Conspiracy theories

menamestom · May 2016

Homeopathy is a good one too.

stickyfiddle · May 2016

menamestom said:

Homeopathy is a good one too.

I don't think Homeopathy is a conspiracy, it's just bullshit for idiots.

FX_Munkee · May 2016

Apparently the homeopathic "doctors" staged a 1 second strike last week.

menamestom · May 2016

stickyfiddle;1068925" said:
menamestom said:

Homeopathy is a good one too.

I don't think Homeopathy is a conspiracy, it's just bullshit for idiots.

Well yeah. Now it's not funded by the NHS I guess we can go with that

hungrymark · May 2016

FX_Munkee;1068930" said:
Apparently the homeopathic "doctors" staged a 1 second strike last week.

It didn't work so they're going for a 0.1 second one next week.

hungrymark · May 2016

Come to think of it, homeopathy is like for like, so they're actually going to threaten themselves with a renewed contract for an immeasurably short time.

viz · May 2016

I hope some people watch this, it's pretty interesting imo.

Phil_aka_Pip · May 2016

menamestom said:

Homeopathy is a good one too.

If homeopathy worked, you could get pissed for life by diluting the first bottle of whisky you ever bought.

hungrymark · May 2016

Water is all recycled anyway, and I wash my whisky bottles before I put them in the recycling.

You're welcome.

fob · May 2016

The only conspiracy theory I've ever had some personal interest in is the Voynitch Manuscript.

Essentially, a sort of encyclopedia from the late middle-ages that is written in an unknown language with with drawings of flora, constellations and such like that nobody recognises. It's almost certainly a hoax (99.999...%) but the tripping point for some is that the (made-up) language actually appears to be in the form of real language. If you were to make up a document yourself and just randomly assign characters to appear as language, it would fall down pretty quickly under any serious scrutiny. A code of some kind then springs to mind but, again, you would think it would have been cracked. From memory, the prevailing theory was that it was a code based on some unwritten regional dialect - so the hoaxer writes out his shopping list, translates it into his made-up language and presents it as a mysterious document. I think this is why it has held some fascination for me; I don't mind it being a hoax, I just want to know what the shopping list was.

A friend gave me a photocopied version many years ago and I spent far too much time trying to see if I could discern soemthing from it - I've no idea why, the knowledge needed to divine anything from it would be way beyond me.

rossyamaha · May 2016

Have a look at Project Blue Beam. I quite like that one.

scrumhalf · May 2016

Phil_aka_Pip said:

menamestom said:

Homeopathy is a good one too.

If homeopathy worked, you could get pissed for life by diluting the first bottle of whisky you ever bought.

We'd also all be drinking wee-wee much of the time.

Myranda · May 2016

scrumhalf said:

Phil_aka_Pip said:

menamestom said:

Homeopathy is a good one too.

If homeopathy worked, you could get pissed for life by diluting the first bottle of whisky you ever bought.

We'd also all be drinking wee-wee much of the time.

We'd all be dead surely? super-mega-ultra-potent poison would surely be present (as diluting makes it stronger right?). Every sip of water would contain a fatal dose of everything...

HAL9000 · May 2016

I spilled some homeopathic medicine on my shirt once. Only made things worse when I tried to rinse it off.

Also, with homeopathic remedies, should you give children a stronger solution?

UnclePsychosis · May 2016

The good thing about homeopathy is that it's a good way of weeding out idiots, particularly among politicians. For example, if a politician supports homeopathy then it tells you they don't believe in evidence based decision making and so they should be given a wide berth.

Drew_TNBD · May 2016

UnclePsychosis said:

The good thing about homeopathy is that it's a good way of weeding out idiots, particularly among politicians. For example, if a politician supports homeopathy then it tells you they don't believe in evidence based decision making and so they should be given a wide berth.

Absolutely!

Big reason why I wont vote for the Green party. They're anti-evidence right to the top.

viz · May 2016

Homeopathy has been shown to work "no better than a placebo", not "no better than doing nothing at all". And although I find it difficult to accept the fact, placebos work, it's been proven again and again. The mind and body have immense self-curing resources that are at work every day keeping us alive and healthy - Darwinism has selected us very guitarists over countless other strains of guitarists that have not made it because of that innate defense and healing power that we have - and a placebo can help to unlock those resources.

A placebo draught is not going to replace a surgical procedure such as sewing a finger back on. And it won't have as big an effect as a proper pharmaceutical drug, because as well as having a very significant placebo effect, proper drugs also have a biophysical effect on top of that! But although the mechanism of action is not known, placebos have been shown to be useful in pain relief, tissue growth, immune response and so on.

The best way of administering a placebo is in conditions such as clinical trials, by doctors, as part of random double-blind tests, so that the patient is in a suggestive state of mind - they would know it could be real medicine and the hospital-effect would impress them.

'Remedies' like homeopathy, where the patient is in some way affected by the process of acquiring and administrating the 'medicine', could also replicate that effect. There would then be more chance of the patient's subconscious mind to trigger his/her innate healing resources to get to work.

Moreover, as well as the demonstratable biophysical effect that a placebo can have in genuinely supporting the body to heal its own ailments, it could also have an impact in how a patient FEELS. Just like your mum saying 'there, there' when you've cut your knee as a child, placbos could play a genuine role in combatting pain, tiredness, depression, and so on, and contributing to general well-being, and I don't think that should be dismissed. The entire health profession is geared towards people leading better lives, and that includes making them feel better. I think it's possible for two different people to have exactly the same amount of pain, but to experience it differently and perceive it at different levels, depending on their mental state. If that mental state can be altered, then maybe the pain experienced can too.

I believe placebos, including homeopathy, would work even for some hard-line disbelievers such as myself. Even though we KNOW in our rational brains that like-heals-like, succussion and 100c stuff is nonsense, we are nevertheless not completely in command of our own minds. Evolution has not bred that facet of humanity out of us yet. It's amazing what can be achieved under hypnotism, look what positive thinking is thought to achieve, or social support networks, or faith - almost despite our rational brains, many of us humans are affected by these things. Why shouldn't homeopathy also work on us, or at the very least have the same chance as a placebo - seeing as that's what it is?

The real question for me is whether homeopathy, or water as it's more commonly known, should be allowed to be sold as a 'medicine', knowing that it is likely to benefit some people. Is that dishonesty? Or legitimate? Is it too risky? Would it prevent people from seeking proper medication? Or could it be included as a total healthcare package? Is there a place for it in non-life-threatening cases seeing as it has no side effects and is very cheap? Or are the risks of being conned and deceived too great? And what about hypochondriacs? If they can be made to feel better at all, is it ethical to give them a synthetic chemical with side effects when water would have the same benefit?

menamestom · May 2016

What do you call alternative medicine that works? Medicine!

viz · May 2016

Yes exactly, and that's Humphrey's first point in the video above. The MOA of paracetamol isn't fully understood but its chemical deceives your brain into thinking there's no pain. Alternative therapies could do the same, but psychologically rather than chemically.

ICBM · May 2016

Wisdom for viz. That's pretty much exactly how I feel about it too - and I don't know the answer to the last bit either.

Howdy, Stranger!

Categories

In this Discussion

Become a Subscriber!

Conspiracy theories

Comments