This is the story of a little girl of fourteen and the ambitions of her mother whom we met at the studios of Live India TV channel on the evening of 18th June. The story begins on this date, when I received a call from the channel asking if I could visit their studios if I was in Delhi. When the call arrived, Shubrum, Rakshi and I were on our way over to their house, after a very important and successful meeting with the present director of Vigyana Prasar Network, Dr.Anuj Sinha. Since Shubrum had a meeting, Rakshi and I decided to go for the live broadcast to investigate the case of this girl, Ranjana. It was the claim of her family and some others that she had the unique power to see blindfolded. Some of these folks also accompanied her to the studio. It was claimed that she had been given a certificate by the Ministry of Human Resource Development that she had the power of seeing with a cloth tied over her eyes! That was supposed to be in recognition of her ‘unique talents’. It was quite clear that this girl who was from a village near Varanasi wanted to go places! Read the full story
The treatment know as Cytotron therapy has no scientific basis and is not noted in any approved text book on cancer therapy or prescribed by any oncologists. But for the past few months this “therapy” has been advertised as a cure for cancer. In its latest avatar, the ad carried the name of a doctor. After we had threatened to complain to the State Medical Council and get his name struck from the medical register for advertising unproved remedies, it disappeared.
But the ads continue to run today. Since the matter is an offense under the Drugs and Magic remedies (Objectionable Advertisements Act), we have brought this to the attention of the assistant drugs controller for Dakshina Kannada for necessary action under the act.
It is criminal to raise false hope in patients by promising cures for which there is no evidence. The entire ad is misleading. We could as wel
l make up one as follows:
Ms. Meena Kumari (name changed), 53 years old, complained of dysentery and was diagnosed with cancer etc. etc. She went in for a quack treatment at ABCD clinic for XYZ therapy and passed away within 3 months. Which goes to prove that XYZ therapy is fake and can be fatal within a short time. It is not known whether the cancer was the cause of her mortality or the quack therapy that promised a very rapid cure.
I request oncologists and physicians to take up this issue with their respective bodies and announce to the public the facts about whether this therapy is approved for public use. In general treatments for diseases are not advertised in India, except by quacks, which should make us suspicious of the antecedents of the treatment and the administrators of the same.
Over the past few weeks the Indian media has been bringing to light stories about holy men indulging in not-so-holy activities! Well, screaming headlines and video footage bordering on pornography for the sensation mongering media have brought to the fore what religion is about- sex! If one were to look for the common factor between jihadis, swamis and the priests of the Roman Catholic Church it could be only one- obsession with sex.
As has been said before, one craves more for what one has been deprived of, and sex is the one thing that has been denied to all these categories. It is not that such behaviour does not occur between followers of other religions in similar circumstances, but their number is significantly less and hence does not hit the headlines as often. However, some such acts have been reported among Jains and Buddhists too. Read the full story
We have reported on many of the past challenges issued by rationalists to purveyors of supernatural beliefs. The challenger in many of these cases (1,2,3,4,5), Mr Narendra Nayak, president of the Federation of Rationalist Associations of India, has a long-standing challenge issued specifically for astrologers. Here it is in his own words:
“We shall provide the date, time and place of birth of 10 individuals along with the appropriate solutions. The challenger can cast the horoscope and state the following within 90% limits of accuracy- is the individual male or female, dead or alive. ” Read the full story
In this sequel to what I had written about my last trip to Uttarakhand, I am reporting on my latest visit to this state. This is my third visit to this area; the first was in 2006 when I had been to Kotdwar and Pithoragarh and the second was in April,2009 when I had been to Uttarakashi and Hardwar.
Like the previous two this visit is also to train youngsters in developing scientific temper in connection with what we call as our “Miracle Exposure Program“. We have been conducting hundreds of these in collaboration with various organizations, mainly the National Council for Science and Technology Communications, popularly called the NCSTC. This organization had started supporting our mentor Premanand in his training programs and had already published a book called “Seeing is not Believing” in Hindi and English. They had also made a kit for presenting the same, and have been engaged in such activities for nearly three decades. Read the full story
These challenges were released to the Nepal press on the occasion of a press conference at Kathmandu on the 25th of October and the same are applicable to those in India too! Read the full story
A few days ago we published a report on Basava Premanand’s deathbed statement, in anticipation of the lies that usually follow the passing of great men of reason. Not to be undone, the liars are at it again. A blog dedicated to the conman, fraud and alleged rapist Sai Baba has begun the work of misrepresenting Premanand’s legacy. The first thing to remember before analyzing the events here is that such declarations as made by Premanand are a precautionary measure against exactly the type of attacks that we are seeing from these folks. The second thing to remember is that Premanand was one of the most influential critics of Saibaba. Keeping these two things in perspective, let us take a look at the facts. Read the full story
Bangalore, 11/12 August 2009
The “Indian Silicon Valley” is now in ‘panic’. The pandemic of swine flu hasepts got the better of the outwardly modern Bangaloreans. You see boys and girls promenading through the air-conditioned malls in their trademark tight jeans, with inane slogans blazed across their t-shirts. Now, after the swine-flu, they have an extra-fitting added - a mask. It looks like they have taken a fancy for this stuff. With the mask, they now look exactly like pigs!
The morning newspapers scream that the swine flu toll has risen to seven. According to one newspaper the total number of positive cases of the viral disease detected in the country as on 10 August 2009 stood at 864 and the number of confirmed cases in Karnataka stood at 92. (Deccan Chronicle, Bangalore, 11 August 2009). Schools in the city are reported to have been closed.
After having had a light-hearted discussion in the morning with a colleague about the irrational behavior of those who are affected by the fear of swine-flu, I was jolted in the afternoon by a cell-phone SMS that reads: “Pass this message to everyone. Use ‘Nilgiri Oil’ drops on handkerchiefs and masks as one of the preventive measures against swine flu (NIV) - National Institute of Virology.”
The National Institute of Virology in Pune is a pre-eminent institution in India, doing solid research in viral infections and other related fields. And here is a message straight from the horse-mouth advising me to panic and make others panic! As a common man with scanty knowledge of viral infections and the possible medical properties of Eucalyptus Oil (commonly known as Nilgiri Oil in this part of the world, though the tree is not indigenous to Nilgiri Hills, or even India), what should I do? Should I forward the message to my colleagues, friends, and relatives to save them from an imminent attack of the deadly swine-flu? Here is a simple remedy available even in provision stores and with street peddlers! These were the thoughts that flashed across my mind in an instant. Read the full story
June 2009. Itarsi, Madhya Pradesh.
I was accompanying Prof. Narendra Nayak on his tour of MP and Bihar, conducting workshops exposing the miracle-men (and women!). Itarsi was reeling under scorching heat. We regularly gulped chilled bottled water to get some relief from the debilitating heat. Power cuts and load shedding - scheduled and unscheduled - added to the misery of the people. Business establishments - including roadside juice parlors - had installed diesel generators to get over the frequent power cuts. Sitting there in a tiny room in President’s Hotel, opposite Itarsi Railway Station, I could hear the booming sound of generators. I read in the newspapers that the whole of the State was similarly affected from a delayed monsoon. Wells and lakes had dried up. The Hitavada reported (June 19, 2009, Jabalpur edition) from the state capital, Bhopal, that the water level of Upper Lake, the life-line of the city, was at 1674ft- the lowest in its recorded history. In many parts of the city, police were called in to control the crowd collecting drinking water. It is thus only natural that the state government explored all available avenues to lessen the hardships of its people or at least to divert the wrath of its citizens.
Read the full story
The Federation of Indian Rationalist Associations had announced a challenge to astrologers to predict the results of the 2009 elections. On the 15th of May, I received an unsolicited email from info@dhyanfoundation.com stating that:
“astrology is a perfect science but if tied wid maya (charges, power etc.) then it looses its power so people who sell dis art in no way go beyond probability…….Ther r forces which run creation and also u n me n also this so called rationalist” these forces in do form of an energy field r visible around an individual or his pic its possible to tell his emotional and physicall(sic) state. I invite this Mr.rationalist to give us at DHYAN FOUNDATION ten pics of his choice of seriously ill n healthy people as a mix n we will tell how many of them r seriously ill n how many r healthy.if he wants to give pic of lok sabha candidates then its possible to tell if we have date n time of d election results, wether he is winning or loosing all dis wid 90% accuracy.”
All this from a person (?) who says:
” u wrote an interesting article, normally I don respond mself but this being a serious issue n u being a serious journo I thought dat I should bring some things to your notice”.
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