32 Comments

Another superb article from David. This one had me spitting out my coffee at points as David laid out the absurdity of this quackery and the role it plays in convincing people that the lack of control they have overt their lives is somehow part of a great cosmic mystery.

It is a rare skill to be able to combine empathy and genuine interest with sardonic wit and flinty realism.

I’d love to see David explore a range of other subjects: the boom in Turkish barbers, paddle boarding for the over 50s, the burgeoning Merseyside craft cheese scene, and so on…

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Keep sending me these solid good ideas Drew. But, also, how did you know what my weekends consisted of?

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I had a word with Melissa and she spilled the (magic) beans…

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This is brilliant writing, worth paying for, as was your Everton article. You've convinced me to pay up! Lots more of this please!

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Hilarious and witty. I was laughing out loud on the train!

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I laughed out loud so many times reading this beautifully written and thoughtful piece.

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Laugh out loud funny. The pragmatic wit was just up my street. More please 😀

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Great report, I too find these practices odd to say the least. I have friends who swear by Reiki but each to their own as my nan used to say. My concern is that a person could be exploited financially at a vulnerable time in their life.

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You “call make a GP appointment”! That’s the bit that floored me the most 🤣 If only it were that easy…then all the frankly bizarre and illogical woo woo people wouldn’t be managing to be so apparently successful.

Some ‘alternative’ therapies are based on stuff that seems logical and genuinely legitimate. If ‘conventional’ medicine hadn’t moved so far away from the holistic approach of treating the cause rather than the symptom, or specialising to the degree that consultants routinely say the jaw droppingly unhelpful “yes there’s something wrong with you but it’s not your _____ so you’re being discharged.” And you’re back to yet another wait to see your almost mythical GP and a referral to yet another waiting list.

And long waits often result in death. That’s not hyperbole, that’s multiple first hand experiences.

I have an open mind about some holistic therapies. Mostly because over the years I’ve done my due diligence and hunted out practitioners who are well trained and established etc. and been helped at times when our national health service was unable to.

Clearly more conventional medicine is inching towards the realisation that writing a prescription for medication isn’t a sustainable model. During a recent rare GP appointment (F2F!) my doctor actually discussed the link between the gut and nervous system and was clearly taking a much more holistic overview of my various chronic conditions than I’ve encountered in the past. Which is splendid.

But it’s not going to be a quick fix, and alas our societal model is rooted in short term goals and fractured bureaucratic constraints. I don’t believe for example that a physiotherapist can do a course for a couple of weeks and suddenly be an effective acupuncturist.

Which I guess is my long winded and rambling way of saying - I enjoyed this piece, but it’s a shame David didn’t choose a wider and more balanced selection for the article. Someone doing f2f sessions in the store room of a greeting card shop clearly isn’t likely to be particularly legitimate practitioner…

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I take your point - as someone who’s experienced first hand the hit and miss approach to diagnosis and treatment at my local hospital I’m well aware of the flaws in the system. I think, if I’m honest, I just wanted to write a funny piece. I am a bit shallow like that I’m afraid.

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Archangel Metatron is full of crap, you are absolutely not faking it, this is brilliant writing.

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Came for the KLF ref, stayed for the hilarity.

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Thank you for a very entertaining article. I think since Covid a lot of these so called gurus and practitioners have appeared and I agree they take advantage of vulnerable people. But let’s be honest we’ve had psychics like Derek Acorah around for years, I can remember friends having psychic parties in their homes. It’s kind of the same thing. It’s all about playing on your vulnerabilities and releasing your hard earned money from your purse/wallet.

Nowadays I regularly practise yoga which has made me stronger and feel better. It’s all about the breath work. I also have the odd holistic treatment but I make sure the therapist is genuine and professionally trained. Keep up the good work though can’t wait for your next piece.

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There’s a word for all of this: pseudoscience. There are other, less diplomatic words which are no less accurate. I enjoyed David’s article, but I’d love to read a more serious analysis of why this kind of stuff could be dangerous.

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Thanks for visiting places I never would, but am always interested in. I hope you parent is feeling better.

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This was quite mean-spirited and patronising. I don’t believe in these sort of practices, but if they make some people feel better, who is anybody to sneer at them? You’re certainly not going to get any benefit if you go into them with an eyebrow archly raised, anyway.

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Maybe because many of them take advantage of vulnerable people and rip them off. I also know of some who encourage their customer's to stop talking medication without any evidence to back up their claims

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Hilarious and well written x

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Brilliant article

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Brilliant.

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