Yeah, stories like this are why I used "relatively." Most of the people I know who go in for alternative healing/energy work/new age flavor of the month don't do so exclusive of actual medical treatment. I tend to be cautiously tolerant of these practices and occasionally find one with a meditation or visualization that I like enough to use, although I prefer when a practitioner has the discipline to acknowledge that they function primarily via the placebo effect (and still make them work). For instance, when a friend of mine was using all sorts of "energy healing" plus whatever the doctors would throw at her while she was dying of cancer, I encouraged her in the newagey stuff...it was making her feel better in a way the chemo, etc, certainly wasn't, and giving her hope.
I am much more comfortable with placebo-type practices when the person involved is scientific-minded enough to understand what they are. The people who really do think it's magic make my teeth hurt, and the people who won't use medicine when someone's about to die are...well...criminally negligent.
There are some interesting abilities to be found amongst the 'woo' types...tantra, for instance, is something I've found very useful...and some people come to genuine, harmless comfort from silliness like the above. I still wish more people balanced it with skepticism.
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Date: 5/22/09 11:45 pm (UTC)From:I am much more comfortable with placebo-type practices when the person involved is scientific-minded enough to understand what they are. The people who really do think it's magic make my teeth hurt, and the people who won't use medicine when someone's about to die are...well...criminally negligent.
There are some interesting abilities to be found amongst the 'woo' types...tantra, for instance, is something I've found very useful...and some people come to genuine, harmless comfort from silliness like the above. I still wish more people balanced it with skepticism.