An even better question is, “What are homeopathic sound waves?”
The inventor of homeopathic sound waves, Dr. William Edwin Gray III, explains it all on his website.
He created 263 different 13-second recordings of hissing sounds by placing electronic coils in vials of homeopathic solutions.
Dr. Gray, a 1970 graduate of the Stanford University School of Medicine, claims the sounds, which he calls “eRemedies,” can cure more than 23 different ailments including back pain, cholera, grief, and malaria.
On his website, he says he “created [a] campaign to treat Ebola via cellphone, curing 3 out of 3 within 4 hours simply by playing the appropriate eRemedy several times in an hour.”
Prospective patients are prompted to enter one or two symptoms in a search field on his website and possible diagnoses are suggested. After answering a few questions about the complaint, a custom-tailored set of sounds is sent to the patient for only $5.00. Dr. Gray says about 500 people have purchased digital copies of these sounds.
Oddly enough, the California Medical Board has a problem with this and has asked for a hearing to consider suspending or revoking his license to practice medicine.
The medical board said, “There is no well documented evidence in the peer-reviewed scientific literature that homeopathic remedies can be transmitted electronically via sound waves.” I would point out there is no scientific evidence that any homeopathic remedy works—whether ingested, rubbed on the skin, aerosolized, or injected.
Dr. Gray’s failure to take a medical history or examine the patients was also faulted by the board.
According to the Los Angeles Times, Dr. Gray decided not to contest the board’s allegations, saying it would cost too much money to fight and adding, “Frankly, I think we’d lose anyway.”
However, even if Dr. Gray’s medical license is suspended, he can still practice because California does not license or regulate homeopathic practitioners.
So, Dr. Gray collected a few dollars from some gullible people on the Internet. What harm was done? It’s only $5.00.
The medical board feels Dr. Gray’s activities might cause seriously ill patients to disregard standard treatment resulting in harm or even death—not to mention it is complete nonsense.
I leave you with this.
The human ear cannot tell one hissing sound from another, said Dr. Gray, but the different frequencies of vibration can be recognized by the body. And it doesn’t have to be a human body.
Dr. Gray says his eRemedies even cured a deaf dog’s bladder infection.
Skeptical Scalpel is a retired surgeon and was a surgical department chairman and residency program director for many years. He is board-certified in general surgery and a surgical sub-specialty and has re-certified in both several times. For the last 8 years, he has been blogging at SkepticalScalpel.blogspot.com and tweeting as @SkepticScalpel. His blog has had more than 3,000,000 page views, and he has over 18,000 followers on Twitter.
Sources:
Los Angeles Times
Ars Technica
SkepticalScalpel