Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id TAA22238 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Tue, 15 Jan 2002 19:58:11 GMT Date: Tue, 15 Jan 2002 14:53:24 -0500 Subject: Re: Knowledge, Memes and Sensory Perception Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed From: Wade Smith <wade_smith@harvard.edu> To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit In-Reply-To: <LAW2-F792REZTBqmD9T000017a0@hotmail.com> Message-Id: <88EA17B8-09F1-11D6-922A-003065A0F24C@harvard.edu> X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.480) Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
On Tuesday, January 15, 2002, at 01:49 , Grant Callaghan wrote:
> So I guess you don't believe that light affects how you react
> to your environment or that the palcebo effect has any
> influence on how people feel.
That is _not_ what feng shui or acupuncture claim.
They both claim to harness 'chi', whatever that hell that is.
There are several, really good studies about how light affects us.
None of them are being done by feng shui scientists, because
there are no feng shui scientists. There is no valid mechanism
for feng shui.
The placebo effect is what it is. Nothing. If one's culture
dresses up nothing in some ersatz ritual or treatment, fine and
dandy. It is not my culture, and very little folk medicine is
worthwhile for me, since the placebo effect is useless to me.
Incidently, the original theory behind acupuncture and most of
TCM is that the blood vessels (which they only ever saw empty
and dry in cadavers) carried air, this so-called 'qi' or 'chi'
or whatever the hell it is.
At any rate, there is no valid mechanism for TCM, beyond
cultural acceptance, gullibility, and false reasoning.
- Wade
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