ElMondoHummus
0.25 short of being half-witted
http://photoblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/08/02/7227603-desperate-sick-indonesians-lie-across-railroad-tracks-as-therapy
First of all: There's a current flow in standard railroad tracks?
Second: It makes you wonder what exactly convinces them that electric current will cure them. On the one hand, at least this doesn't appear to be the same sort of woo peddling that alt-med practitioners charge for; these patients just go lie down on some tracks. On the other hand, woo is woo, and this is not only not doing them any good, it's exposing them to potential harm. I'm sure anyone but the least agile can get out of the way of an oncoming train, but what other dangers are they exposed to laying there with a train passing? If rocks or other debris are kicked up in passing, that can lead to serious injury, and that's not an impossible scenario.
Still, though, going back to what would motivate them: It's an open question in my mind what sort of mentality thinks that, just because it's an odd sensation that an experience is actually therapeutic. But that's exactly what the placebo effect is, right? People convincing themselves that the treatment is having a positive effect? Even in the absence of objective measurements of such?
Anyway, I'm not really asking that many questions outright about this issue (rather than what in the world could be causing the current on what appears to not be a set of electric train tracks... induction from the sheer mass of the train, perhaps?). I'm more posting this for casual, random discussion about self-therapy and people convincing themselves that it has a real effect. You wonder if part of what drives that is the fact that they feel "something" happening. Or if the cultural "meme" about electric current having curative powers is really that strong in that country, and possibly in other places. Or if this is actually part desperation at the lack of actual cures to chronic problems. Anyway: Discuss!
First of all: There's a current flow in standard railroad tracks?
Second: It makes you wonder what exactly convinces them that electric current will cure them. On the one hand, at least this doesn't appear to be the same sort of woo peddling that alt-med practitioners charge for; these patients just go lie down on some tracks. On the other hand, woo is woo, and this is not only not doing them any good, it's exposing them to potential harm. I'm sure anyone but the least agile can get out of the way of an oncoming train, but what other dangers are they exposed to laying there with a train passing? If rocks or other debris are kicked up in passing, that can lead to serious injury, and that's not an impossible scenario.
Still, though, going back to what would motivate them: It's an open question in my mind what sort of mentality thinks that, just because it's an odd sensation that an experience is actually therapeutic. But that's exactly what the placebo effect is, right? People convincing themselves that the treatment is having a positive effect? Even in the absence of objective measurements of such?
Anyway, I'm not really asking that many questions outright about this issue (rather than what in the world could be causing the current on what appears to not be a set of electric train tracks... induction from the sheer mass of the train, perhaps?). I'm more posting this for casual, random discussion about self-therapy and people convincing themselves that it has a real effect. You wonder if part of what drives that is the fact that they feel "something" happening. Or if the cultural "meme" about electric current having curative powers is really that strong in that country, and possibly in other places. Or if this is actually part desperation at the lack of actual cures to chronic problems. Anyway: Discuss!
