From Christianity to Taoism
The Bowen Technique, or Bowen Therapy, was started by Thomas Bowen (1916-1982), a professing Christian (with no medical training). However, Bowen Therapy is not consistent with a Christian view of the body or of health.
In fact, Bowen bought into the Taoist belief in chi, the so-called universal life force that animates the universe and is balanced by yin and yang. He bought into the meridians, the invisible channels or pathways along which the chi allegedly flows. There is no evidence for the existence of chi or meridians. The chi and meridians are part of the “subtle body,” a firmly entrenched New Age belief (with which I am very familiar from my 20 years in the New Age).
As one Bowen Technique site states:
“Tom Bowen believed in the universal energy called Chi. This energy circulates within the body along 14 channels, called meridians and it was identified by Chinese medicine.
The meridians contain acupuncture points which influence internal organs and their function. According to Chinese medicine the free circulation of Chi throughout the human body is essential for good health.”
The Subtle (Invisible) Body
A key to understanding New Age approaches to health and views of the body is the invisible or subtle body. This encompasses beliefs from Taoism, Hinduism, Vitalism, and other pagan systems. These views permeate what is called “alternative,” “complementary,”and “integrated” healing (as well as functional medicine) but are usually disguised with pseudoscientific terms in order to appear credible (and because the practitioners are either spiritually deceived or are charlatans).
Here is one description of a New Age book on the subtle body by an “intuitive healer” (this means she is a psychic healer) offered by the New Age publisher Sounds True:
“All healers are ;energetic’ healers, whether they know it or not. Because every health issue has a physical and an energetic component, even a simple physical treatment like bandaging a cut also impacts the body’s spiritual, mental, and emotional welfare.
The Subtle Body is a comprehensive encyclopedia devoted to the critical world of our invisible anatomy, where so much of healing actually occurs. Compiled by intuitive healer and scholar Cyndi Dale, this 500-page full color illustrated reference book covers: * What is the “subtle body”? New scientific understanding of our quantum-state existence and the unseen fields that determine our physical condition * True integrative care: how combining Eastern energetic modalities with Western scientific rigor yields optimum results * The meridians, fields, and chakras: detailed information and diagrams about the role of these energetic structures in our overall health * Energy-based therapy principles from the world’s healing traditions–including Ayurveda, Qigong, Reiki, Quabalah, and many more.”
Note the references to components of pagan spiritual views such as chakras (Hinduism), meridians, energy fields, “energetic modalities,” and the occult teachings of Ayurveda, Qigong, Reiki, and the Kabbalah. There is also the attempt to appear scientific, which is highly ironic since the New Age dismisses science on a regular basis but desires to use it when it suits their purposes.
Energy Healing
The chi belief makes Bowen Therapy a form of energy healing. Energy healing is found in all pagan cultures, in witchcraft healing, and in psychic healing (I had “healings” from psychics while in the New Age). Energy healing modalities such as Crystal Healing, Reiki, Healing Touch, Therapeutic Touch, Polarity Therapy, Cranial Sacral, Reflexology, Sound Healing, QiGong, Shamanic Healing, Chakra Healing, and others have been going mainstream for years.
A Healing Touch website proclaims:
“Life force energy is known as qi in Traditional Chinese Medicine and prana in ayurveda. For centuries, energy work has been practiced in Asian cultures to help people find harmony and healing. Influenced by these Eastern principles, registered nurse Janet Mentgen developed healing touch.
The goal of healing touch (HT) work is for providers to assist in treatment by correcting deficiencies in the energy field. Thus, trained practitioners restore balance and harmony of energies for a client’s optimum health.”
Energy healing — all forms of it — are essentially sorcery. Sorcery in healing, in my definition, is the attempted summoning, manipulation, and or/ channeling of an unquantifiable, unknown energy, power/s, or force/s, for the purposes of alleged healing. Apparently, my view is consistent with sites promoting occult views of sorcery such as this one, this one, and this one. This is what used to be called “witch doctoring” and is now called Shamanism.
The New Age
Bowen Therapy thrives in the New Age because the beliefs adopted and taught by the deceived Bowen are embraced in the New Age. This is from a New Age site on Bowen Therapy:
“…the subtle anatomy of man is described (eg Meridians, Chakra system, Auras)
(ii) the bodymind and its links to subtle anatomy is outlined;
(iii) the links to subtle anatomy appropriate to Bowen Therapy.”
Note the terms “subtle” and “bodymind,” based on the “subtle body.” The “subtle anatomy” is part of occult views of the body. Prior to scientific understanding of the body, cultures operated with spiritual views of the body and this prevailed in China and other countries for many centuries. Autopsies were not allowed in China, leading to a lot of speculation mixed with pagan beliefs about the body.
The New Age embraces these views with no hesitation due to its belief that everything is energy, which in the New Age, means spiritual (spiritual as opposed to material, viewed as superior to the material).
The concept of “the innate intelligence” of the body, found in Palmer’s views when he founded chiropractic, is also part of Bowen Therapy. This concept is very popular in the New Age and is used to explain a lot of New Age forms of healing.
Bowen Therapy is essentially New Age, which means it is occultic bodywork. I have warned about the term bodywork before because it refers to various forms of therapy based on pagan (mostly New Age) spiritual beliefs.
These views of healing are what are termed “holistic” (also, “body, mind and spirit”). Yes, holistic healing is “natural” if one views occult concepts such as the subtle body and energy healing as natural, which the New Age does. Energy healing is not physically invasive, so natural healing is “non-invasive” (a favorite New Age healing word), as so many websites joyfully announce. But energy healing is actually invasive in a negative way since it is part and parcel of the occult.
What If It Works?
There are many reasons that Bowen Therapy can seem helpful. Merely being touched gently and having attention paid to you can help someone feel better. The placebo effect cannot be discounted, nor can coincidence (that other factors are at work).
But the bottom line is that if a practice is based on spiritual beliefs opposed to God, then a Christian should not participate. Is it health at any cost? Is it that health has become a god? Is it anger against doctors? Is it a desire to believe in something new or different? These can all be reasons to embrace Bowen Therapy (or other forms of bodywork, energy healing, or “alternative healing”) but they are not valid or biblical reasons.
When such views spread in the church, this weakens the body of Christ and opens the door to more deceptions, likely worse ones. Deception never decreases once it takes hold, it only increases and deepens.
Examining the beliefs of Taoism and chi would reveal the darkness behind these ideas. Taoism goes back to early Chinese shamanism and involves occult beliefs and practices as well as elevating men into deities. Like many non-Christian belief systems, it is very dark. But it is darkness that Christ has conquered:
“…to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in Me.” Acts 26:18
“For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son.” Col.1:13
Bowen was deceived but that is no excuse for others to be deceived today. Each one is accountable for what he or she chooses to practice and believe.
Sadly, due to the pervasive New Age concepts in the culture, the church has been infected as well, especially in the areas of healing. Beguiling words like “holistic, natural, and non-invasive” entice people willy-nilly like a magical incantation. Healing is one of Satan’s top and most successful games in this culture. Since coming out of the New Age, I have watched this deception accelerate in the church at a remarkable speed.
Like all forms of New Age/Eastern based “healing,” Bowen Therapy is a mixture of pagan concepts and pseudoscience, supported mainly by anecdotes.
More Information
Warnings on Bowen Therapy from Women of Grace
The complicated history lack of evidence for meridians
Why Ayurvedic medicines can be toxic
No Objective Factual Evidence for Bowen Therapy
“…despite any perceived or apparent results, there is no scientific evidence for it: “According to therapists who practice Bowenwork, this type of therapy acts on the autonomic nervous system. They believe it inhibits the sympathetic nervous system (your fight-or-flight stress response) and activates the parasympathetic nervous system (your rest-and-digest response).
However, no research has yet confirmed this or other mechanisms of action.
Some people refer to Bowen therapy as a type of therapeutic massage. It isn’t a medical treatment, though. There’s minimal scientific research on its effectiveness, and its purported benefits are mainly anecdotal…..
…. Even though these studies suggest the benefits of Bowen therapy may stand for a while after treatment, other research has indicated that the effects on chronic pain may be short-lived.
A small 2020 study divided 31 people with chronic pain into Bowen therapy and sham therapy groups. All participants attended six sessions over a period of 8 weeks. Researchers did two follow-ups: one at 1 week and one at 6 weeks post-treatment.
Participants in the Bowen therapy group reported lower pain scores at the 1-week follow-up compared to the placebo group, but no differences were reported at 6 weeks. The researchers concluded that Bowen therapy may help with short-term pain reduction but may not be a long-term management option.” Source
“Despite the appealing notion of being gently nudged back into wellness, the scientific basis and plausibility for Bowen is flimsy at best. While anecdotal accounts of miraculous recoveries abound (as they do for literally every snake oil, even the obviously dangerous ones), the plausibility for that is extremely low. Controlled clinical trials are few and far between, and those that do exist all suffer from poor methodology.
The theory behind Bowen therapy’s efficacy is also murky, if not incoherent, and Bowen therapists rationalize their methods with essentially any and every trope of alternative medicine, adopting new ones willy nilly as they emerge. For instance, many have gotten “Vagus fever,” using it to recton? their explanation for what they do. Many Bowen therapists have also enthusiastically embraced the ridiculous fetishization of “fascia,” because it seems science-y to them.
But the idea of “resetting” the body’s healing mechanisms is not grounded in any clear physiological principles. There’s no scientific evidence that light massage and touch can significantly influence the nervous system in the profound ways claimed. The pauses in treatment, heralded as a time for the body to “integrate” the experience — where the magic happens — could just as easily be explained as moments for the client to simply relax — a benefit that can be achieved through any number of relaxation techniques, from simple deep breathing exercises to napping.
Moreover, the Bowen technique’s claims to treat a laundry list of conditions — ranging from back pain to mental health issues — are glaringly too good to be true. Broadly effective therapies tend to have a clear biological mechanism and are usually better supported by evidence.” From Pain Science
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