Skeptic Meters, Breathing And My Beautiful Philippines

What can I say...I'm one of those super smart and great looking/sexy, know it all skeptics (and so are y'all, well, only if yer on Team Skeptic) so when I discover sumthin'...I'm totally surprised. As you all know I totally heart my beautiful Philippines so much. So they have religious wars, seemingly no separation of church and state and the poverty...oh the poverty, so what. So what that they brag about being the most Catholic nation in S.E.Asia. So what that the witch doctor (daitu) and their *alternative medicine* is still used in many barangays today. This is where I draw the line tho...Buteyko.

So WTF is Buteyko, I'm mean besides bull of the shit...it's breathing; specifically breathing thru the nose, and sometimes hyperventilating. Really peeps I always tell people this, if anyone were to see/feel chi it would be the Asian guy that grew up, err, Asian and studied martial arts (c'est moi). No offense but when white people try and tell me about tai chi and chi gung I roll my eyes. I was the poster boy for alternative medicine at one point. If ginseng and echinachea were fer real, wouldn't I know about that. If the art of healing hands (Reiki) were for real, or shiatsu and accupunture and accupressure were fer real...wouldn't I know that. I think so (1).

I guess click the Buteyko link if you wanna waste your time, or you can just trust and believe me (I have never ever lied in my life) that it is fakey fake. When reading the description in the Filipino newspaper my skeptic meter went off like a drunk Mel Gibson in a kosher supermarket-that means a lot. If this is not written down anywhere, it should be...everyone's skeptic meter should go off when there is any product that claims to cure a whole host of ailments-panacea. The article claims that if one practices this *special* breathing technique then one can cure anything from asthma to a limp dick.

I couldn't resist...I Googled "limp."

Other warning signs are stupido thingies like "the medical establishment doesn't want you to know about this," "proven technique that is centuries old," "it's natural." (2). If you hear or read these things and your skeptic meter is NOT going off, then you need to change the battery in your skeptic meter cause the shit isn't working.

This is the first style I learned. 1972 baby (it kinda sucks cause you end up spitting all over yourself).

So, is it possible that there could be benefits to using this technique...sure. We all need to breath, breathing is cool. In fact I do it everyday. The body needs oxygen and so does the brain. If one uses any breathing technique, esp. combined with what the New Agers call-mindfulness, then of course there will be benefits. One can use any meditation, yoga, Gojo Ryo Karate has cool breathing techniques, tai chi and chi gung are also really effective breathing techniques. The thingy about it is we already know how to breath, naturally. It is fakey fake for anyone to tell you (esp. if they are charging money) that they have cornered the market on breathing. If you just sit in a chair and concentrate on making deep breadths, as opposed to any of the techniques I mentioned, I do not see any difference, well except for your bank account (it will be smaller and...limp).

I'm not sayin' don't breath, I'm sayin' don't spend money learning something that we already do naturally. As those great philosophers from the late 80's said "Don't believe the hype (and don't spend money on it)."

(1) I'm not sayin' that after one of those treatments one will not feel good, what I'm saying is that there are real world, physical (physiological) happenings that make those things work. It's certainly not chi.

(2) Just because something is old and natural doesn't mean that it's correct. For example blood leeching is old, so there.

* Article in GMA News Philippines