I saw this on TED weeks if not months ago. Votes: -4

Is TED really as full of woo fans as the comments on the Randi video would seem to indicate? Votes: +0

I figured out why Sylvia Brown (and probably many others like her) does not accept the $1,000,000 challenge,,, Randi said in his speech that she charges $700 for a 20 minute reading, if she works average 8 hr/day, 20 days/month, she should gross about $4,000,000 per year. There is certainly no financial benefit for her to take the challenge.

Just a thought...
Votes: +0

It seems that way. The wonderful talk given by Michael Specter was also trashed by anti-GM zealots in the comments. TED may be a conference of the best and brightest, but I'm not so sure about the commenters. Votes: +1

No matter how many times James pulls the fake-mike and the empty-frames gag. It keeps cracking me up... Votes: +1

Really good stuff. He spoke at Miami-Dade College a few years ago, but I missed it, unfortunately. An amazing speaker all around. Votes: +1

Be honest, jetdoc, if you had 4 million dollars on hand, and I offered you a another million, you'd not refuse it

The reason she doesn't take the challenge is not because she's already got enough money, she doesn't take the challenge because she knows she'll fail. Votes: +5

You have a point, I would not refuse it.. unless, your right, I knew I was a fake... But with millions in the bank....my motivations would be different. Votes: -1

The guy must have stock in Monsanto.

Votes: -3

@LcNessie: having the advantage of seeing the video rather than sitting in the audience, I was thinking "what's that Randi's holding? It doesn't look like a microphone to me." He got me with the glasses frame though; why would I think to look for signs of a reflection on the spectacles? Now I can only think of revenge - what trick can someone pull on Randi when he's not in a trick discovering mood. Votes: +0

Hey, who's this 'Bea' - some sort of woo peddler who robs grieving families? She's even claiming to be "Johnny Carson in spirit" - whatever the hell that means. Now Johnny always loved a good trick and he was one of the funniest people on TV. Let me see ... what would Johnny do to someone who was claiming some bogus relation to him. Is anyone out there receiving a message from Carnac The Magnificent? Votes: +6

Let's just try to understand your thought process for a minute. Legitimate pharmaceutical shown to have harmful side effects, therefore, so-called alternative treatments must be safe/effective. For claiming to channel the spirit of Johnny Carson you don't seem to possess much of his ability to think critically. I can't help you if you prefer to live in fear and superstition, and if you are looking for easy answers to difficult problems then you won't have to go far to find a snake-oil salesman with a cure for what ails you. Real medicine has science as its backbone, and it will self-correct and improve upon itself as we learn new information. I couldn't agree more with Michael Specter, science and progress will make life better for humankind. I feel sorry for people like you who'd rather stay behind with their heads stuck in the sand. Votes: +3

Legitimate pharmaceutical shown to have harmful side effects, therefore, so-called alternative treatments must be safe/effective.

That is not what I said is it?

I agree with skeptics that there are a lot of questionable practices in holistic medicine but none that kill the way drugs do.

I have not been to a doctor since I was 13 and I am never sick. Knock on wood. It's called taking responsibility for your health and well being. Now, if I were to break something, of course I would see a doctor. I just won't take injections or prescription drugs. I believe they weaken the immune system even you think otherwise.

Anyways, when I hear animosity and sarcasm, I know it's time to go. Thanks for trying. Stay healthy! Votes: -7

there are a lot of questionable practices in holistic medicine but none that kill the way drugs do.

Not even if they replace a treatment that would have been more effective in saving a life?

The key word of course is treatment. The natural way is absolutely the way to go for preventive reasons. But for treatment, making a change to a body that's already developed a problem, you need something that actually affects the body.

You seem like a person who enjoys thinking these things through, so think about this. If you are treating a person who already has something wrong, it stands to reason that you need something that will produce a change in their body. Obviously when you just talk about "a change," that can be positive or negative or both. And unless you have perfect medicines, you can probably expect a "both" result much of the time. If you change a system in the body to achieve a result, it's common to have a side effect from that change.

So considering that, do you think it's more likely that alternative medicine has all these seemingly perfect treatments that produce significant positive benefits but negligible side effects (AND that these super-treatments are ignored by people who've dedicated their lives to medicine) or that just maybe, the treatments in question don't produce much change in the body, meaning you get little to no positive benefit as well as little to no negative? Not to branch into homeopathy here, but consider the sleeping pill overdose in the TED video we're commenting under.

And I'll reiterate one more time that I'm talking about treatment, not prevention.


And for a bonus comment, I find your follow-up post about survival of the fittest confusing, especially after a post talking about health care. Health care itself is what happened to survival of the fittest. People prefer living. Then you go on about the horrors we've committed to the planet. Isn't that just survival of the fittest, since we're so dominant because of our intelligence? (not that I'm arguing those "horrors" don't exist) Votes: +4

I'm going to really have to meditate on that one . . . that is a lot to think about and I want to take my time.

As far as survival of the fittest . . . I just feel we are densely overpopulated and Mother Earth is in deep trouble.

It is with compassion that I say this . . . but people do need to die and that is where we differ and skeptics think that the party is over when you die . . . where I don't believe, I KNOW the party has just begun.

I almost died at the age of 13 and I did cross over.
So my knowledge is solid and I know there is nothing to fear in death. It's like a warm embrace of the most incredible love you have ever felt. I saw all these really beautiful beings who told me a lot of things about my life and the last thing they told me before I came back into my body was "Become a vegetarian, study Astrology, don't ever see a doctor and don't ever get a credit card." And I did all of the above.

However, I believe that science and spirit working together is when real miracles will happen. I don't expect you to though but I really appreciate how kind every one has been.

I am thinking of creating a blog called "Woo Is Me" to look at the benefits of both magic and logic working together because I do believe in both. Votes: -9

Not to keep adding to the list of beliefs to examine, but are you aware that near death experiences can and have been reproduced by completely mundane means that have nothing to do with death? I'm thinking specifically of things like healthy fighter pilots training in a centrifuge and having the blood flow to their brain reduced to the point of unconsciousness.

It seems to me that any experiences or sensations that resulted from that mechanism would be generated within one's own mind and so of course could be very personally relevant.

It probably also helps that your good physical health (and if you're a vegetarian, your good habits in maintaining it) allows you to follow some of those suggestions. If you were a type 1 diabetic child at 13, I bet you wouldn't have stayed away from the doctor, drugs, or injections. Votes: +4

and I do not advise other people not to go to doctors. On the contrary, I have had to tell some clients . . . you need to go to the doctor now!!!

Diabetes, well you are right about that too, but diet of course is crucial for diabetic.



Votes: -4

Your mention of "clients" makes me wonder if a critical examination of this stuff wouldn't just threaten some beliefs but also your income. If so, then that plus the dedication to and immersion in these ideas involved with incorporating them into your daily work definitely erodes some hope of you exploring them in a more critical, objective way.

I mentioned type 1 diabetes for a reason. To a varying extent diet is crucial for everybody, but in that case even the perfect diet is neither the solution or even preventive. Votes: +3

Randi is clearly wrong in how he is trying to prove he can survive an overdose of homeopathic pills. He needs to take a single pill and break it into minute pieces then swallow the smallest piece. Let's see you survive that Mr. Know-it-All. Votes: +4

Haha, his joke about that was pretty good, the guy overdosing by forgetting to take his pill.

I'm not sure your version follows their (very important) rules though. Seems to me it's not important that you get a miniscule or non-existent dose of the substance, but that you get a certain amount of the water or other diluting agent that's been turned to magic by the dilution process. (or to be more formal, made potent by potentizing.) Votes: +1

thanks to this blog about homeopathy, I decided to try it for my 13 year old chihuahua's arthritis and wow . . . what a difference it has made in him. It has lessened the pain dramatically, he is more alert and when he sees the little blue bottles he starts wagging his tail. I purchased rhus toxicodendron and arnica montana and they appear to be working even better then the drugs subscribed by the vet. It only cost me $12 instead of the almost $100 I spent for drugs at the vet (including $35 office visit) . . . and no chance of liver problems!! I am so happy right now. Thank you James Randi. It may not prove it to skeptics but it sure proves it to me that there is something good about homeopathy. Votes: -2

You wrote"If you are treating a person who already has something wrong, it stands to reason that you need something that will produce a change in their body."


I was guided to this video and there was a profound change in these Diabetics by switching to raw foods for 30 days. I would love to get your opinion on this 10 minute video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSuqCMld00w&feature=related



Votes: -3

My opinion on that whole concept is that improving and controlling type 2 diabetes with a really good diet is in no way outside of or an alternative to modern medical knowledge. See, part of the problem is that the general population isn't as interested and motivated as you. So even if doctors know the benefits of this diet, they still need to be able to treat somebody who for whatever reason sticks to a crappy diet. Hell they have to be able to treat people who smoke too. If they have an addict who won't stop smoking and it's contributing to a condition, it's an easy ethical call between giving them some pills with mild side effects vs advising they start a funeral fund.

That's just the difference between knowledge and practice. Just because doctors know the benefits of natural prevention and treatment doesn't mean they can get their patients to follow through once they leave the office. A patient who specifically seeks out the natural treatment will already have a level of willingness that a random person off the street won't.

Also, this doesn't have anything to do with type 1 diabetes which I mentioned a few times. No healthy diet will fix that.

However I DO think that we could definitely stand to have an order of magnitude more public education on things like healthy diet, and I'm sure medical doctors could push it harder as well. So basically I think getting healthy naturally is a subset of medicine, not a replacement for it. Votes: +1

You are the only skeptic that has ever answered me in a way that makes good sense and gives me food for thought with your intelligent answers and no judgment.

Most skeptics have this Science based medicine can do no wrong when it has been proven over and over that there are serious side effects including death to many prescription drugs. Man's desire to help man seems to be motivated by the big bucks involved. And that goes for supplements and the like. Juicing and nut based smoothies are a great alternative to anything synthetic.


Yesterday, I thought about Christopher Columbus and his gift of small pox to the Natives. If it were not for that genocidal maniac that we honor as a hero . . . would we need a vaccine for small pox?

Man is the creator of disease . . in one form or another and you are absolutely right . . . most people would rather take a pill then take responsibility.

When you have adults in charge of our children at schools feeding them crap I would not feed to my dog . . . well, the cycle of ignorance starts early and big pharms don't make money on healthy people. I mean when Michele Obama planted an organic garden . . . some people reacted as though she were a witch or something. lol

Votes: +0

Well to be fair to my fellow skeptics, they might just be trying not to encourage you, or be afraid that any apparent agreement might be taken as supporting your conclusions.

Plus all of us are prone to tribalism where it becomes all or nothing, us vs them. Just look at politics. Votes: +1

Well, your fellow skeptics could learn a lot from you.

DinK, I wrote earlier that in my unscientific opinion,

"The chemotherapy is not what helped James Randi beat cancer (actually, it's just in remission) . . . his incredible tenacity and strength of will did more then any therapy of any kind, holistic or otherwise ever could."

I was guided to these two statements this morning which are perfect examples of James Randi's incredible will to live and to defy the odds.

The Amazing Randi must be truly magical. According to a 1988 Time Magazine profile, Randi was born prematurely in Toronto in 1928 weighing only 2 pounds, 3 ounces. It is “amazing” that a 2 pound preemie survived in the pre-vaccine, pre-antibiotic 20s and 30s with measles, diphtheria, pertussis, chicken pox, etc, etc, raging around him.and also


Randi took up magic after reading magic books while spending 13 months in a body cast due to a bicycle accident. He confounded doctors who expected he would never walk again

Now, if this is true it proves my point that James Randi has an incredibly powerful will to live even if it is just to annoy Uri Geller.

Votes: -1

that speaks volumes to me. I hope you like it.

"If it is not your time . . . 1000 arrows cannot cause your death . . . but if it is your time, your death can be caused by a blade of grass!"

Votes: -1

That saying does speak volumes to me, but not in the way you might hope. For me it highlights the various layers of fallacious conclusions involved in such magical thing.

It might sound profound, wise, deep, and hopeful, but that doesn't make it so. It's one of many things that people choose to believe, IMO, because they WANT to and not because they are compelled to by the evidence. (and no, seeing something that you think makes it true doesn't count as compelling evidence. Insert here a rant about how the scientific method and proper testing are so important specifically because we cannot trust our own judgment, even if we're smart and logical and so on, and about how Randi has said most of the Million Dollar Challenge applicants have actually believed in their own abilities. We don't even really know ourselves sometimes, especially if we'd prefer the wrong conclusion to be true.)

I guess that statement is something you could objectively test, even though it obviously wouldn't be ethical. Grab 2000 people at random from around the world and hit 1000 with 1000 arrows each and have the other 1000 walk across a field or dump some grass clippings on them. I bet the results would be gruesome but very statistically significant. But then again I guess the explanation could be that it really WAS their time, and that the grand design guided their selection for the experiment that was testing the very same grand design. But that kind of answer would just show how little meaning/information there really is in the original statement.

I don't really have much comment on the previous post about Randi, except what I already said about us not trusting our own judgment. We're programmed to find patterns and make connections, even if there's not really a relationship there after closer examination. And that's not even to suggest there's not something special about Randi's vitality. After all, there are tons of differences between people both genetically and through less measurable things like mental state. (The existence of the placebo effect shows that mental state can affect a patient, of course.) Votes: +1

The Indian saying would be symbolic . . . a metaphor . . . it's not about actually shooting people with 1000 arrows. lol. It's poetic. Votes: -2

You said it "speaks volumes" to you in a discussion where you're talking about avoiding doctors. I figure you weren't being literal but it seemed to illustrate your mindset on it. In that way, my post had a greater purpose as well. =)

But whether literal or figurative, my reply pretty much remains the same. Just because it's poetic or makes you think, that doesn't mean there's anything real to it. I mean it's fine as entertainment, but not if you're talking about real medical treatment, that's all. The symbolism or metaphor don't translate to anything useful in this context, even if it's interesting in others. Votes: +1

with the exact same cancer that have the exact same treatment die and others don't. It's because it is not their time . . .

OK, my own family never really believed in what I do until one night I had a dream and my mother came to me and said, "Bea, I have no more strength." I woke up and drove directly to her house and the paramedics were already at her house taking her to the hospital.

Now, I love my mama like you have no idea. I went into her room. She was in and out of consciousness and I said to her, "Maman, you came to me in a dream last night and you said you have no more strength and I am here and I am going to give you all my strength and bonnemaman is here (her mother, my grandmother who has crossed over). I said, "Do you feel her?" She said, "Oui, Oui" and I said, "Maman you have a choice right now, you have family on the other side who loves you and you have family on this side who loves you and you have more grandchildren coming. It's up to you. I am just here to give you my strength but you have to decide." I held her and just focused all my power with tears streaming down my face at the thought of losing her and all of a sudden, I could see her light coming back into her body and her eyes opened and the doctor walked in and I explained to him that this was more emotional than physical and my mother was home that night and she has had three grandchildren since.

She called my sisters and said to them, "Bea, really does have some powers . . . but don't tell your brothers."

Votes: -1