A thought: For some of us, WOO was our only option.

[LuvNewcastle]

38. I think it all comes down to this.

Some people have an ailment and they've either tried going to a doctor or they can't afford going to a doctor so they try one of these cures. Some will feel better after they go (and 'feeling better' really can't be measured) and they tell a friend and the friend goes to see the acupuncturist or chiropractor or whatever.

People have been trying all these things for a very long time and stories pass by word of mouth about the effectiveness of these various cures. A lot of these people are thoroughly convinced that they're being helped, because they keep spending money to go back to these practitioners.

How can you or I tell these people that they aren't being helped and they need to quit wasting their money when they tell us that they feel 10x better than they felt before and they can do all the things they couldn't before? We can't, because they firmly believe they are cured, or at least they're much better, and if they perceive that they're better, then that perception = reality.

This is actually a discussion about what's real and what isn't. You don't want to believe people are being helped unless you have a study that tells you they are. I'll take their word for it, because reality is essentially what we believe to be true.

I think we're at an impasse here. Studies are well and good to help us understand the world, but they don't explain everything, especially when it comes to perceptions. Just because a study can't explain it doesn't necessarily mean it doesn't work. It might be an indication of that, but it doesn't determine it. Sometimes we have to look deeper.