E. Leverett Taylor's Blog
October 24, 2012
A Scientist's Healing Hands
Is healing others an innate human ability? Most practitioners of the new healing modalities are sure of it. But in our culture, belief and results are not enough for acceptance. Replicable scientific research is required to “prove” any such claims.
Unlike most of the new healers, Dr. William Bengston, author of The Energy Cure: Unraveling the Mystery of Hands-On Healing, is primarily a researcher(http://bengstonresearch.com/). As a professor of sociology at St. Joseph’s College in New York, he specializes in research methods and statistics. But for over thirty years he has also been investigating anomalous healings.
Dr. Bengston’s curiosity about energy healing (1) began in the late 1970s when he met a man named Ben who turned out to have quite extraordinary healing abilities. Ben had no belief system attached to his abilities and no need to prove anything. He simply did what he did, and it usually resulted in complete cures of malignant cancers and other serious conditions.
After spending a lot of time with Ben and asking a lot of questions, Bengston developed his own ability to heal. He has no idea whether his ability was innate, acquired somehow by proximity, or learned from Ben.
Bengston began to develop laboratory protocols for testing energy healing under carefully controlled conditions. In the first experiment, much to his amazement, he achieved 100% remission of fatal cancer in the mice he treated.
He did not know whether his healing method could be taught to others, but he chose skeptical students for the first tests. The experiments appeared to prove that energy healing could be taught, or at least transferred, when the students achieved success rates of healing approaching 100% in the lab.(2)
Bengston published his results (3) and continued to design new experiments. To date he has accumulated an impressive body of replicable, controlled experiments and their published results. (4)
Bengston’s remarkable method is detailed in The Energy Cure: Unraveling the Mystery of Hands-On Healingand further explained in his dvd courseHands-On Healing: A Training Course in the Energy Cure The method is tricky to learn, but it can be mastered with perseverance. Amazing results are reported.
Perspective shift
Dr. Bengston has had spectacular success in remitting fast-growing cancers in mice and humans. Once the mice remit, further injections of the previously-fatal cancer fail to cause cancer growth, implying that the mice have not only healed, but developed immunity. No human that Ben or Bengston cured of cancer ever developed it again.
Interestingly, there is a caveat: Neither Ben nor Dr. Bengston were able to achieve remission in people who had received chemotherapy or radiation treatments, even when the practitioners were unaware that those treatments had been given. Dr. Bengston speculates that what the practitioners do with life-enhancing intent is fundamentally incompatible with the conventional approach, which aims to kill cancer cells.(5)
(1) Dr. Bengston’s uses the term “energy healing” loosely because there is as yet no proof that a transfer or manipulation of energy is what activates healing.
(2) Since Bengston had no baseline data, it is possible that the students possessed the healing ability before they were taught his method.
(3) William Bengston with David Krinsley "The Effect of the 'Laying On of Hands' on Transplanted Breast Cancer in Mice," Journal of Scientific Exploration, Fall 2000.
(4) For a complete list of Dr. Bengston’s published and forthcoming scientific articles, see http://bengstonresearch.com/scientifi... .
(5)From a highly-recommended interview with Dr. Bengston at http://www.soundstrue.com/weeklywisdo....
Unlike most of the new healers, Dr. William Bengston, author of The Energy Cure: Unraveling the Mystery of Hands-On Healing, is primarily a researcher(http://bengstonresearch.com/). As a professor of sociology at St. Joseph’s College in New York, he specializes in research methods and statistics. But for over thirty years he has also been investigating anomalous healings.
Dr. Bengston’s curiosity about energy healing (1) began in the late 1970s when he met a man named Ben who turned out to have quite extraordinary healing abilities. Ben had no belief system attached to his abilities and no need to prove anything. He simply did what he did, and it usually resulted in complete cures of malignant cancers and other serious conditions.
After spending a lot of time with Ben and asking a lot of questions, Bengston developed his own ability to heal. He has no idea whether his ability was innate, acquired somehow by proximity, or learned from Ben.
Bengston began to develop laboratory protocols for testing energy healing under carefully controlled conditions. In the first experiment, much to his amazement, he achieved 100% remission of fatal cancer in the mice he treated.
He did not know whether his healing method could be taught to others, but he chose skeptical students for the first tests. The experiments appeared to prove that energy healing could be taught, or at least transferred, when the students achieved success rates of healing approaching 100% in the lab.(2)
Bengston published his results (3) and continued to design new experiments. To date he has accumulated an impressive body of replicable, controlled experiments and their published results. (4)
Bengston’s remarkable method is detailed in The Energy Cure: Unraveling the Mystery of Hands-On Healingand further explained in his dvd courseHands-On Healing: A Training Course in the Energy Cure The method is tricky to learn, but it can be mastered with perseverance. Amazing results are reported.
Perspective shift
Dr. Bengston has had spectacular success in remitting fast-growing cancers in mice and humans. Once the mice remit, further injections of the previously-fatal cancer fail to cause cancer growth, implying that the mice have not only healed, but developed immunity. No human that Ben or Bengston cured of cancer ever developed it again.
Interestingly, there is a caveat: Neither Ben nor Dr. Bengston were able to achieve remission in people who had received chemotherapy or radiation treatments, even when the practitioners were unaware that those treatments had been given. Dr. Bengston speculates that what the practitioners do with life-enhancing intent is fundamentally incompatible with the conventional approach, which aims to kill cancer cells.(5)
(1) Dr. Bengston’s uses the term “energy healing” loosely because there is as yet no proof that a transfer or manipulation of energy is what activates healing.
(2) Since Bengston had no baseline data, it is possible that the students possessed the healing ability before they were taught his method.
(3) William Bengston with David Krinsley "The Effect of the 'Laying On of Hands' on Transplanted Breast Cancer in Mice," Journal of Scientific Exploration, Fall 2000.
(4) For a complete list of Dr. Bengston’s published and forthcoming scientific articles, see http://bengstonresearch.com/scientifi... .
(5)From a highly-recommended interview with Dr. Bengston at http://www.soundstrue.com/weeklywisdo....
October 14, 2012
Touching the Quantum Body
As a writer of fantasy (1) with a lifelong interest in the far reaches of probability, I’ve been elated to discover that extraordinary abilities we used to believe existed only in our imaginations are proving to be entirely possible in the real world.
In previous posts, we’ve touched on some of the problems with the dominant health care system and the questionable science behind it. Conventional medicine has no explanation for the physical changes wrought by both ancient and modern energy medicine, yet the results of these techniques are undeniable and often astounding – and none violates a single law of modern physics (see http://www.goodreads.com/author_blog_...).
Now let’s take a look at some of the new modalities that are beginning to change the way we understand the body, healing, and our own abilities as human beings.
The Foundation
Last year I was given the gift of a beginners’ Quantum-Touch (2) class. Even before the classes were finished, a friend came to me in acute pain from a hernia. By the end of one forty-minute session, his pain was gone and the hernia had shrunk enough that he could clearly feel the difference. We were both in awe.
In 1978, Richard Gordon attended a workshop with a man named Bob Rasmusson. Using powerful breathing and a light touch, Rasmusson realigned a woman’s occipital bone and corrected her lopsided posture in a matter of fifteen minutes.
Astonished and awed, Gordon assumed that he was witnessing an extremely rare and gifted healer. He certainly couldn’t imagine that he could ever learn a technique with results so far outside what was “possible.” But by the end of that first workshop, he was able to cause small bones to shift in another person, and the spark was lit for the bright blaze that was to become Quantum-Touch.
By several years later, Gordon had developed the set of skills and refinements of Rasmusson’s method that were to become Quantum-Touch.(3)
The Method
Quantum-Touch might as easily be called Quantum Breath. Breath is at the core of the method, along with practice in sensing the subtle energies of the body. (But these energies aren’t subtle at all, once you begin to notice them!) When students have learned to feel the energies moving in their bodies and to breathe powerfully and rhythmically, they are taught to channel the sensations into their hands and into the body of another person. The process is called “running the energy.”
How Does It Work?
According to Gordon, the Quantum-Touch method raises the “vibration”(4) of the practitioner to an extremely high level. The patient’s own energy is then entrained with that of the practitioner. At this level of energy, the patient’s body is able to heal naturally, within a few minutes or a number of sessions.
Gordon is adamant about one point: No Quantum-Touch practitioner is a healer. The only person who ever does a healing is the one who is damaged or sick. The practitioner provides optimal conditions for the patient’s own body to do what comes naturally.
“A healer is a person who is sick and gets well,” Gordon says. “A great healer is a person who is very sick and gets well very quickly.”
(1) Taylor, E. L., Half Light,2010,2012.
(2) http://www.quantumtouch.com/
(3) Gordon, R., Quantum-Touch: The Power to Heal, 1999, 2002, 2006.
(4) Within the young field of energy medicine, no real consistency or precision of language exists at present. Practitioners use words like “frequency,” “vibration,” “entrainment,” and “resonance,” without always meaning something that is measurable with scientific instruments currently available. From one healing system to another, the use of specific words and meanings may differ. Until the qualities of human energy fields can be fully measured, the imprecision in language is likely to persist. But amazing results continue to happen, regardless of our currently-limited theories and language about how.
In previous posts, we’ve touched on some of the problems with the dominant health care system and the questionable science behind it. Conventional medicine has no explanation for the physical changes wrought by both ancient and modern energy medicine, yet the results of these techniques are undeniable and often astounding – and none violates a single law of modern physics (see http://www.goodreads.com/author_blog_...).
Now let’s take a look at some of the new modalities that are beginning to change the way we understand the body, healing, and our own abilities as human beings.
The Foundation
Last year I was given the gift of a beginners’ Quantum-Touch (2) class. Even before the classes were finished, a friend came to me in acute pain from a hernia. By the end of one forty-minute session, his pain was gone and the hernia had shrunk enough that he could clearly feel the difference. We were both in awe.
In 1978, Richard Gordon attended a workshop with a man named Bob Rasmusson. Using powerful breathing and a light touch, Rasmusson realigned a woman’s occipital bone and corrected her lopsided posture in a matter of fifteen minutes.
Astonished and awed, Gordon assumed that he was witnessing an extremely rare and gifted healer. He certainly couldn’t imagine that he could ever learn a technique with results so far outside what was “possible.” But by the end of that first workshop, he was able to cause small bones to shift in another person, and the spark was lit for the bright blaze that was to become Quantum-Touch.
By several years later, Gordon had developed the set of skills and refinements of Rasmusson’s method that were to become Quantum-Touch.(3)
The Method
Quantum-Touch might as easily be called Quantum Breath. Breath is at the core of the method, along with practice in sensing the subtle energies of the body. (But these energies aren’t subtle at all, once you begin to notice them!) When students have learned to feel the energies moving in their bodies and to breathe powerfully and rhythmically, they are taught to channel the sensations into their hands and into the body of another person. The process is called “running the energy.”
How Does It Work?
According to Gordon, the Quantum-Touch method raises the “vibration”(4) of the practitioner to an extremely high level. The patient’s own energy is then entrained with that of the practitioner. At this level of energy, the patient’s body is able to heal naturally, within a few minutes or a number of sessions.
Gordon is adamant about one point: No Quantum-Touch practitioner is a healer. The only person who ever does a healing is the one who is damaged or sick. The practitioner provides optimal conditions for the patient’s own body to do what comes naturally.
“A healer is a person who is sick and gets well,” Gordon says. “A great healer is a person who is very sick and gets well very quickly.”
(1) Taylor, E. L., Half Light,2010,2012.
(2) http://www.quantumtouch.com/
(3) Gordon, R., Quantum-Touch: The Power to Heal, 1999, 2002, 2006.
(4) Within the young field of energy medicine, no real consistency or precision of language exists at present. Practitioners use words like “frequency,” “vibration,” “entrainment,” and “resonance,” without always meaning something that is measurable with scientific instruments currently available. From one healing system to another, the use of specific words and meanings may differ. Until the qualities of human energy fields can be fully measured, the imprecision in language is likely to persist. But amazing results continue to happen, regardless of our currently-limited theories and language about how.
October 8, 2012
The Quantum Body
In previous posts, we’ve touched on some of the problems in the dominant Western medical model. Spectacular at emergency response, conventional medicine is much less successful with chronic conditions and serious diseases (see http://www.goodreads.com/author_blog_...). According to leading-edge scientists like former medical school teacher Dr. Bruce Lipton (1), the essential problem is that the dominant medical model derives from a scientific foundation that is over eighty years out of date.
The Quantum Body
Quantum physics tells us that consciousness – how we perceive, how we believe, and how we think about the world and ourselves - directly and irrefutably affects the outer world. Regardless of how our senses perceive the universe, we inhabit an infinite, interconnected sea of energy and potential that is responsive to our thoughts and emotions.
Modern physics shows that the body, like everything else, is not a machine, but fundamentally an ever-changing pattern of flowing energy.
Of course, the connection between energy patterns and health was made thousands of years ago, perhaps most notably in China. Practices like acupuncture and QiGong were developed to smooth and strengthen the body’s energy channels, and these ancient systems are still producing spectacular results.
In the past twenty years, there has been an explosion of new healing techniques based on the quantum model of the body. Often the results surpass what we used to believe was possible. The physical changes produced by these approaches – like those created by the ancient practices of acupuncture and QiGong - have no explanation in the conventional Western medical model on which most of our society relies.
Faith Healing?
Practitioners of the new systems are quick to point out that what they do is not faith healing. Although scientists may eventually prove that the same physical and conscious elements are involved, there are three primary differences between traditional faith healing and the new energy healing systems.
• No particular religious belief of either practitioner or patient is necessary for healing.
• It isn’t necessary for the patient to believe in the healing system for it to work.
• The new practitioners don’t consider themselves to have special gifts. Most see healing as a natural human ability that can be taught to anyone, including children.
In the next post we’ll look at the first of many new healing modalities, what they are and what they can accomplish.
(1) See Lipton, B. H. PhD.,The Biology of Belief: Unleashing the Power of Consciousness, Matter and Miracles, 2008.
The Quantum Body
Quantum physics tells us that consciousness – how we perceive, how we believe, and how we think about the world and ourselves - directly and irrefutably affects the outer world. Regardless of how our senses perceive the universe, we inhabit an infinite, interconnected sea of energy and potential that is responsive to our thoughts and emotions.
Modern physics shows that the body, like everything else, is not a machine, but fundamentally an ever-changing pattern of flowing energy.
Of course, the connection between energy patterns and health was made thousands of years ago, perhaps most notably in China. Practices like acupuncture and QiGong were developed to smooth and strengthen the body’s energy channels, and these ancient systems are still producing spectacular results.
In the past twenty years, there has been an explosion of new healing techniques based on the quantum model of the body. Often the results surpass what we used to believe was possible. The physical changes produced by these approaches – like those created by the ancient practices of acupuncture and QiGong - have no explanation in the conventional Western medical model on which most of our society relies.
Faith Healing?
Practitioners of the new systems are quick to point out that what they do is not faith healing. Although scientists may eventually prove that the same physical and conscious elements are involved, there are three primary differences between traditional faith healing and the new energy healing systems.
• No particular religious belief of either practitioner or patient is necessary for healing.
• It isn’t necessary for the patient to believe in the healing system for it to work.
• The new practitioners don’t consider themselves to have special gifts. Most see healing as a natural human ability that can be taught to anyone, including children.
In the next post we’ll look at the first of many new healing modalities, what they are and what they can accomplish.
(1) See Lipton, B. H. PhD.,The Biology of Belief: Unleashing the Power of Consciousness, Matter and Miracles, 2008.
October 1, 2012
If We Are What We Eat...
In the first year following my cancer diagnosis, I tried a variety of nutritional approaches to healing, including highly restrictive diets, juice-fasting, Chinese herbs, vitamins, and others. All of them had healed some people, and all are worth investigating for anyone facing health challenges.
If we are what we eat...
Diets and nutritional programs and products (vitamins, herbs, minerals, and other compounds) often derive from the same general medical model as conventional medicine: the body is viewed as a mechanism that can be corrected with the application of certain chemicals, whether foods or other ingestible products.
But nutritional approaches to health have helped many people, just as conventional medicine has. This may be due to the specific qualities of the foods or vitamins interacting with the body’s systems to promote health; or it may be due to “vibrational” qualities in certain foods. It could be the result of the placebo effect (see below), or of fields of morphic resonance(1) developed around certain foods or treatments. In the case of healing centers such as those using Gerson (2) juicing protocols, it is easy to imagine that a combination of loving care and past successes is extremely beneficial to patients, and is enough, in many cases, to kick-start their bodies’ healing.
One application of the nutritional approach to healing in recent years has been to seek out food allergies in the patient, systematically eliminating these foods from the diet. Often the results are dramatic, providing relief from numerous symptoms ranging from skin problems to migraine headaches. But again, how do these treatments fit with the most recent findings about the body? Some energy practitioners suggest that food allergies may develop when a person has eaten that food at the same time an emotional trauma occurs.(3) The body then associates the food with danger, and reacts to it. When the initial trauma is cleared, the allergies disappear.
However, any explanations of how nutritional treatments work are speculative until more data is accumulated. In the meanwhile, the nutritional approach has the great advantage of being without the horrendous side effects common to conventional treatment.
The Phenomenal, Ignored Placebo
In the medical community, the placebo effect is believed to account for one third of all healings.(4) This astonishing figure means that in one out of every three cases where people are cured, their cure is attributed to their belief in their treatment. The placebo effect applies not only to drugs, but to surgeries as well.(5) Yet, in medical schools, the placebo effect is barely mentioned.(6) The most likely explanation for this oversight is that the placebo effect does not fit into the mechanistic model of the body on which standard medical practice is founded.
Next time we'll take a look at the new science that is changing our ideas of what the body is and how it heals.
(1) Sheldrake, Rupert PhD., A New Science of Life: The Hypothesis of Morphic Resonance, 1981, 1995.
(2) See an explanation of the protocols developed by Dr. Gerson at http://www.chipsa.com/gerson_juicing....
(3) See for example Sandy Rodomski’s Allergy Antedotes http://www.allergyantidotes.com/overv...
(4) Beecher, H.K., The Powerful Placebo, Journal of the American Dental Association, 1955.
(5) Moseley, J. B. et al., A controlled trial of arthoscopic surgery for osteoarthritis of the knee, New England Journal of Medicine, 2002.
(6) Lipton, B. H. PhD., The Biology of Belief: Unleashing the Power of Consciousness, Matter and Miracles, 2008.
If we are what we eat...
Diets and nutritional programs and products (vitamins, herbs, minerals, and other compounds) often derive from the same general medical model as conventional medicine: the body is viewed as a mechanism that can be corrected with the application of certain chemicals, whether foods or other ingestible products.
But nutritional approaches to health have helped many people, just as conventional medicine has. This may be due to the specific qualities of the foods or vitamins interacting with the body’s systems to promote health; or it may be due to “vibrational” qualities in certain foods. It could be the result of the placebo effect (see below), or of fields of morphic resonance(1) developed around certain foods or treatments. In the case of healing centers such as those using Gerson (2) juicing protocols, it is easy to imagine that a combination of loving care and past successes is extremely beneficial to patients, and is enough, in many cases, to kick-start their bodies’ healing.
One application of the nutritional approach to healing in recent years has been to seek out food allergies in the patient, systematically eliminating these foods from the diet. Often the results are dramatic, providing relief from numerous symptoms ranging from skin problems to migraine headaches. But again, how do these treatments fit with the most recent findings about the body? Some energy practitioners suggest that food allergies may develop when a person has eaten that food at the same time an emotional trauma occurs.(3) The body then associates the food with danger, and reacts to it. When the initial trauma is cleared, the allergies disappear.
However, any explanations of how nutritional treatments work are speculative until more data is accumulated. In the meanwhile, the nutritional approach has the great advantage of being without the horrendous side effects common to conventional treatment.
The Phenomenal, Ignored Placebo
In the medical community, the placebo effect is believed to account for one third of all healings.(4) This astonishing figure means that in one out of every three cases where people are cured, their cure is attributed to their belief in their treatment. The placebo effect applies not only to drugs, but to surgeries as well.(5) Yet, in medical schools, the placebo effect is barely mentioned.(6) The most likely explanation for this oversight is that the placebo effect does not fit into the mechanistic model of the body on which standard medical practice is founded.
Next time we'll take a look at the new science that is changing our ideas of what the body is and how it heals.
(1) Sheldrake, Rupert PhD., A New Science of Life: The Hypothesis of Morphic Resonance, 1981, 1995.
(2) See an explanation of the protocols developed by Dr. Gerson at http://www.chipsa.com/gerson_juicing....
(3) See for example Sandy Rodomski’s Allergy Antedotes http://www.allergyantidotes.com/overv...
(4) Beecher, H.K., The Powerful Placebo, Journal of the American Dental Association, 1955.
(5) Moseley, J. B. et al., A controlled trial of arthoscopic surgery for osteoarthritis of the knee, New England Journal of Medicine, 2002.
(6) Lipton, B. H. PhD., The Biology of Belief: Unleashing the Power of Consciousness, Matter and Miracles, 2008.
September 21, 2012
The Body as Machine
When I received a cancer diagnosis over four years ago, my training in science meant that my second response (after panic) was research. This is the fourth in a series of posts touching on issues that led me to alternative treatments. My hope is that these brief articles may provide a starting place for others struggling with their own health decisions.
Cell biologist Dr. Bruce Lipton taught in medical schools for over ten years. In his brilliant book,The Biology of Belief: Unleashing the Power of Consciousness, Matter and Miracles, Lipton argues that the fundamental problem with the current medical system, and why it fails on so many levels, is that it is based on incorrect models derived from outdated science.
Rene Decartes developed the foundations for the mechanistic view of the universe in the 1600s. Decartes was so convinced that the world apart from the human mind was purely mechanistic that he called animals “automata,” and claimed that their apparent pain was no more than an automatic response to stimulus (1). The fact that, unlike machines, animals are capable of growing, self-healing, and reproducing does not seem to have impinged upon Decartes’ reasoning. Yet the use of animals for experimentation was a direct outgrowth of Cartesian philosophy that continues to this day.
Isaac Newton’s physics came a century after Decartes – long before there were tools sensitive enough to detect the inconsistencies in Newton’s theories.
But physics, the foundational science for all other sciences, changed radically beginning eighty years ago. The biological sciences, still grounded in centuries-old models, did not change. Furthermore, the central dogma of modern medicine, that our genes determine nearly everything about us (including our susceptibility to disease) has been soundly disproved (2), yet medical science and research continues to proceed as if the model of genetic determinism were true(3), and the mass media duly follows along.
Regardless of all the talk in recent years about how the body may be influenced by the mind, the biological sciences, including medicine, are still grounded in the idea that our bodies are machines. If bodies are machines, then when they “break down” they can be fixed by taking them apart and making adjustments (surgery) or by the application of the correct combination of chemicals.
(1)Descartes, Rene, Discourse on Method, 1637.
(2)Lipton, B. H. PhD., The Biology of Belief, 2008.
(3)Lipton, B. H. PhD., The Biology of Belief, 2008.
Cell biologist Dr. Bruce Lipton taught in medical schools for over ten years. In his brilliant book,The Biology of Belief: Unleashing the Power of Consciousness, Matter and Miracles, Lipton argues that the fundamental problem with the current medical system, and why it fails on so many levels, is that it is based on incorrect models derived from outdated science.
Rene Decartes developed the foundations for the mechanistic view of the universe in the 1600s. Decartes was so convinced that the world apart from the human mind was purely mechanistic that he called animals “automata,” and claimed that their apparent pain was no more than an automatic response to stimulus (1). The fact that, unlike machines, animals are capable of growing, self-healing, and reproducing does not seem to have impinged upon Decartes’ reasoning. Yet the use of animals for experimentation was a direct outgrowth of Cartesian philosophy that continues to this day.
Isaac Newton’s physics came a century after Decartes – long before there were tools sensitive enough to detect the inconsistencies in Newton’s theories.
But physics, the foundational science for all other sciences, changed radically beginning eighty years ago. The biological sciences, still grounded in centuries-old models, did not change. Furthermore, the central dogma of modern medicine, that our genes determine nearly everything about us (including our susceptibility to disease) has been soundly disproved (2), yet medical science and research continues to proceed as if the model of genetic determinism were true(3), and the mass media duly follows along.
Regardless of all the talk in recent years about how the body may be influenced by the mind, the biological sciences, including medicine, are still grounded in the idea that our bodies are machines. If bodies are machines, then when they “break down” they can be fixed by taking them apart and making adjustments (surgery) or by the application of the correct combination of chemicals.
(1)Descartes, Rene, Discourse on Method, 1637.
(2)Lipton, B. H. PhD., The Biology of Belief, 2008.
(3)Lipton, B. H. PhD., The Biology of Belief, 2008.
September 15, 2012
Whose Body Is It, Anyway?
In the last post I laid out some alarming statistics about the results of the current health care system, especially in the USA. This information contributed to my decision to seek alternative treatment for cancer. The numbers are not merely opinion, and the studies can be easily accessed by anyone. Use the footnotes provided, or find your own trusted sources.
This time we'll take a look at one of the biggest businesses on the planet, the pharmaceutical industry, along with one organization's undue influence.
Big Business
The problems in U.S. healthcare may derive in part from the involvement of the $245-billion-per-year pharmaceutical industry in funding medical research and medical schools. The strong bias towards patented drugs as treatments for physical and mental problems is an outgrowth of the profit system. Corporations need to make money for their shareholders, and they do it however they can.
One of the grievous consequences of the drug-oriented system is its continual use of animals in cruel and unproven testing required by the Federal Drug Administration. Another is that patients have come to expect a plethora of drug-induced “side effects,” from nausea to cancer – and yet more drugs to try to counter them.
Since full deregulation of prescription drug advertising in the USA in 1997 (1), the explosive growth of medical advertising has led to the usual excesses in the corporate chase for consumer dollars. In some cases, “medical conditions” described in advertisements came exclusively from the imaginations of copywriters.
Whose Body Is It, Anyway?
If the dominant medical system were a brand of car with a bad reputation, it wouldn’t be such a problem for consumers. We could buy from a different manufacturer with better engineering. However, the dominant medical system, like other monopolies before it, has worked to drive alternatives to the fringes, or completely out of business in some cases.
In the 1970s the American Medical Association (A.M.A.)embarked on a campaign to discredit chiropractic. Doctors of chiropractic fought back and finally won in 1990. Now chiropractic – based on a completely different theory of disease than that espoused by the A.M.A. – is fully legitimate and frequently covered by insurance.
However, typical state medical laws still use language similar to the California Business and Professions Code Section 2052:
"Any person who practices or attempts to practice, or who advertises or holds himself or herself out as practicing, any system or mode of treating the sick or afflicted in this state, or who diagnoses, treats, operates for, or prescribes for any ailment, blemish, deformity, disease, disfigurement, disorder, injury, or other physical or mental condition of any person, without having at the time of so doing a valid, unrevoked, or unsuspended certificate as provided in this chapter, or without being authorized to perform such act pursuant to a certificate obtained in accordance with some other provision of law, is guilty of a misdemeanor."
In all states in the U.S., it is illegal to “practice medicine without a license.” While it is legal for health practitioners who are not MDs to use whatever methods they wish, they cannot legally diagnose or treat specific conditions recognized by the A.M.A. This in itself is not a problem. The difficulty for those seeking alternatives to the not-so-great existing system is that they will most often have to pay for the alternatives out of pocket. Federal and private insurance companies have strict guidelines regarding the types of practitioners and treatments they cover, and those guidelines – again, in typical monopoly fashion – are largely dictated by the A.M.A.
But all of these facts may well be seen as “symptoms” – not the underlying cause of the dis-ease in our health care system.
In the next post, we'll take a brief glance at the outmoded science that has led to the current health care system.
(1) Such advertising, now considered normal in the USA, is banned in Europe. See Cross, A., Life: A Medical Condition, BBC News.
This time we'll take a look at one of the biggest businesses on the planet, the pharmaceutical industry, along with one organization's undue influence.
Big Business
The problems in U.S. healthcare may derive in part from the involvement of the $245-billion-per-year pharmaceutical industry in funding medical research and medical schools. The strong bias towards patented drugs as treatments for physical and mental problems is an outgrowth of the profit system. Corporations need to make money for their shareholders, and they do it however they can.
One of the grievous consequences of the drug-oriented system is its continual use of animals in cruel and unproven testing required by the Federal Drug Administration. Another is that patients have come to expect a plethora of drug-induced “side effects,” from nausea to cancer – and yet more drugs to try to counter them.
Since full deregulation of prescription drug advertising in the USA in 1997 (1), the explosive growth of medical advertising has led to the usual excesses in the corporate chase for consumer dollars. In some cases, “medical conditions” described in advertisements came exclusively from the imaginations of copywriters.
Whose Body Is It, Anyway?
If the dominant medical system were a brand of car with a bad reputation, it wouldn’t be such a problem for consumers. We could buy from a different manufacturer with better engineering. However, the dominant medical system, like other monopolies before it, has worked to drive alternatives to the fringes, or completely out of business in some cases.
In the 1970s the American Medical Association (A.M.A.)embarked on a campaign to discredit chiropractic. Doctors of chiropractic fought back and finally won in 1990. Now chiropractic – based on a completely different theory of disease than that espoused by the A.M.A. – is fully legitimate and frequently covered by insurance.
However, typical state medical laws still use language similar to the California Business and Professions Code Section 2052:
"Any person who practices or attempts to practice, or who advertises or holds himself or herself out as practicing, any system or mode of treating the sick or afflicted in this state, or who diagnoses, treats, operates for, or prescribes for any ailment, blemish, deformity, disease, disfigurement, disorder, injury, or other physical or mental condition of any person, without having at the time of so doing a valid, unrevoked, or unsuspended certificate as provided in this chapter, or without being authorized to perform such act pursuant to a certificate obtained in accordance with some other provision of law, is guilty of a misdemeanor."
In all states in the U.S., it is illegal to “practice medicine without a license.” While it is legal for health practitioners who are not MDs to use whatever methods they wish, they cannot legally diagnose or treat specific conditions recognized by the A.M.A. This in itself is not a problem. The difficulty for those seeking alternatives to the not-so-great existing system is that they will most often have to pay for the alternatives out of pocket. Federal and private insurance companies have strict guidelines regarding the types of practitioners and treatments they cover, and those guidelines – again, in typical monopoly fashion – are largely dictated by the A.M.A.
But all of these facts may well be seen as “symptoms” – not the underlying cause of the dis-ease in our health care system.
In the next post, we'll take a brief glance at the outmoded science that has led to the current health care system.
(1) Such advertising, now considered normal in the USA, is banned in Europe. See Cross, A., Life: A Medical Condition, BBC News.
September 10, 2012
The Gigantic Engine that Couldn't
Besides being the author of Half Light, I’ve been dealing with cancer for over four years. There are a lot of emotional opinions about cancer and its treatment, and I’ve heard them all. But I wanted facts, so I began researching. This series of blog posts is meant to provide solid information for people grappling with their own choices. Please don’t be convinced of anything without doing your own research and deciding what works best for you!
Biggest and Best?
The United States has the most costly medical system in the world (1) at over $2.24 trillion per year (2), approximately $7427 per person. It is logical to assume that our system is therefore the best. You get what you pay for, right?
• The U.S. health care system is ranked 37th in the world – behind Costa Rica, Columbia and Dominica.(3)
• The U.S. infant mortality ranking is 29th in the world, down from 12th in 1960.(4)
• The US death rate from lung cancer in the 1990s was nearly twice that of Japan – yet the smoking rate during the same period was twice as high in Japan as in the US.(5)
Cures that Kill
The current health care debate in the US proceeds from the assumption that lack of access to health care is the primary problem: if only everyone can get “approved” treatment for their health problems, we’ll be a much healthier nation. Unfortunately, the research tells a somewhat different story.
• The healing profession is causing more deaths than any condition it tries to treat. Independent researchers place medical treatment ahead of heart disease and cancer as the cause of over 780,000 deaths per year in the US alone.(6)
• Radical surgery for prostate cancer makes no difference in rates of survival. A 23-year clinical study of prostate cancer victims concluded that survival rates were the same for those who had surgery and those who didn’t.(7)
• Unreliable early detection protocols for breast cancer have led to hundreds of thousands of unnecessary and disfiguring treatments in the past 30 years. Supposed to increase survival rates through early detection and treatment, the use of routine mammograms in the US beginning in the 1980s has led to an increase in partial and complete mastectomies, radiation treatments, and chemotherapy. Both mammograms and biopsies are difficult to interpret for early-stage conditions. Experts now estimate that only thirty percent of breast irregularities treated with mastectomies, radiation and chemotherapy had the potential to become cancerous.(8)
• Standard vaccines recommended for children and adults may not be safe. Vaccinations have been an accepted weapon in the medical arsenal for many years. The current federal recommendation is for 69 doses of 16 vaccines from birth to age 18. But no studies have ever been conducted to evaluate the long-term effects of these vaccinations. There is mounting evidence that vaccines are associated with the huge increase in the incidence of autism as well as a host of other health problems.(9)
• Historically, vaccinations have had little effect on infectious disease mortality.(10) In nearly all cases, serious infectious diseases had been largely eliminated before the introduction of vaccines. In England and Wales, for example, death rates from pertussis (whooping cough) and measles had declined by over 99% prior to the introduction of vaccines in the 1950s. Scarlett fever showed a similar decline in mortality rates without the use of vaccinations.(11)
Next time, we’ll take a brief look at the pharmacological industry.
(1)World Health Organization statistics.
(2)US Census Bureau, National Health Expenditures, 2008.
(3)World Health Organization statistics.
(4)World Health Organization statistics.
(5)Van der Griendt, Kees, Smokers Prevalence vs. Lung Cancer Rates, 1999.
(6)Null, G, PhD, Dean C, MD, ND, et al, Death By Medicine, 2003.
(7)Iverson, P. et al., Radical Prostatectomy versus Expectant Treatment for Early Carcinoma of the Prostate, Scan. J. Urol. Neprhol. 1995.
(8)Prone to Error: Earliest Steps to Find Cancer, New York Times, July 19, 2010.
(9)National Vaccine Information Center.
(10) See for example United States Disease Death Rates, compiled from Vital Statistics of the United States at http://www.healthsentinel.com/joomla/...
(11) Data from Record of Mortality in England and Wales, Office of National Statistics, 1997, compiled in Bystrianyk, R., Historic Data Shows Vaccines Not Key in Declines in Death from Disease, 2009, http://www.healthsentinel.com/joomla/...
Biggest and Best?
The United States has the most costly medical system in the world (1) at over $2.24 trillion per year (2), approximately $7427 per person. It is logical to assume that our system is therefore the best. You get what you pay for, right?
• The U.S. health care system is ranked 37th in the world – behind Costa Rica, Columbia and Dominica.(3)
• The U.S. infant mortality ranking is 29th in the world, down from 12th in 1960.(4)
• The US death rate from lung cancer in the 1990s was nearly twice that of Japan – yet the smoking rate during the same period was twice as high in Japan as in the US.(5)
Cures that Kill
The current health care debate in the US proceeds from the assumption that lack of access to health care is the primary problem: if only everyone can get “approved” treatment for their health problems, we’ll be a much healthier nation. Unfortunately, the research tells a somewhat different story.
• The healing profession is causing more deaths than any condition it tries to treat. Independent researchers place medical treatment ahead of heart disease and cancer as the cause of over 780,000 deaths per year in the US alone.(6)
• Radical surgery for prostate cancer makes no difference in rates of survival. A 23-year clinical study of prostate cancer victims concluded that survival rates were the same for those who had surgery and those who didn’t.(7)
• Unreliable early detection protocols for breast cancer have led to hundreds of thousands of unnecessary and disfiguring treatments in the past 30 years. Supposed to increase survival rates through early detection and treatment, the use of routine mammograms in the US beginning in the 1980s has led to an increase in partial and complete mastectomies, radiation treatments, and chemotherapy. Both mammograms and biopsies are difficult to interpret for early-stage conditions. Experts now estimate that only thirty percent of breast irregularities treated with mastectomies, radiation and chemotherapy had the potential to become cancerous.(8)
• Standard vaccines recommended for children and adults may not be safe. Vaccinations have been an accepted weapon in the medical arsenal for many years. The current federal recommendation is for 69 doses of 16 vaccines from birth to age 18. But no studies have ever been conducted to evaluate the long-term effects of these vaccinations. There is mounting evidence that vaccines are associated with the huge increase in the incidence of autism as well as a host of other health problems.(9)
• Historically, vaccinations have had little effect on infectious disease mortality.(10) In nearly all cases, serious infectious diseases had been largely eliminated before the introduction of vaccines. In England and Wales, for example, death rates from pertussis (whooping cough) and measles had declined by over 99% prior to the introduction of vaccines in the 1950s. Scarlett fever showed a similar decline in mortality rates without the use of vaccinations.(11)
Next time, we’ll take a brief look at the pharmacological industry.
(1)World Health Organization statistics.
(2)US Census Bureau, National Health Expenditures, 2008.
(3)World Health Organization statistics.
(4)World Health Organization statistics.
(5)Van der Griendt, Kees, Smokers Prevalence vs. Lung Cancer Rates, 1999.
(6)Null, G, PhD, Dean C, MD, ND, et al, Death By Medicine, 2003.
(7)Iverson, P. et al., Radical Prostatectomy versus Expectant Treatment for Early Carcinoma of the Prostate, Scan. J. Urol. Neprhol. 1995.
(8)Prone to Error: Earliest Steps to Find Cancer, New York Times, July 19, 2010.
(9)National Vaccine Information Center.
(10) See for example United States Disease Death Rates, compiled from Vital Statistics of the United States at http://www.healthsentinel.com/joomla/...
(11) Data from Record of Mortality in England and Wales, Office of National Statistics, 1997, compiled in Bystrianyk, R., Historic Data Shows Vaccines Not Key in Declines in Death from Disease, 2009, http://www.healthsentinel.com/joomla/...
September 8, 2012
Once upon a time...
About Half Light: My fantasy novel, Half Light, was named by Holly McClure, past president of the Southeast Writers' Association,"one of the best books I've ever read." Half Light is reviewed here on Goodreads; further reviews may be found at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. The book is available in print, Kindle, and Nook editions worldwide. Please see my website at http://halflightthebook.com/ and if you read the book, I would love to hear from you!
On to the current topic. Besides writing and editing, I've been dealing with cancer for over four years. When I received the diagnosis, I knew that conventional treatment was not for me. (This is a very personal choice, as anyone who's had to make it knows.) I began researching alternative treatments, and the research carried me to places I never knew existed. I'm excited to be able to share some of what I've learned with readers here.
So - Once upon a time...
This story is about the beginnings of a change which will rock the human experience to its foundations. Much of what follows may seem like the stuff of fairy tales, but it is the reality that we are all living today. And nothing here violates a single law of physics as we know it...
Something remarkable happened on the way to the millennium. In the 1980s and ‘90s, a number of people in the United States and elsewhere seemed to experience peculiar connections or events that led to radical new experiences in the field of human health. In some cases these men and women intuited new ways of using older healing modalities to make them easier, more effective, and more teachable. In other cases these people suddenly found that they could heal themselves or others in ways that appeared miraculous, and only afterwards developed explanations for their newfound abilities.
Some of these healers have enthusiastically sought and found scientific validation for what they are doing by enlisting scientists in controlled studies of both healers and patients. The studies continue, but they aren’t crucial to the spread of the practices. It is results that are drawing more and more people to learn what these healers have to teach.
All of these new systems have certain things in common. One is that their founders are visionaries, and their visions are huge. These new healers believe that every human being has the innate ability to heal himself/herself and others. To that end, they envision teaching as many people as possible, who will then teach and help to heal others. All of them say that belief is unnecessary for their healing systems to work; skeptics, including medical doctors, heal as well as anyone else.
And, based upon what they have seen in their own practices, workshops, and seminars, some of these healers are now seriously imagining a world without pain or disease - not as a pretty pipe-dream, but as a practical reality in the near future.
Next time we'll be talking about the U.S. medical system, the most costly in the world.
On to the current topic. Besides writing and editing, I've been dealing with cancer for over four years. When I received the diagnosis, I knew that conventional treatment was not for me. (This is a very personal choice, as anyone who's had to make it knows.) I began researching alternative treatments, and the research carried me to places I never knew existed. I'm excited to be able to share some of what I've learned with readers here.
So - Once upon a time...
This story is about the beginnings of a change which will rock the human experience to its foundations. Much of what follows may seem like the stuff of fairy tales, but it is the reality that we are all living today. And nothing here violates a single law of physics as we know it...
Something remarkable happened on the way to the millennium. In the 1980s and ‘90s, a number of people in the United States and elsewhere seemed to experience peculiar connections or events that led to radical new experiences in the field of human health. In some cases these men and women intuited new ways of using older healing modalities to make them easier, more effective, and more teachable. In other cases these people suddenly found that they could heal themselves or others in ways that appeared miraculous, and only afterwards developed explanations for their newfound abilities.
Some of these healers have enthusiastically sought and found scientific validation for what they are doing by enlisting scientists in controlled studies of both healers and patients. The studies continue, but they aren’t crucial to the spread of the practices. It is results that are drawing more and more people to learn what these healers have to teach.
All of these new systems have certain things in common. One is that their founders are visionaries, and their visions are huge. These new healers believe that every human being has the innate ability to heal himself/herself and others. To that end, they envision teaching as many people as possible, who will then teach and help to heal others. All of them say that belief is unnecessary for their healing systems to work; skeptics, including medical doctors, heal as well as anyone else.
And, based upon what they have seen in their own practices, workshops, and seminars, some of these healers are now seriously imagining a world without pain or disease - not as a pretty pipe-dream, but as a practical reality in the near future.
Next time we'll be talking about the U.S. medical system, the most costly in the world.
