pseudoparanormal

New Age Medicine



We started off the semester talking about the “Q-ray” and how people used it under the false pretenses that this simple bracelet could help cure whatever major problems their body had.  This got me thinking of the show I featured above called, Bullshit! by the duo Penn and Teller.  Their show, while rather hilarious and crude, debunks many different things that lie in the pseudoscience realm.  The clip I featured above was from an episode on “New Age Medicine”.  These practices can range from acupuncture to healing by a person’s very touch.  The purpose of this is to make the client’s pain go away, wherever it might be affecting them.  The assumptions that clients have when participating in new age medicine are that:

1. It is an ancient art that has been used for many years or a break through in recent times
2. It works
3. There will not be expensive, invasive surgery
4. It is low risk
5. It wont cost as much
6. It will be long lasting
7. There will not be side effects

The people that practice this art base their practice around different concepts.  For acupuncturists they theorize that in using these “ancient Chinese art” they are going to hit certain pressure points in order to relieve your body’s worst afflictions.  Those who practice the art of “non-touch” surgery or relief of pain through touch believe that they are focusing in on their own chi and the client’s chi in order to bring their body back into a state of harmony.  My own point of view is that none of these practices have ever been truly tested in the scientific or medical field and have no right claiming they can cure a person.  The people that buy into this are very desperate and need to realize that they are wasting their money on something that is taking advantage of their pain. In order to explain my reasoning further on why I think these are such a scam...I have posted a link to a website that has a very humerous but enlightening article on it. The man, David Thorne, is an artist that finds an add for a person that is "qualified" to be a long distance chiropractor. If you get the chance to read all of it, I am sure you will find it quite amusing and see how silly these new age techniques can be: http://www.27bslash6.com/overdue.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5w7fztpQego

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acupuncture

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2011/07/the-triumph-of-new-age-medicine/8554/