Effects of distant biofield energy healing on adults associated with psychological and mental health-related symptoms: a randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind study

Randomized trial👥 114 participants⚖️ vs. naive control and sham control groupsModerate rigor✓ Source-checked📍 India

In plain English. This double-blind, placebo-controlled trial tested a distant (remote) 'biofield energy healing' technique - not EFT tapping specifically - on people with various psychological symptoms, finding significant improvement versus both a no-treatment and sham-treatment control group. Because this tests a different (non-tapping) energy healing modality, it's only indirectly relevant to EFT-specific evidence, though the placebo-controlled double-blind design is methodologically strong for its category.

What they found

114

people took part

Perceived psychological symptoms were significantly (p<.0001) improved in the biofield intervention group compared to naive and sham control groups, with no adverse effects observed in any group.

How the study worked

Who took partadults with one or more psychological and mental health symptoms (114 total; 55 male, 59 female) (n=114)

What they didIn a randomized controlled trial, participants were randomly assigned to receive tapping or a comparison condition, then measured and compared.

Compared withnaive control and sham control groups

Measured withpsychological questionnaire covering fatigue, sleep disturbance, stress, cognitive impairment, memory loss, anxiety, depression, and other symptoms

💡 Where this could help

If this kind of rigorous double-blind, placebo-controlled design were applied directly to EFT tapping rather than a different energy-based modality, it could give tapping the same gold-standard evidence that's historically been hard to generate for hands-on techniques — closing a real gap for skeptics. That evidence would matter more than usual here, since unlike distant biofield healing, tapping is something the patient does to themselves and could keep doing indefinitely without anyone else's involvement.

🔬 What to study next

This trial is a template, not a tapping study — the real opportunity is running EFT tapping itself through this same rigorous double-blind, placebo-controlled architecture, since sham-controlled, blinded trials have historically been hard to design for hands-on techniques. Pairing that design with objective outcomes — cortisol, inflammatory markers, EEG — rather than only the perceived-symptom questionnaire used here would give tapping a gold-standard evidence base that skeptics can't easily wave away.

The full record

Design	Randomized trial
Participants	114 people
Population	adults with one or more psychological and mental health symptoms (114 total; 55 male, 59 female)
Comparison group	naive control and sham control groups
Outcome measures	psychological questionnaire covering fatigue, sleep disturbance, stress, cognitive impairment, memory loss, anxiety, depression, and other symptoms
Journal	Health Psychology Research
Year	2024
Country	India
Language	English
Method	EFT / tapping
Publication type	Study / trial
Verification	✓ Confirmed against the primary source

Read the original study →

Cite this study

APA

Trivedi, M. K., Branton, A., Trivedi, D., Mondal, S., & Jana, S. (2024). Effects of distant biofield energy healing on adults associated with psychological and mental health-related symptoms: a randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind study. Health Psychology Research. https://doi.org/10.52965/001c.122225

This record is part of the Tapping Evidence Base — an openly-sourced, fully-referenced directory of the research on EFT/tapping. Explore more studies on Anxiety · Depression · Stress & Cortisol