In this invited plenary address, I cast new light on the history of clinical training, drawing together early mystical healing traditions, the Hippocratic tradition, early Christian hospitals, magnetism, mesmerism, exorcism, hypnotism, and modern evidence-based clinical practice in medicine and clinical psychology.
Evidence of practitioner effects across clinical disciplines is introduced—including psychology, psychiatry, primary care medicine, and surgery—and the causes and implications of those practitioner effects are explored in light of evidence for relationship effects, at-a-distance healing effects, and quantum nonlocality between human neural tissue samples.
Implications for improvements in clinical practice and clinical training are explored, with an emphasis on potential ways that practitioner effects and training effects might be enhanced.