Comment and Opinion

Reconnective Healing®

Reconnective Stealing® (19/6/2004)
I don't usually watch much daytime television, but I received a telephone call during the week telling me to rush to the television because some sort of faith healer was about to be interviewed. It turned out not to be a faith healer (he specifically denied that the power came from any god) but instead an ex-chiropractor who had found a new way to separate people from money. His name is Dr Eric Pearl and his new discovery is Reconnective Healing®. Note the ®. The show's host called it "reconnective therapy", but was soon corrected - this is healing, not just therapy. It consists of waving hands about and asking people if they feel better. It cures cancer, of course. People have abandoned wheelchairs. Others have regained sight.

Dr Pearl had brought a stooge with him to demonstrate how he could "heal" rheumatoid arthritis, but the television station had provided their own person, a nice lady from accounts who had trouble closing her fists completely. I have to give Dr Pearl credit for being able to recover from a setback, because he very neatly created a hiatus in the program which was conveniently filled by the stooge telling of her miracle cure while Dr Pearl worked on the accounts lady. Sure enough, she could close her hands a little more after the "healing", but any decent doctor (or psychologist) could come up with six possible reasons for this before breakfast.

During an advertisement break I went to my computer and used the trusty Google to find out what I could about Dr Pearl. It is a pity that the television station didn't do this before they let this charlatan onto their set to promote his book and his quackery. It took some fractions of a second to lead me to Dr Pearl's web site where he sells his book and other services. I was really impressed that his book is recommended by the ageless fraud Deepak Chopra, fake psychic John Edward (Dr Pearl will be touring Australia later this year for the organisation that promotes Edward here), and someone who wrote the book about Indigo Children. (Indigo Children are the spawn of aliens. It is suspected that all gifted and highly intelligent children are Indigos. No, I am not making this up.) With friends like these, who needs any more friends?

The host of the show tried to be a bit skeptical, but the problem with morning talk shows is that they rely on free talent promoting books and tours to fill the gaps between advertorials and advertisements. It can be very hard to fill twenty minutes of air time if you start out an interview with an obvious fraud and they walk out after you open with the question "This is a load of crap. Why are you lying to people?", no matter how much you might want to say it.

What's wrong with a little charlatanism? (30/9/2006)
In June 2004 I mentioned that I had seen a charlatan named Eric Pearl on television telling lies about how he could heal rheumatoid arthritis. It seems that he has now moved into healing other chronic complaints. The difference is that rheumatoid arthritis is very painful, but people seldom die from it. "Healing" Type 1 diabetes is a different matter. Here is some correspondence I received recently about "Dr" Pearl. You can easily infer that when confronted with someone having a problem with insulin injections his reaction is not to suggest seeing a real doctor but to recruit the patient's mother into his scam.

My niece has a Type 1 diabetic son who is showing an allergic reaction to insulin, causing wasting of the tissue surrounding the site. Recently, (probably out of desperation) she went to a "Reconnective Healing" seminar and privately met with "Dr" Pearl. She is now a practitioner of this "therapy"!