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Reiki can’t possibly work, so why does it?

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Re: Reiki can’t possibly work, so why does it?

#151

Post by eeZah7Ux »

barry-cotter wrote: post #133
andrepd wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>The figure of the family doctor that takes his time and actually shows you attention has vanished. The average experience of a hospital visit is that of being treated like a number. This doesn't have to be so (indeed in many places it isn't yet). This is a consequence of a strained public health system which is simply running over capacity. Maybe if we stopped pumping money into banks and wealthy people's pockets we…

The US spends more on healthcare per capita than any other country, which is hardly surprising given that it’s the richest country. Whatever criticisms one might make of the US healthcare system not enough money is far down the list.

> The US spends more on healthcare per capita than any other country ...

...because it's very inefficient

Re: Reiki can’t possibly work, so why does it?

#153

Post by eeZah7Ux »

connectsnk wrote: post #31

Many 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…

Claiming that meditation is just a placebo is absurd. There's tons of research on it.

Re: Reiki can’t possibly work, so why does it?

#154

Post by bencollier49 »

Tepix wrote: post #102
ghthor wrote: post #27

It can possibly work, if you open your mind to more then what's possible in the materialist scientific viewpoint.

Why would you do that?

Well, if we take the original comment at face-value, in order to make it work.

Re: Reiki can’t possibly work, so why does it?

#155

Post by nprateem »

Really there are only 2 positions here:

1. All this spiritual mumbo-jumbo is a crock of shit

2. It's real

While it's fashionable to think 1 is correct, it is just possible that 2 is in fact our reality. I mean quantum physics shows us the universe is weird. Not bothering to try to find evidence of 2 and dismissing it out of hand is as counterproductive as people who blindly accept 2 with no evidence.

No doubt some of you are thinking of replying along the lines of 'well you should waste your life investigating whether an invisible spaghetti monster lives in the sky, or whether it's turtles all the way down, etc'. To those I'd say had there been several thousands of years worth of people recounting their own experiences of either a flying spaghetti monster or turtles all the way down I'd agree with you.

I see it as little different to the UFO stuff - mocked for years, but actually if you look into it there's probably something to it, based on the weight and volume of eyewitness reports. But it's just easier to not risk looking foolish and dismiss it out of hand instead of investigating it for yourself, isn't it?

Re: Reiki can’t possibly work, so why does it?

#156

Post by nprateem »

balfirevic wrote: post #147
nprateem wrote: post #122

I've been attuned to level 2 reiki. I've also received it a few times both in person and from a distance. And stone me, but I felt stuff every time. The first time I had it from a master on my crown it was like something pouring down through my body. It felt electrical and great. I've no idea how the distance stuff works, although I've been told how to do it. Well, I've been given explanations about the 'all-is-one,…

If you can reliably distinguish whether the distant practitioner is doing anything to you or not, you should be able to get yourself a million dollars [0]. [0] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Million_Dollar_Paranormal_...

Yeah. And if I could reliably fall in love I wouldn't be single.

Re: Reiki can’t possibly work, so why does it?

#157

Post by fooblat »

heisenzombie wrote: post #117
henearkr wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

How would you propose a blinded study will work to compare between a Placebo treatment and no treatment?

Re: Reiki can’t possibly work, so why does it?

#158

Post by docgonzo »

I feel this is closely related to Therapeutic Touch. While these practices may be generated by a placebo affect, I would argue that there is a difference between feeling better and being better. Therapeutic touch was largely debunk by a 10 year with a simple experiment that blinded the practitioners as to whether they were applying their touch to a patient or not using a piece of cardboard [0]. The practitioners could not tell the difference. Interestingly, the author is the youngest person to publish a research article. Science based medicine has a nice response to this article as well [1]. [0] https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/187390 [1] https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/no-editors-of-the-atlantic-...

Re: Reiki can’t possibly work, so why does it?

#159

Post by switch007 »

sorokod wrote: post #34
hcarvalhoalves wrote: post #23

> 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…

The homeopathic a&e: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=HMGIbOGu8q0

> Nurse: Strength?

> Doctor: 1 part in a million

> Nurse: Are you sure? It looks serious

> Doctor: You're right, we need to strengthen the dose: 1 part in 10 million

Hah!

Re: Reiki can’t possibly work, so why does it?

#160

Post by stronglikedan »

hcarvalhoalves wrote: post #23

> 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…

> The figure of the family doctor that takes his time and actually shows you attention has vanished.

They're still plentiful if you seek them out.

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