One more time, with feeling (some thoughts on "selling" Bill)

Today I found another ad for a Bill workshop on the internet, reproducing, in part, the text of one of my own original ads for the workshops and amending it to make it sound like we were curing people as successfully as Bill's skeptical trainees cured the mice in his experiments. Here is the text in question:

William Bengston is the first person in the history of cancer research to bring about full life-span cures of cancer in laboratory mice using energy healing. To date there have been 10 experiments at five universities including two medical schools. In the first four experiments 87.9% of laboratory mice injected with a form of cancer known to be 100% fatal recovered, lived their full lifespans, and showed immunity to reinjections of the cancer. In later experiments recoveries were closer to 100%. His method has been applied successfully to humans with a wide range of conditions. Dr. Bengston has taught his method extensively and successfully to trainee healers, all with similar success rates.

The last two sentences have been added to my original text. The last sentence is patently untrue, as it implies that trainees are able to heal humans with nearly 100% success rates. This has simply not been the case in our experience. Since I am the communication hub for over 100 people who took the workshops in Canada, and I am in regular contact with the 30 or so who come to practice sessions, if we were healing people with nearly 100% effectiveness, I'd be the one of the first to know. I wish it were that easy!

So one more time, with feeling: The teachability of the Bengston method has been tested in experiments with mice. Skeptical volunteers who were taught the method healed mice, not people. Their success rate over the course of 3 experiments was 85.7%. We are not yet seeing the same results with Bill's trainees curing cancer in people. Humans are far more complex than mice.

By all means, take the workshop. It's a fun workshop, it's a valuable workshop, but don't take it under the misconception that it is fully proven with people when it is not. We are still working on that part and you can choose to be a part of the experiment by participating in a workshop and practicing the method for yourself. If you see claims that teachability has been proven in treating human cancers, ask for details. It may be that I'm not aware of everything that's going on. Or it may be that the organizers have simply not bothered to cross their "t"s and dot their "i"s and are making claims they cannot possibly substantiate.

Being of a somewhat mischievous nature, I would suggest that you make the organizers work a little before you sign up. For instance, if they claim that the method heals all manner of human ailments, including severe psychiatric disease, ask them just what kind of ailments and psychiatric disease they are talking about, how many cases, and who exactly did the healing. If there have been multiple workshops, the organizers ought to be able to produce some results from the people who have taken the previous workshops or at least have some idea of how they are faring using the method. They should be able to stand behind the product they are selling. Asking questions is just being a good little consumer. And again, keep in mind, that I do recommend taking the seminar.