Alternative Autism Treatments: An Alternative To Treatment?

The Dore Program likes to run advertisements scaring parents that the "government" is warning about life-threatening consequences of medication (though their latest advertisements are a lot more diffuse - if your children have "tummy upsets" before school, and don't enjoy doing homework, you need to rush to Dore for help - there's not even a mention of any medical condition anymore).

EoR wonders, therefore, if the Dore Program, Mr Sichel and their ilk will rush to notify consumers that the "government" is advising parents:

CHILDREN with autism spectrum disorders need to spend a minimum of 20 hours a week in an evidence-based program to make major gains, according to new Australian government advice.

Furthermore, will they run scare stories about:

Approaches that could be harmful were being heavily promoted, and families were also choosing unproven alternative therapies, the guidelines warned. A literature review conducted for the government found minimal evidence for the effectiveness of exclusion diets and considerable evidence demonstrating that withholding MMR vaccine or treating with secretin or other drugs had no effect. Behavioural intervention produced positive outcomes for children with autism but parents should be wary of "cure" claims by some service providers.

The Federal Department of Health and Ageing provide a booklet on Early Intervention for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders: Guidelines for Best Practice. There is, strangely, no mention of Dore or the Stichel Protocol, and A Review of the Research to Identify the Most Effective Models of Practice in Early Intervention for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders, which states:

Claims of ‘Cure’ and ‘Recovery’
Although autism is a life long pervasive developmental disorder, treatment programs exist that claim to provide a cure for autism. Howlin (1998) identified a number of such programs including Holding Therapy, the Options or ‘Sonrise’ program, Auditory Integration Therapy, and Facilitated Communication (FC). Despite being the subjects of a range of published testimonials, internet articles, anecdotal accounts and research studies, none of these therapies and the associated claims have been shown to be supported by adequate research (Howlin, 1998). It is clear that there is insufficient empirically sound research evaluating outcomes of programs for children with autism, despite the range of treatments available to parents and the claims made by the exponents of some of these programs.
The cost to families
Currently there is a plethora of interventions for autism available, especially for young children with autism, some of which may be associated with unsubstantiated claims of cure and recovery. Interventions are often available at very high cost in terms of money and time. In addition parents often feel tremendous pressure to provide intensive intervention as early as possible in their child’s life which may then be associated with guilt if they believe they have not provided enough of the ‘right’ early intervention treatment. Families report high levels of confusion, problems with misinformation and desperation arising from this situation.

Again, there is no mention of Dore or Sichel, which you would think is strange if you believe their advertising that they have "cured" autism, as well as so many other conditions.

Look Into My Eyes. Not Around The Eyes. You're Under.

The feature article in the 6th March 2007 edition of the West Australian's science free Mind&Body section is "The Eyes Have It".

If you're looking for a diagnostic tool to help pinpoint problems in your body, visiting an iridologist could be the solution. [...] A practitioner can make inferences about the body areas or organs that will help them make a diagnosis and treatment plan for each client. "While iridologists do not diagnose disease, they do analyse tissue conditions such as inflammation, weakness, degeneration and hypo or hyper activity from the various signs of each iris," Ms Schreuders said. [...] Your first consultation will generally last an hour. "A picture is taken of the patient's eyes and a detailed medical history is taken," Ms Marriott said.

If the detailed and wholly revealing medical answer is right there in the eyes, why do they spend an hour taking a "detailed medical history"? Because, just like psychics, the more clues they get from you, the more accurate they make their guesses seem. And why is it repeatedly referred to as "diagnostic" when these healers-cum-psychics only make "inferences"?

From EoR's observation of an iridologist in full flight, the "consultation" involved asking a lot of leading questions such as "Any health problems?", a bit of mysterious eye-gazing (the equivalent of the magician's handwaving) and then a few comments about some fairly nonspecific conditions that someone of that age and with those health problems could be expected to have.

Iridologists don't believe in green eyes. "Genetically, there are only blue or brown eyes - all other colours result from iris fibre changes or deposits in the eyes which, from a natural therapies perspective, indicate a variety of conditions in the body." Many green-eyed people have blue eyes discoloured by cloudy particles in the iris that could indicate a health problem - often a congestion of the lymphatic system.

Isn't it a wonderfully simple world the iridologists live in? Green is not an eye colour (EoR wonders what nasty - presumably genetically transmitted - health diseases, black, grey, hazel or albino irises "may" indicate). In reality, eye colour is a result of a complicated set of genes determining the amount of melanin in the iris, flecks, rays, rings, and diffusion patterns.

What genes determine eye color in humans? At one time, scientists thought that a single gene pair, in a dominant-recessive inheritance pattern, controlled human eye color. The allele for brown eyes was considered dominant over the allele for blue eyes. The genetic basis for eye color is actually far more complex. Two key genes for eye color are located on chromosomes 15 and 19. The Bey2 gene (also called EYCL3), on chromosome 15, has a brown and a blue allele. A second gene, located on chromosome 19 (the Gey gene, or EYCL1), has a blue and a green allele. Geneticists have designed a model using the Bey2 and Gey genes that explains the inheritance of blue, green, and brown eyes. In this model, the brown allele of the Bey2 gene is always dominant over the blue allele, so even if a person is heterozygous (one brown and one blue allele) for the Bey2 gene, the brown allele will be expressed. The green allele of the Gey gene is dominant to the blue allele of either Gey or Bey2 but is recessive to the brown allele of Bey2. This means that there is a dominance order between the two genes. If a person has a brown Bey2 allele and all other alleles are blue or green, the person will have brown eyes. If there is a green Gey allele and the rest of the alleles are blue, eye color will be green. Blue eyes will occur only if all four alleles are for blue eyes. This model explains the inheritance of blue, brown, and green eyes but cannot account for gray, hazel, or multiple shades of brown, blue, green, and gray eyes. It cannot explain how eye color can change over time. This suggests that there are other genes, yet to be discovered, that determine eye color or that modify the expression of the known eye-color genes. One such gene may be controlling the deposition of the pigment lipofuscin (lipochrome) in the iris and may determine amber, green, and violet eye colors.

In the iridologists' world, there's still only a single gene pair (assuming, which might be a presumption, that they even believe in "genes") and such things as "weak" organs and "congested" systems.

Iridology also practices its own anatomy which bears no relation to anatomy as it is known in all living humans:

The theory is that the iris contains nerve fibers connected to various parts of the body through a previously unknown nerve pathway in the cranial nerves.

From the same page also comes an example of how confirmation bias plays such a large part in this scam:

I soon found that structure "changes" could be created on the video record by changing the angle of the light to the eye. Areas that I thought were dark would suddenly show healing lines when the position of the light changed. Thick white lines would change to thin gray lines when the light moved. More than once during this period an eminent iridologist would call me to his office and show me a change he had recorded in patient's iris minutes after doing a spinal adjustment. After closely examining his recordings, it became obvious to me that his light position and the angle of the camera to the eye had varied from time to time causing the appearance of a change in the iris.

And here's that psychic trick again:

The beauty of not having to provide a diagnosis from the eye is that the practitioner simply uses the iris to create leading questions. Suppose I had a patient who had a mark in his lung area. My first question would be "Have you ever had a problem with your lungs? Something like asthma, pneumonia, or emphysema?" If the patient could remember something like that I was considered a genius, but if there was nothing obvious I would question further. "Perhaps you have had a cold recently?" If the answer was no and there wasn't anything obvious the next step would be to look at the bowel, which is theorized to cause lung weakness.

Is that any different from "I'm getting an M or an A. Does that mean anything to you?"?

Evidence for such a fundamentally flawed hypothesis is also thin on the ground:

Disease diagnosis
There is no proven scientific basis for iridology. Several studies in humans report that iridology is not effective for diagnosing disease.
Hypertension diagnosis
Preliminary research suggests that iridology may assist in the identification of individual predispositions for vascular diseases such as hypertension. Further research is needed to confirm these findings.

In terms of magic, however, and its uncanny ability to generate an income stream, iridology is a marvel of madness.

Not The Secret. Really.

EoR wonders why this guy doesn't get sued by The Secret people: The Power of Thought.

In this section I will explore the power of thought and how thoughts become our reality. What I will be discussing here is revolutionary and may be hard for some people to understand right off. In fact, when I learned and figured out this incredible concept I doubted it too. But after years of putting this to the test I have definitely witnessed the truth in my own life. What follows is how to use your thoughts to manifest what you want in your life.
Thoughts Manifest Themselves. We all witnessed thoughts manifesting at one point but may not have been aware of it. So I will give you some examples and will explain them more as we go along. I will also be expanding on this topic in later sections. The key part in the whole process is that thoughts are manifested through Imagery and Emotions; not by words themselves.

This must be real, there's a flowchart for imagining your new car/girlfriend/lotto win (notice how all this newage thought-is-real woo is just a way of getting material possessions?). For example, if you want a new car, think that thought and, real soon now, you'll see that car on the street, or an advertisement for it. What happens next isn't explained. You certainly haven't actually got that new car by that stage. EoR imagines (positively, of course) that you steal the car.

EoR also wants to know what sort of stores this person has in his hometown, given this flowchart example of the thought-becomes-magic process:

"I want a girl." "You Picture Her Blonde 5'4" Blue eyed, etc." "You WANT her You also picture it like she is already there." "You go to the store and she's there!" "You believe she is for you and you take her OR Pass her by."

EoR guesses if you go down to the local store and "take" some random woman there, you'd probably attract a bit of attention. Mr Knighthawk also has trouble separating science from fiction:

Your emotions channel your energy into your image, which gets broadcast to the Universe or God, depending on your belief system. I believe in God so I chose the latter communicator. Either way this emotion channels this image till it gets sent back to us. Think of it like a Star Trek tractor beam.

Oh, Star Trek. So it's real, then? As for the magic daddy in the sky, EoR chooses to imagine Cthulhu. Cthulhu doing something unspeakably hideous and loathsome, involving gallons of foetid slime, to people who believe this sort of magical thinking. EoR is also a little concerned with another of the examples given:

You picture how your wedding will be
You picture how your wrestling match will be

What, at the same time? Well, it's a form of wrestling, though doing it during the wedding might be a little socially unacceptable. EoR is only half-joking about this strange sexual obsession that permeates this page. The theme is more explicit (pun intended) on his page about The Way of Love when he discusses how to deal with rejection:

First, go some place that no one will know who you are and one you never will go back to soon. Drive to the next town or three towns over. Second, take a deep breath and relax. Now go up to as many girls as you can see and do your best to get rejected. When the one says "No Creep" go right to the next one. It’s tough at first but also gets to be fun and you’ll find out it is actually tougher not to laugh. Do this for as many times as it takes to eliminate the pain of rejections. Do this a couple times if you need to, but once you realize that no is not that bad you won’t worry about it any longer. You first have to reach rock bottom before you go to the top, my friend. How many times did you not try simply for fear of rejection? Imagine that burden and worry gone from your mind forever! Awesome huh!

You could also harass women you don't know until the police come to arrest you, though deliberately inviting rejections like this might be good for psycho-killers in training. So, if some guy comes up to you in the street and propositions you inappropriately, don't be too upset, he's just getting in touch with his inner molester. In a positive, in touch with God way.

That Glow Of Health

Via Barista: Vita Radium Suppositories. A traditional source of energy from a natural substance, to be used rectally by men. And a whole page of radioactive quack cures.

Never have to rely on magnetic underlays again: the Radon Pillow is sure to sort you out. While it's working its magic, you could chew on a bit of all-natural high-fibre Radium Bread.

Luckily, such natural healing products are still available today. No holistic home should be without a steady supply of Kometatsukun. Look! It's got a smiling cartoon egg-man on it! It must be good for you! Who cares about the radiation.

Remember though: electromagnetic radiation, microwave ovens, radiotherapy and (boo! hiss!) mobile phone towers are evil. They cause illness, not cure it like these nice lovely products.

If this sort of stuff was more popular, at least we could easily recognise the alties. They'd be the ones glowing in the dark.

Natural Hypocrisy Is Safe Hypocrisy

Reported in the West Australian's Mind&Body supplement on Tuesday 27th February, 2007 is "Warning on too much St John's Wort":

Doctors at a Melbourne hospital have warned against consuming large amounts of the herb St John's wort after a 16-year-old girl suffered a dangerous overdose and seizures from taking excessive amounts.

Of course, this is because St John's wort is a drug. It may be marketed as "natural" with the implication that it is also "safe", but this is only advertising and not defensible. If such a reaction occurred to someone taking a pharmaceutical drug there would be immediate finger-pointing by the alternative brigade, calls to withdraw the product without delay, accusations of ignoring these side effects, and mutterings about Big Pharma and the evil side effects of drugs. When it happens to one of their own drugs, what do the alternative brigade do? Resort to hypocrisy:

Complementary Healthcare Council executive director Tony Lewis told Mind&Body that this was the first case he had heard of of an overdose of the herb. He said St John's wort was safe - and had shown some success in reducing depression symptoms - but only if the manufacturer's directions were followed. "The issue here is that the girl took quite a substantial overdose and was not using the product as directed," Dr Lewis said.

No. The issue is that St John's wort, and other "herbal" treatments are freely available on pharmacy and supermarket shelves, with little or no quality control, little or no studies of longterm use and side effects, and blaming the consumer for the adverse reaction is uncaring and hyprocritical. And it is clearly not safe. A person has had serious negative health effects from taking the drug.

Should the majority of pharmaceutical drug adverse reactions be ignored because patients "failed to follow directions"? Are they therefore "safe"?

Meanwhile, the Journal of the American Medical Association has published a study, reported by the Sydney Morning Herald:

Popular vitamin supplements designed to prevent disease might actually increase the risk of death, a landmark international study has found. Vitamin A performed worst in the 68-trial review, with the supplement said to lift mortality risk by 16 per cent. A closely-related nutrient, beta carotene, had a 7 per cent rise. Vitamin E supplements were associated with a 4 per cent increased risk, according to the Journal of the American Medical Association. The Danish researchers found the top-seller, vitamin C, had no effect - positive or negative - on survival. The researchers also cleared the trace mineral selenium of increased risks. They concluded "the public health consequences may be substantial" given that 10-20 per cent of Western adults swallow supplements regularly in the belief they're preventing disease. [...] Supplement manufacturers claim these products have an antioxidant effect, essentially eliminating free radical "messenger molecules" that are responsible for the so-called oxidative stress which has been linked to disease. But critics doubt whether oxidative stress even exists, with this research saying that killing off free radicals only interferes with some essential defensive mechanisms which affect survival.

Again, the "natural is safe" quickstep was not long in coming (strangely, from the same person):

The Complementary Healthcare Council (CHC), which represents the industry, said the results were based on old data and included trials which allowed doses of vitamins not accepted in Australia. CHC executive director Tony Lewis would not comment on the study's claims but said the evidence was "weak".

Still They Come

Yet another Miracle Horse Trainer who will Change The Way You Think etc etc, is coming to Australia. If EoR didn't have a pathological aversion to wasting money, he'd go along to see Klaus Hempfling, since he promises:

Give me a horse and I will show you that God really exists...

EoR has been vaguely aware of Herr Hempfling's existence for a while (mainly as the author of books and DVDs such as "Dancing With Horses" and "Coming Together" - something he feels should probably be sold under the counter and not to minors) but wasn't aware of the extent of his claims to magical powers.

The explanation of his teaching principles is rather scant (and more a collection of questions than statements), but this is intriguing stuff:

To understand this, Hempfling teaches the principles of primal life, against the background of both the mythological and the real horse. He emphasises the importance of the persons total honest self-assessment and self-knowledge and encourages both mental and physical self-control. He explains how a misplaced or misunderstood feeling, glance, posture, attitude or movement can make the difference between success and failure in the relationship with a horse.

"The principles of primal life"? "Mythological horses"? Maybe he's got a flying winged horse in hiding.

You could also take advantage of a retreat at the Seahorse Centre, where this miraculous proof is being offered:

Let us and our horses at the SeaHorse Centre be your guides back to an enjoyable life with a strong sense of self, connecting with your intuitive and creative side. The mystical nature of horses have been at the centre of many wellbeing experiences had by our visitors. They provide a healing for mind and body and challenge our ability to go beyond our physical senses into the realm of the intuitive.

It's all mystical, intuitive, creative and, frankly, weird. "Wellbeing experiences"? Why are these people talking a language that EoR has no comprehension of? "A healing for mind and body"? Are they claiming they're a sort of horsey Lourdes?

Sadly, naming this sort of woo "horsemanship" is not an option (they'd probably get sued by Pat) so they call it "manhorseship" instead! At least they've got a sense of humour.

This is a place where we help people and horses to feel accepted and at ease; where they can feel free to explore their thoughts and imaginations without judgment, but with joy, laughter and encouragement.

Sadly, there are no testimonials, paintings, novels, or musical compositions created by the horses who are exploring "their thoughts and imaginations without judgment" while laughing at the foolish humans in a contemplative daze surrounding them.

Joyce Hatto And The Alternative Scammers

Readers of The Second Sight may not be familiar with the current flurry in the classical music world concerning Joyce Hatto. Stephanie Delacey provides a good overview of the controversy.

Joyce Hatto, at the time of her death in July last year, was hailed effusively by the Guardian as:

Joyce Hatto, who has died aged 77, was one of the greatest pianists Britain has ever produced. [...] Her legacy is a discography that in quantity, musical range and consistent quality has been equalled by few pianists in history. Most of her recordings date from the early 1990s, when she had reached an age at which many pianists are resting on their laurels. They include the complete solo works of Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, almost all of Chopin, huge swaths of Liszt, all the Prokofiev Sonatas, and the complete concertos of Brahms, Saint-Saëns and Rachmaninov - over 110 discs in all. Of her Schubert recordings, one critic wrote: "Think Schnabel and Curzon - and, dare I whisper it, better." Joyce was one of just four pianists (and the only woman and septuagenarian) ever to have recorded commercially the entire 54 Studies on Chopin's Etudes by Leopold Godowsky, still considered to be the most difficult piano music ever written. [...] Unlike most artists, her discs are not performances patched together from a number of takes. She preferred to record complete movements without edits.

Suffice it to say that such a high level of artistry, at such an advanced age, across such a wide range of music, seemed miraculous. It has now been found that those recordings were in part, or wholly, not hers but rather other artists' recordings pirated and rebadged.

The Gramophone, who promoted Joyce Hatto unquestioningly, now has an article where the "creator" of these discs, William Barrington-Coupe, prevaricates at length. Initially he argued that the discs were solely the work of his wife. Now that position has become untenable, Barrington-Coupe argues that the musical plagiarism was justified:

Barrington-Coupe explains that he did indeed pass off other people’s recordings as his wife’s, but that he did it to give her the illusion of a great end to an unfairly (as he terms it) overlooked career.

He argues that the deception was only minor (and hence, by unstated implication, acceptable):

He began searching for pianists whose sound and style were similar to that of his wife, and once he had found them he would insert small patches of their recordings to cover his wife’s grunts [of pain due to the cancer she was suffering].

There's also the argument that he didn't actually make a lot of money from the trickery:

He also claims that he has not made vast amounts of money from what he has done

Finally, when asked to prove which recordings are really by his wife, and which are fake, he responds:

he didn’t want to go down that road, adding, "I’m tired, I’m not very well. I’ve closed the operation down, I’ve had the stock completely destroyed, and I’m not producing any more. Now I just want a little bit of peace."

These are all the excuses of the classic conman: it's real, it was for a good cause, it wasn't a big con, he didn't make a lot of money from it, and he doesn't have the time or ability to prove anything further.

Of course, these are also the classic excuses of psychics, homeopaths, dowsers, purveyors of miracle medical machines and assorted alternative geniuses when they're also asked for proof, taken to task over their claims, told to produce the evidence, or offered a $1,000,000 prize.

Is there a difference? EoR can't see it.

Homeopathy. Faeces. Why Do Those Words Fit So Neatly Together?

Partly because of the ongoing drought in Australia, partly because of climate change in the news, and partly because there are a number of elections happening this year, water and its (non)availability is a big issue at the moment.

Many people want treated sewage used to supplement the water supply. Even though it appears popular in polls, no government has the strength of character to be the first to do this, preferring instead to push the desalination option. Western Australia already has a desalination plant, and New South Wales is now building one as well.

There is, however, a hidden and very real danger in either option, which could lead to health problems that would make the autism epidemic seem like a mild cold. We're talking Spanish Flu or Black Plague here.

Whether the water is treated sewage, or desalinated, it is progressively treated to remove various products (bodily wastes in one case, sea salt in the other). During this process the water is continuously shaken about.

This is exactly the same process by which homeopathic remedies are potentised!

If people drink water from these sources, just imagine what will inevitably happen!

Heart attacks and strokes in the one case from hugely excessive salt intakes. Dysentery in every street in Australia in the other.

This tragedy cannot be allowed to happen. EoR calls on the True Believers of Australia, and all its leading and enlightened homeopaths to speak out loudly now.

Or just admit that their woo is smoke and mirrors and shut up shop now.

55th Skeptics' Circle: The Number Of The Skeptic

This is a significant milestone for the Skeptics' Circle, which not everyone may have realised. The 55th hosting of this circle doubles the vibrational energy of the number 5, and the numerological value of this edition returns us to the beginnings (5+5=10 reduced to 1+0=1).

EoR has therefore bowed to the higher energies of the universe in organising this edition based on the numerological vibrations of the submitters. Numerology is, of course, a science that has been proven by thousands of years of traditional use, dating back to at least Babylonian times. And they probably got it directly from the Atlanteans. Who got it from the interdimensional Martians.

As a leading numerologist has said:

Put simply, Numerology is the interpretation of numbers according to the position on which they are found. A numerologist deciphers the meaning and vibration of letters and numbers in a similar manner that a scientist interprets formulas.

But which numerological value to use? The blog name? The poster's birthdate? The date of the post? The Birthpath number? The Destiny number? The Realization number? The Heart's Desire number? The Personality number? Or the "many other calculations that can be performed"? And which numerological calculation? Babylonian? Pythagorean? The traditional "add up all the numbers"? Who cares? Numerology works no matter which number you choose. EoR chose the poster's nom de blogue since this, being chosen at a subconscious level, represents the true inner symbolism of the blogger on their particular quantum karmic path, and just added the numbers up to reveal the inner secrets of your soul.



Ambitious, independent, and self-sufficient.

• Huw Lynes: Poisonous Potatoes


• Ben Cline: Darwinistic Redoubts


• ChemJerk: Religion and health care


• Clark Bartram: Extra! Extra! Part II: Murderous Rampaging Teens Hunting Down Homeless.....


• Rebecca: Science FryDay Saturday


• Orac: An uninformative "experiment" on dichloroacetate (DCA) and cancer

Supportive, diplomatic, and analytical.

• Robert Todd Carroll: Mass Media Bunk

Enthusiastic, optimistic, and fun-loving.

• Barry Leiba: Another study of "psychics"

Practical, traditional, and serious.

• Phil Plait: Should creationists be able to get PhDs in geoscience? and Religion and PhDs


• AustinAtheist: How Not To Know God

Adventurous, mercurial, and sensual.

• Paddy: Changing your mind and Talking to the Dead

Responsible, careful, and domestic.

• Alon: Religion and Welfare


• Martin Rundkvist: Swedish Skeptical Anthology

Spiritual, eccentric, and a bit of a loner.

• Liz Ditz: Christy Harrison's Advice On Dyslexia: (a) Inadequate and (b) Plagiarized from the Jehovah's Witnesses and Aaargh! Another Woo "Cure" for Dyslexia!


• Bronze Dog: The Myriad Moralities of God and Doggerel #62: "Stop Complaining!"

Money-oriented, decisive, and stern.

• Adam Cuerden: Baraminology, Part I: Defining Terms, For Fun and Profit and Baraminology, Part II: It sounds better in words of four syllables or more


• Thursday: No, It's SIX Bananas!


• Skeptico: The Secret and The "Law" of Attraction (Not)


• Akusai: I Googled "Quantum..."


• Lucy Jr: Refurbishing the Golden Monkey - feng shui or orang poohi?

Multi-talented, compassionate, and global.

• BigHeathenMike: Here's The Secret: Blame the Victim and The Creationists Came


• Sandy Szwarc: The alternative energy bunny....just keeps going and going and Fears of foods, contaminants and modern life


• Lord Runolfr: Born Free?


• Matt: It's Electric (Woo)


• Shalini: When HIV denialists display their stupidity

A master number, and not reduced. Enlightened, intense, and high-strung. (Also read the "lower" vibration of 2 above.)

• Amy Alkon: The Ancient Chinese Art Of Separating Fools And Their Money (and voters in California are strongly encouraged to ring Council-Monkey Tom LaBonge on (213) 473-7004 and demand your money back)

The other master number. Goal-oriented, a global planner, and inspired. (Also read the "lower" vibration of 4 above.)

• No skeptics are goal-oriented, global planners or inspired.

The absolute value of numerology.

EoR urges those who want to explore this powerful method of gaining insight and knowledge to go to Your Lucky Numbers and Symbols immediately.

---

The numbers show that the 56th Skeptics' Circle will be hosted at Scientia Natura on March 15th, 2007.

Skeptics' Circle Countdown: 1

Only 1 day to go. Get your submissions in now. Stuck for ideas? Ask a psychic dream detective.

Skeptics' Circle Countdown: 2

Only 2 days to go. Get your submissions in now. Stuck for ideas? Consult your Magic Crystal Dream Ball Lamp.

Skeptics' Circle Countdown: 3

Only 3 days to go. Get your submissions in now. Then take a relaxing cruise.

Skeptics' Circle Countdown: 4

Only 4 days to go. Get your submissions in now. Don't be left behind.

Skeptics' Circle Countdown: 5

Only 5 days to go. Get your submissions in now. If you need help consult a psychic.

Skeptics' Circle Countdown: 6

Only 6 days to go. Get your submissions in now. Don't be a complete idiot.

Skeptics' Circle Countdown: 7

Only 7 days to go. Get your submissions in now. Do it for Deepak.

I Can't Believe It's Not Bowen!

Via HorsePoint EoR learns that yet another equine woo is set to make a marketing push in Australia: Equine Touch.

Horse owners and equine professionals in New South Wales will soon have the opportunity to attend or even host courses in Equine Touch, the gentle form of bodywork that is experiencing an unprecedented rise in popularity throughout the US, UK and Europe, when a new instructor starts running courses across the state later this year.

Why is there always a new therapy every few years that is experienceing "an unprecedented rise in popularity"? Could it be that the old (but just as popular) therapy didn't deliver? And note: popularity, while it starts with the letter "p", is not the same as proof.

The article includes a section "About Equine Touch" which, with its mentions of "unique... miraculous results... innate healing system... energy patterns and emotional armour... premier equine care discipline", is quite clearly JAUEW (Just Another Unproven Equine Woo). This is only scraping the surface of how deeply unscientific, unproven, and unsupportable the claims for this magic are though. Take a look at the homepage for this modality (EoR uses the term "modality" in the sense of "something to extract money from horseowners").

Equine Touch is a non-diagnostic, noninvasive, energy and connective soft tissue discipline which works at a complete holistic level; that is, it addresses the equine as a whole without paying any particular attention to any named problem as such.

It's so "holistic", it's also "complete"! Not only that, it treats the "equine as a whole" as well! Luckily, since it doesn't actually treat anything, there can be no failures either. Like all woo treatments, it does something indefinable to "energy" to "rebalance" the horse's "innate healing power":

These procedures when performed with Accuracy, Integrity and Intent (A.I.I.) have the effect of inducing deep relaxation, releasing hypertonic and traumatized muscles, encouraging muscle tone recovery from injury and atrophy, reducing the pain spiral, and assisting in detoxification and lymphatic drainage. The horse through these series of gentle moves is trained to rebalance not only physically but emotionally, energy blocks are released, unwanted structures appear to dissolve, and the flow of Ki is stimulated through the meridians, allowing the equine to attain and maintain the ideal state of homeostasis in which its own innate healing power is able to work to its maximum potential.

EoR has no idea what "Ki" is. Qi is a weird enough religious concept, but Ki?

Again, like all unproven ineffective "therapies" there's also the usual admission that it doesn't actually work:

The Equine Touch is not designed or intended in any way in whole or in part to be a substitute for orthodox allopathic veterinary practice. It is not a therapy as such but a holistic gift to the equine which is as complementary to allopathic address as it is to chiropractic, homeopathy and herbal medicine as well as the horses own healing system. [...] The Equine Touch is quite simply a discipline, a set of pre ordained procedures that the student or practitioner applies to the horse no matter what problem the equine presents at the time.

How could it possibly work? EoR's glad you asked:

Equine Touch was developed in 1997 by Europe's leading Bowen consultant and pioneer of the Vibromuscular Harmonization Technique (VHT), Jock Ruddock. Jock originally addressed the equine's body by transposing his VHT soft tissue moves from the human to the horse using his own unique aikido based muscular vibration move. Later however, after he was joined by his veterinary surgeon wife Ivana, he studied and researched the mechanics of the animal as an individual species as well its associated energy patterns and the emotional armor. Subsequently he amended and evolved his approach

EoR is shocked Mr Ruddock doesn't mention quantum vibrational massage there. He's missing out on a whole marketing opportunity!

It's supported by a whole bunch of alternative organisations. It's supported by various natural horsepersonships. It's supported by a vet in the Czech Republic who claims it's good for treating "combustion's" (whatever those are - and ignoring the fact that the originator himself says it doesn't actually "treat" specific conditions).

Now, some might think that Equine Touch was remarkably similar to Bowen Therapy for Horses wherein magic massage realigns various muscles and energies. But it's not the same at all. It's completely different. It's even spelled differently.

The Equine Touch is not "Bowen for Horses". [...] Equine Touch was originally developed in its rudiments in Scotland by Jock Ruddock who acknowledges the inspirational influence of Tom Bowen in the pioneering stages of his human discipline ‘Vibromuscular Harmonization Technique ’ from which the foundation for the Equine Touch was initially transposed. Over the years The Equine Touch has grown from a simple basic form of body balancing to a totally unique equine bodywork discipline which with dedication, research and experience has evolved onto such a higher plane of content, focus and address that no comparison between the afore named therapies can reasonably be made.

No comparison at all. Except they both work by unexplained means by some sort of magic touch on the horse. And that they're both unproven. And that you can become practitioners in both after a few days' training (a total of 14 days and $US1950 if you want to reach the Level 4 Master status though you can get your Equine Touch Practitioner Diploma four days earlier at the Level 3 course), by learning the mysteries of things such as "Body Blancing [sic]", "Advanced Area of Concern Addresses" and "Understand the choreography of Area of Concern Addresses".

Compare this description of Bowen Therapy by a practitioner to the Equine Touch description given above:

The Bowen Technique is a gentle, non-intrusive hands on therapy which stimulates the body's inner ability to heal itself to be activated. This reorganisation of the musculature of the body can bring increased energy levels and pain relief.

So Equine Touch is totally different from Bowen. Got it? Don't get them confused.

When Is A Trial Not A Trial - 2

After writing yesterday's post on the "trial" of a magic machine which had already been "proven" to work, Eor managed to catch the purveyor of this wonder, John Charlick, in conversation on the radio, further spruiking its marvellous and world-changing effects (sadly, this was with the same radio announcer who last week had (over)promoted the quantum woo of The Secret - it looks like he's turning his show into a little weekend wonderland of woo).

While EoR missed the beginning, there was enough information to confirm that this is not a trial (unless it's a trial to see how much money can be made), that it is simply a commercial venture cloaking itself in pseudoscientific babble.

Mr Charlick seemed unclear how much the machine cost. $AU6 to $25 a week, he suggested, or something like that. He justified charging "participants" (they're not - they're customers) by saying that "by the time they come to us we basically know it's going to work". Mr Charlick: either you already have the evidence (which is not published anywhere that EoR can find) or you don't know whether it will work or not (in which case, a proper scientific trial would be appropriate).

Mr Charlick then threw out some "proven" figues of efficacy, such as a 16% improvement in Parkinson's Disease (measured how?), and a 40% improvement in asthma in only four weeks (again, 40% of what? lung capacity? endurance? number of attacks? or the classic, self assessed catchall "improvement"?). We don't know. He also happened to mention that the asthma improvements had been achieved "sometimes" in conjunction with the machine he is selling. How does he know that the machine had an efect then? Any effect? A negative effect? Was it some other therapy?

As with all real scientific studies, there were also calls from mothers who had used the machine. One mother with an ADHD child stated her child "seems more settled", and "seems a lot more happier". She said he is no longer on medication and now wears a "medallion" or "tamagotchi type machine" around his neck. An assessment by a mother who is looking for improvement is not a particularly high standard of evidence. Nor are vague statements about "seeming better" evidence.

When asked how his machine works, Mr Charlick stated that "pulses of electromagnetic energy stimulate the heart to put out more blood"!

In answer to a caller querying her husband's sleep apnoea and diabetes, Mr Charlick advised that both these conditions are linked, and that users of his machine have stopped all medication. The apnoea is caused by the throat muscles getting "insufficient energy" because of the diabetes, he advised.

The last caller was hardly a strong recommendation. She'd spent $AU600 or $AU800 (she couldn't remember), had spent longer than the recommended 12 weeks treating her ADHD child, and had to go back on it after a while since her child's condition reverted. At the moment the child was "doing pretty well".

Mr Charlick concluded by again using scare tactics: ADHD medication was causing heart attacks and strokes. His machine gave much better results, "proven over and above what a drug can achieve". And it wasn't as expensive as all those drugs.

While there is a link between diabetes 2 and sleep apnoea, diabetes itself is linked to cardiovascular problems. It doesn't need drugs to bring those conditions on. Indeed, Mr Charlick is obviously not referring to this drug that also reduces the combined risk of heart attack, stroke, and death by 16%.

And as far as the ADHD drug link with death and serious events? The jury is still out to a large extent, but the effect, if any, is being overhyped and run as a scare program by Mr Charlick (and others, like the Dore program):

The FDA review released Wednesday found fewer than one adverse event - that is, a death or serious injury - per 1 million ADHD drug prescriptions filled, with the sole exception of the 1.79 cases per million of nonfatal cardiovascular or cerebrovascular problems reported in adults treated with amphetamines. Also, in some of the cases, the children who died were later found to have had undiagnosed heart conditions. And in three of the five cases of death in adults receiving amphetamine treatment, the patients had pre-existing hypertension. That suggests hypertension "may be an important risk factor for sudden death in the adult population," the report said.

EoR wonders:

• Where are the teachers demanding onschool ambulances for all the ADHD medicated children dropping like flies from heart attacks and strokes?


• Under what protocols does Mr Charlick conduct his "trial"? Which Ethics Committee approved it and is overseeing it?


• Why do "participants" have to pay to use the machine during the "trial"?


• Where is the "proof" the machine is more effective than drugs? Which drugs? Where is the "proof" published? Hint: testimonials on a webpage are not the answer.


• Why does Mr Charlick rely on unscientific concepts such as Yin and Yang to justify how his machine works?


• When will the "trial" be completed? Or is it without any specific end date?

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When Is A Trial Not A Trial - 1

When Is A Trial Not A Trial - 1

EoR has been hearing advertisements on commercial radio calling for volunteers for "clinical trial seven six eleven" being run by John Charlick. Listeners are warned about "heart attacks" and "breathlessness" due to diabetes 2. Someone claims he lost weight and "got his life back". Listeners are then urged to telephone "to take part" in the trial with a promise of "no drugs, no side effects and great results!". That last claim seems very strange for a trial - the purpose of a trial is to determine whether there are any side effects, and what results, if any, are achieved. On further investigation, it seems to be another magic machine that can cure a huge range of diseases. You only become part of a "trial" in the sense that you're using a device that has no proof that it works.

Now, before you go clicking on links to visit that site, be aware that most pages include this statement:

By reading this page, you agree to the terms of our Website Usage Agreement.

Of course, to know about that, you've already read the webpage and consequently agreed to this bizarre agreement:

If you choose to read the contents of this web site or to subscribe to this site, you agree that the entire contents of this web site are owned by Biological Control Systems Pty Ltd (ABN 009 297 830) and are not for copying, resale, distribution or representation to any third party. You agree the web site contents represents the opinions of individuals provided in open conversation and should not be relied upon to make scientific, medical, legal or purchase related decisions or judgments and you agree to make your own investigations as to the true facts of the matter. You agree that the information on this site does not represent the view or beliefs of MEDEC Australasia, MEDEC Systems International or its distributors. You agree to receive information by email which is also subject to these conditions. You can unsubscribe at any time but will not have full site access or emails sent to you. If you unsubscribe at any time you agree that this agreement remains in force ad infinitum.

So, you've agreed to enthrall yourself to Biological Control Systems Pty Ltd for all eternity. You've also agreed not to "represent" this site to anyone else. Eor is boldy defying that requirement by even discussing the site here or, even worse, including excerpts for your reading (which, of course, is legally allowable under fair use provisions). He seriously doubts that any court is going to approve of such a contract in perpetuity enforced by one party only. He will, however, satisfy the injunction to "make your own investigations". That should keep them happy.

Even worse, there's that "agreement" that you accept that there is nothing scientific on the site, that it is all opinion and, even worse, it doesn't even represent the "views or beliefs" of the company. Nor should it be used "to make scientific, medical, legal or purchase related decisions or judgments". Which sits rather strangely on a site purporting to provide scientific, medical, legal and purchase related information. In other words, you should ignore everything on the website, presumably.

For a site that is so relentlessly "scientific" with all its supposed studies and proof, that's a worry.

So how does the PERT machine work? Well, it's based on the Chinese view of energy (don't bother clicking on the link, even though the site doesn't appear to have been updated since 2004 that page is devoid of content and "under construction"). You might wonder How PERT works? (nothing - page under construction). It has something to do with energy and human body (nothing - page under construction). It's due to the invisible energy (invisible page under construction!). So why do we need to use PERT? (nothing - page under construction).

Luckily, one of the pages provides a bit more information (and it's full of graphs and scientificky-looking things too! Cool!):

How does it work?

Well, when I lie on the mat, it gives me about half a watt of energy increase each time I lie on the mat. This happens for the first 60 days so, and so therefore I gained approximately 30 watts of internal or biological energy. This is the energy that makes us live; it's the organs, the blood, the nervous system. It's this energy which is the fundamental difference between the energy and rejuvenation of a young child and that of myself or someone older. Aging is a decrease in the person's energy, and this causes less healing and less health, and virtually all the symptoms and illnesses of aging caused by this.

Now, in giving me more energy, PERT increased the dissolved oxygen in my blood. It also increased my hemoglobin, the blood circulation and the lymphatic fluid, also known as interstitial fluid, was also increased in circulation. That's the liquid you get when you have swollen legs and limbs, such as in old age or sometimes in cancer therapy when the lymph glands are removed. So my body is humming, it's feeling better, and it works better.

There are even graphs on the page proving that your internal batteries lose power as you age, and so you get sicker and eventually die when the lights flicker and go out. If you haven't got the right wattage to fend off various illnesses (they appear to have different levels) then you will succumb to that illness. Why, however, does the graph that shows male and female energies (male energies are higher than female, for some unexplained reason), both fall to zero (presumably, this is the "energy" equivalent of death in old age) at exactly the same point? Where were these data points obtained? By what measuring method? Females, on average, live longer than males. But not according to this graph. Or maybe they just go on for longer with zero invisible Chinese "biological energy"?

How do we know that this is real science, and not just another woo machine that measures amazingly improbable things and delivers it with a hefty dose of woo-filled spin?

The interpretation given to me was supplied by accredited PERT medical personnel. These are usually medically qualified people who understand and have practiced the PERT system. So from my readout, generally it is very good and I have the energy of a 30 year old, but I have a little bit of an issue with my stomach. This may be an infection of some sort, so I have had some tests done.

Yes: the magic mat works because the magic measuring machine says so. It doesn't just measure known physical concepts like electricity, it can also measure invisible, unknown energies as well:

Another graph that is produced by the Biograph is this one. It's a correlations graph. Looking at the first bar chart, this is Yin, which is female, and Yang, which is male. Ideally they should meet at the 50% region here. Because I have an excess of Yang, which is male, that might indicate that I am too stressed or too angry or too male about life and I need to do something to bring that back to balance.

"Half a watt of energy increase" (or any other amount) is also a meaningless statement, since Watts are not a measure of energy (real, or the "woo" energy that these devices supposedly measure) but are a measure of power. P=W/t (power is the time rate of doing work, P=power, W=work, t=time). An interesting discussion about how many watts the human body uses is available at Physics Forums. As this page makes clear, the harder you work (cycling harder, running up stairs) the more power you use. Mr Charlick could presumably extend his power reserves and his life indefinitely if he lies very very still on his magic mat and never moves.

EoR also wonders why you can't just recharge your batteries by sticking your fingers in a light socket? Wouldn't that cure all diseases? Immediately. It would certainly give you an instant energy boost.

There's also a published Bulgarian study of Therapeutic efficiency of pulsating energy resonance therapy (PERT) in patients with vertebral diseases. The study is fairly low grade in terms of rigourousness. There were only 42 patients. These were further subdivided into three groups. There were only 10 controls in total. One of the subgroups only had one control! The study was not double-blind (the operators knew whether the machine was on or not).

There are a lot of graphs of how effective PERT was, but these really don't show anything clear at all. Some seem to indicate a greater affect above placebo than others, but all show a range of values for PERT at each data point (only three data points are shown). No range is shown for the placebo response. If the range for that is also assumed to be similar, then the results for PERT and placebo are pretty much the same in all cases.

For someone who has conducted over 3000 "trials" with his "Space therapy" that mimics "exercise and acupuncture", there are only 36 case histories on the website, even though the site assures us that all reports are online. Some of these case histories are from people who may be considered to have a vested interest in the product (John Charlick, Ivor Charlick, Julia Charlick, and Michael Nobbs). Some of these case histories also indicate that the PERT machine does not deliver any benefit, such as the case of Lewis Lowther:

At the time of writing Lewis has declined to continue to use PERT due to the cost and lack of clinical improvement over the 12 weeks Trial.

It's an interesting trial where the participants are made to pay to take part.

Sometimes, the machine doesn't work because you're already 100% healthy (if it doesn't work, it's classed as a "side effect"!):

On few occasions PERT may not stir a response at all from the individual. This though is a very rare occurance as for nothing to happen, the person using PERT is presumably 100% healthy and functioning at its peak. Unfortunately there are not more examples of ths happening, as if there were it would mean that there was a larger percentage of the population out there that are as healthy as physically possible.

EoR finds the clumsy grammar of that statement heavy going, but it seems to be saying that if more people are healthy the percentage of healthy people is higher. Or something.

There are some wonderful stories on the site (though they are anecdotal, thirdhand or self-reported, rather than clinical trials). For example, the young man with Susac Syndrome for which the doctors sent him home to die (as doctors seem so prone to do with virtually all diseases), until his community banded together to get a PERT machine which miraculously cured him completely. Further information about Susac Syndrome points out:

The symptoms appear to remain stable (monophasic) with little or no progression. The syndrome is thought self-limiting; that is, improvement is spontaneous although in some cases there may be residual dysfunction.

The report is very unclear, but it appears that the patient was also on anti-inflammatories. Whether either of these, or neither of them, resulted in the resolution is unproven. Nonetheless, the reporter (an attendee at a PERT seminar) praised the machine as the source of the cure.

Also unclear is the reference to the community banding together to support the cost of his treatment: "one million dollars". Is that the cost of the PERT machine? One million dollars for anti-inflammatories seems unlikely. No prices for the miracle machine appear on the website.

EoR found a total of zero records at PubMed for "pulsating energy resonance therapy".

Mr Charlick also appears at Conscious Living seeking participants for his trial, which is described, twice, as "complimentary". EoR suspects that is a lie.

Mr Charlick also runs Biological Control Systems which appears to be an air conditioning cleaning company, though "We are looking to leave this lucrative part of our business to concentrate on a reduced number of core activities". EoR is always suspicious when someone wants to get rid of something "lucrative".

Guest Blogger

Today's guest blogger is John Maynard Keynes.

When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir?