#1732: Alice Hess

We’ve already covered Richard Gordon, the inventor of “Quantum Touch”, a healing technique that involves both Quantum – which in this case has nothing to do with quantum physics but everything to do with soul stuff and prana – and touch, and who promotes the idea that “all healing is self-healing,” which if it were correct would make quantum touch superfluous. Oh, well.

It doesn’t matter how silly the idea is. There are, apparently, plenty of people who have endorsed and are promoting the technique, for instance through the website quantumtouch (the “shop” section is prominently displayed). One of them is Alice Hess, a retired nurse anesthetist who is not only a Certified Quantum-Touch Practitioner and Instructor, but also does Usui/Karuna Reiki, Craniosacral therapy, Reconnective Healing® (once again: that a therapy is a registered trademark is pretty solid evidence that it is bullshit and developed not with the health of patients in mind; Hess is a “certified Level 3” practitioner), the Vogel crystal technique, and something called Integrative Energy Therapy. Well, energy healing is a nebulous staple among New Age faith healing techniques, but what, exactly, is integrative energy healing? Well, first you need to forget about the “exactly”; the rough, handwaving idea is that “Integrated Energy Therapy is the next level to heal with the energy of angels.” So, it’s a type of angel therapy. According to one Carmela Vuoso-Murphy (her website is here) it was developed by one Stevan J. Thayer at the Center of Being, which presumably is precisely the kind of “research” institution the name suggests that it is, and which “uses a divine angelic energy ray to work directly with your 12-Strand Spiritual DNA.” How? By “safely and gently releasing limiting energy patterns of your past, empowering and balancing your life in the present, and helps you to reach for the stars as you evolve into your future.” Alice Hess has also apparently “studied with Native American Elders in MN, SD and MT.” I am sure they must have been impressed with her ability to integrate elements of their teachings into her own personal brand of New Age thought.

Diagnosis: Ok, there are plenty of people like Hess around, and no particular reason to single her out. But really, the concentrated effort to promote desperately ridiculous New Age religion to real health practitioners is pretty dismaying. As a nurse anesthetist she was presumably helping real people. She is not helping anyone anymore; quite the opposite.