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Faith Healers
The very first placebo-controlled trial may have been the debunking of the charismatic Anton Mesmer (the enigmatic source responsible for the verb “to mesmerize”), an enlightenment figure with a healing technique that Ben Franklin, for one, thought was basically placebo performance. Historians Ed Cohen and Ann Harrington fill in the details.
Last, producer Gregory Warner takes us into the tent of a Christian faith-healing, where preacher Steve Buza treats all sorts of ailments, including scoliosis and carpal tunnel, and the healed reflect on the relationship between pain and doubt.
Pro Faith-Healing
Anti Faith-Healing
The Placebo Effect by Anne Harrington
Ed Cohen's article on Mesmer and Placebo
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If there is a way to get this show downloaded on a podcast or on a disk -- PLEASE let me know. I would like to be able to listen to it again, in full, without having to be at the computer.
Would it be possible to buy a copy of the show and use parts of it in a classroom to illustrate points in the lecture?
Thanks.
YES! you can listen to Radio Lab again. Three ways:
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When I click your hotlink for Gregory Warner, I get something much different and probably not what you intended for your listeners. Here's the address that the link gets me to.
http://www.gregoryarchive.com/
Gail,
Thanks for checking out our links! The hotlink for Gregory Warner IS actually the right one--it's his blog. Right now, he's reporting in Afghanistan and occasionally posting.
this sounds very similar to 'healing by faith' in Christianity... do you think there is any connection at all?
ok... now i'm listening to the last part and you do talk about that...
I love radio lab. I've been addicted ever since I heard it on the radio, and found the podcast.
That being said, I was screaming in my mind during most of the "Faith Healer" section of this show.
You guys generally do a fantastic job of keeping things scientific and reasonable in your program, but I really wish there was a different point of view on this portion of the program.
For instance, a valid point of view was that what the faith healer was doing was despicable. Telling a nervous young woman who trusts you that her back problems are from Satan, "healing" and then grilling her immediatley afterward in front of everyone "are you healed?" where an answer of "no" is obviously unwelcome to the preacher and the crowd is not doing anyone any favors.
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