Replicated Experimental Results:
Attractor Field Techniques for Pain Control in Mice.
Ebert, R.K., and Schwarz, R.
June 2006
The following is an initial report from a Philadelphia area college psychology laboratory investigating the effect of Attractor Field Techniques (AFT) meridian-based energy treatments on mice using the AFT frequency technology. These studies were carried out in the college’s APA-approved psychology program mouse laboratory and met stringent and rigorous experimental design standards. Since they were carried out on mice (as opposed to humans) there is no chance of a placebo effect. The studies were carried out in a double-blind controlled condition. One of the studies was replicated by the experimenter.
The tests used in these experiments are standard tests meeting the ethical requirements of the APA and IACUC for working with animals. They were chosen by the experimenter whose major research efforts are in the area of pain alleviation using animals. Also noteworthy is the fact that the experimenter was a skeptic. She knew nothing about the underlying model of AFT and personally believed that the tones would have no demonstrable effect.
Experimental Studies: In each study 16 mice were exposed to each of three separate EMF conditions on consecutive days. The three EMF conditions were as follows: no EMF (a blank CD was inserted into the player); a disk containing pulses of EMF targeted at the relevant body locus tested (in this case, foot); a control condition in which ineffective EMF was recorded on the CD. Experimenters were blind to the experimental condition.
The energy treatments were part of a proprietary application of meridian stimulation via subtle EM pulses encoded on CD and played through a proprietary emitter. The sequence of meridian stimulations used by the experimenter for both the hot plate test and the tail withdrawal test was the same “foot pain” formula used for humans but used “mouse” tones rather than “human” tones (see website (www.the-tree-of-life.com) for the actual pattern of human meridian point stimulation).
Results
Study 1 Hot-plate test: Animals were placed on a metal surface maintained at 53°C, inside a Plexiglas cylinder to reduce exploratory behavior. A timer was started when both hind paws touched the surface of the plate and stopped when the mouse performed one of the following behaviors: hind paw lick; hind paw shake; attempt to escape from the cylinder.
Animals in the treatment condition showed significantly lowered pain behavior compared to both controls [A repeated measures ANOVA (F1,30 6.46, p =.004)]
Study 2 Tail-withdrawal Test: Animals were wrapped in a cloth restrainer and the distal portion of the tail was inserted into a water bath maintained at 49°C. Latency to vigorously withdraw the tail from the water indicated the nociceptive threshold.
Results: No significant effect of condition was observed for the tail-withdrawal test (F1,30=1.22, p =.308). Note that this finding serves as a negative control since the disks were not designed to inhibit pain elicited on the tail (emphasis added).
Study 3 Visceral Pain. In the abdominal constriction test, subjects are injected with 10 ml/kg body weight of dilute (.9%) acetic acid. The ensuing behavioral response (abdominal constriction) is observed and counted for the next 30 minutes.
Results: A one-way ANOVA indicated a significant effect of tone condition (F1,12 = 4.90, p = .02), with significantly fewer constrictions observed in the EMF group compared to the no-disk control (p = .009), and the Control Disk (p = .06). Subjects exposed to the control disk were no different from those exposed to no disk.
Replication:
Study 1 on pain control in mice (foot pain). 30 mice (10 in each group) were subjected to the three conditions:(Experimental energy treatment condition, “dud control disk”. and no CD control. In the replication study. there was a highly significant effect for the energy treatment disc compared to both controls (P<.003).
Discussion
It is postulated that the acupoints and meridian systems are information transduction system. They allow information to be transmitted to and from the energetic morphic fields within which our physical bodies exist. We conceive of the body as a biological system that floats within meridian-based “electromagnetic fields”. These fields are responsible for both the morphological genesis and continued maintenance of the physical body. It is theorized that energetic ‘perturbations’ in these fields result in physical disorders. The pattern of frequencies used in the AFT protocols sends information to specific morphic fields of the body to optimize these field(s) and, through this energetic optimization, optimize the functioning of the body. The mechanism of exactly how this happens is unclear; however, this hypothesis is supported by the results of this research.
That the hot plate test showed significant pain reduction while the tail withdrawal test did not is an important theoretical finding. From the AFT perspective, this was predictable: the AFT tone sequences stimulated the specific morphic field of the foot and no other morphic fields. The reduction of pain sensitivity was therefore limited to the foot. In other words, the energetic field of the foot is not the same as the energetic field as the tail and can be treated independently. From the AFT perspective, the foot pain formula should have no effect on tail pain. This finding is the reverse of what is scientifically expected. All analgesic compounds and mechanisms known to science have a general effect. Aspirin relieves pain throughout the body, as do opioids, and all other known analgesics. Similarly, acupuncture pain reduction techniques have a general effect on the body by stimulating the production of endogenous opioids. AFT appears to operate through a different mechanism, one which allows for a greater precision of action and requires no external agents or physical interventions.