Tong Ren is an energy healing therapy developed in the 1990s by Chinese acupuncturist and Chi Gong teacher Tom Tam. It involves using a figurine that represents the human body, and tapping on meridian lines drawn upon the figurine to restore the flow of healing energy in a person. According to Dr. William Daly, a clinical instructor for Tufts medical school with a medical practice in Andover, Tong Ren is particularly effective for people with terminal cancers, more advanced cancers, severe degenerative neurological conditions and other diseases that have not improved with conventional care.

Daly is among many people who believe that Tong Ren therapy can be used to address cancer when other treatments have failed. Similar to other energy healing interventions, Tong Ren assumes the body has a natural tendency to heal and, when it doesn’t, that this tendency is being blocked by forces that are not explained by conventional medicine’s understanding of health. “Tong Ren releases blockages of the natural healing energy, often called chi, which are just as necessary for health as oxygen, glucose, protein and other nutrients,” says Daly. “We can’t only deal on the levels of chemistry and physics if we expect to heal an illness that’s resisting treatment,” he adds.

Tong Ren is modeled after the acupuncture system but, where acupuncture relies on one practitioner, Tong Ren involves a group of practitioners and group energies. Daly suggests that its healing seems to be far more effective when done in groups with a number of practitioners and clients Treating Cancer with Tong Ren Therapy by Casey McAnn natural awakenings August 2013 21 seeking healing. The method uses the practitioners as conduits to bring people into harmony with the collective unconscious, as Carl Jung called it, which is the source of all chi.

During a session, practitioners begin by asking those in the room to share what they are seeking in terms of healing. For each person, the practitioners call out the acupuncture points that need to be addressed and direct their conscious intention to releasing that person’s energy blockage, using the figurine and a small metal hammer. “Practitioners act like piano tuners to get the client back into harmony with the collective patterns of universal health and higher energy levels,” says Daly, “but the client must believe the healing will work, or it won’t.”

Daly asserts that Tong Ren immediately arrested the progress of his recurrent prostate cancer after a radical prostatectomy and conventional medicine didn’t cure it. He then used functional medicine to help reverse the disease. Additionally, Daly’s mother was told five years ago by specialists at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute that she had an untreatable cancer and didn’t have long to live. “After Tong Ren, her tumors shrank, as revealed in followup CAT scans, and today she is doing well,” says Daly, who was introduced to energy healing years ago when he had recurrent skin cancer, and a combination of acupuncture and Reiki healed it completely after a few sessions.

Today Daly encourages doctors to recognize the limitations of conventional medicine. “They need to open their eyes to something that Jung pointed out a century ago, which is that to truly heal we need to understand and use both Eastern and Western concepts,” he says. “Tong Ren does not replace conventional care; it’s an additional opportunity to heal diseases that haven’t responded to conventional treatment by addressing them at the level of energy or consciousness.”

Dr. William Daly’s practice is located at 14 Florence St., in Andover. For more information, visit WDalyMD.com. To learn more about Tong Ren therapy and locate classes, visit TomTam.com.