Laying on of hands
“Healing” by touching a person with the hands or palms. According to its theory, a healthy person has “vital energy” to spare, which is transmittable into sick persons. Contact healing is at least 15,000 years old. Usually, the “healer” places his hands, palms down, on the top of the subject’s head or on the subject’s shoulders or waist. Some proponents of alternative medicine use the expressions “laying on of hands” and “touch therapy” interchangeably. The former expression may also refer specifically to the act of laying hands on a person’s head to confer a spiritual blessing, as in Christian rites of confirmation and ordination.