Judy Lies About Lying About Deceptive TM Researchers
I just posted the following reply to Judy's latest lies about the integrity of TM research:
Judy Stein wrote:
Andrew skolnick wrote:
> > > > What she [Judy Stein] doesn't tell
> > > > you is that the deceptive practices reported in my article largely were
> > > > carried out *by* TM's leading researchers and Maharishi Ayur-Veda
> > > > practitioners--TM's stars such as Tony Nader, David Orme-Johnson, Hari
> > > > Sharma, Leslie Davis, Roger Chalmers, and of course Deepak Chopra.
Judy wrote:
> > > Leaving aside the very large question of whether any of these
> > > individuals actually did engage in deception, Andrew's objection
> > > is a non sequitur, since none of the deceptions he alleges had to
> > > do with the content of the published research on MA-V, which is
> > > what I was talking about.
I replied:
> > Having read my article (JAMA. 1991;266:17741-1750), Judy knows this is a
> > lie. For example, see the section about Tony Nader.
Judy, stuck in lie mode, continues her charade:
> Again, let me say it another way: none of the deceptions Andrew
> alleges--including those regarding Nader--had to do with the
> content of the published research on MA-V, which is what I was
> talking about.
>
> This is a matter of fact that can be verified by anyone who reads
> Andrew's article. I don't tell lies; Andrew does.
Here is just one part of the JAMA article that addresses the deceptive "published research" that Judy doesn't want you to know about. It clearly shows which one of us is telling lies:
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Dog and Pony Show'?
In its listing of "recent research on Maharishi Ayur-Veda," the Lancaster Foundation cites research by Nader, Orme-Johnson, and others that was presented at the 28th Annual Meeting of the Society for Economic Botany, held at the University of Illinois at Chicago, in June 1987.
However, according to Norman R. Farnsworth, PhD, research professor of pharmacognosy at the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Pharmacy, and director of the World Health Organization's Collaborating Centre for Traditional Medicine, what was presented could hardly be called scientific papers.
According to Farnsworth, the Maharishi's people showed up with a television news crew from the local CBS station in Chicago and put on a "dog and pony show." He says: "They had no interest in the conference other than to grab a scientific forum--they showed up just before their time slot and split as soon as the publicity stunt was over."
What they presented hardly resembled the two abstracts they submitted, he says. Instead, they gave a marketing presentation extolling the Maharishi's meditation and herbal products.
Charlotte Gyllenhaal, PhD, a research associate at the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Pharmacy, who served as cochair of the botany meeting's organizing committee, agrees that the behavior of the Maharishi's representatives was "entirely inappropriate." She says, "While the submitted abstracts seemed reasonable, what they presented had little to do with their abstracts. In one presentation, they couldn't even provide the scientific names of the medicinal plants they claimed to have tested. The other presentation was a pitch for the Maharishi's meditation techniques--hardly appropriate for a botany meeting. It was a bait and switch ploy and a publicity stunt."
Gyllenhaal says there is "so much potential for finding useful drugs from the thousands of years of interesting observations made by India's traditional healers. It's really a shame that this group's deceptive activities may become associated with all of ayurveda."
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In the past, Judy tried to explain away this disturbing report with one of the sickest rationalizations she's ever devised. She said that I intimidated Professor Farnesworth and his associate into saying false things about Nader et al. Anyone who knows this distinguished and very outspoken professor of pharmacognosy knows that *no one* -- absolutely no one -- intimidates this man. He's a world renowned leader in the field of botanical medicines and he says what's on his mind, damn the torpedoes that get in his way.
Judy ought to be ashamed for attacking people like Drs. Farnesworth and Gyllenhaal in her campaign to discredit my article. But of course she's not: shame is a word that's not in Judy's unique dictionary.
I would love to see Judy say to Professor Farnesworth's face that he spoke falsely about Nader out of fear of what I could do to him. I'll give her Dr. Farnesworth's phone number. The lying crackpot wouldn't dare call him. Dr. Farnesworth would chew her up, spit her out, and let his attorneys, clean up what's left.
--Andrew Skolnick http://nasw.org/users/ASkolnick
http://www.aaskolnick.com/photography/
I speak only for myself, not for any other individual or organization.