[BPSDB]Homeopathy is not the only magic now considered a Skill for Health. So is Reiki:-
The Reiki Dec08 pdf states that Reiki “…was developed by Mikao Usui in Japan in the early twentieth century”. So you can ignore the claims that it is an ancient healing art. The Introduction continues:-
“Reiki is a natural healing energy that works on every level, not just the physical, and promotes the body’s regenerative self healing ability”
The usual woo misuse of the word “energy” and of course no evidence is offered for the claim about promoting the body’s own healing ability.
“Reiki is … used holistically to restore balance in mind body and spirit”
Let me remind you this is Skills for Health we are talking about here, endorsing this mumbo-jumbo as fact.
Among the “skills” a Reiki practitioner is expected to have are delivering healing by:-
“a) hands on the body
“b) hands near the body
“c) from a distance”
Just to be clear, touching and hand-waving are meant to be medical treatments. “c)” is particularly good. It means the practitioner can just claim to have done the requisite hand-waving without actually seeing you. For a supposed code of professional
conduct this does rather leave the door open to the potential defrauding of clients.
In “Knowledge and Understanding” the practitioner must know about person to person attunement/initiation, Reiki energy (or “flow”) and his her teacher’s lineage to Mikao Usui. This last smacks of proving that you have learned from approved orthodox sources and not some heretic. This stress given to “who you learned from” rather than “what you learned” clearly identifies Reiki as a religious rather than scientific practice. The other requirements emphasise the magical thinking that underpins Reiki.
I will say one thing in this document’s favour though. The practitioner needs to recognise “red flag symptoms (ie conditions requiring immediate medical aid and/or notifiable diseases)”. It’s not much but at least there is a vague recogntion of limits to what their practice can achieve, which puts them one up on the
homeopaths.
Tags: Ofquack, Reiki, Skills for Health
February 13, 2009 at 8:56 am |
Well, JDC, this site seems to suggest the following.
“… this Japanese system of energy healing [that] was discovered by a doctor named Mikau Usui. It has been used worldwide for thousands of years.”
It may have been *discovered* in the 20 century but has been *used* for 1000s of years.
Black is white, up is down, square is round. The normal humpty-dumpty world of Complementary Medicine!
T
February 13, 2009 at 8:57 am |
Oh, meant to ask, have you got a link for the .pdf?
February 13, 2009 at 2:22 pm |
You can get them all at
http://www.skillsforhealth.org.uk/uploads/page/423/uploadablefile3.zip
Has them all. Also as Word documents.
February 13, 2009 at 10:04 pm |
Is there any hope that these guys will open up their meetings to the public, like GMC and the NHS trusts?
February 14, 2009 at 7:22 pm |
Are you worried about OfQuack’s lack of rigour, such as not requiring even basic evidence of safety or efficacy? If so, please sign the petition at http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/CNHCsafety.
February 15, 2009 at 2:57 pm |
Already signed it. I hope that everybody who is worried about magic and mumbo-jumbo being officially touted as medical treatments will also sign.
February 15, 2009 at 3:54 pm |
I couldn’t agree more about the absurdity of some of the “competences” listed by Skills for Health, That is why, in January 2008,I phoned them to try to discover who write them. It turned out that the Prince of Wales Foundation had a big hand in it. The phone conversation became surreal when I was referred to LANTRA (the land-based Skills Council, when I asked if they would be producing a “competence” in talking to trees.
Skills for Health is also one of at least ten quangos that must take the blame for teaching of nonsense to 16-year old schoolchildren.
February 16, 2009 at 12:49 pm |
I think this is inevitable when producing examination materials is seen as a business. I’ve discussed it at:
http://kelvinthroop.wordpress.com/2009/02/16/the-perils-of-privatising-education/
February 21, 2009 at 7:51 pm |
I think reading the book “How to stop your doctor killing you” by Vernon Coleman might help you understand why people are turning away from Orthodox medicine. He was a GP and like several I am aware of became morbidly sick of the lies and manipulation in the drug controlled health care system, and turned to alternative medicine with great results. Here is another http://alternative-doctor.com/index.php
February 21, 2009 at 9:14 pm |
Ah yes, alternative-doctpr.com. What an excellent site for high grade fantasists. He seems to think that ex-professor Patrick Holford does research and is an authority on nutrition
The cancer alternatives page is downright wicked. Well actually it has vanished but such a gem is worth preserving so I kept the Google cache version at http://www.furl.net/item/42626341/cached
February 21, 2009 at 10:10 pm |
What do you think to the claims by many ordinary folk that B17 or laetrile has healed their cancer. Do you think it is possible that the big pharma has supressed this info because it isn’t a patentable drug which generates profits?
February 21, 2009 at 10:34 pm |
That has always seemed to me to be one of the silliest arguments of all.
If there was the slightest reason to think that either of them worked, big pharma would be very busy making patentable analogues. They would make a fortune and be regarded as a saviour of mankind.
The fact that that hasn’t happened shows just how useless they are.
February 21, 2009 at 11:15 pm |
Not to mention how exactly would Big Pharma go about “suppressing” the fact that people had got better? Seriously, Philip, how could they possibly suppress it?
February 22, 2009 at 12:20 am |
Your questions are answered here. Please take an hour out of your life and watch this excellent presentation by Mr Griffin. Please don’t reply until you have seen all 8 parts.
February 22, 2009 at 5:04 pm |
Well well, it doesn’t take long to find out that your Mr Griffin is a “paleoconservative”, and lifelong member of the John Birch Society, and served as a writer for George Wallace’s vice presidential candidate, Curtis LeMay, a retired General of the Air Force. It’s immediately obvious that he is a scientific illiterate too,
I expect he believes in abduction by aliens. I’d as soon take the advice of Dr Strangelove as this conspiratorial theorist. You really should be more careful about what allies you pick.
February 22, 2009 at 6:20 pm |
No it’s not immediately obvious that he is a scientific illiterate. For the rest of what you have said “so what?”, none of this disproves the information. The fact the drug companies and cancer charities consistently dismiss it and refuse to look into it despite recent claims by thousands of people that it has helped them, at the very least indicates contempt for the people they are meant to be helping. Some have been imprisoned for helping people get better with B17.
February 22, 2009 at 6:29 pm |
Prison seems quite appropriate for those who give false hope to desperate people. Specially when, as so often, it’s done for profit.
February 22, 2009 at 6:43 pm |
If it is false hope then perhaps so, but going by the claims of many
ordinary people, it isn’t.
February 22, 2009 at 7:09 pm |
Many ordinary people (and many doctors) believed in bloodletting too. That is why these daus we have proper tests and real evidence. You produce even half-plausible evidence and people (and big pharma_ will be all over you.
February 22, 2009 at 7:34 pm |
Big pharma cannot reproduce laetrile in the lab that’s the point, this is why it is of no value to them because it is not able to be made into a patentable drug which can make money.
Proper tests “what crap!” The difference between a placebo and a valid drug can be as little as 1%. 40% of people who are given drugs by the doctors will suffer hazardous side effects. Many drugs which are passed as safe are later withdrawn by the authorities, sometimes after several years on the market. Their testing on animals is a waste of time, if it doesn’t produce side effects it will be proclaimed as safe, if it does the company will dismiss the results as irrelevant. The general public are the guinea pigs!
February 22, 2009 at 9:39 pm |
Oh heavens. Why didn’t I look at your site straight away? I see you are an advocate of SCENAR, a notorious Russian scam. If you believe that you will truly believe anything.
I’d like to explain risk/benefit ratios, and the statistics of detection of side effects but I don’t really think you’d listen. Of course the suppression of knowledge of side effects by pharma, which has occurred from time to time, is quite unforgivable. So is advocating crackpot solutions for serious diseases. I hope you are aware of the Cancer Act, 1939.
February 23, 2009 at 1:53 am |
“a notorious Russian scam” strong words, why say this? show me the proof that it is a “notorious scam”. Where do you live David I can prove that you are wrong? Scenar is the best thing ever and it will take over medicine this century. I have healed many friends and relatives with this device. I am on module 9 of the course with ISTA in Battersea, in London. I know of a local retired GP that learnt Russian purely to communicate with the inventor of this device. I can give you her phone number if you want to contact me through my site.
You want proof of its efficacy? OK I hope you enjoy being annoyed by this:
http://www.nrg-unlimited.com/interx_clinical_trials.php
and testimonials
http://www.scenarhealth.com/site_content.asp?p=testimonials
February 23, 2009 at 11:10 am |
I’ve covered Scenar at http://jaycueaitch.wordpress.com/2008/12/04/scenar-bioresonance/
and came to the conclusion it was rubbish.
And why should knowing where Professor Colquhoun lives be of any relevence to proving the efficacy of scenar? Sounds vaguely threatening to me.
February 23, 2009 at 11:40 am |
Well your conclusion is incorrect.
I wanted to know where he lives because I can then locate his nearest scenar therapist who can prove to him, the devices ability. The same goes for you as well.
February 24, 2009 at 11:15 am |
Post a link to a directory and we can find one for ourselves.
And in what way is my conclusion incorrect? By that I mean what evidence is there that scenar works?
BTW, since you have changed the subject twice now, I think we can take it that you have no evidence that Reiki works and that vitamin B17 cures cancer.
February 25, 2009 at 12:28 pm |
http://www.scenar.info/practitioners/scenar-practitioners-uk.html
I’ve just sent you the evidence for scenar! the link from NRG
You send me the evidence that B17 doesn’t cure cancer.
In any case, just because there isn’t evidence for something doesn’t mean its not true. There’s no evidence for evolution but there is a wealth of information suggesting that it is true.
February 27, 2009 at 11:46 pm |
Porter, you’re just trolling now.
1. You’ve not sent me any evidence that scenar works.
2. Your blatherings about B17 and cancer are just an attempt at distraction from the nonsense you are spouting: I have not said anything one way or the other about B17 and cancer – which is not the subject of this thread. Even if B17 did cure cancer, this would hardly be proof that Reiki and scenar also work.
February 28, 2009 at 12:27 am |
How many times! The NRG clinical trials link! Clinical trials are down the left hand side.
February 28, 2009 at 12:30 am |
By the way InterX is a scenar
What a surprise. Not. (Ed)
February 28, 2009 at 11:57 pm |
Prter, those are just summaries – not the actual research papers. And I note that in at leat one (sports injuries) the patients continued with their normal treatments. Not evidence that scenar works, then is it?
Furthermore, none of these research papers appear to have been submitted to a peer-reviewed journal. Why is that?
March 1, 2009 at 12:45 am |
Well I guess it mustn’t work then and its all a big lie. What a shame, I’ve spent two grand on the course and bought seven of these things at around a thousand pounds each. I’ve bought two this last month alone! What a silly boy I am.
<spam links removed> JQH
March 1, 2009 at 8:25 pm |
Curtis LeMay for Vice prez? That’s a scary thought!! What on earth could you have been thinking!?1!!?!1! Well… given how far Sarah Palin got… maybe you really endorse such candidates? (shudders).
Oh, and given all the things SCENAR claims to heal… Maybe we should elect Curtis LeMay PRESIDENT!! He didn’t take no BS excuses from crap that didn’t work (at least when it came to bombing runs)….
al
May 5, 2009 at 5:33 pm |
Spam spam spam spam spam spam
May 5, 2009 at 7:54 pm |
Porter, this is not the place to advertise your ludicrous scam. Such spam will be removed.
May 5, 2009 at 8:09 pm |
It wasn’t spam. I was showing you a wesbite for ex military that was promoting scenar, thus it demanded immediate attention in the form of written letter of complaint from Prof David.
May 6, 2009 at 7:16 am |
Gosh, you’re so sharp it’s a wonder you don’t cut yourself. Firstly, if you reckon Professor Colquhoun should involve himself, why not contact him direct. Secondly, for some bizarre reason the ASA does not deal with claims a company makes on its own website. Thirdly the OBP is about Reiki, not your scenar scam. Stop trolling.
August 1, 2009 at 8:59 pm |
[...] is not alone. Another was Philip Porter who trolled my post on Reiki in order to bang on about using vitamin B17 to cure cancer. He too put the lack of [...]
August 19, 2009 at 10:27 pm |
Give me a break. Reiki is real and is nothing to make fun of.
mary, Professional Life Coach
August 21, 2009 at 7:17 am |
Really? How about some evidence?
August 24, 2009 at 3:15 pm |
Professional Life Coach eh?
Perhaps you would like to point us at the double blinded study that shows effective Reiki is compared to some baseline? I imagine that as a professional and responsible life coach you would NEVER make claims of effectiveness and advise people to use any sort of “treatment” like this without evidence from double blinded studies… right?
-Steve
December 2, 2009 at 10:46 am |
Think about the reason we have double-blind studies – because of the placebo effect. For this reason, it must be so that health is all in the mind.
Our bodies are effected by our minds in a big way, this isn’t to say that reiki doesn’t work – just that the thought of something doing something good has an effect.
Dummy pills in a lot of double-blind studies do more good than the actual drugs, which explains this further.
Feel free to debunk etc.
January 17, 2010 at 12:21 am |
[...] a number of posts I fisked Ofquack’s guidelines for alternative health practitioners. The one on reilki was trolled by scenar salesman Philip Porter who constantly tried to change the subject to vitamin [...]
February 19, 2010 at 6:34 pm |
Dave and Steve are right – double-blind study is a definite test for a lot of substances to prove their potency. However I do think there are certain things which can have overwhelming evidence and it may not even be feasible or suitable for double-blind study. For example exercise to improve health and fight against hypertension or heart disease. The lifestyle change required would make it totally stupid to expect a double-blind even possible. Another example: bullet to kill – you wouldn’t require a double-blind study to prove its efficacy. Another example: massage to release muscle stiffness; how would you propose doing that? DBS are only useable for pills or chemicals that don’t leave any other symptom or sign that it has been ingested / injected. So those people here, who don’t want to believe in efficacy of a certain cure where DBS cannot apply, should either test it for themselves to prove it doesn’t work before claiming so. Otherwise they are just ignorant as the public who get sucked into cure scams by those who make exaggerated claims of cure. If there is a concerted effort by those who publish journals anything is possible – and this applies equally to both conceit and truth. Perhaps B17 doesn’t work – but neither does chemo-therapy any better than no therapy. I know people (with cancer) who have died as a result of conventional medical therapy a lot sooner than if they had done nothing.
February 19, 2010 at 6:38 pm |
And how would you know that they died sooner than they would otherwise? In general people who receive conventional therapy live longer than those who do not.
February 19, 2010 at 7:56 pm
jaycueaitch you were selective in attacking – you should have read the note i added a minute before your reply; and saved us having an unnecessary argument. as the note says: It was according to Dr’s own estimates of treatment vs non treatment of the small lump.
And on the same note – how do you know if the conventional therapy extends the life-span e.g in cancers anyway – many people die unexpectedly. I have seen people having changed their diets pull out of debilitating illnesses after doctors had given up and predicted only months to live. Someone dying 1 day after Dr’s gave all-clear. And a child healed from a crippling illness day after saying a prayer (to Dr’s surprise) – the same individual is now a PhD in Pharmacology and a great supporter of Conventional medicine. I have spent over 20 years in and around hospital environment and with Doctors within family and friends and have a lot of respect for a lot of genuine people in this caring profession. But some times people don’t see what they don’t know – and sometimes they cant see past years of conditioning – no matter how good their intentions.
February 19, 2010 at 6:37 pm |
and that is according to the Specialist Doctor’s own estimates!!!