Showing posts with label Shamanic Energy Healer James Hyman. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Shamanic Energy Healer James Hyman. Show all posts
Saturday, July 23, 2011
Shamanic Energy Healer James Hyman: Shaman Or Shenanigans: The Emperors New Clothes
SHAMANIC HEALER OR SHAMANIC HYPE? The Emperor's New Clothes
James Hyman says his experiments reveal our natural power to heal based on our ability to sense and manipulate "shamanic energy" and "human energy fields."
Has he discovered scientific truths, or has he only demonstrated the human talent for self-deception?
James Hyman and his "practice manager" ex wife believe many things.
They believe in life after death, past life regression, and they believe that chanting mantras can heal you from anything and there is scientific evidence to support these beliefs.
Hyman is now focusing his powers of belief on a new field: "Shamanic Energy Healing" "Energy Healing" and "Energy Medicine."
On their new web site, located at the following URL; http://www.emotionalrelease.com , Barbara Hyman explains that we all emit "shamanic energy" and there are "human energy" fields."
Hyman believes that some amongst us (primarily her "genius" ex-husband, "shamanic healer," "qigong master" and "quantum theta" energy healer, James) can sense each other’s fields, and that healers can influence these fields to heal illnesses and injury.
She believes these are not just theories but scientifically supported facts.
The web site has numerous “gee-whiz” testimonials of supposed "shamanic healing" and energy healing (which are frankly not very convincing and could be easily outdone by any self-respecting purveyor of quack remedies).
She goes on to describe her ex-husband James Hyman's claims that he has the ability to detect and alter this purported "shamanic energy," "quantum theta" energy and human energy fields.
Throughout the web site she descends into blethering about quantum physics, the oneness of the universe, the connectedness of all things, and the possibility that "shamanic energy" or "quantum theta" energy awareness will solve all of mankind’s problems.
Although given scientific proof to the contrary, she is not deterred, she goes on to describe purported measurements of subtle human energy emissions, Kam Yuen's influence on human energy fields, the power of "The Secret," the healing power of "Qigong" (of which James is of course a "Master") among other phenomena of dubious reality or significance.
She makes a big deal of the fact that humans emit energy (of course we do, it is picked up by EKG, EEG, etc.), and she would like to think "shamanic healers" or "energy healers," especially her "genius" husband James can pick up that energy and decode it in the same way your radio picks up Rush Limbaugh out of the atmosphere.
And then she would like to think that "shamanic healers" and "energy healers" can send something back into the patient’s body to enable healing.
I know, I know, in this time of sever economic instability, budgetary crisis and nasty political bickering you would think Americans would be fed up with such nonsense, most are, but when it comes to the Hymans, you'd be wrong.
Barbara Hyman misses the crucial fact that there is information encoded in the electromagnetic waves your radio detects, but there is no reason to think there is any analogous information coming from the body, much less any way to change that information and send it back to produce healing.
I only wish we could use "shamanic healing" or “energy healing” on radio and TV waves to improve the quality of programming!
She makes a big deal of the fact that everything affects everything else.
She seems to mean this in a holistic, metaphysical, New Age, “the universe is one and is conscious and we can create our own health” sense.
Science recognizes that small events can have far-reaching effects, but that doesn’t mean one thing can predict or control another.
Theoretically, a change in the magnitude or position of your body mass will enter into the overall gravity equations of the universe, but that doesn’t mean one thing can control or predict another.
You could hardly expect to meaningfully influence someone out there beyond Alpha Centauri by losing ten or fifteen pounds (a practice of which Ms. Hyman might be better off practicing as opposed to constantly espousing the same drek over and over again).
You can’t expect to change the EEG of an astronaut in the Space Station by exercising to change your own EKG.
We are talking about very small influences.
If a gnat pushes an elephant, it’s not likely to fall over; it’s not likely to even notice.
And then there are inconvenient complications like quantum theory and chaos theory.
There is nothing of substance in these multiple free web sites. Indeed the mere fact that she has to repeat the same things over and over again on virtually every free forum offered on the Internet would render any intelligent being to recognize the obvious, i.e. she is attempting what is known in main stream scientific circles as; "Proof By Assertion.' http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proof_by_assertion
Proof by assertion, sometimes informally referred to as proof by repeated assertion, is a logical fallacy in which a proposition is repeatedly restated regardless of contradiction. Sometimes this may be repeated until challenges dry up, at which point it is asserted as fact due to its not being contradicted (argumentum ad nauseam).
In other cases its repetition may be cited as evidence of its truth, in a variant of the appeal to authority or appeal to belief fallacies.
The Hyman's claims lose credibility because they have never been in a controlled, double blind clinical study.
Nothing Ms. Hyman has ever written has been accepted for publication in mainstream peer-reviewed journals.
I feel sorry for James Hyman: he’s a smart guy, he means well, he really believes he has found something wonderful, but he has a blind spot and just doesn’t get it when others try to point out the flaws in his methods and reasoning.
To put the accusation of “politics” into perspective, consider the Helicobacter experiments. When researchers first suggested that ulcers might be caused by bacteria, they were laughed at.
They published their results, peer review had a field day, other labs looked into the idea, more data came in, results from various lines of research coalesced, and within a mere ten years it became standard practice to treat ulcers with antibiotics.
It didn’t matter that the idea sounded crazy at first; science responded to good evidence. (See Kimball C. Atwood IV, “Bacteria, Ulcers, and Ostracism,” Skeptical Inquirer, November/December 2004.)
If Hyman had evidence of equal quality, he would get an equal hearing by the scientific community.
A good scientist considers the entire body of available evidence, not just the claims of one group of researchers.
The Hyman's never bring up the fact that other experiments have directly contradicted their assertions.
They never get around to mentioning Emily Rosa’s landmark experiment, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in 1998, which showed that therapeutic touch practitioners could not sense human energy fields as they claimed.
She tested twenty-one experienced practitioners of therapeutic touch.1
They all thought they could detect Rosa’s human energy field and feel whether she was holding her hand over their right or left hand, but when they were prevented from seeing where her hand was, their performance was no better than chance.
Rosa was nine years old at the time, and the article grew out of her school science fair project.
The experiment was beautiful in its simplicity.
Adult true believers had published much research on the techniques and effects of therapeutic touch, but in the true spirit of childlike questioning, Rosa went back to basics and asked the crucial question:
“Is the phenomenon itself real?
Can they really feel something or is it possible they are fooling themselves?”
Amazingly, no researcher had ever asked that question before.
They had ignored one of the basic principles of the scientific method as explained by Karl Popper: it’s easy to find confirmation for any hypothesis, but every genuine test of a hypothesis is an attempt to falsify it.
Emily Rosa's experiment is dismissed by other so called "shamanic healers," "energy healers," or 'therapeutic touch' practitioners as having five “potential problems”:
1. It was a science-fair project done by a young girl.
2. She was the only experimenter.
3. She randomized by flipping a coin, which he calls “an unreliable procedure.”
4. One of the authors was the founder of Quackwatch.
5. The subjects did worse than chance.
These objections are just silly; they are either inaccurate or are ad hominem attacks:
1.It shouldn’t make any difference whether Rosa was a young girl or an old man or a sentient purple octopus from an alien planet.
It shouldn’t matter whether she did the experiment for an elementary school project, a doctoral dissertation, a Coca Cola commercial, or a government grant.
What matters is the quality of the evidence. In this case, her project was well designed and executed, had clearly significant findings, and was of high enough quality to be approved for publication in a prestigious peer-reviewed medical journal.
2.She was not the only experimenter.
Others were involved; the experiment was repeated under expert supervision on Scientific American Frontiers.
This should preclude any accusations of deliberate cheating or inadvertent failure to follow the protocol properly.
Rosa was the only one to carry out the trials, but what would multiple testers have added to the experiment?
The results didn’t depend on any special ability or quality of hers, but on the ability of the subjects who claimed they could sense anyone’s energy fields.
For the televised trials, they even got to “feel” the “shamanic energy” from each of Rosa’s hands and choose which one they wanted her to use in the trials.
About half chose her left hand and half her right.
No one objected, “I can’t feel shamanic energy from either hand.”
3.Flipping a coin is not an “unreliable procedure”—unless the flipper is deliberately cheating.
The number of heads and tails was approximately equal, and the distribution appeared random. The editors of JAMA found the method acceptable.
There are situations where coin-flipping could legitimately be criticized, for instance in psi experiments where researchers are looking for minuscule differences in large bodies of data and even their computerized random number generators have been criticized for not being “perfectly” random.
But in this experiment, the results were clearly significant; it is hard to envision how a different method of randomization could have altered the results. The coin flip was only used to determine which of the subject’s hands she would hold her hand over.
The subjects claimed to be able to sense "shamanic energy" fields with either hand, so it shouldn’t have made a bit of difference to their perception.
Faulty randomization might have allowed the subjects to perceive a pattern and guess, which would have tended to give false positive results rather than the negative results Rosa got.
4. One of the authors, the founder of Quackwatch, was admittedly skeptical of therapeutic touch. Yes, someone with possible bias was indirectly involved in the experiment. If that is an objection, there is an even greater objection to Hyman's own examples: he and his colleagues are all strongly biased toward belief in "shamanic energy" phenomena and they were directly involved in their experiences as told by "testimonials" on their web sites.
"Testimonials" are personal accounts of someone's experiences with a therapy.
They are generally subjective:
"I felt better,"
"I had more energy,"
"I wasn't as nauseated,"
"The pain went away," and so on.
Testimonials are inherently selective.
People are much more likely to talk about their "amazing shamanic cure" than about something that didn't work for them.
The proponents of "alternative" methods like Barbara & James Hyman's so called "shamanic energy healing" can, of course, pick which testimonials they use.
For example, let's suppose that if 100 people are sick, 50 of them will recover on their own even if they do nothing.
So, if all 100 people use a certain therapy, say James Hyman's "shamanic energy" healing, half will get better even if the treatment doesn't do anything.
These people could say "I took a 'shamanic energy healing' therapy session with 'shamanic healer' James Hyman & my disease went away!"
This would be completely honest, even though the therapy had done nothing for them.
So, testimonials are useless for judging treatment effectiveness.
For all we know, those giving the testimonial might be the only people who felt better.
Or, suppose that of 100 patients trying a therapy, 10 experienced no change, 85 felt worse, and 5 felt better.
The five who improved could quite honestly say that they felt better, even though nearly everyone who tried the remedy stayed the same or got worse!
5. It is simply not true that the subjects did “worse than chance.”
Their performance was consistent with chance.
If they had done worse than chance (significantly worse) that would have tended to support Hyman’s claim that some kind of "shamanic energy" effect was present, even though it would have been the reverse of what he claimed to find.
In my opinion, none of these “problems” invalidates the conclusion that the therapeutic touch practitioners failed to do what they claimed they could do.
And if they think these were valid problems, why didn’t they simply repeat her experiment in their own lab with multiple experimenters and a more reliable method of randomization?
Why won't Hyman come forward and accept MY CHALLENGE?
I HAVE A STANDING OFFER OF TO HYMAN OR ANY OTHER "SHAMANIC HEALER": ANYTIME, ANY ONE OF THEM CAN PROVE THE PRESENCE OF "SHAMANIC ENERGY" OR "QUANTUM THETA" ENERGY OR WHATEVER THEY MAY BE CALLING IT THIS WEEK,...PROVE IT.....SCIENTIFICALLY....AND WALK AWAY WITH THE MONEY!.....PERIOD......WHAT THEY ARE PROFESSING AMOUNTS TO A HUMAN ENERGY FIELD....IF IT IS SUCH AMAZING SCIENCE WHY HAS NO ONE TAKEN ME UP ON MY OFFER?
In reality, Nine year old Emily Rosa’s experiment was a great example of a young child being able to see more clearly than prejudiced adults—a real “Emperor’s New Clothes” story.
If a rigorous scientist thought he had found evidence that people could detect “human energy fields,” he would maintain a healthy skepticism; he would immediately try to prove himself wrong, and he would enlist his colleagues to help show him where he might have gone wrong.
He would try to rule out all other possible explanations (the subject might be sensing heat, sound, motion, air currents, might be able to see under the blindfold, etc.).
If the phenomenon proved robust, he would try to refine his understanding by doing things like varying the distance to see if it obeyed the inverse square law and interposing a sheet of cardboard or glass to see if the effect could be blocked.
Then he would try to use instruments to measure what kind of energy was being sensed.
When a believer thinks they have found something to justify their belief, their approach tends to be less rigorous.
What about “if there is no convincing science or plausible mechanism to support them, let’s stop wasting our time chasing moonbeams”?
All of energy medicine hinges on one basic claim: that people can detect subtle human energy fields.
If the Hyman's are wrong about that, the rest of the claims for so-called “energy medicine” fizzle away.
If they don't trust my credibility regarding the $50,000.00 prize, since 1996, the James Randi Educational Foundation (JREF) has offered a substantial reward (currently $1,000,000) to anyone who can demonstrate an ability to detect a "shamanic energy field," or “human energy field” under conditions similar to those of Rosa’s study.
Of the more than 80,000 American therapeutic touch practitioners who claim to have such ability, only one person attempted to demonstrate it.
She failed.
Miserably!
The JREF challenge is admittedly not a definitive scientific test, but prudence would seem to dictate that if no one can even meet this simple challenge, we shouldn’t be wasting research money on what is probably a myth.
Others have attempted to establish the “science” of "shamanic energy" or energy medicine and have failed.
Even the National Association Of Alternative Medicine (NAAM), which is willing to consider almost any possibility in alternative medicine, is skeptical.
It distinguishes between real energy (sound waves, electromagnetism, and other energies measurable by physicists) and the kind of “putative” energy Hyman is trying to validate.
It concludes that the “putative” energy approaches “are among the most controversial of CAM practices because neither the external energy fields nor their therapeutic effects have been demonstrated convincingly by any biophysical means.”
Another proponent of 'energy healing' Gary Schwartz sounds like a scientist.
He tries to talk the talk and walk the walk.
He even makes some skeptical noises to try to convince us he is objective.
But there is also a lot of very unscientific language in his written work.
For instance:
Human rage and pain, especially generated by terrorism and war, create a global energetic climate whose negative effects can extend from the physical and environmental—potentially including climate—to the psychological and ultimately spiritual. . . . [P]ollution is not simply chemical, it is ultimately energy based and therefore conscious as well.
Really?
Conscious pollution?
So maybe if we talk nice to pollution it will cooperate and go away?
Or should we try doing Reiki to lower the atmospheric CO2 levels?
Does Al Gore know about this?
"Shamanic Energy, and all other types of "“Energy Medicine's are an emperor whose new clothes still look awfully transparent to critical thinkers and to the scientific community no matter what glorious colors and fabrics Hyman or Schwartz and their colleagues imagine they are seeing.
Pseudoscience
Since most people have never studied quantum physics they do not understand why these sham ideas are a perversion of it - in fact, this relies on people thinking that quantum mechanics is "too hard" or "only for scientists" in order for the scams to work and stop people questioning them.
People do, however, recognize that quantum physics says that nanoscale reality is very different from what we know, and perhaps some pop science authors can take some blame for this. Concepts such as "non-locality" or "quantum probability waves" or "uncertainty principle" have become social memes of a kind where people inherently recognize that something "strange" is going on.
Practitioners of fraudulent and silly ideas like the Hyman's can tap into this feeling of mystery to push their sham concepts. i.e: "Shamanic Energy" Healing or “Quantum Theta Energy Healing.”
Notes:
1. “Therapeutic touch” is a bit of a misnomer because these practitioners don’t actually touch but simply massage the air a few inches from the patient’s body.
They are convinced that they are detecting and manipulating the "shamanic energy field," balancing and smoothing it, and correcting any abnormalities, thus allowing the body to heal itself.
2.Hall, H. 2005. A review of Energy Medicine: The Scientific Basis. Skeptic 11(3): 89–93. Available at quackfiles.blogspot.com.
3. Halprin, R 2011, Quackwatch 4/13/11 Undercover Investigation Of Quantum Theta Energy Healing
4. Quantum Flux,
5. Quantum Stirwand
Quantum Therapy
Quantum healing
Quantum biofeedback
Shoo!Tag
6. The Dancing Wu Li Masters (William Morrow & Co., 1979, ISBN 0553249142)
7. The Tao of Physics (Shambhala Publications, 1975, ISBN 1570625190)
8. Reviewer Jeremy Bernstein of the New Yorker Magazine, quoted by Martin Gardner in a 1979 review for Newsday, described Zukav's and Capra's physics by saying "A physicist reading these books might feel like someone on a familiar street who finds that all the old houses have suddenly turned mauve."
9. http://www.emotionalrelease.com/ (The Hyman Hawking Hype Web Site)
11. http://www.zpenergy.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=229
12. http://www.quantumagewater.eu/contents/en-us/d1.html
13. http://www.quantumtherapy.net/
14. http://www.newscientist.com/special/seven-wonders-of-the-quantum-world
References:
· Rosa, L., E. Rosa, L. Sarner, and S. Barrett. 1998. A close look at therapeutic touch. Journal of the American Medical Association. 279:1005–1010. Schwartz, Gary E., with William L. Simon. 2007. The Energy Healing Experiments: Science Reveals Our Natural Power to Heal. New York: Atria Books.
Thanks To Harriet Hall M.D. (The SkepDoc) For The Template & Partial Content ; http://www.skepdoc.org
James Hyman's Deep Emotional Release Bodywork: The Emperors New Clothes?
JAMES HYMAN'S DEEP EMOTIONAL RELEASE BODYWORK: SHAMANIC HEALER OR SHAMANIC HYPE?
The Emperor's New Clothes
James Hyman says his experiments reveal our natural power to heal based on our ability to sense and manipulate "shamanic energy" and "human energy fields."
Has he discovered scientific truths, or has he only demonstrated the human talent for self-deception?
James Hyman and his "practice manager" ex wife believe many things.
They believe in life after death, past life regression, and they believe that chanting mantras can heal you from anything and there is scientific evidence to support these beliefs.
Hyman is now focusing his powers of belief on a new field: "Shamanic Energy Healing" "Energy Healing" and "Energy Medicine." as well as rehashing an old field from the 1990's "Deep Emotional Release Bodywork!"
On their new web site, located at the following URL; http://www.emotionalrelease.com , Barbara Hyman explains that we all emit "shamanic energy" and there are "human energy" fields."
Hyman believes that some amongst us (primarily her "genius" ex-husband, "shamanic energy healer," "qigong master" and "quantum theta" energy healer, James) can sense each other’s fields, and that healers can influence these fields to heal illnesses and injury.
She believes these are not just theories but scientifically supported facts.
The web site has numerous “gee-whiz” testimonials of supposed "shamanic healing" and energy healing (which are frankly not very convincing and could be easily outdone by any self-respecting purveyor of quack remedies).
She goes on to describe her ex-husband James Hyman's claims that he has the ability to detect and alter this purported "shamanic energy," "quantum theta" energy and human energy fields.
Throughout the web site she descends into blethering about quantum physics, the oneness of the universe, the connectedness of all things, and the possibility that "shamanic energy" or "quantum theta" energy awareness will solve all of mankind’s problems.
Although given scientific proof to the contrary, she is not deterred, she goes on to describe purported measurements of subtle human energy emissions, Kam Yuen's influence on human energy fields, the power of "The Secret," the healing power of "Qigong" (of which James is of course a "Master") among other phenomena of dubious reality or significance.
She makes a big deal of the fact that humans emit energy (of course we do, it is picked up by EKG, EEG, etc.), and she would like to think "shamanic healers" or "energy healers," especially her "genius" husband James can pick up that energy and decode it in the same way your radio picks up Rush Limbaugh out of the atmosphere.
And then she would like to think that "shamanic healers" and "energy healers" can send something back into the patient’s body to enable healing.
I know, I know, in this time of sever economic instability, budgetary crisis and nasty political bickering you would think Americans would be fed up with such nonsense, most are, but when it comes to the Hymans, you'd be wrong.
Barbara Hyman misses the crucial fact that there is information encoded in the electromagnetic waves your radio detects, but there is no reason to think there is any analogous information coming from the body, much less any way to change that information and send it back to produce healing.
I only wish we could use "shamanic healing" or “energy healing” on radio and TV waves to improve the quality of programming!
She makes a big deal of the fact that everything affects everything else.
She seems to mean this in a holistic, metaphysical, New Age, “the universe is one and is conscious and we can create our own health” sense.
Science recognizes that small events can have far-reaching effects, but that doesn’t mean one thing can predict or control another.
Theoretically, a change in the magnitude or position of your body mass will enter into the overall gravity equations of the universe, but that doesn’t mean one thing can control or predict another.
You could hardly expect to meaningfully influence someone out there beyond Alpha Centauri by losing ten or fifteen pounds (a practice of which Ms. Hyman might be better off practicing as opposed to constantly espousing the same drek over and over again).
You can’t expect to change the EEG of an astronaut in the Space Station by exercising to change your own EKG.
We are talking about very small influences.
If a gnat pushes an elephant, it’s not likely to fall over; it’s not likely to even notice.
And then there are inconvenient complications like quantum theory and chaos theory.
There is nothing of substance in these multiple free web sites.
Indeed the mere fact that she has to repeat the same things over and over again on virtually every free forum offered on the Internet would render any intelligent being to recognize the obvious, i.e. she is attempting what is known in main stream scientific circles as; "Proof By Assertion.' http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proof_by_assertion
Proof by assertion, sometimes informally referred to as proof by repeated assertion, is a logical fallacy in which a proposition is repeatedly restated regardless of contradiction.
Sometimes this may be repeated until challenges dry up, at which point it is asserted as fact due to its not being contradicted (argumentum ad nauseam).
In other cases its repetition may be cited as evidence of its truth, in a variant of the appeal to authority or appeal to belief fallacies.
The Hyman's claims lose credibility because they have never been in a controlled, double blind clinical study.
Nothing Ms. Hyman has ever written has been accepted for publication in mainstream peer-reviewed journals.
I feel sorry for James Hyman: he’s a smart guy, he means well, he really believes he has found something wonderful, but he has a blind spot and just doesn’t get it when others try to point out the flaws in his methods and reasoning.
To put the accusation of “politics” into perspective, consider the Helicobacter experiments.
When researchers first suggested that ulcers might be caused by bacteria, they were laughed at.
They published their results, peer review had a field day, other labs looked into the idea, more data came in, results from various lines of research coalesced, and within a mere ten years it became standard practice to treat ulcers with antibiotics.
It didn’t matter that the idea sounded crazy at first; science responded to good evidence. (See Kimball C. Atwood IV, “Bacteria, Ulcers, and Ostracism,” Skeptical Inquirer, November/December 2004.)
If Hyman had evidence of equal quality, he would get an equal hearing by the scientific community.
A good scientist considers the entire body of available evidence, not just the claims of one group of researchers.
The Hyman's never bring up the fact that other experiments have directly contradicted their assertions.
They never get around to mentioning Emily Rosa’s landmark experiment, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in 1998, which showed that therapeutic touch practitioners could not sense human energy fields as they claimed.
She tested twenty-one experienced practitioners of therapeutic touch.1
They all thought they could detect Rosa’s human energy field and feel whether she was holding her hand over their right or left hand, but when they were prevented from seeing where her hand was, their performance was no better than chance.
Rosa was nine years old at the time, and the article grew out of her school science fair project.
The experiment was beautiful in its simplicity.
Adult true believers had published much research on the techniques and effects of therapeutic touch, but in the true spirit of childlike questioning, Rosa went back to basics and asked the crucial question:
“Is the phenomenon itself real?
Can they really feel something or is it possible they are fooling themselves?”
Amazingly, no researcher had ever asked that question before.
They had ignored one of the basic principles of the scientific method as explained by Karl Popper: it’s easy to find confirmation for any hypothesis, but every genuine test of a hypothesis is an attempt to falsify it.
Emily Rosa's experiment is dismissed by other so called "shamanic healers," "energy healers," or 'therapeutic touch' practitioners as having five “potential problems”:
1. It was a science-fair project done by a young girl.
2. She was the only experimenter.
3. She randomized by flipping a coin, which he calls “an unreliable procedure.”
4. One of the authors was the founder of Quackwatch.
5. The subjects did worse than chance.
These objections are just silly; they are either inaccurate or are ad hominem attacks:
1.It shouldn’t make any difference whether Rosa was a young girl or an old man or a sentient purple octopus from an alien planet.
It shouldn’t matter whether she did the experiment for an elementary school project, a doctoral dissertation, a Coca Cola commercial, or a government grant.
What matters is the quality of the evidence. In this case, her project was well designed and executed, had clearly significant findings, and was of high enough quality to be approved for publication in a prestigious peer-reviewed medical journal.
2.She was not the only experimenter.
Others were involved; the experiment was repeated under expert supervision on Scientific American Frontiers.
This should preclude any accusations of deliberate cheating or inadvertent failure to follow the protocol properly.
Rosa was the only one to carry out the trials, but what would multiple testers have added to the experiment?
The results didn’t depend on any special ability or quality of hers, but on the ability of the subjects who claimed they could sense anyone’s energy fields.
For the televised trials, they even got to “feel” the “shamanic energy” from each of Rosa’s hands and choose which one they wanted her to use in the trials.
About half chose her left hand and half her right.
No one objected, “I can’t feel shamanic energy from either hand.”
3.Flipping a coin is not an “unreliable procedure”—unless the flipper is deliberately cheating.
The number of heads and tails was approximately equal, and the distribution appeared random. The editors of JAMA found the method acceptable.
There are situations where coin-flipping could legitimately be criticized, for instance in psi experiments where researchers are looking for minuscule differences in large bodies of data and even their computerized random number generators have been criticized for not being “perfectly” random.
But in this experiment, the results were clearly significant; it is hard to envision how a different method of randomization could have altered the results. The coin flip was only used to determine which of the subject’s hands she would hold her hand over.
The subjects claimed to be able to sense "shamanic energy" fields with either hand, so it shouldn’t have made a bit of difference to their perception.
Faulty randomization might have allowed the subjects to perceive a pattern and guess, which would have tended to give false positive results rather than the negative results Rosa got.
4. One of the authors, the founder of Quackwatch, was admittedly skeptical of therapeutic touch. Yes, someone with possible bias was indirectly involved in the experiment. If that is an objection, there is an even greater objection to Hyman's own examples: he and his colleagues are all strongly biased toward belief in "shamanic energy" phenomena and they were directly involved in their experiences as told by "testimonials" on their web sites.
"Testimonials" are personal accounts of someone's experiences with a therapy.
They are generally subjective:
"I felt better,"
"I had more energy,"
"I wasn't as nauseated,"
"The pain went away," and so on.
Testimonials are inherently selective.
People are much more likely to talk about their "amazing shamanic cure" than about something that didn't work for them.
The proponents of "alternative" methods like Barbara & James Hyman's so called "shamanic energy healing" can, of course, pick which testimonials they use.
For example, let's suppose that if 100 people are sick, 50 of them will recover on their own even if they do nothing.
So, if all 100 people use a certain therapy, say James Hyman's "shamanic energy" healing, half will get better even if the treatment doesn't do anything.
These people could say "I took a 'shamanic energy healing' therapy session with 'shamanic healer' James Hyman & my disease went away!"
This would be completely honest, even though the therapy had done nothing for them.
So, testimonials are useless for judging treatment effectiveness.
For all we know, those giving the testimonial might be the only people who felt better.
Or, suppose that of 100 patients trying a therapy, 10 experienced no change, 85 felt worse, and 5 felt better.
The five who improved could quite honestly say that they felt better, even though nearly everyone who tried the remedy stayed the same or got worse!
5. It is simply not true that the subjects did “worse than chance.”
Their performance was consistent with chance.
If they had done worse than chance (significantly worse) that would have tended to support Hyman’s claim that some kind of "shamanic energy" effect was present, even though it would have been the reverse of what he claimed to find.
In my opinion, none of these “problems” invalidates the conclusion that the therapeutic touch practitioners failed to do what they claimed they could do.
And if they think these were valid problems, why didn’t they simply repeat her experiment in their own lab with multiple experimenters and a more reliable method of randomization?
Why won't Hyman come forward and accept MY CHALLENGE?
I HAVE A STANDING OFFER OF TO HYMAN OR ANY OTHER "SHAMANIC HEALER": ANYTIME, ANY ONE OF THEM CAN PROVE THE PRESENCE OF "SHAMANIC ENERGY" OR "QUANTUM THETA" ENERGY OR WHATEVER THEY MAY BE CALLING IT THIS WEEK,...PROVE IT.....SCIENTIFICALLY....AND WALK AWAY WITH THE MONEY!.....PERIOD......WHAT THEY ARE PROFESSING AMOUNTS TO A HUMAN ENERGY FIELD....IF IT IS SUCH AMAZING SCIENCE WHY HAS NO ONE TAKEN ME UP ON MY OFFER?
In reality, Nine year old Emily Rosa’s experiment was a great example of a young child being able to see more clearly than prejudiced adults—a real “Emperor’s New Clothes” story.
If a rigorous scientist thought he had found evidence that people could detect “human energy fields,” he would maintain a healthy skepticism; he would immediately try to prove himself wrong, and he would enlist his colleagues to help show him where he might have gone wrong.
He would try to rule out all other possible explanations (the subject might be sensing heat, sound, motion, air currents, might be able to see under the blindfold, etc.).
If the phenomenon proved robust, he would try to refine his understanding by doing things like varying the distance to see if it obeyed the inverse square law and interposing a sheet of cardboard or glass to see if the effect could be blocked.
Then he would try to use instruments to measure what kind of energy was being sensed.
When a believer thinks they have found something to justify their belief, their approach tends to be less rigorous.
What about “if there is no convincing science or plausible mechanism to support them, let’s stop wasting our time chasing moonbeams”?
All of energy medicine hinges on one basic claim: that people can detect subtle human energy fields.
If the Hyman's are wrong about that, the rest of the claims for so-called “energy medicine” fizzle away.
If they don't trust my credibility regarding the $50,000.00 prize, since 1996, the James Randi Educational Foundation (JREF) has offered a substantial reward (currently $1,000,000) to anyone who can demonstrate an ability to detect a "shamanic energy field," or “human energy field” under conditions similar to those of Rosa’s study.
Of the more than 80,000 American therapeutic touch practitioners who claim to have such ability, only one person attempted to demonstrate it.
She failed.
Miserably!
The JREF challenge is admittedly not a definitive scientific test, but prudence would seem to dictate that if no one can even meet this simple challenge, we shouldn’t be wasting research money on what is probably a myth.
Others have attempted to establish the “science” of "shamanic energy" or energy medicine and have failed.
Even the National Association Of Alternative Medicine (NAAM), which is willing to consider almost any possibility in alternative medicine, is skeptical.
It distinguishes between real energy (sound waves, electromagnetism, and other energies measurable by physicists) and the kind of “putative” energy Hyman is trying to validate.
It concludes that the “putative” energy approaches “are among the most controversial of CAM practices because neither the external energy fields nor their therapeutic effects have been demonstrated convincingly by any biophysical means.”
Another proponent of 'energy healing' Gary Schwartz sounds like a scientist.
He tries to talk the talk and walk the walk.
He even makes some skeptical noises to try to convince us he is objective.
But there is also a lot of very unscientific language in his written work.
For instance:
Human rage and pain, especially generated by terrorism and war, create a global energetic climate whose negative effects can extend from the physical and environmental—potentially including climate—to the psychological and ultimately spiritual. . . . [P]ollution is not simply chemical, it is ultimately energy based and therefore conscious as well.
Really?
Conscious pollution?
So maybe if we talk nice to pollution it will cooperate and go away?
Or should we try doing Reiki to lower the atmospheric CO2 levels?
Does Al Gore know about this?
"Shamanic Energy, and all other types of "“Energy Medicine's are an emperor whose new clothes still look awfully transparent to critical thinkers and to the scientific community no matter what glorious colors and fabrics Hyman or Schwartz and their colleagues imagine they are seeing.
Pseudoscience
Since most people have never studied quantum physics they do not understand why these sham ideas are a perversion of it - in fact, this relies on people thinking that quantum mechanics is "too hard" or "only for scientists" in order for the scams to work and stop people questioning them.
People do, however, recognize that quantum physics says that nanoscale reality is very different from what we know, and perhaps some pop science authors can take some blame for this. Concepts such as "non-locality" or "quantum probability waves" or "uncertainty principle" have become social memes of a kind where people inherently recognize that something "strange" is going on.
Practitioners of fraudulent and silly ideas like the Hyman's can tap into this feeling of mystery to push their sham concepts. i.e: "Shamanic Energy" Healing or “Quantum Theta Energy Healing.”
Notes:
1. “Therapeutic touch” is a bit of a misnomer because these practitioners don’t actually touch but simply massage the air a few inches from the patient’s body.
They are convinced that they are detecting and manipulating the "shamanic energy field," balancing and smoothing it, and correcting any abnormalities, thus allowing the body to heal itself.
2.Hall, H. 2005. A review of Energy Medicine: The Scientific Basis. Skeptic 11(3): 89–93. Available at quackfiles.blogspot.com.
3. Halprin, R 2011, Quackwatch 4/13/11 Undercover Investigation Of Quantum Theta Energy Healing
4. Quantum Flux,
5. Quantum Stirwand
Quantum Therapy
Quantum healing
Quantum biofeedback
Shoo!Tag
6. The Dancing Wu Li Masters (William Morrow & Co., 1979, ISBN 0553249142)
7. The Tao of Physics (Shambhala Publications, 1975, ISBN 1570625190)
8. Reviewer Jeremy Bernstein of the New Yorker Magazine, quoted by Martin Gardner in a 1979 review for Newsday, described Zukav's and Capra's physics by saying "A physicist reading these books might feel like someone on a familiar street who finds that all the old houses have suddenly turned mauve."
9. http://www.emotionalrelease.com/ (The Hyman Hawking Hype Web Site)
11. http://www.zpenergy.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=229
12. http://www.quantumagewater.eu/contents/en-us/d1.html
13. http://www.quantumtherapy.net/
14. http://www.newscientist.com/special/seven-wonders-of-the-quantum-world
References:
· Rosa, L., E. Rosa, L. Sarner, and S. Barrett. 1998. A close look at therapeutic touch. Journal of the American Medical Association. 279:1005–1010. Schwartz, Gary E., with William L. Simon. 2007. The Energy Healing Experiments: Science Reveals Our Natural Power to Heal. New York: Atria Books.
Thanks To Harriet Hall M.D. (The SkepDoc) For The Template & Partial Content ; http://www.skepdoc.org
The Emperor's New Clothes
James Hyman says his experiments reveal our natural power to heal based on our ability to sense and manipulate "shamanic energy" and "human energy fields."
Has he discovered scientific truths, or has he only demonstrated the human talent for self-deception?
James Hyman and his "practice manager" ex wife believe many things.
They believe in life after death, past life regression, and they believe that chanting mantras can heal you from anything and there is scientific evidence to support these beliefs.
Hyman is now focusing his powers of belief on a new field: "Shamanic Energy Healing" "Energy Healing" and "Energy Medicine." as well as rehashing an old field from the 1990's "Deep Emotional Release Bodywork!"
On their new web site, located at the following URL; http://www.emotionalrelease.com , Barbara Hyman explains that we all emit "shamanic energy" and there are "human energy" fields."
Hyman believes that some amongst us (primarily her "genius" ex-husband, "shamanic energy healer," "qigong master" and "quantum theta" energy healer, James) can sense each other’s fields, and that healers can influence these fields to heal illnesses and injury.
She believes these are not just theories but scientifically supported facts.
The web site has numerous “gee-whiz” testimonials of supposed "shamanic healing" and energy healing (which are frankly not very convincing and could be easily outdone by any self-respecting purveyor of quack remedies).
She goes on to describe her ex-husband James Hyman's claims that he has the ability to detect and alter this purported "shamanic energy," "quantum theta" energy and human energy fields.
Throughout the web site she descends into blethering about quantum physics, the oneness of the universe, the connectedness of all things, and the possibility that "shamanic energy" or "quantum theta" energy awareness will solve all of mankind’s problems.
Although given scientific proof to the contrary, she is not deterred, she goes on to describe purported measurements of subtle human energy emissions, Kam Yuen's influence on human energy fields, the power of "The Secret," the healing power of "Qigong" (of which James is of course a "Master") among other phenomena of dubious reality or significance.
She makes a big deal of the fact that humans emit energy (of course we do, it is picked up by EKG, EEG, etc.), and she would like to think "shamanic healers" or "energy healers," especially her "genius" husband James can pick up that energy and decode it in the same way your radio picks up Rush Limbaugh out of the atmosphere.
And then she would like to think that "shamanic healers" and "energy healers" can send something back into the patient’s body to enable healing.
I know, I know, in this time of sever economic instability, budgetary crisis and nasty political bickering you would think Americans would be fed up with such nonsense, most are, but when it comes to the Hymans, you'd be wrong.
Barbara Hyman misses the crucial fact that there is information encoded in the electromagnetic waves your radio detects, but there is no reason to think there is any analogous information coming from the body, much less any way to change that information and send it back to produce healing.
I only wish we could use "shamanic healing" or “energy healing” on radio and TV waves to improve the quality of programming!
She makes a big deal of the fact that everything affects everything else.
She seems to mean this in a holistic, metaphysical, New Age, “the universe is one and is conscious and we can create our own health” sense.
Science recognizes that small events can have far-reaching effects, but that doesn’t mean one thing can predict or control another.
Theoretically, a change in the magnitude or position of your body mass will enter into the overall gravity equations of the universe, but that doesn’t mean one thing can control or predict another.
You could hardly expect to meaningfully influence someone out there beyond Alpha Centauri by losing ten or fifteen pounds (a practice of which Ms. Hyman might be better off practicing as opposed to constantly espousing the same drek over and over again).
You can’t expect to change the EEG of an astronaut in the Space Station by exercising to change your own EKG.
We are talking about very small influences.
If a gnat pushes an elephant, it’s not likely to fall over; it’s not likely to even notice.
And then there are inconvenient complications like quantum theory and chaos theory.
There is nothing of substance in these multiple free web sites.
Indeed the mere fact that she has to repeat the same things over and over again on virtually every free forum offered on the Internet would render any intelligent being to recognize the obvious, i.e. she is attempting what is known in main stream scientific circles as; "Proof By Assertion.' http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proof_by_assertion
Proof by assertion, sometimes informally referred to as proof by repeated assertion, is a logical fallacy in which a proposition is repeatedly restated regardless of contradiction.
Sometimes this may be repeated until challenges dry up, at which point it is asserted as fact due to its not being contradicted (argumentum ad nauseam).
In other cases its repetition may be cited as evidence of its truth, in a variant of the appeal to authority or appeal to belief fallacies.
The Hyman's claims lose credibility because they have never been in a controlled, double blind clinical study.
Nothing Ms. Hyman has ever written has been accepted for publication in mainstream peer-reviewed journals.
I feel sorry for James Hyman: he’s a smart guy, he means well, he really believes he has found something wonderful, but he has a blind spot and just doesn’t get it when others try to point out the flaws in his methods and reasoning.
To put the accusation of “politics” into perspective, consider the Helicobacter experiments.
When researchers first suggested that ulcers might be caused by bacteria, they were laughed at.
They published their results, peer review had a field day, other labs looked into the idea, more data came in, results from various lines of research coalesced, and within a mere ten years it became standard practice to treat ulcers with antibiotics.
It didn’t matter that the idea sounded crazy at first; science responded to good evidence. (See Kimball C. Atwood IV, “Bacteria, Ulcers, and Ostracism,” Skeptical Inquirer, November/December 2004.)
If Hyman had evidence of equal quality, he would get an equal hearing by the scientific community.
A good scientist considers the entire body of available evidence, not just the claims of one group of researchers.
The Hyman's never bring up the fact that other experiments have directly contradicted their assertions.
They never get around to mentioning Emily Rosa’s landmark experiment, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in 1998, which showed that therapeutic touch practitioners could not sense human energy fields as they claimed.
She tested twenty-one experienced practitioners of therapeutic touch.1
They all thought they could detect Rosa’s human energy field and feel whether she was holding her hand over their right or left hand, but when they were prevented from seeing where her hand was, their performance was no better than chance.
Rosa was nine years old at the time, and the article grew out of her school science fair project.
The experiment was beautiful in its simplicity.
Adult true believers had published much research on the techniques and effects of therapeutic touch, but in the true spirit of childlike questioning, Rosa went back to basics and asked the crucial question:
“Is the phenomenon itself real?
Can they really feel something or is it possible they are fooling themselves?”
Amazingly, no researcher had ever asked that question before.
They had ignored one of the basic principles of the scientific method as explained by Karl Popper: it’s easy to find confirmation for any hypothesis, but every genuine test of a hypothesis is an attempt to falsify it.
Emily Rosa's experiment is dismissed by other so called "shamanic healers," "energy healers," or 'therapeutic touch' practitioners as having five “potential problems”:
1. It was a science-fair project done by a young girl.
2. She was the only experimenter.
3. She randomized by flipping a coin, which he calls “an unreliable procedure.”
4. One of the authors was the founder of Quackwatch.
5. The subjects did worse than chance.
These objections are just silly; they are either inaccurate or are ad hominem attacks:
1.It shouldn’t make any difference whether Rosa was a young girl or an old man or a sentient purple octopus from an alien planet.
It shouldn’t matter whether she did the experiment for an elementary school project, a doctoral dissertation, a Coca Cola commercial, or a government grant.
What matters is the quality of the evidence. In this case, her project was well designed and executed, had clearly significant findings, and was of high enough quality to be approved for publication in a prestigious peer-reviewed medical journal.
2.She was not the only experimenter.
Others were involved; the experiment was repeated under expert supervision on Scientific American Frontiers.
This should preclude any accusations of deliberate cheating or inadvertent failure to follow the protocol properly.
Rosa was the only one to carry out the trials, but what would multiple testers have added to the experiment?
The results didn’t depend on any special ability or quality of hers, but on the ability of the subjects who claimed they could sense anyone’s energy fields.
For the televised trials, they even got to “feel” the “shamanic energy” from each of Rosa’s hands and choose which one they wanted her to use in the trials.
About half chose her left hand and half her right.
No one objected, “I can’t feel shamanic energy from either hand.”
3.Flipping a coin is not an “unreliable procedure”—unless the flipper is deliberately cheating.
The number of heads and tails was approximately equal, and the distribution appeared random. The editors of JAMA found the method acceptable.
There are situations where coin-flipping could legitimately be criticized, for instance in psi experiments where researchers are looking for minuscule differences in large bodies of data and even their computerized random number generators have been criticized for not being “perfectly” random.
But in this experiment, the results were clearly significant; it is hard to envision how a different method of randomization could have altered the results. The coin flip was only used to determine which of the subject’s hands she would hold her hand over.
The subjects claimed to be able to sense "shamanic energy" fields with either hand, so it shouldn’t have made a bit of difference to their perception.
Faulty randomization might have allowed the subjects to perceive a pattern and guess, which would have tended to give false positive results rather than the negative results Rosa got.
4. One of the authors, the founder of Quackwatch, was admittedly skeptical of therapeutic touch. Yes, someone with possible bias was indirectly involved in the experiment. If that is an objection, there is an even greater objection to Hyman's own examples: he and his colleagues are all strongly biased toward belief in "shamanic energy" phenomena and they were directly involved in their experiences as told by "testimonials" on their web sites.
"Testimonials" are personal accounts of someone's experiences with a therapy.
They are generally subjective:
"I felt better,"
"I had more energy,"
"I wasn't as nauseated,"
"The pain went away," and so on.
Testimonials are inherently selective.
People are much more likely to talk about their "amazing shamanic cure" than about something that didn't work for them.
The proponents of "alternative" methods like Barbara & James Hyman's so called "shamanic energy healing" can, of course, pick which testimonials they use.
For example, let's suppose that if 100 people are sick, 50 of them will recover on their own even if they do nothing.
So, if all 100 people use a certain therapy, say James Hyman's "shamanic energy" healing, half will get better even if the treatment doesn't do anything.
These people could say "I took a 'shamanic energy healing' therapy session with 'shamanic healer' James Hyman & my disease went away!"
This would be completely honest, even though the therapy had done nothing for them.
So, testimonials are useless for judging treatment effectiveness.
For all we know, those giving the testimonial might be the only people who felt better.
Or, suppose that of 100 patients trying a therapy, 10 experienced no change, 85 felt worse, and 5 felt better.
The five who improved could quite honestly say that they felt better, even though nearly everyone who tried the remedy stayed the same or got worse!
5. It is simply not true that the subjects did “worse than chance.”
Their performance was consistent with chance.
If they had done worse than chance (significantly worse) that would have tended to support Hyman’s claim that some kind of "shamanic energy" effect was present, even though it would have been the reverse of what he claimed to find.
In my opinion, none of these “problems” invalidates the conclusion that the therapeutic touch practitioners failed to do what they claimed they could do.
And if they think these were valid problems, why didn’t they simply repeat her experiment in their own lab with multiple experimenters and a more reliable method of randomization?
Why won't Hyman come forward and accept MY CHALLENGE?
I HAVE A STANDING OFFER OF TO HYMAN OR ANY OTHER "SHAMANIC HEALER": ANYTIME, ANY ONE OF THEM CAN PROVE THE PRESENCE OF "SHAMANIC ENERGY" OR "QUANTUM THETA" ENERGY OR WHATEVER THEY MAY BE CALLING IT THIS WEEK,...PROVE IT.....SCIENTIFICALLY....AND WALK AWAY WITH THE MONEY!.....PERIOD......WHAT THEY ARE PROFESSING AMOUNTS TO A HUMAN ENERGY FIELD....IF IT IS SUCH AMAZING SCIENCE WHY HAS NO ONE TAKEN ME UP ON MY OFFER?
In reality, Nine year old Emily Rosa’s experiment was a great example of a young child being able to see more clearly than prejudiced adults—a real “Emperor’s New Clothes” story.
If a rigorous scientist thought he had found evidence that people could detect “human energy fields,” he would maintain a healthy skepticism; he would immediately try to prove himself wrong, and he would enlist his colleagues to help show him where he might have gone wrong.
He would try to rule out all other possible explanations (the subject might be sensing heat, sound, motion, air currents, might be able to see under the blindfold, etc.).
If the phenomenon proved robust, he would try to refine his understanding by doing things like varying the distance to see if it obeyed the inverse square law and interposing a sheet of cardboard or glass to see if the effect could be blocked.
Then he would try to use instruments to measure what kind of energy was being sensed.
When a believer thinks they have found something to justify their belief, their approach tends to be less rigorous.
What about “if there is no convincing science or plausible mechanism to support them, let’s stop wasting our time chasing moonbeams”?
All of energy medicine hinges on one basic claim: that people can detect subtle human energy fields.
If the Hyman's are wrong about that, the rest of the claims for so-called “energy medicine” fizzle away.
If they don't trust my credibility regarding the $50,000.00 prize, since 1996, the James Randi Educational Foundation (JREF) has offered a substantial reward (currently $1,000,000) to anyone who can demonstrate an ability to detect a "shamanic energy field," or “human energy field” under conditions similar to those of Rosa’s study.
Of the more than 80,000 American therapeutic touch practitioners who claim to have such ability, only one person attempted to demonstrate it.
She failed.
Miserably!
The JREF challenge is admittedly not a definitive scientific test, but prudence would seem to dictate that if no one can even meet this simple challenge, we shouldn’t be wasting research money on what is probably a myth.
Others have attempted to establish the “science” of "shamanic energy" or energy medicine and have failed.
Even the National Association Of Alternative Medicine (NAAM), which is willing to consider almost any possibility in alternative medicine, is skeptical.
It distinguishes between real energy (sound waves, electromagnetism, and other energies measurable by physicists) and the kind of “putative” energy Hyman is trying to validate.
It concludes that the “putative” energy approaches “are among the most controversial of CAM practices because neither the external energy fields nor their therapeutic effects have been demonstrated convincingly by any biophysical means.”
Another proponent of 'energy healing' Gary Schwartz sounds like a scientist.
He tries to talk the talk and walk the walk.
He even makes some skeptical noises to try to convince us he is objective.
But there is also a lot of very unscientific language in his written work.
For instance:
Human rage and pain, especially generated by terrorism and war, create a global energetic climate whose negative effects can extend from the physical and environmental—potentially including climate—to the psychological and ultimately spiritual. . . . [P]ollution is not simply chemical, it is ultimately energy based and therefore conscious as well.
Really?
Conscious pollution?
So maybe if we talk nice to pollution it will cooperate and go away?
Or should we try doing Reiki to lower the atmospheric CO2 levels?
Does Al Gore know about this?
"Shamanic Energy, and all other types of "“Energy Medicine's are an emperor whose new clothes still look awfully transparent to critical thinkers and to the scientific community no matter what glorious colors and fabrics Hyman or Schwartz and their colleagues imagine they are seeing.
Pseudoscience
Since most people have never studied quantum physics they do not understand why these sham ideas are a perversion of it - in fact, this relies on people thinking that quantum mechanics is "too hard" or "only for scientists" in order for the scams to work and stop people questioning them.
People do, however, recognize that quantum physics says that nanoscale reality is very different from what we know, and perhaps some pop science authors can take some blame for this. Concepts such as "non-locality" or "quantum probability waves" or "uncertainty principle" have become social memes of a kind where people inherently recognize that something "strange" is going on.
Practitioners of fraudulent and silly ideas like the Hyman's can tap into this feeling of mystery to push their sham concepts. i.e: "Shamanic Energy" Healing or “Quantum Theta Energy Healing.”
Notes:
1. “Therapeutic touch” is a bit of a misnomer because these practitioners don’t actually touch but simply massage the air a few inches from the patient’s body.
They are convinced that they are detecting and manipulating the "shamanic energy field," balancing and smoothing it, and correcting any abnormalities, thus allowing the body to heal itself.
2.Hall, H. 2005. A review of Energy Medicine: The Scientific Basis. Skeptic 11(3): 89–93. Available at quackfiles.blogspot.com.
3. Halprin, R 2011, Quackwatch 4/13/11 Undercover Investigation Of Quantum Theta Energy Healing
4. Quantum Flux,
5. Quantum Stirwand
Quantum Therapy
Quantum healing
Quantum biofeedback
Shoo!Tag
6. The Dancing Wu Li Masters (William Morrow & Co., 1979, ISBN 0553249142)
7. The Tao of Physics (Shambhala Publications, 1975, ISBN 1570625190)
8. Reviewer Jeremy Bernstein of the New Yorker Magazine, quoted by Martin Gardner in a 1979 review for Newsday, described Zukav's and Capra's physics by saying "A physicist reading these books might feel like someone on a familiar street who finds that all the old houses have suddenly turned mauve."
9. http://www.emotionalrelease.com/ (The Hyman Hawking Hype Web Site)
11. http://www.zpenergy.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=229
12. http://www.quantumagewater.eu/contents/en-us/d1.html
13. http://www.quantumtherapy.net/
14. http://www.newscientist.com/special/seven-wonders-of-the-quantum-world
References:
· Rosa, L., E. Rosa, L. Sarner, and S. Barrett. 1998. A close look at therapeutic touch. Journal of the American Medical Association. 279:1005–1010. Schwartz, Gary E., with William L. Simon. 2007. The Energy Healing Experiments: Science Reveals Our Natural Power to Heal. New York: Atria Books.
Thanks To Harriet Hall M.D. (The SkepDoc) For The Template & Partial Content ; http://www.skepdoc.org
Shamanic Energy Healer James Hyman: Shamanic Sting! Undercover Investigation Of James Hyman
“If you see auras, you may not be psychic; you may have a brain or vision disorder. See your physician ASAP.”
The partners in crime practitioners of the so called "shamanic energy healing," "deep emotional release bodywork & "integrated quantum theta healing" have co-opted some of the language of physics, including the language of quantum mechanics, in their quest to make metaphysical quackery sound like respectable science.
How is it possible to get relief from swelling, pain, nausea, headaches, anxiety, and an assortment of other ailments without the use of medicine or surgery?
It is not.
However, various hucksters attempt to utilize the terms of quantum mechanics & physics in order to attempt to separate you from your hard earned money.
We at WiKiLeax are involved in an expose of the so called "shamanic energy healers," and "quantum theta energy healers" who are perpetrating such a fraud.
So called "shamanic energy healers" have been adept at the art of separating you from your hard earned money for centuries.
These new age hucksters who call themselves "shamanic energy healers," (SEH pronounced SAY as in Say, isn't that my money your hustling?) or "Quantum Theta Energy Healers" (QTEH or Kew-Tee)) have refined this preposterous method so they can now access our wallets In so called "telephone session."
The amazing thing about this is that the "shamanic healer" need not even touch the patient.
In fact, the healer need not even be in the presence of the patient.
"Integrated Quantum Theta Energy Healing" (last months name for this Tom Foolery) or "shamanic energy healing" (this months name) is so powerful, according to "the practitioner," a Mr. James Hyman that Mr. Hyman need not even be in the presence of the "subject" or "patient" he is treating.
Unbeknownst to him, Mr. Hyman was asked to first conduct one of his "shamanic energy healing" phone sessions (technically, he was still calling it "quantum theta energy healing" phone sessions when this occurred, this past December and January) with our writer, a perfectly healthy pescetarian 53 year old male.
This was in order to facilitate the "deep emotional healing" of what was purported to be a deeply troubled man.
Mr. Hyman conducted 2 "shamanic energy healing telephone sessions" or "quantum theta" phone sessions with the subject between his home in CA and the mans in FL at a cost of over $1,500.00.
After the two telephone sessions, Mr. Hyman came to the conclusion that the subject was indeed markedly and painfully rooted with "deep emotionally contained quantum theta negative energy" which was affecting both his physical and mental well being.
After collecting his fee for his diagnosis and telephone sessions, & armed with the mans credit card information for the purposes of charging should the subject not be willing to pay, Mr. Hyman compassionately offered to travel to FL for a series of in person ""shamanic energy healing sessions" or "quantum theta energy healing" sessions with the man over a four day period for a minimum guaranteed fee of an additional $3,500.00.
Next: What occurred in FL at these "in person quantum theta energy healing" sessions next.
"Shamanic Energy Healing" (SEH) or "Quantum Theta Energy Healing" (QTEH or Kew-Tee) Sessions;
In actuality the subject, our writer, armed with financing from WiKiLeax was in reality a healthy, 53 year old pescetarian male. He recently had a full yearly physical conducted by a board certified MD in Internal Medicine.
He was MD verified to be drug free, 5'9" tall and weighing 135 pounds.
With a thrice weekly MD verified pulse rate of between 66-72, as well as a blood pressure of between 110/66 and 120/70.
His blood sugar was measured two hours after eating on three different occasions as averaging 5.5mmol/L.
In other words an extremely healthy 53 year old male with the heart rate, blood pressure and blood sugar levels of someone at a minimum 10-15 years his junior.
This most likely due to his healthy lifestyle choices of a pescetarian diet as well as regular exercise.
The exercise consists of speed walking or running approximately 5K (about 3.1 miles) daily.
Upon arrival Mr. Hyman proceeded with 2 "in person quantum theta energy healing" sessions.
During these in person "quantum theta energy healing" sessions Mr. Hyman simply waved his hands over the patient and “felt” the "quantum theta energy" moving.
Great stuff but what’s really going on?
Nothing according to our writer other than another crystal crowd huckster reaching into our collective wallets!
During his in person "sessions" with our writer, an impostor on his massage table, Mr. Hyman seemed to be so troubled by the gentleman's negative "quantum theta energy fields" that the practitioner (Mr. Hyman) can be heard “chanting” some heretofore unknown “mantras.”
This our subject could only conclude was Mr. Hyman's attempts to ward off our writers "deep emotional negative quantum theta energy" mojo that Mr. Hyman had now removed from the “patients” body.
The need for chanting is apparently a method of stopping said mojo from entering Mr. Hyman's own “quantum theta” energy fields.
Thankfully, our writer was healthy & Mr. Hyman appeared to leave our subject unscathed, except for our writers wallet, which was considerably lighter.
Although Mr. Hyman claims to be the "founder" of this "practice" this is in fact a variation of both WooJangJu Power Meditation or WooJangJu Power Chant Healing Meditation.
It's purported design is to protect meditators, while they are healing, from vengeful spirits.
Another age old hucksters quackery Mr. Hyman "borrows" from is known as Wu Ming Qigong
(Wu Ming Qigong system, Taoist Wu Ming Qigong): This is a millennia old "self-healing practice" taught by the American Taoist Healing Center, Inc., in New York City.
It allegedly helps users connect body, mind, and spirit.
Its theory posits a transfer, from teacher to student, of "energy" that heals and guides the student.
Proponents use the Chinese expression "wu ming," which literally means "no name," to refer to the "original natural force" from which everything's "essence" flows.
Apparently Mr. Hyman has renamed this "force" "quantum theta energy" for his own nefarious gain.
Next we shall reveal where Mr. Hyman the so called "founder" of this process has "borrowed" these terms.
Other Quack "Scams" Hyman Has “Borrowed” From
4) Lesser Kan: Form of meditation whose theory posits chi, "core energy channels," "higher energy bodies."
5) Life force balancing: Combination of the laying on of hands, psychic healing, psychological "adjustments," and spiritual counseling, developed by Barbara West.
It involves a "healing science" called "intercellular regeneration."
6) Life Care Kinesiology (Life Care): Offshoot of applied kinesiology put together by Dr. Richard Beale. It borrows from acupuncture and Touch for Health and includes "chakra meditation."
7) Life Impressions Bodywork: "Healing process" developed by Donald Van Howten (Ravi Dos). It includes "cranial membrane treatment" (probably Cranio-Sacral work) and "pulse work" and borrows from Ayurveda and Hakomi. Its premises include the following. (a) Humans are spirits. (b) Bodily tissues accumulate "history." (c) This "imprint" of experiences becomes "outdated." Updating "idea imprinted" tissues (the method's purported intention) releases "bound beliefs" and "energy."
8) Light Touch Energy Healing: Method that purportedly focuses on: balancing bodily "energy," releasing "cellular memory," and identifying "energy patterns" that limit happiness.
9) LooyenWork®: Approach to "body therapy" that involves "body reading" and "movement re-education" and allegedly can increase the "flow" of clients' "energy." "Body reading" purportedly is a sophisticated form of observation that enables practitioners to reach the root of the client's problem.
Research
The most comprehensive review of “quantum theta energy healing” has been done right here!
I have spent over three hours on the telephone with Mr. Hyman and allowed him access to me at a townhouse rented for this investigation for four days.
I have concluded that the evidence is insufficient to suggest “quantum theta” energy healing & “deep emotional release body work are an ineffective treatment for any condition.
I further state that “quantum theta energy healing" & "deep emotional release body work" lacks scientific credibility!
The scientific and medical communities have not accepted them as an effective therapy.
Plausible scientific explanation as to how it could possibly be efficacious is not to be found.
The explanation of the efficacy of “quantum theta” energy healing or “deep emotional release” depends entirely on a particular view of the world as permeated by this "universal life energy" (“quantum theta” energy) that is subject to manipulation of human thought and will, by Mr. Hyman.
Mr. Hyman the self professed “founder”, “inventor”, “discoverer” & “practitioner claims that his training allows him to channel the "quantum theta energy" that is present in all living beings.
The most obvious first question is what training?
From what University did Hyman receive such training?
In what field is Hyman's advanced training?
What medical degree has James Hyman been presented, bestowed or awarded?
The answer to all of the above is nothing.
Nada.
Bupkus.
A big fat Zilch!
This "quantum theta energy," is unknown to natural science.
As the presence of such energy has not been observed by means of natural science, the justification for these therapies necessarily must come from something other than science.
Next we shall discuss Mr. Hyman's highest priced pseudo-scientific scam; his "Quantum Theta Deep Emotional Body Work" (QTDEBW) Practitioner Training!
Practitioner Training
No special background or credentials are needed to receive “quantum theta energy healing” (QTEH) or “deep emotional release” (DER) training.
To become a practitioner, one must receive an "initiation" or "attunement" from Mr. Hyman himself.
Mr. Hyman quotes the costs of this beginning at $500.00 for a single 8 hour session.
Of course, as is the hucksters’ normal philosophy you cannot "learn" Mr. Hyman's technique in one session.
Since he purports to be the founder of course only he can teach it.
This will require numerous sessions & will cost frankly whatever Mr. Hyman can fleece from his unsuspecting "student."
Mr. Hyman will certainly accept your $500.00 for a one day 8 hour training session.
He will then attempt to convince you that to be a "practitioner" you will purportedly require further training.
Ultimately when he determines he has dispossessed you from all the funds possible in this "training session" you are now allowed to practice at the lower levels.
Typically this takes 1 or 2 days and begins with the previously mentioned attunement.
Many practitioners are massage therapists.
However, no licensing or professional standards exist for the practice of “Quantum Theta Energy Healing” itself.
Like wise for “Deep Emotional Release Bodywork.”
Whether QTEH or DERB can be considered the unlicensed practice of medicine varies from state to state.
Of course to practice at the higher levels, Mr. Hyman will require further payment in order to complete your "training."
At the higher levels, one can allegedly channel “quantum theta energy” and effect healings at a distance, without physical contact.
This would fall in line with Mr. Hyman's aforementioned "quantum theta telephone energy healing."
In other words once properly trained by "the master" you too can fleece peoples hard earned money without ever going near them.
Simply become a vendor authorized to accept credit card charges with access to your victim’s credit card number & you too can cash in over the phone!
This is the why we here at WiKiLeax as well as those at QuacKWatch.org & Skepdoc.com strive to educate the public.
We know you work hard for your money.
We don't want to see you give it away unknowingly without a more detailed explanation of the scam than you will ever get from the scammer himself.
Quackwatch.org, RationalWiKi, WiKiLeax, Skepdoc.com & DebunktionJunction shall take the responsibility of educating the few, unsuspecting & trusting members of the public to these scams on our web sites as well as on other public forums.
Our Conclusion
In the mid-1990s, at ages 9 and 10, Emily Rosa demonstrated that 21 therapeutic touch (TT) practitioners could not detect her alleged "energy field."
During the tests, the practitioners rested their arms on a flat surface, about a foot apart.
Emily then hovered her hand, palm down, a few inches above one of the subject's palms.
A cardboard screen prevented the subjects from seeing which of their hands was selected.
The practitioners correctly located Emily's hand only 122 (44%) out of 280 trials, which is no better than would be expected by guessing. After the Journal of the American Medical Association published the results, TT leaders called the study a "parlor game," but they refused to suggest an alternative experimental design or to undergo similar tests themselves.
It might be interesting to investigate whether Mr. Hyman or any other alleged practitioner of “Quantum Theta Energy Healing, or "Shamanic Healing," can actually sense or transmit "energy," whether "shamanic healing," “quantum theta energy healing” or “deep emotional release bodywork or "attunements" actually enhance anything, and whether feelings of warmth are accompanied by any measurable change of skin temperature.
But I doubt that the "shamanic healer," “quantum theta energy healer” or “deep emotional release attunement" practitioner Mr. Hyman would be any more eager than the TT community to have its fundamental concepts tested.
Note, we call it SH, or shhhh, as in, "quiet, we don't want anyone to find out it's a SCAM": SCAM standing for: Supplementary, Complimentary, Alternative, Medicine!
The Bottom Line
"Shamanic healing," “Quantum theta energy healing” or “deep emotional release attunements" have no substantiated health value and lacks a scientifically plausible rationale.
Science-based healthcare settings should not tolerate its use, and scarce government research dollars should not be used to study it.
The partners in crime practitioners of the so called "shamanic energy healing," "deep emotional release bodywork & "integrated quantum theta healing" have co-opted some of the language of physics, including the language of quantum mechanics, in their quest to make metaphysical quackery sound like respectable science.
How is it possible to get relief from swelling, pain, nausea, headaches, anxiety, and an assortment of other ailments without the use of medicine or surgery?
It is not.
However, various hucksters attempt to utilize the terms of quantum mechanics & physics in order to attempt to separate you from your hard earned money.
We at WiKiLeax are involved in an expose of the so called "shamanic energy healers," and "quantum theta energy healers" who are perpetrating such a fraud.
So called "shamanic energy healers" have been adept at the art of separating you from your hard earned money for centuries.
These new age hucksters who call themselves "shamanic energy healers," (SEH pronounced SAY as in Say, isn't that my money your hustling?) or "Quantum Theta Energy Healers" (QTEH or Kew-Tee)) have refined this preposterous method so they can now access our wallets In so called "telephone session."
The amazing thing about this is that the "shamanic healer" need not even touch the patient.
In fact, the healer need not even be in the presence of the patient.
"Integrated Quantum Theta Energy Healing" (last months name for this Tom Foolery) or "shamanic energy healing" (this months name) is so powerful, according to "the practitioner," a Mr. James Hyman that Mr. Hyman need not even be in the presence of the "subject" or "patient" he is treating.
Unbeknownst to him, Mr. Hyman was asked to first conduct one of his "shamanic energy healing" phone sessions (technically, he was still calling it "quantum theta energy healing" phone sessions when this occurred, this past December and January) with our writer, a perfectly healthy pescetarian 53 year old male.
This was in order to facilitate the "deep emotional healing" of what was purported to be a deeply troubled man.
Mr. Hyman conducted 2 "shamanic energy healing telephone sessions" or "quantum theta" phone sessions with the subject between his home in CA and the mans in FL at a cost of over $1,500.00.
After the two telephone sessions, Mr. Hyman came to the conclusion that the subject was indeed markedly and painfully rooted with "deep emotionally contained quantum theta negative energy" which was affecting both his physical and mental well being.
After collecting his fee for his diagnosis and telephone sessions, & armed with the mans credit card information for the purposes of charging should the subject not be willing to pay, Mr. Hyman compassionately offered to travel to FL for a series of in person ""shamanic energy healing sessions" or "quantum theta energy healing" sessions with the man over a four day period for a minimum guaranteed fee of an additional $3,500.00.
Next: What occurred in FL at these "in person quantum theta energy healing" sessions next.
"Shamanic Energy Healing" (SEH) or "Quantum Theta Energy Healing" (QTEH or Kew-Tee) Sessions;
In actuality the subject, our writer, armed with financing from WiKiLeax was in reality a healthy, 53 year old pescetarian male. He recently had a full yearly physical conducted by a board certified MD in Internal Medicine.
He was MD verified to be drug free, 5'9" tall and weighing 135 pounds.
With a thrice weekly MD verified pulse rate of between 66-72, as well as a blood pressure of between 110/66 and 120/70.
His blood sugar was measured two hours after eating on three different occasions as averaging 5.5mmol/L.
In other words an extremely healthy 53 year old male with the heart rate, blood pressure and blood sugar levels of someone at a minimum 10-15 years his junior.
This most likely due to his healthy lifestyle choices of a pescetarian diet as well as regular exercise.
The exercise consists of speed walking or running approximately 5K (about 3.1 miles) daily.
Upon arrival Mr. Hyman proceeded with 2 "in person quantum theta energy healing" sessions.
During these in person "quantum theta energy healing" sessions Mr. Hyman simply waved his hands over the patient and “felt” the "quantum theta energy" moving.
Great stuff but what’s really going on?
Nothing according to our writer other than another crystal crowd huckster reaching into our collective wallets!
During his in person "sessions" with our writer, an impostor on his massage table, Mr. Hyman seemed to be so troubled by the gentleman's negative "quantum theta energy fields" that the practitioner (Mr. Hyman) can be heard “chanting” some heretofore unknown “mantras.”
This our subject could only conclude was Mr. Hyman's attempts to ward off our writers "deep emotional negative quantum theta energy" mojo that Mr. Hyman had now removed from the “patients” body.
The need for chanting is apparently a method of stopping said mojo from entering Mr. Hyman's own “quantum theta” energy fields.
Thankfully, our writer was healthy & Mr. Hyman appeared to leave our subject unscathed, except for our writers wallet, which was considerably lighter.
Although Mr. Hyman claims to be the "founder" of this "practice" this is in fact a variation of both WooJangJu Power Meditation or WooJangJu Power Chant Healing Meditation.
It's purported design is to protect meditators, while they are healing, from vengeful spirits.
Another age old hucksters quackery Mr. Hyman "borrows" from is known as Wu Ming Qigong
(Wu Ming Qigong system, Taoist Wu Ming Qigong): This is a millennia old "self-healing practice" taught by the American Taoist Healing Center, Inc., in New York City.
It allegedly helps users connect body, mind, and spirit.
Its theory posits a transfer, from teacher to student, of "energy" that heals and guides the student.
Proponents use the Chinese expression "wu ming," which literally means "no name," to refer to the "original natural force" from which everything's "essence" flows.
Apparently Mr. Hyman has renamed this "force" "quantum theta energy" for his own nefarious gain.
Next we shall reveal where Mr. Hyman the so called "founder" of this process has "borrowed" these terms.
Other Quack "Scams" Hyman Has “Borrowed” From
4) Lesser Kan: Form of meditation whose theory posits chi, "core energy channels," "higher energy bodies."
5) Life force balancing: Combination of the laying on of hands, psychic healing, psychological "adjustments," and spiritual counseling, developed by Barbara West.
It involves a "healing science" called "intercellular regeneration."
6) Life Care Kinesiology (Life Care): Offshoot of applied kinesiology put together by Dr. Richard Beale. It borrows from acupuncture and Touch for Health and includes "chakra meditation."
7) Life Impressions Bodywork: "Healing process" developed by Donald Van Howten (Ravi Dos). It includes "cranial membrane treatment" (probably Cranio-Sacral work) and "pulse work" and borrows from Ayurveda and Hakomi. Its premises include the following. (a) Humans are spirits. (b) Bodily tissues accumulate "history." (c) This "imprint" of experiences becomes "outdated." Updating "idea imprinted" tissues (the method's purported intention) releases "bound beliefs" and "energy."
8) Light Touch Energy Healing: Method that purportedly focuses on: balancing bodily "energy," releasing "cellular memory," and identifying "energy patterns" that limit happiness.
9) LooyenWork®: Approach to "body therapy" that involves "body reading" and "movement re-education" and allegedly can increase the "flow" of clients' "energy." "Body reading" purportedly is a sophisticated form of observation that enables practitioners to reach the root of the client's problem.
Research
The most comprehensive review of “quantum theta energy healing” has been done right here!
I have spent over three hours on the telephone with Mr. Hyman and allowed him access to me at a townhouse rented for this investigation for four days.
I have concluded that the evidence is insufficient to suggest “quantum theta” energy healing & “deep emotional release body work are an ineffective treatment for any condition.
I further state that “quantum theta energy healing" & "deep emotional release body work" lacks scientific credibility!
The scientific and medical communities have not accepted them as an effective therapy.
Plausible scientific explanation as to how it could possibly be efficacious is not to be found.
The explanation of the efficacy of “quantum theta” energy healing or “deep emotional release” depends entirely on a particular view of the world as permeated by this "universal life energy" (“quantum theta” energy) that is subject to manipulation of human thought and will, by Mr. Hyman.
Mr. Hyman the self professed “founder”, “inventor”, “discoverer” & “practitioner claims that his training allows him to channel the "quantum theta energy" that is present in all living beings.
The most obvious first question is what training?
From what University did Hyman receive such training?
In what field is Hyman's advanced training?
What medical degree has James Hyman been presented, bestowed or awarded?
The answer to all of the above is nothing.
Nada.
Bupkus.
A big fat Zilch!
This "quantum theta energy," is unknown to natural science.
As the presence of such energy has not been observed by means of natural science, the justification for these therapies necessarily must come from something other than science.
Next we shall discuss Mr. Hyman's highest priced pseudo-scientific scam; his "Quantum Theta Deep Emotional Body Work" (QTDEBW) Practitioner Training!
Practitioner Training
No special background or credentials are needed to receive “quantum theta energy healing” (QTEH) or “deep emotional release” (DER) training.
To become a practitioner, one must receive an "initiation" or "attunement" from Mr. Hyman himself.
Mr. Hyman quotes the costs of this beginning at $500.00 for a single 8 hour session.
Of course, as is the hucksters’ normal philosophy you cannot "learn" Mr. Hyman's technique in one session.
Since he purports to be the founder of course only he can teach it.
This will require numerous sessions & will cost frankly whatever Mr. Hyman can fleece from his unsuspecting "student."
Mr. Hyman will certainly accept your $500.00 for a one day 8 hour training session.
He will then attempt to convince you that to be a "practitioner" you will purportedly require further training.
Ultimately when he determines he has dispossessed you from all the funds possible in this "training session" you are now allowed to practice at the lower levels.
Typically this takes 1 or 2 days and begins with the previously mentioned attunement.
Many practitioners are massage therapists.
However, no licensing or professional standards exist for the practice of “Quantum Theta Energy Healing” itself.
Like wise for “Deep Emotional Release Bodywork.”
Whether QTEH or DERB can be considered the unlicensed practice of medicine varies from state to state.
Of course to practice at the higher levels, Mr. Hyman will require further payment in order to complete your "training."
At the higher levels, one can allegedly channel “quantum theta energy” and effect healings at a distance, without physical contact.
This would fall in line with Mr. Hyman's aforementioned "quantum theta telephone energy healing."
In other words once properly trained by "the master" you too can fleece peoples hard earned money without ever going near them.
Simply become a vendor authorized to accept credit card charges with access to your victim’s credit card number & you too can cash in over the phone!
This is the why we here at WiKiLeax as well as those at QuacKWatch.org & Skepdoc.com strive to educate the public.
We know you work hard for your money.
We don't want to see you give it away unknowingly without a more detailed explanation of the scam than you will ever get from the scammer himself.
Quackwatch.org, RationalWiKi, WiKiLeax, Skepdoc.com & DebunktionJunction shall take the responsibility of educating the few, unsuspecting & trusting members of the public to these scams on our web sites as well as on other public forums.
Our Conclusion
In the mid-1990s, at ages 9 and 10, Emily Rosa demonstrated that 21 therapeutic touch (TT) practitioners could not detect her alleged "energy field."
During the tests, the practitioners rested their arms on a flat surface, about a foot apart.
Emily then hovered her hand, palm down, a few inches above one of the subject's palms.
A cardboard screen prevented the subjects from seeing which of their hands was selected.
The practitioners correctly located Emily's hand only 122 (44%) out of 280 trials, which is no better than would be expected by guessing. After the Journal of the American Medical Association published the results, TT leaders called the study a "parlor game," but they refused to suggest an alternative experimental design or to undergo similar tests themselves.
It might be interesting to investigate whether Mr. Hyman or any other alleged practitioner of “Quantum Theta Energy Healing, or "Shamanic Healing," can actually sense or transmit "energy," whether "shamanic healing," “quantum theta energy healing” or “deep emotional release bodywork or "attunements" actually enhance anything, and whether feelings of warmth are accompanied by any measurable change of skin temperature.
But I doubt that the "shamanic healer," “quantum theta energy healer” or “deep emotional release attunement" practitioner Mr. Hyman would be any more eager than the TT community to have its fundamental concepts tested.
Note, we call it SH, or shhhh, as in, "quiet, we don't want anyone to find out it's a SCAM": SCAM standing for: Supplementary, Complimentary, Alternative, Medicine!
The Bottom Line
"Shamanic healing," “Quantum theta energy healing” or “deep emotional release attunements" have no substantiated health value and lacks a scientifically plausible rationale.
Science-based healthcare settings should not tolerate its use, and scarce government research dollars should not be used to study it.
Shamanic Energy Healer James Hyman: Homeopathic Hilarity!
James Hyman hypes "Shamanic Energy Healing," "Hyman Healing," "Quantum Theta Healing" or whatever new he may be calling it this month!"
Regardless of what he calls it, it amounts to Bunk!
The notion that auras reflect health is a common one among true believers. The problem is, what color reflects what condition?
There is no consensus on what the colors mean, which makes it difficult if not impossible to devise an empirical test to determine whether there is any correlation between specific colors and specific diseases.
In other words, reading auras is something like reading Rorschach tests with the added difficulty of each psychic potentially seeing a different pattern.
For every other object of color we have scientific devices which can measure any energy emitted from the object, as well as the wavelengths of light reflected from the object.
Even though equipment exists capable of measuring extremely minute energy levels, no one has ever detected an aura or the alleged energy that gives rise to an aura using scientific equipment.
Human tissue is about a million times less sensitive than something like a PET scanner, yet we are supposed to believe that some special people can "see" what cannot otherwise be detected.
Or, we are supposed to believe that we all have the power to see auras but somehow we have repressed or never trained our psychic selves to unleash the power within.
Aura reading is one of several nonsensical methods commonly referred to as "energy healing" These methods are based on the idea that the body is surrounded or permeated by an energy field that is not measurable by ordinary scientific instrumentation.
The alleged force, said to support life, is known as ki in Japan, as chi or qi in China, and as prana in India. Energy healing practitioners claim to facilitate healing by strengthening or "balancing" it .
Reiki is an example of energy healing. (Of course it is, Hyman purports to be a "reiki master," a "Shamanic Healer" along with being a "qigong master," and if we are to believe his numerous web sites, a master of dozens of other "shamanic bunk")
My god, if he's mastered so many forms of such highly "respected" ughhh, sorry, I meant "suspected" methods, If it is such earth shattering “medicine,” why don’t more trained scientists or even educated consumers advocate its use?
The word "reiki" is derived from two Japanese words: rei (universal) and ki (life energy).
Current energy healing practice can be traced to the spiritual teachings of Mikao Usui in Japan during the early 20th century.
Usui's teachings included meditative techniques and healing practices.
One of his students, Chujiro Hayashi, further developed the healing practices, placing less emphasis on the meditative techniques.
An American named Hawayo Takata learned reiki from Hayashi in Japan and introduced it to Western cultures in the late 1930s .
During a recent national survey, about 0.5% of participants said that they had used an "energy healing" therapy during the previous year.
If it is such earth shattering “medicine,” why don’t more trained scientists or even educated consumers advocate its use?
Regardless of what he calls it, it amounts to Bunk!
The notion that auras reflect health is a common one among true believers. The problem is, what color reflects what condition?
There is no consensus on what the colors mean, which makes it difficult if not impossible to devise an empirical test to determine whether there is any correlation between specific colors and specific diseases.
In other words, reading auras is something like reading Rorschach tests with the added difficulty of each psychic potentially seeing a different pattern.
For every other object of color we have scientific devices which can measure any energy emitted from the object, as well as the wavelengths of light reflected from the object.
Even though equipment exists capable of measuring extremely minute energy levels, no one has ever detected an aura or the alleged energy that gives rise to an aura using scientific equipment.
Human tissue is about a million times less sensitive than something like a PET scanner, yet we are supposed to believe that some special people can "see" what cannot otherwise be detected.
Or, we are supposed to believe that we all have the power to see auras but somehow we have repressed or never trained our psychic selves to unleash the power within.
Aura reading is one of several nonsensical methods commonly referred to as "energy healing" These methods are based on the idea that the body is surrounded or permeated by an energy field that is not measurable by ordinary scientific instrumentation.
The alleged force, said to support life, is known as ki in Japan, as chi or qi in China, and as prana in India. Energy healing practitioners claim to facilitate healing by strengthening or "balancing" it .
Reiki is an example of energy healing. (Of course it is, Hyman purports to be a "reiki master," a "Shamanic Healer" along with being a "qigong master," and if we are to believe his numerous web sites, a master of dozens of other "shamanic bunk")
My god, if he's mastered so many forms of such highly "respected" ughhh, sorry, I meant "suspected" methods, If it is such earth shattering “medicine,” why don’t more trained scientists or even educated consumers advocate its use?
The word "reiki" is derived from two Japanese words: rei (universal) and ki (life energy).
Current energy healing practice can be traced to the spiritual teachings of Mikao Usui in Japan during the early 20th century.
Usui's teachings included meditative techniques and healing practices.
One of his students, Chujiro Hayashi, further developed the healing practices, placing less emphasis on the meditative techniques.
An American named Hawayo Takata learned reiki from Hayashi in Japan and introduced it to Western cultures in the late 1930s .
During a recent national survey, about 0.5% of participants said that they had used an "energy healing" therapy during the previous year.
If it is such earth shattering “medicine,” why don’t more trained scientists or even educated consumers advocate its use?
Shamanic Energy Healer James Hyman: Shamanic Shenanigans!
Shamanic Healer Or Shamanic Hype? James Hyman's Shamanic Shenanigans!
They're at it again!
James Hyman the self professed founder of what he LAUGHINGLY CALLS: "quantum theta" energy healing is back with a new web site claiming
GET THIS:
His Pseudo Scientific Alt Med Quackery is "Shamanic Energy Healing!"
This time the allegation is his ability to clear "grief, fears, anxiety, and depression" that occurs at the "quantum-theta level"
WITHOUT THE NEED FOR MEDICATION
OVER THE TELEPHONE!
SHAMANIC HEALING OVER THE TELEPHONE
THE FACT IS JAMES HYMAN HAS NO DEGREE IN MEDICINE, PSYCHOLOGY, PSYCHIATRY, CHEMISTRY, PHYSIOLOGY OR ADVANCED EDUCATION WHATSOEVER!
OF COURSE THERE IS THE TYPICAL DISCLAIMER STATING: "his scientific
practice is a specialty in the field of transformational bodywork, self-healing energy work, and Chinese Qi Gong"
AREA'S COMPLETELY UNRELATED TO SCIENCE AND WITH NO MEDICAL DEGREE OR LICENSURE OF ANY KIND WHATSOEVER REQUIRED!
THIS IS ALL SIMPLY "HYMAN HYPE" OR "QUANTUM QUACKERY!"
Hyman even relates his work to what was seen in the movie, The Secret;
http://emotionalrelease.com/tag/the-secret/
Anyone who reads the newspaper or watches TV news knows what has happened to the main proponent of The Secret. The trial of James Arthur Ray, the author of The Secret has concluded and Mr. Ray has been convicted of manslaughter!
Unfortunate timing for quack meisters like Hyman currently pushing their own brand of
"Shamanic Energy Healing," or “quantum quackery!”
Of course what alt med quacks would be without their number one piece of
propaganda; "Testimonials."
The Hyman's testimonials pronounce;
1. After one session with James Hyman patients no longer need any of their
medications
2. James Hyman is the real deal, a true healer whose work is profound!
3. After one session James Hyman's work was so powerful one patient was
cured of anxiety and codependency
http://emotionalrelease.com/testimonials-2/
Here is the Reality Regarding Testimonials:
--THE ALT MEDS 5 RULES OF PROPAGANDA --
1. The rule of orchestration: endlessly repeating the same messages in
different variations and combinations.
2. The rule of simplification: reducing all data to testimonials
3) The rule of disfiguration: Their description for a phenomenon where many
irrational beliefs are justified by an obfuscatory reference to quantum physics, thereby discrediting the opposition by crude smears and parodies.
4) The rule of transfusion: manipulating the consensus values for the target
audience for one's own ends.
5) The rule of unanimity: presenting one's viewpoint as if it were the
unanimous opinion of all right-thinking people: CAM is the natural or organic method! Thereby attempting to drain the doubting individual into agreement by the appeal of social pressure, and by 'psychological contagion'.
Hyman pronounces in the 3rd paragraph here;
http://emotionalrelease.com/new-insight-and-personal-empowerment/
that this is not traditional ongoing therapy, you will require only one
session to access your subconscious mind at the "quantum grid"
(wherever that is!) and that it "opens the Dura around the brain!"
Really?
Opens the Dura?
The Hardest Most Impenetrable Portion Of The Brain Opened Without Surgery?
JUST ANOTHER CASE OF QUANTUM QUACKERY!
OR PERHAPS SHAMANIC SHENANIGANS!
Hyman states his "unique integrated system is a combination of different, powerful and
effective forms of energy healing, shaman healing, quantum healing, theta healing, and Chinese Qigong Healing."
In actuality, Quantum Theta Energy Healing is taken from the description for a phenomenon
where many irrational beliefs are justified by an obfuscatory reference to quantum physics. In this case the focus is on some sort of quantum theta energy field that magically turns thoughts into something tangible that can directly affect the universe.
This is Hyman's attempt to piggy-back on the success and legitimacy of science by claiming his quack ideas are rooted in accepted concepts in physics combined with utter misunderstanding of these concepts and a sense of wonder at the amazing magic these misunderstandings would imply if true.
When an idea seems too crazy to believe, the proponent (Hyman) often makes an appeal to quantum physics as the explanation.
Hyman's Pseudoscience
Since most people have never studied quantum physics they do not understand
why these sham ideas are a perversion of it - in fact, this relies on people thinking
that quantum mechanics is too hard or only for scientists in order for the scams to work and stop people questioning them.
Practitioners of fraudulent and silly ideas can tap into this feeling of
mystery to push their sham concepts, i.e. quantum theta energy
healing or this week
"SHAMANIC ENERGY HEALING"
I WONDER WHAT IT WILL BE NEXT WEEK?
They're at it again!
James Hyman the self professed founder of what he LAUGHINGLY CALLS: "quantum theta" energy healing is back with a new web site claiming
GET THIS:
His Pseudo Scientific Alt Med Quackery is "Shamanic Energy Healing!"
This time the allegation is his ability to clear "grief, fears, anxiety, and depression" that occurs at the "quantum-theta level"
WITHOUT THE NEED FOR MEDICATION
OVER THE TELEPHONE!
SHAMANIC HEALING OVER THE TELEPHONE
THE FACT IS JAMES HYMAN HAS NO DEGREE IN MEDICINE, PSYCHOLOGY, PSYCHIATRY, CHEMISTRY, PHYSIOLOGY OR ADVANCED EDUCATION WHATSOEVER!
OF COURSE THERE IS THE TYPICAL DISCLAIMER STATING: "his scientific
practice is a specialty in the field of transformational bodywork, self-healing energy work, and Chinese Qi Gong"
AREA'S COMPLETELY UNRELATED TO SCIENCE AND WITH NO MEDICAL DEGREE OR LICENSURE OF ANY KIND WHATSOEVER REQUIRED!
THIS IS ALL SIMPLY "HYMAN HYPE" OR "QUANTUM QUACKERY!"
Hyman even relates his work to what was seen in the movie, The Secret;
http://emotionalrelease.com/tag/the-secret/
Anyone who reads the newspaper or watches TV news knows what has happened to the main proponent of The Secret. The trial of James Arthur Ray, the author of The Secret has concluded and Mr. Ray has been convicted of manslaughter!
Unfortunate timing for quack meisters like Hyman currently pushing their own brand of
"Shamanic Energy Healing," or “quantum quackery!”
Of course what alt med quacks would be without their number one piece of
propaganda; "Testimonials."
The Hyman's testimonials pronounce;
1. After one session with James Hyman patients no longer need any of their
medications
2. James Hyman is the real deal, a true healer whose work is profound!
3. After one session James Hyman's work was so powerful one patient was
cured of anxiety and codependency
http://emotionalrelease.com/testimonials-2/
Here is the Reality Regarding Testimonials:
--THE ALT MEDS 5 RULES OF PROPAGANDA --
1. The rule of orchestration: endlessly repeating the same messages in
different variations and combinations.
2. The rule of simplification: reducing all data to testimonials
3) The rule of disfiguration: Their description for a phenomenon where many
irrational beliefs are justified by an obfuscatory reference to quantum physics, thereby discrediting the opposition by crude smears and parodies.
4) The rule of transfusion: manipulating the consensus values for the target
audience for one's own ends.
5) The rule of unanimity: presenting one's viewpoint as if it were the
unanimous opinion of all right-thinking people: CAM is the natural or organic method! Thereby attempting to drain the doubting individual into agreement by the appeal of social pressure, and by 'psychological contagion'.
Hyman pronounces in the 3rd paragraph here;
http://emotionalrelease.com/new-insight-and-personal-empowerment/
that this is not traditional ongoing therapy, you will require only one
session to access your subconscious mind at the "quantum grid"
(wherever that is!) and that it "opens the Dura around the brain!"
Really?
Opens the Dura?
The Hardest Most Impenetrable Portion Of The Brain Opened Without Surgery?
JUST ANOTHER CASE OF QUANTUM QUACKERY!
OR PERHAPS SHAMANIC SHENANIGANS!
Hyman states his "unique integrated system is a combination of different, powerful and
effective forms of energy healing, shaman healing, quantum healing, theta healing, and Chinese Qigong Healing."
In actuality, Quantum Theta Energy Healing is taken from the description for a phenomenon
where many irrational beliefs are justified by an obfuscatory reference to quantum physics. In this case the focus is on some sort of quantum theta energy field that magically turns thoughts into something tangible that can directly affect the universe.
This is Hyman's attempt to piggy-back on the success and legitimacy of science by claiming his quack ideas are rooted in accepted concepts in physics combined with utter misunderstanding of these concepts and a sense of wonder at the amazing magic these misunderstandings would imply if true.
When an idea seems too crazy to believe, the proponent (Hyman) often makes an appeal to quantum physics as the explanation.
Hyman's Pseudoscience
Since most people have never studied quantum physics they do not understand
why these sham ideas are a perversion of it - in fact, this relies on people thinking
that quantum mechanics is too hard or only for scientists in order for the scams to work and stop people questioning them.
Practitioners of fraudulent and silly ideas can tap into this feeling of
mystery to push their sham concepts, i.e. quantum theta energy
healing or this week
"SHAMANIC ENERGY HEALING"
I WONDER WHAT IT WILL BE NEXT WEEK?
Shamanic Energy Healer James Hyman: Shaman Or Scientologist?
Shamanic Healer Or Shamanic Hype? James Hyman, Simply Scientology?
Something new, or just repackaged Scientology?
Between "Scientology" stolen from L.Ron Hubbard, "quantum healing" stolen from Neils Bohr and even woo meister Deepak Chopra and "theta healing" stolen from alt woo meister Vianna Stibal it doesn’t take a genius to know James Hyman didn't "invent" anything!
Although there is no actual evidence linking Jim to Scientology, the notion that negative experiences from past lives are transferred to become the basis for hang ups in this life is a central portion of scientology's belief systems.
Scientology portrays itself in part as an "alternative" approach to psychiatry and clinical psychology.
James Hyman thinks just because it "sounds cool" he can co-opt the terms of quantum mechanics and theoretical physics to scam people with this “made up” pseudo-scientific quackery he calls “quantum theta healing!”
I really think Mr. Hyman should be ashamed of himself. He’s not doing anybody any good and he steals the work and names of his "practice" from scientists who have worked their entire lives developing theories and postulates.
Hyman thinks just because it "sounds cool" he can co-opt the terms from quantum mechanics and theoretical physics.
Although there is no actual evidence linking Jim to Scientology, the notion that negative experiences from past lives are transferred to become the basis for hang ups in this life is a central portion of scientology's belief systems.
Scientology portrays itself in part as an "alternative" approach to psychiatry and clinical psychology.
Even the above referenced people you stole it from (aside from the physicists) are not very well respected.
James Hyman, you’re no more than a Deepak Chopra/Vanilla Ice wannabee.
How Sad!
Hyman’s wife Barbara is fond of calling him a “shaman,” every critical thinker and scientist knows there is no such thing!
Again I repeat, HOW SAD!
Something new, or just repackaged Scientology?
Between "Scientology" stolen from L.Ron Hubbard, "quantum healing" stolen from Neils Bohr and even woo meister Deepak Chopra and "theta healing" stolen from alt woo meister Vianna Stibal it doesn’t take a genius to know James Hyman didn't "invent" anything!
Although there is no actual evidence linking Jim to Scientology, the notion that negative experiences from past lives are transferred to become the basis for hang ups in this life is a central portion of scientology's belief systems.
Scientology portrays itself in part as an "alternative" approach to psychiatry and clinical psychology.
James Hyman thinks just because it "sounds cool" he can co-opt the terms of quantum mechanics and theoretical physics to scam people with this “made up” pseudo-scientific quackery he calls “quantum theta healing!”
I really think Mr. Hyman should be ashamed of himself. He’s not doing anybody any good and he steals the work and names of his "practice" from scientists who have worked their entire lives developing theories and postulates.
Hyman thinks just because it "sounds cool" he can co-opt the terms from quantum mechanics and theoretical physics.
Although there is no actual evidence linking Jim to Scientology, the notion that negative experiences from past lives are transferred to become the basis for hang ups in this life is a central portion of scientology's belief systems.
Scientology portrays itself in part as an "alternative" approach to psychiatry and clinical psychology.
Even the above referenced people you stole it from (aside from the physicists) are not very well respected.
James Hyman, you’re no more than a Deepak Chopra/Vanilla Ice wannabee.
How Sad!
Hyman’s wife Barbara is fond of calling him a “shaman,” every critical thinker and scientist knows there is no such thing!
Again I repeat, HOW SAD!
Shamanic Energy Healer James Hyman: Hyman Hypes!
Let's start with homeopathy.
Homeopathy works on the principle that minute doses of whatever causes a particular illness can be used to cure that illness.
There's some merit to the thinking: minute doses of a poison, over time, will render the consumer immune to that particular poison.
However - the minute doses homeopaths are talking about here are so minute as to be close to incalculable without a degree in molecular chemistry.
The treatments are often so diluted that you'd need a high-power microscope to find the active ingredient - and as any good drug taker will tell you, there's a world of difference between eating a pill and licking the plastic bag it came in.
One will get you high.
The other will make you look desperate.
Homeopathy relies on people turning up with a curable illness, taking a trace quantity of the "cure" for a prescribed period of time, and then getting better - no mention of the fact that the prescribed length of the treatment is usually about as long as it takes for the body to naturally sort itself out without the diseased person doing anything - which is pretty much what they're doing with homeopathy anyway.
But it's not homeopathy that caught my attention this morning as I walked past the waiting room of the rental apartment upstairs from me in Culver City.
Which, by the way, stinks of incense - a substance burnt by alternative healing practitioners in their waiting rooms to disguise the unmistakable stench of false hope and dashed expectations.
No - it was a sign for a "new" kind of healing, something which they now call "shamanic healing!"
I say "they now" because last month it was called "Quantum Theta" Energy Healing (QTEH pronounced; Kew-Tee).
Apparently, last months made up term, co-opted from quantum physics and quantum mechanics was getting worn out on Hyman and his homeopathically hyped ex-wife and "practice manager" Barbara, the main proponent of this gargantuan garbage.
Anyway, apparently, you or I could do a course and become a "shamanic healer" or "Quantum Theta" Healing Practitioner in just three days - and go on to cure all sorts of diseases.
Including, as some of their many free websites claim, fear, anxiety, depression anger and grief (good grief!).
Yep, the Hymans will not only practice on you (for a fee of course) they will teach it to you (for a fee, of course!)
In other words, if they can't commercialize it, it hasen't been invented!
So.
Imagine, if you will, that are depressed.
Who are you going to put your trust in?
A bloke in a lab coat who has spent seven years at medical school and who is drawing on hundreds of years of medical knowledge, or some yahoo wearing socks and sandals who spent three days at a convention center learning how to unblock "shamanic energies" or "negative quantum theta energies" and promote positive thoughts?
The founder of "Quantum Theta Healing" is an individual by the name of James Hyman, whose main devotee his ex-wife, Barbara, claims can cure numerous diseases.
This is a big statement to make - and I would assume that someone with the ability to cure multiple disease would, by now, be world-famous and boast a trophy room whose shelves are groaning under the weight of every scientific prize the world has to offer.
So I googled James Hyman.
I got seven hits (all of which were written by his wife, Barbara on free web sites where anyone can avail themselves of anything, so they don't really count, like here;
http://www.emotionalrelease.com
Then, in the interests of good science, I chose a subject entirely at random, to check to see if Google might be broken.
I googled myself.
377,000 hits.
Rudimentary maths (the kind I particularly like) tells me that I am therefore roughly 53,000 times more famous than a man who can cure numerous psychiatric and psychological diseases.
Brilliant!
I did some more digging on "shamanic healing" and "Quantum Theta" Energy Healing: apparently it involves putting the patient's brain into a quantum or theta-state, (wherever the hell that is).
The practitioner then uses a highly dubious and often-debunked practice of applied kinesiology, where muscle response is tested to determine the patient's problem.
I tried this out on a few people.
I poked and prodded some random strangers, and their muscle response (repeatedly lashing out and trying to hit me) suggests that they have anger issues.
I suggested meditation, they suggested I do something that sounded quite fun, but is biologically impossible. (This by the way was the same suggesting Ms. Hyman made when she was made aware I was now debunking "shamanic healing or what they last month called "quantum theta" energy healing or QTEH (Kew-Tee!)
Moving on:
Once the "shamanic healer" or "Quantum Theta" Energy healer has ascertained the medical issue, the big guns come out - According to the website; "Working with the chakras, the subconscious mind, the energy fields in and around the body, Jim gently and effectively guides you through the release of blocked emotional energy, old patterns and negative emotions, and breaks you through to new levels of your connection with Self and Source and after just one session (ONE SESSION, THIS IS POWERFUL STUFF) you will see your life move forward in the direction that you set forth during your session!"
I would continue on, as Ms. Hyman blithers on for about six more paragraphs but my guess is you get the point... anyway...continuing where Ms. Hyman left off....
"A scientist in the field of transformational bodywork, self-healing energy work, and Chinese Qi Gong, James has......yada ...yada...yada... His work releases blocked energy in the body associated with past trauma and negative patterns, releases the negative pattern from the subconscious mind and the Quantum grid, (there it is again, that pesky "quantum grid," wherever that may be) and activates the cellular memory for perfect health, peace and a profound sense of well-being."
His intense study of metaphysics and shamanism, (yep, this weeks homeopathic specialty, "shamanic healing") combined with his experience as a facilitator of ....except wait, here comes the claim;
qualify him as an expert in several different areas of wellness, and personal and spiritual evolution.
Qualified as an EXPERT!
Qualified by whom?
From what University did he receive his medical degree?
Who has bestowed the title of 'expert' on Mr. Hyman?
A closer look at the numerous free web sites make this extremely clear; Mr. Hyman has NO advanced degree from ANY university or accredited institution!
None,
Nada,
Zero,
Bupkis!
ONLY Mrs. Hyman has 'qualified' Mr. Hyman as an expert!
So glad we got that one cleared up!
(I'm not making these claims up... they are all on the websites. Go search for yourself if you don't believe me.)
It is utter codswallop (minute amounts of which are, reportedly, useful in treating Trimethylaminuria, a/k/a Fish Odor Syndrome).
So what to do when we get sick?
Do we trust modern medicine, or do we travel the more natural route?
The obvious choice is this: don't get sick in the first place.
But if you do, there's something that you might want to remember.
If it walks like a duck, and talks like a duck, then it's probably a quack!
In other words, it's horseshit (in small doses, reportedly useful in treating colic and gambling problems!).
Homeopathy works on the principle that minute doses of whatever causes a particular illness can be used to cure that illness.
There's some merit to the thinking: minute doses of a poison, over time, will render the consumer immune to that particular poison.
However - the minute doses homeopaths are talking about here are so minute as to be close to incalculable without a degree in molecular chemistry.
The treatments are often so diluted that you'd need a high-power microscope to find the active ingredient - and as any good drug taker will tell you, there's a world of difference between eating a pill and licking the plastic bag it came in.
One will get you high.
The other will make you look desperate.
Homeopathy relies on people turning up with a curable illness, taking a trace quantity of the "cure" for a prescribed period of time, and then getting better - no mention of the fact that the prescribed length of the treatment is usually about as long as it takes for the body to naturally sort itself out without the diseased person doing anything - which is pretty much what they're doing with homeopathy anyway.
But it's not homeopathy that caught my attention this morning as I walked past the waiting room of the rental apartment upstairs from me in Culver City.
Which, by the way, stinks of incense - a substance burnt by alternative healing practitioners in their waiting rooms to disguise the unmistakable stench of false hope and dashed expectations.
No - it was a sign for a "new" kind of healing, something which they now call "shamanic healing!"
I say "they now" because last month it was called "Quantum Theta" Energy Healing (QTEH pronounced; Kew-Tee).
Apparently, last months made up term, co-opted from quantum physics and quantum mechanics was getting worn out on Hyman and his homeopathically hyped ex-wife and "practice manager" Barbara, the main proponent of this gargantuan garbage.
Anyway, apparently, you or I could do a course and become a "shamanic healer" or "Quantum Theta" Healing Practitioner in just three days - and go on to cure all sorts of diseases.
Including, as some of their many free websites claim, fear, anxiety, depression anger and grief (good grief!).
Yep, the Hymans will not only practice on you (for a fee of course) they will teach it to you (for a fee, of course!)
In other words, if they can't commercialize it, it hasen't been invented!
So.
Imagine, if you will, that are depressed.
Who are you going to put your trust in?
A bloke in a lab coat who has spent seven years at medical school and who is drawing on hundreds of years of medical knowledge, or some yahoo wearing socks and sandals who spent three days at a convention center learning how to unblock "shamanic energies" or "negative quantum theta energies" and promote positive thoughts?
The founder of "Quantum Theta Healing" is an individual by the name of James Hyman, whose main devotee his ex-wife, Barbara, claims can cure numerous diseases.
This is a big statement to make - and I would assume that someone with the ability to cure multiple disease would, by now, be world-famous and boast a trophy room whose shelves are groaning under the weight of every scientific prize the world has to offer.
So I googled James Hyman.
I got seven hits (all of which were written by his wife, Barbara on free web sites where anyone can avail themselves of anything, so they don't really count, like here;
http://www.emotionalrelease.com
Then, in the interests of good science, I chose a subject entirely at random, to check to see if Google might be broken.
I googled myself.
377,000 hits.
Rudimentary maths (the kind I particularly like) tells me that I am therefore roughly 53,000 times more famous than a man who can cure numerous psychiatric and psychological diseases.
Brilliant!
I did some more digging on "shamanic healing" and "Quantum Theta" Energy Healing: apparently it involves putting the patient's brain into a quantum or theta-state, (wherever the hell that is).
The practitioner then uses a highly dubious and often-debunked practice of applied kinesiology, where muscle response is tested to determine the patient's problem.
I tried this out on a few people.
I poked and prodded some random strangers, and their muscle response (repeatedly lashing out and trying to hit me) suggests that they have anger issues.
I suggested meditation, they suggested I do something that sounded quite fun, but is biologically impossible. (This by the way was the same suggesting Ms. Hyman made when she was made aware I was now debunking "shamanic healing or what they last month called "quantum theta" energy healing or QTEH (Kew-Tee!)
Moving on:
Once the "shamanic healer" or "Quantum Theta" Energy healer has ascertained the medical issue, the big guns come out - According to the website; "Working with the chakras, the subconscious mind, the energy fields in and around the body, Jim gently and effectively guides you through the release of blocked emotional energy, old patterns and negative emotions, and breaks you through to new levels of your connection with Self and Source and after just one session (ONE SESSION, THIS IS POWERFUL STUFF) you will see your life move forward in the direction that you set forth during your session!"
I would continue on, as Ms. Hyman blithers on for about six more paragraphs but my guess is you get the point... anyway...continuing where Ms. Hyman left off....
"A scientist in the field of transformational bodywork, self-healing energy work, and Chinese Qi Gong, James has......yada ...yada...yada... His work releases blocked energy in the body associated with past trauma and negative patterns, releases the negative pattern from the subconscious mind and the Quantum grid, (there it is again, that pesky "quantum grid," wherever that may be) and activates the cellular memory for perfect health, peace and a profound sense of well-being."
His intense study of metaphysics and shamanism, (yep, this weeks homeopathic specialty, "shamanic healing") combined with his experience as a facilitator of ....except wait, here comes the claim;
qualify him as an expert in several different areas of wellness, and personal and spiritual evolution.
Qualified as an EXPERT!
Qualified by whom?
From what University did he receive his medical degree?
Who has bestowed the title of 'expert' on Mr. Hyman?
A closer look at the numerous free web sites make this extremely clear; Mr. Hyman has NO advanced degree from ANY university or accredited institution!
None,
Nada,
Zero,
Bupkis!
ONLY Mrs. Hyman has 'qualified' Mr. Hyman as an expert!
So glad we got that one cleared up!
(I'm not making these claims up... they are all on the websites. Go search for yourself if you don't believe me.)
It is utter codswallop (minute amounts of which are, reportedly, useful in treating Trimethylaminuria, a/k/a Fish Odor Syndrome).
So what to do when we get sick?
Do we trust modern medicine, or do we travel the more natural route?
The obvious choice is this: don't get sick in the first place.
But if you do, there's something that you might want to remember.
If it walks like a duck, and talks like a duck, then it's probably a quack!
In other words, it's horseshit (in small doses, reportedly useful in treating colic and gambling problems!).
Shamanic Energy Healer James Hyman: Shamanic Or Demonic?
James Hyman says his experiments reveal our natural power to heal based on our ability to sense and manipulate "shamanic energy" and "human energy fields."
Has he discovered scientific truths, or has he only demonstrated the human talent for self-deception?
James Hyman and his "practice manager" ex wife believe many things.
They believe in life after death, past life regression, and they believe that chanting mantras can heal you from anything and there is scientific evidence to support these beliefs.
Hyman is now focusing his powers of belief on a new field: "Shamanic Healing" "Energy Healing" and "Energy Medicine."
On their new web site, located at the following URL; http://www.emotionalrelease.com , Barbara Hyman explains that we all emit "shamanic energy" and there are "human energy" fields."
Hyman believes that some amongst us (primarily her "genius" ex-husband, "shamanic healer," "qigong master" and "quantum theta" energy healer, James) can sense each other’s fields, and that healers can influence these fields to heal illnesses and injury.
She believes these are not just theories but scientifically supported facts.
The web site has numerous “gee-whiz” testimonials of supposed "shamanic healing" and energy healing (which are frankly not very convincing and could be easily outdone by any self-respecting purveyor of quack remedies).
She goes on to describe her ex-husband James Hyman's claims that he has the ability to detect and alter this purported "shamanic energy," "quantum theta" energy and human energy fields.
Throughout the web site she descends into blethering about quantum physics, the oneness of the universe, the connectedness of all things, and the possibility that "shamanic energy" or "quantum theta" energy awareness will solve all of mankind’s problems.
Although given scientific proof to the contrary, she is not deterred, she goes on to describe purported measurements of subtle human energy emissions, Kam Yuen's influence on human energy fields, the power of "The Secret," the healing power of "Qigong" (of which James is of course a "Master") among other phenomena of dubious reality or significance.
She makes a big deal of the fact that humans emit energy (of course we do, it is picked up by EKG, EEG, etc.), and she would like to think "shamanic healers" or "energy healers," especially her "genius" husband James can pick up that energy and decode it in the same way your radio picks up Rush Limbaugh out of the atmosphere.
And then she would like to think that "shamanic healers" and "energy healers" can send something back into the patient’s body to enable healing.
I know, I know, in this time of sever economic instability, budgetary crisis and nasty political bickering you would think Americans would be fed up with such nonsense, most are, but when it comes to the Hymans, you'd be wrong.
Barbara Hyman misses the crucial fact that there is information encoded in the electromagnetic waves your radio detects, but there is no reason to think there is any analogous information coming from the body, much less any way to change that information and send it back to produce healing.
I only wish we could use "shamanic healing" or “energy healing” on radio and TV waves to improve the quality of programming!
She makes a big deal of the fact that everything affects everything else.
She seems to mean this in a holistic, metaphysical, New Age, “the universe is one and is conscious and we can create our own health” sense.
Science recognizes that small events can have far-reaching effects, but that doesn’t mean one thing can predict or control another.
Theoretically, a change in the magnitude or position of your body mass will enter into the overall gravity equations of the universe, but that doesn’t mean one thing can control or predict another.
You could hardly expect to meaningfully influence someone out there beyond Alpha Centauri by losing ten or fifteen pounds (a practice of which Ms. Hyman might be better off practicing as opposed to constantly espousing the same drek over and over again).
You can’t expect to change the EEG of an astronaut in the Space Station by exercising to change your own EKG.
We are talking about very small influences.
If a gnat pushes an elephant, it’s not likely to fall over; it’s not likely to even notice.
And then there are inconvenient complications like quantum theory and chaos theory.
There is nothing of substance in these multiple free web sites. Indeed the mere fact that she has to repeat the same things over and over again on virtually every free forum offered on the Internet would render any intelligent being to recognize the obvious, i.e. she is attempting what is known in main stream scientific circles as; "Proof By Assertion.' http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proof_by_assertion
Proof by assertion, sometimes informally referred to as proof by repeated assertion, is a logical fallacy in which a proposition is repeatedly restated regardless of contradiction. Sometimes this may be repeated until challenges dry up, at which point it is asserted as fact due to its not being contradicted (argumentum ad nauseam).
In other cases its repetition may be cited as evidence of its truth, in a variant of the appeal to authority or appeal to belief fallacies.
The Hyman's claims lose credibility because they have never been in a controlled, double blind clinical study.
Nothing Ms. Hyman has ever written has been accepted for publication in mainstream peer-reviewed journals. I feel sorry for James Hyman: he’s a smart guy, he means well, he really believes he has found something wonderful, but he has a blind spot and just doesn’t get it when others try to point out the flaws in his methods and reasoning.
To put the accusation of “politics” into perspective, consider the Helicobacter experiments. When researchers first suggested that ulcers might be caused by bacteria, they were laughed at.
They published their results, peer review had a field day, other labs looked into the idea, more data came in, results from various lines of research coalesced, and within a mere ten years it became standard practice to treat ulcers with antibiotics.
It didn’t matter that the idea sounded crazy at first; science responded to good evidence. (See Kimball C. Atwood IV, “Bacteria, Ulcers, and Ostracism,” Skeptical Inquirer, November/December 2004.)
If Hyman had evidence of equal quality, he would get an equal hearing by the scientific community.
A good scientist considers the entire body of available evidence, not just the claims of one group of researchers.
The Hyman's never bring up the fact that other experiments have directly contradicted their assertions.
They never get around to mentioning Emily Rosa’s landmark experiment, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in 1998, which showed that therapeutic touch practitioners could not sense human energy fields as they claimed.
She tested twenty-one experienced practitioners of therapeutic touch.1
They all thought they could detect Rosa’s human energy field and feel whether she was holding her hand over their right or left hand, but when they were prevented from seeing where her hand was, their performance was no better than chance.
Rosa was nine years old at the time, and the article grew out of her school science fair project.
The experiment was beautiful in its simplicity.
Adult true believers had published much research on the techniques and effects of therapeutic touch, but in the true spirit of childlike questioning, Rosa went back to basics and asked the crucial question:
“Is the phenomenon itself real?
Can they really feel something or is it possible they are fooling themselves?”
Amazingly, no researcher had ever asked that question before.
They had ignored one of the basic principles of the scientific method as explained by Karl Popper: it’s easy to find confirmation for any hypothesis, but every genuine test of a hypothesis is an attempt to falsify it.
Emily Rosa's experiment is dismissed by other so called "shamanic healers," "energy healers," or 'therapeutic touch' practitioners as having five “potential problems”:
1. It was a science-fair project done by a young girl.
2. She was the only experimenter.
3. She randomized by flipping a coin, which he calls “an unreliable procedure.”
4. One of the authors was the founder of Quackwatch.
5. The subjects did worse than chance.
These objections are just silly; they are either inaccurate or are ad hominem attacks:
1.It shouldn’t make any difference whether Rosa was a young girl or an old man or a sentient purple octopus from an alien planet.
It shouldn’t matter whether she did the experiment for an elementary school project, a doctoral dissertation, a Coca Cola commercial, or a government grant.
What matters is the quality of the evidence. In this case, her project was well designed and executed, had clearly significant findings, and was of high enough quality to be approved for publication in a prestigious peer-reviewed medical journal.
2.She was not the only experimenter.
Others were involved; the experiment was repeated under expert supervision on Scientific American Frontiers.
This should preclude any accusations of deliberate cheating or inadvertent failure to follow the protocol properly.
Rosa was the only one to carry out the trials, but what would multiple testers have added to the experiment?
The results didn’t depend on any special ability or quality of hers, but on the ability of the subjects who claimed they could sense anyone’s energy fields.
For the televised trials, they even got to “feel” the “shamanic energy” from each of Rosa’s hands and choose which one they wanted her to use in the trials.
About half chose her left hand and half her right.
No one objected, “I can’t feel shamanic energy from either hand.”
3.Flipping a coin is not an “unreliable procedure”—unless the flipper is deliberately cheating.
The number of heads and tails was approximately equal, and the distribution appeared random. The editors of JAMA found the method acceptable.
There are situations where coin-flipping could legitimately be criticized, for instance in psi experiments where researchers are looking for minuscule differences in large bodies of data and even their computerized random number generators have been criticized for not being “perfectly” random.
But in this experiment, the results were clearly significant; it is hard to envision how a different method of randomization could have altered the results. The coin flip was only used to determine which of the subject’s hands she would hold her hand over.
The subjects claimed to be able to sense "shamanic energy" fields with either hand, so it shouldn’t have made a bit of difference to their perception.
Faulty randomization might have allowed the subjects to perceive a pattern and guess, which would have tended to give false positive results rather than the negative results Rosa got.
4. One of the authors, the founder of Quackwatch, was admittedly skeptical of therapeutic touch. Yes, someone with possible bias was indirectly involved in the experiment. If that is an objection, there is an even greater objection to Hyman's own examples: he and his colleagues are all strongly biased toward belief in "shamanic energy" phenomena and they were directly involved in their experiences as told by "testimonials" on their web sites.
"Testimonials" are personal accounts of someone's experiences with a therapy.
They are generally subjective:
"I felt better,"
"I had more energy,"
"I wasn't as nauseated,"
"The pain went away," and so on.
Testimonials are inherently selective.
People are much more likely to talk about their "amazing shamanic cure" than about something that didn't work for them.
The proponents of "alternative" methods like Barbara & James Hyman's so called "shamanic energy healing" can, of course, pick which testimonials they use.
For example, let's suppose that if 100 people are sick, 50 of them will recover on their own even if they do nothing.
So, if all 100 people use a certain therapy, say James Hyman's "shamanic energy" healing, half will get better even if the treatment doesn't do anything.
These people could say "I took a 'shamanic energy healing' therapy session with 'shamanic healer' James Hyman & my disease went away!"
This would be completely honest, even though the therapy had done nothing for them.
So, testimonials are useless for judging treatment effectiveness.
For all we know, those giving the testimonial might be the only people who felt better.
Or, suppose that of 100 patients trying a therapy, 10 experienced no change, 85 felt worse, and 5 felt better.
The five who improved could quite honestly say that they felt better, even though nearly everyone who tried the remedy stayed the same or got worse!
5. It is simply not true that the subjects did “worse than chance.”
Their performance was consistent with chance.
If they had done worse than chance (significantly worse) that would have tended to support Hyman’s claim that some kind of "shamanic energy" effect was present, even though it would have been the reverse of what he claimed to find.
In my opinion, none of these “problems” invalidates the conclusion that the therapeutic touch practitioners failed to do what they claimed they could do.
And if they think these were valid problems, why didn’t they simply repeat her experiment in their own lab with multiple experimenters and a more reliable method of randomization?
Why won't Hyman come forward and accept MY CHALLENGE?
I HAVE A STANDING OFFER OF TO HYMAN OR ANY OTHER "SHAMANIC HEALER": ANYTIME, ANY ONE OF THEM CAN PROVE THE PRESENCE OF "SHAMANIC ENERGY" OR "QUANTUM THETA" ENERGY OR WHATEVER THEY MAY BE CALLING IT THIS WEEK,...PROVE IT.....SCIENTIFICALLY....AND WALK AWAY WITH THE MONEY!.....PERIOD......WHAT THEY ARE PROFESSING AMOUNTS TO A HUMAN ENERGY FIELD....IF IT IS SUCH AMAZING SCIENCE WHY HAS NO ONE TAKEN ME UP ON MY OFFER?
In reality, Nine year old Emily Rosa’s experiment was a great example of a young child being able to see more clearly than prejudiced adults—a real “Emperor’s New Clothes” story.
If a rigorous scientist thought he had found evidence that people could detect “human energy fields,” he would maintain a healthy skepticism; he would immediately try to prove himself wrong, and he would enlist his colleagues to help show him where he might have gone wrong.
He would try to rule out all other possible explanations (the subject might be sensing heat, sound, motion, air currents, might be able to see under the blindfold, etc.).
If the phenomenon proved robust, he would try to refine his understanding by doing things like varying the distance to see if it obeyed the inverse square law and interposing a sheet of cardboard or glass to see if the effect could be blocked.
Then he would try to use instruments to measure what kind of energy was being sensed.
When a believer thinks they have found something to justify their belief, their approach tends to be less rigorous.
What about “if there is no convincing science or plausible mechanism to support them, let’s stop wasting our time chasing moonbeams”?
All of energy medicine hinges on one basic claim: that people can detect subtle human energy fields.
If the Hyman's are wrong about that, the rest of the claims for so-called “energy medicine” fizzle away.
If they don't trust my credibility regarding the $50,000.00 prize, since 1996, the James Randi Educational Foundation (JREF) has offered a substantial reward (currently $1,000,000) to anyone who can demonstrate an ability to detect a "shamanic energy field," or “human energy field” under conditions similar to those of Rosa’s study.
Of the more than 80,000 American therapeutic touch practitioners who claim to have such ability, only one person attempted to demonstrate it.
She failed.
Miserably!
The JREF challenge is admittedly not a definitive scientific test, but prudence would seem to dictate that if no one can even meet this simple challenge, we shouldn’t be wasting research money on what is probably a myth.
Others have attempted to establish the “science” of "shamanic energy" or energy medicine and have failed.
Even the National Association Of Alternative Medicine (NAAM), which is willing to consider almost any possibility in alternative medicine, is skeptical.
It distinguishes between real energy (sound waves, electromagnetism, and other energies measurable by physicists) and the kind of “putative” energy Hyman is trying to validate.
It concludes that the “putative” energy approaches “are among the most controversial of CAM practices because neither the external energy fields nor their therapeutic effects have been demonstrated convincingly by any biophysical means.”
Another proponent of 'energy healing' Gary Schwartz sounds like a scientist.
He tries to talk the talk and walk the walk.
He even makes some skeptical noises to try to convince us he is objective.
But there is also a lot of very unscientific language in his written work.
For instance:
Human rage and pain, especially generated by terrorism and war, create a global energetic climate whose negative effects can extend from the physical and environmental—potentially including climate—to the psychological and ultimately spiritual. . . . [P]ollution is not simply chemical, it is ultimately energy based and therefore conscious as well.
Really?
Conscious pollution?
So maybe if we talk nice to pollution it will cooperate and go away?
Or should we try doing Reiki to lower the atmospheric CO2 levels?
Does Al Gore know about this?
"Shamanic Energy, and all other types of "“Energy Medicine's are an emperor whose new clothes still look awfully transparent to critical thinkers and to the scientific community no matter what glorious colors and fabrics Hyman or Schwartz and their colleagues imagine they are seeing.
Pseudoscience
Since most people have never studied quantum physics they do not understand why these sham ideas are a perversion of it - in fact, this relies on people thinking that quantum mechanics is "too hard" or "only for scientists" in order for the scams to work and stop people questioning them.
People do, however, recognize that quantum physics says that nanoscale reality is very different from what we know, and perhaps some pop science authors can take some blame for this. Concepts such as "non-locality" or "quantum probability waves" or "uncertainty principle" have become social memes of a kind where people inherently recognize that something "strange" is going on.
Practitioners of fraudulent and silly ideas like the Hyman's can tap into this feeling of mystery to push their sham concepts. i.e: "Shamanic Energy" Healing or “Quantum Theta Energy Healing.”
Notes:
1. “Therapeutic touch” is a bit of a misnomer because these practitioners don’t actually touch but simply massage the air a few inches from the patient’s body.
They are convinced that they are detecting and manipulating the "shamanic energy field," balancing and smoothing it, and correcting any abnormalities, thus allowing the body to heal itself.
2.Hall, H. 2005. A review of Energy Medicine: The Scientific Basis. Skeptic 11(3): 89–93. Available at quackfiles.blogspot.com.
3. Halprin, R 2011, Quackwatch 4/13/11 Undercover Investigation Of Quantum Theta Energy Healing
4. Quantum Flux,
5. Quantum Stirwand
Quantum Therapy
Quantum healing
Quantum biofeedback
Shoo!Tag
6. The Dancing Wu Li Masters (William Morrow & Co., 1979, ISBN 0553249142)
7. The Tao of Physics (Shambhala Publications, 1975, ISBN 1570625190)
8. Reviewer Jeremy Bernstein of the New Yorker Magazine, quoted by Martin Gardner in a 1979 review for Newsday, described Zukav's and Capra's physics by saying "A physicist reading these books might feel like someone on a familiar street who finds that all the old houses have suddenly turned mauve."
9. http://www.emotionalrelease.com/ (The Hyman Hawking Hype Web Site)
11. http://www.zpenergy.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=229
12. http://www.quantumagewater.eu/contents/en-us/d1.html
13. http://www.quantumtherapy.net/
14. http://www.newscientist.com/special/seven-wonders-of-the-quantum-world
References:
· Rosa, L., E. Rosa, L. Sarner, and S. Barrett. 1998. A close look at therapeutic touch. Journal of the American Medical Association. 279:1005–1010. Schwartz, Gary E., with William L. Simon. 2007. The Energy Healing Experiments: Science Reveals Our Natural Power to Heal. New York: Atria Books.
Thanks To Harriet Hall M.D. (The SkepDoc) For The Template & Partial Content ; http://www.skepdoc.org
Has he discovered scientific truths, or has he only demonstrated the human talent for self-deception?
James Hyman and his "practice manager" ex wife believe many things.
They believe in life after death, past life regression, and they believe that chanting mantras can heal you from anything and there is scientific evidence to support these beliefs.
Hyman is now focusing his powers of belief on a new field: "Shamanic Healing" "Energy Healing" and "Energy Medicine."
On their new web site, located at the following URL; http://www.emotionalrelease.com , Barbara Hyman explains that we all emit "shamanic energy" and there are "human energy" fields."
Hyman believes that some amongst us (primarily her "genius" ex-husband, "shamanic healer," "qigong master" and "quantum theta" energy healer, James) can sense each other’s fields, and that healers can influence these fields to heal illnesses and injury.
She believes these are not just theories but scientifically supported facts.
The web site has numerous “gee-whiz” testimonials of supposed "shamanic healing" and energy healing (which are frankly not very convincing and could be easily outdone by any self-respecting purveyor of quack remedies).
She goes on to describe her ex-husband James Hyman's claims that he has the ability to detect and alter this purported "shamanic energy," "quantum theta" energy and human energy fields.
Throughout the web site she descends into blethering about quantum physics, the oneness of the universe, the connectedness of all things, and the possibility that "shamanic energy" or "quantum theta" energy awareness will solve all of mankind’s problems.
Although given scientific proof to the contrary, she is not deterred, she goes on to describe purported measurements of subtle human energy emissions, Kam Yuen's influence on human energy fields, the power of "The Secret," the healing power of "Qigong" (of which James is of course a "Master") among other phenomena of dubious reality or significance.
She makes a big deal of the fact that humans emit energy (of course we do, it is picked up by EKG, EEG, etc.), and she would like to think "shamanic healers" or "energy healers," especially her "genius" husband James can pick up that energy and decode it in the same way your radio picks up Rush Limbaugh out of the atmosphere.
And then she would like to think that "shamanic healers" and "energy healers" can send something back into the patient’s body to enable healing.
I know, I know, in this time of sever economic instability, budgetary crisis and nasty political bickering you would think Americans would be fed up with such nonsense, most are, but when it comes to the Hymans, you'd be wrong.
Barbara Hyman misses the crucial fact that there is information encoded in the electromagnetic waves your radio detects, but there is no reason to think there is any analogous information coming from the body, much less any way to change that information and send it back to produce healing.
I only wish we could use "shamanic healing" or “energy healing” on radio and TV waves to improve the quality of programming!
She makes a big deal of the fact that everything affects everything else.
She seems to mean this in a holistic, metaphysical, New Age, “the universe is one and is conscious and we can create our own health” sense.
Science recognizes that small events can have far-reaching effects, but that doesn’t mean one thing can predict or control another.
Theoretically, a change in the magnitude or position of your body mass will enter into the overall gravity equations of the universe, but that doesn’t mean one thing can control or predict another.
You could hardly expect to meaningfully influence someone out there beyond Alpha Centauri by losing ten or fifteen pounds (a practice of which Ms. Hyman might be better off practicing as opposed to constantly espousing the same drek over and over again).
You can’t expect to change the EEG of an astronaut in the Space Station by exercising to change your own EKG.
We are talking about very small influences.
If a gnat pushes an elephant, it’s not likely to fall over; it’s not likely to even notice.
And then there are inconvenient complications like quantum theory and chaos theory.
There is nothing of substance in these multiple free web sites. Indeed the mere fact that she has to repeat the same things over and over again on virtually every free forum offered on the Internet would render any intelligent being to recognize the obvious, i.e. she is attempting what is known in main stream scientific circles as; "Proof By Assertion.' http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proof_by_assertion
Proof by assertion, sometimes informally referred to as proof by repeated assertion, is a logical fallacy in which a proposition is repeatedly restated regardless of contradiction. Sometimes this may be repeated until challenges dry up, at which point it is asserted as fact due to its not being contradicted (argumentum ad nauseam).
In other cases its repetition may be cited as evidence of its truth, in a variant of the appeal to authority or appeal to belief fallacies.
The Hyman's claims lose credibility because they have never been in a controlled, double blind clinical study.
Nothing Ms. Hyman has ever written has been accepted for publication in mainstream peer-reviewed journals. I feel sorry for James Hyman: he’s a smart guy, he means well, he really believes he has found something wonderful, but he has a blind spot and just doesn’t get it when others try to point out the flaws in his methods and reasoning.
To put the accusation of “politics” into perspective, consider the Helicobacter experiments. When researchers first suggested that ulcers might be caused by bacteria, they were laughed at.
They published their results, peer review had a field day, other labs looked into the idea, more data came in, results from various lines of research coalesced, and within a mere ten years it became standard practice to treat ulcers with antibiotics.
It didn’t matter that the idea sounded crazy at first; science responded to good evidence. (See Kimball C. Atwood IV, “Bacteria, Ulcers, and Ostracism,” Skeptical Inquirer, November/December 2004.)
If Hyman had evidence of equal quality, he would get an equal hearing by the scientific community.
A good scientist considers the entire body of available evidence, not just the claims of one group of researchers.
The Hyman's never bring up the fact that other experiments have directly contradicted their assertions.
They never get around to mentioning Emily Rosa’s landmark experiment, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in 1998, which showed that therapeutic touch practitioners could not sense human energy fields as they claimed.
She tested twenty-one experienced practitioners of therapeutic touch.1
They all thought they could detect Rosa’s human energy field and feel whether she was holding her hand over their right or left hand, but when they were prevented from seeing where her hand was, their performance was no better than chance.
Rosa was nine years old at the time, and the article grew out of her school science fair project.
The experiment was beautiful in its simplicity.
Adult true believers had published much research on the techniques and effects of therapeutic touch, but in the true spirit of childlike questioning, Rosa went back to basics and asked the crucial question:
“Is the phenomenon itself real?
Can they really feel something or is it possible they are fooling themselves?”
Amazingly, no researcher had ever asked that question before.
They had ignored one of the basic principles of the scientific method as explained by Karl Popper: it’s easy to find confirmation for any hypothesis, but every genuine test of a hypothesis is an attempt to falsify it.
Emily Rosa's experiment is dismissed by other so called "shamanic healers," "energy healers," or 'therapeutic touch' practitioners as having five “potential problems”:
1. It was a science-fair project done by a young girl.
2. She was the only experimenter.
3. She randomized by flipping a coin, which he calls “an unreliable procedure.”
4. One of the authors was the founder of Quackwatch.
5. The subjects did worse than chance.
These objections are just silly; they are either inaccurate or are ad hominem attacks:
1.It shouldn’t make any difference whether Rosa was a young girl or an old man or a sentient purple octopus from an alien planet.
It shouldn’t matter whether she did the experiment for an elementary school project, a doctoral dissertation, a Coca Cola commercial, or a government grant.
What matters is the quality of the evidence. In this case, her project was well designed and executed, had clearly significant findings, and was of high enough quality to be approved for publication in a prestigious peer-reviewed medical journal.
2.She was not the only experimenter.
Others were involved; the experiment was repeated under expert supervision on Scientific American Frontiers.
This should preclude any accusations of deliberate cheating or inadvertent failure to follow the protocol properly.
Rosa was the only one to carry out the trials, but what would multiple testers have added to the experiment?
The results didn’t depend on any special ability or quality of hers, but on the ability of the subjects who claimed they could sense anyone’s energy fields.
For the televised trials, they even got to “feel” the “shamanic energy” from each of Rosa’s hands and choose which one they wanted her to use in the trials.
About half chose her left hand and half her right.
No one objected, “I can’t feel shamanic energy from either hand.”
3.Flipping a coin is not an “unreliable procedure”—unless the flipper is deliberately cheating.
The number of heads and tails was approximately equal, and the distribution appeared random. The editors of JAMA found the method acceptable.
There are situations where coin-flipping could legitimately be criticized, for instance in psi experiments where researchers are looking for minuscule differences in large bodies of data and even their computerized random number generators have been criticized for not being “perfectly” random.
But in this experiment, the results were clearly significant; it is hard to envision how a different method of randomization could have altered the results. The coin flip was only used to determine which of the subject’s hands she would hold her hand over.
The subjects claimed to be able to sense "shamanic energy" fields with either hand, so it shouldn’t have made a bit of difference to their perception.
Faulty randomization might have allowed the subjects to perceive a pattern and guess, which would have tended to give false positive results rather than the negative results Rosa got.
4. One of the authors, the founder of Quackwatch, was admittedly skeptical of therapeutic touch. Yes, someone with possible bias was indirectly involved in the experiment. If that is an objection, there is an even greater objection to Hyman's own examples: he and his colleagues are all strongly biased toward belief in "shamanic energy" phenomena and they were directly involved in their experiences as told by "testimonials" on their web sites.
"Testimonials" are personal accounts of someone's experiences with a therapy.
They are generally subjective:
"I felt better,"
"I had more energy,"
"I wasn't as nauseated,"
"The pain went away," and so on.
Testimonials are inherently selective.
People are much more likely to talk about their "amazing shamanic cure" than about something that didn't work for them.
The proponents of "alternative" methods like Barbara & James Hyman's so called "shamanic energy healing" can, of course, pick which testimonials they use.
For example, let's suppose that if 100 people are sick, 50 of them will recover on their own even if they do nothing.
So, if all 100 people use a certain therapy, say James Hyman's "shamanic energy" healing, half will get better even if the treatment doesn't do anything.
These people could say "I took a 'shamanic energy healing' therapy session with 'shamanic healer' James Hyman & my disease went away!"
This would be completely honest, even though the therapy had done nothing for them.
So, testimonials are useless for judging treatment effectiveness.
For all we know, those giving the testimonial might be the only people who felt better.
Or, suppose that of 100 patients trying a therapy, 10 experienced no change, 85 felt worse, and 5 felt better.
The five who improved could quite honestly say that they felt better, even though nearly everyone who tried the remedy stayed the same or got worse!
5. It is simply not true that the subjects did “worse than chance.”
Their performance was consistent with chance.
If they had done worse than chance (significantly worse) that would have tended to support Hyman’s claim that some kind of "shamanic energy" effect was present, even though it would have been the reverse of what he claimed to find.
In my opinion, none of these “problems” invalidates the conclusion that the therapeutic touch practitioners failed to do what they claimed they could do.
And if they think these were valid problems, why didn’t they simply repeat her experiment in their own lab with multiple experimenters and a more reliable method of randomization?
Why won't Hyman come forward and accept MY CHALLENGE?
I HAVE A STANDING OFFER OF TO HYMAN OR ANY OTHER "SHAMANIC HEALER": ANYTIME, ANY ONE OF THEM CAN PROVE THE PRESENCE OF "SHAMANIC ENERGY" OR "QUANTUM THETA" ENERGY OR WHATEVER THEY MAY BE CALLING IT THIS WEEK,...PROVE IT.....SCIENTIFICALLY....AND WALK AWAY WITH THE MONEY!.....PERIOD......WHAT THEY ARE PROFESSING AMOUNTS TO A HUMAN ENERGY FIELD....IF IT IS SUCH AMAZING SCIENCE WHY HAS NO ONE TAKEN ME UP ON MY OFFER?
In reality, Nine year old Emily Rosa’s experiment was a great example of a young child being able to see more clearly than prejudiced adults—a real “Emperor’s New Clothes” story.
If a rigorous scientist thought he had found evidence that people could detect “human energy fields,” he would maintain a healthy skepticism; he would immediately try to prove himself wrong, and he would enlist his colleagues to help show him where he might have gone wrong.
He would try to rule out all other possible explanations (the subject might be sensing heat, sound, motion, air currents, might be able to see under the blindfold, etc.).
If the phenomenon proved robust, he would try to refine his understanding by doing things like varying the distance to see if it obeyed the inverse square law and interposing a sheet of cardboard or glass to see if the effect could be blocked.
Then he would try to use instruments to measure what kind of energy was being sensed.
When a believer thinks they have found something to justify their belief, their approach tends to be less rigorous.
What about “if there is no convincing science or plausible mechanism to support them, let’s stop wasting our time chasing moonbeams”?
All of energy medicine hinges on one basic claim: that people can detect subtle human energy fields.
If the Hyman's are wrong about that, the rest of the claims for so-called “energy medicine” fizzle away.
If they don't trust my credibility regarding the $50,000.00 prize, since 1996, the James Randi Educational Foundation (JREF) has offered a substantial reward (currently $1,000,000) to anyone who can demonstrate an ability to detect a "shamanic energy field," or “human energy field” under conditions similar to those of Rosa’s study.
Of the more than 80,000 American therapeutic touch practitioners who claim to have such ability, only one person attempted to demonstrate it.
She failed.
Miserably!
The JREF challenge is admittedly not a definitive scientific test, but prudence would seem to dictate that if no one can even meet this simple challenge, we shouldn’t be wasting research money on what is probably a myth.
Others have attempted to establish the “science” of "shamanic energy" or energy medicine and have failed.
Even the National Association Of Alternative Medicine (NAAM), which is willing to consider almost any possibility in alternative medicine, is skeptical.
It distinguishes between real energy (sound waves, electromagnetism, and other energies measurable by physicists) and the kind of “putative” energy Hyman is trying to validate.
It concludes that the “putative” energy approaches “are among the most controversial of CAM practices because neither the external energy fields nor their therapeutic effects have been demonstrated convincingly by any biophysical means.”
Another proponent of 'energy healing' Gary Schwartz sounds like a scientist.
He tries to talk the talk and walk the walk.
He even makes some skeptical noises to try to convince us he is objective.
But there is also a lot of very unscientific language in his written work.
For instance:
Human rage and pain, especially generated by terrorism and war, create a global energetic climate whose negative effects can extend from the physical and environmental—potentially including climate—to the psychological and ultimately spiritual. . . . [P]ollution is not simply chemical, it is ultimately energy based and therefore conscious as well.
Really?
Conscious pollution?
So maybe if we talk nice to pollution it will cooperate and go away?
Or should we try doing Reiki to lower the atmospheric CO2 levels?
Does Al Gore know about this?
"Shamanic Energy, and all other types of "“Energy Medicine's are an emperor whose new clothes still look awfully transparent to critical thinkers and to the scientific community no matter what glorious colors and fabrics Hyman or Schwartz and their colleagues imagine they are seeing.
Pseudoscience
Since most people have never studied quantum physics they do not understand why these sham ideas are a perversion of it - in fact, this relies on people thinking that quantum mechanics is "too hard" or "only for scientists" in order for the scams to work and stop people questioning them.
People do, however, recognize that quantum physics says that nanoscale reality is very different from what we know, and perhaps some pop science authors can take some blame for this. Concepts such as "non-locality" or "quantum probability waves" or "uncertainty principle" have become social memes of a kind where people inherently recognize that something "strange" is going on.
Practitioners of fraudulent and silly ideas like the Hyman's can tap into this feeling of mystery to push their sham concepts. i.e: "Shamanic Energy" Healing or “Quantum Theta Energy Healing.”
Notes:
1. “Therapeutic touch” is a bit of a misnomer because these practitioners don’t actually touch but simply massage the air a few inches from the patient’s body.
They are convinced that they are detecting and manipulating the "shamanic energy field," balancing and smoothing it, and correcting any abnormalities, thus allowing the body to heal itself.
2.Hall, H. 2005. A review of Energy Medicine: The Scientific Basis. Skeptic 11(3): 89–93. Available at quackfiles.blogspot.com.
3. Halprin, R 2011, Quackwatch 4/13/11 Undercover Investigation Of Quantum Theta Energy Healing
4. Quantum Flux,
5. Quantum Stirwand
Quantum Therapy
Quantum healing
Quantum biofeedback
Shoo!Tag
6. The Dancing Wu Li Masters (William Morrow & Co., 1979, ISBN 0553249142)
7. The Tao of Physics (Shambhala Publications, 1975, ISBN 1570625190)
8. Reviewer Jeremy Bernstein of the New Yorker Magazine, quoted by Martin Gardner in a 1979 review for Newsday, described Zukav's and Capra's physics by saying "A physicist reading these books might feel like someone on a familiar street who finds that all the old houses have suddenly turned mauve."
9. http://www.emotionalrelease.com/ (The Hyman Hawking Hype Web Site)
11. http://www.zpenergy.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=229
12. http://www.quantumagewater.eu/contents/en-us/d1.html
13. http://www.quantumtherapy.net/
14. http://www.newscientist.com/special/seven-wonders-of-the-quantum-world
References:
· Rosa, L., E. Rosa, L. Sarner, and S. Barrett. 1998. A close look at therapeutic touch. Journal of the American Medical Association. 279:1005–1010. Schwartz, Gary E., with William L. Simon. 2007. The Energy Healing Experiments: Science Reveals Our Natural Power to Heal. New York: Atria Books.
Thanks To Harriet Hall M.D. (The SkepDoc) For The Template & Partial Content ; http://www.skepdoc.org
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