The Tibetan medicine tradition considers Tong Len meditation an essential therapeutic tool that can be used for self-healing and/or to heal others. To date, scientific papers have not yet investigated the distance effects of Tong Len meditation performed by a group of meditators upon a group of patients affected by cancer-related anxiety, depression and stress. So far, some studies revealed the existence of distant healing effects when there are empathic connection and deep acquaintanceship between healers and recipients. This research, by contrast, inspects the presence of a distant psychological healing effect without any empathic bond between meditators and patients. These psychological improvements detected by POMS and EQ-5D scales in the whole sample probably reflect a potential “white lab coat effect”. The benefit could also be explained by psychological processes that occur when patients believe to be in the treatment condition and they put their trust in the therapy. However, this study does not provide sufficient evidence supporting an efficacy of Tong Len meditation in distant psychological healing compared to a control condition. Further studies should replicate this research performing various measurements also on senders, because they are also scientifically relevant participants: meditators and patients are “all-in-it-together” and they both need to be studied. Nevertheless, the benefit on both groups raises interest on indepth analysis and evaluation of distant meditation on cancer patients to mitigate psychological problems related to their disease. All patients are at least 18 years old and they don’t need psychological treatment, according to the oncologist’s judgement. The prevalence of women in the sample is legitimized because this Oncology Department treats mainly breast cancers. The main objective of this research is to evaluate a distant healing effect of Tong Len meditation on stress, anxiety, depression, fatigue and self-perceived quality of life in cancer patients.

With Regards,
Sara Giselle
Associate Managing Editor
Journal of Medical Physics and Applied Scinces