Quantum biofeedback

Quantum biofeedback is a repackaging of biofeedback (a phenomenon that actually works) to encompass such respected New Age medical concepts as chakras, acupuncture meridians, energy-fields and the EM "smog" from modern living. But it is quantum. It also claims to identify a wide-range of stress and health issues while selling expensive hardware[1] and software.[2] Unlike conventional biofeedback techniques where a subject mentally controls bodily rhythms via audio-visual cues, quantum biofeedback system are often claimed to impart their own healing signals to the body.

Style over substance
Pseudoscience
Popular pseudosciences
Random examples
v - t - e

Inventor

The idea of quantum biofeedback was invented by William Nelson, who fled from the US after lawsuits related to his false claims of healing the sick with his fake device. It appears he is now operating from Budapest, Hungary, where he markets machines that do not cure diseases as claimed and that can even be dangerous.[3]

Science or woo?
The device pictured is called "The Quantum Xrroid Consciousness Interface". It's got flashing lights!File:Wikipedia's W.svg
“”Quantum Biofeedback, working through sixteen different electrical factors of the body, calculates combinations of impedance, amperage, voltage, capacitance, inductance, and resistance for Electro-Physiological Reactivity (The Xrroid Process). The body is indeed electric; therefore reactivity in the body can be measured electrically.[4]
“”This highly sensitive, computerized biofeedback device gathers bio-energetic data from the client, sorts and prioritizes it and then tests the client's own energetic reactivity to a wide range of health issues. In this way it provides you, the client, with a far more accurate picture of your health.[5]

In short — it's woo.

Fatalities

Karen McBeth, who was fighting terminal bone cancer, paid $17,000 for an EPFX machine, having been told that it would cure her cancer. The machine would display a rotating cancer image on the screen, for a random number of minutes, then would display the sentence, "You are cured." it did not cure her spreading cancer and her family complained that because she travelled to useless treatments, and spent $17,000, that not only were they defrauded out of money, but they lost some of the little time they had left with her. Her husband eventually hooked the machine up to a hot dog, which the machine also claimed to have cured it. More on this story in an article by the Seattle Times.[6]

JoAnn Burggraf used EPFX instead of seeing doctors and died painfully from undiagnosed leukaemia.[6]

The EPFX Awareness blog has plenty more coverage of this pernicious bullshit.

gollark: What you need to do is check `r.getActive` and the other stuff *in the loop*, and ensure that both branches correctly yield and print everything.
gollark: - it doesn't do anything *else*, so it just loops infinitely and will eventually crash with "too long without yielding".
gollark: Well, the problem is this:- you only set `state` once at the beginning of the program- it's probably `true` then- it goes into the `if state == true` branch, which only sets the `txt` variable
gollark: Sandboxing is actually pretty hard if you want to make most existing programs work about the same (but sandboxed). But Firewolf doesn't really have that excuse.
gollark: There are probably other holes.

See also

References
  1. Comparison of major energetic-medicine devices on the market.
  2. Quantum Infinity App, an iPad app.
  3. Miracle Machines: The 21st-Century Snake Oil. They cure cancer, reduce cholesterol, even eliminate AIDS. Their operators say these "energy medicine" devices work by transmitting radio frequencies or electromagnetic waves through the body, identifying problems, then "zapping" them. Their claims are a fraud. The Seattle Times has found that thousands of these unproven devices — many of them illegal or dangerous — are used in hundreds of venues nationwide (Thursday, September 3, 2009 - Page updated at 03:10 p.m.) Seattle Times (archived copy from April 29, 2012).
  4. EPFX Quantum Biofeedback Overview
  5. Accelerate your wellness with the Quantum Xrroid Consciousness Interface
  6. How one man's invention is part of a growing worldwide scam that snares the desperately ill by Christine Willmsen and Michael J. Berens (Originally published November 18, 2007 at 12:00 am Updated November 19, 2007 at 9:35 am) Seattle Times.
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