Without evidence of benefit, an intervention should not be presumed to be beneficial or safe.

- Rogue Medic

Evil Spirits, Shock Trauma, Anecdotes, and Gullibility


In response to Shock Trauma Infested With Evil Spirits, One Hand Man writes the following:

First of all, If you are going to write an article about how bad and BS reiki is you should at least do even the slightest amount of research to learn what reiki actually is.

I have looked at the research. You are wrong to assume that I haven’t.

Do you expect that your unsupportable accusation will do anything other than convince people that you do not think about what you write?

Where is the evidence that reiki is anything other than a fraud?

The research does not support reiki.

Do you ignore the research?

Do you just not understand the research?

The research is clear. Reiki is just another placebo – in other words BS.

Reiki is about directing “Life Force Energy”. Now regardless if you believe in this “Life Force Energy” it doesn’t change the fact that it has nothing to do with “spirits” or “Ghosts”

There is no difference between the magical thinking of “Life Force Energy” and the magical thinking of “Ghosts.” Neither is real.

There is no difference between the magical thinking of “Life Force Energy” and the magical thinking of “spirits.” Neither is real.

Furthermore even if it is just a placebo it still helps!

Holding a patient’s hand helps, but we aren’t telling the patient lies about hand holding being some magic medicine – magic medicine is not real.

Does it actually cost anything extra? NO!

Yes. Magic medicine costs a lot.

Magic medicine, such as reiki, requires that doctors and nurses abandon honesty and ethics.

Is it honest to lie to patients?

Is it ethical to lie to patients?

Telling patients that reiki works is a lie.

I’m speaking from personal experience here!

An anecdote (your personal experience) is good for suggesting hypotheses for research. Once the research shows that the anecdote is just due to a placebo effect, we know that it is just wishful thinking. Wishful thinking leads us to deceive ourselves. It is even worse to deceive others.

Donna Audia who you openly bash in your article is not hired by the hospital specifically as a reiki specialist, as you seem to describe her but instead she is a nurse!

Deceiving patients is only one part of her job?

This is a defense?

Lying to patients is a violation of informed consent.

She does reiki as something extra! The hospital doesn’t pay her anything extra for doing it!

Oh, good. The fraud is FREE.

That is so much better than lying for money.

Hold on.

Is she off duty when she is practicing this mumbo jumbo?

If not, then the hospital has to pay other nurses to do her nursing work, while she is waving her magic wand and engaging in other deception.

Is she doing this completely on her own time, or are you telling another lie?

How gullible do you think we are?

I was a patient at this hospital for many months and during that time Donna was my nurse but she also did reiki on me in the PACU (if you don’t know what the is you have no right to be bashing this hospital or even writing this blog) and on my parents while I was in surgery. All of us agree that is does help.

Somehow the anecdote is multiplying, still the plural of anecdote is Myth.

I am familiar with the Post-Anesthesia Care Unit, but all one needs to know to point out that reiki is just a scam, is that there is no good research demonstrating that reiki is any better than a placebo. In other words, it is just another placebo.

And as a final note the title of this article is ridiculous.

When writing about things as ridiculous as reiki, ridicule is completely appropriate.

It creates an image of ghosts and poltergeists which i assume was another ploy of yours to make this hospital and the people in it look incompetent and unsafe.

These charlatans ridicule themselves by promoting reiki and acupuncture and other placebos. I am only pointing out that their actions are ridiculous.

I don’t know what your problem is with this hospital and there staff but they are providing a WAY more important public service than you are.

I am not telling lies about the treatments I provide.

Why do you claim that dishonesty is an important public service?

Treatment with reiki is no different from talking with ghosts, or performing psychic surgery, or promoting any other sham.

No reputable hospital should be so irresponsible.

This isn’t medicine.

When doctors and nurses betray the trust of their patients, these doctors and nurses deserve much more than ridicule.

Of course, if there is any valid evidence that reiki is better than placebo, then just provide it and I will retract what I wrote.

I’ll wait.

.

Comments

  1. These are the same reasons I will not pray with my patients in the ambulance or at the scene, regardless of how much better it may make them feel. I’ll bow my head in respect, knowing it will have ZERO effect on their outcome, then go back to convincing them we need to get their family member to a medical facility for definitive intervention, and stop thanking someone else, my name is Justin not Jesus.

  2. People will believe anything-except that bad news doesn’t change the truth…

  3. To start, if in fact you had looked at research you would know that reiki has nothing to do with evil spirits. Also there is also studies on reiki on patients that show it has helped them. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15674004 and http://www.reikipages.com/evidence-for-reiki.html i could post more but a simple Google search of “Reiki proof” will generate hundreds of results. In the 2nd article, you can see that Harvard Medical School have done studies with Reiki that show it does help. But i suppose there’s evil spirits at Harvard controlling the researchers as well? From my experience and from your article Donna and everyone else says this MAY help. I’ve seen nothing saying that Donna or anyone else tells patients “If you let us do this, you will defiantly feel better” or anything along those lines. In answer to your question “Is she off duty when she is practicing this mumbo jumbo?” yes, for the most part she is. When she did reiki with my family it was well past 1 in the morning. When i say i the hospital privides a way more important public service than you do, i mean to say that the ENTIRE hospital. Or is surgery to repair physical damage to the body a lie as well? I suppose its just the evil spirits creating an image of blood and gore.
    P.S. The plural of Anecdote is not myth.

    • One Hand Man,

      To start, if in fact you had looked at research you would know that reiki has nothing to do with evil spirits.

      They are both fantasies.

      Also there is also studies on reiki on patients that show it has helped them. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15674004

      Show me some valid evidence of people being healed by reiki.

      This is a small study of changes in vital signs that might be related to reiki. Reiki has been around a while, so why isn’t there any evidence of anyone being healed by reiki?

      this was a pilot study with relatively few subjects and the changes were relatively small. The results justify further, larger studies to look at the biological effects of Reiki treatment.

      As I wrote, Of course, if there is any valid evidence that reiki is better than placebo, then just provide it and I will retract what I wrote.

      and http://www.reikipages.com/evidence-for-reiki.html i could post more but a simple Google search of “Reiki proof” will generate hundreds of results.

      That is not research. That is a fan page.

      In the 2nd article,

      What second article?

      If you want me to read some research, provide at least a PubMed link. If you can’t do that, you have nothing.

      I’ve seen nothing saying that Donna or anyone else tells patients “If you let us do this, you will defiantly feel better” or anything along those lines.

      The problem is that they are providing a placebo and stating that it is something other than just a placebo.

      In answer to your question “Is she off duty when she is practicing this mumbo jumbo?” yes, for the most part she is.

      For the most part?

      In other words, she is on duty.

      When she did reiki with my family it was well past 1 in the morning.

      Are you suggesting that Shock Trauma does not pay their nurses after midnight?

      P.S. The plural of Anecdote is not myth.

      A myth is a belief in something that is often based on misinterpretation of anecdotes.

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