Reiki, Therapeutic Touch, Applied Kinesiology, Bach flower remedies, healing with crystals, the colour therapy Aura-Soma, and Pranic Healing—the subject theme of this paper—may be counted as “classics” among the plethora of present-day...
moreReiki, Therapeutic Touch, Applied Kinesiology, Bach flower remedies, healing with crystals, the colour therapy Aura-Soma, and Pranic Healing—the subject theme of this paper—may be counted as “classics” among the plethora of present-day energetic techniques. Arguably, Reiki was the trailblazer in the field as it prepared the social and ideological ground for several other practices that followed suit. In Reiki’s slip-stream, Pranic Healing succeeded within a decade to achieve a considerable degree of prominence, forming an integral part of the first wave of energetic techniques to gain traction in Austria during the 1990s. Pranic Healing provides an illustrative case study since it represents a vast number of practices that allude to a perennial healing wisdom of the “East,” whereas their major roots can be found in relatively recent Euro-American traditions that evolved into transcultural, globalised hybrids as shall be further elaborated here.
The present paper attempts to explore the origins and evolution of Pranic Healing by means of historical discourse analysis and to reconstruct its arrival and establishment in Austria. Section 2 sketches the Wirkungsgeschichte of mesmerism, a major progenitor of present-day subtle energy-based techniques that was developed in Vienna by the charismatic physician Franz Anton Mesmer. Disputed and finally rejected by the contemporaneous medical establishment, mesmeric practices found a fertile ground in the religio-therapeutic and alternative medical milieus especially of the American and European nineteenth century, inspiring the emergence of various alternative therapies, some of which are still widely practiced today. Section 3 explores the interpretations of mesmerism in the context of occult literature in the decades around 1900. In this regard, two major hermeneutic frameworks were crucial: the appeal to ether physics, and the appeal to an ancient, Eastern wisdom tradition. Reading mesmerism in light of occult orientalism would fuse the magnetic healing agent with a vital principle referred to as prāṇa,19 eventually leading to a hybrid system known as “Pranic Healing.” In its basic features, this system would sow the seeds for Choa Kok Sui’s healing movement, which section 4 elucidates in its historical, doctrinal, and ritual dimensions, with a spotlight on its Austrian protagonists. As will be shown, Austria’s role in exporting Pranic Healing to Central and Eastern Europe has been pivotal, which once more accentuates the country’s status as a nodal point in the globalised discourse on energy healing.
