no, it pretty much is the same. for the person, at least. he is not experiencing pain. and that’s it.
the question is, does “feeling better” after leaving the chiropractor have anything to do with being healthier? if the answer is no, but the person going to the chiropractor thinks it should be yes, that person is being had.
as a side note, there are studies on the experience of pain that suggest long-term sufferers experience pain in a fundamentally different way, so that prevention of pain in itself might make the person more healthy. who knows?
You seem to be espousing the “What harm does it cause?” defense of fraud/untruth.
Sorry but I don’t buy that defense for a second.I hear it quite often in defense of people like John Edward adn Sylvia Browne.The psychic apologist will say “So what if they are not really able to speak with the dead as long as they make people feel better about the loss of their loved ones?”.
The problem of course preying upon peoples emotional vulnerabilities/need to feel “better” for even modest financial gain is worng.Period.
There are TONS of people who, suffering from terminal cancer or somesuch who have squandered away every last cent of their life savings…money which could have went to cancer research or their own children or whatever, on “psychic surgeons” and similar scams.It matters not that in the days leading to their deaths, someone was able to manipulate their belief mechnism to convince them they were going to get better.
It is a commoin misconception that people NEED comforting lies to feel better or that they cannot feel good(or as good as one can possibly feel) about loss or their own moratality without the type of empty promises delivered by many Chiropractors, psychic surgeons, psychic mediums etc.
** No, that’s not “it”. People who’ve hypnotically suppressed pain show the same physiological signs of distress as people who are fully experiencing the same stimuli, whereas people given local anesthetics do not.
Conscious experience isn’t the be-all end-all of existence, Ramanujan.
I’m not defending anything other than the idea that I can largely trust people to accurately report about their feelings.
Well, look, I don’t know what all chiropractic “doctors” say to people about what happens. But it feels damn good to get a back cracked. If some nuts want to concoct stories about it, battle that all you want. Don’t expect chiropractics to go away.
Get this, man: people. actually. feel. better. after. visiting. the. chiropractor. I’m not kidding. Our very own QtM mentioned he has no problem associating himself with some chiropractors, assuming they don’t claim to do anything more than what the evidence supports. Those chiropractors exist. If, in their heart of hearts, they think they are channeling some sort of energy, my opinion is to not care much at all about it. If some choose to tell others that it is a matter of alien medicine and they believe it, I don’t care much, either. You can’t legislate common sense and expect it to get anywhere other than, “For entertainment purposes only”, which “we all know” (if we’re wacky conspiracy theorists) is just a way to get the man off our backs so we can practice the true way on our own. Or whatever. Who knows what excuses these people make up. I don’t. Nor do I care.
I appreciate the idea of showing someone how to rationally discuss claims, scientific, philosophical, common sensical (:p) but it seems to me the bigger problem is that if the person you’re talking to is incapable of such judgment, and your arguments appeal to such judgment, it is a losing battle. They don’t think like you. Skepticism is often self-defeating, for the reason our OP outlines, unless we agree on criteria of judgment in the first place.
People who believe that aliens made some crop circles? They don’t. People who think chiropractors have found our problem and that problem is subluxation? They don’t.
So good luck, man. I recommend you begin from the beginning rather than the end.