Historical issues in intervention research: hidden knowledge and facilitating techniques in Denmark

Facilitating techniques have recently both gained wider popularity and stirred considerable controversy. They are usually assumed to originate in Australia but the present paper documents that similar techniques created a major public event in Denmark and appeared occasionally in the USA in the 1960s and 1970s. However, in spite of the dramatic claims made by proponents of the techniques, their use did not spread widely and the international network has remained tenuous. It is argued that the "discovery' of facilitating techniques as a means to disclose unexpected literacy depends on the use of hand guidance and a context of professional beliefs where responses of unclear origin may be attributed to the person whose hand is being guided.