A video of Hyderabad-based rationalist Babu Gogineni is doing the rounds on social media, after two pranic healers had a tiff with him during a television debate on a Telugu channel.
The debate, which was aired on ABN Telugu, discusses the 'No Touch No Drug' therapy, and questions if it was possible to 'heal' someone through the phone.
The claim was made by Chandrashekar, who introduces himself as a pranic healer, and has several videos of on YouTube, where he claimed to have healed people via the phone.
According to Chandrasekhar, the distance between the patient and the healer did not matter, as he would practice the pranic healing in the air around him, and cure the person at the other end of the phone.
The hour-long debate was held between Chandrashekar, Babu Gogineni, and another pranic healer, Swarnamala.
Towards the end of the debate, after Chandrashekar tries to 'heal' a few patients via the phone, Babu Gogineni remarks that blood pressure (BP) was common in the former's age group, among the south Asian population. He then asks if he could test Chandrashekar's BP.
When the healer agrees, Babu is seen getting up and pulling out a blood pressure monitor. He then says, "Now what I want, is to check if you have BP and then see if you can reduce it with pranic healing. In the same way that you healed someone's pain over the phone, let’s see if you bring any change here as well."
He then checks the healer's BP, following which the instrument shows a reading of 185/103 against the normal reading of 120/80. Babu then asks Chandrashekar to heal himself and bring his BP to normal.
When the BP was tested again, it showed an increased reading of 208/108, which left the healer sheepishly embarrassed.
Watch from around 4 minutes into the video.
What is pranic healing
Pranic healing is called a 'claimed energy healing system'. It was founded by a Philippine-national businessman of Chinese descent, Choa Kok Sui in.
According to practitioners, 'Prana' or life force, is a "bio-energy that keeps the body alive and maintains a state of good health."
The practitioners claim that the healing process of the body, can be accelerated by increasing this 'life force', by tapping it from their surroundings. A pranic healer claims to 'draw' this life force from the surroundings, and pass it on to the patient.
Pranic healers also claim that "physical ailments first appear as energetic disruptions in the aura before manifesting as problems in the physical body."
However, many scientists and rationalists have questioned the claims and say there is no scientific basis for this healing.