The Ultimate Temptress

“The universe is full of magical things patiently waiting
for our wits to grow sharper.” Eden Philpotts

Many of us are now much more aware that conventional medicine has a toxic, even lethal side to it and we’re spending billions of pounds, euros and dollars on all manner of complementary and alternative medicines (CAM) for our physical, mental, emotional and even spiritual dis-eases.^{1 2 3} Chilblains, schizophrenia, sciatica, emotional trauma, rheumatism, feelings of emptiness and abandonment, sickness and headaches, stress and anxiety, coughs and colds, excema, asthma, diabetes, you name it, even cancer, there’s a natural, time-honoured, non-toxic, holistic treatment out there somewhere claiming remarkable healing success.⁴ But despite their popularity, do these therapies actually work? And at a deeper level, is holism, with its marked accent on mental and spiritual care, as wholesome for the mind and spirit as CAM literature tells us? ⁵

A Mind-blowing Magical Mystery Tour looks at acupuncture, allergy testing, aura diagnosis, Bach flower remedies, crystal therapy, dowsing for health, feng shui, geopathic stress, homoeopathy, iridology, Kirlian photography, naturopathy, radionics and reflexology and at some of the more popular mind and spirit self help packs and shows how 21st century holism is perhaps the most bewitching health consumer swindle of the modern day. With the exception of a few over-the-counter herbal remedies, these therapies contain no inherent healing or diagnostic powers and rely 100% upon instinctive appeal and a marked lack of consumer awareness to maintain their glowing reputations. Ouch!

It’s important I clarify my use of the term ‘swindle’ as soon as possible. It would be wrong, defamatory even, to describe holism as a deliberately fraudulent enterprise. That would be to imply some kind of orchestrated intent. There’s no ‘godfather’ of holistic health as such, no board of directors rejoicing at the latest global homoeopathy sales figures, no devious plans behind closed doors to bring a billion fake pills and potions to market. Here in the UK, CAM has a thriving, consumer-driven life all of its own with literally hundreds of independent cottage industry-type outlets across the country, natural health centres in just about every town and nationwide an estimated 30-40,000 therapists and accompanying web sites all offering their holistic services. Very importantly, I would also add that in my experience, most people who choose CAM as their profession do so for all the right reasons.

Of course, as in any walk of life, there are the scoundrels and we’ll meet a few in this book ‘doing very nicely thank you’. In the main though, the kindly lady managing the local health food shop is not a wolf in sheep’s clothing and your local homoeopath, acupuncturist or flower remedy practitioner will be the very opposite of ‘scheming trickster’. These people are not out to swindle anyone.

And it is here that we encounter our first intellectual dilemma. If it really is the case you can’t fool all of the people all of the time, then how can millions of regular CAM consumers and thousand of therapists be so wrong about CAM all of the time? These are thoughtful, intelligent people and surely they wouldn’t continue to use the therapies if they didn’t think they were working? Shouldn’t it be me going back to the drawing board on this one?

This has been suggested to me I don’t know how many times and each time, my answer is the same. CAM is still a swindle but always with one important caveat. It’s the medicines that are fake, not the people. I liken the proliferation of CAM to the spread of ‘hard-to-spot’ fake £20 notes. Few of us would know if we were carrying the better quality forgeries with us. And if unwittingly we did pass them on, that doesn’t make us deceitful or unintelligent. Yes, we’re complicit in keeping the sham currency in circulation but it’s not really our fault. We just don’t know how to spot the fake notes.....yet!

And it’s the same with CAM. A Mind-blowing Magical Mystery Tour lays bare holism’s illusory powers and reveals every single secret behind the ‘CAM healing’ magic show. No stone is left unturned. The only question is, do you dare look? A former alternative therapist with a paying practice in London at the time read this book at manuscript stage and kindly wrote the following:

“I have been dedicated to studying, promoting and practicing alternative medicine for 13 years, and I have been stopped in my tracks by Steven‘s work. If you too are dedicated to searching for the truth and don’t mind being challenged, then this book is for you. To all you therapists and consumers out there, I say read this book and judge for yourselves the claims contained in it.” Gina L., DipAc DipCHM DipAroma DipHFR, London - ex-acupuncturist, ex-aromatherapist.

Thank you Gina for daring to look. Your words are an inspiration to me. Not every aspect of CAM is crooked as we’ll read, but most of it is and to varying degrees, all of us in our own little ways are helping to perpetuate the glorious CAM illusion.

Because of the many sensitivities surrounding this subject, critiquing the therapies is always going to be a delicate task and for many, the sensitivity meter rarely ever dips below red. Tact and respect are of course key but so too is intellectual consistency. Getting to the heart of what CAM/holistic health is all about also requires a certain emotional detachment and so it really doesn’t help that wherever holism goes, there are her faithful courtiers who go before her, stirring up all sorts of distracting sentiments. They’re the unspoken undercurrents in the great CAM debate that could pull us right under if we’re not careful.

The first distraction, before we even begin to discuss any individual therapy, is the name itself - the holistic health movement - and all the ‘wholesome goodness’ such a name embodies. Like Elton John’s World AIDS Day or the Mother Theresa Mercy Outreach or the X Factor ‘Help for Heroes’ Christmas single, her name is bathed in irreproachable light. The philanthropic cause she represents cannot be argued. Doors that would otherwise stay shut automatically open as soon as her name is called and she will be granted a commanding seat at the table every time.

And what exactly does wholistic health bring to the table? As her name says - whole health. Deep, inner healing, in body, mind and spirit. And not just for the individual but for the whole earth! Crikey! Argue that if you dare. It’s a mission statement to die for. Who in their right mind, in these strife-torn times, wouldn’t desire what she offers? Stretched out across our screens, all natural and inviting.com with her scented sheets and ‘come to bed’ herbs and aloes, Mme Holisme is utterly irresistible. In fact, there’s nothing about this alluring creature that doesn’t instantly make you want to own her, be owned by her and defend her to your dying breath. The embodiment of a million hopes and dreams, she’s the ultimate health temptress and her global healing message is any advertiser’s dream campaign.

And woe betide anyone who disagrees with any of her ideas on health and healing. He will instantly be marked down as a supporter of toxic pharmaceuticals, an ‘untouchable’, against nature, against the healing of the planet and quite possibly ‘the most evil person IN THE WORLD!’ You bet the CAM debate is emotive.

Which leads us to another quite dangerous CAM undercurrent - that of passion, or, to be more precise, too much passion. History tells us time and again how passion can cloud our critical faculties if we’re not careful. A Mind-blowing Magical Mystery Tour shows how a passionate (but not undeserved) distrust of conventional medicine combined with a passionate desire for a new way forward in health and healing has been a quite euphoric mix and in the rush to treat our dis-eases by any means other than ‘foul Big Pharma!’, we’ve uncritically succumbed to CAM’s dazzling array of alternatives.

I know many CAM supporters will have concerns over what motives I might have for writing a book such as this. Who am I? What’s the agenda here? Who’s side am I really on? I assure you this book has not been ghost-written by some interested party at GlaxoSmithKline, I have no shadowy links to big business and I have no conventional ‘corner’ to protect. In fact, I’ve been told on more than one occasion I haven’t a conventional bone in my body! And I’m not dependent on any medically related income either. I design and sell commercial vehicle electronics. It’s an exacting business and I’d like to think I can tell when something doesn’t quite add up, hence this book.

If it helps my non-partisan plea, I’m aware of the bias in many CAM critiques and the general unwillingness in these books to discuss any unhealthy aspects of conventional medicine in any detail, particularly ‘the supply end’ of the business. For instance, I’ve yet to read a CAM ‘corrective’ that in the same breath will also humbly acknowledge the corruption within the pharmaceutical industry and how it taints so much conventional theory and practice further downstream. Any adverse comments that are made on these sprawling conglomerates are at best fleeting and rarely draw attention to any serious breach of ethics.

And there are never any references made to the many qualified texts in the public domain that cast doubt upon the conventional understanding of disease and its ‘heroic’ conventional ‘cure’. In the main, CAM critiques come across as bristling, unassailable fortresses, firing their fiery arrows down upon all who dare question the conventional party line.

And that’s where I hope this book will be different. I want CAM enthusiasts and therapists to read this book, and to read it to the end, preferably! And if you do, you will see the information on the therapies is counterbalanced with a number of little-publicised facts and figures on conventional medicine that are just as eye-opening. It’s an editorial balance I hope will make more friends than enemies. Thank you again Gina, ex-acupuncturist and ex-aromatherapist. Your decision to exit CAM would have taken a lot of guts. To reiterate, it’s the medicines that are fake, not the people.

With my pet angst I hope dealt with - that writing critically on CAM does not automatically mean I’m somehow linked to ‘the dark side’ or in bed with Big Pharma, I’d now like to summarise the topics we’ll be looking at along the way.⁶

Chapters

about the author

1. The Ultimate Temptress FREE
2. No Stone Unturned FREE
3. Homoeopathy: The Formative Years FREE
4. Death by Doctoring
5. Hahnemann’s ‘Secret’ Powders
6. Like Cures Like?
7. Just My Imagination Running Away With Me
8. Less is More?
9. The Memory of Water And other Fancies
10. Our Wonderful Immune System
11. A Certain Charm
12. Veterinary Homoeopathy
13. The Dance Of Homoeopathy
14. Gimme The Moonlight!
15. Hahnemann’s Latter Years
16. Homoeopathy Today
17. Bach Flower Remedies
18. Acupuncture FREE
19. Naturopathy
20. The Feng Shui Horrorscope
21. Reflexology, Iridology and other Intolerances
22. The Medicine Business
23. Ooooh! Heaven is a Place on Earth!
24. My Kingdom for Consistency!
25. Nothing New Under the Sun
26. References