The Effect of the 'Laying On of Hands' on Transplanted Breast Cancer in Mice
📄 Original study📌 Appears in:
Plain English Summary
Researchers injected mice with a breast cancer strain that is 100% fatal within weeks. Then untrained volunteers (many of them skeptics!) held their hands near cages for an hour daily. The results were stunning: across 33 treated mice, nearly 88% achieved complete remission. Tumors blackened, collapsed inward, and healed, and mice lived full lifespans. Recovered mice became immune when re-injected, suggesting healing worked through the immune system. Here's where it gets weird: control mice at the same facility also started remitting at 69%, while controls shipped to another city all died on schedule. Was this a design flaw or evidence that healing spreads beyond intended targets? That remains the central puzzle, and no one outside Bengston's group has replicated these findings.
Actual Paper Abstract
After witnessing numerous cases of cancer remission associated with a healer who used "laying on of hands" in New York, one of us (W.B.) "apprenticed" in techniques alleged to reproduce the healing effect. We obtained five experimental mice with mammary adenocarcinoma (code: H2712; host strain: C3H/HeJ; strain of origin: C3H/HeHu), which had a predicted 100% fatality between 14 and 27 days subsequent to injection. Bengston treated these mice for 1 hour per day for 1 month. The tumors developed a "blackened area," then they ulcerated, imploded, and closed, and the mice lived their normal life spans. Control mice sent to another city died within the predicted time frame. Three replications using skeptical volunteers (including D.K.) and laboratories at Queens College and St. Joseph's College produced an overall cure rate of 87.9% in 33 experimental mice. An additional informal test by Krinsley at Arizona State resulted in the same patterns. Histological studies indicated viable cancer cells through all stages of remission. Reinjections of cancer into the mice in remission in Arizona and New York did not take, suggesting a stimulated immunological response to the treatment. Our tentative conclusions: Belief in laying on of hands is not necessary in order to produce the effect; there is a stimulated immune response to treatment, which is reproducible and predictable; and the mice retain an immunity to the same cancer after remission. Future work should involve testing on various diseases and conventional immunological studies of treatment effects on experimental animals.
Research Notes
Foundational paper of Bengston's healing research program, predating his 2010 editorial. The recurrent 'control contamination' pattern — on-site controls remitting when observed by healers — is the central methodological problem and theoretical ambiguity: either a design flaw or evidence of nonlocal healing. No statistical analysis reported; comparison with Beseme et al. 2018 (molecular biology of intention on cancer) illustrates the methodological evolution of this research line. Not independently replicated outside Bengston's group.
Four experiments at Queens College and St. Joseph's College tested whether 'laying on of hands' techniques could cure transplanted mammary adenocarcinoma (H2712 strain) in mice facing 100% predicted fatality within 14–27 days. Bengston and trained skeptical volunteers placed hands outside cages for 1 hour/day. The tumors developed a blackened area, ulcerated, imploded, and closed; mice lived their full lifespans. Across 33 experimental mice, 87.9% achieved complete remission. On-site controls that were observed by healers remitted at 69.2%; off-site controls sent to another city died 100%. Histological analysis found viable cancer cells throughout remission stages, suggesting an immune-mediated response. Reinjected remitted mice showed immunity to the same cancer. Stated belief in healing was not required to produce the effect.
Related Papers
Same Research Program
- Crossing Disciplinary Boundaries: Going Beyond Even Meta-Analysis of Distant Intention Effects — Bengston, William F (2012)
- Consciousness Interactions with Remote Biological Systems: Anomalous Intentionality Effects — Braud, William G (1991)
- Remote Mental Influence of Electrodermal Activity — Braud, William G (1993)
- The Efficacy of "Distant Healing": A Systematic Review of Randomized Trials — Astin, John A (2000)
- Two Meta-Analyses of Noncontact Healing Studies — Roe, Chris A (2015)
- Effects of Healing Intention on Cultured Cells and Truly Random Events — Radin, Dean (2004)
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📋 Cite this paper
Bengston, William F, Krinsley, David (2000). The Effect of the 'Laying On of Hands' on Transplanted Breast Cancer in Mice. Journal of Scientific Exploration.
@article{bengston_2000_laying_on_hands,
title = {The Effect of the 'Laying On of Hands' on Transplanted Breast Cancer in Mice},
author = {Bengston, William F and Krinsley, David},
year = {2000},
journal = {Journal of Scientific Exploration},
}