Sadly, I thought this was a joke

[Fronzel]

Ear Stapling (http://www.shreveporttimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070402/LIVING/704020306/1004/LIVING). I saw the date and thought it was a wind up.

I think they should move from stapling ears to mouths for this to really work.

[NobbyNobbs]

Practitioners in the industry use a surgical stapler and very thin staples that puncture (not pierce) key points on the outer middle cartilage of the ear ...

What's the difference between "puncture" and "pierce" in this context?

[Orangutan]

the shape of an upside down fetus is projected onto the ear and every point of the body has a reflex connection to a point of the ear.

Is there any clearer example of magical thinking? "It's almost the same shape so it's connected"

[Crazycowbob]

Ear Stapling (http://www.shreveporttimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070402/LIVING/704020306/1004/LIVING). I saw the date and thought it was a wind up.

I think they should move from stapling ears to mouths for this to really work.

Ah, but it makes perfect sense! Staple the ears shut, so that facts and reason don't accidently slip in!

[Stitch]

What's the difference between "puncture" and "pierce" in this context?

I'm guessing that puncture is that it goes in but not through whereas piercing usually implies a hole all the way through.

[supercorgi]

Oh this fad/woo has made a re-emergence? I remember when that was big about 30 years ago. Just goes to show how cyclical various fads and flavors of woo are. I guess after some form of woo gets discredited, it takes time for people to forget before it can reappear. :rolleyes:

[ChristineR]

It's through the cartilage, not the fleshy part, and its supposedly done on acupuncture points.

When it first started no one was wearing 12 earrings in one ear, so it was a little more plausible.

On the other hand, I don't think I've ever seen a 12-earring type who was also fat, so maybe it works!

[Skeptic Guy]

Ooh, maybe I can finally lose some poundage.

*Grabs his desk stapler.*

I'll let you know how it works....

[NoZed Avenger]

"I have a better idea. Have your mouth boarded up."

Linus Van Pelt to Lucy, on being told she was planning to pierce her ears.

[Humanists Harbor]

Ear Stapling (http://www.shreveporttimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070402/LIVING/704020306/1004/LIVING). I saw the date and thought it was a wind up.

I think they should move from stapling ears to mouths for this to really work.


Ha! Geez, a blast from the past. My mom tried ear stapling back when she smoked. I was just a kid so I'm not sure if I perceived it as woo or not. She did eventually quit smoking, so I therefore invoke the Scientific Law of Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc and declare ear stapling to be genuine. . .

[Madalch]

Is there any clearer example of magical thinking? "It's almost the same shape so it's connected"
Your ear is a voodoo doll of yourself.

How logical.

[Bonechar]

Your ear is a voodoo doll of yourself.

How logical.

So which part of the ear corresponds to the ear itself? Are there points within that area that correspond to different parts of the ear (and thus, different parts of the body)?

It's funny how people seem to put more effort into thinking out the implications of deliberately fictional fantasy than into woo they think is real.

[Madalch]

It's funny how people seem to put more effort into thinking out the implications of deliberately fictional fantasy than into woo they think is real.
"The universe is not only stranger than we imagine, it is stranger than we can imagine."

Fiction, on the other hand, has to make sense.

[JoeTheJuggler]

It's through the cartilage, not the fleshy part, and its supposedly done on acupuncture points.

When it first started no one was wearing 12 earrings in one ear, so it was a little more plausible.


Yes, I definitely remember hearing about the ear staple as acupuncture back in the 1970s.

[athon]

"It's not a science but a belief system that gets its roots in acupuncture," Sikand said.

They got that right.

I have a few punctures in my ear. I'm not a big eater. There; theory proven.

Athon

[Magyar]

well, I had 2 earings when I was in my 20s and I never needed Viagra.
Now, 20+ years later I sometimes have issues :(

See another example, proof possitive it works.

[Prospero]

He took my stapler...

[Rat]

They got that right.

I have a few punctures in my ear. I'm not a big eater. There; theory proven.

Athon
I have no artificial holes in my ears. I like pies. Case closed.

[blutoski]

Oh this fad/woo has made a re-emergence? I remember when that was big about 30 years ago. Just goes to show how cyclical various fads and flavors of woo are. I guess after some form of woo gets discredited, it takes time for people to forget before it can reappear. :rolleyes:

Its interesting how some things *do* go in cycles, while other things just vanish forever. We were talking about this in another thread on the forum: where's Pyramid Power or the Bermuda Triangle these days? Crystal skulls? Going back a little further, where's Ectoplasm and tippy-table seances?

Has the sophistication of the average person advanced, so that some of these scams are so obvious today that purveyors don't even bother? A sort of Quackery Flynn Effect?

"It's all quantum nowadays. Keep up, man!"




Ear stapling is more an example of reflexology than acupuncture. It involves a sort of homunculus theory, with the homunculus located in the ear. Other popular forms of reflexology involve the hands or feet (Zone Therapy), and iris (Iridology).

However, depending on the claim, the reflexologist may be blending homuncleus theory with acupuncture chi theory by saying that these mapped locations are channels that need to be needled/punctured/pierced to clear an energy flow blockage.

Alternatively, they may take a sort of chiropractic approach and argue that these mapped locations are connected via the nervous system, and that puncture does something to alter a misalignment. This is one reason why homuncleus treatments are more likely to have massage than needling (the other being that the massage market is much larger and more lucrative). Again, though, massage-based homuncleus theorists may say they are unblocking a chi channel anyway.

Which brings us to lymph massage...

Anyway, as I said above: it would be interesting to generate a timeline of what was fashionable when, what is fashionable now, and what has come and gone and returned after a generation. The problem is the sheer mass of quackery, and the subtle distinctions among things that appear to be the same until a more in-depth analysis.

[JC Fla]

Amazing how many of these woo fads are perpetuated by health care professionals..Guess everyone can have a few screws loose.

[Cuddles]

the shape of an upside down fetus is projected onto the ear and every point of the body has a reflex connection to a point of the ear.

So in order to lose weight all I have to do is stick needles in unborn babies? Sounds legal...