Of Magnets and Quantum biofeedback

It was the late 1800's in North America, and over the last century an organized system of alternative medicine arose to challenge the supremacy of allopathic medicine. It was a movement that not unlike today had broad public support. Although it had humble beginnings it quickly developed a network of training institutes, clinics, scholarly journals, and a coterie of established experts in the field of pharmacognosy, pharmacy, and ethnobotany to support it. In today's terms this emerging field of alternative medicine, referred to in its time as physiomedical and eclectic medicine, was very much evidence-based, with a strong core of science behind it, and yet also maintained the Hippocratic maxim vis medicatrix naturae ('the healing power of nature'). In many ways it was a model to what could be achieved today, and is the aspiration of legitimate herbal and naturopathic education.

Although it seemed to have a promising future, this entire system of alternative medicine was essentially shut down in a few short years after it had failed to measure up to the emerging paradigm of western biomedicine. In large part this measure was skewed by a precipitous change in the public's attitude towards alternative medicine, caused by the emergence alternative health advocates that employed highly questionable methods that had no empricial basis of practice, but instead, inspired public attention and enthusiasm through personality and showmanship.

A few decades earlier one such practitioner of the arts was Franz Anton Mesmer, an Austrian who passionately pursued an investigation of the healing power of magnets, eventually becoming convinced that they could help restore or balance the body's "animal magnetism". His initial technique consisted of having a patient swallow a solution of iron, followed by strapping magnets to their body. He published his theories and case histories and became quite popular in salons of Vienna and Paris. His treatments were usually public affairs, with lots of theatre, perhaps more like a stage show or a religious revival rather than a therapy session. The kind of highly suggestive state he apparently created in his patients during these sessions is where we get the term to "mesmerize", which essentially means to hypnotize.

Despite his popularity, Mesmer was eventually shut down after his claims were assessed by the Royal Academy of Science in France. Nonetheless, his invention and the spectacular techniques of "mesmerism" later reincarnated in the American midwest, which was also home of a burgeoning alternative medicine industry. With a strong belief that industrial development and technology were the answers to societal problems, people in the US optimistically embraced anything that was new, and were especially fascinated with new technology. Chief among these new alternative medical technologies were magnetic and electromedical devices that were based on the premise developed by Mesmer, which advocates suggested, would send electromagnetic waves into the patient to "tune" their frequency. During this time and into the end of the century such devices were commonly found, sold everywhere from traveling road shows to department store catalogues.

But they didn't work. People didn't get better. The public began to get wise and their enthusiasm for alternative medicine waned. And when the miracle breakthrough of penicillin was developed, people gave up on their electromedical "dynamizers" and "oscilloclasts". But at the same time, the public similarly rejected all forms of alternative medicine, giving up on herbs, good nutrition, and a fundamental belief in the body's ability to heal itself. Now health was contained in pill, a "magic bullet", or if required, the efficient and stinging jab of an inoculation. Within a few short years modern medicine had become a very big business, and as it dominated the scene it squeezed out and shut down every single alternative medical college in the United States.

A sample of the alternative medicine industry today will demonstrate a heterogenous and complex structure, much like the late 1800's. Apart from the general failure of medicine to address chronic disease and an aging boomer population that sees this failure all too clearly, the pioneering spirit of internet is perhaps a major factor in this explosion, and armed its networking power there is a brand new cast of charlatans that peddle their "new age" supplements and devices with all kinds of promise for minimum effort. A recent example of this is "Quantum Biofeedback", which is remarkably similar to the electronic "medicine" of the late 1800's. The big difference now of course is that the $8000 "biofeedback" devices that Quantum Biofeedback practitioners peddle utilize the latest in computer technology to "mesmerize" the people: the once fascinating dials and quivering needles of yore have become too passé in our hyped-up multimedia existence (note to Scientology: its time to upgrade your E-meter!). Apparently with one such device, Quantum Biofeedback practitioners claim that you can diagnose and zap a parasite, simply by hooking yourself up to this device with electrodes. Currently, I have heard of no plans to market a battery-powered device for children in developing countries dying from infectious diarrhea. Perhaps someone should. Or perhaps there is a reason why this will never happen.

One day soon modern medicine will invent another magic bullet, perhaps a bio-engineered vaccine for cancer, diabetes, or heart disease. And it will probably "work". It will revolutionize the health care industry, and once again the public will drop its latest fascination in search of something novel. But as our experience has shown, these great breakthroughs will likely have a lot of undesirable consequences. As the number three cause of death in the United States (at the least), many people have felt the bite of pharmaceutical drugs, even when they are used properly. As we embrace the confusion of newly emerging medical technologies will we again forget the importance of proper nutrition, exercise and the use of time-honored and highly effective natural remedies that encourages the body to heal itself? What will we chose? Fantasy over intelligence? Novelty over tradition? Easy solutions instead of self-discipline? Will we again risk losing our right to health freedom by squandering it on an illusion of health?

Not on my watch.

Sources:
1. On magnetic medicine: http://www.annals.org/cgi/content/full/118/5/376
2. On Quantum biofeedback: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2004020583_miracle18m2.html
3. On Big pharma: http://silver.neep.wisc.edu/%7Elakes/iatrogenic.pdf
4. On Physiomedicalism: http://www.toddcaldecott.com/publications_physio.html

the first post

Ok, here goes - I'm taking off the gloves and showing my love, barefisted style. Its time to confront all the crap out there and speak back to that voice within that tells us that we are all one, that there is no reason for this hatred, greed, anger and sorrow. Brother, you won't know what's coming - first I fake you with a little jab, then a left hook outta nowhere and a driving straight right into your nose, busting it so that the only smell you can distinguish is your own stink. Yeah, your stink, the stink that marks you as my brother, my sister, my PEOPLE! You'll be flat on your back on the stinking canvas, the ref counting you out, trying to get up and steel yourself against my blows. But you're gone baby, way up into the shouting and chanting of the audience, the myriad beings, once witness to your unconsciousness, now raise you up as their own. You've done gone and died, and now wherever you walk your bloodied footprints shall mark your way, as a badge of honor. And all you had to thank was my compassionate fist.