Mumbo Jumbo!

LETHAL LADY

A few years ago a friend asked me to let her friend, who was a trainee reflexologist at the time, to use my feet for her final exams case study. I had to do a couple of sessions in order for the friend to pass her exam.
Now I don't have extraordinary feet or anything, I was just a number to fill the three case studies needed. I went into this with an open mind as I'd never had a stranger rub me tootsies before, but I'll try anything once.

On arrival I was led into a darkened room scattered with scented candles, a blessing considering my foot fungus problem (not really), where I was asked to remove my socks. I did so and placed my feet onto a fluffly towel on the arm of a couch and prepared myself to be reflexed. Being of an inquisitive nature I had to ask the lady what it was all about and she showed me a diagram of the feet and what effects I would feel throughout my body during treatment.

Anyway over the course of my treatment I felt nothing, nada! Question being am I a cynical bitch thinking it was all mumbo jumbo or is there something to it?

As a side note, my husband asked was there any toe sucking involved, but I wouldn't have expected any less from him.

Mumbo jumbo. Foot massages are nice, they make people feel better because they're being touched and cared for. That's the sum total of its benefit.

Kovu

Anybody who dares touch my feet usually gets a swift, involuntary kick to whatever limb is nearest.

Junkyard Tom

The Placebo Effect is remarkable. BBC did a documentary on it and it was truly fascinating.

Here's the thing, scientists haven't really got a clue how the Placebo Effect works - they just know that it does.

Whyohwhy?

Candie wrote: »

Mumbo jumbo. Foot massages are nice, they make people feel better because they're being touched and cared for. That's the sum total of its benefit.

This is the answer to yer question. Everyone likes being rubbed...

LETHAL LADY

Kovu wrote: »

Anybody who dares touch my feet usually gets a swift, involuntary kick to whatever limb is nearest.

That could be considered a reflex though in the big wide world of mumbo jumboisms.

Canis Lupus

It's just bollox. As with anything labelled 'alternative medicine' if you believe in it/are gullible it can have benefits due to the placebo effect.

As you are clearly not an idiot, unsurprisingly, you felt nothing apart from having a foot massage.

Dr.Robotnik

Same as those healing crystals and reiki...a load of sh!te

the evasion_kid

i put it in the same catergory as crystals,reiki,wizards and reading the sacred bones...

LETHAL LADY

Another thing that was asked of me was to drink a pint of water after treatment. I did and guess what I had a full bladder and that was about it.

ArtSmart

LETHAL LADY wrote: »

A few years ago a friend asked me to let her friend, who was a trainee reflexologist at the time, to use my feet for her final exams case study. I had to do a couple of sessions in order for the friend to pass her exam.
Now I don't have extraordinary feet or anything, I was just a number to fill the three case studies needed. I went into this with an open mind as I'd never had a stranger rub me tootsies before, but I'll try anything once.

On arrival I was led into a darkened room scattered with scented candles, a blessing considering my foot fungus problem (not really), where I was asked to remove my socks. I did so and placed my feet onto a fluffly towel on the arm of a couch and prepared myself to be reflexed. Being of an inquisitive nature I had to ask the lady what it was all about and she showed me a diagram of the feet and what effects I would feel throughout my body during treatment.

Anyway over the course of my treatment I felt nothing, nada! Question being am I a cynical bitch thinking it was all mumbo jumbo or is there something to it?

As a side note, my husband asked was there any toe sucking involved, but I wouldn't have expected any less from him.

!:20 at night, and this is one your mind?

and people think I'm drunk/crazy??

anyway, to bed methinks, for slepp.

LETHAL LADY

LETHAL LADY wrote: »

Another thing that was asked of me was to drink a pint of water after treatment. I did and guess what I had a full bladder and that was about it.

It's a load of codswallop that requires a great deal of suspension of disbelief.

Developed in 1913 by a man named William Fitzgerald as "zone therapy", reflexology is based on the New Age definition of the word "energy". Fitzgerald believed that a mystical force field, not understood by science, that he called "bioelectric energy", ran through the body in ten vertical bands corresponding to your ten digits. Modern practitioners call Fitzgerald's mystical energy field "life force", and believe that adepts can manipulate this force field to promote any type of wellness in any part of the body, all through actions that correspond to a conventional foot massage.

https://skeptoid.com/episodes/4024

Not understood by science = completely made up.

Nobody with an ounce of common sense buys into any of this, it's like homeopathy, you really have to be willing to swallow any old line in order to take any of this seriously.

LETHAL LADY

ArtSmart wrote: »

!:20 at night, and this is one your mind?

and people think I'm drunk/crazy??

anyway, to bed methinks, for slepp.

Slepp comes to us all :pac:

LETHAL LADY

Candie wrote: »

It's a load of codswallop that requires a great deal of suspension of disbelief.




https://skeptoid.com/episodes/4024

Not understood by science = completely made up.

Nobody with an ounce of common sense buys into any of this, it's like homeopathy, you really have to be willing to swallow any old line in order to take any of this seriously.

Ah Candie you're always spot on. The thing is I don't have an issue with complimentary therapy. The lady that massaged my tootsies (cringe), was allowed into geriatric and oncology wards and tbh I don't think that is a bad thing, unless perhaps a patient believes it will save them.:(

NachoBusiness

Dr.Robotnik wrote: »

Same as those healing crystals and reiki...a load of sh!te

You're saying a foot massage don't mean nothing?

Look, I've given a million ladies a million foot massages and they all meant something. We act like they don't but they do, and that's what's so fcuking cool about them. There's a sensuous thing going on where you don't talk about it, but you know it and she knows it.

LETHAL LADY

NachoBusiness wrote: »

You're saying a foot massage don't mean nothing?

Look, I've given a million ladies a million foot massages and they all meant something. We act like they don't but they do, and that's what's so fcuking cool about them. There's a sensuous thing going on where you don't talk about it, but you know it and she knows it.

You must have really smelly hands :pac:

The Sun King

Foot massages, reiki etc only work if you cut the throat of a goat while speaking the words of Cthulu's summoning incantation aloud OP.

For future reference.

Fluffy Cat 88

Reiki, angels, crystals, homoeopathy etc = load of ****e, but harmless enough.

My opinion - people who believe in this stuff are gullible and a bit dim.

However, if a foot rub makes you feel good - go for it. If you like ornamental angel tat - stuff your home with it to your heart's content. Harmless stuff really.

LETHAL LADY

LETHAL LADY wrote: »

Ah Candie you're always spot on. The thing is I don't have an issue with complimentary therapy. The lady that massaged my tootsies (cringe), was allowed into geriatric and oncology wards and tbh I don't think that is a bad thingunless , perhaps a patient believes it will save them.:(

Exactly.

The problem with these complimentary therapists is that people self refer.

So instead of going to a doctor with a problem, they see if a bit of Reiki or Reflexology will sort them out, and because of the aforementioned placebo effect, it may well do, on the surface at least. But the original problem might just simply have resolved itself, or perhaps it's getting worse and the person has wasted time making themselves feel better, but not gotten treated.

I agree they have their place as relaxation therapies, but they claim much greater things than just a nice way to spend an hour. That's my issue, that and the pseudoscientific lingo used to make it sound like a viable, efficacious treatment option, instead of a foot massage or expensive water or whatever.

People do believe all kinds of crazy things though, people believe a 'nutritionist' which is an unprotected term unlike dietician, who may have zero training can diagnose allergies and give them dietary advice in a health food shop. That can be dangerous, not just stupid.

The Sun King

I absolutely love the dim among us who post comments like "any1 no a good sicik? Lukin 4a readin and want sum1 gud" on articles about dodgy psychics getting caught out.

LETHAL LADY

Primal Scream, great video:) No Mumbo Jumbo here!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GATJDE_uZmA

Dr.Robotnik

NachoBusiness wrote: »

You're saying a foot massage don't mean nothing?

Look, I've given a million ladies a million foot massages and they all meant something. We act like they don't but they do, and that's what's so fcuking cool about them. There's a sensuous thing going on where you don't talk about it, but you know it and she knows it.

Give all the foot massages you want, just dont go pretending you're ridding the world of disease when you do! :P

I wouldnt last very long getting a foot massage anyway, I hate people touching them and they're very ticklish

Graces7

I would hate manicures, pedicures, getting hair done. Waste of money I havent got BUT some folk love the lot. Each to his own.

DEFTLEFTHAND

Feet are gross looking, I'd rather have paws and pads like my Jack Russel and cats have.

So cute, my chaps wear 'Booties' animal socks in the winter to keep their pads warm.

Graces7

DEFTLEFTHAND wrote: »

Feet are gross looking, I'd rather have paws and pads like my Jack Russel and cats have.

So cute, my chaps wear 'Booties' animal socks in the winter to keep their pads warm.

Mine warm their feet on each other and on me..

bnt

On the topic of Homoeopathy, I think this newspaper headline is sufficiently clear: 'Therapeutic dead-end' - Homeopathy effective for 0 out of 68 illnesses, study finds. I expect the author of the latest metastudy will be ignored by some because he deals in "evidence based medicine".

I had a short discussion with an acquaintance about Homoeopathy last week: short because she got very offended by my calling it a mere placebo. She started going on about "big pharma" (irrelevant) and says that it's important because it's "alternative medicine", lumping it in with other "natural remedies" (also irrelevant). "But I took some for a cold and I felt better". :rolleyes:

...__...

So you say you'll try anything once?
Lucky husband...