Wednesday, October 3, 2012

#355: C. Norman Shealy


There are reasons to regret excluding non-American loons from this Encyclopedia, especially when it turns out that someone like Roger Shawyer, the guy behind EmDrive, is British as well.

Fortunately there is no dearth of American crazies, and C. Norman Shealy is certainly behind some serious dingbattery. Shealy is apparently a Harvard-schooled MD, neurosurgeon and alternative medicine practitioner (not through Harvard, one presumes), and quite an authority in this murky quagmire of a pseudofield. He was one of the founders of the American Holistic Medical Association, the paragon umbrella organization of all things quackery, and is associated with the unaccredited “Holos University” (he was a mentor for, among others, Dawson Church and Charles Bates).

“Endorsed by C. Norman Shealy” is actually a pretty standard stamp of approval for woo-peddlers and should, to those who think claims medical should at least tangentially be related to reality, equal “endorsed by Joe Mercola.” For instance, Shealy (with Daniel Redwood) wrote that T. Colin & Thomas Campbell’s “The China Study” is different from most other popular nutrition books by offering strong evidence-based explanations for its claims (it isn’t). He also endorsed Michael Ledwith & Klaus Heinemann’s “The Orb Project” by pointing out that “Orbs may be to the atmosphere what crop circles are to the earth. Having seen orbs and had them photographed while I am speaking, it is great to know that we are receiving cosmic energetic communication.” He may be right that orbs may be to the atmosphere what crop circles are to the earth, but not in the way he would like. And he endorsed Stephen Co & Eric Robins’s “Your hands can heal you” (“eighty-five percent of illnesses are not optimally treatable with drugs or surgery. For those individuals, ‘Your Hands Can Heal You’ offers one of the best self-healing approaches I have seen”). And of course he endorsed Quantum Touch (“Quantum-Touch appears to be the first technique that may truly allow us all to become healers,” though it’s certainly not the first or last time that claim has been made).

Shealy is, apparently, a prolific speaker and author of bullcrap such as “Aids: Passageway to Transformation,” and “The Creation of Health: The Emotional, Psychological, and Spiritual Responses that Promote Health and Healing”, both coauthored with none other than Caroline Myss, and he is a leading authority in, yes, the “Quantum Healing Paradigm”. His most famous books, however, are probably “Life beyond 100 - Secrets of the Fountain of Youth”, using success formula such as “if you didn’t succeed you didn’t want it hard enough” and … “Your hands can heal you”.

Diagnosis: Remarkably versatile, prolific and respected crackpot, madman and woo-meister. Shealy wields a lot of power to ruin people’s lives and does not hesitate to use them. Extremely dangerous.

13 comments:

  1. I'll never forget the night my Dad hosted a party at our home for a new Doctor who had just moved to our hometown, Springfield, MO. That guy was Norm Shealy. He is brilliant. I don't agree with everything he says, but if you look at the overall health of most Americans, I would say the pharma backed mainstream medical community has done an incredibly poor job in promoting good "health". Remember, it was mainstream medicine that told us "FAT is BAD" and did so based on one poorly researched and flawed study. That type of thinking has caused untold deaths due to heart disease of Americans wolfing down "low fat" food filled with sugar and chemicals to the delight of the drug companies. Dude, I think YOU need to add yourself to the list. Or at least educate yourself by reading something other than the New York Times.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. What? By using sources such as FOX/Faux New?

      Delete
    2. Why on Earth would u bring your Lefty bias into this conversation? Ridiculous!! I rarely watch it,but Fox has consistently been rated as the most trustworthy news channel.

      Delete
  2. EmDrive it is is not closed system ( in 2012 Poland I made very important test - Michelson Molrey Intensity version !!!)

    mirror -----bulb-----mirror >>> 30 km/s

    rear mirror feel different " EM preasure" ( Joules/ mm^2 )

    http://www.scienceagogo.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=52743#Post52743

    I'm inventor from Poland
    I'm very open for cooperation

    ReplyDelete
  3. I have tried some of his methods and advice and they have improve my health. He is brilliant. Why don't you learn a little bit of Chinese Medicine. Acupuncture has not changed in thousands of year an has helped heal many. Shealy incorporates wisdom of the eastern traditions in his practice.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Again - not a "loon".
    Shealy is a well-educated, well-respected physician/specialist - with an open mind to different phenomena.
    Science and Medicine aren't closed systems - many things that Shealy believes in may be proven true by scientific/empirical means in the future.
    Not a wise decision to consign this person to quackery.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Just because you lack the knowledge behind what Dr. Shealy discusses or the methods he suggests, doesn't make him a quack. It just means you are uninformed. Unfortunately, you would have to attend several yrs of classes to be able to appreciate the data and research he has contributed.

    Ignorance of a subject matter should not place a person in your list of quackery.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I am an allopathic physician and recently heard him speak at an accredited medical education conference on pain management. Good speaker, went through a couple of exercises that actually alleviated the neuropathic pain I was experiencing in my toe. I was able to reproduce that result days later when at home, the pain returned. Unconventional, yes. Quack... I don't think so.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Replies
    1. http://hpplc.indiana.edu/medicine/med-res-twokinds.shtml

      Delete
  8. Although I agree that some of the things Dr Shealy claims is eccentric, he never claimed all these will work and expressed his opinion and tried to back it up with IRB research. He is a pioneer in TENs with poor Dr. Becker (That nobody even remembers and did so much in tissue regenration and did not get Noble prize).So give the guy a brake and out of respect just listen and pick up what may work for you. If you have something better to present go on but stop slander.

    ReplyDelete
  9. I am an allopathic MD and I somehow came upon this post.

    Ignorance can be defined as ignoring the facts, and while anyone is allowed to have an opinion, no matter where they they get from, making public statements like this is a disgrace to the individual or organization that allowed this post.

    If you make any claims on another person, especially a public figure, do your research and homework and at least get the facts right. If you simply want to repeat the words quack and other fancy words, like pseudofield etc.. it seems the writer here had a blast. (I am not even going with some of the others, again opinions are free, everyone can have one.

    Dr. C Norman Shealy is a man of science, doesn't make any statements without proper scientific research, publications and if he mentions something you don't personally like, it still doesn't change the facts.

    On one hand however, the entertainment value of reading whatever this thing is called, is worth a laugh.

    ReplyDelete