Man, this James Arthur Ray story can just get to be too much. ABC News has an interview with an orthodontist, Beverly Bunn, whose roommate died in that Sedona, Arizona sweat lodge.
Bunn is a total NewAger - the very definition of the Mystic Bourgeoisie - even wearing the uniform: short boyish haircut, dangly earrings, several pendents of some sort, a light scarf hung just-so, over something purple from India or someplace "spiritual" and/or ethnic like that. Beverly goes on to describe the other sweatlodge attendees as really driven "rich people". Stupid, gullible, and easily-led rich people, if you ask me.
And let's not forget to close the 7th circle of Hell that is NewAge's presence in the medical field. From Wired Magazine:
"Consider: In certain parts of the US, vaccination rates have dropped so low that occurrences of some children’s diseases are approaching pre-vaccine levels for the first time ever. And the number of people who choose not to vaccinate their children (so-called philosophical exemptions are available in about 20 states, including Pennsylvania, Texas, and much of the West) continues to rise. In states where such opting out is allowed, 2.6 percent of parents did so last year, up from 1 percent in 1991, according to the CDC. In some communities, like California’s affluent Marin County, just north of San Francisco, non-vaccination rates are approaching 6 percent (counterintuitively, higher rates of non-vaccination often correspond with higher levels of education and wealth)."
And "California’s affluent Marin County, just north of San Francisco," is what? Another NewAge "power spot", filled with "rich people", just like Sedona, Arizona. Stupid, gullible, and easily-led rich people - if you ask me - and they're all hurting other people by acting on their NewAge beliefs. (Wired says "almost 10 percent" of the children in California elementary schools "may already be at risk" because of these loons,...)
And how about the NewAge image of NewAge parents in NewAge power spots refusing medical care to their NewAge kids - which threatens other kids - while their NewAge physicians are leading others to their deaths in NewAge sweatlodges? True story. That's NewAge.
Speaking of NewAge physicians hanging out in NewAge sweatlodges, let's get back to good ol' Beverly Bunn:
"Bunn, trained in CPR as part of her medical credentials, said she repeatedly tried to perform the life-saving measures on her friend, but was continuously rebuffed by Ray's employees known as the 'Dream Team.'"
So, is anybody going to ask Beverly why her training for those "medical credentials" - which had to include at least a bit of science - didn't prevent her from attending a NewAge retreat in the first place? Didn't her training to get her "medical credentials" already teach her all this talk of "toxins" and "cleansing" is snake oil - supported by nothing in medicine - or does she go on babbling this incredible nonsense when she's at work?
Has it dawned on her yet that if she had used knowledge, easily-gleaned from her training to earn her "medical credentials", her roommate would be alive today?
Does she get that with the training she received to get her "medical credentials" she had everything necessary to prevent the tragic death of her roommate but, instead, Beverly and her NewAge "beliefs" egged it all on? At $9,000 a pop?
I mean, really, who is Beverly Bunn to be railing against James Arthur Ray when she's as guilty as he is?
Everyone who paid thousands for that sweat lodge stupidity deserves a darwin award.
ReplyDelete"trained in CPR as part of her medical credentials, said she repeatedly tried to perform the life-saving measures on her friend"
ReplyDeleteShe's a dentist, not a physician. She took a Red Cross CPR class. In treating cardiac/respiratory arrest she's no more qualified than a boy scout with a first aid merit badge.
What I found remarkably depressing in medical school is that a sizable number of my classmates bought into the various forms of "alternative medicine" bullshit. There's no such thing as "alternative medicine." There's medicine (based on science) and there are money-making scams like acupuncture and chiropractic w/ no basis in science.
How many of these people would drive across a bridge designed with "alternative engineering?"
My favorite is people who ascribe mystical knowledge to some long-deceased culture. What's so fucking great about ancient chinese medicine? Don't they realize that in ancient societies life expectancy was generally around 35 years and people regularly died from ailments that are, today, no more than simply-treated annoyances?
Go ahead, try and treat dysentery or appendicitis or cardiac fucking arrest with acupuncture. Go ask your chiropractor to treat your hypertension by causing a vertebral artery dissection. Just video record it so I can laugh my ass off at you while I watch it in slow motion.
Great blog by the way.
So Bunn stated that Ray was in it for the money only and did not care about the people. She is doing the same thing in her practice. She lacks professionalism period.
ReplyDelete