Originally Posted by
3alarmer
...where do you think I attacked your motives ? I have no idea at all what your motives might be. Give me a quote where you think I have done this, please. More importantly, why, if I have indeed supported my point that this is another visualization technique, is my statement "cherry picking" ?. Again, I have nowhere claimed to know why this might work. I have only associated it with a multitude of mind/body techniques that have a well documented rate of success (which is not 100%), in the treatment of chronic pain.
If pain is in your head (and it can easily be defined that way. I don't feel your pain at all), then why not use your head to approach it. Your fear of being duped is overriding your rational self. Chronic pain, and the treatment of it, is not well solved in the conventional medical literature.
I do not wish you any pain, but perhaps the people who have it are better motivated to try things that have worked for others, in the hope they might also work for them ?
I'm being very, very clear why that was cherry picking. You deliberately left out the part of the schtick I was objecting to. I have never once objected to people using visualization if it's helpful. That does not for a second provide a good argument for polluting scientific discourse and objective information with crappy metaphors being treated as if they're real. People can and do take other implications for that and invent other applications from this "alternative science" that can be harmful and/or unnecesarily wallet-draining. It also may dissuade people from taking other more effective steps if they're constantly being told there's nothing special about science-based medicine and much that's supposedly being kept hidden from them. Just ask Steve Jobs, oh, wait, you can't.