I am not too much into that topic. However lately I found a lot of videos dealing with something called biokinesis which is more like an internet hype. Me and a friend were wondering what those videos are about since they say you can alter your DNA or physical properties using meditation. So we were searching for evidence in form of research. Indeed we found  papers talking about this topic.

http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0002576

http://www.coventry.ac.uk/primary-news/meditation-and-yoga-can-reverse-dna-reactions-which-cause-stress-new-study-suggests-/

So by now when it comes to biokinesis there is not a lot of secured evidence. I have seen talkshows from Russia in which people discussed similar topics and how they changed physical aspects using meditation or prayer. I also saw pictures/videos of people claiming that they experienced those changes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0yxdmFr46g

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ui6ZUasGg20

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDCbuniTfxc

thanks Carmen! as I see, you cited a paper where they found the alteration of gene expression.  we are aware of others that linked meditation to change in DNA aging (http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1749-6632.2009.04414.x/full) and other epigenetic changes (https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Surabhi_Gautam/publication/309406542_Impact_of_Meditation_and_Yoga_on_Oxidative_DNA_Damage_in_Sperm_Clinical_Implications/links/580ef0d708aef766ef10eb65.pdf)

if you'll be aware further scientific papers about the acute concomittants of experiencing 'energy', tell us so :)

Article Impact of Meditation and Yoga on Oxidative DNA Damage in Spe...

Thank you, Benedek. I did not read the whole paper. But what I can say so far is that most studies just mention a healthy lifestyle and do not make direct assumptions between thoughts or words spoken and results.

I would like to go back to your question. You asked about changes and if they are linked to physiological changes or rather something mental. We are speaking here about a sensation. And here you have a problem. Because the sensation is verbalized. So in first place it is a mental process. I will try to explain it.

Imagine you have a black box. Something is put into this black box and then something happens inside of this black box, some process which is not obvious (which is why it is a black box). Now we have two different outcomes: The sensation which can be verbalized by your proband and the effect you can meassure. But the two do not have to do anything with each other since you could have probands which do not verbalize and yet you can meassure a physiological change. Likewise you can have probands which do verbalize but you cannot meassure any change. A sensation in the mind is not necessary for physiological changes. Because how often does the mind play tricks?

What we naturally believe is: I use any technique like meditation or affirmation and it plays a huge role how I feel about it. Like it is better to feel a sensation. But what if this does not play a role when it comes to physical changes?

That is why I wouldn't ask if it is either mental or physical. If you can meassure something what your proband verbalizes is in that case subordinated. Even if your proband thinks it is idiotic it might not be important.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkVcsMZkP2k

Dear Carmen,

(thanks for the video, it was interesting, maybe I should watch the whole movie :) ) what I understand from your part, is that 'there can be such a big difference in the mental and physical processes regarding body sensatiosn, that their research is problematic'. I agree with this, however, after acknowledging the difficulties and potential limitation, I'm motivated to continue on examining this question. 

[I don't know how it is in your country, but in Hungary there is a growing dissatisfaction with public health care, and interest for alternative/complementary medicine. The gap between the two types of healers seems increasing.] Energy is often linked to actual physical change by CAM healers (cure from pains, of wounds, inflammation, cancer). These are mostly long-term physical changes, but it underlies the importance of the question: are there short-term physical changes linked to these experiences?

Benedek,

There is a difference between what you can observe and what one verbalizes. Verbalization is never a direct observation but we can only assume that it is maybe caused by something. And here the problem is that we do not know what this something is, either illusion or something like placebo or a real effect.

Please, read the debate about the God helmet and especially the critics, because here they were discussing exactly this problem. Especially Daniel Dennett wrote critics you should read in order to see what can go wrong here....

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/God_helmet

Benedik,

There are two investigations that immediately seem to partially answer your question.  Bhasin et al.  (2013) used transcriptional profiling with the Affymetrix human genome high throughput arrays plates with 96 arrays (HT U133A) to demonstrate transcriptome changes associated with meditation techniques.  Body maps of emotion developed by Naumann et al. (2016) can be used as a non-invasive technique to examine body sensations, elicited my altered states of consciousness in multiple regions of the human body.

References

Bhasin, M. K., Dusek, J. A., Chang, B., Joseph, M. G., Denninger, J. W., Fricchione, G. L., ... Libermann, T. A. (2013). Relaxation response induces temporal transcriptome changes in energy metabolism, insulin secretion and inflammatory pathways. Plos One, 8(5), e62817. http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0062817

Naumann, E., Fitzgerald, J., Dunn, T., Rihel, J., Sompolinsky, H., & Engert, F. (2016). Article: From whole-brain data to functional circuit models: The Zebrafish optomotor response. Cell, 167, 947-960.e20. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2016.10.019

Do you think people can use this too to get cancer? Like when you print pictures of illnesses on cigarette packages and you tell them they are for sure going to die from cancer... do they develope cancer then by suggestion?

That would be unfair, right????

Do you think they know what happens when people start to understand this? Or do you think that they actually think they are too clever to be caught because they anyway told everyone how religion is bullshit?

I am always trying to convince myself they are innocent, that they do not know what they are doing. But I come more and more to the understanding they are guilty as hell.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qFF2v8VsaA

• Dear Horace, I'm very grateful for the Bhasin paper, showing that relaxation alters gene expression in minute-order in experted practitioners! The Naumann paper on zebrafish larvae seems far from this topic, could you help me understand, how would you answer my original question based on this article?
• Dear Carmen, what you speak about, is the scientific validity of self-reported, phenomenological data. For me, that is a meta-question, an off-topic line of thoughts, where I btw disagree with you: that could be the beginning of a good debate. In order of keeping this question clear, easy to understand, I ask you to communnicate your questions in another Researchgate question page, and invite me. I also ask you in this forum to avoid using expressions that might offend others (e.g. bullshit, guilty). 

Dear Benedek, bullshit is a philosophical term. I take myself the freedom to use it whenever I find it appobiate. When it comes to religion I have heard more offensive arguments during the last few years.

This is an open discussion and you should learn to accept other arguments and believes. We are discussing here hopefully in a quite open way. So this is not your personal partyroom nor is it your personal website where you can invite people or ask them to leave in case you do not like a certain point of view. Even not if you feel 'offended' or somehow negativly affected (which I can understand in a way). Let me be clear here, Benedek: You have by all means no right to ask me to leave the discussion. I communicate my questions here as I think it is linked to the topic. If you do not want to answer then just do not answer. By all means: Please do not feel forced to comment. I am not forcing you.

I am not talking here about the validity of verbalization. I guess we both know that especially when it comes to certain mediated processes sometimes there is no other way then to rely on self-report. As I said to you I do not think that there is necessarily a connection between the two. Beside that I clearly explained you why. Go back and read carefully what I wrote.

Subliminal messages are in some parts of psychology (especially advertising psychology) well researched. You can find tons of material when it comes to this topic. If my question was too much pioneer thinking for you... and by that you feel 'offended'... then feel offended. I really do not feel much responsible for your feelings. Indeed I give not so much when it comes to your feelings :[[[[[ Yes, I know... I might just be a mean person. But do not forget that people always felt insulted by new ideas :[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[