Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Many of us were simultaneously touched and disturbed by the story a few days back of the Belgian man, Rom Houben, who, after what was thought to have been 23 years in a persistent vegetative state, was found to have been conscious, but paralyzed, the entire time. Shocking, right? There's a problem with the story, though. Apparently Mr. Houben is now communicating through something called Facilitated Communication. That is where a "trained" facilitator, a nurse, guides the disabled person's finger over the keys of a keyboard. FC is bunk. It is a fraud. It does not work. It is the equivalent of using a human Ouija board, and selling the type of false hope that charlatan psychics use to help grieving people "communicate" with lost loved ones.
Mick Hartley has a post with all the links: Doubting Mr Houben. Do watch the video Mick links to to see FC at work. Houben's entire body is out of commission, but the facilitator manages to move his finger deftly across the keyboard typing out the letters. This is fraud on video.
The story, if possible, just got sadder, or at least rather more pathetic.
Listed below are links to blogs that reference this entry: Coma Miracle Man Perhaps Not So Miraculous.
TrackBack URL for this entry: http://www.solomonia.com/cgi-bin/mt4/mt-renamedtb.cgi/17118
, p.73
Leave a comment to: Coma Miracle Man Perhaps Not So Miraculous
Subscribe to This Thread Without Leaving a Comment
Comment Info and Policy:
1) You must have Javascript enabled in your browser in order to comment (blame the spammers). If you don't know what that is, you're probably fine.
2) HTML is on, so basic html should work. Raw links will be made auto-clickable, too, so even if you don't know html you can just paste in the link and it should work fine. Keep the "http://" in it.
3) Comments are generally unmoderated, which means I don't necessarily agree with the tone and tenor of everything posted. In fact, sometimes people post things they don't really mean just to make other people look bad. The internet is an anonymous place for the most part. That said...
4) I welcome you to post here. I'd love to have your input, agree, disagree or just offer a different data point, really. If I didn't want any participation, I'd turn off comments. Be aware, however, that this blog and the comments section exist for my entertainment. Therefore, I reserve ALL RIGHTS here, including the right to remove any or all comments on nothing more than a whim. Please don't even bother complaining. I'm the one providing the space and the free news and thought buffet. I don't owe anyone anything.
Anyone who posts here will be treated as my guest. That means I'm happy to be polite as a default, but if anyone is rude to the host they'll be unceremoniously shown the door.
It may pay to recall a famous line from the Tom Selleck magnum opus, Mr. Baseball: "Jack-san, you want Yoji's advice about the babes, you come to Yoji with respect."
5) Enjoy your stay!