A very close friend of my husband's was a practitioner of Reiki, Healing Hands, and homeopathy. She was very earnest and had nothing but good intentions. When my husband's father was having a stroke in front of us, she delayed getting him to the hospital so that she could align his vertices... and therein lies the danger.
The good ones that you describe, as mentioned in the article, can easily make for a very good sympathetic ear, and relax the patient to the point where the body (less stressed) does start to heal itself. But delaying a stroke victim on the way to the hospital? She had the best intentions at heart, but if he had gotten to a hospital that much sooner, would medical science have been able to mitigate some of the damage done? We'll never know at this point.
However, as with everything, there are also those out to make a buck. Just as there are quack doctors, there are quack homeopaths, and I've had family members run into those in the past. And recommending homeopathic or holistic medicine in serious medical emergencies like cancer or heart disease is a disservice. Check out http://whatstheharm.net/homeopathy.html for some examples with links to the stories involved.
I've even tried homeopathic remedies in the past, before I really knew what it was all about. Someone recommended them to me, and I was pretty convinced that they might help me for a couple of minor ailments. They had precisely zero effect.
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