A colleague wrote to his MP to ask if anything could be done about the defrauding of the public by “psychic surgeons”. He wrote, in particular, about Stephen Turoff.
Turoff was the subject of the first episode of “Trust me I’m a Healer”, a programme that looked at “fake psychic healers”. They are the BBC’s own words (see badpsychics.com).
“Psychic surgery is nothing but a total hoax.â€
“Psychic surgery was discredited by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission in 1975. In a unanimous opinion, the commission declared that “‘psychic surgery’ is nothing but a total hoax.” Judge Daniel H. Hanscom, in granting the FTC an injunction against travel agencies promoting psychic surgery tours, said: “Psychic surgery is pure and unmitigated fakery. The ‘surgical operations’ of psychic surgeons … with their bare hands are simply phony.” (see here) â€
Eventually my colleague got an answer from Lord Hunt, junior minister at the Department of Health (generally loyal Blairite, but he did resign over Iraq).
The response makes one wonder what planet the minister is living on Psychic fraud a “profession”? And capable of self-regulation? This letter is just surreal.
Clearly misunderstanding the nature of science is not restricted to any political party. In any case, regulation of crackpot medicine arguably does more harm than good (see Letter to the Times).
Most sorts of crackpot medicine are desparate to be “regulated” by the government. They know that the regulation is ineffective, and they know that it gives them a stamp of governnment approval with few obligations on their part. They can then claim to be “professional” psychic surgeons
(or whatever) and pretend to be proper doctors. And foremost among those pressing for this sort of phony respectability has been the Prince of Wales Foundation for Integrated Health (see here and here).
8 responses so far ↓
1 Science in an Age of Endarkenment // Nov 5, 2007 at 16:00
[...] treatment of foot and mouth disease. Caroline Flint condoned homeopathy, and Lord Hunt referred to ‘psychic surgery’ as a “profession” in a letter written in response to question by a clinical scientist [...]
2 A very bad report: gamma minus for the vice-chancellor // Jun 24, 2008 at 08:01
[...] to that well known conjuring trick, “psychic surgery” as a “profession”, revealed here, causes Lawson to [...]
3 Five good books and a bad one // Jul 2, 2008 at 08:47
[...] and politics gives us some horrifiying examples of the total ignorance of almost all politicians and civil servants about the scientific method (and their refusal to listen to anyone who does [...]
4 Patent medicines in 1938 and now: A.J.Clark’s book. // Sep 30, 2008 at 10:45
[...] 0 ← The gripes of Rath [...]
5 The twelve days of (alternative) Christmas « Dr Aust’s Spleen // Dec 25, 2008 at 11:11
[...] Ten psychic surgeons [...]
6 Most alternative medicine is illegal // Jan 15, 2009 at 10:43
[...] even the Department of Health itself, which notoriously referred to “psychic surgery” as a profession, and which has consistently refused to refer dubious therapies to NICE for [...]
7 BMJ defends freedom of speech (but censors my comment) // Jul 16, 2009 at 08:00
[...] perhaps, misplaced political correctness that lies at the heart of the problem. Who can forget the letter from Lord Hunt, while he was at the Department of Health, in which he described “psychic surgery” (one [...]
8 Comedy gold in parliament and tragedy from Prince of Wales: editorial in British Medical Journal // Jan 8, 2010 at 22:35
[...] tribunal rejects appeal by University of Central Lancashire. Freedom of Information wins! Lindy’s Yuletide special [...]
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