NEW REALITIES
July/August 1987

Exerpts from the publication: “Mietek Wirkus Brings Bio-Energy Healing to America”

By Milton Friedman

A prominent U.S. congressman recently stepped from behind his desk to welcome an examination of his aura and to open himself to an unconventional healing. But this event did not signal a shift in the preoccupation of official Washington from politics to prana. It was only another incident in the story of an exceptional healer from Communist Poland — an episode in which he was invited to the U.S. Capitol building to share his extraordinary gifts with yet another American in need of his healing.

The congressman prefers anonymity. The gifted Pole is Mietek Wirkus. He is a master of a new wave of paranormal healing emerging in Eastern Europe and the first to bring the art to the United States.

At a time when Soviet leader Gorbachev has embarked on a new policy of so called glasnost, translated as “openness,” Washington, D.C., is displaying an openness of its own toward Mietek Wirkus. The Pole is not an advocate of Communism in any form but of consciousness in every manifestation that can lead to the healing of the human body and, perhaps, of the global body politic.

Some medical circles here have conceded that the Soviet bloc leads the West in seeking functional applications of “bioenergy,” the category of healing in which newcomer Mietek Wirkus is an expert. That is why he is being welcomed in the U.S. by physicians as well as politicians and other patients, who see in him a valuable resource for health care. “Bio-energy” is the name given to the new therapeutic discipline by Professor Zdenek Rejdak of Charles University in Prague, Czechoslovakia. It is not to be confused with the “Bioenergetics” of Reich and Lowen. Based upon Asian concepts of prana (vital energy), bio-energy involves the transmission of subtle vibrations from one person to another to facilitate healing. Ancient healers in Tibet and India long ago discovered that prana could be directed and manipulated and its flow transferred to those with a deficiency of such energy.

It takes unusual personalities to persuade the medical establishment to consider new modalities to augment the science of healing. Such a personality is Mietek Wirkus. His humility and gentle appeal motivate people to call him by his first name. So he has become known in the United States simply as Mietek.

Mietek arrived here from Warsaw in September 1985, along with his wife, Margaret, a prominent Polish television journalist and linguist. She now assists in his work. He also brought with him the ability to demonstrate the powers of prana. Washington is a city of words; it has heard endless theoretical discussions of various approaches to healing. With the arrival of the shy Mietek, Washington has witnessed actual demonstrations of bio-energy therapy — often with dramatic results.

Historically, American medicine started with a preference for hands-on treatment that valued improvisation and practical experience over the traditional adherence to a dogmatic discipline. When Benjamin Franklin supported the creation, at the University of Pennsylvania, of the first American school of medicine, he went to England to study the training of physicians. Franklin re-rejected Oxford University’s adherence to the rigidity of the past. He preferred the Edinburgh model of personal involvement of medical students with patients — an approach that encouraged the questioning of time-honored precepts and openness to new discoveries.

Today, a growing number of American physicians and psychotherapists have overcome the belief system inherent in mechanistic medicine by asking Mietek to see their patients. They perceive his work as “complementary” or “supplemental.” From the Wirkus files come the following case histories of bio-energy therapy:

• A Harvard-trained internist sent a 62-year-old patient to Mietek. The man complained of chronic fatigue, indigestion, insomnia, and depression. After a session with Mietek, the man went home, experienced 12 hours of deep sleep, and then the disappearance of all symptoms. The internist was delighted.

• A registered nurse, age 35, suffered asthma and back pain that conventional medicine had failed to heal. She reported dramatic improvement. After three sessions she felt “like a new person.”

• A 57-year-old man suffering from cancer had exhausted the standard remedies. His physician noted what appeared to be a strengthening of his immune system and lessening of pain following the bio-energy sessions.

• A 60-year-old woman suffering the anguish of arthritis told her doctor that her pain was relieved.

• A 53-year-old woman had difficulty practicing her profession as a psychotherapist because of migraine attacks and severe back pain. She reported relief.

• A 10-year-old boy, the victim of hearing impairment and unrelenting headaches, showed significant improvement verified by an audiogram. His headaches stopped.

• An 8-year-old girl from El Salvador was sent to Mietek. A psychiatrist was considering hospitalizing the child in a mental institution. The child was so traumatized that she was terrified of the dark, unable to sleep, and so fearful that she could not go to the bathroom alone. The child and her parents could not speak English, but bio-energy appears to transcend international language barriers. Three sessions brought the phobic state under control. The girl became calm and could smile again. But Mietek does not make extravagant claims. In some instances, clients report no discernible benefit. Most require at least three visits. Physicians and psychologists who make referrals urge a detailed record keeping system for research.

Technically defined, bio-energy therapy involves the replenishment of human “bio-currents” and the elimination of energy disturbances and blocks. Bio-currents are manifested in the biofield surrounding the body — the so-called “aura.” This radiant energy field, encompassing all living beings, has been recorded by Kirlian photography, a process in which a high-frequency electrical field is directed at an object and the object’s pattern of resulting luminescence is captured on film. The aura emits energy vibrations that can be detected and measured.

A group of scientists with the Soviet Bio-Information Institute, headed by A. S. Popow, years ago announced the discovery that living organisms emit these vibrations at a frequency between 300 and 2000 manometers. They also established — which is what the yogis knew long ago — that persons able to perform bio-energy healing have a much stronger and more extensive bio-field. These findings were later confirmed at the Medical Science Academy in Moscow.

Yet neither Soviet claims nor technical data explain the impact of Mietek on Washington. Physicians and psychotherapists who know his work observe that he is so uniquely attuned and sensitive that his body itself is a precise instrument. He can often transmit frequencies to produce healing in a demonstration that speaks for itself. Mietek’s work has expanded by word-of-mouth, from one doctor to another. Nevertheless, he seeks no publicity and has turned down invitations to appear on TV talk shows.

Mietek does not treat or heal in the conventional medical sense. After a careful evaluation, he restores depleted energy flow to achieve the balance that makes healing possible. He does not offer himself as a practitioner of medicine nor as a substitute for professional or psychological care. Rather, he insists that people follow the advice of the professionals who referred them. Bio-energy therapy is an unconventional experiment that seems to work in a significant number of cases.

Following the client’s silhouette with his graceful hands, Mietek’s scan senses the energy flow with anomalies in the emanations. His palm indicates the imbalance, registering heat or cold, when he senses blockage or disruption. Since his pranic resources surpass those of the subject, Mietek is able to saturate the trouble zone with his own energy. The subject being treated may feel heat, tingling, vibrations — or nothing at all. Bio-energy transfer facilitates self-healing by the client. It is a catalyst for the healing process and lifestyle changes indicated. Mietek insists that he is neither a faith healer nor a miracle worker. He also admits that he is unable to help in some instances; in an estimated ten percent of cases the person does not notice improvement. Nor is the subject’s belief in Mietek required for a successful healing intervention.

Confirmation of this was indicated when Dr. Tod Mikuriya, a California psychiatrist skilled in the use of biofeedback monitoring devices, evaluated Mietek in the process of healing. Mietek’s energy projections were seen to connect with the alpha and beta fields, the biomagnetic domain of the subject. Neither the placebo effect nor power of suggestion functioned here. An energy flow clearly registered on the instruments — a reading far more discernible, said Dr. Mikuriya, than in the testing of other healers studied. As Mietek’s powers have come to the attention of national foundations and research hospitals, other trained researchers are seeking a credible scientific protocol for testing him and evaluating the results. In fact, Mietek himself welcomes further testing under well-recognized scientific protocols. The prestigious Menninger Hospital in Topeka, Kansas, would be ideal for such a study.

Mietek has worked with one physician who noted that it is unusual for a healer to invite laboratory study because most self-proclaimed “psychics” avoid clinical observation. The doctor said that the, excuse generally used was that critical examination inhibited their function. He pointed out that “the quacks exploit the gullible and make it difficult for the truly gifted, like Mietek, to be taken seriously.” According to Mietek, however, “if you can heal, you can heal… under observation and monitoring or not.” In the short time that he has been in this country, Mietek has also conducted workshops sponsored by the Institute of Noetic Sciences, the A.R.E. Clinic of Pheonix, Arizona, and other institutions concerned with paranormal healing, and has demonstrated his art to many physicians and other health professionals.

There is a quiet spiritual quality to all that Mietek undertakes. After one workshop, Mietek was asked to see a 14-year-old boy who suffered visible impairment in the development of one arm. An appointment was made for a Sunday morning,. Mietek, a Roman Catholic, had hoped to go with his wife to early Mass in a nearby church, but they awakened too late, and it was time for Mietek to work with the youth. When the boy left, Mietek expressed regret at missing church. A friend responded, “Mietek, the church — and the Christ — are not in a certain building at a certain time. God was where you were channeling His energy to heal. So you were at the real service.” Mietek smiled and said nothing.

Mietek lives in the Washington, D.C., area. With his wife, he now conducts classes for over 150 physicians, nurses, medical technicians, psychotherapists, and other professionals in the healing arts. Others are sometimes admitted, like the senior airline pilot who applied with a desire to enhance his sensitivity to healing energies after a stressful career of flying. Of all those in his classes, Mietek believes that only four or five possess a highly developed healing gift. “But almost everyone can learn to some degree… at least to raise the level of sensitivity and to learn how to love and serve others.”

Mietek was born in Warsaw in’ 1939, shortly before the German invasion of Poland. Following the war, physicians were scarce in devastated Warsaw. It was then that Mietek’s parents noticed that he possessed an unusual capacity to heal. His sister suffered from severe asthma. By putting his hands on her shoulders, he was able to calm even the worst attacks.

Fascinated with healing from childhood, Mietek read everything he could find about Polish, Russian, and other European healers as well as Renaissance savants like Paracelsus. He learned of the ancient record of man’s natural ability to heal, recorded in the early rock carvings of Egypt and Chaldea and inscribed throughout the Old and New Testaments of the Bible. The yogic ability to transmit “shakti” fascinated Mietek.

He also studied the many accounts of the laying-on of hands in the medieval church, and knew of Mesmer’s “projection of animal magnetism” in nineteenth century Europe and how the process underlying magnetic healing had been discarded in the following century, when medicine became a structured science. He was even able to study with Yoga teachers and a Tibetan monk. As a result, the chakra system and other aspects of yogic healing became familiar.

A basic aspect of the concept of energy in Asia, Mietek learned, was prana. It is seen as the function that underlies the life process — involving the dynamics of the personalized interaction upon which the laying-on of hands is based. The word prana derives from the Sanskrit pra (“forth”) and an (“to breathe” or “to live”). The Yogic tradition gives prana two meanings: in its more subtle sense, prana refers to the life breath sent out from the spiritual plane to the physical level of existence; the other definition refers to purely physical inhalation and exhalation through breathing. Prana is said to be solar in origin and linked with what Western medicine terms the oxygen molecule. Conductors of prana are the breath, blood flow, and the nervous system. Projected prana follows a biological path sensitive to oxygen absorption.

A patient’s hemoglobin provides a physiological index to bio-energy healing. Hemoglobin, a component of the red blood cells, is a sensitive indicator of oxygen uptake and is readily accessible for study. Along with biofeedback, measurements of thermal currents, and other indices, the study of hemoglobin combined with a variety of factors could provide laboratory data on bio-energy therapy.

Rather than leaving his art to the vague generalizations of the “new age,” Mietek is committed to constant questioning and growth as he seeks to learn from everyone — including the medical establishment. He favors an integrative approach to healing rather than the “alternative” system that some are trying to develop. A talented student who showed great potential, Mietek pursued pre-medical studies and sought to become a physician in Poland. But the Communist bureaucracy turned down his application for medical school because of his spiritual interests and the fact that his mother was an American. He did not meet the profile required by the power structure in a Communist state. Nevertheless, he found work as a healer in a paramedical capacity under the supervision of physicians in Warsaw hospitals, clinics, and factory dispensaries. Upon learning of his gift, some priests asked him to heal in Roman Catholic churches.

In 1982 Poland officially designated bio-energy therapy as an approved medically supervised modality to facilitate the work of physicians, and Mietek became one of the first healers licensed by the government.

It is also ironic that Mietek, in his youth, followed the same profession as the great American psychic diagnostician, Edgar Cayce: they both started as photographers. Perhaps they progressed from photographed images to the aura. But Mietek is the first to say that he is no “Polish Edgar Cayce.”

Mietek does not promise any result in his sessions. He tells some, from the start, that he does not know if he can help them. Mietek is still not certain how bio-energy therapy works and would like studies that utilize the latest in high technology. In line with the prevailing prana theory, it is suggested that illness occurs when an energy imbalance exists at the cellular level. Through Mietek’s intervention, the energy balance may be restored and normal body process resumed. The relief of severe pain, sometimes with quick and profound relief, has been observed. Yet there is much in this process that is believed in theory but not established under the rules of science. Mietek is aware of the placebo effect in which the power of suggestion sometimes heals. But he has seen many instances in which subjects did not actively participate in healing sessions, nor even know what was happening. He has effectively aided infants, the mentally retarded, comatose patients — even animals. In his own words, Mietek tells how he restores the energy balance in sick people. When a person comes to me, “said Mietek,” I first check for bioenergy disturbances. I used to feel pain in the same part of my body as the patient. Now, with much more experience, I am able to pick up energy data through the palm of my hand. “When I find a diseased organ, I feel cold or excess heat emanating from it… sometimes a prickly sensation or stabbing pains. At times it feels as though an invisible force were tearing pieces of flesh from my palm. It took years to learn how to prevent negative currents from invading my body.

“Most recently I find it less necessary to bring my hands near the patient. I am now developing an ability to perceive precise pictures, as exact as those in anatomy books. When I approached one person, for instance, I caught a clear glimpse of his diseased gland as I felt a pain in my kidney. Medical tests proved this reading.”

“Another time a woman was examined and I saw a needle pointing into her body. I knew it was not a real needle and asked her if she had pain in that area. She answered in the affirmative. It turned out to be a disorder in her ovaries.” “I do not diagnose illness. That is for the qualified physician. I refer people to their physicians when I see diseased areas and malfunctioning organs. I also do what I can to restore a sick person’s energy balance. I begin transmitting energy. This is usually done by placing my palms on his head as near as possible to the spot where the brain center regulating the function of the diseased organ is located. In this way, through the channel of the nervous system, I seek to balance the energy level in the affected organ and the surrounding area.”

“In some instances I am very pleased to achieve particularly good results. This is especially true in female disorders such as infertility. My wife, Margaret, says that people should see me before they go to surrogates.” “Nearly everyone tells me they feel better after a session. All seem more calm and relaxed. Chronic pain is sometimes relieved. Some people are able to absorb energy better than others.” “I really prefer not to speak of disease and sickness but of energy disturbance in the bio-field. A person does not have illness; he lacks health. His energy source is disturbed.” “People tell me about the laying-on of hands in their family or church, and how they are healers. It is possible for anyone to help others if there is a positive and caring attitude — provided that there is genuine love for others and no trace of rancor, malice, or prejudice in the healer. Arrogance, pride, and egoism frustrate healing. Love and genuine kindness raise the energy level; love is the source of healing power.”

“It’s a great joy to help people. You have heard of volunteer blood donors. I am a volunteer energy donor. Humans once had the natural ability to use bioenergy in healing. Our so-called civilization has destroyed these abilities. The time has come to reclaim these inherent gifts.” “Research on bio-energy has progressed in Poland, Czechoslovakia, the Soviet Union, and elsewhere. I love America and hope that even deeper research will be done here in this land of technological genius and democratic openness.” just as there can be no national or political boundaries to the human spirit, so the bio-energy flow manifested by Mietek can unite all humanity in a universal energy.”

Milton Friedman, a New Realities contributing editor, formerly worked at the White House and also served on the U.S. Senate staff.