Snake Oil Or New Age Miracles

These days I see so many things out there that make me eyes roll in amazement.  So many people claim to have new age miracles, but in many ways I think it looks more like snake oil salesman.  You might think that is harsh and you may think I'm way off base.  Of course, you are entitled to your opinion as I am.

People often look at someone who can talk big and mighty as a person of authority.  They assume and give credibility to these people without ever so much as exercising all the brain cells of common sense.  It is almost like their brains shut down and they feed upon every word as it is the living morsel of truth in the universe.  I know, I'm making a lot of flowery speech here, but I'm doing it to help illustrate my point.

Unfortunately, the claims that many make about new age miracles, cures, and practices are not backed up by science or even by an authentic measurement.  Often it is gut feeling or some limited observations of who they have witnessed gaining from a treatment or cure they gave them.  While I know full and well, that it is sometimes hard to measure everything that happens when it comes to healing, some new age practices don't even attempt to try.


The placebo effect is alive and well in many new age and medical treatments.  If you convince someone that they will be helped by a specified treatment, chances are you will get that result.  If you don't believe me, test this out and see what happens.  It is a proven concept scientifically that by the power of suggestion, you can alter and change someone's life.

When I refer to snake oil, I really am talking to the people that claim to have answers and cures for everyone, but they have never tested their claims in a scientific way.  They often go about regurgitating what they have been taught or has been passed down to them.  In many ways, for people to subscribe to a practice of treatment, they must come to accept the beliefs upon which it is founded.  If the person questions any part of it, the group think often convinces them that the beliefs and practices are valid and sound.

All too often, we allow snake oil salesman to sell us the cures that they convince us we need.  My favorite is when people focus on "eliminating pain", rather than going into the pain and becoming one with it through the felt sense of the body.  There are others of course that try to rally people around to energy healing, pranic healing, meditation type practices, numerology, angel healing, mediumship, juice drinks and so forth and so on.  While there may be tremendous validity in many of these things, often true healing is separated by many light years with these practices.  Before you think I'm dismissing all of these practices as quackery, please know without a doubt that I find great value in these things.  However, the value only appears when the person is grounded in truth and reality.

I'm sure if you are one of these people I have referenced, you're going to think I just don't know what I'm talking about and that I'm way off base.  However, I have experienced so many of these things from Reiki Healing, Energy Healing to mediumship and angel ministries.  While I have met a few valid and authentic people, the vast majority of the ones I have been around do not know as much as they think they do.  Yes, they put on a good show, but that is all it is.

I fully believe that there are healing methods we should be using today that we are not, but I just wish people would get honest with themselves.  Find a way to back up what you state and claim and what you try to convince others of how effective your treatment is.  Scientifically measure it and look for the common denominator of truth, not just some belief that was passed down to you by some other practitioner.  If you think you have found the key to healing, most likely there is more out there that you have not seen.

If you stop challenging yourself and the work you do, testing and attempting to prove it false, you are harming yourself and your clients.  Ethically, I believe this is causing undue harm to those who look up to you or heaven forbid, pay you for this work.  Don't just settle for what you know and believe is true.  Knock the legs out from under it and see if it still holds any validity.  Often, you will find that what you think and believe to be true, is just one stepping stone to something much deeper.  Don't fall for the trap of being a snake oil salesman and proclaiming your new age miracles are the best thing since air was created.

When you can test your hypothesis of healing against results not only in your clients, but in yourself, then you have the start of claiming you have found truth.  These results though aren't measured by a feel good moment, but are grounded in the felt sense of the body.  If you can feel the results and see a life change, you are on the right path.  If you can repeat those same results from person to person, now you have something to proclaim from the mountain top.  Of course, you'll quickly find that when you have climbed one mountain peak, there will be many others to discover.

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Blog Post And Images (c) 3/31/13 by Don Shetterly

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