I am an ignorant person, I will admit.
Until I read the scandalous report of the U of Arizona Cancer Center holistic/complementary/alternative treatment programs, I didn’t know about Reiki healing, invented by a Japanese Buddhist Monk.
However I did do Transcendental Meditation and got some good naps when I was a young physician.
The TM people like the idea they had a physician in the local group, but the Buddhist BS just never was something I could stomach. My grandpa was a Methodist Iowa farmer, my father a P 51 pilot turned physician. Imagine me showing up in beads and sandals singing the praises of the Maharishi.
Here is Reiki, being promoted as another magical mind bender thing–I guess the placebo effect works with incense and incantations and positive attitude.
However, if you have cancer make sure the treatments are appropriate before all this ceremonial pillow fluffing starts–acupuncture, chiro, aroma, therapeutic touch, Reiki, Moxibustion all work off placebo effect and, as
Brian Wilson wrote GOOD VIBRATIONS an iconic Beach Boys tune.
Saw the Beach Boys in concert a month ago–they still sound good and Brian has straightened his life up some after getting loose of some Svengali type character.
Paul McCartney thought that Brian wrote some of the best tunes of the age–I do to.
Like the Beatles, many rock groups got into Eastern Mysticism–it seems so positive–so magical. Chi and yin and yang and union with the universe. Chakras and auras and the significance of the color of the aura. Makes me wanna cry.
http://www.reiki-for-holistic-health.com/
I used to like the old martial arts/cowboy show Kung Fu
that went for a few years in the 70s starring David Carradine, and I think of that show whenever the oriental mystic BS crew comes up on my radar–like this U of Arizona Cancer Center deal.
One example of Oriental magic stuff is Moxibustion, mugwort burning on an acupuncture stick. Sort of, but you have to have the right attitude for the magic to work–you put the burning mugwort over the affected area, like, but you got to know the melody and the mental state required.
http://acupuncture-treatment.com/moxibustion.html
Reblogged this on Edonurwayup's Blog and commented:
I never wanted to disappoint any people on the last leg 0f hope but he truth has to be told.
Another example of a shrewd capitalist taking advantage of hippies by coopting a religion they don’t understand. Interesting to note that no part of Hawaya Takata’s back story is verifiable prior to the point where she started charging $10,000 to train people in a practice that bears very little resemblance to the religious ceremony whose name it shares.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16517383
That being said, why is chiro on that list? No tenant of chiropractic implies belief is necessary.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16517383
One might wonder if someone had a real diagnosis of serious disease, would any of these alternative treatments prevent them dying? Think Steve McQueen and laetrile in Tijuana, Mexico.
The key to all of this – acupuncture, chiro, aroma, therapeutic touch, Reiki, Moxibustion, UFOs, ESP, etc. – is ‘Belief’. You have to BELIEVE and then everything will make sense and you will feel better.
Belief is the equivalent of the voluntary suspension of disbelief, like watching a science fiction movie.
Personally I would have trouble accepting “Godzilla” as a documentary.