So my Mom was recently diagnosed with shingles.

[Rainforestgoddess]

They caught it early, and she got a dose of antivirals, which is excellent. She also had reiki treatments. 'distance' reiki treatments. A month after diagnosis, she is pretty well pain free.

Guess which of the two above she credits with her pain free state?

[uppityperson]

1. sigh. Glad she feels better and too bad she paid a scammer.

[Rainforestgoddess]

2. It's not too much money

And she can afford it, but it pisses me off.

[Marrah_G]

3. If it made her feel better and didn't cost her too much...

.. you might not want to voice your concerns to her. Sometimes belief can be a powerful medicine.

[Rainforestgoddess]

4. Oh, I realise that

I just said 'whatever works, Mom' to her. If the placebo effect helps her out, that's great. But she seems to have forgotten the course of antivirals, probably because the effect wasn't immediate, but rather kicked in around the time of the reiki.

At least her reiki practitioner (this term seems to give it too much credibility) is actually trained in Japanese massage as well, so when she goes, she gets a nice relaxation massage, which is worth it, as far as I'm concerned. It's paying for the distance treatments that seems so dodgy to me.

[LeftishBrit]

5. Glad she's feeling better!

The big problem would be IMO if she refused the antivirals because of the reiki. Fortunately she didn't.

[Rainforestgoddess]

6. Thanks!

And you're correct, of course. That is the danger of woo like homeopathy.