Archive for the ‘Orgone and Crystal Healing’ Category

As much as I love the skeptic community, I’ve recently felt that a few problems need addressing. Namely, that refuting unscientific, false or misinformed matters is quite often approached through ridicule rather than a respectful outlaying of the facts. Given the highly doubtful nature of certain premises such as homeopathy, keeping oneself from succumbing to frustration in arguing against such nonsense can admittedly be a very difficult task on its own. Nevertheless, resorting to the derision of “believers” can only result in the affirmation of their misplaced beliefs, as their mere indifference to the alternative is substituted by outward hostility. Read the rest of this entry »

There seems to be a rather large problem with Bill C-51 that has been overlooked by our policy makers and health officials alike: nobody seems to understand the bill. The premise is simple enough: treat all medications the same way. If you want to sell something that claims to cure cancer, then prove that it cures cancer. That’s it. Simple.

Unfortunately, there seems to be a rather large opposition to this bill, and the basis of this opposition seems to stem from a gross misunderstanding of it. The C-51 Opposition Party is a big tent, ranging from FDA paranoia to the belief that this bill aims to ban all herbal remedies.

To clarify, this bill will not ban herbal remedies. It will require that all drugs marketed as cures or treatments will be subjected to the same standards. This would not prevent people from selling, purchasing or consuming non-harmful (and legal) substances. This is about health claims and fraud… that’s all.

I can’t help but think how much smaller the opposition to this bill would be if people only understood what it was about. The conspiracy theorists would probably still rant about how this is another scheme by Big Pharma to steal our money, make us sick, and extract our surplus value… but those people are already a lost cause. Hell, if you really wanted to, you could still sell Orgone crystals!

Here’s my challenge to you: If you are not in favour of Bill C-51, go and read it. Make sure you understand the terminology, and what each section means. Afterwards, if you still think it’s a bad idea, come back and chat.

Let’s talk about Orgone. A form of energy allegedly discovered by Wilhelm Reich, it has spawned an entire system of belief and generation of quackery. Due to the complex nature of this post, I’m going to break it down into topics. Let’s start with the basics:

What is Orgone?

From Wikipedia:

Orgone energy is a term coined by psychoanalyst Wilhelm Reich for the “universal life energy” which he was convinced to have discovered in published experiments in the late 1930s. Reich claimed that Orgone energy was a “life energy” which filled all space, was blue in color, and that certain forms of illness were the consequence of depletion or blockages of the energy within the body. These theories are considered pseudoscience by most.

In many ways, the concept of Orgone bears certain resemblances to the Chinese concept of Qi, or how the force worked in Star Wars before Lucas changed his mind and decided informed us it was caused by midi-chlorians. The concept was actually originally based on the Freudian concept of libido. Though Orgone doesn’t obey the same set of laws as the rest of the physical universe (it isn’t subject to the laws of Thermodynamics, for example), it can still be captured and directed. Again, much like Qi, Reich believed that certain illnesses were caused by a lack of Orgone in key places in the body. Naturally, Reich created a machine called a cloudbuster, which he claimed could cause clouds to dissipate merely by manipulating Orgone fields. Later, certain conspiracy groups adapted the technology to disperse so-called chemtrails.

So why should we reject this premise?

Lack of any evidence. Beyond that, lack of any hypothesized mechanism for what Orgone is, how it behaves, or how it is able to do what people think it does. Wilhelm Reich was not a total crackpot; realizing that he was dealing with science outside of his professed field, he enlisted the help of some notable physicists in order to verify his claims. Subsequent tests showed that Reich’s Orgone accumulator was not able to generate the intended effect. Since then, nobody has been able to show conclusively (i.e. in a controlled test) any effect from the direction or accumulation of Orgone energy. Nor have physicists, with their ever-increasing knowledge of what the universe is made of, uncovered some type of particle or field that bears resemblance to Orgone.
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One of the dangers of being a skeptic is receiving the ire of those lacking a sense of rationality. Make no mistake, by pointing the finger at unscientific shenanigans, you’re most likely going to hear about it. Not by those who’ve been fooled into believing the nonsense, but by those who’ve dedicated themselves to that nonsense and, even more likely, by the people who are selling it. Such is the case with the proposed Canadian Bill C-51, which according to some will “criminalize activities like picking dandelions, drying herbs, or even giving homeopathic medicine to your own child(sic)!”

Link.

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Recently, a new cell tower was erected at a nearby intersection. To most people, this means improved cell reception, fewer dropped calls, and at the very least a brand new flagpole. However, one group of residents was not pleased with this new addition to the neighborhood. Believing that cell towers emit radiation that is harmful to the human body, they gathered to protest the cell tower.

Performing a quick Google search for “cell tower dangers” (and ignoring the results that inform of no harms from cell towers), you will stumble across many sites claiming vague and pseudo-scientific harms that result from living near cell towers. If you dig deep enough, you’ll find sites willing to sell you Orgone generators, which will generate Orgone fields to counteract the harmful rays of cell towers. Dig even deeper and you will find conspiracy theorists who believe that the government uses cell phone signals and radio waves to control our minds.

Let’s not dig that deep.

The protesters were nice enough to set up a website with a list of their claims as to why they believe that cell towers are harmful. Let’s examine what these claims are, and why they are wrong.

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