Hocus Pocus in Hong Kong

In Hong Kong, it is relatively easy to come across events listings that contain plenty of alternative and New Age practices. These kooky courses and weird workshops prey on gullible people willing to pay good money that could otherwise be better spent getting a decent education or pragmatic advice for themselves, or in helping those less fortunate than themselves.

Since the events listings reveal an embarrassment of crackpot classes allegedly taking place in Hong Kong, this blog will start another HKSAR list called Hong Kong Hocus Pocus. This will be a weekly or twice-weekly posting exposing all manner of Hocus Pocus happenings in Hong Kong. Enjoy!

Hocus Pocus here is defined as practices that involve chicanery, deception, hoaxes, quacks, shams, and trickery. By applying a dose of critical thinking, these scam practices can be exposed as nonsense.

Here is another example of the kind of Hocus Pocus happenings in Hong Kong (reference: Messianic Flyer).

Healing Hands Hocus Pocus

Q: Why do otherwise intelligent people fall for scams?

A: Because they believe they are intelligent and therefore do not think they are stupid enough to be tricked.

Reiki rears its ugly head again in Hong Kong. Pic from here.

Apparently, reiki practitioners use their hands "to transfer qi, or life-force energy. It is based on the principle that we all have qi running through us - the more we have the happier and healthier we feel. If our qi is low, we fall ill or feel stressed."

What a load of mumbo jumbo ... we may as well substitute "qi" for "midichlorians" and it will make just as much sense (i.e. nonsense). Here's the verbal diarrhoea quote from the news story):

"Reiki doesn't require anything special. Just place your hands on anyone you want to heal. You can use it on your family members or yourself."

Oh OK then. If a person is feeling unhealthy, they should just lay their own hands upon themselves ... free of charge ... and they will miraculously heal themselves. If reiki is so wonderful, why hasn't it shaken up the public health system in Japan (its place of origin) and other countries?

It is unfortunate that the Fifth Evolution Asia Yoga Conference will be held at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre on June 9 to 12. Charlatans, crackpots, charmers and seductresses with sexy bodies will promote reiki, yoga, pilates, astrology, nia technique, ayurveda, qi gong and meditation to gullible, witless attendees who have lots of cash to splash and few brain cells to use.


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Healing hands (The Standard)

Ivy Ong-Wood
Tuesday, May 31, 2011

As a physiotherapist, Ivy Mok Ka-pik is in the business of healing. The 31-year- old has a bachelor's degree in physiotherapy from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University but she was eager to add to her knowledge.

"Some of my friends took a reiki course and told me how good it was. As I was interested in alternative therapy, I thought reiki would be helpful in hands- on treatment," she said.

After returning from a two-day "attunement" course, Mok tested to see if the technique worked. "I had a client with chronic back pain. She had tried physiotherapy and acupuncture for a year but with no significant improvement. So I gave her two sessions of nothing but reiki.

"After the second session she called me up and asked me: 'What did you do? All I saw was you putting your hand on my back. But today I woke up and the pain had disappeared.' So I knew it was working."

So what is reiki? According to the International Center for Reiki Training, it is a Japanese technique developed by Mikao Usui in 1922 for stress reduction and also healing.

Practitioners lay on hands to transfer qi, or life-force energy. It is based on the principle that we all have qi running through us - the more we have the happier and healthier we feel. If our qi is low, we fall ill or feel stressed.

Mok has been a physiotherapist for nine years and has been practicing reiki for two. But you don't have to be a professional healer to benefit from the technique, she said. "Many of the friends who took the course aren't therapists. Reiki doesn't require anything special. Just place your hands on anyone you want to heal. You can use it on your family members or yourself. I don't feel tired so easily now that I practice it."

She has met her share of skeptics, of course. "I tell them be open and pay attention to how they feel, not what they think. Most patients don't get any special feeling during a session but find they have recovered after that."

Mok mostly uses the technique in addition to her other therapies. "I don't think you can be a therapist using only reiki."

During the session, she lays her hands on the patient and taps into both their qis. "Sometimes, I feel abnormal pain and discomfort on body parts other than what a patient has told me and I will ask. I've had patients asking me in surprise: 'How did you know I have a migraine?'"

Usually, Mok uses reiki for chronic cases - such as when a patient has tried different treatments without results. "It's like a last resort."

You can learn more about reiki, yoga, pilates, astrology, nia technique, ayurveda, qi gong and meditation at the Fifth Evolution Asia Yoga Conference, to be held at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre on June 9 to 12. The conference, which is sponsored by Pure Yoga, offers almost 200 classes for all levels, with over 60 different styles of yoga presented by more than 50 world-renowned faculty members.

Shopaholics are also catered for - a more than 20,000-square-foot Yoga Bazaar selling yoga products, books, DVDs and CDs. Open to the public, it will also hold yoga demonstrations and events.

#5 Hong Kong Hocus Pocus

What glows around comes around
Ruby Ong leads a beginners' level living-light energy healing workshop. Reflections, 52 Tang Lung St, Causeway Bay, HK$2,700 (US$335).

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#25 Hong Kong Hocus Pocus

Bodily sounds
Angie Tourani gives a free introduction to BodyTalk therapy, ahead of workshops. Rm 708 Rightful Centre, 11 Tak Hing St, Kowloon; workshops, HK$8,800 (US$1,100).

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#3 Hong Kong Hocus Pocus

Crystal method
Jacqui Gilbert leads an isis channelling workshop with Serapis Bey. Reflections, 52 Tang Lung St, Causeway Bay. HK$1,000 (US$125); private sessions, HK$1,200/1hr (US$150).

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#17 Hong Kong Hocus Pocus

Heavenly bodies
Mag Fung leads a six-week holistic workshop on creating the body you want. Feb 5 (Thursdays), 7pm-9.15pm, Shakti Healing Circle, 3/F Waga Commercial Centre, 99 Wellington St, Central, HK$1,800 (US$230).

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#13 Hong Kong Hocus Pocus

Off with the fairies
Rosina Maria Arquati leads a Night With Fairies workshop. New Age Shop, 7 Old Bailey St, SoHo, HK$300 (US$37).

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#26 Hong Kong Hocus Pocus

Power points
Kari Schroeder gives a free talk on matrix energetics. 7pm-9pm, Balance Health, 27/F, 3-5 Arbuthnot Rd, Central.

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#7 Hong Kong Hocus Pocus

Along for the ride
Laurence Lucas leads a workshop called Riding the Corridors of Time. New Age Shop, 7 Old Bailey St, SoHo. HK$500 (US$62).

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#32 Hong Kong Hocus Pocus

We've only just begun
Elisabeth Jensen leads a beginners' Isis Lotus healing workshop. Bishop Lei Hotel, 4 Robinson Rd, Mid-Levels, HK$2,900 (US$372).

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#16 Hong Kong Hocus Pocus

Think about it
Renee Claire and Rosina Maria Arquati lead meditation and channelling. Feb 3 (Tuesdays), 7.15pm-9pm, New Age Shop, 7 Old Bailey St, SoHo, HK$150 (US$19).

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#18 Hong Kong Hocus Pocus

Reach for the stars
John Fyfe leads a Vedic astrology workshop. Feb 10, 7pm-9.30pm, Shakti Healing Circle, 3/F Waga Commercial Centre, 99 Wellington St, Central, HK$560 (US$70).

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#23 Hong Kong Hocus Pocus

Bliss and make up
Aimie Mok leads a love magic workshop. New Age Shop, 7 Old Bailey St, SoHo, HK$580 (US$72).

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Hocus Pocus For Premiership Players

It appears some local bloggers (e.g. Ulaca and In Black and White) like to comment on football or soccer, particularly but not exclusively from England’s Premier League. I’m also a fan so I’ve been thinking about posting something about soccer but with HKSARblog’s usual skepticism about certain practices.

So how about: Desperate and Injured Premiership Players Place Faith on Placental Fluid Miracle Cure?
The media circus started when Arsenal’s star striker Robin van Persie injured his ankle a week ago when playing for Holland against Italy. The initial diagnosis was that he had a partial tear in his ankle ligaments and would be sidelined for six weeks. He then announced that he was going to Belgrade in Serbia to seek a “mysterious housewife” who apparently can help players recover quicker by using placental fluid. Initially, the media did not know much about the treatment, by first saying that the woman massaged placental fluid taken from horses on the injured area. Next, it was dripped on. And now, there are reports that injections of placental fluid are involved. No one appears to know exactly what this alternative therapy is, or who this woman is.

Despite this, it later emerged that a whole gaggle (plethora? pile? posse?) of premiership players (e.g. Liverpool’s Glen Johnson, Fabio Aurelio, Yossi Benayoun and Albert Riera; Chelsea’s Frank Lampard; Manchester City's Vincent Kompany and Pablo Zabaleta) and some top European players have also been treated by this “Mariana Kovacevic” who has at least three aliases and four different addresses. Why all the secrecy? Tax evasion perhaps, or something more sinister?

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger (usually considered rational, relative to other Premiership managers that is) said he “recognised the psychological benefits such a treatment may have on an injured player”. Yes, Arsene may be on to something here. As with many alternative therapies, the placebo effect can sometimes be significant.

Furthermore, we are talking here about elite athletes in the prime of their lives, whose body conditioning can be significantly different compared with “normal” people (i.e. ordinary citizens who do not maintain their bodies at above-average condition on a full-time and prolonged basis). For instance, if you treat a bunch of injured people with the same therapy and divide them in to two groups (one group being young elite athletes; the other being older, unfit and overweight people), it would not be unreasonable to perhaps expect a difference between the groups in their recovery period and performance. A good example would be swine flu: there have been cases of professional football players who have caught swine flu, and none have died. Whereas in other demographics, some people have died from swine flu.

This is why proper clinical trials should always be arranged, rather than relying on testimonies; in this case testimonies from superfit elite athletes.

Still, all this Hocus Pocus malarkey in the Premiership is interesting to follow. Eventually, the truth will out.

#9 Hong Kong Hocus Pocus

Cutting ties
Daniel Darby gives a free introductory talk on his cord-cutting ceremony, ahead of workshops. New Age Shop, 7 Old Bailey St, SoHo.

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#34 Hong Kong Hocus Pocus

Bigger and better
Renee Claire leads a magnified healing workshop. New Age Shop, 7 Old Bailey St, SoHo, HK$1,900 (US$244).

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#4 Hong Kong Hocus Pocus

Hands up
Valerie Demery leads a beginners' reiki workshop. Ivy Hse, 18-20 Wyndham St, Central, HK$1,800 (US$225).

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#22 Hong Kong Hocus Pocus

Light reading
Sue Jamieson gives a free talk on her new book, Light on Life. Today, 7.15pm-9.30pm, New Age Shop, 7 Old Bailey St, SoHo.

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#19 Hong Kong Hocus Pocus

Home in
Renee Claire and Rosina Maria Arquati lead a weekly meditation and channelling group. (Tuesdays), 7.15pm-9pm, New Age Shop, 7 Old Bailey St, SoHo, HK$150 (US$19).

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#31 Hong Kong Hocus Pocus

Chakra it out
Aimie Mok leads a chakra healing workshop. New Age Shop, 7 Old Bailey St, SoHo, HK$180 (US$23).

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