Body Soul Mind
Editorial policy
This page explains how we decide what to publish, how we rate the evidence behind it, and what you can expect when you read a guide here. If something on a page looks wrong, the last section tells you how to let us know.
What we publish
We cover body, mind, soul and spirit, and the ways they affect each other. The site has five kinds of content:
- Guides that explain a topic in depth.
- Practices that walk you through something you can do, collected under practices.
- Modality summaries that describe a healing modality and what research says about it, collected under modalities.
- Compact reference pages on the universal spiritual laws.
- A glossary of terms used across the site.
The evidence label
Every guide and practice carries one of three evidence labels. The label tells you at a glance what kind of ground the page stands on.
| Label | What it means |
|---|---|
| Tradition | The practice or idea rests on religious, spiritual or cultural tradition and on personal experience. Research is absent, or it does not test the tradition’s own claims. We describe what the tradition says without presenting it as established fact. |
| Mixed | The page combines a tradition with some research, or the practice has some parts that have been studied and others that have not. We keep the two apart and say which is which. |
| Research-informed | The topic has a body of published research. We summarize it at its real strength, including its limits, and cite it. |
A Tradition label is not a judgment that an idea is wrong. It tells you that the page is describing a belief or practice, not reporting a research finding.
The modality rating
Each healing modality page also carries a rating for the strength of the research behind it.
| Rating | What it means |
|---|---|
| Insufficient | Little or no good-quality research, or the research does not support the claims made. |
| Limited | A few small or low-quality studies suggest a possible effect for some uses. |
| Some | Several studies, including some well-designed ones, show a modest benefit for specific uses. |
| Good | Consistent results from well-designed studies or high-quality reviews for specific uses. |
A rating applies to specific uses, not to everything a modality is said to do. A modality might have some evidence for one purpose and insufficient evidence for another, and the page will say so.
How we source and write
Health and body pages are built only from published, authoritative sources. These include US government health agencies such as the NIH, the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, MedlinePlus and the CDC. They also include Mayo Clinic and similar clinical publishers, Cochrane summaries, and peer-reviewed reviews and trials.
Every number and study we mention comes from a source listed on that page. We do not invent statistics, studies or quotes. When a page makes a claim about a tradition’s history, it cites a reference work such as an encyclopedia entry or a scholarly overview.
We try to describe research honestly. You will see phrases like “may help,” “some evidence suggests” and “there is no good evidence that.” We do not claim that any practice will fix or resolve a health condition.
Spiritual topics are described in the tradition’s own terms, and the claims are attributed with phrases like “in this tradition” or “practitioners say.” Each spiritual guide ends with a short grounded view that sets out plainly what can and cannot be known. The site describes these ideas. It does not offer readings, sessions, products or medical advice.
Before a page is published, we check it against the sources it lists.
The health notice
Pages about health, the body and therapies carry a short notice. It reads:
This page is general information, not medical advice. If you are pregnant, have a health condition or take medication, talk to a clinician before starting something new, and seek help promptly for symptoms that are severe or do not go away.
The notice is there because a general guide cannot account for your circumstances. A clinician who knows your history can tell you whether a practice suits you and whether it might interact with treatment you already have.
Corrections
If you spot an error, write to contact@reply.bodysoulmind.net. Tell us which page you mean and what you think is wrong. A source helps if you have one.
We check the point against the sources. If the page is wrong, we correct it. Each page shows the date it was published, so you can see how recent it is.