Radionics

Radionics is the use of blood, hair, a signature, or other substances unique to the person as a focus to supposedly heal a patient from afar.Fishbein, Morris, "The New Medical Follies" (1927) Boni and Liverlight, New York Pages 39-41] The concept behind radionics originated in the early 1900s with Albert Abrams (1864-1924), who was a millionaire by inheritance. He designed machines who work on this principle. Radionics is not based on any scientific evidence, and contradicts the principles of physics and biology and as a result it has been classed as pseudoscience and quackery by most physicians. No radionic device has been found effective in the diagnosis or treatment of any disease, and the United States Food and Drug Administration does not recognize any legitimate medical uses for such devices. cite web|url=http://www.cancer.org/docroot/ETO/content/ETO_5_3X_Electromagnetic_Therapy.asp |title=Electromagnetic Therapy |accessdate=2008-02-06 |publisher=American Cancer Society] Citation| first=David | last=Helwig| coauthors=| contribution=Radionics| title=The Gale Encyclopedia of Alternative Medicine| editor-first=Jacqueline L.| editor-last=Longe| coeditors=| publisher=Gale Cengage| place=| pages=| date=2004-12| year=| isbn=978-0787674243 | contribution-url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_g2603/is_0006/ai_2603000616| format=| accessdate=2008-02-07 ]

Background

Description of Radionics

According to radionics practitioners, a healthy person will have certain "energy frequencies" moving through their body that define health, while an unhealthy person will exhibit other, different 'energy frequencies' that define disorders. Radionic devices purport to diagnose and heal by applying appropriate frequencies to balance the "discordant" frequencies of sickness. Radionics uses "frequency" not in its standard meaning but to describe an imputed energy type, which does not correspond to any property of energy in the scientific sense. [cite book | last = Smith | first = Crosbie | title = The Science of Energy - a Cultural History of Energy Physics in Victorian Britain | publisher = The University of Chicago Press | year = 1998 | id = ISBN 0-226-76420-6]

In one form of radionics popularised by Abrams, some blood on a bit of filter paper is attached to a device Abrams called a dynamizer, which is attached by wires to a string of other devices and then to the forehead of a healthy volunteer, facing west in a dim light. By tapping on on his abdomen and searching for areas of "dullness", disease in the donor of the blood is diagnosed by proxy. Handwriting analysis is also used to diagnose disease under this scheme.

Having done this, the practitioner may use a special device known as an oscilloclast or any of a range of other devices to broadcast vibrations at the patient in order to attempt to heal them.

Albert Abrams developed thirteen devices claimed to detect such "frequencies" and/or cure people by matching their "frequencies," and claimed them sensitive enough that he could tell someone's religion by looking at a drop of blood. He became a millionaire leasing his devices, and the American Medical Association described him as the "dean of gadget quacks," [http://www.quackwatch.org/04ConsumerEducation/News/rife.html Article on Royal Rife] at Quackwatch] and his devices were definitively proven useless by an independent investigation commissioned by "Scientific American" in 1924.

Modern practitioners now conceptualize these devices merely as a focusing aid to the practitioner's proclaimed dowsing abilities, and claim that there is no longer any need for the device to have any demonstrable function. Indeed, Abrams' "black boxes" had no purpose of their own, being merely obfuscated collections of wires and electronic parts.cite news | first=Mark | last=Pilkington | coauthors= | title=A vibe for radionics | date=2004-04-15 | publisher= | url =http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2004/apr/15/farout | work =The Guardian | pages = | accessdate = 2008-02-07 | language = "Scientific American concluded: 'At best, [ERA] is all an illusion. At worst, it is a colossal fraud.'" ]

cientific assessment of Radionics

Radionics devices contradict principles of biology and physics, and no scientifically plausible mechanism of function is posited. In this sense, they can be described as magical in operation. No plausible biophysical basis for the "putative energy fields" has been proposed, and neither the fields themselves nor their purported therapeutic effects have been convincingly demonstrated. cite web|url=http://nccam.nih.gov/health/backgrounds/energymed.htm |title=Energy Medicine: an overview |accessdate=2008-02-09 |publisher=National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine "In the aggregate, these approaches are among the most controversial of CAM practices because neither the external energy fields nor their therapeutic effects have been demonstrated convincingly by any biophysical means."]

No radionic device has been found efficacious in the diagnosis or treatment of any disease, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration does not recognize any legitimate medical uses any such device. cite web|url=http://www.cancer.org/docroot/ETO/content/ETO_5_3X_Electromagnetic_Therapy.asp |title=Electromagnetic Therapy |accessdate=2008-02-06 |publisher=American Cancer Society] According to David Helwig in "The Gale Encyclopedia of Alternative Medicine", "most physicians dismiss radionics as quackery."

Internally, a radionic device is very simple, and may not even form a functional electrical circuit. The wiring in the analysis device is simply used as a mystical conduit. cite journal|title=Reflections on the Ether and some notes on the Convergence between Homeopathy and Radionics|journal=Radionic Journal|date=2000-11|first=Nick|last=Franks|coauthors=|volume=46|issue=2|pages=4–21|id= |url=http://www.radionic.co.uk/Franks%20A4.1.htm|format=|accessdate=2008-02-09 ] A radionic device does not use or need electric power, though a power cord may be provided, ostensibly to determine a "base rate" on which the device operates to attempt to heal a subject. cite web|url=http://www.radionic.co.uk/Mind%20in%20Radionics.pdf |title=The Radionic Principle: Mind over Matter |accessdate=2008-02-09 |last=Scofield |first=Tony |format=PDF] Typically, little attempt is made to define or describe what, if anything, is flowing along the wires and being measured. Energy in the physical sense, i.e., energy that can be sensed and measured, is viewed as subordinate to intent and "creative action."

References

See also

*Ruth Drown
*George de la Warr
*Royal Raymond Rife

External links

* [http://skepdic.com/radionics.html Radionics in the Skeptic's dictionary]
* [http://www.radionic.co.uk British Radionic Association]