Faith Healer

Myksyk

Anyone see the article on the 'seventh son of a seventh son' faith healer in The Irish Times today?

davros

[I moved this to a new thread since it's outside the normal definition of 'alternative medicine'.]

I've just read the article - quite balanced, anyway. Some of the testimony was from people who felt no effect or actually got worse. Sounds like the Law of Averages is working away nicely in Donegal. If I could get hundreds of ill people to file through my living room, I could guarantee that some of them would get better.

But it's a nice tradition all the same, i.e. seventh son of a seventh son.

Kudos to Roisin Ingle for the article. It used to be Kathryn Holmquist who worked the alternative beat. She took The Irish Times to new and dizzy heights of credulity.

Myksyk

You're right of course when you say that it is outside the normal definition of alternative medicine. The intersting thing is however that it is essentially the very same thing as almost all AM. It is of course almost identical to reiki, bio-energy healing, touch therapy etc except that the ideas underpinning it are different.

Myksyk

In this regard, I would encourage people to read James Randi's 'The Faith Healers' for an exposè of the evangelical healing game in the States.