For me,energy medicine is treatment based on techniques or instruments that impact the bodymind not at the chemical or structural levels, but at the electromagnetic and/or Vital Force levels. If there is indeed a Vital Force, -- as all homoeopaths and most forms of complementary and alternative medicine believe, -- we do not have reliable generally-accepted detectors for it, so it is not acknowledged, and is indeed often derided, by orthodox science. I believe that just as the electrical and magnetic components can operate separately, but are often ' piggy-backed ' in electromagnetism, so the Vital Force may well often be piggybacked with electromagnetism too.
The energetic levels of the body appear to be superordinate to the physical levels, and operate as higher-level controls on the physical and chemical levels. Therapeutic use of the energetic levels appears so far to be largely free of the range of harmful side-effects which can be consequent on intervention at the chemical and structural levels.
The point about these forms of energy is that, as is clearly the case with electromagnetism, and is widely believed to be the case with the Vital Force, their waves can be modulated and can carry signals: they are therefore carriers and deliverers of information, and if properly handled this information can be therapeutic. If the informational content can be read, it must contain information about all the organs and systems of the body, and once it can be read, this information can be used diagnostically, and therapeutically.
We know that we and everything around us are fundamentally constructs and networks of energy, whether we are people, animals, trees and plants, stones, or manufactured objects. Everything within us, down to the last molecule, atom, or particle, is in constant rhythmical motion. Every part of us -- every tissue, every organ, every cell -- is constantly vibrating in its own unique rhythm, and giving off its own unique signal. Since we are estimated to have somewhere in between 70 and 100 trillion cells in our bodies, it is clear that every one of us is an unbelievably complicated network of signals. Fritz Popp once wrote that if we were to write down all the possibilities for information in a single cell over the course of one second, it would take us many years simply to read the result. But every part of this infinitely complex network must work precisely in coordination with every other part if we are to be healthy. It appears to be the case that the coordination of this network is carried out by our subconscious minds, which therefore must be infinitely more capable and complex than our conscious minds.
However, the conscious mind and everyday being and activity certainly has an effect upon this realm. Our emotions, our diet, our thoughts, and activities, pattern and can upset this exquisitely sensitive and complex network. Although the subtle realm is superordinate, it is necessarily in constant two-way feedback with the physical. Any of these spheres of our activity can upset it and cause discord and disharmony. If this is maintained over a period, or if it is too sudden and severe, illness and disease will result. We and all forms of life are controlled by, and indeed at a fundamental level are these electro-dynamic fields, and these fields can be measured, and mapped, and adjusted. This is Energy Medicine
Norman Shealey, in his book on the subject writes a whole chapter on energy medicine, without ever reaching a definition. However, he does say that the National Institutes of Health have formally listed 10 major approaches to complementary and alternative medicine.The sixth of these is Bioenergetic Medicine, which they define as ‘ evaluating the intrinsic body energy to measure and treat disorders ‘. I can live with that.