1km away from master; M5 - 10 km away; M6 - 1 km away, with master unaware of its existence. We suggest measuring these effects an ALL mice while the master is focusing on different targets - ie M1, then M2, M3, M4, etc. Such data might yield important clues, not only about the distance-effect correlation, but also about the importance of mental contact with the target. A variation on this protocol could involve physical parameters such as the IR/UV shift of water, change in laser polarization angle, etc.

While this might shed some light on the mechanism(s) involved in healing, we are still left with a deeply puzzling question: how do we account for target specificity - ie does the healer connect to his/her subject?

One way, commonly found in the radionics literature, is by using a hair or blood sample as "witness": by placing this sample in the witness well of the instrument and then adjusting various "rate" knobs (corresponding to various electrical resistance values), the operator supposedly can effect both a diagnosis and desired changes in the subject, even when the latter is not present (Dimitriou; Kelly,1997; Diver & Kuepper, 1997; Benford & al, 2001 ). How is this possible? The answer, according to the principles of radionics, has to do with structural similarities. The closer the structural similarity of two objects, the greater the intrinsic frequency similarity, hence the higher the likelihood of resonant transfer between them. At a quantum level, the complex structure of a DNA molecule provides an ideal, uniquely characteristic "frequency signature"; using a DNA sample such a blood vial or hair lock in the "witness" well of a radionic machine, then modulating its QHS through the appropriate EM rate, would, according to this model, induce corresponding changes in the target because of this resonant transfer across the "sea" of subvacuum frequencies. Experiments such as those performed by M. Sue Benford, where exposing half of a hair sample to ionizing radiation produced radiographic film exposure underneath the other half of the sample, located many miles away (personal communication), the work done by Cleve Backster on cellular communication (Stone, 1995) and the success of radionic broadcasting in agriculture (Benor p329; Kelly 1997; Diver & Kuepper 1997) seem to provide initial support to this (so far empirical) paradigm.

EXPERIMENT 3: We suggest comparing the effect size of healing intent with replicable radionic settings on various biological samples differing by increasing degrees of genetic variation (ie bacterial samples with increasing degree of mutation through successive generations, but all originating from "witness" line ).

Furthermore, adjuncts may function as relay stations: as we have argued earlier in this paper, it is possible that the focused, laser-like application of thought AND immediate physical presence of the healer during the preparation of the adjunct creates a specific interference, or distortion, in the objects's subvacuum structure; once the object is in the presence of the patient, it is possible that every time the healer enters this particular state of mind, regardless who it is for, the healing thought acts as a reference beam and reactivates the adjunct objects's "healing hologram", causing it to emit specific frequencies which couple with and modify the patient's electromagnetic field as if the healer were right there; it is up to the patient to tune into a receptive state of mind as often as possible, and allow those frequencies to be captured by his/her organism (possibly the reason for which Estebany mentioned that the patient had to occasionally re-evoke the memory of the healer, and the healer had to try and re-establish connection with the patient and/or healing adjuncts).

Are some actions more likely to "excite" this quantum substructure, and are some excitations more lasting than others? Are some objects more "imprintable" with intent? We are years away from answering such questions with any degree of certainty, but one observation may prove useful at this point: the (empirically observed) superior properties of water, hair samples, crystals and fibrous material as links in distant healing suggest that they might provide a form of signal reinforcement through the high repetition of a relatively simple, homogeneous molecular arrangement. The aqueous solution of blood could amplify the QHS signal of the DNA in a blood vial used as a witness, and the same could be accomplished by the hundreds of keratin fibers in a hair sample.