I’ve been blogging for nearly eleven years now—and continuously at that, with only brief breaks for vacations or when the vagaries of life and career (particularly grant deadlines) interfered with the writing impulse. It’s true that I’ve slowed down a bit. I rarely post on weekends any more and not infrequently miss a weekday, but I tend to think that’s a good thing, as it decreases the frequency of posts in which I’m clearly forcing it, where I’m “phoning it in,” so to speak. Or at least I like to think so. One major challenge over the years, however, has been the inevitable problem that comes with writing a regular feature for so long, regardless of medium, and that’s familiarity. As I reach ancient status as a blogger, I’ve started to think that I’ve seen it all, that there’s nothing new under the sun in terms of quackery or pseudoscience. The compensating advantage of longevity is that, with the benefit of time and study, I can see patterns and draw relationships that wouldn’t have occurred to me before, and I can abbreviate a lot of posts by linking to material that I’ve written in the past. Still, every so often I do so like to find a bit of woo I haven’t encountered before.
And so it was that I came across this video:
Truly, I don’t recall having seen anything like this Radionic Remedy Maker/Homeopathic Simulator before. Seriously. Watch the video. It’s four minutes that are guaranteed to have skeptics chuckling mightily by the end, if not within the first 30 seconds. The product portrayed in the video is something called a Spectrum Radionic Copier. It consists of a wooden box, with two metal dishes embedded in it and a control of some sort in between. What is it for? Glad you asked! The video helpfully informs us right away that this particular model is used to make a remedy at a specific potency or to change to a higher or lower one or to make “straight copies of any substance, homeopathic remedies, flower essences, gems, crystals, etc., etc.” Helpfully, next to each metal dish is a sign, one reading “input,” the other reading “output.”
Yes, the device works exactly as you might think—or, I should say, is claimed to work as you might imagine looking at its design. All you need, apparently, are either sugar pills or mixtures of water and alcohol to put in the “output” dish. Then all you have to do is to put the original, whatever it is, into the “input dish.” The original can be pretty much anything, but the device seems primarily designed to replicate homeopathic remedies because, well, no one would ever know if it actually worked or not given that most homeopathic remedies are diluted to nonexistence. Then all you have to do is to switch the machine on for 15 seconds, and, as the video proclaims, “Your remedy is ready to use!”
How does it work, you might ask? If you believe the video, this magic machine can “‘copy’ the energy of anything.” In fact, you can do better than that. The very next scene shows several remedies in the “input” dish, and we’re told that the machine can easily make combinations of remedies. All you have to do is to put as many remedies as will fit in the “input” dish and fire this sucker up! Voila! Instant combination therapy! I do have to wonder, however: Isn’t the manufacturer worried about interactions between homeopathic remedies? Imagine the potential horror if, for instance, the Bach flower remedies interfered with the “memory” of water in the homeopathic remedies whose “energy” interfered with the crystal remedy. Come to think of it, if this thing can replicate crystals, why not put a diamond or other precious geme in the “input” dish and start replicating away? It’d be instant money!
Oh, wait. The manufacturer only says that the “energy” of any crystal or gem can be copied. Bummer. On the other hand, you can take the energy from any combination of crystals and infuse the sugar pills or alcohol-water with it to do…well, it’s not exactly clear what, but I bet it’ll be awesome.
Perhaps my favorite part of this commercial is where it explains the dial. Basically, if you leave the dial at zero, the machine just makes a direct copy. However, if you turn the dial up or down you can adjust the potency according to a chart that’s supplied with the instrument. Helpfully, the video recommends that you can use applied kinesiology (at least, that’s what I assume to be meant by “muscle testing”) or dowsing to find the exact potency needed. How convenient! Even more convenient is the fact that if you only want to make straight copies of your woo-ful remedies, all you need is the basic model. It’s only if you want to get all fancy and adjust the potency that you need to invest in the fancier model. I did notice that the basic model looked like it was made of black metal or plastic, while the fancy model was encased in the lovely polished wood box.
There was a web address, www.lesleyknight.com at the end of the video, but when I tried to visit the site the domain was listed as being for sale. So I Googled “Lesley Knight” and “radionic,” and what I found was Lesley’s Healthcare and Radionics, as well as a Facebook page for Radionics UK, as well as a spiffy picture on Facebook of her new Radionic copiers. On her website, Knight describes herself thusly:
15 years ago I decided to change direction after doing Social Work as a career. I trained in Vega testing after finding it helped enormously with the issues one of my sons had.
That started the journey which has led me to train in and try many different therapies.
The most recent discovery and the most powerful one to effect permanent change is Access Consciousness. Access has created more profound changes in me than the combination of everything else I have tried previously. I see the same transformational results for my clients so cannot recommend it highly enough.
So Knight started out as a social worker and then “graduated” to the purest woo. Indeed, if you look on her personal Facebook page, you’ll see that she supports Stanislaw Burzynski, as she posted a link to the Change.org petition supporting Burzynski in the lead up to Burzynski’s hearing before the Texas Medical Board. On her website, she offers a variety of Radionic Remedy Makers, including:
- Travel Size Remedy Maker for £189.97
- Radionic Remedy Maker for £234.97
- Black Radionic Maker with Potency Changer £264.97
- Radionic Remedy Maker with integrated card slot £359.97
That last one makes a lot of serious claims, specifically that you there is no limit to what you can transfer into homeopathic remedies.
Not surprisingly, she also offers a line of supplements, distant healing sessions, and homeopathic nosode testers, the latter of which for a cool £360. And, of course, there’s dowsing and—my favorite—pyramid workshops.
But that’s not all! There’s also Vega Testing:
Electro Acupuncture unlike Chinese Acupuncture does not involve the use of needles. It is a system of diagnosis which was developed in Germany by Dr Voll over 50 years ago.
The diagnosis is performed by placing a probe on acupuncture points on the hands and feet. Each acupuncture point relates to a specific body part or system.
Each point measured gives a reading on the machine which indicates the presence of toxins and the health of that part of the body. It is possible to detect pathogens within the body in the way of bacteria, viral, fungal infections, parasites & tropical diseases.
These can then be eliminated using appropriate remedies matched both to the toxins and the patient. i.e. the cause of cold sores can be detected and cleared using a Nosode as treatment – hence no more cold sores, likewise specific tooth infections can be detected and eliminated without the use of antibiotics.
The testing device can also test allopathic drugs, herbs, vitamins etc. on the patient, this shows if a drug will have a positive or negative effect on them. So this will indicate which one is the most suitable one for the patient.
For instance infections such as in Lyme disease from a tick bite. Borrelia, Mycoplasma, Babesia, Bartonella amongst others can cause chronic health conditions. Detecting these in the body using Vega testing is possible, and using Isopathic remedies and Nosodes they can be cleared.
Hmmm. I thought electroacupuncture was just transdermal electrical nerve stimulation rebranded as acupuncture by hooking up electrodes to acupuncture needles. Who knew it was a diagnostic modality as well? Of course it is. As if that’s not enough, there’s even Access Bars. Check out the link and you’ll see that that’s some serious, high-powered woo. Basically, if you believe this stuff, there are 32 points on the head that, when lightly touched, clear all the limitations that you have, including money, aging, sex, joy, sadness, creativity, and awareness. What? A head massage means I can have better sex? Sign me up!
But back to the Radionic Remedy Maker.
There are so many questions I had when I looked at this. For instance, what powers these things? There don’t appear to be any electrical wires or plugs to plug the device into an electrical outlet. Batteries? There’s no mention of them, but one has to assume that that’s a likely power source. More importantly, though: If this device can truly replicate the “energy” of various woo-ful remedies, then presumably if you purchase this device you’ll never need to purchase any given homeopathic remedy, Bach flower remedy, crystal, or other remedy more than once, because you can use this device to replicate it again and again and again and again, for as long as you like. I’d think that homeopaths and other quacks might not be too happy about that. After all, this device coul basically put them out of business, which in itself wouldn’t be such a bad thing. The price, however, would be bad because you’d be paying one quack like Lesley Knight to put other homeopaths out of business.
from ScienceBlogs http://ift.tt/1XrmsCm
I’ve been blogging for nearly eleven years now—and continuously at that, with only brief breaks for vacations or when the vagaries of life and career (particularly grant deadlines) interfered with the writing impulse. It’s true that I’ve slowed down a bit. I rarely post on weekends any more and not infrequently miss a weekday, but I tend to think that’s a good thing, as it decreases the frequency of posts in which I’m clearly forcing it, where I’m “phoning it in,” so to speak. Or at least I like to think so. One major challenge over the years, however, has been the inevitable problem that comes with writing a regular feature for so long, regardless of medium, and that’s familiarity. As I reach ancient status as a blogger, I’ve started to think that I’ve seen it all, that there’s nothing new under the sun in terms of quackery or pseudoscience. The compensating advantage of longevity is that, with the benefit of time and study, I can see patterns and draw relationships that wouldn’t have occurred to me before, and I can abbreviate a lot of posts by linking to material that I’ve written in the past. Still, every so often I do so like to find a bit of woo I haven’t encountered before.
And so it was that I came across this video:
Truly, I don’t recall having seen anything like this Radionic Remedy Maker/Homeopathic Simulator before. Seriously. Watch the video. It’s four minutes that are guaranteed to have skeptics chuckling mightily by the end, if not within the first 30 seconds. The product portrayed in the video is something called a Spectrum Radionic Copier. It consists of a wooden box, with two metal dishes embedded in it and a control of some sort in between. What is it for? Glad you asked! The video helpfully informs us right away that this particular model is used to make a remedy at a specific potency or to change to a higher or lower one or to make “straight copies of any substance, homeopathic remedies, flower essences, gems, crystals, etc., etc.” Helpfully, next to each metal dish is a sign, one reading “input,” the other reading “output.”
Yes, the device works exactly as you might think—or, I should say, is claimed to work as you might imagine looking at its design. All you need, apparently, are either sugar pills or mixtures of water and alcohol to put in the “output” dish. Then all you have to do is to put the original, whatever it is, into the “input dish.” The original can be pretty much anything, but the device seems primarily designed to replicate homeopathic remedies because, well, no one would ever know if it actually worked or not given that most homeopathic remedies are diluted to nonexistence. Then all you have to do is to switch the machine on for 15 seconds, and, as the video proclaims, “Your remedy is ready to use!”
How does it work, you might ask? If you believe the video, this magic machine can “‘copy’ the energy of anything.” In fact, you can do better than that. The very next scene shows several remedies in the “input” dish, and we’re told that the machine can easily make combinations of remedies. All you have to do is to put as many remedies as will fit in the “input” dish and fire this sucker up! Voila! Instant combination therapy! I do have to wonder, however: Isn’t the manufacturer worried about interactions between homeopathic remedies? Imagine the potential horror if, for instance, the Bach flower remedies interfered with the “memory” of water in the homeopathic remedies whose “energy” interfered with the crystal remedy. Come to think of it, if this thing can replicate crystals, why not put a diamond or other precious geme in the “input” dish and start replicating away? It’d be instant money!
Oh, wait. The manufacturer only says that the “energy” of any crystal or gem can be copied. Bummer. On the other hand, you can take the energy from any combination of crystals and infuse the sugar pills or alcohol-water with it to do…well, it’s not exactly clear what, but I bet it’ll be awesome.
Perhaps my favorite part of this commercial is where it explains the dial. Basically, if you leave the dial at zero, the machine just makes a direct copy. However, if you turn the dial up or down you can adjust the potency according to a chart that’s supplied with the instrument. Helpfully, the video recommends that you can use applied kinesiology (at least, that’s what I assume to be meant by “muscle testing”) or dowsing to find the exact potency needed. How convenient! Even more convenient is the fact that if you only want to make straight copies of your woo-ful remedies, all you need is the basic model. It’s only if you want to get all fancy and adjust the potency that you need to invest in the fancier model. I did notice that the basic model looked like it was made of black metal or plastic, while the fancy model was encased in the lovely polished wood box.
There was a web address, www.lesleyknight.com at the end of the video, but when I tried to visit the site the domain was listed as being for sale. So I Googled “Lesley Knight” and “radionic,” and what I found was Lesley’s Healthcare and Radionics, as well as a Facebook page for Radionics UK, as well as a spiffy picture on Facebook of her new Radionic copiers. On her website, Knight describes herself thusly:
15 years ago I decided to change direction after doing Social Work as a career. I trained in Vega testing after finding it helped enormously with the issues one of my sons had.
That started the journey which has led me to train in and try many different therapies.
The most recent discovery and the most powerful one to effect permanent change is Access Consciousness. Access has created more profound changes in me than the combination of everything else I have tried previously. I see the same transformational results for my clients so cannot recommend it highly enough.
So Knight started out as a social worker and then “graduated” to the purest woo. Indeed, if you look on her personal Facebook page, you’ll see that she supports Stanislaw Burzynski, as she posted a link to the Change.org petition supporting Burzynski in the lead up to Burzynski’s hearing before the Texas Medical Board. On her website, she offers a variety of Radionic Remedy Makers, including:
- Travel Size Remedy Maker for £189.97
- Radionic Remedy Maker for £234.97
- Black Radionic Maker with Potency Changer £264.97
- Radionic Remedy Maker with integrated card slot £359.97
That last one makes a lot of serious claims, specifically that you there is no limit to what you can transfer into homeopathic remedies.
Not surprisingly, she also offers a line of supplements, distant healing sessions, and homeopathic nosode testers, the latter of which for a cool £360. And, of course, there’s dowsing and—my favorite—pyramid workshops.
But that’s not all! There’s also Vega Testing:
Electro Acupuncture unlike Chinese Acupuncture does not involve the use of needles. It is a system of diagnosis which was developed in Germany by Dr Voll over 50 years ago.
The diagnosis is performed by placing a probe on acupuncture points on the hands and feet. Each acupuncture point relates to a specific body part or system.
Each point measured gives a reading on the machine which indicates the presence of toxins and the health of that part of the body. It is possible to detect pathogens within the body in the way of bacteria, viral, fungal infections, parasites & tropical diseases.
These can then be eliminated using appropriate remedies matched both to the toxins and the patient. i.e. the cause of cold sores can be detected and cleared using a Nosode as treatment – hence no more cold sores, likewise specific tooth infections can be detected and eliminated without the use of antibiotics.
The testing device can also test allopathic drugs, herbs, vitamins etc. on the patient, this shows if a drug will have a positive or negative effect on them. So this will indicate which one is the most suitable one for the patient.
For instance infections such as in Lyme disease from a tick bite. Borrelia, Mycoplasma, Babesia, Bartonella amongst others can cause chronic health conditions. Detecting these in the body using Vega testing is possible, and using Isopathic remedies and Nosodes they can be cleared.
Hmmm. I thought electroacupuncture was just transdermal electrical nerve stimulation rebranded as acupuncture by hooking up electrodes to acupuncture needles. Who knew it was a diagnostic modality as well? Of course it is. As if that’s not enough, there’s even Access Bars. Check out the link and you’ll see that that’s some serious, high-powered woo. Basically, if you believe this stuff, there are 32 points on the head that, when lightly touched, clear all the limitations that you have, including money, aging, sex, joy, sadness, creativity, and awareness. What? A head massage means I can have better sex? Sign me up!
But back to the Radionic Remedy Maker.
There are so many questions I had when I looked at this. For instance, what powers these things? There don’t appear to be any electrical wires or plugs to plug the device into an electrical outlet. Batteries? There’s no mention of them, but one has to assume that that’s a likely power source. More importantly, though: If this device can truly replicate the “energy” of various woo-ful remedies, then presumably if you purchase this device you’ll never need to purchase any given homeopathic remedy, Bach flower remedy, crystal, or other remedy more than once, because you can use this device to replicate it again and again and again and again, for as long as you like. I’d think that homeopaths and other quacks might not be too happy about that. After all, this device coul basically put them out of business, which in itself wouldn’t be such a bad thing. The price, however, would be bad because you’d be paying one quack like Lesley Knight to put other homeopaths out of business.
from ScienceBlogs http://ift.tt/1XrmsCm
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