The scientific study of unusual rapid wound healing: A case report - Parapsychological Abstracts

Journal of Parapsychology, The, March, 2002 by Sally R. Feather

HALL, H., DON, N. S., HUSSEIN, J. N., WHITE, E., AND HOSTOFFER, R. (2001). The scientific study of unusual rapid wound healing: A case report. Advances in Mind-Body Medicine, 17, 203-213.

This paper examines in a Western medical setting the claim made by a Middle Eastern school of Sufism that its members can attain unusually rapid wound healing from deliberately caused bodily damage.. The demonstration involved a Sufi practitioner inserting an unsterilized metal skewer through one side of the cheek area of the face (lateral buccal) and out through the other side. The insertion was observed by Western scientists. The left facial puncture healed within 2 mm; the right facial puncture was three quarters healed after 8 hr. According to the practitioner, the piercing was not associated with subjective pain. Radiological, immunological, and electroencephalograph (EEG) recordings were taken before and after the insertion. A random event generator (REG) was also run during the demonstration. Radiological and axial computerized tomography images documented the presence of the metal skewer through the cheeks; EEG findings were inconclusive. Immunological recordings showed no alterations. There was a tre nd toward REG nonrandomness and, therefore, negentropy or increased complexity and order, which may be associated with the reestablishment of tissue integrity. Such rapid wound healing has therapeutic implications for new treatments of serious medical and pain-related problems as well as implications for the study of "paranormal" healing phenomena.

--Author's abstract