Well, from what I've observed there's a lot of misunderstanding on this whole business even from the proponents side. It's like meditation, people think it's about a concentration practice when the more important aspect is relaxation, or accepting whatever is going on rather than going to a thought, any thought because thoughts are by their very nature created by the mind and not what is actually physically happening. What I mean is conceptual thoughts are not necessarily connected to physical ability, for example you may be able to calculate the necessary trajectory of a ball for example, but actually making such a pitch or hitting it or something is another story. You may know the math very well but simply suck at playing ball, and what we're talking about is how to play ball.
To me this question isn't actually that important because although there are times when some kind of intervention is called for, a lot of the times the person with the illness needs to change something or do their homework so to speak in order to get better. The one shot deal, regardless of what the treatment modality is and how effective it is, will only last so long when it's some outside influence done "to" you. Discussing this could in fact take you further away from that, because instead of engaging in the practical day to day activity of how one might heal or be healthy it's just a fascination with another conceptual thought, and anyone who really gets the principles on which these things are based, whether you believe it or not, wouldn't bother wasting their time. Incidentally, there appears to be a pattern where those who consider themselves "healers" might think of themselves as spiritual, whereas what I've found is that those who've really got a clue about the spirituality business tends to be healing in different ways, and anything particularly fancy along those lines is seen as a by product, because that's exactly what they are. It goes back to standing on your own two feet, someone who cares about you will not want you to be dependent on them. Whether it's physical, psychological, spiritual or whatever kind of work, ultimately you have to participate in the work yourself. Even if the doctor is entertaining there's no point in return visits if you can stay healthy. Go buy a copy of Patch Adams or something.
Those who've looked into these things know that the basic idea is that it's good to have no stuck energy, that it should flow freely just as blood circulates throughout your body. What do you suppose is happening if someone is caught up in a debate or a particular viewpoint, though, even (and especially) if it's about this very subject? In other words, being too excited about this one way or the other may prove to be the cause of "energetic blocks" - or you might call it running around in circles, intellectually, emotionally or whatever. It's like if you're getting worked up debating about what peace means or something, how silly is that? Even if your intention is that the truth should be known, who says that any given person or group of people needs to, at any given time - or that you're the messenger for them? If someone really wants to know about this stuff, the information is out there. Even though I have a rather limited social life, I do have one - and I sure ain't going to spend my time following something like this identifying my self concept with some other concept so I can feel like I'm somebody, I stand for something - all the usual crap. I'm a scientist! I'm a mystic! Yada yada yada... But I digress. It's much more useful just to know how to relax, and to monitor your own health through time - rather than resorting to a fancy 'high level' type of healing, (you can replace healing with any number of other functions/activitys, actually) whether it's mystical or technological. As I've already stated, thoughts, especially thoughts along these lines, is not the thing that helps you in your health and well being - if anything they're a waste of your psychic energy.