Dr Weil and Wellness

[Guest guest]

I have just been reading past letters that were submitted to the

Supertraining list while I was lecturing overseas and one of them was

critical of some of my earlier comments on Dr Weil. In the interests of a

little more completeness, let me now expand upon any previously cursory

critique.

Weil, MD, is variously described on the covers of his best-selling

books as " the guru of alternative medicine, " " one of the most skilled,

articulate, and important leaders in the field of health and healing, " " a

pioneer in the medicine of the future, " and " an extraordinary phenomenon. "

INTRODUCTION

Many folk will have heard about Dr Weil, well-known guru of the alternative

and mind centred therapeutic world. Here are some extracts of an article

that analysed his ideas and impact on health beliefs in the West, written by

Arnold S. Relman, editor-in-chief emeritus of The New England Journal of

Medicine and professor emeritus of medicine and social medicine at Harvard

Medical School. The website containing the full article appears at the end

of this letter.

Like so many strongly marketed gurus in the health and fitness world, his

material offers a convincing mixture of fact, fiction, science and

speculation that can easily persuade the average person of its universal

accuracy and value. As is well known, inaccuracies and untruths are far more

readily accepted when intermingled with facts and figures and his material is

no exception to that marketing and propaganda rule.

The following website summarises some of the methods used in faulty

argumentation:

<http://shell.rmi.net/~mhartwig/falla.htm>

Yes, there genuinely is some useful information in Weil's publications, some

very valid criticisms of medical science and some valuable comments on the

role of the mind in healing, but the absence of corroborating evidence, his

heavy reliance on " stoned " , intuitive or drug-assisted thinking above logical

analysis, his shaky understanding of quantum physics, human psychoses and

neural processing often do the world of complementary health a grave

disservice, because it the reinforces the contention by many scientists that

complementary health is primitive, unsubstantiated and emotive.

The following websites enable one to correct some of Weil's misconceptions

(and those of Deepak Chopra) about quantum physics:

http://www.phys.hawaii.edu/vjs/www/qkids.html

http://www.csicop.org/si/9701/quantum-quackery.html

Weil's beliefs that " Sickness is the manifestation of evil in the body, just

as health is the manifestation of holiness " and that psychotic patients

probably are the most advanced avatars in disguise are especially damaging to

the cause of complementary health.

Read some of Weil's material and assess its worth in the light of this

article by Dr Relman at:

<http://www.thenewrepublic.com/magazines/tnr/archive/1298/121498/relman121498.ht\

ml>

------------------------------------------------------------

EXTRACTS FROM ARTICLE

1. Health and Healing, published in 1983, was the last of Weil's

comprehensive and broadly conceived commentaries on health and disease.

Beginning in 1995, with Natural Health, Natural Medicine, he produced a

series of three " how-to " manuals on wellness and self-care, which established

his current reputation as the people's doctor and " America's most trusted

medical expert. " The next was Spontaneous Healing, and the third Eight Weeks

to Optimum Health.

2. The most recent of Weil's publications is Ask Dr. Weil, a compilation of

questions and answers that have appeared on his website. To judge from the

range of questions and the confidence with which they are answered, Weil

considers himself an authority on almost every field in medicine. Like his

previous books, it includes strong, unqualified recommendations for unlikely

and totally unproven remedies . . . .

3. In addition to his books, other channels for the dissemination of Weil's

medical wisdom include audiocassettes and compact discs on such subjects as

" Eight Meditations for Optimum Health " and " Sound Body, Sound Mind: Music for

Healing with Weil, M.D. " His influence is also spread through

videotapes of lectures and seminars, and appearances on television shows such

as " Larry King Live. " Even when compared with the ballyhoo surrounding the

other icons of alternative medicine, the marketing success of " Weil,

M.D. " is extraordinary. To understand it, one has to appreciate the

synergistic interaction between the special talents of the man and the

current momentum of the alternative medicine movement. . . .

4. Weil's writings are ambiguous about the conflict between science and

alternative medicine, as they are about many other issues in alternative

medicine. Yes, he thinks that all healing methods ought to be tested; and

yes, modern science can make useful contributions to our understanding of

health and disease. Yet the scientific method is not, for Weil, the only way,

or even the best way, to learn about nature and the human body. Many

important truths are intuitively evident and do not need scientific support,

even when they seem to contradict logic. Conventional science-based medicine

has its uses, but they are limited. Like so many of the other gurus of

alternative medicine, Weil is not bothered by logical contradictions in his

argument, or encumbered by a need to search for objective evidence.

5. According to Weil, many of his basic insights about the causes of disease

and the nature of healing come from what he calls " stoned thinking, " that is,

thoughts experienced while under the influence of psychedelic agents or

during other states of " altered consciousness " induced by trances, ritual

magic, hypnosis, meditation, and the like. He cites some of the

characteristics of " stoned thinking " that give it advantages over " straight "

thinking; these include a greater reliance on " intuition " and an " acceptance

of the ambivalent nature of things, " by which he means a tolerance for " the

coexistence of opposites that appear to be mutually antagonistic. " In Weil's

view, intellect, logic, and inductive reasoning from observed fact are the

limited instruments of " straight " thinking, and should be subservient to

guidance by the intuitive insights that are gained during states of altered

consciousness and " stoned " thinking.

6. The extent to which Weil reveres consciousness regardless of its thought

content is revealed in the final sections of his " Stonesville " chapter. Here

he favors us with his views on psychosis, on the Jungian theory of shared

universal consciousness, and on the reality of mental telepathy, extrasensory

perception, and hallucinatory experiences. On psychosis: " Psychotics are

persons whose nonordinary experience is exceptionally strong ... every

psychotic is a potential sage or healer. " With regard to the National

Institute of Mental Health's research efforts to find the physical basis of

psychosis: " If it sticks to its present course, nimh will be the last

institution in America to recognize the positive potential of psychosis--a

potential so overwhelming that I am almost tempted to call psychotics the

evolutionary vanguard of our species. They possess the secret of changing

reality by changing the mind; if they can learn to use that talent for

positive ends, there are no limits to what they can accomplish.

THE ENTIRE ARTICLE

For those who are interested, the following website provides the full article:

<http://www.thenewrepublic.com/magazines/tnr/archive/1298/121498/relman121498.ht\

ml>

At another level, here is another evaluation of Weil's ideas:

<http://www.randi.org/jr/10-25-1999.html>

Dr Mel C Siff

Denver, USA

mcsiff@...