Understanding the Swiping Gesture in Energy Balancing Sessions
Non-member post. For educational purposes only. Published Dec 15, 2025.
This article is for analytically minded people who want to understand the neurophysiological mechanisms behind the swiping gesture used in energy balancing sessions - including why it can be effective remotely, even via email. This article bridges scientific research with energy medicine practice for those seeking to understand how these techniques produce results. While concepts are grounded in neuroscience, this is written from a practitioner's perspective for accessibility and practical understanding. Energy work complements but does not replace medical care.
If you're the type of person who needs to understand how something works before you'll try it, you're in good company. Sarah Parkins, Founder of Birch Cove, is the same way. With a background in computer science and years of experience in technology and finance, she brings an analytical lens to energy work. Many people who seek out energy balancing come from similar backgrounds - engineering, science, finance, technology, even the medical field - and approach new modalities with both healthy skepticism and open minds. Often, they're searching for additional support their bodies and lives need that they haven't found through conventional approaches alone.
So when analytically minded people ask, "Why do practitioners swipe over their hand during sessions?" or "How can this possibly work over Zoom?" - these are legitimate questions that deserve legitimate answers.
There are credible neurophysiological explanations for why these intentional movements create measurable effects in the nervous system. Understanding these mechanisms can help bridge the gap between empirical results and scientific frameworks.
The Nervous System Responds to Sensory Input and Attention
Before we get into the mechanisms, let me address the elephant in the room: Can this really work remotely? Over Zoom? When the practitioner isn't even touching me?
Short answer: Yes. And there are neurophysiological reasons why.
Longer answer: The human nervous system is designed to integrate multiple types of information simultaneously. When a practitioner performs a deliberate swiping motion, several things happen:
Mechanoreceptors activate. The skin contains thousands of pressure-sensitive receptors that respond to touch, movement, and even air displacement. These receptors send signals through the spinal cord to the brain, activating regions involved in body awareness and regulation.
Proprioceptive pathways engage. Your brain constantly tracks where your body is in space. Intentional movement - even gentle swiping - activates proprioceptive feedback loops that help the nervous system recalibrate tension patterns and postural alignment.
Interoceptive awareness sharpens. Interoception is your sense of your internal state - heart rate, breathing, gut sensations, emotional tone. Focused attention on a specific body area, combined with movement, can shift autonomic nervous system balance from sympathetic (fight-or-flight) toward parasympathetic (rest-and-digest).
The body doesn't need belief to respond. It responds to clear sensory signals combined with focused attention.
Top-Down Meets Bottom-Up: Neural Coherence
One of the most interesting aspects of intentional touch is how it creates coherence between two types of neural signaling:
Top-down signals originate in the brain - your intention, focus, and expectation about what's happening.
Bottom-up signals come from the body - sensory input from touch, movement, temperature, and pressure.
When these two signal types align, the brain can update its internal model of the body. This is the same mechanism behind why physical therapy works, why placebo effects are real, and why visualization can improve athletic performance. The swiping gesture serves as a bridge, giving the nervous system a legible signal it can act on.
Why Movement Matters (Even When Intention Alone Could Work)
Research in neuroplasticity shows that intention and mental focus can influence physiology. So why add movement at all?
Movement anchors attention. The gesture provides a focal point, reducing cognitive noise and helping both practitioner and client stay present.
Movement creates consistency. A repeatable physical action standardizes the signal, making it easier for the nervous system to recognize and respond.
Movement activates sensorimotor integration. The brain's motor cortex, sensory cortex, and prefrontal regions work together during intentional movement, creating a more robust neurological event than thought alone.
Think of the swipe as a user interface for the nervous system - it translates intention into a format the body can process efficiently.
The Anatomical Basis for Meridian Pathways
Traditional energy work often references meridians, which don't appear in Western anatomical textbooks. However, many meridian pathways closely follow real anatomical structures:
The Governing Vessel, for example, runs along the spine - a pathway that includes the spinal cord, fascial planes, major blood vessels, and autonomic nervous system ganglia. Touch or focused attention along this pathway likely influences:
Spinal reflexes that regulate muscle tone
Fascial mechanoreceptors that communicate with the brain about structural tension
Autonomic centers that control heart rate, digestion, and stress response
While we can't say meridians are literally nerves or blood vessels, the overlap suggests these traditional maps may represent functional pathways for nervous system regulation.
Remote Work: Why It Functions Over Zoom - and Even via Email
This is where things get especially interesting for the analytical mind. Energy work sessions can be conducted remotely in two ways: via video call (Zoom) or completely asynchronously via email, where the client never sees the practitioner working at all.
Both formats produce reported results. How?
Video Sessions (Zoom)
Mirror neuron systems. When you observe someone performing an action with clear intention, your brain partially simulates that action. This neural mirroring can activate similar pathways in your own nervous system.
Empathic resonance. Research in interpersonal neuroscience shows that when two people are in focused connection, their physiological states can synchronize - heart rate variability, breathing patterns, even brainwave activity.
Expectation and attention. The client's focused attention on the process, combined with the practitioner's clear intention, creates a context in which the nervous system is primed to shift. This isn't mystical - it's the same mechanism behind therapeutic presence in psychotherapy or the quality of attention in medical care.
Structured signals. The swiping motion provides a temporal structure - a clear beginning, middle, and end to each release. This structure may help the client's nervous system recognize when to reorganize.
Email Sessions (No Visual Contact)
This pushes even further into territory that current neuroscience hasn't fully mapped. When sessions are conducted via email - the practitioner identifies and releases imbalances while the client goes about their day, completely unaware of when the work is happening - clients still report:
Physical sensations at the approximate time of the session (despite not knowing when it occurred)
Emotional shifts and releases
Resolution of specific issues identified in the session
Processing symptoms (fatigue, emotional release, vivid dreams) similar to in-person sessions
Possible mechanisms involved include:
Quantum entanglement analogues. While controversial, some researchers propose that biological systems may exhibit quantum coherence effects that allow for non-local information transfer. This remains theoretical but is an active area of study.
Bioelectromagnetic field effects. The human body generates measurable electromagnetic fields (via heart, brain, and cellular activity). Some research suggests these fields may extend beyond the body and carry information, though the mechanisms for remote interaction aren't yet established.
Intention as a measurable signal. Studies on distant intention (such as those by Dean Radin and the Institute of Noetic Sciences) have shown statistically significant effects in double-blind experiments, though the mechanisms remain unclear.
The observer effect in biological systems. Research in epigenetics and gene expression shows that observation and attention can influence biological processes. The scale and distance at which this might operate is still being explored.
The honest answer is: we don't fully understand email-based sessions yet. But the absence of a complete explanation doesn't invalidate the consistent reported outcomes. It means we're at the frontier of what current science can measure.
When the Practitioner Swipes Over Themselves
Even when practitioners work on themselves during a session, clients report sensations and shifts. Possible mechanisms include:
Visual and auditory cues that signal "something is happening," priming the client's expectation
Practitioner state changes that the client unconsciously mirrors through micro-expressions, vocal tone, breathing rhythm
Focused intentional fields that may operate through mechanisms not yet fully mapped by current neuroscience (bioelectromagnetic fields, biophoton emission, and quantum coherence are active areas of research)
The honest answer is: we don't fully understand this yet. But the absence of a complete explanation doesn't mean the phenomenon isn't real - it means we're at the frontier of what current science can measure.
Let’s Simplify It
If you're trying to get your head around this, here's a concise way to consider it:
"The swiping motion doesn't do the work by itself. It gives your nervous system a clear sensory and attentional signal, creating an opportunity for it to reorganize tension or imbalance patterns. The practitioner’s intention sets the direction; the movement makes that intention legible to your body."
Why Science Hasn't Fully Explained It Yet
This work sits at the intersection of multiple disciplines:
Neuroscience (intention, attention, neuroplasticity)
Physiology (mechanoreception, autonomic regulation)
Psychology (expectation, therapeutic alliance)
Biophysics (bioelectromagnetic fields, coherence)
No single field has comprehensively studied intentional touch as a regulatory signal. The research exists in fragments - studies on therapeutic touch, placebo effects, interoception, fascia, polyvagal theory - but hasn't yet been integrated into a unified model.
That doesn't make it unscientific. It makes it an area ripe for exploration.
What This Looks Like in Practice
In sessions using the Emotion, Body, and Belief Code, practitioners use muscle testing to identify specific imbalances - trapped emotions, misalignments, nutritional deficiencies, limiting beliefs - and then release them using magnetic intention and the swiping gesture described throughout this article.
Clients typically report:
Physical sensations during sessions (warmth, tingling, lightness, shifts in body awareness)
Emotional shifts that feel like relief or clarity
Changes they find surprising in how quickly they occur
Many clients report feeling different after their first session, though individual experiences vary.
Sessions can be conducted in three formats:
In-person: Direct contact with full sensory engagement
Video (Zoom): Visual and auditory connection with real-time interaction
Email/asynchronous: No visual contact required; work done on the client's behalf and reported afterward
The Bottom Line
The swiping gesture in energy work is more than symbolic ritual. It combines sensory input, focused attention, and clear intention to create a coherent signal that the nervous system can recognize and respond to. Whether performed in person, via video, or even asynchronously via email, these movements facilitate real physiological shifts.
For analytical minds, the key insight is this: accepting that intentional, structured attention combined with movement can influence nervous system regulation doesn't require belief in any particular metaphysical framework. The mechanisms are grounded in neuroscience, even if current models don't yet capture the full picture.
As scientific tools become more sophisticated - particularly in measuring bioelectric fields, neural synchrony, and subtle physiological coherence - better explanations will likely emerge for what practitioners have observed empirically for centuries.
The most honest position is one of informed curiosity: respecting both the lived experience of practitioners and clients, and the rigorous demand for mechanistic understanding.
As with everything in life, there is no single solution that works for all. We are all different and unique and that means we each need different things that help us at different times of life. For those seeking complementary support alongside conventional care - and who are curious about approaches that operate through nervous system regulation even when the full mechanisms aren't yet mapped - exploring energy work with a qualified practitioner may be worth considering.
Further Reading & Research Sources
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https://www.heartmath.org/research/research-library/basic/coherent-heart-heart-brain-interactions-psychophysiological-coherence-emergence-system-wide-order/
Full PDF: https://www.integral-review.org/documents/McCraty%20et%20al.,%20Coherent%20Heart,%20Vol.%205%20No.%202.pdf
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[9] Porges, S. W. (2011). The Polyvagal Theory: Neurophysiological Foundations of Emotions, Attachment, Communication, and Self-regulation. W. W. Norton & Company.
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