Peter Chappell has previous form. I wrote in 2007 how he was creating MP3 files that he claimed could treat Malaria and HIV. The Society of Homeopaths held a symposium to discuss his ideas.
Chappell now has a new web site: http://boosters4africa.com/. On this site he is promoting a new MP3 file that plays some violin music. He claims that listening to these files can treat and prevent ebola.
If you are ill with ebola, listen to this music every 15 minutes until you are better.
For protection from ebola, listen to this music twice daily (or at least once daily) until the danger passes.
How is this supposed to work? We are told,
You listen to this new booster music technology. If you have acute health problems you listen continuously and if you have long term health problems you listen one time per day. Read the listening instructions for more detailed instructions.
There is a different booster for each disease, e.g. booster4malaria, booster4tuberculosis, booster4hiv+/aids etc
These ‘boosters‘ boost your health by supporting your immune system.
Each booster has a different intelligence embedded in it. You can imagine the intelligence like instructions for your brain. When your brain receives these instructions, it knows how to boost your immune system.
There is not the slightest reason to suppose this might work.
Did I have to point that out?
Whilst a deadly disease continues to kill hundreds of people, Western homeopaths drift off into absurd fantasies about medicine. Chappell is not just any homeopath: he was a founder member of the Society of Homeopaths, an organisation that has just been accredited by the Professional Standards Authority as being able to protect the public by managing a register of members. Such is the state of government thinking about how to protect the public.
The people of the various countries of Africa have very many health issues. New Humanist writes today about how the “deeply unequal society” in South Africa creates an environment where an “occult economy” can thrive and quacks make money from offering absurd and dangerous treatments to poor, vulnerable people.
Herbalists and healers provide purported cures for a staggering range of diseases and conditions – ranging from impotence and arthritis to HIV/AIDS to tuberculosis – as well as abortions.
If a developed, affluent nation like the UK cannot tell the difference between health workers and absurd, occultist quacks then there is little hope for those in areas of the world where access to health care, education and the law is even harder. Worse, when Western democracies do not just tolerate quacks but give them the imprimatur of a government regulator’s stamp then we allow charlatans and the deluded to run amok in Africa and point back to us saying we encourage such ‘diverse’ medical approaches.
Homeopaths in the UK export their delusional fantasies to many parts of Africa. We saw how a founder of the restaurant Ottolenghi was using the business to promote homeopaths trying to treat HIV in Eastern Africa. The quackery that thrives in Africa (and India for that matter) is often not “traditional medicine” based on indiginous beliefs, but a western export. Whilst we tolerate the ‘wellness industry” in the UK and their nonsensical claims, people will die in areas where access to real medicine is pushed aside by superstitious and pseudoscientific belief.
Is this Chappell tosser still a member of the SOH? If so, is this the opening to show the PSA why they made such a stupid mistake in accrediting the homeopathetics? And show the SOH up for what it really is i.e. an apologetic smokescreen for absolute nonsense.
Chappell is a Honorary Fellow of the Society of Homeopaths
http://www.homeopathy-soh.org/about-the-society/awards/
Viola music works better.
At least, it sounds similar to the sound the name ebola makes.
And as we all know – ‘similia similibus’.
And they burn longer.
That’s a bit extreme. I said jail them,not burn them.
Only a violinist would burn a perfectly good viola.
There’s actually no difference between a Viola and a Violin.
The Violinist’s head is just swelled, so the instrument looks smaller by comparison.
So THAT’S the problem I have with women.
Does Homeopathy have a cure?
It’s time to start jailing some of these people now. They’ve done it with the bogus ‘bomb detector’ crooks. What’s the difference? Maybe because the bomb detector people were actual scam artists,but this man is mentally ill and believes this stuff? If you follow the links, he seems to be claiming to cure genocide. This is where Homeopathy becomes murderous.
I totally agree. These people should be jailed!
I can cure genocide by playing the spoons.
Just look at Rotherham and environs.
NO genocide for months there.
Thank you for the laugh Barrie. You made my day.
I’d like to know diseases are cured by listening to AC/DC. Also, what does listening to bassoon music cure?
Housemaid’s flaps.
Everything. Bassoons are basically god.
This tool is prima facie evidence of the depletion of the gene pool. Sad.
In the light of this report, I have written to my M.P. asking him to pursue a complaint with the Department of Health over the P.S.A. accreditation of the Society of Homeopaths. I urge all of you to do the same.
Yep. I agree. This is WAY beyond funny now.
I have complained to my MP Dr. Sarah Wollaston, now Chairman of the Health Select Committee and I will put up a motion at the BMA conference in June (but expect it won’t be discussed!)
Ignorance is bliss–yours that is.
If you don’t understand that all body processes operate on energy and that energy forms have always been used curatively, then you can’t even begin to be taken seriously.
Well the fellow who claims Ebola can be cured by violin music and other ‘energies’ should certainly be taken seriously, preferably by the authorities.
If ignorance is bliss then you must be very happy. Energy is defined as the capacity to do work and is measured in Joules. It us conserved in all processes but can be converted between the various forms (mechanical, chemical, electrical etc) though always at less than 100% efficiency.
Feel free to identify the quantity and type of energy used in homeopathy or any other form of “energy medicine”, with references to the published experiments in which it has been quantified. Published, that is, in reputable journals, not those devoted to perpetuating folk myths like acupuncture and homeopathy.
I’d like to see him play a gig in Liberia
I’d often wondered why violinists are immortal.
Violin music does not cure polio, though. Ask Itzhak Perlman.
I wonder if Peter Chappell and any other homeopaths would care to go to Africa, expose themselves to Ebola, HIV, TB etc. and then test their claim that music will cure them. Just asking?
Yes!!!!!!!! If only!!!!!
As I said in a previous discussion, I wish something similar, i.e. that Homeopaths should all treat one another with their Woo, until they’ve all died off and it’s seen clearly for the laughable, but as we see, dangerous flapdoodle that it is.
strange that as soon as an outbreak of something nasty occurs, homeopaths suddenly have a ‘cure’ for it
I’ll just leave this, in case anyone feels like a satirical dig: http://www.change.org/p/dr-daniel-kertesz-who-end-the-suffering-of-the-ebola-crisis-test-and-distribute-homeopathy-as-quickly-as-possible-to-contain-the-outbreaks
Jeez.
Is it really the case that the WHO backs Homeopathy?
Or is this more delusion from these people?
If so- I’m going to start believing that I’ve moved sideways to a parallel reality.
Wow. Don’t read the comments on that petition – several from nurses and doctors, eg:
“Julie Gertch GOOLE, UNITED KINGDOM 23 days ago Liked 3
I am a qualified nurse and have seen homeopathy work, I believe, that in India ,homeopathy is used widely and is used to treat very serious pathologies. I attended a homeopathic conference in Mumbai many years ago and was amazed at the efficacy of homeopathy in the case studies presented. I have been an advocate since. It is morally wrong to deny the African people a chance of survival when there is a simple, cheap and effective solution. I have no doubt that using professional homeopathy will save lives. Please consider this form of treatment and let the results speak for themselves.”
:/
Why is India used so often as a shining example by these people? If this quackery works, and is inexpensive, and is used so widely in India, why does India have so many ill and diseased and crippled people? As to the final plea-‘Let the results speak for themselves’-well I think they quite obviously have. And they speak garbage.
Kat,
Please urgently advise where the results of which you speak have been published.
It is just possible you know that youv’e been taken in.
The answewr is to review the scientific evidence not the marketing promotional material.
I thought Kat was referring to comments made by homeopaths, not stating these as her own? Did I misunderstand?
Kat referred to case studies she saw presented.
If they have have not been written up and published they are worthless.
And so is Kat’s opinion about them.
That is why I want her to publish the evidence she has of anything she was told.
I am concerned that she might have been taken advantage of by ruthless fraudsters.
How are we to know, if we are not provided with evidence about these case studies?
Remarkable results require rational revelation.
(I just made that up. What do you think?)
But I still read it as Kat quoting what a ‘qualified nurse’ from Goole called Julie Gertch said, not what Kat herself believes.Just don’t want anyone to be traduced that’s all. If I’m wrong I’m wrong.
Kat was quoting from the comment section of the link about WHO & homeopathy. And her first line of her comment said not to read the comments because they are all like the one she quoted.
I also made the mistake and read the comments. To quote my fiance, “D%&* ethics get in the way of being a quack. If I could just lie to my patients, we could be rich!” I just remind him as an officer of the court, I would be obligated to report him…d%&* ethics get in the way of having a rich boyfriend 😛
Stop interrupting me with your Scientific nonsense. I’m learning the fiddle so I can cure Ebola or like genocide or whatever.
More lies from Big Quacka I’m afraid.
Far from advocating Homeopathy, as Big Quacka claims, the WHO warns against it.
These liars and gullibles HAVE to be stopped now.
I just read the stuff that Guy Chapman’s link referred to in more detail.
To be more precise,I should say that the Homeopath idiot doesn’t claim that the WHO supports Homeopathy, but he phrases his opinion in such a way that one could assume that they do. In other words, he says that the WHO agrees that Homeopathy is on the rise around the world, and leaves the viewer to come to the conclusion that the WHO feels there is some merit to this.Which of course isn’t the same thing at all. The homeopath even provides a link to a WHO report, with the implication being that it will back up Homeopathy, probably knowing full well that very few people will click on it and find the organisation’s real views on this nonsense.
Conditions that can be cured by listening to AC/DC? Albinism maybe?
The bassoon is the cure for nothing except tedium defecit.
Don’t know if people saw the news item about the bogus doctor on Harley Street who claimed to be able to cure cancer. As he left Court, he was collared by a reporter who asked if he’d ever studied Medicine.
His priceless reply- ‘Well no, not Medical Medicine’.
Since the original case was in absentia, with Denton failing to turn up, it was essentially a retrial before a judge and two magistrates. .
The Bench unanimously upheld conviction on all nine counts, but reduced the fine as Denton is no longer practicing (unsurprising: his Google presence is pretty toxic), and claims to be bankrupt.
http://www.itv.com/news/london/2014-10-10/bogus-doctor-claimed-he-could-cure-cancer-using-herbs-avocado-and-grape-seeds/
He made claims of racial harassment in court, we do not know the court reacted to these false assertions. We do know that he sacked his brief midway and defended himself for some of the trial.
“The man who represents himself, has a fool for a client” as they say.
Words fail me!
Whatever next?
Haha. I’m a violinist, so does that mean I will never get Ebola??
Start with a banjo, work at it.
Is Ebola an electronic version of Bola?
Nah.You safe.It;s Tennis Ebola you gott watch out for.
A friend informs me that there’s a Botox clinic in Glasgow which has a sign outside saying ‘Inspired By Medicine’.
I just got a message saying ‘You are posting comments too quickly. Slow down’.
“There is not the slightest reason to suppose this might work.” – I couldn’t disagree more! I don’t know about a cure, but listening to this as a preventive measure works if: a) you listen to it constantly while b) avoiding all contact with other people while doing so. Very adventurous people can even try a few hiatuses, as long as they stay away from other people. If you can’t get hold of one of his MP3 files and you want to avoid Ebola it is absolutely necessary you stay away from other people.
Now THAT could work. At least it has a well-thought out Scientific basis to it. I’m in!
Peter Chappell defends himself
http://www.peterchappell.com/2014_10_01_archive.html?m=1
Hubris knows no bounds.
Well the fellow Chappell makes a spirited defence,in windiness and verbosity at least. I am rather dismayed to find that real tutors with real degrees-albeit some of them in Homeopathy- are being given real money to ‘research’ this flapdoodle at Universities.
I believe I read a couple of years ago that there are in Japan ‘Colleges Of Microdilution’ where people are given ‘Degrees after learning how to- well- dilute stuff. With the need for A. A tap, B; The means to pay the annual water bill and C. A white coat, that must be a very cheap type of College to set up.
How do they differentiate between the Degrees? Does somebody get a 2.1, say, because he diluted stuff a bit less well than the bloke who got the Honours Degree?
By the way- I’ve just started reading through some of the ‘evidence’ in the’ trials’ he quotes. The number of times that ‘dissatisfaction with the methodology’ crops up as a concern doesn’t augur TOO well for his side.
Dear Mr Barrie,
Yes, India many people are sick and ill with many diseases. It is not because they use Homeopathy. It is because of their life style. Though conventional medicines test protocol is flawless, though efficacy of medicines is beyond doubt, ramifications of the side effects are too much to bear. Coming to the Homeopathy, in India Homeopaths trained like medical doctors. They don’t practice anything what you have mentioned in your articles.
Good men preach about the GOD. Fake cheating Godmen too talk about the GOD and gain money and power. Because of Goodmen and Fake Godmen preach, you can’t consider them as equal.
In many countries, homeopaths are not properly trained. Those who can’t understand what chemical bonding is, talk about how to choose elements from the periodic table for various illnesses. Quacks exists in western countries in many fields. They adulterate Homeopathy to Yoga and derive new things for their survival.
Don’t you think conventional medicine is not exceptional as far as quacks are concerned. Some doctors have got forged qualifications. Do you blame only those cheats or complete medical science?
If you think you know science, no problem. But if you think no one else has knowledge of science, do what you are doing. What I mean is, expose quacks.. but don’t generalize things. i hope you understand.
yours sincerely
Dr.Narasimha
Aerospace Engineer
Do they let you near real aeroplanes?
I hope that others can make sense of your barmy thinking more than I can.
If homeopathy is nonsense, how can Indian ‘doctors’ be trained in it to the same standard as proper medical doctors’?
What does it mean to say that the problem is that in some countries homeopathic doctors are ‘not properly trained’? What would constitute ‘proper training’ in homeopathy?
You then say that since homeopathy has been around for 200 years, people must be getting some benefit from it. Do you believe the same to be true of astrology? Or rhino horn to increase sexual potency?
As I said before, your feeble defence that there are quacks in every field doesn’t stand up. Maybe it needs some rhino horn.
The difference is that since homeopathy is essentially based on quackery and foolishness, quacks are the norm, not the exception.
What a sense of humor Sir..By the way which mental asylum you are from? What Narasimha has written and what the fuck you are talking.
Wow! Andy… You have got so much knowledge about aerospace engineering.. When I was studying Mechanical engineering, whenever I tell that I am pursuing Mechanical engineering, illiterate people like you, Andy, used to say “wow.. can you repair my car?”.. You are one such idiot, Andy..
It seems your friends are even more stupid than you are.Hard as that would seem.
Interesting observation about so called medical scientists…They try to explain how something (which is time tested) works.. If they can’t (due to limitations), they say “that something is quackery”. If they can, there will be a new patent and create market worth billions of dollars.
A noble lady referred 700 years old literature and treated Malaria with some recipe made from wormwood and got noble prize. Now you (so called medical scientists) can explain how it works.. But you lack common sense and do not think how 700 years ago people could realize the medicinal effect of that bark. Cherry pick quacks (as you love quacks and quackery) and compare them with time tested medicines that have saved your ancestors from diseases.
Most of the times, only people without basic knowledge of complementary medicine (once upon a time, those were only medicines available to the mankind) criticize harshly complementary therapies. I don’t know whether to call critics of quackery as quacks or???
As far as I can discern from your half-witted illiterate rubbish, some unnamed lady got some kind of noble prize for using some made-up medicine that’s 700 years old, and was so effective back then that people decided to stop using it. Have I got that right?
Barrie, I think you are unidirectional. Blogging your own shit.. but don’t have common sense to search for nobel prize winners list and their work. Here is the link.. By the way, dear Barrie, which flat earth society do you belong to? You are no way different from the quacks you have mentioned in your post.
http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-china-blog-34451386
You are right Barrie.. Andy is stupid.. I have also said the same…
Well at least your lame and aggressive attempts at ‘humour’ are typical of your kind.
Well…. nice try.
But not REALLY the same thing though, is it.
May be that MP3 guy is humorous and witty. You were too aggressive at his fun making acts and aggressively criticizing time tested medicines. Quacks, greedy, bad people are every where. Anyway, spending life thinking about quacks and quackery.. What a tasteless, waste of life.. Barrie.. I pity you..
Blimey. I’ve been patronised by a quack.
Daffy Duck would have done it better though.
Indian homeopaths might think they are trained like real doctors, but they are not. Real doctors do not learn the mumble-jumbo of the similimum, homeopathic case takin, constitutional types and so on. Real doctors’ education is grounded in objective reality. Above all, real doctors learn the importance of science. When a treatment is found not to work, it is discarded mercilessly. I cannot find a single example of a homeopathic remedy that has been removed from the repertories, ever. Think about that for a moment. Is it really the case that homeopathy is entirely immune from human error?
Dear Barrie, you are proving my statements again and again.
You have called MP3 guy as a quack. I too have called him as a quack.
You were very aggressive and started criticizing whole homeopathy. I strongly feel that no fake medicine will survive for more than 200 years. Of course, I believe in science and science based medicine and strong advocate of conventional medications within the family.
I don’t know your credentials.. but I am aware of my credentials and successes in my field of engineering. You are calling me as a quack.. Just I didn’t praise you..
Now here is my comment.. Wow! Barrie.. what an article.. You found a quack and popularized them by filling a long page about him on your blog… What a work! Fantastic it is.. Keep it up, Sir….
Sir, your comment is very sensible, reasonable and logical too. Here I am not advocating Homeopathy. MP3 guy is a quack. He should be jailed. Like that many cheaters are there in the world. Why we need to tell Homeopathy is a quackery. i strongly believe that if it is, it will lose its existence on its own. No fakes survived long enough in the human history.
Coming to Homeopathy, though I didn’t study their complete literature, it is a simple philosophy based on like cures like. Volunteer provers take a substance and tell their symptoms. Same substance will be given as the remedy If any “diseased” experience similar symptoms. Means, homeopath prescribe remedies based on the symptoms and totality of the symptoms. Not with the name of the disease as per conventional medicine. Therefore, clinical trials similar to conventional medicines are not possible.
I would honestly expect answer for the following question.
In your reply, you have mentioned that “medicines are removed mercilessly, if they don’t work”. What exactly do you mean by that Sir?
My friend went to a specialist doctor in USA for “pain, pins and needle sensations” in the fingers. He was given ENDEP. Later on he developed new symptoms. Then medications increased in number. It went on from ENDEP to anti-inflammatory, TNF inhibitors.. what not.. List is overwhelmingly long to write. Finally my friend became immobile, blind (with nystagmus) and liver got completely damaged. Means, all those medicines used by him were mercilessly removed from the market??????
What do you expect homeopaths to do? If one remedy doesn’t work for a patient, should they remove it from the repertory or materia medica? Kindly answer.
Oh dear. There is nothing in the nature of homeopathy that prevents it being subject to fair trials through randomisation and blinding. Many trials have been done on such terms. The overall results are consistent with homeopathy being inert.
I expect homeopaths to respond to the evidence base. They keep making claims where there is no evidence or the claim has been refuted. This is deeply unethical. As such the whole trade of homeopathy is an unethical and deluded practice that harms patients.
Since homeopathy is a religion, not a science, it can be criticised as such, i.e. in terms of its illogic or lies, not in terms of its non-existent ‘science’.
Your oft-touted engineering background is therefore no more important than my artistic one in terms of the ability to construct, or understand, a sound critical argument.
You say that you deeply believe that no quack medicine could last 200 years.
I think I’m correct in saying that Hahnemann first published his nonsense in 1810. By my reckoning, that’s 206 years ago.
So -you’re left with two options.
1. Homeopathy, despite being a quack ‘medicine’, has broken your 200 year barrier and has indeed lasted, and made fools of people.
2. Homeopathy is NOT a quack medicine, and yet, even after 206 years, you and other believers can’t, or won’t, provide evidence of why and how.
Neither position, it seems to me, provides you with very great comfort.
Dear Barrie, You have got very funnily narrow way of interpreting the information.
Let me write you few important things.
* I am not an advocate of the Homeopathy. I neither useI them nor recommend them.
* for my family members, I use conventional and science based medicine.
* MP3 guy is a quack. I ignore such people. You make them famous through your blog.
* So far I am with the hope that any quackery will not last longer. But you redefined Quackery as religion. Religion related adverse effects are increasing day by day. No religion died down so far. All evils growing stronger with each passing day.
* I normally leave it to the time. Who we are to think that people around us are less intelligent and easily fooled by quacks.
Finally I want to ask you one thing. Do you have any Ebola patient who has gone to that quack and got affected adversely? I am sure that no one.. Because, people with Ebola symptoms run to the emergency. and get the required medical help. Just you are popularizing the quack and quackery.
in my previous email 200 years is referring to Homeopathy. You calculated it as 206 years.
What I meant to say was, something survived 200 years. Means, people must be getting benefited with that Homeopathy. I don’t mean that 200 years is a bench mark.
Very strange thing is, I accepted everything about the quackery. Only thing I differ from you is, criticizing something as quackery. We should ignore such people because modesty, tolerance is important. In stead of ignoring quacks, you are undoubtedly, glorifying them.
I give up, Mr Barrie… I have got better things to do..
Good luck with your quackometer.
That is simply not true. Bloodletting and purging were used for over two millennia despite the fact that they did more harm than good. There are also dozens of mutually contradictory religions, by your argument they should all (or perhaps all but one) have shut down by now.
Your error is to assume that choices are being made solely base don evidence and empirical fact. They aren’t. Of course if choices were made solely on that basis then there would be no homeopathy, acupuncture, reiki, crystal or faith “healing” – but these practices persist because they are essentially religious, not medical.
Persistence into the 21st Century is entirely possible even for outright delusional nonsense like homeopathy. Belief spreads on its own, all it requires is for believers to infect new believers. The beliefs do not have to have any objective merit whatsoever.