Alastair Hay BSc (Hons) LCH RSHom | M: 07940 525495 | E: al@homeopathical.com
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the skeptics agenda - part 6 - conclusions and solutions

11/10/2013

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The skeptics agenda, first and foremost is to have homeopathy banned. The basis of which is not sound evidence, but an aversion to ‘homeopathy’, a prejudice, by definition.

The etymology of skepticism implies enquiring and reflection, not dismissiveness. A true skeptic doesn't make pre-judgements. This actually makes them ‘pseudo’ skeptics. We all have prejudices, we are all biased. Our beliefs taint the way we judge and validate new ideas. The thing is, as is aptly explained in this blog, we don’t want to be wrong and we will strongly defend those beliefs.

The impression a skeptic, or indeed pseudoskeptic gives, is that they are right and you are wrong. They are wise and learned and you are not. They are the group that should decide whether you have access to homeopathy and not you. The ultimate result is a denial of your choice. If homeopathy was as insignificant as it’s made out to be, do you think they’d be gunning for it? The problem is, it’s viable ‘competition’.

For some, it’s really important to know ‘how’ something works, and for others it’s more important to see it work. My job, as a homeopathic practitioner, or ‘homeopath’ is actually to make homeopathy work, rather than to find out how it works. For example, the mechanism of action of the painkiller, paracetamol is still poorly understood, yet we know and accept that it works. However, you can analyse a paracetamol tablet and find ‘active’ chemical constituents in it. How about electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) though? No tablets, no chemistry, poorly understood, and still used in some circumstances to manage mental illness, with effect, yet we have little understanding how it works. I’m sure that if this fell under the banner of ‘homeopathy’, the skeptics' opinion of it would differ.

Summary of The Skeptics Agenda


Part 1 - Skeptics claim homeopathy is unscientific

Some elements of homeopathy are scientific, Samuel Hahnemann, the founder of homeopathy was a scientist. Some elements of homeopathy are ‘artistic’. Medicine is not based purely on science. Many practices in medicine are based on inference, theory, the fact that it’s always been done that way and the knowledge of observable favourable reaction without fully understanding the mechanism of action.

Medicine ≠ science.

Solution – Do patients / clients derive benefit from it? Focus on the results.

Part 2 - Skeptics claim homeopathy is dangerous

Homeopathy isn’t dangerous but homeopaths can be. The lack of integration and animosity between medical disciplines and pride is a stumbling block.

Solution – Train homeopaths well, and regulate appropriately.


Part 3 - Skeptics claim homeopathy is merely placebo

The placebo ‘effect’, is still an effect. Understanding placebo is science. Conventional and non-conventional medical methodologies utilise placebo. There is no significant difference between the beneficial interventions of conventional medical treatments compared to the positive evidence for homeopathy. Animals respond to homeopathic medicines.

Solution – Focus on the word ‘effect’ and not ‘placebo’.

Part 4 - Skeptics claim homeopaths are bare-faced lying snake-oil sales people

Within the realms of homeopathic practice, we don’t have sales reps promoting their medicines to homeopaths. Homeopaths are not ‘incentivised’ to prescribe particular homeopathic medicines over another homeopathic medicine and when a new homeopathic medicine is formulated, it costs the same as one that’s been available for 200 years. Furthermore, the information about new discoveries in homeopathy is shared amongst homeopathic pharmacies freely.

Solution – Understand how homeopaths make a living and how the pharmaceutical industry and medical profession works.


Part 5 - Skeptics claim homeopathy is witchcraft

'Homeopathy is witchcraft' is a statement based on observing that homeopathy works but having no idea how.

Solution – Accept homeopathy works and that we have a limited understanding of how.



Conclusion

Be a skeptic, but be a real skeptic, not a pseudo-skeptic. Base your understanding of the world on what you actually see, feel, hear, smell, touch and taste for real; not what you read in the news or what someone tells you, but what you experience. Question everything. Never accept anything as unquestionable since that is where dogma starts, and progress stops.

Who actually benefits if homeopathy is banned? It's unlikely to be you.

Next week...

Al's Agenda
5 Comments

the skeptics agenda - part 4

20/9/2013

0 Comments

 
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Homeopaths are bare-faced, lying snake-oil salespeople

Homeopaths make money from gullible sick people.

...Ban homeopathy. 
Really?


My understanding of snake-oil salespeople, is that they peddled their wares by travelling into a town, selling elixirs of no healing value and clearing off.

The origins of the term ‘snake oil’ are from China where oil from the Chinese water-snake was extracted and used for a multitude of maladies. Chinese water-snake oil contains 20 percent eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), one of the two types of omega-3 fatty acids most readily used by our bodies. In the 1860s, Chinese railroad workers would use that Snake Oil to rub their sore muscles. They shared the secret elixir with their American counterparts...and then things got crazy. To cut a long story short they tried to make their own without the Chinese water-snake. Elaborate travelling medicine shows were set up with demos of the remedy's ‘healing’ powers and when it was found that it didn’t work, the peddler had long gone to ply their wares elsewhere.

Essentially, the American counterpart was found to contain none of the ‘active’ ingredients.

This, I suppose, is where our reputation as snake-oil peddlers comes in. Chemically analysing homeopathic tablets for answers will reveal little or nothing, but how about asking the clients of homeopathy?

This is the difference between looking for an action of something or assessing a reaction to something.

Are homeopaths really salespeople?

A homeopath’s standing is largely built upon their reputation of helping people get well and stay well i.e. upon their results... and a homeopath will tend to stay in a town, settle down, become part of the community, integrate and obviously earn their reputation, rather than plying their wares then clearing off.

If you come from the sceptical-activism viewpoint of ‘ban homeopathy’ you’ll chastise homeopaths for both making lots of money, or making no money. 
If you make ‘lots’ of money from being a homeopath, a skeptic would interpret that as exploitation, since in their eyes it’s money for nothing :) ...and, if you don’t make any money as a homeopath, you’re deemed useless, or homeopathy is.

Therefore, being 'good' or 'bad' salespeople makes no difference as to whether skeptics want to ban homeopathy. 

As outlined earlier, our ability to make money, or as I call it 'earn a living', is based upon our reputation.

When I was at college, we didn’t have lessons in sales and marketing despite when practising as a homeopath, it is, in fact, a business. College taught us to be great prescribers and case managers but there were no lessons in how to be salespeople.


‘Homeopaths make money from gullible sick people’?

Not really...


We actually make a living from ill people getting well.
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    BSc (Hons) LCH RSHom Homoeopath

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