#2489: Bruce Baar

Naturopathy is bullshit, and since he has already jettisoned integrity and reason, naturopath Bruce Baar has decided to run the full course of woo. Baar is a promoter of vibrational medicine and – his most famous achievment, perhaps – the inventor of the Baar Wet Cell Battery System (the use of wet cell batteries in altmed stems back to psychic and self-declared prophet Edgar Cayce, by the way). The system “is designed to help enhance the body’s natural healing tendencies” by generating “a very, very low electrical flow in the body. Passing this current through various solutions enhances the benefits of the Baar Wet Cell Battery system. This system is said [by …?] to tap into the healing current vibrational medicine researchers [who …?] are discovering.” In other words, it is complete pseudoscientific nonsense.

 

One imagines, though, that it may generate some income for Baar – the Multiple Sclerosis kit goes for $500: “Vibrational solutions such as Gold, Silver, Camphor, etc. are purchased separately and will be determined by the information you are researching. If more than one solution (gold, silver, etc.) is indicated, then purchase an Additional Solution Jar Set (#141) for each. The system must be replenished with new chemicals every 30 days.” Suffice to say, there is no evidence that the concoction has any beneficial effect; indeed, there doesn’t even exist any hypothesis for how it is supposed to achieve any such effect – “introducing vibrations to your body” is a metaphor, and not really a hypothesis until it is cashed out, something that neither Baar nor anyone else has made the faintest attempt to do. Nor have “healing current” his electrical impulses are supposed to “tap into” (also an unexplained figure of speech) actually been discovered; rather, vibrational medicine researchers, whoever they are, are in the process of “discovering” them. Yet Baar is somehow certain that when they do, it will all sort of fit together. One might have thought that, well, in the meantime, he should at least try to investigate whether the devices have any beneficial effects on health whatsoever, but he is of course not going to try to do that, and we all know why not.

 

Baar himself has a “Doctorate in Naturopathy”, and his website seems mostly focused on “Hair Care, Skin Care and Beauty Products [that] are created with unique, safe and effective ingredients” – as the website states, “[o]ur Mind/Body products are in a classification all their own.” Indeed. In fact, even his hair- and skin care and beauty products are promoted with labels like “Edgar Cayce hair care” and “Edgar Cayce skin care”, so we recommend some hesitancy.

 

The website’s healthcare products otherwise include products belonging to virtually any branch of quackery you can think of, from “alkalize” and detox” and aromatherapy to castor oil and homeopathy. (… and lawn care products. Whatever.)

 

Diagnosis: One of many people who invent amazing junk, prop it up with bizarre pseudoscience and magical thinking, and then push it onto people in difficult situations. Good lord. Baar is not unusually influential or anything, but such bullshit needs to be called out and mocked.

 

Hat-tip: Skepdic