Eric Leskowitz- MD
- Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital
Eric Leskowitz
- MD
- Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital
About
70
Publications
56,915
Reads
How we measure 'reads'
A 'read' is counted each time someone views a publication summary (such as the title, abstract, and list of authors), clicks on a figure, or views or downloads the full-text. Learn more
187
Citations
Introduction
Eric Leskowitz MD worked for over 25 years as a holistic psychiatrist with the Pain Management Program at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital in Boston. As a faculty member of Harvard Medical School, he introduced a wide range of mind/body and energy medicine approaches to the treatment of chronic pain. His particular research interest is in the biofield mechanisms underlying phantom limb pain.
Current institution
Additional affiliations
January 2015 - present
Publications
Publications (70)
Energy psychology (EP) has been shown to be useful for a wide range of disorders, from depression and PTSD to chronic pain syndromes like fibromyalgia. Phantom limb pain, which is pain that can develop after amputation, is notoriously difficult to treat. Conventional thinking attributes this kind of pain to cortical mis-wiring. However, there may b...
A description of how the most widely-used technique in Energy Psychology - EFT, or "tapping" - came to be incorporated into the plot of a major motion picture, an example of the process by which novel therapeutic modalities are incorporated into the cultural mainstream.
https://www.energypsych.org/blog/emotional-freedom-techniques-in-hollywood
The safety, efficacy, and messaging concerns cited by vaccine resisters raise important questions about how the quality of scientific evidence is assessed, cited, and disseminated. While such political factors are beyond the scope of this paper, examples are given in which vaccine safety and efficacy data has been presented to the public in confusi...
This discussion focuses on ways to discuss various perspectives on the Covid crisis without generating polarization and divisiveness. Seeking the merits in all approaches (vaccines, natural immunity, supplements and lifestyle factors) allows for a more robust response, but in terms of individual health and in terms of societal health and cohesion.
The Zone is a state of mind/body coordination that is much sought after by athletes because it is so conducive to achieving peak performance. The experience of this state can be so transcendent that some have come to view sport as a spiritual practice. An immensely popular recent movie about competitive chess, The Queen's Gambit, is not overtly abo...
New therapies like energy psychology cannot be adequately explained under the medical model. This outline of an energy-based paradigm shows how subjective experiences of energy flow can actually guide the creation of a new model that explains how the mind directs energy flow, and how the body's physiology responds.
The field of energy medicine (EM) is perhaps the most controversial branch of integrative medicine: its core concept - the existence of an invisible healing energy – has not yet been validated by Western medicine, and the mechanism(s) of action of its techniques have not been fully elucidated. In this paper, these problems are addressed by first ou...
The energetic interpersonal connections that we experience in sports and in exercise have been severely curtailed during the Covid lockdown, and the restoration of these emotional bonds will be a major bonus to the end of our global pandemic response. A blend of multi-dimensional training techniques from the world of sports are described that can k...
Elements: Ayurveda Health and Nutrition 18(1):4, 2020
Phantom limb Pain (PLP) is a form of chronic post-amputation neuropathic pain that responds poorly to treatment interventions derived from the neuroanatomic understanding of pain and analgesia. However, several novel treatments that are based on an “energy medicine” or prana-based model appear...
A s a long-time follower of biofield science research, I recently found my attention drawn to two newspaper articles that at first glance seemed unrelated. One reported on a study showing that the human brain could detect external magnetic fields, and the other described how the new manager of the Boston Red Sox baseball team had brought about an e...
The term “biofield science” is relatively new, but the study of the human energy field is ancient, especially in Eastern traditions. One well-known Western advocate – Franz Mesmer – was “excommunicated” by the medical establishment of 18th century Paris for his work with Animal Magnetism, but his preliminary research in this field is surprisingly r...
Paradigm shifts often require an anomalous “black swan” event in order to reach a tipping point. This article describes several ways in which the materialist paradigm of medicine has been approaching such an inflection point, one that would require acceptance of the existence of such intangible factors as “energy” and consciousness. Interventions l...
This essay outlines some of the key developments over the past 40 years that have seen Western medicine move from a totally materialist, biological paradigm of health and illness, to embrace mind/body interactions as crucial, and now more recently to consider the role of invisible healing energies in affecting health. “Biofield science” has become...
Overview of a Special Issue of Medical Acupuncture, detailing the role of integrative medicine in the treatment of PTSD and traumatic brain injuries, with a focus on cranio-sacral therapy, energy psychology, functional medicine and acupuncture.
Election campaigns reflect deep internal processes within the individual citizens who comprise the country as a whole. We share a collective consciousness at some level, whether it’s the manufactured consensus of advertising and the mass media, or the archetypal Collective Unconscious of Carl Jung, or the energetic resonance explored by the Global...
Results of a biofield therapy for chronic pain patients trended positive for pain intensity and functional improvement, but did not reach statistical significance because of small sample size. Further research is warranted.
An overview of the biofield model of phantom limb pain is presented, and it's roots in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) are discussed. In particular, the importance of emotional trauma in impacting the flow of subtle energy (qi) is highlighted, and therapies which are able to effect this change are predicted to be effective in treating phantom pa...
Phantom Limb Pain (PLP) is a form of chronic neuropathic pain that responds poorly to treatment interventions derived from the neuroanatomic understanding of pain and analgesia. Several new psychological and behavioral treatments that have proven more effective have been explained by invoking neural plasticity as their mechanism of action. Other no...
By focusing on one particular sporting event (the 2013 baseball World Series), several important aspects of group consciousness can be elucidated. Using random number generator (RNG) analysis of key events, it is possible to track the role of such factors as team chemistry, fan energy, a charismatic leader, regional and national bonding, forgivenes...
This chapter focuses on the collective aspects of sports, the synergies that arise when people unite for a common cause. Research will be presented that shows how intangible group energies can build team chemistry and can heighten the crowd's impact on an event. Studies using random number generators (RNGs) and heart coherence measurements have doc...
The field of consciousness studies seeks reliable measurement devices to detect the existence of human consciousness and its impact on the physical world. The random number generator (RNG) technology utilized by Princeton's Engineering Anomalies Research (PEAR) lab is a well-studied approach to detecting mind/machine interactions. RNG studies in th...
This response to an article on behavioral contagions (laughing, yawning, etc.) proposes a biofield mechanism for processes usually attributed to mirror neurons.
This paper describes a demonstration of energetic interaction at a distance. The subject's heart rate variability coherence (HRVC) was increased dramatically when sitting at rest, in close proximity to a group of skilled practitioners of a heart-coherence meditation who were eliciting a state of high HRVC in themselves. Several opportunities to imp...
This chapter focuses on group interactions as a forum in which transpersonal phenomena can be reliably experienced, by emphasizing the element often referred to as "group energy". Human being have always been drawn to powerful group energies, whether at musical concerts, religious ceremonies, political rallies or sporting events, and the manipulati...
A multidimensional model of chronic pain includes not only physiologic and psychological/emotional factors, but also the dimension
of subtle energy. In this chapter, the subtle energy dynamics of chronic pain are explored by first outlining the subtle anatomy
and energy physiology described in many healing traditions around the world. Then, specifi...
Content on integrative healthcare and complementary and alternative medicine is being taught in hundreds of educational programs across the country. Nursing, medical, osteopathic, chiropractic, acupuncture, naturopathic, and other programs are finding creative and innovative ways to include these approaches in new models of education and practice....
Serious concerns are raised regarding anomalies surrounding research published by Daniel Wirth, including hitherto unpublished data. The concerns focus on Wirth's Therapeutic Touch wound-healing studies, and include: the author's inaccessibility to professional colleagues; lack of proper documentation; inappropriate and deceptive use of titles, aff...
Introduces presentation by Jon Kabat-Zinn and Trisha Meili, who had recently revealed her identity as the Central Park Jogger, the previously anonymous investment professional whose brutal attack and rape in 1989 gripped the attention of the country. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
One of the most puzzling areas covered under the umbrella of integrative medicine is the field of energy healing. Based on the notion of a subtle vital force which is presumed to be the source of health, many ancient healing techniques have been evolved within this paradigm, including the modern American variant called Therapeutic Touch (TT). This...
An overview of the multidisciplinary, self-management approach to chronic pain, with an emphasis on the role of integrative therapies.
This commentary piece describes how an expanded energy-based paradigm is necessary in order to fully explain some of the anomalous perceptual features of phantom limb pain. The subjective sensations experienced by the patients, and the subtle sensations perceived by energy medicine practitioners who are working with amputees, cannot be explained by...
This chapter focuses on the phenomenon of intuition highlighting its applications in the field of psychotherapy. Intuition not only shows its potential validity and utility, but also outlines some possible mechanisms of action and suggests some ways that can be used to enhance an individual's latent abilities. The chapter discusses about the three...
A look at the use of several energy-based therapies in the treatment of chronic pain conditions at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital in Boston
Phantom limb pain is a widespread condition that responds poorly to conventional medical and surgical treatments. A case report is presented of the successful treatment of phantom leg pain in a 62-year-old man with peripheral vascular disease using the complementary medical technique of Therapeutic Touch. The clinical and research literature of The...
An overview of the phenomenon of trance channeling from the perspective of clinical hypnosis. Included are historical perspectives, psychophysiologic data, phenomenologic descriptions, samples of channeled information from Biblical times to the present - all presented within the transpersonal framework of consciousness.
The connections between energy healing and hypnosis are explored in this chapter, which includes sections on the history of energy healing, human subtle anatomy (the component elements of the human biofield), energetic aspects of hypnosis (including resonance between the biofields of the therapist and the patient), and the concept of energy healing...
The mainstream media recently gave wide attention to the write-up of an elementary schoolgirl's science fair project. The study purported to debunk the biofield-based nursing intervention called Therapeutic Touch, but in fact was so methodologically flawed that its publication by JAMA (the Journal of the American Medical Association) triggered a re...
This essay describes how our culture's current fascination with spiritual issues, as embodied in such best-sellers as The Celestine Prophecy, can be thought of as an attempt to expand our working view of reality into a more complete multidimensional one that encompasses bio-, psycho-, socio-, and spiritual levels.
The next phase of mind/body medicine may have to incorporate the 200 year-old concept of Animal Magnetism in order to fully understand many emerging phenomena that are inexplicable within the reigning biomedical paradigm
Asserts the need for a methodologically rigorous attempt to investigate the nature of the phenomenon called life energy. Three main aspects of the energy model that have particular relevance to questions unanswered in clinical medicine are discussed: energy centers, energy fields, and energy pathways. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rig...
Seasonal Affective Disorder is a psychiatric disorder whose pathophysiology and clinical presentation are poorly understood. By applying the ancient paradigm of yoga psychology to this subject, new understandings of the syndrome emerge regarding the possible role of the pineal gland, the clinical presentation of the syndrome, and the possible mecha...
This article is an overview of the correspondences between the yogic view of energy centers ("chakras") and the endocrine glands. Similar emotional issues are dealt with by these centers, and anatomical correlations are also highlighted in this trans-paradigmatic essay.
Several well-known hypnotic induction procedures and one major hypnotizability index all make use of an eye-roll maneuver of forced upward gaze. No neurophysiological mechanism can adequately account for this seemingly fortuitous association. However, an ancient Eastern psychophysiological paradigm based on introspectively discovered “energy center...
Eighty-five patients in an outpatient pain management program were surveyed concerning the employment status of their significant others. A statistically significant portion of these patients had chosen spouses who had professional health-care skills. The mechanism of assortative mating explains this tendency of emotionally needy chronic pain patie...
Questions
Question (1)
When I click on the blue tab "Add text publicly", nothing happens. So I try the upper right tab "Add new"->published research->article, then click "Select and upload file". Nothing happens, so I drag and drop the MS (both as .doc and as .pdf), and the green "+" seems to indicate a successful transfer into the box, but nothing actually gets to the RG page.
I've used this method successfully many times in the past, so I'm not sure what's different now. Thanks in advance for any suggestions.
