Introduction: Anxiety, burnout, and depression cause a substantial psychological and social burden. Bioenergetic meditation (BM) was developed by Viktor Philippi as a method to strengthen psychological and physical health. This work presents the results of four feasibility studies investigating the effects of BM developed by Viktor Philippi as a support for people suffering from these psychological disorders. Materials and Methods: A total of four prospective, non-randomized feasibility studies were conducted (N1 = 185, N2 = 140, N3 = 33, N4 = 32). Studies 1 and 2 were multicentric studies with a pre-post comparison consisting of 10 BMs within 10 weeks with individual study start and end points. Studies 3 and 4 consisted of 7 BMs within 3 days with a pre-post evaluation and follow-up measurements at 6, 12, and 18 months. The Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI), Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-II), and Hamburg Burnout Inventory (HBI) were used to measure symptoms of anxiety, depression, and burnout, respectively. Results: After 10 BMs within 10 weeks, highly reliable decreases in symptoms of depression occurred in 58–73% of cases (p < 0.005). The median BDI-II score declined significantly by 60% (p < 0.0001) after 10 weeks of BM. Symptoms of anxiety were highly reliably reduced in roughly one-third of cases after 10 weekly BMs, with the average total BAI score declining from a severe to a moderate anxiety (p < 0.0001). The HBI showed significant improvement in all subscales. Psychological symptoms also improved significantly after 7 BMs, and symptom reductions classified as highly reliable were maintained until 18-months follow-up in more than 50% of participants. Conclusion: BM results in significant and lasting improvements in clinical symptoms of anxiety, depression, and burnout. Further studies including control groups are necessary to confirm these findings and determine any BM-specific effects.

1.
Deutsche Psychotherapeuten Vereinigung (DPtV). Report Psychotherapie 2021. Berlin; 2021.
2.
Cuijpers P, Vogelzangs N, Twisk J, Kleiboer A, Li J, Penninx BW. Comprehensive meta-analysis of excess mortality in depression in the general community versus patients with specific illnesses. Am J Psychiatry. 2014;171(4):453–62.
3.
Gilman SE, Sucha E, Kingsbury M, Horton NJ, Murphy JM, Colman I. Depression and mortality in a longitudinal study: 1952–2011. CMAJ. 2017;189(42):E1304–10.
4.
Reynolds SL, Haley WE, Kozlenko N. The impact of depressive symptoms and chronic diseases on active life expectancy in older Americans. Am J Geriatr Psychiatry. 2008;16(5):425–32.
5.
Laursen TM, Musliner KL, Benros ME, Vestergaard M, Munk-Olsen T. Mortality and life expectancy in persons with severe unipolar depression. J Affect Disord. 2016;193:203–7.
6.
Lotfaliany M, Bowe SJ, Kowal P, Orellana L, Berk M, Mohebbi M. Depression and chronic diseases: co-occurrence and communality of risk factors. J Affect Disord. 2018;241:461–8.
7.
Philippi V. Wer heilt hat recht oder Die Einführung in die Bioenergetische Meditation. 1st ed. Argo; 2011.
8.
Philippi V. Gesund werden mit System. Die Bioinformationstherapie. 1st ed. Verlag Philippi; 2012.
9.
Bertalanffy LV. An outline of general system theory. Br J Philos Sci. 1950;1(2):134–65.
10.
Cui W. On the philosophical ontology for a general system theory. Philos Study. 2021;11(6):443–58.
11.
Korotkov K. Energy fields. Electrophotonic analysis in humans and nature. 1st ed. Saint-Petersburg: eBookIt.com; 2012.
12.
Burisch M. HBI – Hamburger Burnout-Inventar. Manual. 1st ed. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag; 2020.
13.
Margraf J, Ehlers A, Beck Angst Inventar - BAI. 1st ed. Frankfurt Am Main: Harcourt Test Services GmbH; 2007.
14.
Beck AT, Epstein N, Brown G, Steer RA. An inventory for measuring clinical anxiety: psychometric properties. J Consult Clin Psychol. 1988;56(6):893–7.
15.
Hautzinger M, Keller F, Kuehner C. Beck depressions-inventar revision (BDI-II). Manual. Frankfurt Am Main: Pearson Assessment &amp; Information; 2009.
16.
Geissner E, Huetteroth A. [Beck anxiety inventory German version - a reliable, valid, patientfriendly instrument for measuring clinical anxiety]. Psychother Psychosom Med Psychol. 2018;68(3–4):118–25.
17.
Kaufman J, Charney D. Comorbidity of mood and anxiety disorders. Depress Anxiety. 2000, 12:69–76.
18.
R Core Team. R: A language and environment for statistical computing. Vienna, Austria: R Foundation for Statistical Computing; 2021.
19.
Benjamin DJ, Berger JO, Johannesson M, Nosek BA, Wagenmakers EJ, Berk R, et al. Redefine statistical significance. Nat Hum Behav. 2018;2(1):6–10.
20.
Held L. An objective Bayes perspective on p values. Biom J. 2017;59(5):886–8.
21.
Jacobson NS, Follette WC, Revenstorf D. Psychotherapy outcome research: methods for reporting variability and evaluating clinical significance. Behavior Therapy. 1984;15(4):336–52.
22.
Brouwer D, Meijer RR, Zevalkink J. Measuring individual significant change on the beck depression inventory-II through IRT-based statistics. Psychother Res. 2013;23(5):489–501.
23.
Gmerek S. Pilotstudie: Wirksamkeitsver­gleich der Bioenergetischen Meditation nach Viktor Philippi und des Stressmanagement-Programmes der IFT-Gesundheitsförde­rung. Hochschule für Gesundheit und Sport, Technik und Kunst; 2014.
24.
Walach H, Falkenberg T, Fønnebø V, Lewith G, Jonas WB. Circular instead of hierarchical: methodological principles for the evaluation of complex interventions. BMC Med Res Methodol. 2006;6:29.
25.
Stegenga J. Down with the hierarchies. Topoi. 2014;33(2):313–22.
26.
Klement RJ, Bandyopadhyay PS. Emergence and evidence: a close look at bunge’s philosophy of medicine. Philosophies. 2019;4(3):50.
27.
Robinson J, Biley FC, Dolk H. Therapeutic touch for anxiety disorders. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2007;2007(3):CD006240.
28.
Joyce J, Herbison GP. Reiki for depression and anxiety. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2015;2015(4):CD006833.
29.
Rajagopal R, Jois SN, Mallikarjuna Majgi S, Anil Kumar MN, Shashidhar HB. Amelioration of mild and moderate depression through Pranic Healing as adjuvant therapy: randomised double-blind controlled trial. Australas Psychiatry. 2018;26(1):82–7.
30.
Wittchen H-U, Jacobi F. Angststörungen, 21. Robert-Koch-Institut; 2004. p. 1–16.
31.
Nickel M, Statistisches Bundesamt. Gesundheitsberichterstattung des Bundes. Depressive Erkrankungen. 2009;51:1–43.
32.
Lee MS, Pittler MH, Ernst E. Effects of Reiki in clinical practice: a systematic review of randomised clinical trials. Int J Clin Pract. 2008;62(6):947–54.
33.
Marta IER, Baldan SS, Berton AF, Pavam M, da Silva MJP. The effectiveness of therapeutic touch on pain, depression and sleep in patients with chronic pain: clinical trial. Rev Esc Enferm USP. 2010;44(4):1100–6.
34.
Billot M, Daycard M, Wood C, Tchalla A. Reiki therapy for pain, anxiety and quality of life. BMJ Support Palliat Care. 2019;9(4):434–8.
35.
Shore AG. Long-term effects of energetic healing on symptoms of psychological depression and self-perceived stress. Altern Ther Health Med. 2004;10(3):42–8.
36.
Dressen LJ, Singg S. Effects of reiki on pain and selected affective and personality variables of chronically ill patients. Subtle Energies Energy Med. 1998;9:51–82.
37.
Cregg DR, Cheavens JS. Gratitude interventions: effective self-help? A meta-analysis of the impact on symptoms of depression and anxiety Springer Netherlands; 2021. Vol. 22.
38.
Carr A, Cullen K, Keeney C, Canning C, Mooney O, Chinseallaigh E, et al. Effectiveness of positive psychology interventions: a systematic review and meta-analysis. J Positive Psychol. 2021;16(6):749–69.
39.
Partonen T, Lönnqvist J. Seasonal affective disorder: a guide to diagnosis and management. CNS Drugs. 1998;9(3):203–12.
40.
Lukmanji A, Williams JVA, Bulloch AGM, Bhattarai A, Patten SB. Seasonal variation in symptoms of depression: a Canadian population based study. J Affect Disord. 2019;255:142–9.
You do not currently have access to this content.