Does reiki work on animals? Say, a turtle with a heart condition. Or a worm that was accidentally cut in half with a spade. If so, then I might become a believer. If not, it’s woo.
Reiki can’t possibly work, so why does it?
111–120 of 315 posts
Re: Reiki can’t possibly work, so why does it?
#112> The ailments that Reiki seems to treat most effectively are those that orthodox medicine struggles to manage: pain, anxiety, chronic disease, and the fear or discomfort of facing not only the suffering of illness but also the suffering of treatment. This is key. Modern medicine, with the way hospitals and health insurance are run, do not and cannot address, for economic reasons, a pretty important aspect, albeit su…
They're also the areas that are hardest to measure, of course. I always loved the Mitchell and Webb take on it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgxzSUxxRzE
Re: Reiki can’t possibly work, so why does it?
#113Almost more interesting than Reiki itself is the reflexive responses, bifurcating essentially into: 1. it's all mumbo jumbo 2. there's more in heaven and earth, my son Note that neither group is particularly interested in the empirical evidence, though group 1 will tend to take a louder cherry-picking feint at it. An empiricist mindset is really hard for humans to inhabit. We (scientistic hard-heads included) judge p…
I think researchers get too hung up on the a) "folclorical explanations" and b) specific measurable attributes (depression scales, anxiety scales, etc)
I have no doubt that the Reiki or Acupunture traditional explanations make no scientific sense.
But I'm also long on the idea that sticking needles at a shallow depth might have a certain analgesic effect (also see: tattoos). Yeah it seems you can't do a "fake acupunture" study, but that's not its fault.
I'm not sure about Reiki (and I'm much more skeptical) but massage feels good. It might have a non-identified reason for that, but that seems likely.
Re: Reiki can’t possibly work, so why does it?
#114Does reiki work on animals? Say, a turtle with a heart condition. Or a worm that was accidentally cut in half with a spade. If so, then I might become a believer. If not, it’s woo.
Does the turtle have stress or is it depressed, feeling isolated and alone? Does stroking a depressed dog make the dog feel better?
Re: Reiki can’t possibly work, so why does it?
#115> The ailments that Reiki seems to treat most effectively are those that orthodox medicine struggles to manage: pain, anxiety, chronic disease, and the fear or discomfort of facing not only the suffering of illness but also the suffering of treatment. This is key. Modern medicine, with the way hospitals and health insurance are run, do not and cannot address, for economic reasons, a pretty important aspect, albeit su…
> Modern medicine, with the way hospitals and health insurance are run, do not and cannot address, for economic reasons, a pretty important aspect, albeit subjective, which is well-being. The "economic reasons" are just the preferences of the rich & powerful. Resources could be allocated in other ways. It is just that those that call the shots are not interested. In the US, they also managed to convince a large part…
> I dream of an economic system that serves human beings instead
> of the numerical abstractions behind which the rich and
> powerful hide their extreme selfishness.
Re: Reiki can’t possibly work, so why does it?
#116> For 200 dollars, what is the Placebo effect?
Re: Reiki can’t possibly work, so why does it?
#117Earlier quoted context omitted.
I believe that most discussions about the placebo effect are muddled by whether regression-to-the-mean effects are included or not. [1] When one is comparing a treatment with a "placebo", it makes sense to include "regression-to-the-mean" effects, since you're obviously looking to do better than that with your treatment. However, when people ask "What are the biological causes of the placebo effect?", they should rea…
Your concern disappears if your method is to compare, on one hand, difference between treatment and nothing, and on the other hand, difference between placebo and nothing. To only compare treatment and placebo directly is of course a methodological error. PS: By the way, I'd advocate to scrutinize the biological bases of the placebo effect, in order to 1/ use it instead of trying to ignore it 2/ predict accurately it…
my understanding (see references in linked page) is that when one does what you said and compare placebo to “nothing”, almost the entire effect goes away.
Re: Reiki can’t possibly work, so why does it?
#118Maybe there is a way to use this concept of reducing stress with a gesture without invoking supernatural gibberish. I mean to me it seems totally plausible that having a person there that is trying to help you in and of itself can reduce stress. Also if they touch you, that seems like it could definitely reduce stress also. Or just the psychological effect of knowing that there are people who care, that seems like it…
Your first sentence is a very clear description of my feelings towards this whole thing.
This article and commentators here attributing the effects to inexplicable phenomenons is infuriating. If it really does something, it can be explained.
Re: Reiki can’t possibly work, so why does it?
#119Many people are commenting that Reiki is like Meditation i.e. all mumbo jumbo placebo effect. This might persuade a lot of people to reject both without going through the experience. I have been a very infrequent practitioner of meditation since 2009. I am now a very different person and there is no way for me to measure how or what has changed in me. I am way more focused, happier and might I conservatively add the…
What part of meditation is mumbo jumbo? It's not at all that unless people start thinking that they are having real out of body experiences or something (like, it's not just a perception, but some soul or something actually leaving their body).
Re: Reiki can’t possibly work, so why does it?
#120Many people are commenting that Reiki is like Meditation i.e. all mumbo jumbo placebo effect. This might persuade a lot of people to reject both without going through the experience. I have been a very infrequent practitioner of meditation since 2009. I am now a very different person and there is no way for me to measure how or what has changed in me. I am way more focused, happier and might I conservatively add the…
> attitude "Whatever is not written in the books we studied or if there is something we can not explain with our logic, then it must be mumbo jumbo"
That's a straw man. Actual attitude is "Whatever is predicated upon breaking the known and well-established laws of physics must be mumbo jumbo".
Reiki's purported mechanism of action fits that description, although it might have some effect through psychological mechanism, as does placebo.
Also, many people are very different now than in 2009, meditation or no meditation. That alone doesn't say much about it's effects.