List Of Topics Characterised As Pseudoscience
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This is a list of topics that have been characterized as
pseudoscience Pseudoscience consists of statements, beliefs, or practices that claim to be both scientific and factual but are incompatible with the scientific method. Pseudoscience is often characterized by contradictory, exaggerated or unfalsifiable cl ...
by academics or researchers, either currently or in the past. Detailed discussion of these topics may be found on their main pages. These characterizations were made in the context of educating the public about questionable or potentially fraudulent or dangerous claims and practices, efforts to define the nature of
science Science is a systematic discipline that builds and organises knowledge in the form of testable hypotheses and predictions about the universe. Modern science is typically divided into twoor threemajor branches: the natural sciences, which stu ...
, or humorous parodies of poor scientific reasoning. Criticism of pseudoscience, generally by the
scientific community The scientific community is a diverse network of interacting scientists. It includes many "working group, sub-communities" working on particular scientific fields, and within particular institutions; interdisciplinary and cross-institutional acti ...
or skeptical organizations, involves critiques of the
logic Logic is the study of correct reasoning. It includes both formal and informal logic. Formal logic is the study of deductively valid inferences or logical truths. It examines how conclusions follow from premises based on the structure o ...
al,
methodological In its most common sense, methodology is the study of research methods. However, the term can also refer to the methods themselves or to the philosophical discussion of associated background assumptions. A method is a structured procedure for bri ...
, or
rhetoric Rhetoric is the art of persuasion. It is one of the three ancient arts of discourse ( trivium) along with grammar and logic/ dialectic. As an academic discipline within the humanities, rhetoric aims to study the techniques that speakers or w ...
al bases of the topic in question. Though some of the listed topics continue to be investigated scientifically, others were only subject to scientific research in the past and today are considered refuted, but resurrected in a pseudoscientific fashion. Other ideas presented here are entirely non-scientific, but have in one way or another impinged on scientific domains or practices. Many adherents or practitioners of the topics listed here dispute their characterization as pseudoscience. Each section here summarizes the alleged pseudoscientific aspects of that topic.


Physical sciences


Astronomy and space sciences

*
2012 phenomenon The 2012 phenomenon was a range of eschatological beliefs that cataclysmic or transformative events would occur on or around 21 December 2012. This date was regarded as the end-date of a 5,126-year-long cycle in the Mesoamerican Long Count ...
– a range of
eschatological Eschatology (; ) concerns expectations of the end of present age, human history, or the world itself. The end of the world or end times is predicted by several world religions (both Abrahamic and non-Abrahamic), which teach that negative world ...
belief A belief is a subjective Attitude (psychology), attitude that something is truth, true or a State of affairs (philosophy), state of affairs is the case. A subjective attitude is a mental state of having some Life stance, stance, take, or opinion ...
s that cataclysmic or otherwise transformative events would occur on or around 21 December 2012. This date was regarded as the end-date of a 5,126-year-long cycle in the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar and as such, festivities to commemorate the date took place on 21 December 2012 in countries where the
Maya civilization The Maya civilization () was a Mesoamerican civilization that existed from antiquity to the early modern period. It is known by its ancient temples and glyphs (script). The Maya script is the most sophisticated and highly developed writin ...
had formerly flourished (Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador), with main events at Chichén Itzá in Mexico and
Tikal Tikal (; ''Tik'al'' in modern Mayan orthography) is the ruin of an ancient city, which was likely to have been called Yax Mutal, found in a rainforest in Guatemala. It is one of the largest archaeological sites and urban centers of the Pre-Col ...
in Guatemala. Professional
Mayanist A Mayanist () is a scholar specialising in research and study of the Mesoamerican pre-Columbian Maya civilisation. This discipline should not be confused with Mayanism, a collection of New Age beliefs about the ancient Maya. Mayanists draw ...
scholars stated that no extant classic Maya accounts forecast impending doom and that the idea that the Long Count calendar ends in 2012 misrepresented Maya history and culture, while astronomers rejected the various proposed doomsday scenarios easily refuted by elementary astronomical observations. *
Ancient astronauts Ancient astronauts (or ancient aliens) refers to a Pseudoscience, pseudoscientific set of beliefs that hold that Extraterrestrial intelligence, intelligent Extraterrestrial life, extraterrestrial beings (alien astronauts) visited Earth and m ...
– a concept based on the belief that intelligent extraterrestrial beings visited Earth and made contact with humans in antiquity and
prehistoric Prehistory, also called pre-literary history, is the period of human history between the first known use of stone tools by hominins  million years ago and the beginning of recorded history with the invention of writing systems. The use o ...
times. Proponents suggest that this contact influenced the development of modern cultures, technologies and religions. A common claim is that
deities A deity or god is a supernatural being considered to be sacred and worthy of worship due to having authority over some aspect of the universe and/or life. The ''Oxford Dictionary of English'' defines ''deity'' as a God (male deity), god or god ...
from most, if not all, religions are actually extraterrestrial in origin and that advanced technologies brought to Earth by ancient astronauts were interpreted as evidence of divine status by early humans. The idea that ancient astronauts existed is not taken seriously by academics and has received no credible attention in
peer-review Peer review is the evaluation of work by one or more people with similar competencies as the producers of the work ( peers). It functions as a form of self-regulation by qualified members of a profession within the relevant field. Peer review ...
ed studies. :* Anunnaki from Nibiru (Sitchin) (''variant'') – proposed by Zecharia Sitchin in his series ''The Earth Chronicles'', beginning with ''The 12th Planet'' (1976), it revolves around Sitchin's unique interpretation of ancient Sumerian and
Middle East The Middle East (term originally coined in English language) is a geopolitical region encompassing the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, and Iraq. The term came into widespread usage by the United Kingdom and western Eur ...
ern texts, megalithic sites, and artifacts from around the world. He hypothesizes that the gods of old
Mesopotamia Mesopotamia is a historical region of West Asia situated within the Tigris–Euphrates river system, in the northern part of the Fertile Crescent. Today, Mesopotamia is known as present-day Iraq and forms the eastern geographic boundary of ...
were actually astronauts from the planet " Nibiru", which Sitchin claims the Sumerians believed was a remote "12th planet" (counting the Sun, Moon and Pluto as planets) associated with the god
Marduk Marduk (; cuneiform: Dingir, ᵈAMAR.UTU; Sumerian language, Sumerian: "calf of the sun; solar calf"; ) is a god from ancient Mesopotamia and patron deity of Babylon who eventually rose to prominence in the 1st millennium BC. In B ...
. According to Sitchin, Nibiru continues to orbit the Sun on a 3,600-year elongated orbit. :* Ancient astronauts from the Sirius star-system (Temple) (''variant'') – Robert K. G. Temple's proposal in his book '' The Sirius Mystery'' (1976) argues that the
Dogon people The Dogon are an ethnic group indigenous to the central plateau region of Mali, in West Africa, south of the Niger bend, near the city of Bandiagara, and in Burkina Faso. The population numbers between 400,000 and 800,000. They speak the Dogo ...
of northwestern
Mali Mali, officially the Republic of Mali, is a landlocked country in West Africa. It is the List of African countries by area, eighth-largest country in Africa, with an area of over . The country is bordered to the north by Algeria, to the east b ...
preserved an account of extraterrestrial visitation from around 5,000 years ago. He quotes various lines of evidence, including supposed advanced astronomical knowledge inherited by the tribe, descriptions, and comparative belief systems with ancient civilizations such as
ancient Egypt Ancient Egypt () was a cradle of civilization concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in Northeast Africa. It emerged from prehistoric Egypt around 3150BC (according to conventional Egyptian chronology), when Upper and Lower E ...
and
Sumer Sumer () is the earliest known civilization, located in the historical region of southern Mesopotamia (now south-central Iraq), emerging during the Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age, early Bronze Ages between the sixth and fifth millennium BC. ...
. *
Astrology Astrology is a range of Divination, divinatory practices, recognized as pseudoscientific since the 18th century, that propose that information about human affairs and terrestrial events may be discerned by studying the apparent positions ...
(see also
Astrology and science Astrology consists of a number of belief systems that hold that there is a relationship between astronomical phenomena and events or descriptions of personality in the human world. Astrology has been rejected by the scientific community as havin ...
) – consists of a number of belief systems that hold that there is a relationship between astronomical phenomena and events or descriptions of personality in the human world. Several systems of divination are based on the relative positions and movement of various real and construed celestial bodies. Scientific testing of astrology has been conducted and no evidence has been found to support the premises or purported effects outlined in astrological traditions. Where astrology has made
falsifiable Falsifiability (or refutability) is a deductive standard of evaluation of scientific theories and hypotheses, introduced by the philosopher of science Karl Popper in his book '' The Logic of Scientific Discovery'' (1934). A theory or hypothesi ...
predictions, it has been falsified. * Creationist cosmologies are explanations of the origins and form of the
universe The universe is all of space and time and their contents. It comprises all of existence, any fundamental interaction, physical process and physical constant, and therefore all forms of matter and energy, and the structures they form, from s ...
in terms of the
Genesis creation narrative The Genesis creation narrative is the creation myth of both Judaism and Christianity, told in the book of Genesis chapters 1 and 2. While the Jewish and Christian tradition is that the account is one comprehensive story, modern scholars of ...
(Genesis 1), according to which the
God In monotheistic belief systems, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. In polytheistic belief systems, a god is "a spirit or being believed to have created, or for controlling some part of the un ...
of the Bible created the cosmos in eight creative acts over the six days of the "creation week". * Evidence for
life on Mars The possibility of life on Mars is a subject of interest in astrobiology due to the planet's proximity and similarities to Earth. To date, no conclusive evidence of past or present life has been found on Mars. Cumulative evidence suggests that ...
:* The Face on Mars is a rock formation in Cydonia Mensae on Mars asserted to be evidence of intelligent, native life on the planet. High-resolution images taken recently show it to appear less face-like. It features prominently in the works of Richard C. Hoagland and Tom Van Flandern. This effect can also be explained by the psychological phenomenon
pareidolia Pareidolia (; ) is the tendency for perception to impose a meaningful interpretation on a nebulous stimulus (physiology), stimulus, usually visual, so that one detects an object, pattern, or meaning where there is none. Pareidolia is a specific bu ...
, whereby one assigns meaning (such as facial perception) to an otherwise ambiguous or meaningless stimulus. *
Lunar effect The lunar effect is a purported correlation between specific stages of the roughly 29.5-day lunar cycle and behavior and physiological changes in living beings on Earth, including humans. A considerable number of studies have examined the effec ...
– the belief that the full Moon influences human and animal behavior. *
Modern flat Earth beliefs Anti-scientific beliefs in a flat Earth are promoted by a number of organizations and individuals. The claims of modern flat Earth proponents are not based on Science, scientific knowledge and are contrary to over two millennia of scientific ...
propose that Earth is a flat, disc-shaped planet that accelerates upward, producing the illusion of
gravity In physics, gravity (), also known as gravitation or a gravitational interaction, is a fundamental interaction, a mutual attraction between all massive particles. On Earth, gravity takes a slightly different meaning: the observed force b ...
. Proposers of a flat Earth, such as the Flat Earth Research Society, do not accept compelling evidence, such as photos of Earth from space. * Modern geocentrism – In astronomy, the geocentric model (also known as geocentrism or the Ptolemaic system) is a superseded description of the universe with Earth at the center. Under the geocentric model, the Sun, Moon, stars and planets all circled Earth. The geocentric model served as the predominant description of the cosmos in many ancient civilizations, such as those of Aristotle and Ptolemy. * Moon landing conspiracy theories – claim that some or all elements of the
Apollo program The Apollo program, also known as Project Apollo, was the United States human spaceflight program led by NASA, which Moon landing, landed the first humans on the Moon in 1969. Apollo followed Project Mercury that put the first Americans in sp ...
and the associated Moon landings were hoaxes staged by NASA with the aid of other organizations. The most notable claim is that the six crewed landings (1969–72) were faked and that 12 Apollo astronauts did not actually walk on the Moon. Various groups and individuals have made claims since the mid-1970s that NASA and others knowingly misled the public into believing the landings happened by manufacturing, tampering with or destroying evidence, including photos, telemetry tapes, radio and TV transmissions and Moon rock samples, and even killing some key witnesses. * Nibiru cataclysm – a prediction first made by
contactee Contactees are persons who claim to have experienced contact with extraterrestrials. Some claimed ongoing encounters, while others claimed to have had as few as a single encounter. Evidence is anecdotal in all cases. As a cultural phenomenon, con ...
Nancy Lieder that a mythological planet Nibiru would collide with Earth. After having adjusted her prediction many times, she later claimed the year of the occurrence to be 2012. In 2017, a
conspiracy theorist A conspiracy theory is an explanation for an event or situation that asserts the existence of a conspiracy (generally by powerful sinister groups, often political in motivation), when other explanations are more probable.Additional sources: * ...
known as David Meade claimed 2017 was the year Nibiru would hit. * Vaimānika Shāstra – claim that airplanes were invented in
ancient India Anatomically modern humans first arrived on the Indian subcontinent between 73,000 and 55,000 years ago. The earliest known human remains in South Asia date to 30,000 years ago. Sedentism, Sedentariness began in South Asia around 7000 BCE; ...
during the
Vedic period The Vedic period, or the Vedic age (), is the period in the late Bronze Age and early Iron Age of the history of India when the Vedic literature, including the Vedas (–900 BCE), was composed in the northern Indian subcontinent, between the e ...
. A 1974 study by researchers at the
Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore The Indian Institute of Science (IISc) is a public, deemed, research university for higher education and research in science, engineering, design, and management. It is located in Bengaluru, Karnataka. The institute was established in 1909 wi ...
found that the heavier-than-air aircraft that the ''Vaimānika Shāstra'' described were aerodynamically unfeasible. The authors remarked that the discussion of the principles of flight in the text were largely perfunctory and incorrect, in some cases violating
Newton's laws of motion Newton's laws of motion are three physical laws that describe the relationship between the motion of an object and the forces acting on it. These laws, which provide the basis for Newtonian mechanics, can be paraphrased as follows: # A body re ...
. * ''
Worlds in Collision ''Worlds in Collision'' is a book by Immanuel Velikovsky published in 1950. The book postulates that around the 15th century BC, the planet Venus was ejected from Jupiter as a comet or comet-like object and passed near Earth (an actual collision ...
'' – writer
Immanuel Velikovsky Immanuel Velikovsky (; rus, Иммануи́л Велико́вский, p=ɪmənʊˈil vʲɪlʲɪˈkofskʲɪj; 17 November 1979) was a Russian-American psychoanalyst, writer, and catastrophist. He is the author of several books offering Pseudohi ...
proposed in his book ''Worlds in Collision'' that ancient texts and geographic evidence show mankind was witness to catastrophic interactions of other planets in our Solar System.


Earth sciences

* Megalithic geometry or 366 geometry – posits the existence of an
Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to Planetary habitability, harbor life. This is enabled by Earth being an ocean world, the only one in the Solar System sustaining liquid surface water. Almost all ...
-based
geometry Geometry (; ) is a branch of mathematics concerned with properties of space such as the distance, shape, size, and relative position of figures. Geometry is, along with arithmetic, one of the oldest branches of mathematics. A mathematician w ...
dating back to at least 3500 BCE and the possibility that such a system is still in use in modern
Freemasonry Freemasonry (sometimes spelled Free-Masonry) consists of fraternal groups that trace their origins to the medieval guilds of stonemasons. Freemasonry is the oldest secular fraternity in the world and among the oldest still-existing organizati ...
. According to proponents,
megalithic A megalith is a large Rock (geology), stone that has been used to construct a prehistoric structure or monument, either alone or together with other stones. More than 35,000 megalithic structures have been identified across Europe, ranging ...
civilizations in Britain and Brittany had advanced knowledge of geometry and the size of Earth. The megalithic yard is correlated to the polar circumference of Earth using a circle divided into 366 degrees. * The
Bermuda Triangle The Bermuda Triangle, also known as the Devil's Triangle, is a loosely defined region in the North Atlantic Ocean, roughly bounded by Florida, Bermuda, and Puerto Rico. Since the mid-20th century, it has been the focus of an urban legend sug ...
– a region of the Atlantic Ocean that lies between Bermuda, Puerto Rico and (in its most popular version) Florida. Ship and aircraft disasters and disappearances perceived as frequent in this area have led to the circulation of stories of unusual natural phenomena, paranormal encounters and interactions with
extraterrestrials Extraterrestrial life, or alien life (colloquially, aliens), is life that originates from another world rather than on Earth. No extraterrestrial life has yet been scientifically conclusively detected. Such life might range from simple forms ...
. *
Climate change denial Climate change denial (also global warming denial) is a form of science denial characterized by rejecting, refusing to acknowledge, disputing, or fighting the scientific consensus on climate change. Those promoting denial commonly use rhetor ...
– involves denial, dismissal, unwarranted doubt or contrarian views which depart from the scientific consensus on
climate change Present-day climate change includes both global warming—the ongoing increase in Global surface temperature, global average temperature—and its wider effects on Earth's climate system. Climate variability and change, Climate change in ...
, including the extent to which it is caused by humans, its impacts on nature and human society, or the potential of adaptation to global warming by human actions. *
Flood geology Flood geology (also creation geology or diluvial geology) is a Pseudoscience, pseudoscientific attempt to interpret and reconcile :geology, geological features of the Earth in accordance with a literal belief in the Genesis flood narrative, th ...
– creationist form of geology that advocates most of the geologic features on Earth are explainable by a
global flood A flood myth or a deluge myth is a myth in which a great flood, usually sent by a deity or deities, destroys civilization, often in an act of divine retribution. Parallels are often drawn between the flood waters of these Mythology, myths and the ...
. * The
Hollow Earth The Hollow Earth is a concept proposing that the planet Earth is entirely hollow or contains a substantial interior space. Notably suggested by Edmond Halley in the late 17th century, the notion was disproven, first tentatively by Pierre Bougue ...
– a proposal that Earth is either entirely hollow or consists of hollow sections beneath the crust. Certain folklore and conspiracy theories hold this idea and suggest the existence of subterranean life. *
Welteislehre (WEL; "World Ice Theory" or "World Ice Doctrine"), also known as (''Glacial Cosmogony''), is a List of topics characterized as pseudoscience, discredited cosmological concept proposed by Hanns Hörbiger, an Austrian engineer and inventor. Accord ...
, a.k.a. the World Ice Theory or Glacial Cosmogony – ice is proposed to be the basic substance of all cosmic processes and ice moons, ice planets and the "global ether" (also made of ice) had determined the entire development of the universe. *The Expanding Earth or growing Earth was a
hypothesis A hypothesis (: hypotheses) is a proposed explanation for a phenomenon. A scientific hypothesis must be based on observations and make a testable and reproducible prediction about reality, in a process beginning with an educated guess o ...
attempting to explain the position and relative movement of
continents A continent is any of several large geographical regions. Continents are generally identified by convention rather than any strict criteria. A continent could be a single large landmass, a part of a very large landmass, as in the case of As ...
by increase in the volume of
Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to Planetary habitability, harbor life. This is enabled by Earth being an ocean world, the only one in the Solar System sustaining liquid surface water. Almost all ...
. With the recognition of
plate tectonics Plate tectonics (, ) is the scientific theory that the Earth's lithosphere comprises a number of large tectonic plates, which have been slowly moving since 3–4 billion years ago. The model builds on the concept of , an idea developed durin ...
in 20th century, the idea has been abandoned and considered a pseudoscience.


Physics

* Autodynamics – a physics theory proposed in the 1940s that claims the equations of the Lorentz transformation are incorrectly formulated to describe relativistic effects, which would invalidate Einstein's theories of special relativity and general relativity, and Maxwell's equations. The theory is discounted by the mainstream physics community. * E-Cat – a claimed cold fusion reactor.Patent application *
Einstein–Cartan–Evans theory Einstein–Cartan–Evans theory or ECE theory was an attempted unified theory of physics proposed by the Welsh chemist and physicist: "ECE Theory was discovered by chemist, physicist, and mathematician, Myron Wyn Evans...". Myron Wyn Evans (May 26 ...
– a unified theory of physics proposed by Myron Wyn Evans which claims to unify general relativity, quantum mechanics and electromagnetism.: "ECE Theory was discovered by chemist, physicist, and mathematician, Myron Wyn Evans...". The hypothesis was largely published in the journal ''Foundations of Physics Letters'' between 2003 and 2005; in 2008, the editor published an editorial note effectively retracting the journal's support for the hypothesis due to incorrect mathematical claims. * Electrogravitics – claimed to be an unconventional type of effect or anti-gravity propulsion created by an electric field's effect on a mass. The name was coined in the 1920s by Thomas Townsend Brown, who first described the effect and spent most of his life trying to develop it and sell it as a propulsion system. Follow-ups on the claims (R. L. Talley in a 1990 U.S. Air Force study, NASA scientist Jonathan Campbell in a 2003 experiment and Martin Tajmar in a 2004 paper) have found that no thrust could be observed in a vacuum, consistent with the phenomenon of ion wind. * Free energy – a class of
perpetual motion Perpetual motion is the motion of bodies that continues forever in an unperturbed system. A perpetual motion machine is a hypothetical machine that can do work indefinitely without an external energy source. This kind of machine is impossible ...
that purports to create energy (violating the
first law of thermodynamics The first law of thermodynamics is a formulation of the law of conservation of energy in the context of thermodynamic processes. For a thermodynamic process affecting a thermodynamic system without transfer of matter, the law distinguishes two ...
) or extract useful work from equilibrium systems (violating the
second law of thermodynamics The second law of thermodynamics is a physical law based on Universal (metaphysics), universal empirical observation concerning heat and Energy transformation, energy interconversions. A simple statement of the law is that heat always flows spont ...
). :* Water-fueled cars – an instance of perpetual motion machines. Such devices are claimed to use water as fuel or produce fuel from water on board with no other energy input. Many such claims are part of investment frauds. :* Gasoline pill or ''gasoline powder'', which was claimed to turn water into gasoline. :* Hongcheng Magic Liquid – a scam in China in which Wang Hongcheng (Chinese: 王洪成; pinyin: Wáng Hóngchéng), a bus driver from Harbin with no scientific education, claimed in 1983 that he could turn regular water into a fuel as flammable as petrol by simply dissolving a few drops of his liquid in it. * Hydrinos (Randell L. Mills/ Brilliant Light Power Inc.) – a supposed state of the
hydrogen atom A hydrogen atom is an atom of the chemical element hydrogen. The electrically neutral hydrogen atom contains a single positively charged proton in the nucleus, and a single negatively charged electron bound to the nucleus by the Coulomb for ...
that, according to Mills, is of lower energy than
ground state The ground state of a quantum-mechanical system is its stationary state of lowest energy; the energy of the ground state is known as the zero-point energy of the system. An excited state is any state with energy greater than the ground state ...
and has extremely high efficiency as a fuel. and Critics say it lacks corroborating scientific evidence and is a relic of
cold fusion Cold fusion is a hypothesized type of nuclear reaction that would occur at, or near, room temperature. It would contrast starkly with the nuclear fusion, "hot" fusion that is known to take place naturally within Main sequence, stars and artific ...
. Critical analysis of the claims have been published in the peer-reviewed journals ''
Physics Letters A ''Physics Letters'' was a scientific journal published from 1962 to 1966, when it split in two series now published by Elsevier Elsevier ( ) is a Dutch academic publishing company specializing in scientific, technical, and medical content. Its ...
'', ''
New Journal of Physics ''New Journal of Physics'' is an online-only, Open access (publishing), open-access, peer review, peer-reviewed scientific journal covering research in all aspects of physics, as well as interdisciplinarity, interdisciplinary topics where physics f ...
'', ''
Journal of Applied Physics The ''Journal of Applied Physics'' is a peer-reviewed scientific journal with a focus on the physics of modern technology. The journal was originally established in 1931 under the name of ''Physics'', and was published by the American Physical So ...
'', and '' Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics'' stating that the proposed hydrino states are unphysical and incompatible with key equations of quantum mechanics. *
Orgone Orgone ( ) is a pseudoscientific concept variously described as an esoteric energy or hypothetical universal life force. Originally proposed in the 1930s by Wilhelm Reich, and developed by Reich's student Charles Kelley after Reich's death ...
– a pseudoscientific concept described as an esoteric energy or hypothetical universal life force, originally proposed in the 1930s.


Applied sciences


Agriculture

*
Lysenkoism Lysenkoism ( ; ) was a political campaign led by the Soviet biologist Trofim Lysenko against genetics and science-based agriculture in the mid-20th century, rejecting natural selection in favour of a form of Lamarckism, as well as expanding upon ...
, or Lysenko-Michurinism – was a political campaign against genetics and science-based agriculture conducted by
Trofim Lysenko Trofim Denisovich Lysenko (; , ; 20 November 1976) was a Soviet agronomist and scientist.''An ill-educated agronomist with huge ambitions, Lysenko failed to become a real scientist, but greatly succeeded in exposing of the “bourgeois enemies o ...
, his followers and Soviet authorities. Lysenko served as the director of the Soviet Union's Lenin All-Union Academy of Agricultural Sciences. Lysenkoism began in the late 1920s and formally ended in 1964. The pseudoscientific ideas of Lysenkoism built on Jean-Baptiste Lamarck's concepts of the heritability of acquired characteristics. Lysenko's theory rejected
Gregor Mendel Gregor Johann Mendel Order of Saint Augustine, OSA (; ; ; 20 July 1822 – 6 January 1884) was an Austrian Empire, Austrian biologist, meteorologist, mathematician, Augustinians, Augustinian friar and abbot of St Thomas's Abbey, Brno, St. Thom ...
's theory of inheritance and the concept of the "gene"; it departed from Darwinian evolutionary theory by rejecting natural selection, viewing that concept as being incompatible with Marxist ideology. *
Biodynamic agriculture Biodynamic agriculture is a form of alternative agriculture based on pseudoscientific and esoteric concepts initially developed in 1924 by Rudolf Steiner (1861–1925). It was the first of the organic farming movements. It treats soil fertility, ...
– method of
organic farming Organic farming, also known as organic agriculture or ecological farming or biological farming,Labelling, article 30 o''Regulation (EU) 2018/848 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 30 May 2024 on organic production and labelling of ...
that treats farms as unified and individual organisms. Biodynamics uses a calendar which has been characterized as
astrological Astrology is a range of divinatory practices, recognized as pseudoscientific since the 18th century, that propose that information about human affairs and terrestrial events may be discerned by studying the apparent positions of celesti ...
. The substances and composts used by biodynamicists have been described as unconventional and
homeopathic Homeopathy or homoeopathy is a pseudoscientific system of alternative medicine. It was conceived in 1796 by the German physician Samuel Hahnemann. Its practitioners, called homeopaths or homeopathic physicians, believe that a substance tha ...
. For example, field mice are countered by deploying ashes prepared from field mice skin when Venus is in the Scorpius constellation. No difference in beneficial outcomes has been scientifically established between certified biodynamic agricultural techniques and similar organic and integrated farming practices. Biodynamic agriculture lacks strong scientific evidence for its efficacy and has been labeled a pseudoscience because of its overreliance upon esoteric knowledge and mystical beliefs. * GMO skepticism – The belief that genetically modified foods are inherently unsafe. This contradicts the
scientific consensus Scientific consensus is the generally held judgment, position, and opinion of the majority or the supermajority of scientists in a particular field of study at any particular time. Consensus is achieved through scholarly communication at confer ...
.

But see also:

And contrast:

and


Architecture

*
Feng shui Feng shui ( or ), sometimes called Chinese geomancy, is a traditional form of geomancy that originated in ancient China and claims to use energy forces to harmonize individuals with their surrounding environment. The term ''feng shui'' mean ...
– ancient Chinese system of mysticism and
aesthetics Aesthetics (also spelled esthetics) is the branch of philosophy concerned with the nature of beauty and taste (sociology), taste, which in a broad sense incorporates the philosophy of art.Slater, B. H.Aesthetics ''Internet Encyclopedia of Ph ...
based on
astronomy Astronomy is a natural science that studies celestial objects and the phenomena that occur in the cosmos. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and their overall evolution. Objects of interest includ ...
,
geography Geography (from Ancient Greek ; combining 'Earth' and 'write', literally 'Earth writing') is the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena of Earth. Geography is an all-encompassing discipline that seeks an understanding o ...
and the putative flow of '' qi''. Evidence for its effectiveness is based on anecdote and there is a lack of a plausible method of action; this leads to conflicting advice from different practitioners of feng shui. Feng shui practitioners use this as evidence of variations or different schools; critical analysts have described it thus: "Feng shui has always been based upon mere guesswork." Modern criticism differentiates between feng shui as a traditional proto-religion and the modern practice: "A naturalistic belief, it was originally used to find an auspicious dwelling place for a shrine or a tomb. However, over the centuries it...has become distorted and degraded into a gross superstition." *
Ley line Ley lines () are straight alignments drawn between various historic structures, prehistoric sites and prominent landmarks. The idea was developed in early 20th-century Europe, with ley line believers arguing that these alignments were recognis ...
s – proposed intentional alignment of ancient monuments and landscape features was later explained by a statistical analysis of lines that concluded: "the density of archaeological sites in the British landscape is so great that a line drawn through virtually anywhere will 'clip' a number of sites." Additional
New Age New Age is a range of Spirituality, spiritual or Religion, religious practices and beliefs that rapidly grew in Western world, Western society during the early 1970s. Its highly eclecticism, eclectic and unsystematic structure makes a precise d ...
and feng shui concepts have been proposed building on the original concept and pseudoscientific claims about energy flowing through the lines have been made. * Minimum parking requirements – system for assigning an optimal number of parking spaces to a given land use. It is characterized as a pseudoscience by UCLA planning professor Donald Shoup, especially as practiced by the
Institute of Transportation Engineers The Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) is an international educational and scientific association of transportation professionals who are responsible for meeting mobility and safety needs. ITE facilitates the application of technology and ...
. He argues that the ITE's calculations are arcane, overly specific, and typically based on minimal data and approximations that cannot be widely applied to other businesses, even of the same type, and yet are presented as science-backed. *
Vastu shastra Originating in ancient India, ''Vastu Shastra'' (, ' – literally "science of architecture") is a traditional Hindu system of architecture based on ancient texts that describe principles of design, layout, measurements, ground preparation, ...
is the ancient Hindu system of architecture, which lays down a series of rules for building houses in relation to ambiance. Vastu Shastra is considered pseudoscience by rationalists like Narendra Nayak of the Federation of Indian Rationalist Associations and astronomer Jayant Narlikar, who writes that Vastu does not have any "logical connection" to the environment.


Finance

*
Technical analysis In finance, technical analysis is an analysis methodology for analysing and forecasting the direction of prices through the study of past market data, primarily price and volume. As a type of active management, it stands in contradiction to ...
is a
security analysis In finance, Security analysis is the evaluation and assessment of stocks or securities to determine their investment potential. It involves analyzing various factors, such as financial statements, industry trends, market conditions, and company ...
methodology for forecasting the direction of
prices A price is the (usually not negative) quantity of payment or compensation expected, required, or given by one party to another in return for goods or services. In some situations, especially when the product is a service rather than a phys ...
through the study of past market data, primarily price and volume.
Behavioral economics Behavioral economics is the study of the psychological (e.g. cognitive, behavioral, affective, social) factors involved in the decisions of individuals or institutions, and how these decisions deviate from those implied by traditional economi ...
and quantitative analysis use many of the same tools of technical analysis, which, being an aspect of
active management Active may refer to: Music * ''Active'' (album), a 1992 album by Casiopea * "Active" (song), a 2024 song by Asake and Travis Scott from Asake's album ''Lungu Boy'' * Active Records, a record label Ships * ''Active'' (ship), several com ...
, stands in contradiction to much of
modern portfolio theory Modern portfolio theory (MPT), or mean-variance analysis, is a mathematical framework for assembling a portfolio of assets such that the expected return is maximized for a given level of risk. It is a formalization and extension of Diversificatio ...
. The efficacy of both technical and
fundamental analysis Fundamental analysis, in accounting and finance, is the analysis of a business's financial statements (usually to analyze the business's assets, Liability (financial accounting), liabilities, and earnings); health; Competition, competitors and Ma ...
is disputed by the
efficient-market hypothesis The efficient-market hypothesis (EMH) is a hypothesis in financial economics that states that asset prices reflect all available information. A direct implication is that it is impossible to "beat the market" consistently on a risk-adjusted basis ...
, which states that stock market prices are essentially unpredictable. It is still considered by many academics to be pseudoscience. Academics such as
Eugene Fama Eugene Francis "Gene" Fama (; born February 14, 1939) is an American economist, best known for his empirical work on portfolio theory, asset pricing, and the efficient-market hypothesis. He is currently Robert R. McCormick Distinguished Servic ...
say the evidence for technical analysis is sparse and is inconsistent with the '' weak form'' of the efficient-market hypothesis.


Health and medicine

Pseudoscientific medical practices are often known as
quackery Quackery, often synonymous with health fraud, is the promotion of fraudulent or Ignorance, ignorant medicine, medical practices. A quack is a "fraudulent or ignorant pretender to medical skill" or "a person who pretends, professionally or public ...
. In contrast, modern medicine is (or seeks to be)
evidence-based Evidence-based practice is the idea that occupational practices ought to be based on scientific evidence. The movement towards evidence-based practices attempts to encourage and, in some instances, require professionals and other decision-makers ...
. *The abortion–breast cancer hypothesis posits that having an induced abortion can increase the risk of
breast cancer Breast cancer is a cancer that develops from breast tissue. Signs of breast cancer may include a Breast lump, lump in the breast, a change in breast shape, dimpling of the skin, Milk-rejection sign, milk rejection, fluid coming from the nipp ...
. This
hypothesis A hypothesis (: hypotheses) is a proposed explanation for a phenomenon. A scientific hypothesis must be based on observations and make a testable and reproducible prediction about reality, in a process beginning with an educated guess o ...
is at odds with mainstream scientific opinion and is rejected by major medical professional organizations. * Access Consciousness is an alternative medicine technique similar to a combination of
phrenology Phrenology is a pseudoscience that involves the measurement of bumps on the skull to predict mental traits. It is based on the concept that the Human brain, brain is the organ of the mind, and that certain brain areas have localized, specific ...
,
reiki Reiki is a pseudoscientific form of energy healing, a type of alternative medicine originating in Japan. Reiki practitioners use a technique called ''palm healing'' or ''hands-on healing'' through which, according to practitioners, a " unive ...
, energy therapies and therapeutic touch, where health and wellness can be improved by touching the 32 "Energy Bars" on a person's head. *
Acupuncture Acupuncture is a form of alternative medicine and a component of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) in which thin needles are inserted into the body. Acupuncture is a pseudoscience; the theories and practices of TCM are not based on scientif ...
– use of fine needles to stimulate ''acupuncture points'' and balance the flow of ''qi''. There is no known
anatomical Anatomy () is the branch of morphology concerned with the study of the internal structure of organisms and their parts. Anatomy is a branch of natural science that deals with the structural organization of living things. It is an old scien ...
or
histological Histology, also known as microscopic anatomy or microanatomy, is the branch of biology that studies the microscopic anatomy of biological tissue (biology), tissues. Histology is the microscopic counterpart to gross anatomy, which looks at large ...
basis for the existence of ''acupuncture points'' or ''meridians'' and acupuncture is regarded as an alternative medical procedure. Some acupuncturists regard them as functional rather than structural entities, useful in guiding evaluation and care of patients. Acupuncture has been the subject of active
scientific Science is a systematic discipline that builds and organises knowledge in the form of testable hypotheses and predictions about the universe. Modern science is typically divided into twoor threemajor branches: the natural sciences, which stu ...
research since the late 20th century and its effects and application remain controversial among medical researchers and clinicians. Some scholarly reviews conclude that acupuncture's effects are mainly attributable to the
placebo effect A placebo ( ) can be roughly defined as a sham medical treatment. Common placebos include inert tablets (like sugar pills), inert injections (like saline), sham surgery, and other procedures. Placebos are used in randomized clinical trials ...
and others find likelihood of efficacy for particular conditions. ** Dry needling is the therapeutic insertion of fine needles without regard to
traditional Chinese medicine Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is an alternative medicine, alternative medical practice drawn from traditional medicine in China. A large share of its claims are pseudoscientific, with the majority of treatments having no robust evidence ...
(TCM) and is similarly controversial. **
Acupressure Acupressure is an alternative medicine technique often used in conjunction with acupuncture or reflexology. It is based on the concept of "life energy" (qi), which purportedly flows through "meridians" in the body. There is no scientific evidenc ...
is an alternative medicine technique similar in principle to
acupuncture Acupuncture is a form of alternative medicine and a component of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) in which thin needles are inserted into the body. Acupuncture is a pseudoscience; the theories and practices of TCM are not based on scientif ...
. It is based on the concept of life energy, which flows through "meridians" in the body. In treatment, physical pressure is applied to
acupuncture point Acupuncture is a form of alternative medicine and a component of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) in which thin needles are inserted into the body. Acupuncture is a pseudoscience; the theories and practices of TCM are not based on scientif ...
s with the aim of clearing blockages in these meridians. Pressure may be applied by hand, by elbow, or with various devices. Some studies have suggested it may be effective at helping manage nausea and vomiting, lower back pain, tension headaches and stomach ache, although such studies have been found to have a high likelihood of bias. Like many alternative medicines, it may benefit from a
placebo effect A placebo ( ) can be roughly defined as a sham medical treatment. Common placebos include inert tablets (like sugar pills), inert injections (like saline), sham surgery, and other procedures. Placebos are used in randomized clinical trials ...
.
Quackwatch Quackwatch is a United States-based website focused on promoting consumer protection and providing information about health related frauds, myths, fads, fallacies, and misconduct. It primarily targets alternative medicine, questionable health cl ...
says acupressure is a dubious practice and its practitioners use irrational methods. *
Adrenal fatigue Adrenal fatigue is a pseudoscientific term used by alternative medicine providers to suggest that the adrenal glands are exhausted and unable to produce adequate quantities of hormones, primarily cortisol, due to chronic stress or infections. Th ...
or hypoadrenia is a pseudoscientific diagnosis described as a state in which the
adrenal gland The adrenal glands (also known as suprarenal glands) are endocrine glands that produce a variety of hormones including adrenaline and the steroids aldosterone and cortisol. They are found above the kidneys. Each gland has an outer adrenal corte ...
s are exhausted and unable to produce adequate quantities of hormones, primarily the
glucocorticoid Glucocorticoids (or, less commonly, glucocorticosteroids) are a class of corticosteroids, which are a class of steroid hormones. Glucocorticoids are corticosteroids that bind to the glucocorticoid receptor that is present in almost every vertebra ...
cortisol Cortisol is a steroid hormone in the glucocorticoid class of hormones and a stress hormone. When used as medication, it is known as hydrocortisone. Cortisol is produced in many animals, mainly by the ''zona fasciculata'' of the adrenal corte ...
, due to chronic stress or infections. Quote: "There is no scientific basis for the existence of this disorder and no conclusive method for diagnosis." Adrenal fatigue should not be confused with a number of actual forms of adrenal dysfunction such as
adrenal insufficiency Adrenal insufficiency is a condition in which the adrenal glands do not produce adequate amounts of steroid hormones. The adrenal glands—also referred to as the adrenal cortex—normally secrete glucocorticoids (primarily cortisol), mineraloco ...
or
Addison's disease Addison's disease, also known as primary adrenal insufficiency, is a rare long-term endocrine disorder characterized by inadequate production of the steroid hormones cortisol and aldosterone by the two outer layers of the cells of the adr ...
. The term "adrenal fatigue", which was invented in 1998 by James Wilson, a
chiropractor Chiropractic () is a form of alternative medicine concerned with the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of physical disorder, mechanical disorders of the musculoskeletal system, especially of the vertebral column, spine. It is based on sever ...
, may be applied to a collection of mostly
nonspecific symptoms Signs and symptoms are diagnostic indications of an illness, injury, or condition. Signs are objective and externally observable; symptoms are a person's reported subjective experiences. A sign for example may be a higher or lower temperature ...
. There is no scientific evidence supporting the concept of adrenal fatigue and it is not recognized as a diagnosis by any scientific or medical community. A systematic review found no evidence for the existence of adrenal fatigue, confirming the consensus among endocrinological societies that it is a myth. * The
Alexander Technique The Alexander technique, named after its developer Frederick Matthias Alexander (1869–1955), is an alternative therapy based on the idea that poor posture causes a range of health problems. The American National Center for Complementary a ...
, named after its creator
Frederick Matthias Alexander Frederick Matthias Alexander (20 January 1869 – 10 October 1955) was an Australian actor and author who developed the Alexander Technique, an educational process said to recognize and overcome reactive, habitual limitations in movement and t ...
, is an educational process that was created to retrain habitual patterns of movement and posture. Alexander believed that poor habits in posture and movement damaged spatial
self-awareness In philosophy of self, philosophy, self-awareness is the awareness and reflection of one's own personality or individuality, including traits, feelings, and behaviors. It is not to be confused with consciousness in the sense of qualia. While ...
as well as health and that movement efficiency could support overall physical well-being. He saw the technique as a mental training technique as well. Alexander began developing his technique's principles in the 1890s in an attempt to address voice loss during public speaking. He credited his method with allowing him to pursue his passion for reciting in
Shakespearean William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...
theater. Some proponents of the Alexander Technique say that it addresses a variety of health conditions related to cumulative physical behaviors, but there is little evidence to support many of the claims made about the technique. As of 2015, there was evidence suggesting the Alexander Technique may be helpful for both long-term
back pain Back pain (Latin: ''dorsalgia'') is pain felt in the back. It may be classified as neck pain (cervical), middle back pain (thoracic), lower back pain (lumbar) or coccydynia (tailbone or sacral pain) based on the segment affected. The lumbar area ...
and long-term
neck pain The neck is the part of the body in many vertebrates that connects the head to the torso. It supports the weight of the head and protects the nerves that transmit sensory and motor information between the brain and the rest of the body. Addition ...
and may help people cope with
Parkinson's disease Parkinson's disease (PD), or simply Parkinson's, is a neurodegenerative disease primarily of the central nervous system, affecting both motor system, motor and non-motor systems. Symptoms typically develop gradually and non-motor issues become ...
. However, both
Aetna Aetna Inc. ( ) is an American managed health care company that sells traditional and consumer directed health care insurance and related services, such as medical, pharmaceutical, dental, behavioral health, long-term care, and disability plans, ...
and the Australian Department of Health have conducted reviews and concluded that the technique has insufficient evidence to warrant insurance coverage. * *
Alternative cancer treatments Alternative cancer treatment describes any cancer treatment or practice that is not part of the conventional standard of cancer care. These include special diets and exercises, chemicals, herbs, devices, and manual procedures. Most alternative ...
are alternative or complementary treatments for
cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving Cell growth#Disorders, abnormal cell growth with the potential to Invasion (cancer), invade or Metastasis, spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Po ...
that have not been approved by the government agencies responsible for the
regulation of therapeutic goods The regulation of therapeutic goods, defined as drugs and therapeutic devices, varies by jurisdiction. In some countries, such as the United States, they are regulated at the national level by a single agency. In other jurisdictions they are reg ...
and have not undergone properly conducted, well-designed clinical trials. Among those that have been published, the methodology is often poor. A 2006 systematic review of 214 articles covering 198 clinical trials of alternative cancer treatments concluded that almost none conducted dose-ranging studies, which are necessary to ensure that the patients are being given a useful amount of the treatment. These kinds of treatments appear and vanish frequently and have done so throughout history. * Alternative or fringe medicine – The terms ''alternative medicine'', ''complementary medicine'', ''integrative medicine,'' ''holistic medicine'', ''natural medicine'', ''unorthodox medicine'', ''fringe medicine'', ''unconventional medicine'' and ''
New Age New Age is a range of Spirituality, spiritual or Religion, religious practices and beliefs that rapidly grew in Western world, Western society during the early 1970s. Its highly eclecticism, eclectic and unsystematic structure makes a precise d ...
medicine'' are used interchangeably and are almost synonymous. Terminology shifts over time to reflect the branding of practitioners."Integrative medicine": A brand, not a specialty
. '' Science Based Medicine''
Therapies are often framed as "natural" or "holistic", implicitly and intentionally suggesting that conventional medicine is "artificial" and "narrow in scope". *
Animal magnetism Animal magnetism, also known as mesmerism, is a theory invented by German doctor Franz Mesmer in the 18th century. It posits the existence of an invisible natural force (''Lebensmagnetismus'') possessed by all living things, including humans ...
– also known as mesmerism; was the name given by German doctor
Franz Mesmer Franz Anton Mesmer ( ; ; 23 May 1734 – 5 March 1815) was a German physician with an interest in astronomy. He theorized the existence of a process of natural Energy (esotericism), energy transference occurring between all animate and inanimat ...
in the 18th century to what he believed to be an invisible natural force (''Lebensmagnetismus'') possessed by all living things, including humans, animals and vegetables. He believed that the force could have physical effects, including healing, and he tried persistently but without success to achieve scientific recognition of his ideas.Wolfart, Karl Christian; Friedrich Anton Mesmer. ''Mesmerismus: Oder, System der Wechselwirkungen, Theorie und Anwendung des thierischen Magnetismus als die allgemeine Heilkunde zur Erhaltung des Menschen'' (in German, facsimile of the 1811 edition). Cambridge University Press, 2011. . Foreword. * Anthroposophic medicine, or anthroposophical medicine, is a form of alternative medicine. ''Cited in'' Devised in the 1920s by
Rudolf Steiner Rudolf Joseph Lorenz Steiner (; 27 or 25 February 1861 – 30 March 1925) was an Austrian occultist, social reformer, architect, esotericist, and claimed clairvoyant. Steiner gained initial recognition at the end of the nineteenth century ...
and
Ita Wegman Ita Wegman (22 February 1876 – 4 March 1943) co-founded Anthroposophical Medicine with Rudolf Steiner. In 1921, she founded the first anthroposophical medical clinic in Arlesheim, known until 2014 as the Ita Wegman Clinic. She also developed a s ...
, it was based on
occult The occult () is a category of esoteric or supernatural beliefs and practices which generally fall outside the scope of organized religion and science, encompassing phenomena involving a 'hidden' or 'secret' agency, such as magic and mysti ...
notions and drew on Steiner's
spiritual philosophy Spiritual philosophy is any philosophy or teaching that pertains to spirituality. It may incorporate religious or esoteric themes. It can include any belief or thought system that embraces the existence of a reality that cannot be physically perce ...
, which he called
anthroposophy Anthroposophy is a spiritual new religious movementSources for 'new religious movement': which was founded in the early 20th century by the esotericist Rudolf Steiner that postulates the existence of an objective, intellectually comprehensibl ...
. Practitioners employ a variety of treatment techniques based upon anthroposophic precepts. Many drug preparations used in anthroposophic medicine are ultra-diluted substances, similar to those used in homeopathy. Some anthroposophic doctors oppose childhood vaccination and this has led to preventable outbreaks of disease. Professor of complementary medicine
Edzard Ernst Edzard Ernst (born 30 January 1948) is a retired British-German academic physician and researcher specializing in the study of complementary and alternative medicine. He was Professor of Complementary Medicine at the University of Exeter, the wo ...
and other critics have characterized anthroposophic medicine as having no basis in science, pseudoscientific and
quackery Quackery, often synonymous with health fraud, is the promotion of fraudulent or Ignorance, ignorant medicine, medical practices. A quack is a "fraudulent or ignorant pretender to medical skill" or "a person who pretends, professionally or public ...
. *
Apitherapy Apitherapy is a branch of alternative medicine that uses honey bee products, including honey, pollen, propolis, royal jelly and bee venom. There has been no scientific or clinical evidence for the efficacy or safety of apitherapy treatments ...
is a branch of alternative medicine that uses
honey bee A honey bee (also spelled honeybee) is a eusocial flying insect within the genus ''Apis'' of the bee clade, all native to mainland Afro-Eurasia. After bees spread naturally throughout Africa and Eurasia, humans became responsible for the ...
products, including honey, pollen,
propolis Propolis or bee glue is a resinous mixture that honey bees produce by mixing saliva and beeswax with exudate gathered from tree buds, sap flows, or other botanical sources. It is used as a sealant for unwanted open spaces in the beehive. Pro ...
,
royal jelly Royal jelly is a honey bee secretion that is used in the nutrition of larvae and adult queens. It is secreted from the glands in the hypopharynx of nurse bees, and fed to all larvae in the colony, regardless of sex or caste.Graham, J. (ed.) (199 ...
and
bee venom Apitoxin or bee venom is the venom produced by the honey bee. It is a cytotoxic and hemotoxic bitter colorless liquid containing proteins, which may produce local inflammation. It may have similarities to sea nettle toxin. Components Bee venom ...
. Proponents of apitherapy make claims for its health benefits, which remain unsupported by
evidence-based medicine Evidence-based medicine (EBM) is "the conscientious, explicit and judicious use of current best evidence in making decisions about the care of individual patients. It means integrating individual clinical expertise with the best available exte ...
. * Applied kinesiology (AK) is a technique in alternative medicine claimed to be able to diagnose illness or choose treatment by testing muscles for strength and weakness. According to their guidelines on allergy diagnostic testing, the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology stated there is "no evidence of diagnostic validity" of applied kinesiology. Another study has shown that as an evaluative method, AK "is no more useful than random guessing" and the American Cancer Society has said that "scientific evidence does not support the claim that applied kinesiology can diagnose or treat cancer or other illness". *
Aromatherapy Aromatherapy is a practice based on the use of aromatic materials, including essential oils and other aroma compounds, with claims for improving psychological well-being. It is used as a complementary therapy or as a form of alternative medic ...
uses aromatic materials, including
essential oils An essential oil is a concentrated hydrophobic liquid containing volatile (easily evaporated at normal temperatures) chemical compounds from plants. Essential oils are also known as volatile oils, ethereal oils, aetheroleum, or simply as the o ...
, and other
aroma compound An aroma compound, also known as an odorant, aroma, fragrance, flavoring or flavor, is a chemical compound that has a smell or odor. For an individual chemical or class of chemical compounds to impart a smell or fragrance, it must be sufficien ...
s, with claims for improving psychological or physical well-being. It is offered as a complementary therapy or as a form of alternative medicine, the first meaning alongside standard treatments, the second instead of conventional, evidence-based treatments. Aromatherapists, people who specialize in the practice of aromatherapy, utilize blends of supposedly therapeutic essential oils that can be used as topical application, massage, inhalation or water immersion. There is no good medical evidence that aromatherapy can either prevent, treat, or cure any disease. Placebo-controlled trials are difficult to design, as the point of aromatherapy is the smell of the products. There is disputed evidence that it may be effective in combating postoperative nausea and vomiting. * Auriculotherapy (also auricular therapy, ear acupuncture, and auriculoacupuncture) is a form of
alternative medicine Alternative medicine refers to practices that aim to achieve the healing effects of conventional medicine, but that typically lack biological plausibility, testability, repeatability, or supporting evidence of effectiveness. Such practices are ...
based on the idea that the
ear In vertebrates, an ear is the organ that enables hearing and (in mammals) body balance using the vestibular system. In humans, the ear is described as having three parts: the outer ear, the middle ear and the inner ear. The outer ear co ...
is a micro-system which reflects the entire body, represented on the auricle, the outer portion of the ear. Conditions affecting the physical, mental or emotional health of the patient are assumed to be treatable by stimulation of the surface of the ear exclusively. Similar mappings are used in many areas of the body, including the practices of
reflexology Reflexology, also known as zone therapy, is an alternative medical practice involving the application of pressure to specific points on the feet, ears, and hands. This is done using thumb, finger, and hand massage techniques without the use of ...
and iridology. These mappings are not based on or supported by any medical or
scientific evidence Scientific evidence is evidence that serves to either support or counter a scientific theory or hypothesis, although scientists also use evidence in other ways, such as when applying theories to practical problems. "Discussions about empirical ev ...
and are therefore considered to be pseudoscience. * Autistic enterocolitis – is the name of a nonexistent medical condition proposed by discredited
British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...
gastroenterologist Gastroenterology (from the Greek gastḗr- "belly", -énteron "intestine", and -logía "study of") is the branch of medicine focused on the digestive system and its disorders. The digestive system consists of the gastrointestinal tract, sometime ...
Andrew Wakefield Andrew Jeremy Wakefield (born 3 September 1956) is a British fraudster, anti-vaccine activist, and disgraced former physician. He was struck off the medical register for "serious professional misconduct" due to his involvement in the fraudu ...
when he suggested a link between a number of common clinical symptoms and signs which he contended were distinctive to
autism Autism, also known as autism spectrum disorder (ASD), is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by differences or difficulties in social communication and interaction, a preference for predictability and routine, sensory processing d ...
. The existence of such an
enterocolitis Enterocolitis is an inflammation of the digestive tract, involving enteritis of the small intestine and colitis of the colon. It may be caused by various infections, with bacteria, viruses, fungi, parasites, or other causes. Common clinical mani ...
has been dismissed by experts as having "not been established". Wakefield's now-retracted and fraudulent report used inadequate controls and suppressed negative findings and multiple attempts to replicate his results have been unsuccessful. Reviews in the medical literature have found no link between autism and bowel disease. * *
Ayurveda Ayurveda (; ) is an alternative medicine system with historical roots in the Indian subcontinent. It is heavily practised throughout India and Nepal, where as much as 80% of the population report using ayurveda. The theory and practice of ayur ...
– traditional Ayurveda is a 5,000-year-old alternative medical practice with roots in ancient India based on a mind-body set of beliefs. Imbalance or stress in an individual's consciousness is believed to be the cause of diseases. Patients are classified by body types (three '' doshas'', which are considered to control mind-body harmony, determine an individual's "body type") and treatment is aimed at restoring balance to the mind-body system. It has long been the main traditional system of health care in India and it has become institutionalized in India's colleges and schools, although unlicensed practitioners are common. As with other traditional knowledge, much of it was lost; in the West, current practice is in part based on the teachings of the
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi Maharishi Mahesh Yogi (born Mahesh Prasad Varma, 12 January 191? – 5 February 2008) was the creator of Transcendental Meditation (TM) and leader of the worldwide organization that has been characterized in multiple ways, including as a new ...
in the 1980s, who mixed it with Transcendental Meditation; other forms of
Ayurveda Ayurveda (; ) is an alternative medicine system with historical roots in the Indian subcontinent. It is heavily practised throughout India and Nepal, where as much as 80% of the population report using ayurveda. The theory and practice of ayur ...
exist as well. The most notable advocate of Ayurveda in America is
Deepak Chopra Deepak Chopra (; ; born October 22, 1946) is an Indian-American author, New Age, new age guru, and alternative medicine advocate. A prominent figure in the New Age movement, his books and videos have made him one of the best-known and wealthi ...
, who claims that the Maharishi's Ayurveda is based on
quantum mysticism Quantum mysticism, sometimes referred to pejoratively as quantum quackery or quantum woo, is a set of Metaphysics, metaphysical beliefs and associated practices that seek to relate spirituality or mystical worldviews to the ideas of quantum mech ...
. *
Balneotherapy Balneotherapy ( "bath") is a method of treating diseases by bathing, a traditional medicine technique usually practiced at spas. Since ancient times, humans have used hot springs, public baths and thermal medicine for therapeutic effects. While ...
( "bath") is the presumed benefit from
disease A disease is a particular abnormal condition that adversely affects the structure or function (biology), function of all or part of an organism and is not immediately due to any external injury. Diseases are often known to be medical condi ...
by bathing, a
traditional medicine Traditional medicine (also known as indigenous medicine or folk medicine) refers to the knowledge, skills, and practices rooted in the cultural beliefs of various societies, especially Indigenous groups, used for maintaining health and treatin ...
technique usually practiced at
spa A spa is a location where mineral-rich spring water (sometimes seawater) is used to give medicinal baths. Spa health treatments are known as balneotherapy. The belief in the curative powers of mineral waters and hot springs goes back to pre ...
s. Balneotherapy may involve hot or cold
water Water is an inorganic compound with the chemical formula . It is a transparent, tasteless, odorless, and Color of water, nearly colorless chemical substance. It is the main constituent of Earth's hydrosphere and the fluids of all known liv ...
,
massage Massage is the rubbing or kneading of the body's soft tissues. Massage techniques are commonly applied with hands, fingers, elbows, knees, forearms, feet, or a device. The purpose of massage is generally for the treatment of body stress or pa ...
through moving water, relaxation, or stimulation. Many mineral waters at spas are rich in particular
mineral In geology and mineralogy, a mineral or mineral species is, broadly speaking, a solid substance with a fairly well-defined chemical composition and a specific crystal structure that occurs naturally in pure form.John P. Rafferty, ed. (2011): Mi ...
s such as
silica Silicon dioxide, also known as silica, is an oxide of silicon with the chemical formula , commonly found in nature as quartz. In many parts of the world, silica is the major constituent of sand. Silica is one of the most complex and abundant f ...
,
sulfur Sulfur ( American spelling and the preferred IUPAC name) or sulphur ( Commonwealth spelling) is a chemical element; it has symbol S and atomic number 16. It is abundant, multivalent and nonmetallic. Under normal conditions, sulfur atoms ...
,
selenium Selenium is a chemical element; it has symbol (chemistry), symbol Se and atomic number 34. It has various physical appearances, including a brick-red powder, a vitreous black solid, and a grey metallic-looking form. It seldom occurs in this elem ...
and
radium Radium is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol Ra and atomic number 88. It is the sixth element in alkaline earth metal, group 2 of the periodic table, also known as the alkaline earth metals. Pure radium is silvery-white, ...
. Scientific studies into the effectiveness of balneotherapy do not show that balneotherapy is effective for treating
rheumatoid arthritis Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a long-term autoimmune disorder that primarily affects synovial joint, joints. It typically results in warm, swollen, and painful joints. Pain and stiffness often worsen following rest. Most commonly, the wrist and h ...
. There is also no evidence indicating a more effective type of bath, or to indicate that bathing is more effective than physical exercise,
relaxation therapy A relaxation technique (also known as relaxation training) is any method, process, procedure, or activity that helps a person to relax; attain a state of increased calmness; or otherwise reduce levels of pain, anxiety, Stress (biology), stress or ...
, or mudpacks. Most of the studies on balneotherapy have methodological flaws and are not reliable. A 2009 review of all published clinical evidence concluded that existing research is not sufficiently strong to draw firm conclusions about the efficacy of balneotherapy. *
Bates method The Bates method is an ineffective and potentially dangerous alternative medicine, alternative therapy aimed at improving visual acuity, eyesight. Eye-care physician William Bates (physician), William Horatio Bates (1860–1931) held the err ...
– an alternative therapy aimed at improving
eyesight Visual perception is the ability to detect light and use it to form an image of the surrounding environment. Photodetection without image formation is classified as ''light sensing''. In most vertebrates, visual perception can be enabled by ph ...
. Eye-care physician William Horatio Bates (1860–1931) attributed nearly all sight problems to habitual "strain" of the eyes and thus felt that relieving such "strain" would cure the problems. In 1952, optometry professor Elwin Marg wrote of Bates, "Most of his claims and almost all of his theories have been considered false by practically all visual scientists." * Biological terrain assessment – a set of computerized tests used to measure the pH, resistivity and redox potentials of a person's urine, blood and saliva, with the intention of recommending a customized program of health supplements and remedies (such as vitamins, homeopathic supplements, or herbal medicines) based on the results. Proponents suggest that BTA allows for a correction of biological imbalances before they become pathological, while opponents claim that the tests are imprecise and result in incorrect diagnoses. * Biorhythm theory – an attempt to predict various aspects of a person's life through simple mathematical cycles. The theory was developed by
Wilhelm Fliess Wilhelm Fliess ( ; 24 October 1858 – 13 October 1928) was a German otolaryngologist who practised in Berlin. He developed the pseudoscientific theory of human biorhythms and a possible nasogenital connection that have not been accepted by ...
in the late 19th century and was popularized in the United States in the late 1970s. It was described as pseudoscience. * Body memory (BM) is a
hypothesis A hypothesis (: hypotheses) is a proposed explanation for a phenomenon. A scientific hypothesis must be based on observations and make a testable and reproducible prediction about reality, in a process beginning with an educated guess o ...
that the body itself is capable of storing memories, as opposed to only the brain. While experiments have demonstrated the possibility of cellular memory there are currently no known means by which tissues other than the brain would be capable of storing memories. Modern usage of BM tends to frame it exclusively in the context of traumatic memory and ways in which the body responds to recall of a memory. In this regard, it has become relevant in treatment for
PTSD Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a mental disorder that develops from experiencing a traumatic event, such as sexual assault, domestic violence, child abuse, warfare and its associated traumas, natural disaster, traffic collision, ...
. *
Brain Gym Brain Gym is a proprietary brain training and body movement programme. It is widely considered to be pseudoscience. Organization "Brain Gym International" is the trade name of the Educational Kinesiology Foundation, a California nonprofit co ...
– is an organization promoting a series of exercises claimed to improve academic performance. Twenty-six Brain Gym activities are claimed to improve eye teaming (binocular vision), spatial and listening skills, hand–eye coordination and whole-body flexibility and by doing this manipulate the brain, improving learning and recall of information. The Brain Gym program calls for children to repeat certain simple movements such as crawling, yawning, making symbols in the air and drinking water; these are intended to "integrate", "repattern", and increase blood flow to the brain. Though the organization claims the methods are grounded in good neuroscience, the underlying ideas are pseudoscience. * Candida hypersensitivity – It has been spuriously claimed that chronic yeast infections are responsible for many common disorders and
non-specific symptom Signs and symptoms are diagnostic indications of an illness, injury, or condition. Signs are objective and externally observable; symptoms are a person's reported subjective experiences. A sign for example may be a higher or lower temperature ...
s, including
fatigue Fatigue is a state of tiredness (which is not sleepiness), exhaustion or loss of energy. It is a signs and symptoms, symptom of any of various diseases; it is not a disease in itself. Fatigue (in the medical sense) is sometimes associated wit ...
,
weight gain Weight gain is an increase in body weight. This can involve an increase in muscle mass, fat deposits, excess fluids such as water or other factors. Weight gain can be a symptom of a serious medical condition. Description Weight gain occurs ...
,
constipation Constipation is a bowel dysfunction that makes bowel movements infrequent or hard to pass. The Human feces, stool is often hard and dry. Other symptoms may include abdominal pain, bloating, and feeling as if one has not completely passed the ...
,
dizziness Dizziness is an imprecise term that can refer to a sense of disorientation in space, vertigo, or lightheadedness. It can also refer to Balance disorder, disequilibrium or a non-specific feeling, such as giddiness or foolishness. Dizziness is a ...
, muscle and joint
pain Pain is a distressing feeling often caused by intense or damaging Stimulus (physiology), stimuli. The International Association for the Study of Pain defines pain as "an unpleasant sense, sensory and emotional experience associated with, or res ...
,
asthma Asthma is a common long-term inflammatory disease of the airways of the lungs. It is characterized by variable and recurring symptoms, reversible airflow obstruction, and easily triggered bronchospasms. Symptoms include episodes of wh ...
and others. The notion has been strongly challenged by the
American Academy of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology Founded in 1943, the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology (AAAAI) is a professional medical membership organization of more than 7,000 allergists/ immunologists and related professionals around the world with advanced training and exp ...
. * Carnivore dieta fad diet in which nothing is eaten but meat. As well as being unhealthy the diet has a damaging environmental impact. *
Chelation therapy Chelation therapy is a medical procedure that involves the administration of chelating agents to remove heavy metals from the body. Chelation therapy has a long history of use in clinical toxicology and remains in use for some very specific medic ...
is claimed by some practitioners of
alternative medicine Alternative medicine refers to practices that aim to achieve the healing effects of conventional medicine, but that typically lack biological plausibility, testability, repeatability, or supporting evidence of effectiveness. Such practices are ...
to treat a variety of ailments, including
heart disease Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is any disease involving the heart or blood vessels. CVDs constitute a class of diseases that includes: coronary artery diseases (e.g. angina pectoris, angina, myocardial infarction, heart attack), heart failure, ...
and
autism Autism, also known as autism spectrum disorder (ASD), is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by differences or difficulties in social communication and interaction, a preference for predictability and routine, sensory processing d ...
. While
chelation Chelation () is a type of bonding of ions and their molecules to metal ions. It involves the formation or presence of two or more separate coordinate bonds between a polydentate (multiple bonded) ligand and a single central metal atom. These l ...
is a valid form of medical treatment, used as a means to treat conditions such as acute heavy metal toxicity, the use of chelation therapy by alternative medicine practitioners for behavioral and other disorders is considered pseudoscientific; there is no proof that it is effective. In addition to being ineffective, chelation therapy prior to heavy metal testing can artificially raise urinary heavy metal concentrations ("provoked" urine testing) and lead to inappropriate and unnecessary treatment. The American College of Medical Toxicology and the American Academy of Clinical Toxicology warn the public that chelating agents used in chelation therapy may have serious side effects, including liver and kidney damage, blood pressure changes, allergies and, in some cases, even death of the patient. *
Chiropractic Chiropractic () is a form of alternative medicine concerned with the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of mechanical disorders of the musculoskeletal system, especially of the spine. It is based on several pseudoscientific ideas. Many c ...
is a form of
alternative medicine Alternative medicine refers to practices that aim to achieve the healing effects of conventional medicine, but that typically lack biological plausibility, testability, repeatability, or supporting evidence of effectiveness. Such practices are ...
mostly concerned with the diagnosis and treatment of mechanical disorders of the
musculoskeletal system The human musculoskeletal system (also known as the human locomotor system, and previously the activity system) is an organ system that gives humans the ability to move using their Muscular system, muscular and Human skeleton, skeletal systems. ...
, especially the
spine Spine or spinal may refer to: Science Biology * Spinal column, also known as the backbone * Dendritic spine, a small membranous protrusion from a neuron's dendrite * Thorns, spines, and prickles, needle-like structures in plants * Spine (zoology), ...
. Some proponents, especially those in the field's early history, have claimed that such disorders affect general health via the
nervous system In biology, the nervous system is the complex system, highly complex part of an animal that coordinates its behavior, actions and sense, sensory information by transmitting action potential, signals to and from different parts of its body. Th ...
, through
vertebral subluxation In chiropractic, a vertebral subluxation means pressure on nerves, abnormal functions creating a lesion in some portion of the body, either in its action or makeup (defined by D.D. Palmer and B.J. Palmer, founders of chiropractic). Chiropract ...
, claims which are not based on scientific evidence. The main
chiropractic treatment technique Chiropractors use their version of spinal manipulation (known as chiropractic adjustment) as their primary treatment method, with non-chiropractic use of spinal manipulation gaining more study and attention in mainstream medicine in the 1980s. ...
involves
manual therapy Manual therapy, or manipulative therapy, is a treatment primarily used by physical therapists, occupational therapists, and massage therapists to treat musculoskeletal pain and disability. It mostly includes kneading and manipulation of muscle ...
, especially spinal manipulation therapy (SMT), manipulations of other joints and
soft tissue Soft tissue connective tissue, connects and surrounds or supports internal organs and bones, and includes muscle, tendons, ligaments, Adipose tissue, fat, fibrous tissue, Lymphatic vessel, lymph and blood vessels, fasciae, and synovial membranes. ...
s. AHCPR Pub No. 98-N002. Its foundation is at odds with
mainstream medicine Medicine is the science and practice of caring for patients, managing the diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, treatment, palliation of their injury or disease, and promoting their health. Medicine encompasses a variety of health care practic ...
and chiropractic is sustained by pseudoscientific ideas, such as vertebral subluxation and "innate intelligence" that reject science. * Chromotherapy, sometimes called color therapy, colorology or cromatherapy, is an alternative medicine method which is considered pseudoscience. Chromotherapists claim to be able to use light in the form of color to balance "energy" lacking from a person's body, whether it be on physical, emotional, spiritual, or mental levels. Color therapy is distinct from other types of
light therapy Light therapy, also called phototherapy or bright light therapy is the exposure to direct sunlight or artificial light at controlled wavelengths in order to treat a variety of medical disorders, including seasonal affective disorder (SAD), circ ...
, such as neonatal jaundice treatment and
blood irradiation therapy Blood irradiation therapy is an alternative medical procedure in which the blood is exposed to low-level light (often laser light) for therapeutic reasons. The practice was originally developed in the United States, but most recent research on i ...
, which is a scientifically accepted medical treatment for a number of conditions, and from
photobiology Photobiology is the scientific study of the beneficial and harmful interactions of light (technically, non-ionizing radiation) in living organisms. The field includes the study of photophysics, photochemistry, photosynthesis, photomorphogenesis, ...
, the scientific study of the effects of light on living organisms. French skeptic and lighting physicist Sébastien Point considers LED lamps at domestic radiance to be safe in normal use for the general population; he also pointed out the risk of overexposure to light from LEDs for practices like chromotherapy, when duration and time exposure are not under control. * Chronic Lyme disease (not to be confused with
Lyme disease Lyme disease, also known as Lyme borreliosis, is a tick-borne disease caused by species of ''Borrelia'' bacteria, Disease vector, transmitted by blood-feeding ticks in the genus ''Ixodes''. It is the most common disease spread by ticks in th ...
) is a generally rejected diagnosis that encompasses "a broad array of illnesses or symptom complexes for which there is no reproducible or convincing scientific evidence of any relationship to ''
Borrelia burgdorferi ''Borrelia burgdorferi'' is a bacterial species of the spirochete class in the genus '' Borrelia'', and is one of the causative agents of Lyme disease in humans. Along with a few similar genospecies, some of which also cause Lyme disease, it m ...
'' infection." Despite numerous studies, there is no clinical evidence that "chronic" Lyme disease is caused by a persistent infection. It is distinct from post-treatment Lyme disease syndrome, a set of lingering symptoms which may persist after successful treatment of infection with Lyme spirochetes. The symptoms of "chronic Lyme" are generic and non-specific "symptoms of life". *
Colon cleansing Colon cleansing, also known as colon therapy, colon hydrotherapy, a colonic, or colonic irrigation, encompasses a number of alternative medical therapies claimed to remove toxins from the colon and intestinal tract by removing accumulations o ...
(a.k.a. colon therapy) encompasses a number of alternative medical therapies claimed to remove nonspecific
toxins A toxin is a naturally occurring poison produced by metabolic activities of living cells or organisms. They occur especially as proteins, often conjugated. The term was first used by organic chemist Ludwig Brieger (1849–1919), derived ...
from the colon and intestinal tract by removing any accumulations of
feces Feces (also known as faeces American and British English spelling differences#ae and oe, or fæces; : faex) are the solid or semi-solid remains of food that was not digested in the small intestine, and has been broken down by bacteria in the ...
. Colon cleansing may be branded colon hydrotherapy, a colonic or colonic irrigation. During the 2000s, internet marketing and
infomercial An infomercial is a form of television commercial that resembles regular TV programming yet is intended to promote or sell a product, service or idea. It generally includes a toll-free telephone number or website. Most often used as a form of di ...
s of oral supplements supposedly for colon cleansing increased. Some forms of colon Hydrotherapy use tubes to inject
water Water is an inorganic compound with the chemical formula . It is a transparent, tasteless, odorless, and Color of water, nearly colorless chemical substance. It is the main constituent of Earth's hydrosphere and the fluids of all known liv ...
, sometimes mixed with herbs or with other liquids, into the colon via the rectum using special equipment. Oral cleaning regimens use
dietary fiber Dietary fiber (fibre in English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English) or roughage is the portion of plant-derived food that cannot be completely broken down by human digestive enzymes. Dietary fibers are diverse in chemical co ...
, herbs,
dietary supplement A dietary supplement is a manufactured product intended to supplement a person's diet by taking a pill (pharmacy), pill, capsule (pharmacy), capsule, tablet (pharmacy), tablet, powder, or liquid. A supplement can provide nutrients eithe ...
s, or
laxative Laxatives, purgatives, or aperients are substances that loosen stools and increase bowel movements. They are used to treat and prevent constipation. Laxatives vary as to how they work and the side effects they may have. Certain stimulant, lubri ...
s. People who practice colon cleansing believe that accumulations of putrefied feces line the walls of the
large intestine The large intestine, also known as the large bowel, is the last part of the gastrointestinal tract and of the Digestion, digestive system in tetrapods. Water is absorbed here and the remaining waste material is stored in the rectum as feces befor ...
and that these accumulations harbor
parasite Parasitism is a Symbiosis, close relationship between species, where one organism, the parasite, lives (at least some of the time) on or inside another organism, the Host (biology), host, causing it some harm, and is Adaptation, adapted str ...
s or pathogenic
gut flora Gut microbiota, gut microbiome, or gut flora are the microorganisms, including bacteria, archaea, fungi, and viruses, that live in the digestive tracts of animals. The gastrointestinal metagenome is the aggregate of all the genomes of the g ...
, causing
nonspecific symptom Signs and symptoms are diagnostic indications of an illness, injury, or condition. Signs are objective and externally observable; symptoms are a person's reported subjective experiences. A sign for example may be a higher or lower temperature ...
s and general ill-health. This "auto-intoxication" hypothesis is based on medical beliefs of the
Ancient Egypt Ancient Egypt () was a cradle of civilization concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in Northeast Africa. It emerged from prehistoric Egypt around 3150BC (according to conventional Egyptian chronology), when Upper and Lower E ...
ians and
Greeks Greeks or Hellenes (; , ) are an ethnic group and nation native to Greece, Greek Cypriots, Cyprus, Greeks in Albania, southern Albania, Greeks in Turkey#History, Anatolia, parts of Greeks in Italy, Italy and Egyptian Greeks, Egypt, and to a l ...
and was discredited in the early 20th century. *
Colloidal silver The medical uses of silver include its use in wound dressings, creams, and as an antibiotic coating on medical devices. Wound dressings containing silver sulfadiazine or silver nanomaterials may be used to treat external infections. The limited ...
(a
colloid A colloid is a mixture in which one substance consisting of microscopically dispersed insoluble particles is suspended throughout another substance. Some definitions specify that the particles must be dispersed in a liquid, while others exte ...
consisting of silver particles suspended in liquid) and formulations containing silver salts were used by physicians in the early 20th century, but their use was largely discontinued in the 1940s following the development of safer and effective modern antibiotics. Since about 1990, there has been a resurgence of the promotion of colloidal silver as a dietary supplement, marketed with claims of it being an essential mineral supplement, or that it can prevent or treat numerous diseases, such as
cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving Cell growth#Disorders, abnormal cell growth with the potential to Invasion (cancer), invade or Metastasis, spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Po ...
,
diabetes Diabetes mellitus, commonly known as diabetes, is a group of common endocrine diseases characterized by sustained high blood sugar levels. Diabetes is due to either the pancreas not producing enough of the hormone insulin, or the cells of th ...
,
arthritis Arthritis is a general medical term used to describe a disorder that affects joints. Symptoms generally include joint pain and stiffness. Other symptoms may include redness, warmth, Joint effusion, swelling, and decreased range of motion of ...
,
HIV The human immunodeficiency viruses (HIV) are two species of '' Lentivirus'' (a subgroup of retrovirus) that infect humans. Over time, they cause acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), a condition in which progressive failure of the im ...
/
AIDS The HIV, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a retrovirus that attacks the immune system. Without treatment, it can lead to a spectrum of conditions including acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). It is a Preventive healthcare, pr ...
,
herpes Herpes simplex, often known simply as herpes, is a viral infection caused by the herpes simplex virus. Herpes infections are categorized by the area of the body that is infected. The two major types of herpes are oral herpes and genital herp ...
and
tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB), also known colloquially as the "white death", or historically as consumption, is a contagious disease usually caused by ''Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can al ...
. No medical evidence supports the effectiveness of colloidal silver for any of these claimed indications. Silver is not an essential mineral in humans; there is no dietary requirement for silver and hence, no such thing as a silver "deficiency". There is no evidence that colloidal silver treats or prevents any medical condition and it can cause serious and potentially irreversible side effects, such as
argyria Argyria or argyrosis is a condition caused by excessive exposure to chemical compounds of the element silver, or silver dust. The most dramatic symptom of argyria is that the skin turns blue or blue-gray, and is usually most prominent in sun-ex ...
. *
COVID-19 misinformation False information, including intentional disinformation and conspiracy theories, about the scale of the COVID-19 pandemic and the origin, prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of the disease has been spread through social media, text messagi ...
– multiple theories proposing a wide variety of different things regarding the
COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...
,
COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In January 2020, the disease spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic. The symptoms of COVID‑19 can vary but often include fever ...
itself and
COVID-19 vaccine A COVID19 vaccine is a vaccine intended to provide acquired immunity against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the virus that causes coronavirus disease 2019 ( COVID19). Knowledge about the structure and fun ...
s. **The
Great Barrington Declaration The Great Barrington Declaration is an open letter published in October 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and COVID-19 lockdowns, lockdowns. It claimed that COVID-19 lockdowns could be avoided via the fringe notion of "focused protectio ...
 – a document that emerged from the
American Institute for Economic Research The American Institute for Economic Research (AIER) is a classical liberal think tank located in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1933 by Edward C. Harwood, an economist and investment advisor, and is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. ...
during the
COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...
, authored by three scientists. It promised a way to allow people to carry on their normal lives while invoking the impossible idea of "focused protection" for vulnerable people. The epidemiologist
Michael Osterholm Michael Thomas Osterholm (born March 10, 1953) is an American epidemiologist, Regents Professor at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health, and director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of M ...
called it "a dangerous mix of pixie dust and pseudoscience". *
Craniosacral therapy Craniosacral therapy (CST) or cranial osteopathy is a form of alternative medicine that uses gentle touch to feel non-existent rhythmic movements of the skull's bones and supposedly adjust the immovable joints of the skull to achieve a therap ...
– is a form of bodywork or alternative therapy using gentle touch to manipulate the synarthrodial joints of the cranium. A practitioner of craniosacral therapy may also apply light touches to a patient's spine and pelvis. Practitioners believe that this manipulation regulates the flow of cerebrospinal fluid and aids in "primary respiration." Craniosacral therapy was developed by John Upledger, D.O. in the 1970s as an offshoot of osteopathy in the cranial field, or cranial osteopathy, which was developed in the 1930s by William Garner Sutherland. According to the American Cancer Society, although CST may relieve the symptoms of stress or tension, "available scientific evidence does not support claims that craniosacral therapy helps in treating cancer or any other disease." CST has been characterized as pseudoscience and its practice has been called quackery. Cranial osteopathy has received a similar assessment, with one 1990 paper finding there was no scientific basis for any of the practitioners' claims the paper examined. *
Cryonics Cryonics (from ''kryos'', meaning "cold") is the low-temperature freezing (usually at ) and storage of human remains in the hope that resurrection may be possible in the future. Cryonics is regarded with skepticism by the mainstream scien ...
– a field of products, techniques, and beliefs supporting the idea that freezing the clinically dead at very low temperatures (typically below −196 degrees Celsius) will enable future revival or re-substantiation. These beliefs often hinge on the existence of advanced human societies in the distant future that will possess as-of-yet unknown technology for the stabilization of dying cells. There is no evidence a human being can be revived after such freezing and no solid scientific evidence suggests that reanimation will be possible in the future. *
Crystal healing Crystal healing is a pseudoscientific alternative-medicine practice that uses semiprecious stones and crystals such as quartz, agate, amethyst or opal. Despite the common use of the term "crystal", many popular stones used in crystal healin ...
– belief that
crystals A crystal or crystalline solid is a solid material whose constituents (such as atoms, molecules, or ions) are arranged in a highly ordered microscopic structure, forming a crystal lattice that extends in all directions. In addition, macrosc ...
have healing properties. Once common among pre-scientific and indigenous peoples, it enjoyed a resurgence in popularity in the 1970s with the
New Age New Age is a range of Spirituality, spiritual or Religion, religious practices and beliefs that rapidly grew in Western world, Western society during the early 1970s. Its highly eclecticism, eclectic and unsystematic structure makes a precise d ...
movement. There is no scientific evidence that crystal healing has any effect.Regal, Brian. (2009). ''Pseudoscience: A Critical Encyclopedia''. Greenwood. p. 51. *
Cupping therapy Cupping therapy is a form of pseudoscience in which a local suction is created on the skin using heated cups. As alternative medicine it is practiced primarily in Asia but also in Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Latin America. There is no ...
is an ancient form of
alternative medicine Alternative medicine refers to practices that aim to achieve the healing effects of conventional medicine, but that typically lack biological plausibility, testability, repeatability, or supporting evidence of effectiveness. Such practices are ...
. Cupping is used in more than 60 countries. Its usage dates back to as far as 1550 B.C. There are different forms of cupping; the most common are dry, wet and fire cupping. Cups are applied onto the skin and a suction is created, pulling the skin up. It is meant to increase blood flow to certain areas of the body. Not a part of medical practice in the modern era, cupping has been characterized as a pseudoscience. There is no good evidence it has any health benefits and there are some risks of harm, especially in case of wet and fire cupping. *
Detoxification Detoxification or detoxication (detox for short) is the physiological or medicinal removal of toxic substances from a living organism, including the human body, which is mainly carried out by the liver. Additionally, it can refer to the period o ...
– Detoxification in the context of
alternative medicine Alternative medicine refers to practices that aim to achieve the healing effects of conventional medicine, but that typically lack biological plausibility, testability, repeatability, or supporting evidence of effectiveness. Such practices are ...
consists of an approach that claims to rid the body of "toxins" – accumulated substances that allegedly exert undesirable effects on individual health in the short or long term. The concept has received criticism from scientists and health organizations for its unsound scientific basis and lack of evidence for the claims made. The "toxins" usually remain undefined, with little to no evidence of toxic accumulation in the patient. The British organisation
Sense about Science Sense about Science is a United Kingdom charitable organization that promotes the public understanding of science. Sense about Science was founded in 2002 by Lord Taverne, Bridget Ogilvie and others to promote respect for scientific evidence an ...
has described some detox diets and commercial products as "a waste of time and money", while the British Dietetic Association called the idea "nonsense" and a "marketing myth". In the human body, the processing of chemicals, including those considered 'toxins', is handled by a number of organs, most prominently the liver and kidneys, thus making detoxes unnecessary. * Digit ratio – calculated by dividing the length of an index finger by the ring finger of the same hand, has been proposed to correlate with various personality, sexuality, biological, psychological and physical traits/outcomes. The field has been compared to pseudoscience due to irreproducible or contradictory findings, exaggerated claims of usefulness and lack of high quality research protocols. * Ear candling, also called ear coning or thermal-auricular therapy, is a pseudoscientific alternative medicine practice claimed to improve general health and well-being by lighting one end of a hollow
candle A candle is an ignitable candle wick, wick embedded in wax, or another flammable solid substance such as tallow, that provides light, and in some cases, a Aroma compound, fragrance. A candle can also provide heat or a method of keeping time. ...
and placing the other end in the
ear canal The ear canal (external acoustic meatus, external auditory meatus, EAM) is a pathway running from the outer ear to the middle ear. The adult human ear canal extends from the auricle to the eardrum and is about in length and in diameter. S ...
. Medical research has shown that the practice is both dangerous and ineffective and does not functionally remove
earwax Earwax, also known by the medical term cerumen, is a waxy substance secreted in the ear canal of humans and other mammals. Earwax can be many colors, including brown, orange, red, yellowish, and gray. Earwax protects the skin of the human ear ...
or
toxicant A toxicant is any toxic substance, whether artificial or naturally occurring. By contrast, a toxin is a poison produced naturally by an organism (e.g. plant, animal, insect, bacterium). The different types of toxicants can be found in the air, so ...
s, despite product design contributing to that impression. * Earthing therapy or grounding is a therapy that is claimed to ease pain, provide a better night's sleep, and assist with symptoms of
inflammation Inflammation (from ) is part of the biological response of body tissues to harmful stimuli, such as pathogens, damaged cells, or irritants. The five cardinal signs are heat, pain, redness, swelling, and loss of function (Latin ''calor'', '' ...
by being in direct physical contact with the ground or a device connected to
electrical ground In electrical engineering, ground or earth may be a reference point in an electrical circuit from which voltages are measured, a common return path for electric current, or a direct physical connection to the Earth. Electrical circuits may be co ...
. Practitioners claim that Earth has an excess of electrons which people are missing due to insulating shoes and ground cover. Being in electrical contact with Earth is claimed to provide the body with those excess electrons, which then act as
antioxidants Antioxidants are Chemical compound, compounds that inhibit Redox, oxidation, a chemical reaction that can produce Radical (chemistry), free radicals. Autoxidation leads to degradation of organic compounds, including living matter. Antioxidants ...
. A 2012 systematic review study showed inconclusive results related to methodological issues across the literature. Subsequently, a 2017 systematic review of the benefits of spending time in forests demonstrated positive health effects, but not enough to generate clinical practice guidelines or demonstrate causality. *
Electrohomeopathy Electrohomeopathy, also called electrohomoeopathy, electropathy or the Mattei cancer cure, is a historical proposed alternative to miasma theory and then-increasingly popular germ theory, as well as associated techniques. Invented in the 19th ce ...
(or Mattei cancer cure) is a derivative of
homeopathy Homeopathy or homoeopathy is a pseudoscientific system of alternative medicine. It was conceived in 1796 by the German physician Samuel Hahnemann. Its practitioners, called homeopaths or homeopathic physicians, believe that a substance that ...
invented in the 19th century by Count Cesare Mattei. The name is derived from a combination of ''electro'' (referring to an electric bio-energy content supposedly extracted from plants and of therapeutic value, rather than
electricity Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter possessing an electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as described by Maxwel ...
in its conventional sense) and ''homeopathy'' (referring to an alternative medicinal philosophy developed by
Samuel Hahnemann Christian Friedrich Samuel Hahnemann ( , ; 10 April 1755 – 2 July 1843) was a German physician, best known for creating the pseudoscientific system of alternative medicine called homeopathy. Early life Christian Friedrich Samuel Hahnemann w ...
in the 18th century). Electrohomeopathy has been defined as the combination of electrical devices and homeopathy. * Electromagnetic hypersensitivity (EHS) – reported sensitivity to
electric Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter possessing an electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as described by Maxwel ...
and
magnetic field A magnetic field (sometimes called B-field) is a physical field that describes the magnetic influence on moving electric charges, electric currents, and magnetic materials. A moving charge in a magnetic field experiences a force perpendicular ...
s or
electromagnetic radiation In physics, electromagnetic radiation (EMR) is a self-propagating wave of the electromagnetic field that carries momentum and radiant energy through space. It encompasses a broad spectrum, classified by frequency or its inverse, wavelength ...
of various frequencies at exposure levels well below established safety standards. Symptoms are inconsistent, but can include headache, fatigue, difficulty sleeping and similar non-specific indications. Provocation studies find that the discomfort of sufferers is unrelated to hidden sources of radiation and "no scientific basis currently exists for a connection between EHS and exposure to lectromagnetic fields" *
Energy medicine Energy medicine is a branch of alternative medicine based on a pseudo-scientific belief that healers can channel "healing energy" into patients and effect positive results. The field is defined by shared beliefs and practices relating to m ...
, energy therapy, energy healing, vibrational medicine, psychic healing, spiritual medicine, or spiritual healing are branches of alternative medicine based on a pseudoscientific belief that healers can channel healing
energy Energy () is the physical quantity, quantitative physical property, property that is transferred to a physical body, body or to a physical system, recognizable in the performance of Work (thermodynamics), work and in the form of heat and l ...
into a patient and effect positive results. This idea itself contains several methods: hands-on, hands-off and distant (or absent) where the patient and healer are in different locations. While early reviews of the scientific literature on energy healing were equivocal and recommended further research, more recent reviews have concluded that there is no evidence supporting clinical efficiency. *
Facilitated communication Facilitated communication (FC), or supported typing, is a scientifically discredited technique which claims to allow non-verbal people, such as those with autism, to communicate. The technique involves a facilitator guiding the disabled person ...
is a scientifically discredited technique that attempts to aid communication by people with autism or other communication disabilities. The facilitator holds the disabled person's arm or hand during this process and attempts to help them move to type on a keyboard or other device. Research indicates that the facilitator is the source of the messages obtained through FC (involving
ideomotor effect The ideomotor phenomenon is a psychological phenomenon wherein a subject makes motions unconsciously. Also called ideomotor response (or ideomotor reflex) and abbreviated to IMR, it is a concept in hypnosis and psychological research. It is der ...
guidance of the arm of the patient by the facilitator). Studies have consistently found that FC is unable to provide the correct response to even simple questions when the facilitator does not know the answers to the questions (e.g., showing the patient but not the facilitator an object). **
Rapid prompting method The rapid prompting method (RPM) is a pseudoscientific technique that attempts to aid people with autism or other disabilities to communicate through pointing, typing, or writing. Also known as Spelling to Communicate, it is closely related to t ...
- a closely related discredited technique. *
Fad diet A fad diet is a diet that is popular, generally only for a short time, similar to fads in fashion, without being a standard scientific dietary recommendation, and often making unreasonable claims for fast weight loss or health improvements; ...
- a
diet Diet may refer to: Food * Diet (nutrition), the sum of the food consumed by an organism or group * Dieting, the deliberate selection of food to control body weight or nutrient intake ** Diet food, foods that aid in creating a diet for weight loss ...
that becomes popular for a short time, similar to
fad A fad, trend, or craze is any form of collective behavior that develops within a culture, a generation, or social group in which a group of people enthusiastically follow an impulse for a short time period. Fads are objects or behaviors tha ...
s in
fashion Fashion is a term used interchangeably to describe the creation of clothing, footwear, Fashion accessory, accessories, cosmetics, and jewellery of different cultural aesthetics and their mix and match into Clothing, outfits that depict distinct ...
, without being a standard dietary recommendation, and often making pseudoscientific or unreasonable claims for fast weight loss or health improvements.Whitney, Eleanor Noss; Rolfes, Sharon Rady; Crowe, Tim; Walsh, Adam. (2019). ''Understanding Nutrition''. Cengage Learning Australia. pp. 321-325. Fad diets are generally restrictive (such as low-calorie diets e.g.
fasting Fasting is the act of refraining from eating, and sometimes drinking. However, from a purely physiological context, "fasting" may refer to the metabolic status of a person who has not eaten overnight (before "breakfast"), or to the metabolic sta ...
, or high protein-low carbohydrate diets e.g.
Atkins diet The Atkins diet is a low-carbohydrate fad diet devised by Robert Atkins in the 1970s, marketed with claims that carbohydrate restriction is crucial to weight loss and that the diet offered "a high calorie way to stay thin forever". The diet be ...
), and are characterized by promises of fast weight loss or great physical health (such as "
detoxification Detoxification or detoxication (detox for short) is the physiological or medicinal removal of toxic substances from a living organism, including the human body, which is mainly carried out by the liver. Additionally, it can refer to the period o ...
" or diets purporting to be
alternative cancer treatments Alternative cancer treatment describes any cancer treatment or practice that is not part of the conventional standard of cancer care. These include special diets and exercises, chemicals, herbs, devices, and manual procedures. Most alternative ...
). Fad diets are not supported by
clinical research Clinical research is a branch of medical research that involves people and aims to determine the effectiveness (efficacy) and safety of medications, devices, diagnostic products, and treatment regimens intended for improving human health. The ...
and their health recommendations are not
peer-reviewed Peer review is the evaluation of work by one or more people with similar competencies as the producers of the work ( peers). It functions as a form of self-regulation by qualified members of a profession within the relevant field. Peer review ...
, thus they often make unsubstantiated statements about health and disease. *
Faith healing Faith healing is the practice of prayer and gestures (such as laying on of hands) that are believed by some to elicit divine intervention in spiritual and physical healing, especially the Christian practice. Believers assert that the healin ...
– act of curing disease by such means as
prayer File:Prayers-collage.png, 300px, alt=Collage of various religionists praying – Clickable Image, Collage of various religionists praying ''(Clickable image – use cursor to identify.)'' rect 0 0 1000 1000 Shinto festivalgoer praying in front ...
and
laying on of hands The laying on of hands is a religious practice. In Judaism, ''semikhah'' (, "leaning f the hands) accompanies the conferring of a blessing or authority. In Christianity, Christian churches, chirotony. is used as both a symbolic and formal met ...
. There is no material benefit observed in excess of that expected by the
placebo effect A placebo ( ) can be roughly defined as a sham medical treatment. Common placebos include inert tablets (like sugar pills), inert injections (like saline), sham surgery, and other procedures. Placebos are used in randomized clinical trials ...
. * The Feldenkrais Method is a type of exercise therapy devised by Israeli Moshé Feldenkrais (1904–1984) during the mid-20th century. The method is claimed to reorganize connections between the brain and body and so improve body movement and psychological state. There is no good medical evidence that the Feldenkrais method confers any health benefits. It is not known if it is safe or cost-effective, but researchers do not believe it poses serious risks. * Functional medicine is a form of alternative medicine that encompasses a number of unproven and disproven methods and treatments. Its proponents claim that it focuses on the "root causes" of diseases based on interactions between the environment and the gastrointestinal, endocrine and immune systems to develop "individualized treatment plans". Opponents have described it as pseudoscience,
quackery Quackery, often synonymous with health fraud, is the promotion of fraudulent or Ignorance, ignorant medicine, medical practices. A quack is a "fraudulent or ignorant pretender to medical skill" or "a person who pretends, professionally or public ...
and, at its essence, a re-branding of
complementary and alternative medicine Alternative medicine refers to practices that aim to achieve the healing effects of conventional medicine, but that typically lack biological plausibility, testability, repeatability, or supporting evidence of effectiveness. Such practices ar ...
. * Germanic New Medicine – Sometime after his son's death in 1978 Ryke Geerd Hamer developed testicular cancer; believing there was a link between the two events Hamer developed "Germanic New Medicine" (GNM). According to GNM no real diseases exist; rather, what established medicine calls a "disease" is actually a "special meaningful program of nature" () to which bacteria, viruses and fungi belong. Hamer's GNM claims to explain every disease and treatment according to those premises and to thereby obviate traditional medicine. The cure is always the resolving of the conflict. Some treatments like
chemotherapy Chemotherapy (often abbreviated chemo, sometimes CTX and CTx) is the type of cancer treatment that uses one or more anti-cancer drugs (list of chemotherapeutic agents, chemotherapeutic agents or alkylating agents) in a standard chemotherapy re ...
or pain relieving drugs like
morphine Morphine, formerly also called morphia, is an opiate that is found naturally in opium, a dark brown resin produced by drying the latex of opium poppies (''Papaver somniferum''). It is mainly used as an analgesic (pain medication). There are ...
are deadly, according to Hamer. These "laws" are dogmas of GNM, not laws of nature or medicine, and are at odds with scientific understanding of human physiology. * Germ theory denialism – the pseudoscientific belief that germs do not cause infectious disease and that the
germ theory of disease The germ theory of disease is the currently accepted scientific theory for many diseases. It states that microorganisms known as pathogens or "germs" can cause disease. These small organisms, which are too small to be seen without magnification, ...
is wrong. * Hair analysis is, in mainstream scientific usage, the chemical analysis of a
hair Hair is a protein filament that grows from follicles found in the dermis. Hair is one of the defining characteristics of mammals. The human body, apart from areas of glabrous skin, is covered in follicles which produce thick terminal and ...
sample. The use of hair analysis in
alternative medicine Alternative medicine refers to practices that aim to achieve the healing effects of conventional medicine, but that typically lack biological plausibility, testability, repeatability, or supporting evidence of effectiveness. Such practices are ...
as a method of investigation to assist alternative diagnosis is controversial and its use in this manner has been opposed repeatedly by the AMA because of its unproven status and its potential for health care fraud.Hair analysis: A potential for medical abuse. Policy number H-175.995,(Sub. Res. 67, I-84; Reaffirmed by CLRPD Rep. 3 – I-94) * Health bracelets and various healing jewelry such as ionized bracelets,
hologram bracelet A hologram bracelet or energy bracelet is a small rubber wristband supposedly fitted with a hologram. Manufacturers have said that the holograms supposedly "optimise the natural flow of energy around the body," and, "improve an athlete's streng ...
s and magnetic jewelry, are purported to improve the health, heal, or improve the
chi __NOTOC__ Chi may refer to: __NOTOC__ Greek *Chi (letter) (Χ or χ), the twenty-second letter of the Greek alphabet Chinese * ''Chi'' (length) (尺), a traditional unit of length, about ⅓ meter *Chi (mythology) (螭), a dragon * Chi (surname) ...
of the wearer. No claims of effectiveness made by manufacturers have ever been substantiated by independent sources. * Hexagonal water – A term used in a marketing scam that claims the ability to create a certain configuration of water that is better for the body. The term "hexagonal water" refers to a cluster of water molecules forming a hexagonal shape that supposedly enhances nutrient absorption, removes metabolic wastes and enhances cellular communication, among other things. Similar to the
dihydrogen monoxide hoax The dihydrogen monoxide parody is a parody that involves referring to water by its unfamiliar systematic name#In chemistry, chemical systematic name "dihydrogen monoxide" (DHMO, or the chemical formula H2O) and describing some properties of w ...
, the scam takes advantage of the consumer's limited knowledge of chemistry, physics and physiology. *
Homeopathy Homeopathy or homoeopathy is a pseudoscientific system of alternative medicine. It was conceived in 1796 by the German physician Samuel Hahnemann. Its practitioners, called homeopaths or homeopathic physicians, believe that a substance that ...
 – the belief that a patient with symptoms of an illness can be treated with extremely dilute remedies that are thought to produce those same symptoms in healthy people. These
preparations ''Preparations'' is a studio album by Prefuse 73. It was released on Warp Records in 2007. Unlike the 2006 EP ''Security Screenings'', ''Preparations'' is considered the proper follow-up to the 2005 album ''Surrounded by Silence (album), Surroun ...
are often diluted beyond the point where any treatment molecule is likely to remain. Studies of homeopathic practice have been largely negative or inconclusive. No scientific basis for homeopathic principles has been substantiated. :* Bach flower remedies (BFRs) are solutions of
brandy Brandy is a liquor produced by distilling wine. Brandy generally contains 35–60% alcohol by volume (70–120 US proof) and is typically consumed as an after-dinner digestif. Some brandies are aged in wooden casks. Others are coloured ...
and water—the water containing extreme dilutions of
flower Flowers, also known as blooms and blossoms, are the reproductive structures of flowering plants ( angiosperms). Typically, they are structured in four circular levels, called whorls, around the end of a stalk. These whorls include: calyx, m ...
material developed by Edward Bach, an English
homeopath Homeopathy or homoeopathy is a pseudoscientific system of alternative medicine. It was conceived in 1796 by the German physician Samuel Hahnemann. Its practitioners, called homeopaths or homeopathic physicians, believe that a substance that ...
, in the 1930s. Bach claimed that dew found on flower petals retain imagined healing properties of that plant.
Systematic review A systematic review is a scholarly synthesis of the evidence on a clearly presented topic using critical methods to identify, define and assess research on the topic. A systematic review extracts and interprets data from published studies on ...
s of
clinical trial Clinical trials are prospective biomedical or behavioral research studies on human subject research, human participants designed to answer specific questions about biomedical or behavioral interventions, including new treatments (such as novel v ...
s of Bach flower solutions have found no efficacy beyond a
placebo A placebo ( ) can be roughly defined as a sham medical treatment. Common placebos include inert tablets (like sugar pills), inert injections (like saline), sham surgery, and other procedures. Placebos are used in randomized clinical trials ...
effect. * Iridology – means of medical diagnosis which proponents believe can identify and diagnose health problems through close examination of the markings and patterns of the iris. Practitioners divide the iris into 80–90 zones, each of which is connected to a particular body region or organ. This connection has not been scientifically validated and disorder detection is neither selective nor specific. Because iris texture is a phenotypical feature which develops during gestation and remains unchanged after birth (which makes the iris useful for
Biometrics Biometrics are body measurements and calculations related to human characteristics and features. Biometric authentication (or realistic authentication) is used in computer science as a form of identification and access control. It is also used t ...
), iridology is all but impossible. * Jilly Juice – a potentially dangerous fermented drink that has been claimed to treat a variety of medical conditions. *
Leaky gut syndrome Leaky gut syndrome is a hypothetical and medically unrecognized condition that is distinct from the scientific phenomenon of increased intestinal permeability commonly known as "leaky gut". Claims for the existence of "leaky gut syndrome" as a d ...
 – in alternative medicine, a proposed condition caused by the passage of harmful substances outward through the gut wall. It has been proposed as the cause of many conditions, including
multiple sclerosis Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an autoimmune disease resulting in damage to myelinthe insulating covers of nerve cellsin the brain and spinal cord. As a demyelinating disease, MS disrupts the nervous system's ability to Action potential, transmit ...
and autism, a claim which has been called pseudoscientific. According to the UK National Health Service, the theory is vague and unproven. Some skeptics and scientists say that the marketing of treatments for leaky gut syndrome is either misguided or an instance of deliberate
health fraud Health has a variety of definitions, which have been used for different purposes over time. In general, it refers to physical and emotional well-being, especially that associated with normal functioning of the human body, absent of disease, pai ...
. * Lightning Process – a system claimed to be derived from osteopathy,
neuro-linguistic programming Neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) is a Pseudoscience, pseudoscientific approach to communication, personal development, and psychotherapy that first appeared in Richard Bandler and John Grinder's book ''The Structure of Magic I'' (1975). NLP ...
(NLP) and life coaching. Proponents claim that the Process can have a positive effect on a long list of diseases and conditions, including
myalgic encephalomyelitis Myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) is a disabling chronic illness. People with ME/CFS experience profound fatigue that does not go away with rest, as well as sleep issues and problems with memory or concentration. T ...
, despite no scientific evidence of efficacy. The designer of the Lightning Process, Phil Parker, suggests certain illnesses such as
ME/CFS Myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) is a disabling Chronic condition, chronic illness. People with ME/CFS experience profound fatigue that does not go away with rest, as well as sleep issues and problems with memory ...
arise from a dysregulation of the
central nervous system The central nervous system (CNS) is the part of the nervous system consisting primarily of the brain, spinal cord and retina. The CNS is so named because the brain integrates the received information and coordinates and influences the activity o ...
and
autonomic nervous system The autonomic nervous system (ANS), sometimes called the visceral nervous system and formerly the vegetative nervous system, is a division of the nervous system that operates viscera, internal organs, smooth muscle and glands. The autonomic nervo ...
, which the Lightning Process aims to address, helping to break the "adrenaline loop" that keeps the systems' stress responses high. *
Macrobiotic diet A macrobiotic diet (or macrobiotics) is an unconventional restrictive diet based on ideas about types of food drawn from Zen Buddhism. The diet tries to balance the supposed yin and yang elements of food and cookware. Major principles of macrobi ...
s (or macrobiotics) are fixed on ideas about types of food drawn from
Zen Buddhism Zen (; from Chinese: '' Chán''; in Korean: ''Sŏn'', and Vietnamese: ''Thiền'') is a Mahayana Buddhist tradition that developed in China during the Tang dynasty by blending Indian Mahayana Buddhism, particularly Yogacara and Madhyamaka ph ...
. The diet attempts to balance the supposed
yin and yang Originating in Chinese philosophy, yin and yang (, ), also yinyang or yin-yang, is the concept of opposite cosmic principles or forces that interact, interconnect, and perpetuate each other. Yin and yang can be thought of as complementary an ...
elements of food and cookware. Major principles of macrobiotic diets are to reduce animal products, eat locally grown foods that are in season and consume meals in moderation. Macrobiotics writers often claim that a macrobiotic diet is helpful for people with cancer and other chronic diseases, although there is no good evidence to support such recommendations and the diet can be harmful. Studies that indicate positive results are of poor methodological quality. Neither the
American Cancer Society The American Cancer Society (ACS) is a nationwide non-profit organization dedicated to eliminating cancer. The ACS publishes the journals ''Cancer'', '' CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians'' and '' Cancer Cytopathology''. History The society w ...
nor
Cancer Research UK Cancer Research UK (CRUK) is the world's largest independent cancer research organisation. It is registered as a charity in the United Kingdom and Isle of Man, and was formed on 4 February 2002 by the merger of The Cancer Research Campaign and t ...
recommend adopting the diet. *
Magnet therapy Magnetic therapy is a pseudoscientific alternative medicine practice involving the weak static magnetic field produced by a permanent magnet which is placed on the body. It is similar to the alternative medicine practice of electromagnetic the ...
– practice of using magnetic fields to positively influence health. While there are legitimate medical uses for magnets and magnetic fields, the field strength used in magnetic therapy is too low to effect any biological change and the methods used have no scientific validity. :* The above is not to be confused with current health treatments involving
electromagnetism In physics, electromagnetism is an interaction that occurs between particles with electric charge via electromagnetic fields. The electromagnetic force is one of the four fundamental forces of nature. It is the dominant force in the interacti ...
on human tissue, such as pulsed electromagnetic field therapy (see: Electromagnetic therapy). * A medical intuitive is an
alternative medicine Alternative medicine refers to practices that aim to achieve the healing effects of conventional medicine, but that typically lack biological plausibility, testability, repeatability, or supporting evidence of effectiveness. Such practices are ...
practitioner who claims to use their self-described intuitive abilities to find the cause of a physical or emotional condition through the use of insight rather than
modern medicine Medicine is the science and practice of caring for patients, managing the diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, treatment, palliation of their injury or disease, and promoting their health. Medicine encompasses a variety of health care pract ...
. Other terms for such a person include medical clairvoyant, medical psychic, or intuitive counselor. In 2009,
Steven Novella Steven Paul Novella (born July 29, 1964) is an American neurology, clinical neurologist and Professors in the United States#Associate Professor, associate professor at Yale University School of Medicine. Novella is best known for his involvement ...
, writing on Science Based Medicine, calls medical intuitive diagnosis as "purely magical thinking" and refers to a ''
Huffington Post ''HuffPost'' (''The Huffington Post'' until 2017, itself often abbreviated as ''HPo'') is an American progressive news website, with localized and international editions. The site offers news, satire, blogs, and original content, and covers ...
'' article about it as "a promotion of a dubious pseudoscientific medical claim". * Morgellons – is the informal name of a self-diagnosed, unexplained
skin condition A skin condition, also known as cutaneous condition, is any medical condition that affects the integumentary system—the organ system that encloses the body and includes skin, nails, and related muscle and glands. The major function of this ...
in which individuals have sores that they believe contain some kind of fibers. Morgellons is poorly characterized, but the general medical consensus is that it is a form of
delusional parasitosis Delusional parasitosis (DP), also called delusional infestation, is a mental health condition where a person falsely believes that their body is infested with living or nonliving agents. Common examples of such agents include parasites, insects, o ...
. An attempt to link Morgellons to the cause of
Lyme disease Lyme disease, also known as Lyme borreliosis, is a tick-borne disease caused by species of ''Borrelia'' bacteria, Disease vector, transmitted by blood-feeding ticks in the genus ''Ixodes''. It is the most common disease spread by ticks in th ...
has been attacked by
Steven Salzberg Steven Lloyd Salzberg (born 1960) is an American computational biologist and computer scientist who is a Bloomberg Distinguished Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Computer Science, and Biostatistics at Johns Hopkins University, where he is al ...
as "dangerous pseudoscience". *
Moxibustion Moxibustion () is a traditional Chinese medicine therapy which consists of burning dried mugwort ('' moxa'') on particular points on the body. It plays an important role in the traditional medical systems of China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, and ...
– application on or above the skin of smoldering
mugwort Mugwort is a common name for several species of aromatic flowering plants in the genus '' Artemisia.'' In Europe, mugwort most often refers to the species '' Artemisia vulgaris'', or common mugwort. In East Asia the species '' Artemisia argyi'' ...
, or ''moxa'', to stimulate ''acupuncture points''. A
Cochrane Review Cochrane is a British international charitable organisation formed to synthesize medical research findings to facilitate evidence-based choices about health interventions involving health professionals, patients and policy makers. It includes ...
found moderate certainty evidence for the use of moxibustion plus usual care in correcting
breech presentation A breech birth is when a baby is born bottom first instead of Cephalic presentation, head first, as is normal. Around 3–5% of pregnant women at term (37–40 weeks pregnant) have a breech baby. Due to their higher than average rate of possible ...
of babies but uncertainty about the need for
External cephalic version External cephalic version (ECV) is a process by which a breech birth, breech baby can sometimes be turned from buttocks or foot first to head first. It is a manual procedure that is recommended by national guidelines for breech birth, breech prese ...
. Moxibustion has also been studied for the treatment of pain,
cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving Cell growth#Disorders, abnormal cell growth with the potential to Invasion (cancer), invade or Metastasis, spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Po ...
,
stroke Stroke is a medical condition in which poor cerebral circulation, blood flow to a part of the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: brain ischemia, ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and intracranial hemorrhage, hemor ...
,
ulcerative colitis Ulcerative colitis (UC) is one of the two types of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), with the other type being Crohn's disease. It is a long-term condition that results in inflammation and ulcers of the colon and rectum. The primary sympto ...
constipation Constipation is a bowel dysfunction that makes bowel movements infrequent or hard to pass. The Human feces, stool is often hard and dry. Other symptoms may include abdominal pain, bloating, and feeling as if one has not completely passed the ...
, and
hypertension Hypertension, also known as high blood pressure, is a Chronic condition, long-term Disease, medical condition in which the blood pressure in the artery, arteries is persistently elevated. High blood pressure usually does not cause symptoms i ...
. Systematic reviews have found that these studies are of low quality and positive findings could be due to
publication bias In published academic research, publication bias occurs when the outcome of an experiment or research study biases the decision to publish or otherwise distribute it. Publishing only results that show a Statistical significance, significant find ...
. * Nambudripad's Allergy Elimination Techniques (NAET) are a form of
alternative medicine Alternative medicine refers to practices that aim to achieve the healing effects of conventional medicine, but that typically lack biological plausibility, testability, repeatability, or supporting evidence of effectiveness. Such practices are ...
which proponents claim can treat allergies and related disorders. The techniques were devised by Devi Nambudripad, a California-based chiropractor and
acupuncturist Acupuncture is a form of alternative medicine and a component of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) in which thin needles are inserted into the body. Acupuncture is a pseudoscience; the theories and practices of TCM are not based on scientifi ...
, in 1983, drawing on a combination of ideas from applied kinesiology, acupuncture,
acupressure Acupressure is an alternative medicine technique often used in conjunction with acupuncture or reflexology. It is based on the concept of "life energy" (qi), which purportedly flows through "meridians" in the body. There is no scientific evidenc ...
, nutritional management and chiropractic methods. There is no credible evidence to support its effectiveness in assessing or treating allergies. *
Naturopathy Naturopathy, or naturopathic medicine, is a form of alternative medicine. A wide array of practices branded as "natural", "non-invasive", or promoting "self-healing" are employed by its practitioners, who are known as naturopaths. Difficult ...
, or naturopathic medicine, is a type of alternative medicine based on a belief in
vitalism Vitalism is a belief that starts from the premise that "living organisms are fundamentally different from non-living entities because they contain some non-physical element or are governed by different principles than are inanimate things." Wher ...
, which posits that a special energy called vital energy or vital force guides bodily processes such as metabolism, reproduction, growth and adaptation. Naturopathy has been characterized as pseudoscience. It has particularly been criticized for its unproven, disproven, or dangerous treatments. ''Natural'' methods and chemicals are not necessarily safer or more effective than ''artificial'' or ''synthetic'' ones; any treatment capable of eliciting an effect may also have deleterious side effects. * Negative air ionization therapy is the use of air ionizers as an experimental non-pharmaceutical treatment. It is widely considered pseudoscience. * Oil pulling – is a folk remedy where oil is "swished" or "held" in the mouth for up to 20 minutes with the goal of improving oral as well as systemic health. It is said that this technique "pulls out" toxins from the body and is claimed to be able to treat a plethora of conditions from
migraines Migraine (, ) is a complex neurological disorder characterized by episodes of moderate-to-severe headache, most often unilateral and generally associated with nausea, and light and sound sensitivity. Other characterizing symptoms may includ ...
to
diabetes Diabetes mellitus, commonly known as diabetes, is a group of common endocrine diseases characterized by sustained high blood sugar levels. Diabetes is due to either the pancreas not producing enough of the hormone insulin, or the cells of th ...
. *
Orthomolecular medicine Orthomolecular medicine is a form of alternative medicine that claims to maintain human health through nutritional Dietary supplement, supplementation. It is rejected by evidence-based medicine. The concept builds on the idea of an optimal nutrit ...
, sometimes referred to as
megavitamin therapy Megavitamin therapy is the use of large doses of vitamins, often many times greater than the recommended dietary allowance (RDA) in the attempt to prevent or treat diseases. Megavitamin therapy is typically used in alternative medicine by pract ...
, is a form of
alternative medicine Alternative medicine refers to practices that aim to achieve the healing effects of conventional medicine, but that typically lack biological plausibility, testability, repeatability, or supporting evidence of effectiveness. Such practices are ...
that aims to maintain
human health Health has a variety of definitions, which have been used for different purposes over time. In general, it refers to physical and emotional well-being, especially that associated with normal functioning of the human body, absent of disease, pain ...
through nutritional supplementation. The concept builds on the idea of an optimum nutritional environment in the body and suggests that diseases reflect deficiencies in this environment. Treatment for disease, according to this view, involves attempts to correct "imbalances or deficiencies based on individual biochemistry" by use of substances such as vitamins, minerals,
amino acids Amino acids are organic compounds that contain both amino and carboxylic acid functional groups. Although over 500 amino acids exist in nature, by far the most important are the Proteinogenic amino acid, 22 α-amino acids incorporated into p ...
, trace elements and fatty acids. The notions behind orthomolecular medicine are not supported by sound medical evidence and the therapy is not effective; even the validity of calling the orthomolecular approach a form of medicine has been questioned since the 1970s. *
Osteopathic manipulative medicine Osteopathy is a pseudoscientific system of alternative medicine that emphasizes physical manipulation of the body's muscle tissue and bones. In most countries, practitioners of osteopathy are not medically trained and are referred to as osteo ...
(OMM) or osteopathic manipulative treatment (OMT) – the core technique of osteopathic medicine. OMM is based on a philosophy devised by
Andrew Taylor Still Andrew Taylor Still (August 6, 1828 – December 12, 1917) was the founder of osteopathic medicine. He was also a physician and surgeon, author, inventor and Kansas territorial and state legislator. He was one of the founders of Baker University ...
(1828–1917), who held that the body had self-regulating mechanisms that could be harnessed through manipulating the bones, tendons and muscles. It has been proposed as a treatment for a number of human ailments, including
Parkinson's disease Parkinson's disease (PD), or simply Parkinson's, is a neurodegenerative disease primarily of the central nervous system, affecting both motor system, motor and non-motor systems. Symptoms typically develop gradually and non-motor issues become ...
,
pancreatitis Pancreatitis is a condition characterized by inflammation of the pancreas. The pancreas is a large organ behind the stomach that produces digestive enzymes and a number of hormone A hormone (from the Ancient Greek, Greek participle , "se ...
and
pneumonia Pneumonia is an Inflammation, inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as Pulmonary alveolus, alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of Cough#Classification, productive or dry cough, ches ...
, but has only been found to be effective for lower back pain by virtue of the
spinal manipulation Spinal manipulation is an intervention performed on synovial joints of the spine, including the z-joints, the atlanto-occipital, atlanto-axial, lumbosacral, sacroiliac, costotransverse and costovertebral joints. It is typically applied w ...
used. It has long been regarded as rooted in "pseudoscientific dogma". In 2010,
Steven Salzberg Steven Lloyd Salzberg (born 1960) is an American computational biologist and computer scientist who is a Bloomberg Distinguished Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Computer Science, and Biostatistics at Johns Hopkins University, where he is al ...
referred to the OMT-specific training given by colleges of osteopathic medicine as "training in pseudoscientific practices". *
Pulse diagnosis Pulse diagnosis is a diagnostic technique used in Ayurveda, traditional Chinese medicine, traditional Mongolian medicine, Siddha medicine, traditional Tibetan medicine, and Unani. Pulse diagnosis is ill-defined and subjective. Traditiona ...
is a diagnostic technique used in
Ayurveda Ayurveda (; ) is an alternative medicine system with historical roots in the Indian subcontinent. It is heavily practised throughout India and Nepal, where as much as 80% of the population report using ayurveda. The theory and practice of ayur ...
,
traditional Chinese medicine Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is an alternative medicine, alternative medical practice drawn from traditional medicine in China. A large share of its claims are pseudoscientific, with the majority of treatments having no robust evidence ...
, traditional Mongolian medicine,
Siddha medicine Siddha medicine is a form of traditional medicine originating in southern India. It is one of the oldest systems of medicine in India. The Indian Medical Association regards Siddha medicine degrees as "fake" and Siddha therapies as quackery, ...
,
traditional Tibetan medicine Traditional Tibetan medicine or Sowa Rigpa is the Tibetan medical system developed in the 8th century under King Trisong Detsen that incorporated the best international medical practices of that time.Claude Arpi, ''Glimpses on the Tibet History' ...
and
Unani Unani or Yunani medicine (Urdu: ''tibb yūnānī'') is Perso-Arabic traditional medicine as practiced in Muslim culture in South Asia and modern day Central Asia. Unani medicine is pseudoscientific. The term '' Yūnānī'' means 'Greek', ref ...
. It has no scientific legitimacy, and is ill-defined, subjective and unreliable. *
Radionics Radionics—also called electromagnetic therapy (EMT) and the Abrams method—is a form of alternative medicine that claims that disease can be diagnosed and treated by applying electromagnetic radiation (EMR), such as radio waves, to the bod ...
– means of medical diagnosis and therapy which proponents believe can diagnose and remedy health problems using various frequencies in a putative energy field coupled to the practitioner's electronic device. The first such "black box" devices were designed and promoted by
Albert Abrams Albert Abrams (December 8, 1863 – January 13, 1924) was a fraudulent American physician, well known during his life for inventing machines, such as the "Oscilloclast" and the "Radioclast", which he falsely claimed could diagnose and cure almost ...
and were definitively proven useless by an independent investigation commissioned by ''
Scientific American ''Scientific American'', informally abbreviated ''SciAm'' or sometimes ''SA'', is an American popular science magazine. Many scientists, including Albert Einstein and Nikola Tesla, have contributed articles to it, with more than 150 Nobel Pri ...
'' in 1924. The internal circuitry of radionics devices is often obfuscated and irrelevant, leading proponents to conjecture
dowsing Dowsing is a type of divination employed in attempts to locate ground water, buried metals or ores, gemstones, Petroleum, oil, claimed radiations (radiesthesia),As translated from one preface of the Kassel experiments, "roughly 10,000 active do ...
and ESP as operating principles. Similar devices continue to be marketed under various names, though none is approved by the U.S.
Food and Drug Administration The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA or US FDA) is a List of United States federal agencies, federal agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Health and Human Services. The FDA is respo ...
; there is no scientific evidence for the efficacy or underlying premise of radionics devices. The radionics of Albert Abrams and his intellectual descendants should not be confused with similarly named reputable and legitimate companies, products, or medical treatments such as
radiotherapy Radiation therapy or radiotherapy (RT, RTx, or XRT) is a treatment using ionizing radiation, generally provided as part of cancer therapy to either kill or control the growth of malignant cells. It is normally delivered by a linear particle ...
or
radiofrequency ablation Radiofrequency ablation (RFA), also called fulguration, is a medical procedure in which part of the electrical conduction system of the heart, tumor, sensory nerves or a dysfunctional tissue is ablated using the heat generated from medium fre ...
. *
Reiki Reiki is a pseudoscientific form of energy healing, a type of alternative medicine originating in Japan. Reiki practitioners use a technique called ''palm healing'' or ''hands-on healing'' through which, according to practitioners, a " unive ...
is a form of
alternative medicine Alternative medicine refers to practices that aim to achieve the healing effects of conventional medicine, but that typically lack biological plausibility, testability, repeatability, or supporting evidence of effectiveness. Such practices are ...
called energy healing. Reiki practitioners use a technique called ''palm healing'' or ''hands-on healing'' through which a " universal energy" is said to be transferred through the palms of the practitioner to the patient in order to encourage emotional or physical healing. Reiki is a pseudoscience, and is used as an illustrative example of pseudoscience in scholarly texts and academic journal articles. It is based on '' qi'' ("chi"), which practitioners say is a universal life force, although there is no
empirical evidence Empirical evidence is evidence obtained through sense experience or experimental procedure. It is of central importance to the sciences and plays a role in various other fields, like epistemology and law. There is no general agreement on how the ...
that such a life force exists.Reiki: Fraudulent Misrepresentation «
Science-Based Medicine ''Science-Based Medicine'' is a website and blog with articles covering issues in science and medicine, especially medical scams and practices. Founded in 2008, it is owned and operated by the New England Skeptical Society, and run by Steve ...

Reiki: Fraudulent Misrepresentation
«
Science-Based Medicine ''Science-Based Medicine'' is a website and blog with articles covering issues in science and medicine, especially medical scams and practices. Founded in 2008, it is owned and operated by the New England Skeptical Society, and run by Steve ...
, accessdate: 28 May 2016
Clinical research has not shown reiki to be effective as a treatment for any medical condition. There has been no proof of the effectiveness of reiki therapy compared to the
placebo effect A placebo ( ) can be roughly defined as a sham medical treatment. Common placebos include inert tablets (like sugar pills), inert injections (like saline), sham surgery, and other procedures. Placebos are used in randomized clinical trials ...
. An overview of reiki investigations found that studies reporting positive effects had methodological flaws. The
American Cancer Society The American Cancer Society (ACS) is a nationwide non-profit organization dedicated to eliminating cancer. The ACS publishes the journals ''Cancer'', '' CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians'' and '' Cancer Cytopathology''. History The society w ...
stated that reiki should not replace conventional cancer treatment, a sentiment echoed by
Cancer Research UK Cancer Research UK (CRUK) is the world's largest independent cancer research organisation. It is registered as a charity in the United Kingdom and Isle of Man, and was formed on 4 February 2002 by the merger of The Cancer Research Campaign and t ...
and the
National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health The National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH) is a United States government agency which explores complementary and alternative medicine (CAM). It was created in 1991 as the Office of Alternative Medicine (OAM), and r ...
. Developed in Japan in 1922 by Mikao Usui, it has been adapted into varying cultural traditions across the world. *
Reflexology Reflexology, also known as zone therapy, is an alternative medical practice involving the application of pressure to specific points on the feet, ears, and hands. This is done using thumb, finger, and hand massage techniques without the use of ...
, or zone therapy, is an
alternative medicine Alternative medicine refers to practices that aim to achieve the healing effects of conventional medicine, but that typically lack biological plausibility, testability, repeatability, or supporting evidence of effectiveness. Such practices are ...
involving the physical act of applying pressure to the feet, hands, or ears with specific thumb, finger and hand techniques without the use of oil or lotion. It is based on what reflexologists claim to be a system of zones and reflex areas that they say reflect an image of the body on the feet and hands, with the premise that such work effects a physical change to the body. A 2009
systematic review A systematic review is a scholarly synthesis of the evidence on a clearly presented topic using critical methods to identify, define and assess research on the topic. A systematic review extracts and interprets data from published studies on ...
of randomized controlled trials concluded that the best evidence available to date does not demonstrate convincingly that reflexology is an effective treatment for any medical condition. There is no consensus among reflexologists on how reflexology is supposed to work; a unifying theme is the idea that areas on the foot correspond to areas of the body and that, by manipulating these, one can improve health through one's '' qi''. Reflexologists divide the body into 10 equal vertical zones, five on the right and five on the left. Concerns have been raised by medical professionals that treating potentially serious illnesses with reflexology, which has no proven efficacy, could delay the seeking of appropriate medical treatment. * Rolfing (also called Structural Integration) – body manipulation devised by Ida Rolf (1896–1979) claimed by practitioners to be capable of ridding the body of traumatic memories stored in the muscles. There is no evidence that rolfing is effective as a treatment for any condition. * Therapeutic touch – a form of
vitalism Vitalism is a belief that starts from the premise that "living organisms are fundamentally different from non-living entities because they contain some non-physical element or are governed by different principles than are inanimate things." Wher ...
where a practitioner, who may be also a nurse, passes their hands over and around a patient to "realign" or "rebalance" a putative energy field. A recent
Cochrane Review Cochrane is a British international charitable organisation formed to synthesize medical research findings to facilitate evidence-based choices about health interventions involving health professionals, patients and policy makers. It includes ...
concluded that " ere is no evidence that herapeutic Touchpromotes healing of acute wounds." No biophysical basis for such an energy field has been found. *
Tin foil hat A tin foil hat is a hat made from one or more sheets of tin foil or aluminium foil, or a piece of conventional headgear lined with foil, often worn in the belief or hope that it shields the brain from threats such as electromagnetic fields, mind ...
– A tin foil hat is a hat made from one or more sheets of aluminium foil, or a piece of conventional headgear lined with foil, worn in the belief it shields the brain from threats such as electromagnetic fields,
mind control Mind control may refer to: Psychology and neurology * Brainwashing, the concept that the human mind can be altered or controlled by certain psychological techniques * Brain–computer interface * Hypnosis * Neuroprosthetics, the technology of cont ...
and mind reading. The usage of a metal foil hat for protection against interference of the mind was mentioned in a science fiction short story by
Julian Huxley Sir Julian Sorell Huxley (22 June 1887 – 14 February 1975) was an English evolutionary biologist, eugenicist and Internationalism (politics), internationalist. He was a proponent of natural selection, and a leading figure in the mid-twentiet ...
, " The Tissue-Culture King", first published in 1926, in which the protagonist discovers that "caps of metal foil" can block the effects of telepathy. At this time, no link has been established between the radio-frequency EMR that tin foil hats are meant to protect against and subsequent ill health. *
Traditional Chinese medicine Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is an alternative medicine, alternative medical practice drawn from traditional medicine in China. A large share of its claims are pseudoscientific, with the majority of treatments having no robust evidence ...
(TCM) – a traditional medical system originating in China and practiced as an
alternative medicine Alternative medicine refers to practices that aim to achieve the healing effects of conventional medicine, but that typically lack biological plausibility, testability, repeatability, or supporting evidence of effectiveness. Such practices are ...
throughout much of the world. It contains elements based in the cosmology of
Taoism Taoism or Daoism (, ) is a diverse philosophical and religious tradition indigenous to China, emphasizing harmony with the Tao ( zh, p=dào, w=tao4). With a range of meaning in Chinese philosophy, translations of Tao include 'way', 'road', ' ...
and considers the human body more in functional and vitalistic than anatomical terms. Health and illness in TCM follow the principle of
yin and yang Originating in Chinese philosophy, yin and yang (, ), also yinyang or yin-yang, is the concept of opposite cosmic principles or forces that interact, interconnect, and perpetuate each other. Yin and yang can be thought of as complementary an ...
and are ascribed to balance or imbalance in the flow of a vital force, ''qi''. Diagnostic methods are solely external, including pulse examination at six points, examination of a patient's tongue and a patient interview; interpractitioner diagnostic agreement is poor. The TCM description of the function and structure of the human body is fundamentally different from modern medicine. ** TCM ''materia medica'' – a collection of
crude medicine Crude drugs are drugs of plant, animal and microbial origin that contain natural substances that have undergone only the processes of collection and drying. The term natural substances refers to those substances found in nature that have not had ...
s used in traditional Chinese medicine. These include many plants in part or whole, such as
ginseng Ginseng () is the root of plants in the genus ''Panax'', such as South China ginseng (''Panax notoginseng, P. notoginseng''), Korean ginseng (''Panax ginseng, P. ginseng''), and American ginseng (''American ginseng, P. quinquefol ...
and
wolfberry Goji, goji berry, or wolfberry () is the sweet fruit of either '' Lycium barbarum'' or '' Lycium chinense'', two closely related species of boxthorn in the nightshade family, Solanaceae. ''L. barbarum'' and ''L. chinense'' fruits ar ...
, as well as more exotic ingredients, such as
seahorse A seahorse (also written ''sea-horse'' and ''sea horse'') is any of 46 species of small marine Osteichthyes, bony fish in the genus ''Hippocampus''. The genus name comes from the Ancient Greek (), itself from () meaning "horse" and () meanin ...
s. Preparations generally include several ingredients in combination, with selection based on physical characteristics such as taste or shape, or relationship to the organs of TCM. Most preparations have not been rigorously evaluated or give no indication of efficacy.
Pharmacognosy Pharmacognosy is the interdisciplinary scientific study of natural drugs and bioactive compounds from plants, animals, and minerals—originally focused on identifying crude drugs but now expanded to molecular, chemical, ecological, and medicin ...
research for potential active ingredients present in these preparations is active, though the applications do not always correspond to those of TCM. **
Gua sha ''Gua sha'' (Chinese: 刮痧), also known as ''kerokan'' in Indonesia or ''cạo gió'' in Vietnam, is a traditional East Asian medicine practice involving the use of a smooth-edged tool to scrape the skin, producing light petechiae (small red ...
(), kerokan or coining, is part of
traditional Chinese medicine Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is an alternative medicine, alternative medical practice drawn from traditional medicine in China. A large share of its claims are pseudoscientific, with the majority of treatments having no robust evidence ...
(TCM). Its practitioners use a tool to scrape people's skin to cause tissue damage in the belief this has medicinal benefit. Gua sha is sometimes referred to as "scraping", "spooning" or "coining" by English speakers.
Edzard Ernst Edzard Ernst (born 30 January 1948) is a retired British-German academic physician and researcher specializing in the study of complementary and alternative medicine. He was Professor of Complementary Medicine at the University of Exeter, the wo ...
has written that any apparent benefit from gua sha is due to the
placebo effect A placebo ( ) can be roughly defined as a sham medical treatment. Common placebos include inert tablets (like sugar pills), inert injections (like saline), sham surgery, and other procedures. Placebos are used in randomized clinical trials ...
. ** Meridians are the channels through which '' qi'' flows, connecting the several ''zang-fu'' organ pairs. There is no known
anatomical Anatomy () is the branch of morphology concerned with the study of the internal structure of organisms and their parts. Anatomy is a branch of natural science that deals with the structural organization of living things. It is an old scien ...
or
histological Histology, also known as microscopic anatomy or microanatomy, is the branch of biology that studies the microscopic anatomy of biological tissue (biology), tissues. Histology is the microscopic counterpart to gross anatomy, which looks at large ...
basis for the existence of '' acupuncture points'' or ''meridians''. **
Shiatsu ''Shiatsu'' ( ; ) is a form of Japanese Bodywork (alternative medicine), bodywork based on concepts in traditional Chinese medicine such as Meridian (Chinese medicine), qi meridians. Having been popularized in the twentieth century by Tokujiro N ...
() is a form of Japanese bodywork based on ideas in
traditional Chinese medicine Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is an alternative medicine, alternative medical practice drawn from traditional medicine in China. A large share of its claims are pseudoscientific, with the majority of treatments having no robust evidence ...
. ''Shiatsu'' derives from a Japanese massage modality called ''
anma ''Anma'' () is a practice of traditional Japanese massage; the word also refers to practitioners of that art. Modern shiatsu is largely derived from ''anma''. History ''Anma'' is thought to be of Chinese origin, developing from ''Tui Na''. ' ...
''. There is no
evidence Evidence for a proposition is what supports the proposition. It is usually understood as an indication that the proposition is truth, true. The exact definition and role of evidence vary across different fields. In epistemology, evidence is what J ...
that ''shiatsu'' is an effective medical treatment. ** Qivital energy whose flow must be balanced for health. ''Qi'' has never been directly observed and is unrelated to the concept of
energy Energy () is the physical quantity, quantitative physical property, property that is transferred to a physical body, body or to a physical system, recognizable in the performance of Work (thermodynamics), work and in the form of heat and l ...
used in science. "Despite complete scientific rejection, the concept of a special biological fields within living things remains deeply engraved in human thinking. It is now working its way into modern health care systems, as non-scientific alternative therapies become increasingly popular. From acupuncture to homeopathy and therapeutic touch, the claim is made that healing can be brought about by the proper adjustment of a person's or animal's 'bioenergetic fields. **
Qigong Qigong ()) is a system of coordinated body-posture and movement, breathing, and meditation said to be useful for the purposes of health, spirituality, and martial arts training. With roots in Traditional Chinese Medicine, Chinese medicine, Chin ...
(), qi gong, chi kung, or chi gung () is a
holistic Holism is the interdisciplinary idea that systems possess properties as wholes apart from the properties of their component parts. Julian Tudor Hart (2010''The Political Economy of Health Care''pp.106, 258 The aphorism "The whole is greater than t ...
system of coordinated body posture and movement, breathing and meditation used for the purposes of health, spirituality and martial arts training. With roots in Chinese
medicine Medicine is the science and Praxis (process), practice of caring for patients, managing the Medical diagnosis, diagnosis, prognosis, Preventive medicine, prevention, therapy, treatment, Palliative care, palliation of their injury or disease, ...
,
philosophy Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...
and
martial arts Martial arts are codified systems and traditions of combat practiced for a number of reasons such as self-defence; military and law enforcement applications; combat sport, competition; physical, mental, and spiritual development; entertainment; ...
, qigong is traditionally viewed as a practice to cultivate and balance qi (chi), translated as "life energy". Research concerning qigong has been conducted for a wide range of medical conditions, including
hypertension Hypertension, also known as high blood pressure, is a Chronic condition, long-term Disease, medical condition in which the blood pressure in the artery, arteries is persistently elevated. High blood pressure usually does not cause symptoms i ...
,
pain Pain is a distressing feeling often caused by intense or damaging Stimulus (physiology), stimuli. The International Association for the Study of Pain defines pain as "an unpleasant sense, sensory and emotional experience associated with, or res ...
and
cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving Cell growth#Disorders, abnormal cell growth with the potential to Invasion (cancer), invade or Metastasis, spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Po ...
, and with respect to
quality of life Quality of life (QOL) is defined by the World Health Organization as "an individual's perception of their position in life in the context of the culture and value systems in which they live and in relation to their goals, expectations, standards ...
. Most research concerning health benefits of qigong has been of poor quality, such that it would be unwise to draw firm conclusions at this stage. **
Zang-fu The ''zangfu'' () organs are functional entities stipulated by traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). These classifications are based on east Asian cosmological observations rather than bio medical definitions that are used in Western evidence ba ...
– concept of organs as functional yin and yang entities for the storage and manipulation of ''qi''. These organs are not based in anatomy. * Tomatis Method A type of auditory integration training devised by Alfred A. Tomatis and promoted, without supporting evidence, as being of benefit to people with autism. *
Urine therapy Urine therapy or urotherapy, (also urinotherapy, Shivambu, uropathy, or auto-urine therapy) in alternative medicine, and Amaroli in medieval hatha yoga, is the application of human urine for medicinal or cosmetic purposes, including urophagia, ...
– drinking either one's own undiluted urine or homeopathic potions of urine for treatment of a wide variety of diseases is based on pseudoscience. * Promotion of a link between autism and vaccines, in which the vaccines are accused of causing autism-spectrum conditions, triggering them, or aggravating them, has been characterized as pseudoscience. Many epidemiological studies have reported no association between either the
MMR vaccine The MMR vaccine is a vaccine against measles, mumps, and rubella (German measles), abbreviated as ''MMR''. The first dose is generally given to children around 9 months to 15 months of age, with a second dose at 15 months to 6 years of age, w ...
and autism, or thimerosal-containing vaccines and autism. Consequently, the
Institute of Medicine The National Academy of Medicine (NAM), known as the Institute of Medicine (IoM) until 2015, is an American nonprofit, non-governmental organization. The National Academy of Medicine is a part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineerin ...
has concluded that there is no causal link between either of these varieties of vaccines and autism. Similarly, "vaccine overload", a non-medical term describing the notion that giving many vaccines at once may overwhelm or weaken a child's immature immune system and lead to adverse effects is strongly contradicted by scientific evidence. *
Vitalism Vitalism is a belief that starts from the premise that "living organisms are fundamentally different from non-living entities because they contain some non-physical element or are governed by different principles than are inanimate things." Wher ...
– doctrine that the processes of life are not explicable by the laws of physics and chemistry alone and that life is, in some part, self-determining. The book '' Encyclopedia of Pseudoscience'' stated "today, vitalism is one of the ideas that form the basis for many pseudoscientific health systems that claim that illnesses are caused by a disturbance or imbalance of the body's vital force." "Vitalists claim to be scientific, but in fact they reject the scientific method with its basic postulates of cause and effect and of provability. They often regard subjective experience to be more valid than objective material reality." * Water memory – a homeopathic theory based on the purported ability of water to retain a memory of substances previously dissolved in it. * Wilson's syndrome (not to be confused with
Wilson's disease Wilson's disease (also called hepatolenticular degeneration) is a genetic disorder characterized by the excess build-up of copper in the body. Symptoms are typically related to the brain and liver. Liver-related symptoms include vomiting, wea ...
) is an
alternative medicine Alternative medicine refers to practices that aim to achieve the healing effects of conventional medicine, but that typically lack biological plausibility, testability, repeatability, or supporting evidence of effectiveness. Such practices are ...
concept, not recognized as a legitimate diagnosis in
evidence-based medicine Evidence-based medicine (EBM) is "the conscientious, explicit and judicious use of current best evidence in making decisions about the care of individual patients. It means integrating individual clinical expertise with the best available exte ...
. Its supporters describe Wilson's syndrome as a mix of common and
non-specific symptoms Signs and symptoms are diagnostic indications of an illness, injury, or condition. Signs are objective and externally observable; symptoms are a person's reported subjective experiences. A sign for example may be a higher or lower temperature ...
which they attribute to low body temperature and impaired conversion of
thyroxine Thyroxine, also known as T4, is a hormone produced by the thyroid gland. It is the primary form of thyroid hormone found in the blood and acts as a prohormone of the more active thyroid hormone, triiodothyronine (T3). Thyroxine and its acti ...
(T4) to
triiodothyronine Triiodothyronine, also known as T3, is a thyroid hormone. It affects almost every physiological process in the body, including growth and development, metabolism, body temperature, and heart rate. Production of T3 and its prohormone thyroxi ...
(T3), despite normal
thyroid function test Thyroid function tests (TFTs) is a collective term for blood tests used to check the function of the thyroid. TFTs may be requested if a patient is thought to suffer from hyperthyroidism (overactive thyroid) or hypothyroidism (underactive thyroid) ...
s. The American Thyroid Association (ATA) says Wilson's syndrome is at odds with established knowledge of thyroid function, has vague diagnostic criteria and lacks supporting
scientific evidence Scientific evidence is evidence that serves to either support or counter a scientific theory or hypothesis, although scientists also use evidence in other ways, such as when applying theories to practical problems. "Discussions about empirical ev ...
. The ATA further raised concern that the proposed treatments were potentially harmful. *
Wind turbine syndrome Wind turbine syndrome and wind farm syndrome are terms for the alleged medical condition related to the proximity of wind turbines. Proponents claim that these effects include congenital abnormality, cancer, vertigo, nausea, autism, ADHD, dea ...
and wind farm syndrome are terms for adverse health effects that have been ascribed to the proximity of
wind turbine A wind turbine is a device that wind power, converts the kinetic energy of wind into electrical energy. , hundreds of thousands of list of most powerful wind turbines, large turbines, in installations known as wind farms, were generating over ...
s. Proponents have claimed that these effects include death, cancer and
congenital abnormality A birth defect is an abnormal condition that is present at birth, regardless of its cause. Birth defects may result in disabilities that may be physical, intellectual, or developmental. The disabilities can range from mild to severe. Birth de ...
. The distribution of recorded events, however, correlates with media coverage of wind farm syndrome itself and not with the presence or absence of wind farms. Reviews of the scientific literature have consistently found no reason to believe that wind turbines are harmful to health.


Technology

* 5G conspiracies and 5G causes coronavirus theories – theory proposing that 5G causes health issues, including
COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In January 2020, the disease spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic. The symptoms of COVID‑19 can vary but often include fever ...
.


Social sciences


History

*
Christ myth theory The Christ myth theory, also known as the Jesus myth theory, Jesus mythicism, or the Jesus ahistoricity theory, is the fringe view that the story of Jesus is a work of mythology with no historical substance. Alternatively, in terms given by ...
– A
fringe theory A fringe theory is an idea or a viewpoint that differs significantly from the accepted scholarship of the time within its field. Fringe theories include the models and proposals of fringe science, as well as similar ideas in other areas of schola ...
that proposes that the
historical Jesus The term ''historical Jesus'' refers to the life and teachings of Jesus as interpreted through critical historical methods, in contrast to what are traditionally religious interpretations. It also considers the historical and cultural context ...
did not exist in any capacity whatsoever. While the divinity of Jesus is disputed, Christian and non-Christian scholars of antiquity universally agree that
Jesus of Nazareth Jesus ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, and many other names and titles, was a 1st-century Jewish preacher and religious leader. He is the central figure of Christianity, the world's largest religi ...
was a
Galilean Generically, a Galilean (; ; ; ) is a term that was used in classical sources to describe the inhabitants of Galilee, an area of northern Israel and southern Lebanon that extends from the northern coastal plain in the west to the Sea of Galile ...
Jew who lived in the first century, was baptized, and later
crucified Crucifixion is a method of capital punishment in which the condemned is tied or nailed to a large wooden cross, beam or stake and left to hang until eventual death. It was used as a punishment by the Achaemenid Empire, Persians, Carthaginians, ...
by Roman authorities. This is based on
sources Source may refer to: Research * Historical document * Historical source * Source (intelligence) or sub source, typically a confidential provider of non open-source intelligence * Source (journalism), a person, publication, publishing institute ...
written by historians, scholars, and politicians who lived during the time of Christ. James D.G. Dunn "Paul's understanding of the death of Jesus" in ''Sacrifice and Redemption'' edited by S.W. Sykes (3 December 2007) Cambridge University Press pp. 35–36''Jesus Now and Then'' by Richard A. Burridge and Graham Gould (1 April 2004) p. 34''Jesus'' by Michael Grant 2004 p. 200''The Gospels and Jesus'' by
Graham Stanton Graham Norman Stanton (1940–2009) was a New Zealand biblical scholar who taught at King's College, London, and as Lady Margaret's Professor of Divinity at the University of Cambridge. A New Testament specialist, Stanton's special interests we ...
, 1989 Oxford University Press, p. 145
Robert E. Van Voorst ''Jesus Outside the New Testament: An Introduction to the Ancient Evidence'' Eerdmans Publishing, 2000. p. 16 *
Historical materialism Historical materialism is Karl Marx's theory of history. Marx located historical change in the rise of Class society, class societies and the way humans labor together to make their livelihoods. Karl Marx stated that Productive forces, techno ...
Karl Popper Sir Karl Raimund Popper (28 July 1902 – 17 September 1994) was an Austrian–British philosopher, academic and social commentator. One of the 20th century's most influential philosophers of science, Popper is known for his rejection of the ...
criticised the
Marxist theory of history Historical materialism is Karl Marx's theory of history. Marx located historical change in the rise of Class society, class societies and the way humans labor together to make their livelihoods. Karl Marx stated that Productive forces, techno ...
on the grounds of being
unfalsifiable Falsifiability (or refutability) is a deductive standard of evaluation of scientific theories and hypotheses, introduced by the philosopher of science Karl Popper in his book '' The Logic of Scientific Discovery'' (1934). A theory or hypothesi ...
. Specifically, he claimed that while the theory was originally scientific, over time it has been modified and degraded into a non-scientific form. Popper thus viewed Marxism as a pseudoscience. Others who shared a similar view were philosopher
Imre Lakatos Imre Lakatos (, ; ; 9 November 1922 – 2 February 1974) was a Hungarian philosopher of mathematics and science, known for his thesis of the fallibility of mathematics and its "methodology of proofs and refutations" in its pre-axiomatic stage ...
and sociologist Ernest van den Haag. *
Holocaust denial Historical negationism, Denial of the Holocaust is an antisemitic conspiracy theory that asserts that the genocide of Jews by the Nazi Party, Nazis is a fabrication or exaggeration. It includes making one or more of the following false claims: ...
– Historical revisionist movements associated with holocaust denial have employed pseudoscientific evidence and
conspiracy theories A conspiracy theory is an explanation for an event or situation that asserts the existence of a conspiracy (generally by powerful sinister groups, often political in motivation), when other explanations are more probable.Additional sources: * ...
published in intradiegetic pseudo-academic journals and presented at fringe conferences (e.g. misconstruing cyanide residue studies, claiming despite all evidence to the contrary that gas chambers were built after the war). * Khazar hypothesis of Ashkenazi ancestry – A
fringe theory A fringe theory is an idea or a viewpoint that differs significantly from the accepted scholarship of the time within its field. Fringe theories include the models and proposals of fringe science, as well as similar ideas in other areas of schola ...
that postulates that
Ashkenazi Jews Ashkenazi Jews ( ; also known as Ashkenazic Jews or Ashkenazim) form a distinct subgroup of the Jewish diaspora, that emerged in the Holy Roman Empire around the end of the first millennium CE. They traditionally speak Yiddish, a language ...
were primarily, or to a large extent, descended from
Khazars The Khazars ; 突厥可薩 ''Tūjué Kěsà'', () were a nomadic Turkic people who, in the late 6th century CE, established a major commercial empire covering the southeastern section of modern European Russia, southern Ukraine, Crimea, a ...
, a multi-ethnic conglomerate of mostly
Turkic peoples Turkic peoples are a collection of diverse ethnic groups of West Asia, West, Central Asia, Central, East Asia, East, and North Asia as well as parts of Europe, who speak Turkic languages.. "Turkic peoples, any of various peoples whose members ...
who formed a semi-nomadic
khanate A khanate ( ) or khaganate refers to historic polity, polities ruled by a Khan (title), khan, khagan, khatun, or khanum. Khanates were typically nomadic Mongol and Turkic peoples, Turkic or Tatars, Tatar societies located on the Eurasian Steppe, ...
in and around the northern and central
Caucasus The Caucasus () or Caucasia (), is a region spanning Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is situated between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, comprising parts of Southern Russia, Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan. The Caucasus Mountains, i ...
and the
Pontic–Caspian steppe The Pontic–Caspian Steppe is a steppe extending across Eastern Europe to Central Asia, formed by the Caspian and Pontic steppes. It stretches from the northern shores of the Black Sea (the ''Pontus Euxinus'' of antiquity) to the northern a ...
.
Genetic studies on Jews Genetic studies of Jews are part of the population genetics discipline and are used to analyze the ancestry of Jewish populations, complementing research in other fields such as history, linguistics, archaeology, and paleontology. These studies ...
have found no substantive evidence of a Khazar origin among Ashkenazi Jews, with evidence suggesting the Ashkenazi have mixed
Near Eastern The Near East () is a transcontinental region around the Eastern Mediterranean encompassing the historical Fertile Crescent, the Levant, Anatolia, Egypt, Mesopotamia, and coastal areas of the Arabian Peninsula. The term was invented in the 20th ...
and Southern European/Mediterranean origins. * New chronology (Fomenko)
pseudohistorical Pseudohistory is a form of pseudoscholarship that attempts to distort or misrepresent the historical record, often by employing methods resembling those used in scholarly historical research. The related term cryptohistory is applied to pseudoh ...
conspiracy theory A conspiracy theory is an explanation for an event or situation that asserts the existence of a conspiracy (generally by powerful sinister groups, often political in motivation), when other explanations are more probable.Additional sources: * ...
which argues that events of antiquity generally attributed to the civilizations of the
Roman Empire The Roman Empire ruled the Mediterranean and much of Europe, Western Asia and North Africa. The Roman people, Romans conquered most of this during the Roman Republic, Republic, and it was ruled by emperors following Octavian's assumption of ...
,
Ancient Greece Ancient Greece () was a northeastern Mediterranean civilization, existing from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th–9th centuries BC to the end of classical antiquity (), that comprised a loose collection of culturally and linguistically r ...
and
Ancient Egypt Ancient Egypt () was a cradle of civilization concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in Northeast Africa. It emerged from prehistoric Egypt around 3150BC (according to conventional Egyptian chronology), when Upper and Lower E ...
, actually occurred during the
Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...
, more than a thousand years later.


Linguistics

*
Japhetic theory In linguistics, the Japhetic hypothesis or Japhetic theory of Soviet linguist Nikolay Yakovlevich Marr (1864–1934) postulated that the Kartvelian languages of the Caucasus area are related to the Semitic languages of the Middle East. The h ...
– claim that the Afroasiatic,
Basque Basque may refer to: * Basques, an ethnic group of Spain and France * Basque language, their language Places * Basque Country (greater region), the homeland of the Basque people with parts in both Spain and France * Basque Country (autonomous co ...
, and Kartvelian language families share a common origin *
Sun Language Theory The Sun Language Theory () was a Turkish pseudolinguistic, pseudoscientific quasi-hypothesis developed in Turkey in the 1930s that proposed that all human languages are descendants of one proto-Turkic primal language. The theory's promotion ...
– the belief that all languages had their origins in the
Turkish language Turkish ( , , also known as 'Turkish of Turkey') is the most widely spoken of the Turkic languages, a member of Oghuz languages, Oghuz branch with around 90 million speakers. It is the national language of Turkey and one of two official languag ...
.


Psychology

* Attachment therapy – common name for a set of potentially fatal clinical interventions and parenting techniques aimed at controlling aggressive, disobedient, or unaffectionate children using "restraint and physical and psychological abuse to seek their desired results." (The term "attachment therapy" may sometimes be used loosely to refer to mainstream approaches based on attachment theory, usually outside the US where the pseudoscientific form of attachment therapy is less known.) Probably the most common form is holding therapy, in which the child is restrained by adults for the purpose of supposed cathartic release of Catharsis, suppressed rage and Age regression in therapy, regression. Perhaps the most extreme, but much less common, is "Rebirthing (attachment therapy), rebirthing", in which the child is wrapped tightly in a blanket and then made to simulate emergence from a birth canal. This is done by encouraging the child to struggle and pushing and squeezing him/her to mimic contractions. Despite the practice's name, it is not based on traditional attachment theory and shares no principles of mainstream developmental psychology research. In 2006, it was the subject of an almost entirely critical Taskforce Report commissioned by the American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children (APSAC). * Conversion therapy – sometimes called reparative therapy, seeks to change a non-heterosexual person's sexual orientation so they will no longer have same-sex attraction. The American Psychiatric Association defines reparative therapy as "psychiatric treatment ... which is based upon the assumption that homosexuality per se is a mental disorder or based upon the ''a priori'' assumption that a patient should change their sexual homosexual orientation." * Coding (therapy), Coding is a catch-all term for various Russian Alternative medicine, alternative therapeutic methods used to treat addictions, in which the therapist attempts to scare patients into abstinence from a substance they are addicted to by convincing them that they will be harmed or killed if they use it again. Each method involves the therapist pretending to insert a "code" into patients' brains that will ostensibly provoke a strong adverse reaction should it come into contact with the addictive substance. The methods use a combination of theatrics, hypnosis,
placebo A placebo ( ) can be roughly defined as a sham medical treatment. Common placebos include inert tablets (like sugar pills), inert injections (like saline), sham surgery, and other procedures. Placebos are used in randomized clinical trials ...
s, and drugs with temporary adverse effects to instill the erroneous beliefs. Therapists may pretend to "code" patients for a fixed length of time, such as five years. * Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) is a form of psychotherapy in which the person being treated is asked to recall distressing images; the therapist then directs the person in one type of Bilateral stimulation, bilateral sensory input, such as side-to-side eye movements or hand tapping. It is included in several guidelines for the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Some clinical psychologists have argued that the eye movements do not add anything above imagery exposure and characterize its promotion and use as pseudoscience. *
Facilitated communication Facilitated communication (FC), or supported typing, is a scientifically discredited technique which claims to allow non-verbal people, such as those with autism, to communicate. The technique involves a facilitator guiding the disabled person ...
(FC), or supported typing, is a scientifically discredited technique that attempts to facilitate communication by people with severe educational and communication disabilities. The facilitator holds or gently touches the disabled person's arm or hand during this process and attempts to help them move to type on a special keyboard. In addition to providing physical support needed for typing or pointing, the facilitator provides verbal prompts and moral support. There is widespread agreement within the scientific community and multiple disability advocacy organizations that FC is not a valid technique for authentically augmenting the communication skills of those with autism spectrum disorder. Instead, research indicates that the facilitator is the source of most or all messages obtained through FC (involving
ideomotor effect The ideomotor phenomenon is a psychological phenomenon wherein a subject makes motions unconsciously. Also called ideomotor response (or ideomotor reflex) and abbreviated to IMR, it is a concept in hypnosis and psychological research. It is der ...
guidance of the arm of the patient by the facilitator); thus, studies have consistently found that patients are unable to provide the correct response to even simple questions when the facilitator does not know the answers to the questions (e.g., showing the patient but not the facilitator an object) . In addition, numerous cases have been reported by investigators in which disabled persons were assumed by facilitators to be typing a coherent message while the patient's eyes were closed or while they were looking away from or showing no particular interest in the letter board. * Graphology – psychological test based on a belief that personality traits or gender unconsciously and consistently influence handwriting morphology—that certain types of people exhibit certain quirks of the pen. Analysis of handwriting attributes provides no better than chance correspondence with personality, and neuroscientist Barry Beyerstein likened the assigned correlations to sympathetic magic. Graphology is only superficially related to forensic document examination, which also examines handwriting. * Hypnosis – state of extreme relaxation and inner focus in which a person is unusually responsive to suggestions made by the hypnotist. The modern practice has its roots in the idea of animal magnetism, or mesmerism, originated by
Franz Mesmer Franz Anton Mesmer ( ; ; 23 May 1734 – 5 March 1815) was a German physician with an interest in astronomy. He theorized the existence of a process of natural Energy (esotericism), energy transference occurring between all animate and inanimat ...
. Mesmer's explanations were thoroughly discredited, and to this day there is no agreement amongst researchers whether hypnosis is a real phenomenon, or merely a form of participatory role-enactment.Westen et al. 2006 "Psychology: Australian and New Zealand edition" John Wiley. Some aspects of suggestion have been clinically useful.Nash, Michael R.
The Truth and the Hype of Hypnosis
.
Scientific American ''Scientific American'', informally abbreviated ''SciAm'' or sometimes ''SA'', is an American popular science magazine. Many scientists, including Albert Einstein and Nikola Tesla, have contributed articles to it, with more than 150 Nobel Pri ...
: July 2001
Other claimed uses of hypnosis more clearly fall within the area of pseudoscience. Such areas include the use of hypnotic regression, including past life regression. "[H]ypnotically induced past life experiences are rule-governed, goal-directed fantasies that are context generated and sensitive to the demands of the hypnotic regression situation." * Hypnotherapy – therapy that is undertaken with a subject in hypnosis. Using hypnosis for relaxation, Mood (psychology), mood control, and other related benefits (often related to meditation) is regarded as part of standard medical treatment rather than alternative medicine, particularly for patients subjected to difficult physical emotional stress in
chemotherapy Chemotherapy (often abbreviated chemo, sometimes CTX and CTx) is the type of cancer treatment that uses one or more anti-cancer drugs (list of chemotherapeutic agents, chemotherapeutic agents or alkylating agents) in a standard chemotherapy re ...
. * Law of attraction (New Thought), Law of attraction – the Maxim (philosophy), maxim that "like attracts like" which, in New Thought philosophy, is used to sum up the idea that by focusing on positive or negative thoughts a person brings positive or negative experiences into their life.Whittaker, S
Secret attraction
, ''The Montreal Gazette'', 12 May 2007.
''Skeptical Inquirer'' magazine criticized the lack of falsifiability and testability of these claims. Critics have asserted that the evidence provided is usually anecdotal and that, because of the Publication bias, self-selecting nature of the positive reports, as well as the Subjectivity, subjective nature of any results, these reports are susceptible to confirmation bias and selection bias. Physicist Ali Alousi, for instance, criticized it as unmeasurable and questioned the likelihood that thoughts can affect anything outside the head. * Memetics – approach to evolutionary models of cultural information transfer based on the concept that units of information, or "memes", have an independent existence, are self-replicating, and are subject to selective evolution through environmental forces. Starting from a proposition put forward in the writings of Richard Dawkins, it has since turned into a new area of study, one that looks at the self-replicating units of culture. It has been proposed that just as memes are analogous to genes, memetics is analogous to genetics. Memetics has been deemed a pseudoscience on several fronts. Its proponents' assertions have been labeled "untested, unsupported or incorrect". Supporters of memetics include EO Wilson, Douglas Hofstadter and many others. * Myers–Briggs Type Indicator – a personality test composed of four categories of two types. The test has Myers–Briggs Type Indicator#Criticism, consistent problems with repeatability, in addition to problems of whether or not it has exhaustive and mutually exclusive classifications. The four categories are Introversion/Extroversion, Sensing/Intuition, Thinking/Feeling, Judging/Perception. Each person is said to have one quality from each category, producing 16 unique types. The Center for Applications of Psychological Type claims that the MBTI is scientifically supported, but most of the research on it is done through its own journal, ''Journal of Psychological Type'', raising questions of bias. Results are said to follow the Barnum effect. * Neuro-linguistic programming – an approach to Interpersonal communication, communication, personal development, and psychotherapy created in the 1970s. The title refers to a stated connection between the neurological processes ("neuro"), language ("linguistic") and behavioral patterns that have been learned through experience ("programming") and can be organized to achieve specific goals in life. According to certain neuroscientists psychologists and linguists, NLP is unsupported by current scientific evidence, and uses incorrect and misleading terms and concepts. Reviews of empirical research on NLP indicate that NLP contains numerous factual errors, and has failed to produce reliable results for the claims for effectiveness made by NLP's originators and proponents. According to Devilly, NLP is no longer as prevalent as it was in the 1970s and 1980s. Criticisms go beyond the lack of empirical evidence for effectiveness; critics say that NLP exhibits pseudoscientific characteristics, title, concepts and terminology. NLP is used as an example of pseudoscience for facilitating the teaching of scientific literacy at the professional and university level. NLP also appears on peer-reviewed expert-consensus based lists of discredited interventions. In research designed to identify the "quack factor" in modern mental health practice, Norcross ''et al.'' (2006) list NLP as possibly or probably discredited, and in papers reviewing discredited interventions for substance and alcohol abuse, Norcross ''et al.'' (2008) list NLP in the "top ten" most discredited, and Glasner-Edwards and Rawson (2010) list NLP as "certainly discredited". * Odic force – hypothetical life force used to explain hypnosis. * Parapsychology – controversial discipline that seeks to investigate the existence and causes of psychic abilities and Survivalism (life after death), life after death using the scientific method. Parapsychological experiments have included the use of Random number generation, random number generators to test for evidence of precognition and psychokinesis with both human and animal subjects and Ganzfeld experiments to test for extrasensory perception. * Phrenology – now defunct system for determining personality traits by feeling bumps on the skull proposed by 18th-century physiologist Franz Joseph Gall. In an early recorded use of the term "pseudo-science", François Magendie referred to phrenology as "a pseudo-science of the present day". The assumption that personality can be read from bumps in the skull has since been thoroughly discredited. However, Gall's assumption that character, thoughts, and emotions are located in the brain is considered an important historical advance toward neuropsychology (see also Localization of brain function, Brodmann's areas, Neuro-imaging, Modularity of mind or Faculty psychology). * Polygraph ("lie detection") – an interrogation method which measures and records several physiological indices such as blood pressure, pulse, respiration, and skin conductivity while the subject is asked and answers a series of questions. The belief is that deceptive answers will produce physiological responses that can be differentiated from those associated with non-deceptive answers. Many members of the scientific community consider polygraphy to be pseudoscience. Polygraphy has little credibility among scientists. Despite claims of 90–95% validity by polygraph advocates, and 95–100% by businesses providing polygraph services, critics maintain that rather than a "test", the method amounts to an inherently unstandardizable interrogation technique whose accuracy cannot be established. A 1997 survey of 421 psychologists estimated the test's average accuracy at about 61%, a little better than chance. * Primal therapy – sometimes presented as a science. ''The Gale Encyclopedia of Psychology'' (2001) states that: "The theoretical basis for the therapy is the supposition that prenatal experiences and birth trauma form people's primary impressions of life and that they subsequently influence the direction our lives take ... Truth be known, primal therapy cannot be defended on scientifically established principles. This is not surprising considering its questionable theoretical rationale." Other sources have also questioned the scientific validity of primal therapy, some using the term "pseudoscience" (see ). * Psychoanalysis – body of ideas developed by Austrian physician Sigmund Freud and his followers, which is devoted to the study of human psychological functioning and behavior. Although psychoanalysis is a strong influence within psychiatry, it has been controversial ever since its inception. It is considered pseudoscience by some.
Karl Popper Sir Karl Raimund Popper (28 July 1902 – 17 September 1994) was an Austrian–British philosopher, academic and social commentator. One of the 20th century's most influential philosophers of science, Popper is known for his rejection of the ...
characterized it as pseudoscience based on psychoanalysis failing the requirement for falsifiability. Frank Cioffi argued that "though Popper is correct to say that psychoanalysis is pseudoscientific and correct to say that it is unfalsifiable, he is mistaken to suggest that it is pseudoscientific ''because'' it is unfalsifiable. [...] It is when [Freud] insists that he has confirmed (not just instantiated) [his empirical theses] that he is being pseudoscientific." * Sluggish schizophrenia – a diagnosis used in some Communist nations to justify the involuntary commitment of political dissidents to mental institutions. * Subliminal stimuli#Consumption and television, Subliminal advertising – visual or auditory information discerned below the threshold of conscious awareness, which is claimed to have a powerful enduring effect on consuming habits. It went into disrepute in the late 1970s, but there has been renewed research interest recently. The mainstream of accepted scientific opinion does not hold that subliminal perception has a powerful, enduring effect on human behaviour. *Voice stress analysis - junk science technology that is advertised to infer deception from stress measured in the voice, often used in a similar manner to a polygraph examination.


Racial theories

* Scientific racism – claim that scientific evidence shows the inferiority or superiority of certain races. :*Aryanism – the claim that there is a distinct "Aryan race" that is superior to other putative races was an important tenet of Nazism and "the basis of the German government policy of exterminating Jews, Gypsies, and other 'non-Aryans.'" :* Drapetomania was a conjectural mental illness that, in 1851, American physician Samuel A. Cartwright hypothesized as the cause of Black slaves, enslaved Africans Fugitive slaves in the United States, fleeing captivity. It has since been debunked as pseudoscience and part of the edifice of scientific racism. :* Melanin theory – belief founded in the distortion of known physical properties of melanin, a natural polymer, that posits the inherent superiority of dark-skinned people and the essential inhumanity and inferiority of light-skinned people. :*Turkish History Thesis – the belief that Turks from Central Asia migrated and brought civilization to China, India, the Middle East, and Europe. * Eugenics – As a movement, eugenics was associated with pseudoscience including pseudoscientific journals and professional societies.


Sociology

* Alpha and beta male – pseudoscientific terms for men derived from Dominance hierarchy, alpha and beta animals in ethology. Often used by members of the "manosphere," these terms have been criticized by scientists and are often considered sexist. * Strauss–Howe generational theory – claims that history moves through four 20-year "turnings" that repeat sequentially in a fixed pattern approximately every 80 years. * Unilineal evolution – Before Darwin's work ''On the Origin of Species'', some models incorporated The Age of Enlightenment, Enlightenment ideas of Social progress#The Enlightenment (1650–1800), social progress, and thus, according to philosopher of science Michael Ruse, were pseudoscientific by current standards, and may have been viewed as such during the 18th century, as well as into the start of the 19th century (though the word pseudoscience may not have been used in reference to these early proposals). This pseudoscientific, and often political, incorporation of social progress with evolutionary thought continued for some 100 years following the publication of ''Origin of Species''.


Paranormal and ufology

Paranormal subjectsstatement from the Russian Academy of Sciences]

/ref> have been critiqued from a wide range of sources including the following claims of paranormal significance: * Cattle mutilation, Animal mutilations – cases of animals, primarily domestic livestock, with seemingly inexplicable wounds. These wounds have been said to be caused by extraterrestrials, cults, covert government organizations, or cryptids such as ''Chupacabra, el chupacabra'', when in fact most such cases were found to be caused by natural predation. * An Aura (paranormal), aura or Energy (esotericism), human energy field is, according to
New Age New Age is a range of Spirituality, spiritual or Religion, religious practices and beliefs that rapidly grew in Western world, Western society during the early 1970s. Its highly eclecticism, eclectic and unsystematic structure makes a precise d ...
beliefs, a colored emanation said to enclose a human body or any animal or object. In some esoteric positions, the aura is described as a subtle body. Psychics and holistic medicine practitioners often claim to have the ability to see the size, color and type of vibration of an aura. In New Age alternative medicine, the human aura is seen as a hidden anatomy that affects the health of a client, and is often understood to be composed of centers of vital force called chakra. Such claims are not supported by
scientific evidence Scientific evidence is evidence that serves to either support or counter a scientific theory or hypothesis, although scientists also use evidence in other ways, such as when applying theories to practical problems. "Discussions about empirical ev ...
and are pseudoscience. When tested under Contrived experiment, controlled experiments, the ability to see auras has not been shown to exist. * Channelling (mediumistic), Channeling – communication of information to or through a person allegedly from a spirit or other paranormal entity. * Crop circles – geometric designs of crushed or knocked-over crops created in a field. Aside from skilled farmers or pranksters working through the night, explanations for their formation include UFOs and anomalous, tornado-like air currents. The study of crop circles has become known as "cerealogy". * Cryptozoology – search for creatures that are considered not to exist by most biologists. Well-known examples of creatures of interest to cryptozoologists include Bigfoot, the Yeren, the Yeti, and the Loch Ness Monster. According to leading skeptical authors Michael Shermer and Pat Linse, "Cryptozoology ranges from pseudoscientific to useful and interesting, depending on how it is practiced." * Dowsing refers to practices said to enable one to detect hidden water, metals, gemstones or other objects. * Electronic voice phenomenon – purported communication by spirits through tape recorders and other electronic devices. * Extra-sensory perception – paranormal ability (independent of the five main senses or deduction from previous experience) to acquire information by means such as telepathy, clairvoyance, precognition, Psychometry (paranormal), psychometry, psychic abilities, and remote viewing. * Ghost hunting is the process of investigating List of reportedly haunted locations, locations that are reported to be haunted by ghosts. Typically, a ghost-hunting team will attempt to collect evidence supporting the existence of paranormal activity. Ghost hunters use a variety of electronic devices, including EMF meters, digital thermometers, both handheld and static Digital camera, digital video cameras, including Thermographic camera, thermographic and Night vision, night vision cameras, as well as digital Dictation machine, audio recorders. Other more traditional techniques are also used, such as conducting interviews and researching the history of allegedly haunted sites. Ghost hunters may also refer to themselves as "paranormal investigators." Ghost hunting has been heavily criticized for its dismissal of the scientific method. No scientific study has ever been able to confirm the existence of ghosts. The practice is considered a pseudoscience by the vast majority of educators, academics, science writers, and skeptics.Brian Regal, Regal, Brian. (2009). ''Pseudoscience: A Critical Encyclopedia''. Greenwood. pp. 43; 75–77. History of science, Science historian Brian Regal described ghost hunting as "an unorganized exercise in futility". * Reptilian conspiracy theory, Lizard people – The idea of a reptilian reconquest was popularized by David Icke, a conspiracy theorist who claims shape-shifting reptilian aliens control Earth by taking on human form and gaining political power to manipulate human societies. Icke has stated on multiple occasions that many world leaders are, or are possessed by, so-called reptilians. * Metaphysical levitation, Levitation – act of rising up from the ground without any physical aids, usually by the power of thought. * Palmistry – the belief that the future can be foretold through palm reading. Predictions are based on the shape, line, and mounts of the hands. Palmists use cold reading in order to appear psychic. * Parapsychology – (see #Psychology, Psychology section above) * Pseudoarchaeology – investigation of the ancient past using alleged paranormal or other means which have not been validated by mainstream science. * Psychic surgery – a type of medical fraud, popular in Brazil and the Philippines. Practitioners use sleight of hand to make it appear as though they are reaching into a patient's body and extracting "tumors". Psychic surgery is usually explicit deception; i.e., the "practitioners" are ''aware'' that they are practicing fraud or "quackery". * Psychokinesis – paranormal ability of the mind to influence matter or energy at a distance. * Séances – ritualized attempts to communicate with the dead. * The Tunguska event was an actual large explosion, possibly caused by a meteoroid or comet, in what is now Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia in June 1908. Night skies as far away as London were markedly brighter for several evenings. Unsupported theories regarding the event include the impact of a miniature black hole or large body of antimatter, ball lightning, a test by Nikola Tesla of the apparatus at Wardenclyffe Tower, and a Unidentified flying object, UFO crash. Another theory, not in itself pseudoscientific, is that the explosion was caused by a piece of Biela's Comet from 1883. * Ufology – the study of unidentified flying objects (UFOs) that sometimes includes the belief that UFOs are evidence of Extraterrestrial life, extraterrestrial visitors.


Numerology

* Numerology (including the numerology practices of Kabbalah#Linguistic mysticism of Hebrew, Kabbalah) – a set of beliefs in a divine, Mysticism, mystical, or other special relationship between a number and Coincidence#Interpretation, coinciding events. Numerology is regarded as pseudomathematics or pseudoscience by modern scientists. It is often associated with the paranormal, alongside astrology and similar Divination, divinatory arts. * Bible code, Scriptural codes – the belief that a book or fragment of holy scripture contains encoded messages that impart esoteric knowledge. One such decoding method involves identifying "equidistant letter sequences" that spell out such messages.


Religious and spiritual beliefs

Spiritual and religious practices and beliefs, according to astronomer Carl Sagan, are normally not classified as pseudoscience. However, religion can sometimes nurture pseudoscience, and "at the extremes it is difficult to distinguish pseudoscience from rigid, doctrinaire religion", and some religions might be confused with pseudoscience, such as traditional meditation. The following religious/spiritual items have been related to or classified as pseudoscience in some way: * Affirmative prayer is a form of
prayer File:Prayers-collage.png, 300px, alt=Collage of various religionists praying – Clickable Image, Collage of various religionists praying ''(Clickable image – use cursor to identify.)'' rect 0 0 1000 1000 Shinto festivalgoer praying in front ...
or a Metaphysics, metaphysical technique that is focused on a positive outcome, rather than a negative situation. For instance, a person who is experiencing some form of illness would focus the prayer on the desired state of perfect health and affirm this desired intention "as if already happened" rather than identifying the illness and then asking God for help to eliminate it. William James described affirmative prayer as an element of the American metaphysical healing movement that he called the "mind-cure"; he described it as the United States' "only decidedly original contribution to the systemic philosophy of life." What sets affirmative prayer apart from secular Affirmations (New Age), affirmations of the autosuggestion type taught by the 19th century self-help author Émile Coué (whose most famous affirmation was "Every day in every way, I am getting better and better") is that affirmative prayer addresses the practitioner to God, the Divine, the Creative Mind, emphasizing the seemingly practical aspects of religious belief. * Christian Science is generally considered a Christianity, Christian new religious movement; however, some have called it "pseudoscience" because its founder, Mary Baker Eddy, used "science" in its name, and because of its former stance against medical science. Also, "Eddy used the term Metaphysical science to distinguish her system both from materialistic science and from occult science." The church now accepts the use of medical science. Vaccinations were banned, but in 1901, Eddy, at the age of 80, advised her followers to submit to them. * Energy (esotericism), Energy is used by writers and practitioners of various esoteric forms of spirituality and
alternative medicine Alternative medicine refers to practices that aim to achieve the healing effects of conventional medicine, but that typically lack biological plausibility, testability, repeatability, or supporting evidence of effectiveness. Such practices are ...
to refer to a variety of claimed experiences and phenomena that defy measurement and thus can be distinguished from the energy, scientific form of energy. There is no
scientific evidence Scientific evidence is evidence that serves to either support or counter a scientific theory or hypothesis, although scientists also use evidence in other ways, such as when applying theories to practical problems. "Discussions about empirical ev ...
for the existence of such energy. Therapies that purport to use, modify, or manipulate unknown energies are thus among the most contentious of all complementary and
alternative medicine Alternative medicine refers to practices that aim to achieve the healing effects of conventional medicine, but that typically lack biological plausibility, testability, repeatability, or supporting evidence of effectiveness. Such practices are ...
s. Claims related to energy therapies are most often Anecdotal evidence, anecdotal (from single stories), rather than being based on repeatable empirical evidence. * Exorcism (from Ancient Greek, Greek ἐξορκισμός, ''exorkismós'' "binding by oath") is the religious or spiritual practice of evicting demons or other spiritual entities from a person, or an area, that is believed to be Demonic possession, possessed. Depending on the spiritual beliefs of the exorcist, this may be done by causing the entity to swear an oath, performing an elaborate ritual, or simply by commanding it to depart in the name of a higher power. The practice is ancient and part of the belief system of many cultures and religions. Requested and performed exorcism began to decline in the United States by the 18th century and occurred rarely until the latter half of the 20th century, when the public saw a sharp rise due to the media attention exorcisms were getting. There was "a 50% increase in the number of exorcisms performed between the early 1960s and the mid-1970s". * Islamic attitudes towards science, Koranic scientific foreknowledge (or Qur'anic science or Hadeeth science) asserts that foundational Islamic religious texts made accurate statements about the world that science verified hundreds of years later. This belief is a common theme in Maurice Bucaille#Bucailleism, Bucailleism. According to Turkish American physicist Taner Edis, many Muslims appreciate technology and respect the role that science plays in its creation. As a result, he says there is a great deal of Islamic pseudoscience attempting to reconcile science with their religious beliefs. Edis maintains that the motivation to read modern scientific truths into holy books is also stronger for Muslims than Christians. This is because, according to Edis, true criticism of the Quran is almost non-existent in the Muslim world, causing Muslims to believe that scientific truths simply must appear in the Quran.


Creation science

Creation science or scientific creationism is a branch of creationism that claims to provide scientific support for the Genesis creation narrative in the Book of Genesis and disprove or reexplain the scientific facts, theories and scientific paradigms about geology, cosmology, biological evolution, archaeology, history and linguistics. * Baraminology – taxonomic system that classifies animals into groups called "created kinds" or "baramins" according to the account of creation in the book of Genesis and other parts of the Bible. * Creation biology – subset of creation science that tries to explain biology without macroevolution. * Creationist cosmologies – cosmologies which, among other things, allow for a universe that is only thousands of years old. *
Flood geology Flood geology (also creation geology or diluvial geology) is a Pseudoscience, pseudoscientific attempt to interpret and reconcile :geology, geological features of the Earth in accordance with a literal belief in the Genesis flood narrative, th ...
– creationist form of geology that advocates most of the geologic features on Earth are explainable by a
global flood A flood myth or a deluge myth is a myth in which a great flood, usually sent by a deity or deities, destroys civilization, often in an act of divine retribution. Parallels are often drawn between the flood waters of these Mythology, myths and the ...
.Such as the existence of the geologic column; see ** Searches for Noah's Ark – attempts to find the burial site of Noah's Ark which, according to the Genesis flood narrative, is located somewhere in the alleged "Mountains of Ararat". There have been numerous expeditions with several false claims of success; the practice is widely regarded as pseudoscience, more specifically pseudoarchaeology. * Intelligent design – maintains that "certain features of the universe and of living things are best explained by an intelligent cause, not an undirected process such as natural selection." These features include: :* Irreducible complexity – claim that some biological systems are too complex to have evolved from simpler systems. It is used by proponents of intelligent design to argue that evolution by natural selection alone is incomplete or flawed, and that some additional mechanism (an "Intelligent Designer") is required to explain the origins of life. :* Specified complexity – claim that when something is simultaneously complex and specified, one can infer that it was produced by an intelligent cause (i.e., that it was designed) rather than being the result of natural processes.


Scientology

* Dianetics, a therapeutic technique promoted by Scientology, purports to treat a hypothetical reactive mind. There is no scientific evidence for the existence of an actual reactive mind, apart from the Classical conditioning, stimulus response mechanisms documented in Behaviorism, behaviorist psychology. * Narconon and Purification Rundown are Scientology programs that purport to clean the human body of toxins and drugs respectively. Their method consists of very long saunas over many days, extremely large (possibly toxic) doses of vitamins including Niacin (substance), niacin, and Scientology 'training routines', sometimes including attempts at telekinesis. The programs have been described as "medically unsafe", "
quackery Quackery, often synonymous with health fraud, is the promotion of fraudulent or Ignorance, ignorant medicine, medical practices. A quack is a "fraudulent or ignorant pretender to medical skill" or "a person who pretends, professionally or public ...
" and "medical fraud", while academic and medical experts have dismissed Narconon's educational programme as containing "factual errors in basic concepts such as physical and mental effects, addiction and even spelling". In turn, Narconon has claimed that mainstream medicine is "biased" against it, and that "people who endorse so-called controlled drug use cannot be trusted to review a program advocating totally drug-free living." Narconon has said that criticism of its programmes is "bigoted", and that its critics are "in favor of drug abuse [...] they are either using drugs or selling drugs".


Other

* Quantum mysticism – builds on a superficial similarity between certain
New Age New Age is a range of Spirituality, spiritual or Religion, religious practices and beliefs that rapidly grew in Western world, Western society during the early 1970s. Its highly eclecticism, eclectic and unsystematic structure makes a precise d ...
concepts and such seemingly counter-intuitive Quantum mechanics, quantum mechanical concepts as the uncertainty principle, Quantum entanglement, entanglement, and wave–particle duality, while generally ignoring the limitations imposed by quantum decoherence. One of the most abused ideas is Bell's theorem, which proves the nonexistence of local hidden variables in quantum mechanics. Despite this, Bell himself rejected mystical interpretations of the theory. * Transcendental Meditation (TM) refers to a specific form of silent mantra meditation and less commonly to the organizations that constitute the Transcendental Meditation movement. The
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi Maharishi Mahesh Yogi (born Mahesh Prasad Varma, 12 January 191? – 5 February 2008) was the creator of Transcendental Meditation (TM) and leader of the worldwide organization that has been characterized in multiple ways, including as a new ...
created and introduced the TM technique and TM movement in India in the mid-1950s. It is not possible to say whether meditation has any effect on health, as the research is of poor quality, and is marred by a high risk for bias due to the connection of researchers to the TM organization and by the selection of subjects with a favorable opinion of TM.


Idiosyncratic ideas

The following concepts have only a very small number of proponents, yet have become notable: * Aquatic ape hypothesis – the idea that certain ancestors of modern humans were more aquatic than other great apes and even many modern humans and, as such, were habitual waders, swimmers and divers. * Lawsonomy – proposed philosophy and system of claims about physics made by baseball player and aviator Alfred William Lawson. * Morphic resonance – The idea put forth by Rupert Sheldrake that "natural systems, such as termite colonies, or pigeons, or orchid plants, or insulin molecules, inherit a collective memory from all previous things of their kind". It is also claimed to be responsible for "mysterious telepathy-type interconnections between organisms". * N rays – A hypothesized form of radiation described by Prosper-René Blondlot in 1903 that briefly inspired significant scientific interest, but were subsequently found to have been a result of confirmation bias. * Penta Water – the claimed acoustically-induced structural reorganization of liquid water into long-lived small clusters of five molecules each. Neither these clusters nor their asserted benefits to humans have been shown to exist. * Polywater – hypothetical polymerized form of water proposed in the 1960s with a higher boiling point, lower freezing point, and much higher viscosity than ordinary water. It was later found not to exist, with the anomalous measurements being explained by biological contamination. Chains of molecules of varying length (depending on the temperature) tend to form in normal liquid water without changing the freezing or boiling point. * Time Cube – a website created by Gene Ray, in 1997, where he sets out his personal model of reality, which he calls ''Time Cube''. He suggests that all of modern physics is wrong, and his Time Cube model proposes that each day is really four separate days occurring simultaneously."Truth is cubic?"
by Kate Duffy,''The Phoenix'', Swarthmore College, 19 September 2002. Archived by the Internet Archive, archive copy retrieved 25 July 2010.
* Timewave zero – Numerology, numerological formula that was invented by psychonaut Terence McKenna with the help of the hallucinogenic drug dimethyltryptamine. After experiencing 2012 doomsday predictions, he redesigned his formula to have a "zero-point" at the same date as the Mayan longcount calendar. * Torsion field (pseudoscience), Torsion field – hypothetical physical field responsible for extra-sensory perception, Homeopathy, homeopathic cures, Levitation (physics), levitation, telepathy, clairvoyance, telekinesis, and other paranormal phenomena. Despite the several obvious contradictions with established physics along with associated statements by believers criticized as being "nonsensical" by reputable scientists, torsion fields have been embraced as an explanation for claims of such paranormal phenomena. The harnessing of torsion fields has been claimed to make everything possible from miracle cure devices (including devices that cure alcohol addiction) to working perpetual motion machines, stargates, Unidentified flying object, UFO propulsion analogs, and Weapon of mass destruction, weapons of mass destruction (WMDs). Some such devices, in particular the miracle cure boxes, have been patented, manufactured and sold.


See also

* Blood type diet * Blood type personality theory * Cargo cult science * Church of the SubGenius * Denialism * Fan death * Fringe science * Fringe science organizations * List of books about skepticism * List of cognitive biases * List of common misconceptions * List of conspiracy theories * List of cryptids * List of diagnoses characterized as pseudoscience * List of memory biases * List of patent medicines * Observational error * Occam's razor * Paradigm shift * 'Pataphysics * Pathological science * Philosophy of science * Protoscience * Pseudomathematics * Pseudophilosophy * Pyramidology


Notes


References


Further reading

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *


External links


'The Reading room' by The Skeptics Society

Stories by Michael Shermer
published in Scientific American Magazine. * – a set of questions to distinguish truth from bogus claims. {{DEFAULTSORT:Pseudosciences And Pseudoscientific Concepts, List Of Pseudoscience, * Lists of topics, Pseudoscience Scientific skepticism Science-related lists Glossaries of science, pseudoscience Wikipedia glossaries using unordered lists