The Energy Cure: Unraveling the Mystery of Hands-On Healing Paperback – Unabridged, October 1, 2010

My view of Bill Bengston's book, and especially the CD set, is that they are vitally important. By all means buy several and give them away - that's what I've done. Bengston is a stickler for tight experimental protocols and publishing in peer-reviewed journals so his results are well documented and quite credible. Still, it's amazing this work has gone on for forty years without catching the baleful eye of the closed-minded professional skeptics.There are a number of other reviews posted here that do a good job describing Bengston's method in some detail. In this review I will provide some additional information, based on a workshop I attended, that may not be found in the book or CD set or in the other reviews (there are 48 reviews of the book at this writing and I didn't read them all).After reading the book and working through the CD set (I recommend going directly to the CD set if you're serious) I really couldn't understand how Bengston's method is possible. I'm not saying I couldn't understand how it works - I knew there was little chance of that at the present - but rather how his actual mental algorithm, continuously cycling through a list of at least 20 mental images in a fraction of a second per cycle, could be performed by a typical human. That quandary caused me to sign up for one of Bill's occasional workshops, held in late 2013. It was reasonably priced - he's clearly not in it for the money - and it turned out to be a great experience. Much was revealed in the way of small details that are important for clarity and could make the difference between success and frustration. The information I give here is my best recollection and interpretation of what Bill said; I believe these points are accurate but I may have misunderstood something, and there were many times when Bill emphasized he was speculating or providing anecdotal information.Addressing my misgivings about the process of extremely rapid cycling, Bill said that as you accelerate the rate at which you go through your image list you reach a point where you are no longer seeing discrete images or even a blur of images; what remains is a "physical sensation." It seems that this "phase transition," as Bill calls it, like the transition of water to ice, is the key to learning this method. The second most important issue would seem to be learning to cycle in background mode while going through your normal daily activities. To perform actual healing, according to Bill, you "form a fleeting intention to heal and then let it go, step out of the way, and let the universe take care of it." We humans with our "pea brains" couldn't hope to carry out anything so amazingly complex, he emphasized. While "healing," he said, carry on a conversation, have an argument, watch TV, do anything you like but don't think about healing.Asked if there was any way to know you are cycling properly other than to heal he said, not so far as he knew. However, some encouragement may be had if items on your cycling list (things that you want to happen or to have) begin to occur in surprising ways - at which time you should take those items off your list. He keeps his list up to date and also removes any items that "don't feel right" as he cycles; he said the last time he had updated his list was on the airplane traveling to the workshop. As to the question of when to cycle, he told the workshop, "You've never seen me not cycling." Bill says he cycles pretty much constantly while he's awake.When asked what percentage of the "volunteers" who had taken part in his published lab experiments over the years, mostly grad students and faculty at the various universities where the experiments were performed, had succeeded in curing cancer in laboratory animals, Bill responded, "All of them." Remember, he did not select volunteers who were already healers or who claimed to be psychic or unusually intuitive, or even individuals who were enthusiastic and believed it could work. He selected ordinary scientific-skeptical students and faculty members who thought it sounded like nonsense (as indeed it does). From this it is reasonable to infer that most normal skeptical people, after six weeks of training (the normal time period used by Bill), should be able to cure cancer, at least in mice. While this seems like a reasonable inference based on the evidence it is still not certain because of a lack of understanding of exactly what is going on in this deeply mysterious process.Bill's answer to many questions was, "I don't know," and he would frequently tell participants to, "Read the manual." The "manual," which he handed out at the beginning of the workshop, was a blue glossy business card with "Avoid Ritual!" printed on one side and "Be Playful!" printed on the other.In the CD set Bengston covers 90% of what is covered in the workshop. He drills you in his technique, just like in the workshop, and covers most of the same issues. However, working through the CD set I did not develop the enthusiasm that the live workshop generated, largely because there was no way to get niggling questions answered (I hope this information helps you avoid some of the frustration), and also because I found Bill to be an amusing and entertaining teacher when he wasn't cracking the whip and exhorting the group to, "Cycle faster! Faster!" If somebody reported a problem he often responded, "You're not cycling fast enough!"Near the end of the workshop Bengston emphasized ethical issues (primarily, never do anything for another person without their permission) and legal issues (he emphasized protecting yourself if you want to offer healing and suggested a few attorneys who are knowledgeable about the issues involved). These issues are also covered in the CD set, without the specific suggestions.Late on the second day we had a brief practice period where we partnered up just to get a feel for the overall process (or you could opt out - no pressure). I found it encouraging that my practice partner (for 15 minutes) was an oncologist. I hoped I was getting a glimpse of the future when mainstream medicine embraces a pragmatic, open-minded, evidence-driven healing approach, with a renewed emphasis on the directive, "First, do no harm."

I found out about Dr. Bengston's book through a parapsychology blog... wish I could remember which one of them it was. The blogger was struck by the reaction of most people to Bengston's laboratory findings (silence), and even more so by his own reaction - the same unbelieving silence.I don't know what to make of the claims - as Bengston insists, you shouldn't believe him: You should do what he says and see for yourself. But his claims are big - and I mean BIG - such as total remissions of cancer and even a particular case where a woman was spared a foot amputation when her gangrene was healed. As Bengston informs you in his book, gangrene never goes away - there are no reported cases of it remitting and of affected limbs returning to their previously healthy state.I've read his book and I've listened through most of his Sounds True course, which I downloaded from Audible. I'm not at a point yet to discuss the merits of his approach because, well, it takes some time to get to the point where you can practice his technique. You've got to come up with 20 things you really want to manifest in your life - and these have to be very specifically crafted and unique from one another. They have to be entirely selfish. You'd think that would be easy! - But it is NOT.I've been working on my list for two days when I've been able to get around to it, and I think I have at least 15 solid items. I'm hoping to finally wrap it up tonight and hopefully try his cycling technique several times this weekend (you must envision actually having or being or experiencing the various situations you would like to manifest in your life in rapidfire succession. Eventually you do this so rapidly you aren't actually conscious of each individual item and you get in touch with an emotion which pervades you - the claim is this "e-motion" is somehow related to the generation of a healing energy which will then serve as the healing force).If you are confused, then good - this is something that takes some time to get your head around.It is this list of selfish items and the tales of people manifesting their desires which shocked me nearly as much as the healing stories - I didn't expect that learning how to heal others would have anything to do with me getting something out of it! - In fact, it seems antithetical to my presumptions, but Bengston repeatedly tells you that you'll see a lot of your presumptions get tossed aside in this work.It was a fun read! - Like a lot of the other reviewers, I read through this book pretty quickly. I think most people would enjoy Bengston's story, even if they never get around to putting any of what he has to say into practice. Rest assured this book doesn't come off like a lot of "New Agey" stuff out there - there is no certitude in these pages - simply active grappling with paradigm-destroying, empirical experience!If I find myself manifesting the desired experiences that I've written down and I start healing people of their ailments with this method, I'll be sure to come back and update my review to let you all know about it.Take care.