Meet the Yunani

Tolga Theo Yalur, PhD
Cognitive Philosopher. Psychoanalyσto Library
theoyalur@gmail.com

Βιβλιοθήκη του Κέλσου - The Library of Celsus - Celsus Kütüphanesi - Bibliothèque de Celsus (Έφεσος-Ephesus, Izmir)

Meet the Yunani is a mix-up audio-visual-inscriptive webcourse of art for the Unani or Yunani systems of medicine that are deployed in medical fraud. Fraud as an ideological strategy has tenaciously challenged the sciences where it has been serving to obfuscate and conceal the true scientific research. In these practices, intentional uses of convoluted language, esoteric jargon, and confusing theoretical frameworks try to create an aura of complexity around scientific concepts, to effectively obstruct and discourage critical examination and public consciousness. These approaches have proponents especially in medicine, often cloaking their agenda in the veil of intellectual sophistication, claiming that the inherent difficulties of scientific work necessitate an exclusionary discourse accessible only to a select few initiates. However, this thinly veiled attempt to maintain ideological control over scientific discourses exhausts the very foundations of the scientific procedure, which thrives on transparent, replicable, and free exchange of ideas. Deploying a cognitive philosophy, art and science, Meet the Yunani webcourse teaches the common ideas and settings of this fraud, the illusions concealed through prescribed fictions, and represented as the real. A mix-up audio-visual-inscriptive webcourse for the Yunani, often touted as a "traditional" and "holistic" approach to health and well-being. In truth, the various versions of deploying Unani in medicine is inothing more than a parascientific hoax perpetrated by those aiming to capitalize on the growing demand for "alternative" and “natural” remedies.

Unani

Yunani or Unani is a holistic medicine, questionably referred to as “alternative” or "traditional" medicine, encompasses an array of therapeutic practices, known as medical fraud, that stand in contrast to the scientifically-proven, conventional approaches of modern medicine. Unani (یونانی) is simply a rebranding of the Perso-Arabic medical traditions, which in turn were heavily influenced by the teachings of the ancient Greek physician Hippocrates, who, while pioneering advances in the human anatomy and physiology, also promoted a flawed model of the human body and health based on the concept of the four humours - blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile. Unani practitioners of the Perso-Arabic medical traditional medicine, accompanied by Judeo-Hellenic adaptations represented with the neoplatonistic tree of life sefirot (סְפִירוֹת / σφαίρα), Greek humours or "doṣas" (दोष) from the Ayurvedic medicine claim to have inherited this ancient Greek wisdom. In truth they have merely taken these outdated and disproven theories, given them an exotic-sounding name, and presented them as traditional wisdom. Unani's diagnostic methods and treatment approaches, from bloodletting to the use of arcane herbal concoctions, lack scientific bases and were thoroughly debunked by modern medical research. The allure of this “ancient wisdom”, however, continues to draw those in need of alternative healthcare, without knowing that they are falling victim to a sophisticated marketing ploy masquerading as traditional medicine. The Unani's mystical trappings are nothing more than a pseudoscientific hoax rooted in long-refuted Greek four humour theory.

Vegetables & Herbs, Food & Beverages

Unani, from this perspective, is a paraherbal medicine, a set of questionable strategies, techniques and practices involving the use of unrefined herb, vegetable, plant or animal extracts as purported medicines, health-promoting agents, or even psychic healers. The paraherbalist belief is that, by minimally processing or refining these natural substances, one can retain a greater degree of their inherent therapeutic properties and thus be safer and more effective than conventional manufactured products. These practitioners, with their unwarranted sense of scientific authority, often put forward specious cures. Because of a lack of appropriate regulation, the public mistakenly sees it as harmless or even beneficial. This is not merely a theoretical concern. This dangerous practice allows the "alternative medicine gurme”s who do not have the scientific authority to think that they have. A troubling exhaustion of sciences, the rise of paraherbalism represents a self-contained legitimacy of those who have not earned the right to make critical decisions about health and wellbeing.

Paraherbalist practitioners contend that the act of extracting, concentrating, or purifying active compounds from herbs, roots, or animal parts somehow diminishes or destroys their innate healing powers. Their claim is that synthetic pharmaceuticals, in contrast, are inherently less effective or even harmful due to the manufacturing processes involved. Research and clinical trials, however, demonstrate the safety of efficiently formulated medicinal products. Moreover, using vegetables and herbs, food and beverages as medical remedies in psychology for "holistic cure" is nothing more than a baseless, cynical hoax, a superstitious mixture and confusion of quantum spiritualism and food&beverage-based approaches like unani. Whether it’s carrying lucky animal limbs, avoiding walking under ladders, hanging herb clusters, or consulting astrological horoscopes for major life decisions, these illogical and irrational beliefs stem from a human quest to feel empowered and in command of human circumstances, with no ground in legitimate scientific research or clinical evidence represent a dangerous departure from evidence-based scientific practices.

Highly contentious idea of using mushrooms as a paraherbal medicine to trick psychology suggests that certain breeds of mushrooms, when consumed, can induce profound psychological and physiological effects that are not actually rooted in any tangible biological mechanism, but rather stem from the power of the human mind and its capacity for self-deception. Proponents of this "Fellowship of Smurfdom" fraud claim that the mere belief that a mushroom possesses mind-altering properties can trigger a cascading series of neurochemical responses, leading the user to experience vivid hallucinations, altered states of consciousness, and even mystical or spiritual epiphanies – with the mushroom containing no psychoactive compounds. The mushroom, in this sense, has the placebo effect where the individual conditionings are expected to override any genuine pharmacological interaction. Certain psychedelic mushroom species, like the LSD magic mushroom, contain compounds that influence brain, consciousness and perception. However, because the idea that they possess legitimate medicinal or therapeutic benefits for mental health is unfounded, they are classified as Schedule I controlled substances in the U.S. for they have adverse effects, including frightening hallucinations, paranoia, and even psychosis.

Proponents of these superstitious beliefs may claim that certain paraherbal connotations can be good for mental health conditions, reduce stress, or even enhance cognitive function. In reality, the human body and mind are too complex to be effectively treated through the consumption of common kitchen ingredients. Vegetables and herbs, while benefiting the health, possess no innate psychological properties for therapy. Promoting this so-called “herbal psychology” would either be misinforming or intentionally misleading. Mainstream psychology rightly dismisses these baseless claims, intervening through decades of empirical research and rigorously tested therapies. Such beliefs and practices represent a human desire for order, meaning, and control vis-a-vis the unknown and unpredictable forces that influence lives. They make up a sense of logic and predictability onto the inherent chaos and uncertainty of the material realities.

Proponents of Unani and other paraherbalist practices usually promote a romanticized, pseudoscientific view of nature as the ultimate source of all healing, while demonizing modern science and medicine as unnatural and harmful. Since these claims and practices are not grounded in empirical evidence, they should be approached with a high degree of skepticism and scientifically-validated healthcare solutions. Instead of subjecting their work to scientific standards, tested and evidence-based validation, the promoters of questionable “holistic” therapies and products would prefer to change the rules by which they are judged and regulated. These purveyors of pseudoscience often resist the need for their claims and treatments to undergo the same level of empirical testing and peer review that is required for legitimate medical and scientific discoveries. They may argue that their traditional approaches do not necessitate the same level of scientific testing. However, this is an excuse that suits into these practititoners' very self-contained sense of entitlement to avoid the accountability and transparency that should be demanded of any realm making health-related claims. These alternative practitioners wish to work in a regulatory grey zone, free from the oversight and quality controls that protect consumers from misinformation and potentially dangerous practices. Instead of working under the scrutiny of the scientific method's crucible, these fraudsters would prefer to rewrite the rules to suit their own interests and avoid meaningful accountability.

Proponents of these medicine believe that the human body possesses an innate self-healing powers and that by restoring balance and harmony through techniques like herbal remedies, vegetables, clothings, and quantum mysticism, optimal health and wellbeing can be obtained. Scientific works are skeptical of these traditional practices, as they often lack the rigorous clinical trials, double-blind studies, scientifically-proven, and statistical evidence to demonstrate their efficacy through evidence. The claims made by holistic practitioners simply have not been borne out by scientific work, peer-reviewed research, leading the mainstream medical communities to see these therapies as unproven at best and potentially dangerous at worst. Until these modalities meet the demanding standards of the scientific method, holistic medicine will continue to exist in the nebulous gap, a greyzone, where the majority of these practitioners would like to remain. There is no scientifically applicable and proven confidence interval for these medical hoaxes that reject science as the method for discerning truth, and instead take a postmodernist and religious worldview that sees all knowledge claims as valid, regardless of their empirical grounding. For these approaches, conventional, evidence-based medicine is one of equally legitimate health-care modalities, portraying themselves as a “courageous”, "underdog", the oppressed struggling with an overbearing and self-interested “establishment” of medical professionals, policymakers, and researchers.

The Unanic Exorcise

Ruqya

All religions, Mari Ruti expressed in Distillations (2018), represent the affective unusual in their ideal of the good and the evil in which the extreme religious discourses exclude the other from the ideal of traditionally or virtuously saturated values. Ruqya is the intellectualized mode of extracting the demonic spirit from a possessed soul, "liberating the soul from the evil" in traditionally conceived ways and conceptualizations of the good and the evil. Exorcism is yet a partially adapted Greek cultural knowledge into the Persian-Arabic cultural knowledges.

The word exorcism derives from the Attic Greek ἐξορκισμός, in which the exorcist is the binder swearing an oath in the name of a higher power to extract the evil spirits from the matter, objects, place and the human body. If exorcism is to evict the evil spirits from the mind and objects, then the good is the conduct of the exorcist, the false messiah. Deploying the idea of extracting, evicting and reincorporating spirits of the good and the evil, medical fraud conditions the science on the span of messianism and exorcism, a common myth in virtually all religions. Relieving the otherwise unpleasurable instincts, excitations and libidinal energies in the human psyche and body are transformed into livelier and less unpleasurable ideas is known as binding, which does not sound far from the similar uses in religions where a religious authority does the work of “binding by oath” (exorkismós) the demonic spirits, whose essence is predetermined to be served to and exorcized by a savior messiah, as told by the Judeo-Christian versions of the myth. Other religious versions of the myth are not so different from this religious mindset. For there to be life, there has to be God’s creation for the kosher and the trefah in the Judaist demonology to be separated with the ontologized notions of the good and the evil, as the yin and yang in the Taoist tangki. In all the versions of the religious myth, exorcists devote blood to the superior authorities. The sintology of life beyond the earth, the function of Truth. These frauds of “demonic possessions” are not really medical diagnoses. The unhealthy, devilish evil is just the abstraction. Instead of the well-being “really possessed” by the demonic, it is the medical messiah who transfers, attributes and assigns religious or spiritual senses (rather than “spirits”) to the human health and wellness, mind and body.

The belief in spiritual possession is deeply ingrained within the Islamic faith and cultural traditions, particularly by jinn. According to Islamic teachings and laws, jinn are invisible, supernatural entities that exist alongside humans, with the ability to interact with and even overtake the physical and mental faculties of a person. This concept of spiritual possession is widely accepted, and the practice of exorcism, or al-'azm, is seen as a legitimate and necessary means of expelling these malevolent forces from the afflicted individual. The ritual of ruqya, which involves the use of Quranic verses, supplications, and other spiritual remedies, is carried by specialized practitioners known as raqi. These exorcists are believed to have the knowledge and spiritual power to identify the presence of jinn and successfully disposses them, restoring the individual's wellbeing and freeing them from the grip of the supernatural entity. The process of ruqya is often a complex affair, involving specific procedures, incantations, and even physical interventions, all aimed at purging the individual of the unwanted spiritual presence. This deep-rooted belief in the reality of jinn possession and the necessity of exorcism remains a significant scene of Islamic faith and practice, reflecting the broader worldview that recognizes the influence of unseen forces on the physical and spiritual realms of human existence.

Judeo-Greek Exorcise

Instead of these parascientific fraud, let me present The Atheist's Ultimate Soupbook:

The Gaslighting ala Islamic
Underrepresented Onion
Persuading the Kafir
Shalomless Sharia
The Censored Green Garlic
Jesus is Veggie
Houmoses C.C.
Quota for Eva
Minding the Cap
Peppered Neoinquisition
Privileged Black ala Blanc
Baron d'Hulot
The Veggie Hot Lilith
The Explicit Impulsion
Hadith for the Potatoes
The Soup Doctrine
St. Rome Lobby
Berry Go-Round
The Boiled #MeToo
Allahless Woman
The Bean Widower
Carrot Code
Is this Seed Free?
Maestro Farts
Democratic Base
Republican Souperstructure

Judeo-Greek exorcism is even more fascinating than the Unanic version. This practice is rooted in the ancient traditions of both Jewish and Hellenistic cultures, a ritual employed to expel malevolent spirits and demonic forces from those deemed to be possessed. This particular form of exorcism combined the fusion of Kabbalistic with Neoplatonist philosophy, at the heart of which lies the concept of the divine emanations common to both traditions of though and life, or sefirot (סְפִירוֹת / σφαίρα), representing various attributes and manifestations of the infinite, the absolute or the unknowable realms harnessed to attain power through ritual, meditation, and the manipulation of sacred symbols and language. Practitioners, often learned scholars spcialized in sacred and philosophical texts would invoke a complex series of prayers, incantations, and ritualistic gestures to confront the supernatural entities, the sea-monster leviathan or dybbuk, tormenting their afflicted subjects when the soul of the deceased is said to be trapped in or "attached" to the living's, exerting powerful and often malevolent influence. Accounts describe dramatic scenes of the possessed individual convulsing, speaking in unknown tongues, and exhibiting superhuman strength as the exorcist struggled to subdue the entity and restore the person's free will. Rabbis and kabbalists teach and practice exorcise rituals, the traditional means of expelling these evil spirits and restoring the afflicted.

The Greek Four Humour Theory

Humour Theory was a foundational medical theory that dominated Western thought for well over a thousand years, dating back to the ancient Greek philosophers and physicians. The core tenet of this theory was the belief that the human body was composed of four essential "humours" - blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile - and that the balance and interactions of these four humours as determinants of health wellness. Physicians during this era would diagnosed patients by observing the appearance and flow of these humours, and would prescribe treatments like bloodletting, purging, and dietary changes in an effort to restore the proper balance. The four humours were also thought to be associated with the four classical elements - blood with air, phlegm with water, yellow bile with fire, and black bile with earth - as well as with the four seasons and four personality types. This comprehensive, interconnected system of medicine and physiology held sway for centuries, informing everything from medical practices to astrological beliefs and literary archetypes untill the modern, evidence-based medicine. The concept of “humour” in medicine has ancient roots, with potential origins dating back to ancient civilizations like Egypt and Mesopotamia, though it was not fully systemized until the theories of ancient Greek thinkers. The term "humour" itself is a translation of the Greek word χυμός “chymos,” which literally meant “juice” or “sap,” but was used metaphorically to refer to the "flavor" or essence of something. This idea of essential bodily fluids or "humours" being the key to health and wellness was a core part of ancient medical philosophies. In fact, the ancient Indian system of Ayurvedic medicine presented a theory of three key humours, or "doṣas" (दोष) which they sometimes linked to the five fundamental elements of the universe - earth, water, fire, air, and space. According to Ayurvedic thought, an imbalance or disturbance in these three humours (often associated with the three elements of wind, bile, and phlegm) could lead to physical and mental illness, and restoring balance was crucial for health. This humour theory of medicine would go on to have a profound influence on the development of medical thought in ancient Greece, Rome, and the Islamic world, persisting as a governing medical paradigm for centuries before gradually being supplanted by more modern science of human physiology. But the ancient concept of essential bodily fluids or "humours" as the foundation of health remains an intriguing relic of some of humanity's earliest attempts to treat the body.

How to Judge Agnès Varda (2023)
When I edited the book on the Belgium-French feminist director Agnès Varda, there were debates to match her with the women in my life. Conceiving a feminist film director as “goddess” is pretty ironic, like Greek goddesses in ancient sites where I did filming, confusing her with a lot of women, Greek, Turkish or Jewish, atheist or not, a film director who had a lot of male and female characters in her films and narratives. Varda's father was indeed of Anatolian Greek origin, and she had quite a few number of references to the legacies of the Greek in Turkey.

Quantum Fraud in the Yunanic Adaptations

One of the holistic medicine fraud, also known as “quantum mysticism”, blending together a mishmash of ideas drawn from quantum mechanics, psychology, philosophy, and neurophysiology. Proponents of this bizarre and unsubstantiated practice claim that by harnessing the “quantum energy,” they can somehow facilitate the body’s natural healing processes and even manipulate reality on an atomic level. This is nothing more than a fantasy and a complete distortion of concepts from scientific fields. Quantum mechanics, the branch of physics that describes the behavior of matter and energy on the atomic and subatomic scale, has absolutely no practical application in the realm of holistic medicine or the treatment of illness and disease. Yet quantum healers brazenly misappropriate these complex theories, combining them with new age philosophies, visualizations, and other mystical beliefs, in a vain attempt to cleverly sell their “snake oil” cures and therapeutic techniques. The quantum belief that future events can be predicted by prior events is both scientifically misleading and borders on individual growth. These quantum superstitions revolve around the idea that certain objects, actions, or celestial alignments of things can retroactively alter the past material reality, and retrospectively influence the probabilities of future events, positive or negative: denial of sciences, inapplicable hypotheses.

Tolga Theo Yalur, PhD
Cognitive Philosopher. Born in Izmir, Turkey, Tolga Theo Yalur studied Economics at METU (Ankara) and Cultural Studies at GMU (Fairfax, VA), and taught media and culture courses in Turkey and the USA, at GMU, Bosphorus University (Istanbul), and the New School (NYC). He publishes openly at the Psychoanalyσto Library on the advances of and the troubles with cognitive sciences, ideologies and religions.

Theo Regional (2020-2024)
Nobody knows whether there is an original American soul or not. The only means to apply is nothing but resorting to the resources. I would like to speak of a soul, which I believe is the very first example of the American soul. Lately, I’ve been able to go into the archives of the Spirit Museum in Brooklyn. I had already heard that there was an archive of old spirits there. However, unlike the spirits exhibited at the museum’s halls, they asked for written permission to see this archive of souls from even before the time when Americas were invented, innovated, or discovered. I asked my professor to write down a permission to go into the archive to prepare for the exam of souls. When I got into the shelves of the soul archive, however, there was nothing but dust. I wanted to have a look at different souls from different epochs, but there was nothing. The souls would get visible, but one would have to wait there for hours or even days. So, prepare a food kit before visiting the archive. I stood there for a few hours for the souls to be visible, and they were so messed up and not recategorized based on time. I also had to psychologize the souls to objectively observe and reveal how these souls were ordered, and what did the souls expect from me. There was virtually no real order, and the soul in a specific shelf could be in another shelf simultaneously as well as nowhere could the same soul be seen. I went after one of the souls leading to one of the soul halls where the souls could speak a real language that I learned at the moment I went into the hall. The spirit of the room teaches this unreal language to the soul, also, in this hall, the time almost stood still. The souls were debating on visibility, equality, freedom and so forth. At the end of the hall, however, there was a soul in the corner sitting up in the air, not speaking a single word, not even looking around. I asked one of the souls as to what’s the matter with this soul? “Everyone is debating, and this freak is just sitting in the air like that?” “I don’t know,” said the soul, “but everyone calls it The Original.”

Tao d'Exercice

Ouverture
Tous mes écrits sont fictifs, les lieux sont tous non-lieux.
Tao

I
"La fausse liqueur," Marx dit.
Mais gratuit.
"L'économie politique est la science du besoin de prendre l'air ou de faire d'exercice. Cette science du merveilleux travail est en même temps un véritable idéal ascétique."
A des fins philanthropique.
"Je clignerais mes yeux pour une liqueur gratuit," dit Marx.
"La mesure d'un homme est ce qu'il fait avec un boisson gratuit," intervenirait Platon.
"L'objet a ne semblent pas différentes de religion. Est-ce une autre opium des gens?" Marx demanderait.
Lorsque l'écrit de liqueur version de Tolga est fini: "Nous l'avons fait nous- mêmes". Tao

II
Les sinners ont des liqueurs.
"La femme n'existe pas," Lacan répondrait.
Puis vient Freud.
Freud: Pensez des lunettes.
Tao: D'accord.
Freud: Avez-vous pensez?
Tao: Ouais.
Freud: Rêveur, non?
Tao: Très rêveur.
Bouddha: Non-pensez un rêve.
Tao: D'accord.
Bouddha: Vous en non-pensez?
Tao: Om.
Bouddha: Śūnya, non?
Tao: Nom. "Je pense que c'est une fausse conscience," Marx dirait.

Couverture
Je me suis senti comme un spoonbender.
Tao

Scientific Discourse

Distorting the facts even with the intention of advancing a noble cause is to erode the very logical discourse and informed decision-making. Individual studies, each with small sample size studies may contain inherent systematic biases, but if those biases tend to point in the same direction, a bunch of methodologically poor studies can paradoxically become amplified and reach statistical significance when the studies are pooled together, the expected value of a variable of a sample significantly differs from the real value. Bias means the systemic inaccuracy. When scientific research is biased, it means the findings, conclusions, or interpretations of a study have been influenced or skewed by certain prejudices, preconceptions, or agendas of the researchers themselves. This can happen in a variety of ways - perhaps the researchers had a predetermined hypothesis they were trying to prove, or they selected data and methods that would support their desired outcome. Bias can also creep in through the practitioners’ backgrounds, experiences, such as religious or ideological leanings, leading them to unconsciously interpret results in a way that aligns with their existing beliefs. Problematically, scientific fraud is replete with biases that go on to influence the scientific and public discourses, perpetuating flawed or misleading information as facts.

The National Science Foundation reports that public faith in scientific research is diminishing (2020). Medicine in the scientific discourse is where biased practices could lead to harm. Bias in medical fraud can discredit scientific discoveries and put public trust in jeopardy. Overseeing medical practices, aimed at preventing these could protect the integrity of scientific research. When a collection of scientifically flawed, ideologically concerned and religious-leaned medical practices, each with a small sample size, are subjected to a meta-analysis, the potential for misleading results can be significantly biased. This phenomenon occurs because the meta-analysis essentially combines the micro biases present in each study, effectively canceling out the random errors while magnifying the shared systemic errors out of an integration as a macro bias. Eventually, the meta-analysis may produce an apparent effect that appears robust and statistically valid, when in reality it is simply an artifact of the underlying flaws in the constituent and fraudulent practices, where poor quality inputs lead to dubious, if not totally erroneous, outputs.

This webcourse aims to stay confident in testing the validity and reliability of the meta-analytic findings of the scientific frauds, those of so-called medical practitioners, and therefore be cautious in interpreting the findings, especially when primary studies have significant methodological constraints, because my conclusions may inaccurately reflect the evidence.

Medical Hoax

The American Association for the Advancement of Science noted that a growing mistrust in science contributes to the skepticism towards climate change, vaccination, genetically modified organisms, and more. While the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2020 reports that approximately 44% of Americans express some degree of skepticism towards the scientific community, the Welcome Global Monitor 2018 indicates an international decline in confidence in the sciences. These attitudes are outcomes of fraud in the progress of scientific advance that weaken progress. Access to verifiable science is crucial for innovation and public consciousness. The internet made it easier for misinformation to spread, causing public misunderstandings of scientific discourse. The Public Library of Science (PLoS) illustrated that public access articles were twice as likely to be shared and used by clinicians and the general population compared to those behind paywalls (Varmus 2008). This is when scientific knowledge is not subjected to fraud. Widening the accessibility of verified scientific studies would expand knowledge and empower individuals.

Medical hoaxes are offered by those presenting themselves as professionals who mislead and cause harm: astrology, fortune-telling, creationism, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, homeopathy and miracle cure marketing, quantum mysticism, spiritualism, magnified healing, acupuncture, sylvotherapy, aromatherapy, paraherbalism, biofeedback, unani, siddha, ayurveda, exorcism and ruqiya, bibliotherapy, quantum mysticism, art therapy, musicotherapy, naturopathy, ismakogie, crystal healing, psychic healing, reiki which not only lead to negative health consequences but also instill false hope in the victims.

Medical fraud practices are a set of holistic, alternative and often questionable uses of unrefined, purported medicines or health-promoting agents that either hasn't been tested or it has "failed its tests" (Dawkins 2007). These practices let the alternative “medicine gurme”s, who do not have the scientific authority, to think that they do have the entitlement to do so. A troubling exhaustion of sciences, the rise of these practices represents a self-contained legitimacy of those who have not earned the right to make critical decisions about people's health and wellbeing. The medical uses of herbs and vegetables, for instance, is not supported by any credible scientific evidence. Paraherbalist practitioners, however, contend that the act of extracting, concentrating, or purifying active compounds from herbs, roots, or animal parts somehow diminishes or destroys their innate healing powers. Decades of rigorous research and clinical trials demonstrate the safety of efficiently formulated, quality-controlled medicinal products. One such holistic medicine is quantum healing, also known as quantum mysticism, a pseudoscientific hoax that blends together a mishmash of ideas supposedly drawn from the principles of quantum mechanics, psychology, philosophy, and neurophysiology. Like paraherbalism, this quantum spiritualism is nothing more than a cleverly marketed scam, capitalizing on the public's general lack of understanding about quantum physics to trigger a fantasy that has no place in legitimate healthcare. Proponents of such holistic views usually promote a romanticized, pseudoscientific view of nature as the ultimate source of all healing, while demonizing science and medicine as unnatural and harmful. These claims and practices are not grounded in empirical evidence and should be approached with a high degree of skepticism and scientifically-confirmed solutions.

Religious medicines, unconventional medicines or traditional medicines, which are also known under the names of parallel medicines, holistic medicines, natural medicines or even alternative medicines, are also called scam, quack and hoax because their effectiveness beyond the placebo is generally not, or insufficiently, scientifically demonstrated. Despite these clear risks, quackery is still openly practiced and seldom regulated. This should not be the case. Ultimately, the right to health includes the right to be free from false, deceptive, and harmful health practices. Law enforcement agencies and governments should prevent lawful practices of medical hoax, to end further harm. These practices threaten the integrity and truth of science, real, evidence-based medicine and the right information.

There needs to be an end to the glorification and support for these unproven medical fraudsters, the “gurus”, the infamous “Medical Messiahs”, the exorcists who dangerously misinform the public, weaken the credibility of scientific discourses, and pose significant health threats. In the U.S, a shocking 59% of health information shared on social media is found to be misleading or outright false. This not only influences health decisions made by the naive individuals who follow these “gurus” but also contributes to the public misconceptions of medical practices.

Medical Messiahs

“That the Messiah will come and found a golden epoch is far less likely; depending on the personal stance of the person assessing it, he will classify this belief as an illusion or as analogous to a delusion.” Sigmund Freud, Future of Illusion (1927)

The word messiah’s root has a few Greek variations of Μεσσῑ́ᾱς (messias), which used to mean an aromatic oil ritual. An earthlier sense that people live with, even an everyday usage for food. If the Intelligent Design claims used a more factual case, aromatic oil would’ve been more applicable –-extracted without the religiously abstract senses, of course. Similarly, daily lives of civilizations are full of sociological versions of messiahs. The Marxian notion of reproduction, for instance, concerns the never-ending cycles of the existing social and economic relations. A materialist approach to the phenomena represented by religious views, the Marxian notion means that human consciousness and material reality have been determined by the owners of the means of production, like clerics in religions, landlords, monarchs, capitalists and so forth. Marx offered the notion of false consciousness for the conscious/unconscious reproduction of these with opium-like scripts to numb the ignorants in these.

Science bases itself upon the order of factual references. Evolutionary biology, for instance, at the time when Charles Darwin (1859) was suggesting evolution, was more a social science view of ontologizing that had to be proven and disproven through centuries to change with scientific facts. In terms of sociological ontologizing of human evolution, a progressive reasoning, like the religious reasoning, might not be applicable as well. For instance, Darwin of the orthodox Marxism is progressive. Though science says that selection does not mean progress. Evolutionary biology does not conceptualize progress but selection instead. Not the orthodox Marxian view of “first capitalism than communism” but “first a chimpanzee-like common ancestor than humans and chimpanzees.” In brief, evolution could be better or worse.

The word exorcism, on the other hand, derives from the Greek ἐξορκισμός, in which the exorcist is the binder swearing an oath in the name of a higher power to extract the evil spirits from the matter, objects, place and the human body. If exorcism is to evict the evil spirits from the mind and objects, then the good is the conduct of the exorcist, the false messiah. Deploying the idea of extracting, evicting and reincorporating spirits of the good and the evil, medical fraud conditions the science on the span of messianism and exorcism, a common myth in virtually all religions. Relieving the otherwise unpleasurable instincts, excitations and libidinal energies in the human psyche and body are transformed into livelier and less unpleasurable ideas is known as binding, which does not sound far from the similar uses in religions where a religious authority does the work of “binding by oath” (exorkismós) the demonic spirits, whose essence is predetermined to be served to and exorcized by a savior messiah, as told by the Judeo-Christian versions of the myth. Other religious takes on the myth are not so different from this religious mindset.

These medical frauds of “demonic possessions” are not really medical diagnoses. The unhealthy evil is the religious abstraction. Instead of the well-being “really possessed” by the demonic, it is the medical messiah who transfers, attributes and assigns spiritual senses (rather than “spirits”) to the human health and wellness, mind and body.

The Eclipse of Intelligence

Quantum physicist Richard Feynman used the phrase “cargo cult science” for the practices that resemble the sciences, but do not follow scientific methods, lack skeptical peer review, or have no genuine scientific plausibility (Feynman, 1974). Such practices may inhibit the progress of legitimate research and even have negative impacts on policy decisions. According to the American Association for the Advancement of Science, approximately 125,000 scientific papers are retracted each year due to flawed methodology and dubious data, potentially pointing to practices similar to cargo cult science. With the proliferation of scientific hoax and charlatanism, the credibility of scientific discourse is increasingly threatened. Fraud misleads the public, and shrinks the confidence interval in legitimate scientific research. Replacing cargo cult science with real, verifiable research would contribute to significant scientific advances.

According to a study published by Pew Research Center, 59% of U.S. adults said that science often conflicted with their religious beliefs, and The National Science Foundation revealed that 70% of Americans do not comprehend the scientific process (Pew Research Center, 2015). Misconceptions like these worsen such conflicts, creating unnecessary splits and divisions. To conflate these two distinct areas erodes the integrity of both, leading to misunderstandings and miseducation, and harming religions at an increasing rate evident by the growing non-religious demographics.

Despite scientific progress of millenia, similar religious practices incorrectly equate scientific methodologies with religious strategies. This is a philosophically fallacious method, disserving more to religions than sciences. Science flourishes out of empirical inspection, systematic observation, measurement, experimentation and diagnosis. Religion, however, is based on faith, the spiritual, and the transcendental. Religious science is potentially the one that results in harmful practices and misinterpretations. It's not uncommon for such misconceptions to lead to detrimental effects or even fatalities when certain medical treatments are declined on religious grounds. Believing in the freedom of and from faith and the pursuit of scientific knowledge is one concern when the misuse of 'Religious Science' and faith-based medical neglect is what threatens the rights of life, health and safety.

Drawing upon data from the Pew Research Center, a significant number of people around the world accept religious interpretations over scientific information. Time to end the practices that oppose science without logical explanation. Many religious practices today still contradict and sometimes directly oppose scientific facts and logic, causing physical and emotional harm, especially to members who may not have the choice to refuse these practices. These include belief-based home remedies that ignore proper medical procedures, anti-vaccination beliefs due to religious rulings or the wrong treatments of psychological issues. According to The World Health Organization, hundreds of thousands of deaths stem from religious misinformation every year. Furthermore, the American Psychological Association also reported a concerning link between extreme religious belief and poor mental health. Eradicating these harmful practices does not mean infringing upon religious freedom or completely eliminating religions. Instead, it means promoting a harmonious coexistence between scientific fact and spiritual belief, fostering an environment of respect and wisdom.

Kulturpark Construction on the Greek Neighborhoods in Izmir (1900s - 1930s)When representation is seen "as translation work rather than mere reportage," says the communication scholar Barbie Zelizer in Visual Culture and the Holocaust (2000), it would work metaphorically incomprehensive rather than a complete index. This is "the frailty of representational codes into our own expectations" of what each of these code should do. In other words, Zelizer is underlining the fact that representational codes of any economy of culture and wisdom would tend to assimilate the represented into its own nomoi (νόμος), and that the debate needs to go beyond these "preferred" plans that privilege "the factual over the the represented, and silence the alarm bells that tend to ring when representation tugs at reality." These warning signs divide the visual representation into maintaining the visual's underprivilege compared to the verbal or into elevating the visual forms beyond representations. While revealing the question of the indestructibility of the unconscious desire to mark its essential character in representation, reiteration and reproduction that cause the unrest in civilization, Sigmund Freud was not walking down a spiritualist path but questioning the structure of discursive determining the economies of these representational codes, the cultures of reality and the symptoms of these disturbances. In psychoanalytic theory, discourses structure reality, functioning where the specular report to the media and culture is pressing. This psychoanalytic notion of discourse would help rationalize the symptom on the web of reality around Kültürpark in the modern Izmir, the site of the final stage of the Greek Genocide that was built on part of the neighborhoods that went on fire in Smyrna in the final stage of ethnic cleansing that decimated the ancient Anatolian Greek communities in 1913-1922. Kültürpark is not far from the Yunani appropriations. Though the word “genocide” has been treated as an interdisciplinary reflection in the humanities and cultural sciences, the psychoanalytic contribution to the symptoms of the Real in genocides are unavoidable. The Greek Genocide has been shrouded in silence and denial in the hegemonic, official and media narratives in Turkey and Greece, with the traumatic experiences of the Greek dismissed or minimized, or transferred to other questions or the others’ questions at best. Acknowledging the Greek Genocide would preserve their memory for a more comprehensive history that does not whitewash or distort the truth.

Ignorance, the absence of factual understanding, breeds fear of the unknown and a retreat into simplistic, dogmatic worldviews. Superstition, the embrace of supernatural explanations and rituals, warps logical judgment and traps the mind in a web of illogical fears and taboos. And bigotry, the stubborn intolerance and demonization of those perceived as different, divides societies, justifies discrimination, and can descend into outright violence and genocide. This unholy trinity of human failings has toppled empires, sparked religious crusades and jihads, fueled ethnic cleansing, and held back the advance of science, logic, humanism, and compassion. These legacies continue to foment extremism and threaten to unravel these advances.

Religious prejudices prioritize faith-based worldviews over empirical evidence, leading to the rejection or distortion of scientific findings that conflict with established doctrines. This can manifest in everything from the denial of well-established facts like evolution and the age of the Earth, to the promotion of pseudoscientific claims that fly in the face of scientific consensus. Meanwhile, these frauds encompasses antiscience, a broader hostility towards the scientific method and intellectual progress, sometimes fueled by a fear of the unsettling implications that new knowledge may bring. This can translate into the active suppression of scientific inspection, the spreading of misinformation, and the championing of mystical or illogical explanations over testable, evidence-based theories.

While shrouding scientific findings in the anti-scientific veil of obscurity, fraudsters aim to cast doubt on established theories, promote alternative explanations that lack empirical grounding, and sow confusion among the public. This insidious strategy both hinders the progress of scientific knowledge and erodes public trust in the integrity of research, paving the way for the rise of quackery, pseudoscience, conspiracy theories, and the rejection of the scientific consensus. Combating this obscurantism in the sciences needs a commitment to intellectual honesty, clear communication, and the scientific methods of inspection, ensuring that the knowledge remains accessible, transparent, and accountable to the wider public.

Fraud in the sciences represents one of the most formidable challenges to the advance of rational and logical thinking. This troubling phenomenon derives from an unwavering allegiance to dogmatic belief systems that actively resist the objective findings and scientific procedures, and an unwillingness to subject cherished beliefs and dogmas to scrutiny. Those in the grip of religious bias cling tenaciously to traditional wisdoms, often imbuing them with an unassailable authority that brooks no questioning. The incentive to shroud complex issues in mystery and the unknown helps this combination to barrier the advance of human knowledge and consciousness. Intentionally disregarding empirical facts and scientific inspection, the religious bias resorts to rhetorical smokescreens and logical fallacies, agitational appeals to dismiss inconvenient truths that conflict with their preferred worldview. This unholy alliance of faith-based irrationality and the active suppression of scientific progress stands as one of the most pernicious threats to the unfettered pursuit of enlightenment in the modern world. The combination of religious bias and obscurantism represents a formidable bulwark against the advance of reason, logic, and the expansion of the human mind. Confronting these powerful forces of antiscience and deep-rooted tendencies remains one of the great challenges facing advocates of critical thinking and the scientific worldview.

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