Book Review - Dr. Ersnt Draws his Sword: a Duel Begins – Correspondence with the Authors (Post 3 of 4)

Dr. Edzard Ernst, M.D., author of Trick or Treatment: the Undeniable Truth about Alternative Medicine, discusses with me, over email, whether he will accept my offer of free healing.  In the next part of our exchange, Dr. Ernst, gets a little personal.

(click here for post 1, click here for post 2)

I explained to Dr. Ernst what my offer of free healing would involve as follows: 

..........As with any client, modalities would be determined through a two-step process. Step 1: I consult spiritual beings to determine what is needed, Step 2: you and I would discuss the information received, your comfort with recommendations, and how to implement recommendations in a way that is consistent with experiment design. Through this we would develop a kind of treatment plan that would guide our work for remaining sessions.

I hope this provides you with the desired information. I am interested in what objective monitoring you suggest.

Ahnday

Perhaps it was the specter of getting spiritual beings involved in his personal life, or the idea of publically sharing his experience that threw him for a loop.  Whatever the cause, in his next email, gone was the open-minded, visionary Dr. Ernst, the man who is also known as the world’s first professor of Complimentary Medicine.  On April 1, he dashed my hopes when he declared that he had no interest in partnership…

interesting!

i am not interested in proving nor in creating a partnership.i want to test a hypothesis.this is how i understood you very first email.youe experiment is not a conlusive test:even if i feel better after you intervention,how do we know that i would not have felt exactly the same way without it?

regards

The handwriting was on the wall. I could see that more than likely I would never be blending flower remedies for Dr. Ernst, nor would we work together to solve the mysteries of Chi. Nonetheless, I wanted to him to know that I was still open and that I believed partnership would be productive.  I wrote back,

I understand that... that's why I suggested objective and subjective testing ... for the objective testing we create a hypothesis for testing and for the subjective part we record your experience, and in this way we create a well-rounded experiment. Aren't you even a little bit interested in discovering why people are healing with alternative methods even though your analysis says they won't? Think of yourself as a latter day Marie Curie, although I guarantee that distance healing won't give you radiation poisoning!

My offer's on the table. If your pluck returns, let me know.

Ahnday

I’m not sure what happened and why he responded again - maybe he wanted the last word.  Whatever his motivations, he wrote back this same day, telling me that among other things I didn’t really understand trial design. Amazingly, he also stated that he understood why people are healing with alternative medicine.  He wrote,

objective tests do also improve due to the natural history of the condition or the placebo effect etc.i'm beginning to suspect that you fail to understand the essentials of trial design.i do understand why people are healing,believe me.but this is not how you approached me in the first place.you suggested a rigorous test of youe healing method.where is it?
regards
e Ernst

WAIT! Did he just say that?  Did Dr. Edzard Ernst, MD, - the guy with a million abbreviations trailing along after his name and staunch advocate of conventional medicine – did he just say, “I understand why people are healing, believe me.”  Did he just admit that alternative healing works!?.. OMG!

Whatever he was or was not admitting to, I could tell he didn’t want any healing sessions.  I replied, letting him know that I was still open.  I tried also to give him a way out, with this email,

Do you have any suggestions for trial design - I am more than open to hearing about them and incorporating them into any experiment.

Edzard, I sense that your enthusiasm for this experiment may be waning.  (Just know that your arguments in Trick or Treatment would carry more weight with readers - that is you would have more credibility - if you were willing to submit to the methods you criticize).

If you have something specific in terms of trial design, please let me know.  For the time being, I will tell my readers that you are not interested in working with me.  My offer remains on the table.  Perhaps in the future you will change your mind.

Best to you,
Ahnday

Though I fully expected never to hear from him again, he wrote back, informing me that I had failed him.  “You [Ahnday] failed to produce the good you had initially envisioned,” he states officiously in this reply,...

(for more, see next post)

POST 2 Book Review – The Handwriting is on the Wall – Correspondence with the Authors

 Though Edzard Ersnst, M.D., co-author of Trick or Treatment: the Undeniable Facts about Alternative Medicine (2008), originally expressed interest in receiving 12 free healing sessions from me -he seemed particularly interested in distance healing - his interest appears to be waning......

This blog post details the next phase of our correspondence

Correspondence with the Authors

So, on April 1, I replied,

Thank you for your prompt reply. I may have underestimated you.

Distance healing may be an option. I'd also considered working with flower remedies and also intuitively over skype. (The healing work is not one-size-fits-all so if we go forward, I would look at a specific plan for you).
I'd be interested in monitoring the experiment objectively but for my part the monitoring would also need to be subjective.

When you say objectively monitor, what did you have in mind?

If you have not already, please take a look at my on-line spirituality journal - http://spontaneousmystic.blogspot.com. I'll will be posting the
last portion of the book review today. The full review(as well as other information on the blog) should give you some idea of why this issue is of interest to me.

Sincerely,
Ahnday Meweh

I thought I'd done a pretty good job of laying out my thoughts. I waited enthusiastically for the doctor's replied letting me know the parameters he wanted to use for the scientific monitoring he suggested!

On Friday, April 1, Dr. Ernst replied,

why don't you tell me how you would conduct this experiment and what you would conclude from its results.then i can tell you whether this is, in my view, a viable concept.

regards, e Ernst

His use of the term “viable concept” tipped me off – as if he were wondering whether my offer were a fetus capable of life outside the womb. I suspected that the good doctor might be looking for a reason to back out.  However, hope sprung eternal within me . Thinking there still might be a chance, on April 1 I wrote:

Mr. Ernst,

This is what I suggest: You and I work together for 12 sessions over the course of 6 mos to one year. In these sessions I treat you as I would any other client with the exception that you be willing to record your subjective experience of the situation and share it with readers. This would mean focusing on a need of yours - anything from chronic pain in the body to grief or even a research question you'd be interested in testing on yourself ... whatever together we decide is appropriate. It would mean dialoguing with me and following through on suggestions.

I have done distance healing and am willing to do this if it is something you are interested in testing objectively, however, my first instinct is that distance healing should not be the totality of what we do. I anticipate that we will need to discuss what both subjective and objective monitoring will look like. In this respect, we'd design the experiment together.

I am not so much interested in "proving" anything as in creating a partnership that allows us to dig deeper into a topic that interests many - the interface of science and alternative medicine. I am also interested in exploring the theme set forth in Trick or Treatment - the question of how to discern truth. This is interesting in part because science views the highest truth as objective. Spiritual healing views the same as subjective.

If we can come to together, my hope is that we will gain a greater appreciation for each others position.

Depending on how we design the experiment suggested modalities might include, but are not limited to:

(1) distance healing
(2) flower/stone remedies (I either put these together and mail them to you or direct you to sources for purchase)
(3) intuitive information and guidance sessions (via skype)

As with any client, modalities would be determined through a two-step process. Step 1: I consult spiritual beings to determine what is needed, Step 2: you and I would discuss the information received, your comfort with recommendations, and how to implement recommendations in a way that is consistent with experiment design. ....

(for more, see next post)

Book Review: Trick or Treatment - New Possibilities are on the Horizon!

In reading Trick or Treatment, I wondered if the authors had any personal experience with the alternative healing methods they call “implausible” in their book.  I mean, they never really explain why people using these methods often experience improved health.  

Thinking they might be interested in further exploration, on March 30, 2011, I sent an offer of 12 free healing sessions to the authors.  Reprinted below is the offer and our correspondence to date.  (Note, Dr. Ernst replied while I have not yet heard from Simon Singh!).


Dear Mr. Ernst and Mr. Singh,

I am writing to refer you to a review of your book, Trick or Treatment:
The Undeniable Facts About Alternative Medicine, published in 2008.  I am
also writing to make you two an offer – one which I believe will undermine
your conclusions about alternative medicine, if you are willing to
undertake this challenge in good faith.  This offer is detailed at the
bottom of this email.

I am former attorney and student of the scientific method.  I graduated
from Reed College in Portland, OR in 1991 with a degree in Biology.  As
you may be aware, Reed has a reputation for excellence; its science
curriculum gives students solid grounding in the scientific method.  As a
result, many Reed graduates go on to successful careers in science and
medicine.  I graduated from Hastings College of the Law in the late 1990’s
and practiced law for 9 years before becoming an alternative medicine
practitioner.  I believe very strong in the potential of both conventional
and alternative medicine.  Likewise, it is through a cooperative
partnership between alternative and conventional methods that the best
care can be made available.

As a current user and practitioner of alternative medicine, I doubted your
conclusions.  Please forgive me for saying that while your credentials are
impressive, your analysis lacks objectivity and thoroughness.  Your
reasoning is based on weak assumptions.  This prevents you from accessing
a deeper truth.  At any rate, I set some of these thoughts forth in a book
review, divided into several blog posts, with the first being located at
the http://spontaneousmystic.blogspot.com. I will say that this review has
been of interest to readers.

My offer is this: I offer each of you 12 free healing sessions to be used
within one year.  Honestly, as I read your book, I wondered if had
in-depth personal experience with the modalities on which you offer so
many expert opinions.  I wondered if you would have the pluck to commit in
good faith to a personal journey of discovery through alternative healing,
even if it undermined your assumptions.  I make this offer in the spirit
of developing a rigorous dialogue about health care alternatives as well
as a positive partnership between conventional and alternative medicine.

I, and my readers, look forward to hearing back from you on this offer,
and to discussing what is involved.  Information about me is contained on
the blog as is contact information.

Sincerely,
Ahnday Meweh

From my time at Reed College I remember how spiritual topics can send some scientists into orbit – and not in a good way - so I never really expected to hear back from these two.  However, on March 29, at nearly midnight (European time), Dr. Ernst replied by email. He said,

thanks for the offer;how would this work in practice?are you suggesting to do distant healing on us?if,so i might be interested to participate provided we monitoe the results objectively.
regards

Prof. Edzard Ernst, MD, PhD, FMed Sci, FSB, FRCP, FRCP (Edin.)

Not only was I surprised to get the email, at first I was intimidated.  My thoughts went like this, "Not only is the doctor famous, if he accepts my offer, I will have to do my best healing in order to prove the case for alternative medicine!  Still, I think I can do it!"

And after the intimidation passed, I began to get excited.  Fantasies of a meaningful partnership between alternative and conventional medicine danced in my head, along with visions of rigorous dialogue and deep exploration leading to new discoveries!  "I bet the scientist who finally proves the existence of chi will win a Nobel prize!" I told myself, “Why not Mr. Ernst?”

So, on April 1, I replied .....

(for more, see next post!)