Another quackbuster

This post features Victor Stenger, particle physicist, atheist, and deconstructionist extraordinaire of healthquack and "alt med" ideas about "quantum physics" and "quantum energy". Here is a link to his webpage.

1. Here is his paper, Is the Brain a Quantum Device?
The answer is no. In the paper he explains the relationship between Penrose and Hammeroff (among the subjects interviewed in that gaggy film, What the Bleep), and discusses how their microtubule notion is off by at least two orders of magnitude. His conclusion:

"The brain is simply too large and too hot to be a quantum device, coherent or not."

2. He has written a number of books, including God: The failed Hypothesis (most recent), and many more.

3. This is an article written for Skeptical Inquirer magazine, Quantum Quackery, from way back in 1997. It debunks attempts by Goswami and Chopra to insinuate quantum physics into a frame of reality that supports dualism:

"Quantum physics is claimed to support the mystical notion that the mind creates reality. However, an objective reality, with no special role for consciousness, human or cosmic, is consistent with all observations."

4. This paper called The Anthropic Coincidences: A Natural Explanation, systematically lays out arguments against the idea of "supernatural purpose."

"Anthropic Design: Does the Cosmos Show Evidence of Purpose?
Claims that scientists have uncovered supernatural purpose to the universe have been widely reported recently in the media. The so-called anthropic coincidences, in which the constants of nature seem to be extraordinarily fine-tuned for the production of life, are taken as evidence. However, no such interpretation can be found in scientific literature. All we currently know from fundamental physics and cosmology remains consistent with a universe that evolved by purely natural processes."

5. A list of quotations. My fave so far:

"People are entitled to their opinions, but when the opinion is in disagreement with the data -- with the facts -- when that opinion does not stand up under critical or rational scrutiny, I think we have a right to point that out. We shouldn't be stepping on anybody's toes when we do that. If they're going to be spouting off nonsense, then we should say that -- not as a matter of opinion, but as a matter of scientific fact. When someone says science says something, and science doesn't say something ("It doesn't say that! That's a misrepresentation of what science says."), then I think we can state that. And if it ruffles some feathers, so what?"

6. An interview with Victor Stenger from 1999, on atheism.

Go Victor.

Eternal Struggle Posts Series on pseudoscience, "energy medicine", and MFR

I gathered all the entries on MFR, pseudoscience and "energy medicine" together in this one link. I started out with the post, Hurray! New Flimflam Busters, which belongs in the Eternal Struggles series even though it isn't named as such. It introduces a blog called Science Based Medicine, "Exploring issues and controversies in the relationship between science and medicine", from which I have gleaned at least one quote; several times I've linked one of the authors, Harriet Hall's review of Oschman's "energy medicine" book on the Quackfiles site.

In Eternal Struggles I I introduce the reader to the branch of PT that promotes pseudoscience to explain and support a treatment technique, known as myofascial release, that its main proponent John F. Barnes lifted from osteopathy, claimed for himself, and has taught for decades.

Eternal Struggles I through IX, and then XI, all examine a long thread on a evidence-based PT forum which has to do with revealing the thinking of the people and teachers in the branch of PT in question. Excerpts taken from a post in which one of the main teachers of this dubious hypothesis, who teaches it at university level, are deconstructed by comparing and contrasting them to excerpts taken from Rory Coker's article, Distinguishing Science From Pseudoscience at the Quackwatch site.
Post X is about a separate but related discussion also on the EIM group blog.

The list of entries in this series:
Eternal Struggles I
Eternal Struggles II
Eternal Struggles III
Eternal Struggles IV
Eternal Struggles V
Eternal Struggles VI
Eternal Struggles VII
Eternal Struggles VIII
Eternal Struggles IX
Eternal Struggles X
Eternal Struggles XI

July 18/'08
I'm back in this post to add a new link, which I think I'll call "Eternal Struggles - an even dozen."
It's a recent post by Jason Silvernail, highlighting some of the "sturm und drang" that makes the JFBMFR group seem more like an encounter group than a manual therapy group. I think Jason is right - the group is starting to sound like more of a cult than anything else. It is quite disturbing to read through, but informative.

August 16/08
I'm back in here to add a postscript. Two days ago John Barnes had a lawyer send around a letter naming five PTs who would be sued if they didn't remove their posts, which he had decided were defamatory, from the internet. The posts have been removed. So anyone who reads this series will find that the links are empty or near empty. Too bad - they were great threads that spelled things out pretty well.

This is a fine example of egomania IMO - if you have no science to back your claims you can always threaten to sue those who point that out. He has made a huge amount of money peddling his pseudoscientific wares to those who love a straight diet of dopamemes, and now he can use it to bludgeon other members of the profession into silence. Is this the American Way? Try to stifle free speech? I've never been so happy to be a Canadian PT as I am tonight (because we don't operate this way in Canada, not over stuff like this anyway..), and I've never felt more sympathy for those targeted. This does NOTHING for JFB's credibility - he won't discuss his.. um, "work" on a science-based level (mostly because it doesn't have any), and he won't engage with people in an ordinary collegial way - instead he stays silent then slaps down lawsuits through third parties. Is this not cowardly behaviour?

Update: August 27/08
Here is a link to Jason's latest post, Myofascial Release Posts Retracted