--- On Wed, 11/11/09, Frederick Noronha <fredericknoro...@gmail.com> wrote: > >Couldn't hypnotism also be considered a pseudo-science in its early days: >http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypnotism#History >
Hypnosis has always been regarded as a legitimate natural phenomenon, although explanations to account for it have been fanciful and speculative. What has been pseudo-scientific about it, however, which is true in many cases even today, is that it has been taken over by quacks and New Age folk who advocate it as treatment for all kinds ailments without obtaining proper evidence for its efficacy in each case. > >Strangely, mostly references to hypnotism, like the one above, have >little or no reference to Abbe Faria, and its history begins many >decades after the Abbe's times. Interesting! > This is nonsense. Abbe Faria figures prominently even on the Wikipedia website. Please see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_hypnosis#Abb.C3.A9_Faria > >So when does non-Western knowledge become "Science" in the "modern" >world? > This is a completely manufactured contention. Hypnosis was practiced both in India and the West, namely Greece and Egypt since ancient times. Abbe Faria demonstrated his technique and elaborated his views on hypnosis in Paris, which even geographically challenged people would tell you is a city that is located in the west. How a scientific theory develops and evidence accumulates in relation to a natural phenomenon is well known. It is being taught in every modern high school classroom. It is therefore really troubling and sad that a professional journalist like Noronha continues to disseminate the same irresponsible and deliberately misleading statements about science in this public forum. Perhaps, he does not realize that he is undoing the noble of task of all the science teachers in our schools, instead of helping them. Cheers, Santosh
