German version/Deutsch Version
A synonym to quack I found online while researching is ‘medicine man’. This pretty much sums up the essence of the following article. Apparently, the conclusion is that all that what we cannot measure with current science – and the current state of science pretends to be the truth, as science has so often pretended already in the past – is quack: Homeopathy, spirit healing, bach flowers and even acupuncture which is based on a meridian system science can’t see. All just quack. Apparently the term quack has its origin in the Dutch word kwakzalver, which then became the German expression ‘Quacksalber’. ‘Kwakken‘ signifies both bragging and chatting, and ‘zalf’ ointment.
‘Kwakzalver‘ incorporated
Now if medicine, the thing the trillion dollars worth global pharmaceutical industry monopolizes for her own benefit, was in any way fair they would have to admit that much of the science behind the proven effect of the pills, ointments and other medicine they sell involves more ‘kwakken’ than the alternative medicine they so despise.
Their brain pills, from antidepressants to ADHD make huge amounts of money. But what does science really know about the brain? ‘Oh, those pills will be good for you’, the psychiatrist says with knowing eyes and a calming voice. “And what about side effect?”, the patient asks after reading the scary leaflet list. ‘Oh no, those are so rare.” Sure. “Stomach pain, take this pill”, the pharma advertisement proclaims. No word about digestion going broke after prolonged usage. “Your nose is running, take this spray” the pharmacist whispers sweetly. No word about its active power. About those which nose fell off at the end.
“The FDA admitted in 2007 that SSRIs can cause madness at all ages and that the drugs are very dangerous … anxiety, agitation, panic attacks, insomnia, irritability, hostility, aggressiveness, impulsivity, akathisia (psychomotor restlessness), hypomania, and mania, have been reported in adult and pediatric patients being treated with antidepressants”
Source: Antidepressants increase the risk of suicide, violence and homicide, the bmj
In brain medicine, and in many other areas, even if big pharma does not want to admit this, the effectiveness of their products is mainly based on trial and error. ‘Lets try this’, pharma says. First on mice, then on apes, then on humans. Oh, this does not work for heart problems, well, but it makes the penis hard. Oh, this antidepressant actually promotes suicide, lets keep it quiet. Oh, we just created a few million new meth addicts as a side effect of the addiction power of some nicely selling medicament. Shit happens.
So, as there is a system in science, a construct, over credentials, publications and in the end powerful lobby groups that defines what is science and what no, what is the exact difference between science and religion? The Church is a belief system, a doctrine, and science pretends to be exact, proven and true – but is (at least to a scaring extent) a belief system as well.
But back to the Quacks. In the purely atheistic view of science we are just a machine – body – which a different machine – brain – clued to the first one. And those either work or are in need for repair. I would have been diagnosed with ADHD as a child, if that diagnoses had existed back then (I checked myself reading through the largest producers checklist). Luckily, I could look out the window in school without pills. But, alas, I am left handed, and some ‘doctor’ in school diagnosed this as an illness, to be made go away by force.
“By the time they reach high school, nearly 20 percent of all American boys will be diagnosed with ADHD. Millions of those boys will be prescribed a powerful stimulant to “normalize” them. A great many of those boys will suffer serious side effects from those drugs. The shocking truth is that many of those diagnoses are wrong”
Source: The Drugging of the American Boy, Esquire
Big pharma could say, he is sad, he needs good conversation, compassion, exercice. But pills make (much) more money. They could say that if one has digestive problems one should eat different, less, more conscious, but pills make them rich, not compassionate words. If artificial sweeteners make pigs happy (and fat) why not try them on humans. Eh voila, another multi Billion market found.
“Viagra, Pfizer’s blockbuster erectile dysfunction drug hit the market in 1998. In 20 years, it’s become ubiquitous: 62 million men all over the world have bought the drug, according to a Pfizer spokesperson … the researchers who discovered it weren’t even looking for it. Sildenafil, the active ingredient in Viagra, was originally developed to treat cardiovascular problems.”
Source: Viagra’s famously surprising origin story is actually a pretty common way to find new drugs, Quartz
So, alternative medicine is all quack. Homeopathy can’t work because they dilute, bach flowers can’t because they act on the fine, the spiritual structure – which of course, by ‘scientific’ definition does not exist – and spirit healing the same. And meridians, where could they reside, we can’t see them, can’t touch them. So?
The Church made sure to – through their allies – burn the witches, wise women using herbs, dishonor what they call pagan spirituality and, for power and convenience, steal,re-symbolize and appropriate essential pagan culture (like Easter or Christmas for example). So the Church monopolised spirituality. A common facet of religions. There is only one way to reach God – and I own it.
Thus it is no wonder that doctors are called the ‘Gods in white’. The church has monopolised spirituality, they monopolise health. Or what the pretend to be health. In medicine, the pope is maybe the WHO, the cardinals the CEO’s of Novartis, Roche, Pfizer, Bayer and such – and the priests the brain and body doctors of sorts.
God in white
I remember an elderly doctor in Geneva, Switzerland, some years ago. I had a heavy cold a few times over the years I lived there and wanted to stay a few days at home to recover. The first time I went to see him, after he wrote me a long list of surely 20 pills, sprays and other assorted pharma products, I tried to explain him for 20 minutes that the only thing I needed – and had to pay for myself anyway – was some Tiger Balm. To no avail. The ‘God in White’ much like the priest in Church knew exactly what is good for me – if only – and was not even be able to listen. I was a sinner, a blasphemous idiot, a man to be converted to the true, holy science. I gave up. Took the list of pharma and threw it in the next garbage can. Whenever I had to go back I patiently listened to his ‘scientific’ excursions, took the list, getting longer each time – garbage can. Does one argue with the priest in Church?
Nasal sprays are heavily addictive, digestion aids destroy digestion, antidepressants provoke suicide. The list is endless. Do letters of indulgence, which were a great source of income for the church, really guarantee paradise? Does the pharmaceutical industry and their henchmann, the doctors of all sorts, the smiling but oh so persistant ‘Gods in white’ – do they really heal?
So one one side we got this thing they call ‘alternative medicine’ full of subtle, spiritual energy concepts – and on the other the ‘scientific’ approach which is in essence more of a power, money and in a strange way kind of religious, fanatic approach of the pharmaceutical, scientific community forced and eagerly defended by their pope, cardinals and priests.
Quacks everywhere
So who are the quacks? The quack or ‘kwakzalver‘ reminds me of the sellers of potions centuries ago travelling from village to village selling immortality, magic potions that would cure all illness. Bragging and chatting to sell their ointments to gullible and fairly uneducated villagers.
But are the quacks of modern times any different. And who is bragging and chatting most? Who is pretending on in omnipresent advertisement that all their products are oh so powerful, perfect and absolutely necessary to happiness and holiness – and in tiny, completely unreadable text adding som (forced by law) blabla about ‘ask your pharmacist or doctor about side-effects’. Oh no, all these Gods in white proclaim at the quietest doubt voiced by the adept sitting in front of their pharmaceutical altars. No risk – only fun inside. Don’t you worry.
Attention: Danger
But now the real danger. Not the pills, potions, ointments and such from the corporate ‘quacks’ pose any danger. Those are the only way to medical paradise.
The awful sinners of alternative medicine are the ‘quacks’. The ones that keep talking about things that don’t exist. Like spirituality, energy centers, self healing powers of body and mind, subtle energies. Quack, quack, quack!
Apparently, the immense danger of alternatives to the corporate quack money making scheme is some alternative medicine that according them, their lobbyists and their executioners, the doctors, psychiatrists and pharmacists united, is that they don’t work – at all – and they cost money.
Ok. Back to square one. If the alternative to the ‘proven’ medicine system is quack then how comes so many solutions of exactly that pharmaceutical elite don’t work? When I was (forced) in Italy, watching television shocked me. Not any nude content or weapon filled movies, but the commercials. ‘Back pain’ – take a pill (50% of Italians take it regularly), stomach pain – take a pill (70% of Italians take it daily). Pain here, pain there, we got the right pill for you: Instant action, delayed action, tooth pain, front lobe pain – a pill for every type of pain. Amazing. And Italian TV was full of those commercials. Nasal sprays that create a heavy drug addiction – as I read even the nose can actually fall off, as an easy pharmaceutical Mafia solution to handkerchief. And the opioid crisis in the USA – originally created by the same pharma Mafia.
When President Trump took office, the opioid crisis was devastating communities across America. Nearly 64,000 Americans died from a drug overdose in 2016 alone. Opioid overdoses accounted for more than 42,000 of these deaths, more than any previous year on record. In October 2017, President Trump declared the opioid crisis a public health emergency.
Source: Ending America’s Opioid Crisis, The White House
Not a problem. All these useless, addictive, dangerous solutions from pharma incorporated are not an issue. But alternative medicine is. The nonsense idea that the human body and brain are more than just a machine, that there are energies that one cannot see, that there are stimulants that work on a finer level than science can understand right now. That is the real danger.
Not that according to official reports 40% of the Swiss population are addicted to sleeping pills. Not that side effects often surpass the actual wanted effect of the drug. And not that much of the ‘approved’ medicine is based on trial and error – and also on much pain of Millions of animals which it needs to be tested on.
The quacks are always the others. The quacks say that Marijuana can alleviate pain, help sleep, relax. The quacks that believe that depressions cannot simply be healed by mountains of pills. The quacks that think that digestion is related to bad food, stressed or too much eating. The quacks that actually think that some exercise is preferably to daily intake of pain pills.
Yes, I’ve met some good doctors. Those that tell you that you better don’t take this or that pill. Some good psychiatrists. Those that prefer talk therapy to pills. Those that try to get people out of mental hospitals that don’t really belong there. But those are professionals shunned by their own colleagues. Gods in white that found out that they don’t want to be a God anymore.
While the most fascinating psychiatrist I’ve met was sitting on a chair in the garden of a mental hospital in Lausanne, Switzerland. He looked at me, then swiped his hand over the sky and told me: “See, I’m God, I can change the weather”. Who is he, I asked one of the employes: “On, he was a psychiatrist for 30 years, now he is a patient”.
Deepak Chopra, a quantum biologist who gave a new paradigm to body-mind connection, said that the body is a quantum mechanical device and that it is subject to the laws of quantum physics, not Newtonian physics. In 1986, he changed the way many of us looked at our mind and how the body handles the rejuvenation process. The older wisdom had pegged it at 7 years while Deepak Chopra revised it to one year (approximately 98% totally renewed).
Based on the estimates of quantum biology, you have a brand new stomach lining every 4 days, new skin every 30 days, a new liver in 6 weeks, even the skeleton is replaced every three months. Within one year, almost 98% of our body is new! Such a revelation fundamentally changes the way we assist people in the healing themselves and others.
Source: The Miracle of Body Intelligence, Your Presence Heals
Cancer is not only a sad reality for Millions of humans each year, but also a major income source for the pharma complex. Chemotherapy, pills and other potent medicine makes Billions USD each year. But has science found the reason for all those cancers? Found why every year more people die of it? 98% of our body is replaced within one year. That is also science. But how, if all those cells are replaced, does cancer stay and kill us?
Kwakzalver’, do you hear me?
The standard medical industry has simple solutions. Myriads of them. Just like in the ‘good old times’ when the quacks moved from village to village to sell miracle drugs to the gullible. Making them immortal or ‘worse’.
Their simple solutions are often less based on real science that on the principle ‘follow the money’. They doctor the brain without understanding it. They make sure that the long list of side effects is downplayed by the delivery troops in the field. They influence politicians and lawmakers by spending Billions on lobbyists. And they make sure that the quacks are not them. That the quacks are those who – not always, but more often than not – actually really try to heal body and brain, not just remove the symptoms for a some hours. And make by not taking the cause serious enough the situation worse and worse.
I am not pretending to have proof that Homeopathy, spirit healing, bach flowers, acupuncture and other alternative medicine approaches actually work. But at the end of the day, they seem to work for many. And in general they have little of the nasty side effects that the pharma lobby downplays.
‘Kwakzalver’, do you hear me?