To me, this is yet another example of a fascinating paradox in the philosophy of alternative therapists: when they claim that their treatments are having a specific and measurable effect on the body, through specific technical mechanisms rather than ritual, they are championing a very old-fashioned and naive form of biological reductionism, in which the mechanics of their interventions, rather than the relationship and the ceremony, have the positive effect on healing. Once again, it’s not just that they have no evidence for their claims about how their treatments work: it’s that their claims
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