I have had it up to here with these cons who keep scrooging people out of money and provide them with dangerous cures. Some of the so called cures these people provide can cause death, something needs to be done! First the Secret, now we are seeing a re-emergence of the whole New Age movement, people could get seriously hurt.

I have gotten so tired of seeing these people loose money for some useless cure. The masses need to at least have all the facts before trying such cures, alas, what to do?

Note* I am fine with alternative medicine that works, or at least doesnt cause the person harm - some alternative medicine could be equated to the placebo effect by science. If it works or benefits the person, then I see no harm, but some of these so called cures could really hurt people.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-...inion-rightrail

Humorous commentary on "The Secret", one of my favourites:
"Manifesting," for those outside the self-help loop, is the big buzzword from "The Secret," a new DVD with a tie-in book featuring the ancient idea of having it all without trying very hard. If "The Secret" had a plot, it might go something like "Tony Robbins uncovers the Judas Gospel and learns to use the Force."

Good stuff, Max. As I see it our biggest challenge is dealing with people who simply do not want to know...People who take the attitude: "My minds is made up, don't confuse me with the facts."

I once heard a comedian put it this way: The big difference between ignorance and stupidity is: ignorance is curable.

WE NEED A FRAUD SQUAD DEALING WITH SO-CALLED "FAITH HEALERS" WHO MAKE EXAGGERATED, OR EVEN FALSE CLAIMS. PERHAPS IT IS WE WHO LACK THE FAITH TO TAKE ACTION

How many people are actually willing to challenge the fanatics who claim that God works through them to heal all kinds of diseases, including those beyond medical help? I have heard some TV evangelists claim instant healing for every kind of disease, including AIDS.

Years ago, in the course of doing an article or two for a paper for which I wrote a weekly column, I went--and I have done this several times--with an open mind, to a observe several faith healing services here in Toronto, just to check things out.

BTW, two of the TV evangelists I observed, at the time, are still going strong and have programs on well-watched TV channels. I saw one, about a year ago, interviewed on Larry King. Larry must have been warned not to ask any tough questions. He was very soft on BH.
http://www.bennyhinn.org/

At one packed session I attended, several so-called miracle cures--the evangelist was careful to give prayer to God and/or Jesus the credit--were proclaimed. Cancers, diabetes, heart diseases, deafness, you name it--including many conditions that were declared beyond medical help--were declared healed. However, no obsese lost weight, and no bald heads grew hair.

I decided to pay close attention to one of the so-called "miracle cures" involving deafness. The evangelist pointed to the audience and said: "God just told me that he is healing a child who is stone deaf. If you have a deaf child bring him or her to me..." Immediately a couple came out of their seat, with a young boy by the hand, and walked to the stage.

In a loudn voice the evangelist declared: "This boy was stone deaf...He was born without ear drums...God replaced them, tonight" Halleluljah!!!Praise God..." Then he went through a kind of charade in which he declared that the child could hear him and could speak. The child did mumble some words into the mike. To me, the words sounded very unclear, like those I have often heard deaf people use.

Later, in the public lobby of the church, following the service, I took the opportunity to carefully interview the family who believed that their six-year old son was healed of his congential deafness. I told them who I was and why I was there. I offered them my best wishes, got the child's name and asked their permission to try and find out if the boy could actually hear my voice. They agreed.

I said: "If I find even one genuine healing here tonight, I will say so, in my column in the paper and I will promote this kind of healing evangelism. With your help, I will begin by exploring this case, in detail."

When I took the child's hand and looked him directly in the face, at his level, he smiled at me. However, when I spoke to him he looked puzzled and spoke a few words that sounded like a deaf child. I could barely understand some of what he said. Mostly, he smiled and looked shy.

I then stood behind the child, so that he could not see my face or see my lips move, I spoke to the parents, casually, about the boys deafness, then I said: "Now I am going to call his name". I spoke the child's name, first quietly; then loudly, and more than once. Not once did the child turn to look at and speak to me, until I touched him.

I then told the parents, and others who observed what had happened: "I am not a cynic about the power of faith. It works for many conditions, but not ALL conditions. I pointed out: "I saw one person in a wheel chair who had no legs. How come he was not brought up on stage. Many of those who said that their pain had gone were still grossly overweight. How come? And no one with bald heads grew any hair. Hmmm!"

Then I added: "By the way, I would love to write a positive story about what happened tonight. I am even willing meet and speak with any of you, tomorrow, and even to meet with the family doctor of the deaf boy."

I gave my name and number to all interested so that they could get in touch with me. That was the last time I saw the couple and their son who, sadly, still appeared very deaf to me. Several, around me expressed real anger at what I had done. They were not interested in facing the facts that faith does have its limitations.

In addition to this, when I said that I was quite willing to explore things further, two men, both believers, wanted to talk to me.

I said: "As a matter of fact, I happen to have a punctured right-ear drum, which does give me problems now and then, especially when I get a cold. For example, I cannot hear very well if I use my right ear to talk on the phone. One day, I might go and have surgery done. But I would love to have that hole fixed, by prayer."

The fervent members of the church prayer group told me that they were willing to pray for me. "Sometimes, it takes time to get a healing" they said.

"Would you be able to do something in a month?" I asked. They offered to try. "It is a deal" I said.

Over then next month, they kept in touch with me, frequently.

Sorry to say, just like with what happened at the church, the result was zero.

About a month ago, I did experience a "miracle". It is called a hearing aid, for my bad ear. Hearing music with both ears is wonderful.

BTW, why are hearing aids more expensive than a large TV? Like faith healers, are those who sell these gadgets conning us?

One final point, here: I am not cynical about what faith can do for certain health problems. I will write something about it, later.
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For sure Lindsay. "They" sell you things at a cost relative to your pain and desirability. So being able to hear/see will cost a lot more than the necessary equipment. Its sad that our world is build on greed, selfishness and all the other sins. But commerce got us where we are today - a double edged sword if ever there was one. It just annoys me when religious people talk hypocritically about how this group or that group are against God, preaching the commandments and deadly sins, yet blindly doing the same themselves.

Another example: My gf fell pregnant recently and was given a prescription for folic acid. She almost paid £6.50 for the one line on the prescription until the pharmacist hinted that it was only £0.99 over the counter... I realise that a lot of people in the UK don't pay for prescriptions, but thats just wrong. It only serves to highlight how problematic and incomplete our rigid administration systems are.

P.S. I think faith healers are only good for a laugh, but I feel guilty laughing at the people being healed. I believe the mind can make the body sick, but this is quite rare and more along the lines of depression and giving up on life, not baldness and deafness.

Quite rare? Are you sure? If the 'mind' --I prefer to use the word 'spirit'...as you say, can make the mind and the body sick, can it not also promote healing of the mind and the body?

Maybe the mind making the body ill isn't as rare as the minds ability to fix the body. Physical illnesses like cancer, diabetes, asthma and deafness are unlikely to be cured by a change of mind.

I should have made that distinction in my post

Its not that it cant, its just that its difficult to do. Your subconscious is capable of communicating with individual cells in your body. Which means if you have damaged cell your mind can send a neural signal through the nervous system all the way down to an individual cell.

This is how the nervous system works, it goes from large branches on the spinal cord to smaller and smaller and smaller ones, until their is one neuron for every cell. This is why your body can make you sick and its why it can heal you - communication. Now the question really is can people manage to heal their bodies a great deal using their minds? sorta.. Well you see, their are people who can control changes in bloodflow so if they got cut, they could decide whether to bleed or not by closing or opening veins. You can also change your heartrate, breathing rate, skin temperature, ect. Its all biofeedback really. What you have to remember is that the nervous system is HUGE it reaches to every part of the body, so your mind is capable of direct contact with anywhere in your body.

So, thoeretically it should be possible, whats needed is to learn how to consciously make such changes OR how to get the subconscious to do them for you. If you were to use the subconcious mind, its completely diffrent than doing it conscious, for example: Its the middle of winter and your freezing outside, you start to visualize yourself on a warm tropical beach and you start to feel better as your body feels warmer.

Now, is this actually changing your body temp or is it sending imagined warmth? Hard to say unless you actually measure your temp before and after, because consciously the signals appear the same. We do know that there are people who meditate in frigid cold waters in the middle of winter and dont have so much as a snifle afterwards, they do not show signs of being cold while in the water and their bodies remain normal. There are other extremes like people meditating in the desert, its mind over matter as they say.