Energy Therapies
July 2010: This page is under revision. Related links |
Energy Medicine"The bioenergetic field plays no role in the theory or practice of biology or scientific medicine. Vitalism, and bioenergetic fields remain mere speculation — speculation that is not even needed to explain what is happening. If bioenergetic fields exist, then some two hundred years of physics, chemistry, and biology has to be re-evaluated." Quantum healing is also examined. Article by Victor Stenger, PhD, Professor Emeritus of Physics and Astronomy, University of Hawaii, and Adjunct Professor of Philosophy, University of Colorado, USA Hands Off, Doctor"Doctors and nurses should focus on medicine rather than playing with their patients' energy fields." Article by Howard Fienberg, STATS (2000) [The Statistical Assessment Service is a non-profit, non-partisan organisation which monitors the media to expose the abuse of science and statistics before people are misled and public policy is distorted] Biofield Perception: A Series of Pilot Studies with Cultured Human CellsWhile preliminary and inconclusive, these pilot studies found no evidence that EM (Energy Medicine) practitioners can perceive a biofield associated with cancer cells growing in culture. Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine (June 2004) The Skeptics of 'Energy' TherapiesSkeptics and scientists speak out on the growth of 'energy' treatments that tout success stories over hard science. This article includes details of the headlong conversion from skeptic to true believer (and back to skeptic) of the former TFT (Thought Field Therapy) therapist, Monica Pignotti. She believes that her experience should serve as a cautionary lesson to therapists and clients alike. Matthew Robb, MSW, LCSW-C, social worker and freelance writer. Social Work Today (2004) A review of Energy Medicine: The Scientific BasisHarriet Hall, MD, reviews 'Energy Medicine: The Scientific Basis' by James L. Oschman: "Oschman concludes that energy medicine was discovered before its time, but now the time has come to integrate it into scientific knowledge. There is probably no single "life force" or "healing energy." Instead, there is an interaction of many electrical, magnetic, elastic, acoustic, thermal, gravitational, and photonic energies, and possibly other subtle energies that remain to be discovered. He claims that there is a growing body of evidence for energy healing, but that even carefully controlled studies have been dismissed, simply because science does not recognize their rationale. This is not true; the positive evidence is of poor quality and is outweighed by the negative evidence that this book consistently refuses to acknowledge." Skeptic Magazine, Vol 11, Nr.3 (2005) Research into energy healing: parlour tricks or rigorous testing?A debate article summarising (mostly verbatim) a correspondence that Professor Edzard Ernst had about the possibility of conducting research into a form of 'energy healing'. Professor Ernst concluded: "This debate would be largely irrelevant if it were not such a typical example of its kind. I am regularly approached by people who invite me to conduct research. If I then try to direct them towards a rigorous test of their basic hypothesis, it turns out they have very little interest in doing science. My explanations usually fall on deaf ears and I am left with the impression that there never was any will to conduct research in the first place. The motivation to approach me, it seems, was not research but promotion. And there is another feature that makes this debate typical: the strength of the assertion that the phenomena to be investigated are real is inversely proportional to the plausibility of the claims that are being made." Focus on Alternative and Complementary Therapies [FACT] (March 2009) New Age Energy"There's a good reason why you don't hear medical doctors or pharmacists talking about energy fields: it's meaningless." Skeptoid Podcast transcript (3rd October 2006) Gary Schwartz's Energy Healing Experiments: The Emperor's New Clothes?""Energy medicine" is an emperor whose new clothes still look awfully transparent to critical thinkers and to the scientific community no matter what glorious colors and fabrics Schwartz and his colleagues imagine they are seeing." Book review by Harriet Hall MD, Skeptical Inquirer (March/April 2008) Energy"The New Age is about enhancing your energy, tapping into the energy of the universe, manipulating energy so that you can be happy, fulfilled, successful, and lovable, so life can be meaningful, significant, and endless….. New Age Energy isn't measurable by any known scientific instrument and is believed to be not only the source of life, but of health as well. There are no ergs, joules, electron-volts, calories, or foot-pounds of New Age energy. This energy is outside the bounds of scientific control or study. Only healers with special powers at "unblocking," "harmonizing," "unifying," "tuning," aligning," "balancing," "channeling," or otherwise manipulating New Age energy, can measure this energy. How? They measure it by feeling it. Energy medicines are based upon variants of the metaphysical theory known as vitalism, a theory that has been dead in the West for over a century. New Age quackery often maintains that the older a theory is the more one should have faith in it." (The Skeptic's Dictionary) Energy Healing: Looking in All the Wrong PlacesEssay by Robert Todd Carroll (The Skeptic's Dictionary) What's the harm in energy medicine?Reports of many people who were harmed by energy medicine. |