Propaganda and Language Distortion

	Therapeutic Touch, though scientifically unproven, is often taught in nursing schools.

We now see a new use of an ancient tool used by experts at manipulation of the public mind. Even the words "holistic," "alternative," "complementary," "unconventional," and "unorthodox" are invented euphemisms intended to mislead. They are benign terms covering a vast array of practices -- most of them unproved, dubious, disproved, absurd, and fraudulent.

In a strange twist, historians of medicine in an "alternative medicine" journal have already turned the tables on our analysis of language distortion and accused scientists' use of realistic terms like "quackery," "misrepresentation," and "fraud" of being merely prejudicial and biased. They call for more neutral terms to describe absurd methods like homeopathy. Thus, the strings of constructivism and propaganda complement each other in the braid.

Misrepresentation of Research Results

	Financially strapped universities and medical schools accept these funds under conditions not acceptable a decade ago.

In the course of a legal action, I had opportunity to review the major papers claimed to be positive by homeopaths. We presented some analyses of these papers at the AAAS in 1997, in "Skeptical Inquirer" (Summer 1997), and in other journals. Most of the alleged positive reports showed serious defects, including selected reporting of differences in recorded curves, miscalculations, misrecording of data, omissions of control and other objective data, and combining different disease categories into meta-analyses. Why peer reviewers miss such errors is unexplained. To make matters worse, another meta-analysis appearing in the Lancet in the fall of 1997 recorded the results of homeopathy studies at face value, despite the papers' faults. The meta-analysis is now a reference for the claim that homeopathy cannot be entirely explained by placebo action.

Once inaccuracies in "CAM" are reported as fact in medical literature, they are there for posterity. Even Hillary Clinton has quoted the seriously defective Byrd study on intercessory prayer in the coronary care unit as evidence for spirituality's effectiveness.
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