JJ asks: “Is theta healing legitimate? My sister is getting involved in it and it looks like a bunch of woo to me but I’m not sure. Do you have any information on it?”
Your instincts about theta healing are spot on! It’s a bunch of woo alright.
For those who never heard of it, it was created by Vianna Stibal in 1995 after she was allegedly healed of a cancerous tumor. Apparently Stibal, who has no medical training, discovered that “emotions and beliefs affect us on a core, genetic, history and soul level” and went on to develope a technique that “takes the brain to a deep brain theta state instantaneously” where instantaneous healing can occur. This is because in this state a person can “reestablish their connection with Creator” in order to facilitate physical, mental and emotional changes that lead to better health.
When she speaks about a Creator, it’s important to note that she’s not talking about the same God as ours but a kind of interchangeable life force that can be twisted into whatever you want it to be – which in turn makes her method compatible with all religions (according to her).
“The Creator is the spirit that intertwines and binds all things in existence,” she explains on her site. In other words, it’s the New Age god – a scientifically unsubstantiated universal life force known by its various names of chi, ki, prana, vital force etc.
For those who don’t know what exactly a theta state is all about, it is one of the five main frequency brain waves and the one used in hypnosis and during REM sleep. In the theta state, brainwaves are slowed to a frequency of 4-7 cycles per second compared to 14 to 28 in Beta and 7 to 14 in Alpha.
The website states that Vianna “believes that when you’re in a state-Gamma theta you are in a state favorable for instant healing.”
And her proof is? User testimonials.
She goes on to say that her technique “allows us to work with the Creator to help attain harmony in our mind, body and spirit. We are best known for the 7 Planes of Existence. Using this concept, the practitioner uses the meditation technique to connect with a higher spiritual power of his/her own belief and commands a change as requested by that individual.”
For Christians, this would mean commanding God to act according to the will of the individual – which is precisely the opposite of what we were taught by Jesus in the Our Father – “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”
According to this article appearing on Australia’s ABCTheDrum, once the patient is in a theta state, the theta practitioner then utilizes yet another bogus New Age technique known as “applied kinesiology” – aka muscle testing – to determine the illness. When the diagnosis is made, now it’s time for “DNA activation” which means “waking up our DNA to its highest potential.”
About the only sensible statement I could find on the website was Vianna’s insistence that theta healing be used in conjunction with conventional medicine.
Theta healing is nothing more than another variation of New Age “science” – medically unsubstantiated and not worth the web space this bunk is printed on.
