Universal Medicine follower's daughter hopes jury verdict stops 'dangerous cult' recruitment - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

A neuroscientist who tried in vain to claw back part of her mother's dying gift of $1.4 million to an unproven spiritual healer says she has been vindicated by a jury verdict that the breast cancer victim was exploited by a "socially dangerous cult"... Universal Medicine follower's daughter hopes jury verdict stops 'dangerous cult' recruitment - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

American Loon #2019: Gene Moody

Yes, there are people who follow advice on exorcising demons from Youtube clips presented by that guy. A deliverance ministry is a fundamentalist organization that tries to cure peoples’ ills by casting out demons. More colorful and nefarious than, but otherwise essentially similar to, faith...

Read the full lunacy: #2019: Gene oody Encyclopedia of American Loons

Encyclopedia of American Loons: #173: Louise Hay

... Louise Hay herself made her success with this kind of bullshit, of course (strongly influenced by “researcher” Ernest Holmes, the delusional Florence Scovel Shinn and snowflake Maharishi Mahesh Yogi) most famously with “You Can Heal Your Life”, from 1984. She is a certified practitioner of “religious science”, mixing Christian fundamentalism with the flakiest ideas from oriental spiritualism, such as reiki. The central tenet of “You Can Heal Your Life” is that those who are sick have themselves to blame for it, and if they are unable to cure themselves, it is because of their psychological shortcomings...

Read the full horror here: Encyclopedia of American Loons: #173: Louise Hay

Is God an alternative to healthcare?

In the US, some right-wing politicians might answer this question in the affirmative, having suggested that American citizens don’t really need healthcare, if only they believed stronger in God. Here in the UK, some right-wing MPs are not that far from such an attitude, it seems. 

A 2012 article in the ‘Plymouth Herald’ revealed that […]

Read the rest here: Is God an alternative to healthcare?

Prayer as a medical therapy? Time to stop this nonsense!

Can intercessory prayer improve the symptoms of sick people?

Why should it? It’s utterly implausible!

Because the clinical evidence says so?

No, the current Cochrane review concluded that...

Prayer as a medical therapy? Time to stop this nonsense!

Spiritual healers have devine powers to heal the diseases conventional doctors cannot cure

On this blog, we have repeatedly discussed the issues around para-normal or spiritual healing practices. In one of these posts I concluded that these treatments are:

1. utterly implausible
2. not supported by good clinical evidence.

What follows seems as simple as it is indisputable: energy healing is nonsense and does not merit further research.

Yet both research and – more importantly – the practice of spiritual healing continue, not only in the developed world but even more so in poor and under-developed countries...

Read on: Spiritual healers have devine powers to heal the diseases conventional doctors cannot cure

An alternative method for resuscitation? | Edzard Ernst

For far too many proponents of alternative medicine, belief in alternative methods seems disappointingly half-hearted. Not so for this enthusiast who invented an alternative form of resuscitation – but sadly failed. 

This article explains: 

A Russian woman spent more than 4 months trying to bring her dead husband back to life. How? With the help of holy water and prayer! 

The retired therapist said she didn’t report the […]

Read on: An alternative method for resuscitation?