More woo from HuffPo: Reiki

August 16, 2015 • 1:00 pm

The therapy of reiki (pronounced “ray-kee”) is based on the nonsensical notion of qi, or life force, and of chakras, or centers of energy, which must be balanced. It’s all pure woo. There’s been no scientific evidence that it works; it’s been decried by most reputable medical associations; and it appears to be no more effective than is homeopathy.

Nevertheless, it’s being strongly promoted by PuffHo in a podcast called “The reality of reiki.” If you can stand it, listen to the 27-minute dump of craziness by one “Christy” (last name not given)  and Michele Kennedy, described as “a Yoga teacher and head of ShantiBabyYoga, and a level III Reiki Master and head of Purple Reiki in Brooklyn, New York.” After balancing her chakras, Christy managed to get some messages from her dead mother via Michele, so this whole scam blends into the idiocy of seances.  It made me almost ill to hear Christy and Michele buttress each other’s enthusiasm for this kind of nonsense.

Here’s what Wikipedia has to say about reiki, and believe me, this would have been criticized and vetted by advocates of reiki:

Basis and effectiveness

The existence of the proposed mechanism for Reiki – qi or “life force” energy – has not been established.[3] Most research on Reiki is poorly designed and prone to bias. There is no reliable empirical evidence that Reiki is helpful for treating any medical condition,[3][4][5] although some physicians have said it might help promote general wellbeing.[5] In 2011, William T. Jarvis of The National Council Against Health Fraud stated that there “is no evidence that clinical reiki’s effects are due to anything other than suggestion” or the placebo effect.[21]

Reiki’s teachings and adherents claim that qi is physiological and can be manipulated to treat a disease or condition. The existence of qi has not been established by medical research.[3] As a result, some consider Reiki to be a pseudoscientific theory based on metaphysical concepts.[1]

Scholarly evaluation

Reiki is used as an illustrative example of pseudoscience in scholarly texts and academic journal articles.[1][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31] Rhonda McClenton states, “The reality is that Reiki, under the auspices of pseudo-science, has begun the process of becoming institutionalized in settings where people are already very vulnerable.”[24] In criticizing the State University of New York for offering a continuing education course on Reiki, Lilienfeld et al. (in Science and Pseudoscience in Clinical Psychology) state, “Reiki postulates the existence of a universal energy unknown to science and thus far undetectable surrounding the human body, which practitioners can learn to manipulate using their hands.”[32] Ferraresi et al. state, “In spite of its [Reiki] diffusion, the baseline mechanism of action has not been demonstrated…”[33] Wendy Reiboldt states about Reiki, “Neither the forces involved nor the alleged therapeutic benefits have been demonstrated by scientific testing.”[34] Several authors have pointed to the vitalistic energy which Reiki is claimed to treat.[35][36][37] Larry Sarner states (in The Skeptic Encyclopedia of Pseudoscience), “Ironically, the only thing that distinguishes Reiki from Therapeutic Touch is that it involves actual touch.”[37]Massimo Pigliucci and Maarten Boudry state (in Philosophy of Pseudoscience) that the International Center for Reiki Training “mimic[s] the institutional aspects of science” seeking legitimacy but holds no more promise than an alchemy society.[38] An evidence based guideline published by the American Academy of Neurology, the American Association of Neuromuscular & Electrodiagnostic Medicine, and the American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation states, “Reiki therapy should probably not be considered for the treatment of PDN [painful diabetic neuropathy].”[39] Susan Palmer lists Reiki as among the pseudoscientific healing methods used by cults in France to attract members.[40] David Gorski and Steven Novella have commented on the absurdity of clinical testing of implausible treatments.[31]

Just as PBS television promotes the woo of Deepak Chopra, so PuffHo has a weakness for reiki, which they describe as part of the site’s podcast center for “ethics, religion, and spirituality in everyday life,” All Together. Remember, PuffHo and PBS are read and watched by seemingly intelligent human beings.

114 thoughts on “More woo from HuffPo: Reiki”

  1. If qi is real, then why can’t I throw energy blasts when I throw my hands forward and shout “Hadouken!” or “Kamehameha!!!”

    Checkmate, woomeisters.

    1. Why? Obviously those are not the right magic words. ‘Shazam’ also does not work. But eventually we’ll get it worked out.

      1. Hocus pocus showed some early favourable results but it turns out it was just a bunch of priests mumbling about the host.

    2. And no matter how often you try, it won’t happen. Therefore evolution is NOT true! 🙂

      Checkmate atheists too!

  2. Have any studies shown acupuncture to work or not work? Isn’t that also based on qi meridians? It seems to be covered by many insurance programs. Is that because of demand or efficacy?

    1. Controlled studies of acupuncture, using needle insertions in places that aren’t supposed to work, or even sham insertion of needles (you can’t usually feel them going in) show that it, too, is a scam.

  4. Glad you reaised the point about PBS. I have withheld contributions in protest of PBS continuing to broadcast the woo of Deepak. Lots of other good programing, but I must vote with my wallet. Sorry PBS. Your choice. 🙂

  5. I have an idea for a new product
    Qi-Whiz!!™
    It’s a kind of saffron coloured slime that you put on your food to give it extra life energy. You could even use it to frost your chakra cake.

    1. It needs to come out of an aerosol can! Then I’m sure you’d have a hit in your hands.

  6. When you’re done with western spirituality like christianity and don’t want to settle for the bleak, nihilistic ways of atheism, there’s always eastern mysticism with its many Ways of Enlightenment, Profound Wisdoms (“the Journey is more important than the Destination”), and other Important Words that suddenly deserve Capital Letters.

  8. All manner of goofiness graces the HuffPo daily. But I can top it all. I have a friend at work – a friend obsessed with her various pseudo-ailments – who has finally found relief! She is spending big money for lymphatic draining. Now I’ve studied a good bit of immunology but never heard of this. I asked her how they do the draining and does it hurt? Gawd I’m stupid! No. The ‘doctor’ traces the ‘lymphatic channels’ on her skin and draws the lymph with her finger to her heart where it is pumped out of her! I started to explain a few things and thought better of it and just told her I was glad she is feeling better.

      1. I bet its harming the co-worker’s bank account. And as you say here (and elsewhere), if it stops her from going to a real medical professional, that’s a sort of harm or opportunity cost.

  9. “Reiki postulates the existence of a universal energy unknown to science and thus far undetectable surrounding the human body, which practitioners can learn to manipulate using their hands.”

    May the force be with you.

    1. I think reiki is a handy illustration for considering the testable nature of the supernatural. The part of the definition which says it is “unknown to science and thus far undetectable” isn’t really an intrinsic characteristic or property of reiki. Instead it’s what professor Steven Law calls an “immunizing strategy,” a little tag-on in the description incorporated only because tests have failed and this needs to be addressed. The clue is in the phrase “thus far.” If mainstream scientists suddenly discovered a universal life energy which can be manipulated by human hands and admitted that the reiki people were right, you’d see ‘unscientific/undetectable’ dropped immediately.

      It’s the same thing between religion and “faith.” Faith doesn’t define religion. The need to believe on insufficient evidence would be jettisoned at light speed if sufficient evidence showed up and the religious know it. Way in the past, before skeptical philosophy and competing world views showed up, religious beliefs didn’t need faith or special categories, they were just considered obvious. And it’s the rare spiritual system which doesn’t assume that someday the doubters WILL get their evidence.

      In the meantime, there’s all the handwaving about the handwaving being “unknown to science.” Unknown doesn’t mean unknowable. They’re just hedging their bets.

      1. Very nicely explained, Sastra. Thank you.

        “The need to believe on insufficient evidence would be jettisoned at light speed if sufficient evidence showed up and the religious know it.”

        Which, of course, explains all the bible codes, creation science, and expeditions to find Noah’s ark.

        1. “Now it is such a bizarrely improbable coincidence that anything so mindbogglingly useful could have evolved purely by chance that some thinkers have chosen it to see it as a final and clinching proof of the non-existence of God.
          The argument goes something like this: “I refuse to prove that I exist,” says God, “for proof denies faith, and without faith I am nothing.”
          “But,” says Man, “the Babel fish is a dead giveaway isn’t it? It could not have evolved by chance. It proves you exist, and therefore, by your own arguments, you don’t. QED.”
          “Oh dear,” says God, “I hadn’t thought of that,” and promptly vanishes in a puff of logic.”

        2. If the existence of God was proven beyond all reasonable doubt, I think the idea that “faith is a virtue” would be kept around by the faithful anyway for two main reasons:

          First, they would still want to give credit to all the people (ie themselves) who believed even when the evidence was insufficient, confusing poorly-supported belief with loyalty, trust, hope, courage, and optimism — just as they do now.

          And second, faith that God exists would simply slip over into the idea that one is faithful TO God, loving it and recognizing its authority and greatness — just as they do now.

  10. I have a friend who does homeopathy. She said she was impressed that they study her spit for deep insight into her inner workings. When the subject comes up, I tell her that if something serious health-wise happens to her, please seek a real doctor. I think I’ve told her that 3 times. She just shrugs. Humans are strange people.

    1. I’m even more anti-homeopathy than usual at the moment. A women I know in her 90s has been told by the local practitioner that a skin condition she has is due to the mercury in vaccines. He held a crystal over her wrist to confirm it. Thus, this winter (I’m in the southern hemisphere) she didn’t get a flu vaccine. There are two really bad strains infecting people this year, especially H3N2, but both are covered by the vaccine. If anything happens to her, I’ll consider him partly responsible.

      1. Oh brother. Senior citizens have the highest risk of dying from the flu. Hopefully she won’t get it.

        1. Seniors also have the lowest chance of being helped by a vaccine. Their old immune systems just don’t learn from the vaccine as well as younger people’s do. Because of that, anyone who cares for the elderly should get the flu vaccine.

  11. …based on the nonsensical notion of qi, or life force, and of chakras, or centers of energy, which must be balanced. It’s all pure woo.

    Clearly, someone around here won’t be awakening their kundalini anytime soon.

    Inverted Steely Dan — “Reiki, please lose my number”?

  12. Examples of totalitarian forms of knowledge:

    woo
    religion

    and Star Wars (at least until the copyright expires).

    CGP Gray take down

    (It’d be awesome if he did a video on the idiocy of woo)

    1. In 2001, due to an e-mail campaign, more than 1.5% of New Zealanders recorded their religion as Jedi on the census. Statistics New Zealand treated the response as “understood but not recorded”, so it’s not in the official figures, just in their commentary of the survey.

      1. I wonder what the official figures said instead. Are those Jedi’s now recorded as atheists?

        1. I think the answers went nowhere, as if they hadn’t even answered the question. People have been putting Jedi in every census since, though not as many, but they still don’t get counted in official figures.

          In 2013 people specifically answering “No religion” was up to 41.92%, which made it second only to Christianity at 47.65%. We atheists are pretty common in NZ, but very few make a big deal of religion for or against.

          1. So close! I hope you guys can top the christians in 2018. New Zealand is already the most irreligious country in the southern hemisphere, it could easily become the first country with an atheist majority (or largest minority) in the southern hemisphere.

        2. Jedi are, based on observations, atheists. They do not believe in God or anything supernatural (if they do they never say that). In their world, the force is physically real and people like Yoda have empirically verifiable spirits that live past life.

  13. My friends believe in reiki. When I asked them why physicists aren’t eagerly researching and incorporating this new form of ‘energy’ into their theories I was told that they were. Apparently there is a very small fraction of people with degrees in physics who have fallen for metaphysics: they appear in movies like What the *Bleep* Do We Know and attend conventions on Quantum Consciousness. The hyper-sensitive nature of the spiritual echo-chamber has then inflated this number into the form of a respectable stance.

    Of course, science is after all only “opinions.” The gold standard is subjective experience. That, and the desire to be part of a group which has self-labeled itself as ‘progressive.’

    What is “woo?” By and large, it’s supernatural belief which doesn’t fall easily into the arbitrarily defined category of ‘mainstream religion.’

    2. Just as we might ask a christian about why they don’t think islam is the true religion (or vice versa), so we might ask a reikian why they don’t practice voodoo (and vice versa). Their only answer will be, as you so nicely phrased it, “subjective experience.”

      And, don’t forget about Crispian Jago’s Periodic Table of Irrational Nonsense, the most marvelous woobuster ever. Except for his other charts.

        1. Check out his conspiracy theory flowchart, and his Venn diagram of irrational nonsense, too. Really good stuff. Hint: if you’re a scientologist, you won’t like it…

  14. I actually get reiki, chiropractic treatments, etc. If I lived in a third world nation, and modern, scientific medicine wasn’t available to me, I would take the placebo effect as opposed to nothing. What I don’t get is how it spreads in the modern world. In most economically advanced societies (unfortunately, my own USA excepted), you can receive modern scientific medicine based on the taxes you already paid. There is no additional cost. I understand that grifters have to grift. I just don’t understand why anyone who lives in the information age, with the means, would buy into it. I think it is an amazing problem.

    1. Except the placebo effect isn’t what many people think it is. The placebo effect has no effect on the organic cause of disease. It can affect the subjective symptoms of disease in some people some of the time. But it won’t make your tumor go away, ever. Or your asthma better. Or an infection. Or anything.

    2. People in the modern world who prefer alternative medicine usually do so because they think they would prefer a world which isn’t ‘modern.’ They have a very romanticized view of the past, the primitive, and the propitious role of nature in helping people be and feel their very, very best.

      1. And, some people turn to alternative medicine when scientific medicine hasn’t cured them, or can’t. If the illness is bad enough or the pain is bad enough, some people will try anything. Placebos R us.

        One doesn’t have to go very far back in the past to find diseases that disabled or killed.
        My youngest daughter had croup as a baby. My grandmother was so worried because, when she was younger, babies died of croup. During the 1918-1919 flu epidemic, 24 members of my grandfather’s family died. An aunt died of complications from measles. People died of tuberculosis, cholera,diptheria, measles, polio, etc. Much of what used to kill people seldom happens in first world countries any more. I’m quite certain that going back to the past and encountering these illnesses and others, is not what people romanticizing the past have in mind.

        1. “And, some people turn to alternative medicine when scientific medicine hasn’t cured them, or can’t.”

          Yep. Not quite seven years ago a good friend of mine finally succumbed to paraneoplastic syndrome brought on by testicular cancer. He and his parents tried everything legitimate medicine could offer. They basically lived at the Mayo clinic for a long time.

          His mother is now convinced that mainstream medicine is a crock and she has developed an obsession with all sorts of CAM, especially diet-related “therapies”. She is dairy-free, sugar-free, gluten-free, in fact she is totally grain-free. I don’t know what she eats. But the thing is that she’s certain eating like this will keep her disease-free. As far as I know, her husband agrees with her. I’m very worried about what she and her husband will do if either of them become seriously ill.

          1. Didn’t Steve Jobs, when regular therapies failed, shift over to some woo or other? I guess it would be tempting to grasp at straws in that situation.

          2. He actually delayed his surgery in favour of woo treatments. I don’t know if it contributed to his death but it couldn’t have been a great idea to delay treatment for as long as he did in the beginning of his disease.

          3. Ah. Worse still.
            But, that’s human nature. So many of us are bound to die early and sometimes it could have been otherwise.

          4. Yes, the most tragic aspect of Steve Jobs’ story is that he opted for woo before evidence-based medical options were explored – and he probably had a good chance. Pancreatic adenocarcinoma is usually diagnosed late and often deadly. However, Jobs didn’t have this most common type of pancreatic cancer, but a rare neuroendocrine tumor of pancreas, which has much better prognosis, provided it’s treated early – and often surgical treatment alone is sufficient. Jobs declined surgery at first, choosing instead various pseudoscientific treatments, and allowing the tumor to spread to his liver. Of course, we’ll never know precisely to what extent his decision contributed to his demise, but it is so tragic – he was smart and educated, and since money was no object, he could’ve had the best medical treatment in the world – but he voluntarily gave it up, because of his misguided ideas.

        2. Excellent point. That is another interesting insight into human thinking and societal norms. I think I may be an outlier in that if the situation arose, I would chose palliative care (other options aren’t yet available where I live) over false hope.

      2. They never think back to the good old days when dentistry was a sideline performed by barbers, do they?

        2. And notice that the solution for tooth decay was simple extraction of all the teeth. By the time many were middle aged.

          1. But look at all the money people would save. No need for braces, if those crooked or buck teeth are just gonna be yanked out soon enough, anyway, right?

  15. An All Black (New Zealand world champion rugby team) of Fijian descent broke his leg recently, putting him out of the World Cup, which is due to start in a month. He is undergoing traditional treatment in Fiji (his uncle is a practitioner) which he insists is working and he says he’ll be fine in plenty of time to re-join the team. Of course, he’ll have to pass checks from the team doctor first.

    I feel really sorry for him, and for the doctor who’s going to have to tell him his leg hasn’t healed.

  16. I recently looked into expensing something for a condition I have and was annoyed that I couldn’t claim it under my insurance but my insurance will cover a Christian Science Practitioner. Whatever BS crap that is!

    2. Try this – tell the CS practitioner you are covered by insurance and have her keep half and you keep half. You need not ever actually attend the sessions. A wink and a nod will do.

  17. I have a bit of anecdotal experience with reiki. Seven or eight years ago I slipped on some Minnesota snow covered ice and broke my pelvis in five places. While writhing pain in the hospital waiting for the spasming in my leg to die down and the surgeon to return from a conference in San Francisco, I was visited by a dear friend who does some massage therapy as a sideline to a regular job. She offered to do some reiki on me and I tried to demure, but my wife was all for it since the drugs I was getting were being pretty ineffective. Finally, after trying to avoid the issue, I acquiesced. Compared to all the other indignities I was being subjected to I figured this would be pretty minor and far less painful.
    The time came and the friend got the nurses to turn off all the unnecessary monitors and equipment, shooed everyone out of the room, turned the lights down and got to work. I’m told I fell asleep within five minutes. Sleep was not something that was coming easily. So now, when conversation turns to medical topics (as it does more and more the older I get) I occasionally get a comment about how well the reiki worked for me. I vigorously protest that no, no, no, no, no, no, it wasn’t the reiki! What worked was the fact that I finally got a few moments of uninterrupted peace and quiet – no well meaning well wishers; no beeping and buzzing; no nurses doing unfathomable things; no anticipation of some further procedure any minute. But, they aren’t convinced, and all I can do is shrug. Believers gotta believe it seems.
    I did have a mystical experience another night, though! Woke up in the middle of the night and saw what appeared to be two silhouetted figures heavily making out by the window in my room. Their heads were bobbing away with what appeared to be major kissing. Couldn’t figure out why people were making out in my room. It was a wonder. Spirits for sure. Said to myself, “Well, whatever.” And went back to sleep. Next morning I noticed the two balloons a friend had gotten me (the ones you can buy in hospital gift stores with sayings like “get well” printed on them). They were on the window sill swaying away and bumping into each other in the air currents from the heat register under the window looking quite a bit like two heads in major kissing mode. There is nothing like evidence to quell hallucination

    1. Ouch. Your poor pelvis!

      Funny about the balloons. I once saw something dark go darting by and assumed I’d hallucinated it only to realize it was someone else in the room. You’d think I would have figured that first but I more quickly assumed I was hallucinating. I guess I consider my eyes unreliable with their shadows and floaters.

  18. My mother was into reiki. And then she got cancer. Her reiki teacher (reiki master is what they call themselves), who also claimed to be clairvoyant, promised her that she would fully recover. Her reiki friends used to come over to give her all the reiki they had in them. If that didn’t help, what would? She died at 48. O, did I mention an alternative doctor told her to refuse chemotherapy?

      1. Initially, yes. When his alternative treatment didn’t work and the cancer spread all over her body she did get chemotherapy, but I guess it was just too late. I’ve always wondered if things would have turned out differently had she followed the recommended course of treatment.

        1. That’s really tragic. It’s one thing to do everything reasonably possible and still have it turn out badly but making a mistake like that is profoundly sad. It is why I hate it when people try to push BS alternative medicine, especially on people with life threatening illnesses. If anything is a trigger warning for me it’s that! Also, coaches who abuse children, but that’s a separate issue.

          So, if you want me to hulk out, make a kid perform on an injury where I notice it or try to tell me that mushrooms cure cancer.

          1. Agreed. This suggests to me that the foolish notions should be nipped in the bud. Confront them where ever you see them espoused. The simple harmless woo can eventually end in someones needless early death.

          2. Somehow, that makes me wonder whether there’s a legal angle, there. (I’m no lawyer, so please, any real lawyers out there, reality check me, here.)

            What if the recommendation for woo and against real medical care does lead to unnecessarily early death. Can that death be considered a form of assisted suicide — without informed consent — provided by someone practicing medicine without a license — especially where assisted suicide is considered murder or manslaughter or somesuch?

  20. I saw reiki in action, in the operating room, when I was a resident. My opinion: The patient was happily distracted by the pretty girl waving her pretty hands over his face and upper torso, while the head of orthopaedics, performing surgery on the patient’s lower extremity, was happy he’d gotten to meet with her beforehand, so she could convince him to try this as a possible peer-reviewed research effort, knowing he’d be meeting with her, again, afterward, to discuss it further.

    I’d seen similar effect, as a teen working in a podiatrist’s office, when the doctor, there, put headphones on his surgical patient and used music, rather than reiki, while performing a bunionectomy under local anesthesia.

    And, I’ve seen others so competent and efficient in their skill, trade jokes with their awake patients. One required two jokes from the patient in return for two from the surgeon, and it was most effective. By my anecdotal observations, laughter might actually work better than music or a pretty face.

  21. Okay. I used to believe in all sorts of magick, and spent a good 25+ years learning all I could, herbs, crystals, Tarot, you name it. I meditated, practiced, even belonged to a coven, and I took a Reiki weekend workshop. It was expensive, and I really didn’t have money to throw around at the time. I am a second level, meaning I have access to more symbols and a higher wavelenth of Reiki energy, but I can’t attune anyone to it.

    I have never healed anyone of anything, despite a friend saying I healed her leg – it probably would have gotten better on her own. My Tarot readings were mostly heart to heart talks, with myself and the client enjoying the artwork on the cards, and free-associating what we thought they meant. The Reiki workshop was a heavy experience, but in those days, I didn’t understand how these things are designed to work. Now I do. People who go in for this sort of thing usually want to help people, which is a very nice thing, and taking a weekend workshop is hella easier than the time that goes into actual medical/psychology training.

    People want to be cared for, and to think someone actually cares for them, and many doctor’s offices don’t do that. It makes them feel better, but a charm, or a crystal (I still love my crystals, not as healing tools, but as wonderful products of the Earth) is NOT going to fix someone’s problem. It may work itself out, or the person might get better on their own, but think of what can happen when it doesn’t?

    It took that (and some honesty to myself – very painful) to figure out that I had wasted a couple decades of my life doing this stuff, when I could have done something real. That is a hard thing to face, and a lot of woo-meisters will stick up for stuff they don’t believe in, because that realization is too hard, and the money and time thrown away is humiliating.

    I like the good stuff I got out of my pagan/witch years, like gardening skills, improving my cooking, learning about stones and nature, but like Tim Minchin says in Storm, “Isn’t that enough?” Can’t remember the rest of the poem of the top of my head. Douglas Adams said it as well, “Isn’t the garden fine as it is, without the need for fairies?” (or something like that). When you’re into this kind of thinking, it seems harmless, but it has real life consequences.

    Like any religion, woo can be hard to walk away from.

    TL;DR It’s hard to admit you’re wrong, and that you wasted a lot of money and time on crap.

    3. Thanks for that. I feel you have really been through a major dislocation. I’m glad you have emerged successfully.
      It seems some of us, by chance, were inoculated against these expensive, wasteful, sidetracks by disposition or upbringing or experiences. You apparently had a longer, winding, road.

    4. […] I had wasted a couple decades of my life doing this stuff, when I could have done something real.

      Life is what happens while we’re busy… wasting time on some stuff :-).

      I think you are discounting the value of the wisdom that you gained through this experience. No time of our life is completely wasted. You came out of it wiser, more mature, and with some gardening skills to boot.

  22. Thanks for reading. It’s hard sometimes to admit you are wrong about the majority of your life, and it is hard to start using reason instead of your ‘feelings’ or worse yet, you ‘powers’

    Ken,thank you for that wonderful link. I work in an airport, and I got to meet Donovan himself, and he was dear and sweet. Enjoying that music right now.

  23. The ‘average’ human body, as illustrated for instance in Gray’s Anatomy doesn’t exist. My father’s appendix was on the ‘wrong’ side of his body, complicating the diagnosis of appendicitis. (See “sinus invertus” on wikipedia.) Some people lack certain muscles that most others have. Some people even have organs others do not, hence the sexes.

    But look at a chart of acupuncture pressure points, or the qi channels. They do not seem to account of physical variations from person to person. The seem to be absolute. When has an acupunturist ever said “Hey, my treatment of your disease didn’t work, therefore the arrangement of your internal organs must be be out of the ordinary.” Just as the ‘science’ of astrology never predicted the presence of planets other than the first five, the ‘science’ of acupuncture has never informed physiologists of internal problems.

          1. Your comment reminds me of the frustrated plastic surgeon in ‘Even Cowgirls Get The Blues’. He always wanted to be an artist, but his mother insisted he become a doctor. One day whilst performing a rhinoplasty his artistic imperatives burst forth, and his patient upon removing his bandages discovered he had been given a cubist nose with a pair of nostrils in each facet.

          3. Thankfully, Sissy stopped the plastic surgeon before her second magnificent thumb could be mutilated, leaving her a pristine one to continue hitchhiking with.

  24. “Remember, PuffHo and PBS are read and watched by seemingly intelligent human beings.” – one has to also remember, though, that almost half of the American populace is of, “below average” intelligence.

    1. “…half of the American populace is of, below average intelligence”
      Not in Lake Wobegon.

  25. Just a bit of clarification regarding PBS and purveyors of woo, such as Deepak Chopra and others like him. PBS is the main public tv progrsm network which distributes programming such as The Newshour, Nova, and a host of other tv series nationwide to the various local public tv stations which actually do the broadcasting. Up to four times a year (usually called “pledge month”)the network goes “dark” (for the most part) and the local stations air their pledge month programming (much of which is donated from “wherever” in hopes of attracting new subscribers to the stations. PBS has no responsibility for these programs. The stations collect these programs themselves and air whatever they think might interest new or repeat donations. Many, like those from Chopra and others like him, are given to the stations who think such programs might attract donations from interested viewers. Many such programs are just elaborate book promotions, in effect, program length “infomercials.” So blame the public tv stations (I’m sure many hold their noses on some of this stuff) but not the network, PBS.

  26. The latest thinking is that Homo-Sapiens is devolving into Stupidity, I think some of us are well on the way.

  27. Reiki always bring bad memories to some people here in brazil. Some years ago, a guy defended a master thesis in a very famous PUBLIC university (USP). He argued that the immunological resistance of mices were increased by reiki’s hand imposition because theirs immunological system could recognize and combat better cancer cells of a certain kind: “Effects of Reiki in the evolution of induced granuloma by inoculation of BCG in hamsters and of induced Ehrlich ascitic tumor in mices”. The work is available to download (http://www.teses.usp.br/teses/disponiveis/10/10133/tde-12012009-094100/pt-br.php).
    The important point here is that mices were used because the author wanted to avoid the placebo effect that happens at the human-human interaction during reiki treatment(s).
    The thesis was approved but it was found later some problems with it:
    – Animals can be influenced by the placebo effect (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10511866 , https://web.archive.org/web/20141111005033/http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/is-there-a-placebo-effect-for-animals/)
    – Too few animals tested: only 20 and statistical fluctuations could not be ruled out.
    – etc…
    As it is always said in this blog, people can belief what they want, but when PUBLIC money comes in, there are no justification to throw it away with pseudo-science.

  28. There is no reliable empirical evidence that Reiki is helpful for treating any medical condition

    What? Don’t you count “having an over-filled wallet” as a serious medical condition. I’m sure that is one condition which reiki is excellent at providing relief for.
    Walletitis – a scourge of our time.

    2. Perhaps better “walletosis”, meaning a condition pertaining to the wallet.
      Walletitis would mean inflammation of the wallet. Of course, if it were filled with hot money…

  29. A friend of mine suffered a shoulder nerve injury in her teens that plagues her three decades later. At times it has caused her excruciating pain in the past, though she’s learned that getting a deep tissue massage in the area helps a great deal. She discovered this because a co-worker who practiced Reiki asked her why she was grimacing one day. She explained the problem, and he massaged her shoulder (with force) and made the pain go away.

    The real problem with “alternative medicine” is that some of it isn’t alternative and it works, like a Reiki master knowing real massage techniques. Another example is “homeopathic” charcoal for treating lower-abdominal gas. It isn’t homeopathic, it’s charcoal! (And it works, as you’d expect if you know the properties of charcoal.)

    They dribble just enough icing on the cake that a lot of people can’t see that the cake is just so much air, with a bit of actual poison for structure.

    1. I wonder whether her pain is due directly to muscle spasm or indirectly due to a nerve being pinched by the muscle that’s in spasm. Sounds fixable,either way. I hope she finds it so.

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