Deadly bullshit therapy kills Quebec woman
We don’t often talk about it (since we usually have bigger fish to fry), but alternative therapies can be just as dangerous as any other form of superstitious. Most often, the danger in these therapies lies in the fact that “patients” often favor these pseudo-scientific treatments to the real deal, and end up paying for it later. Comedian Andy Kaufman, when diagnosed with cancer, spend his hard earned money on psychic surgery with predictable results. Steve Jobs tried some bullshit diet for the first six months of his cancer treatment rather than rely on “conventional medicine”, and that cost him too.
Speaking of cost, it also amazes me how expensive bullshit medicine really is. Take the case of a young Quebec woman named Chantal Lavigne who recently died of hyperthermia in a therapy session dubbed “dying in consciousness” (insert tasteless joke here). Her guru, a woman named Gabrielle Fréchette -claiming to be channeling the Biblical figure of Melchisedek- wrapped up her followers in plastic and blankets and forced them to hyperventilate. After about 9 hours of this nonsense, Chantal collapsed and was taken to hospital where she was pronounced dead.
Some of her students have paid her over 20,000 dollars for the privilege of being put in danger for no real reason whatsoever. It’s stunning how much some people are willing to spend on fake medicine, especially when these dangerous treatments end up being so deadly. It’s not the first time these kinds of “sweat lodges’ have caused unnecessary deaths. Remember James Ray? He ended up getting 2 years in jail when his bullshit cost the lives of three people (and he got off lucky).
If all of this hasn’t made you mad, perhaps the fact that Gabrielle still plans to hold more of these sessions in the coming months will do the trick. While she maintains that she did her part by calling 911 when Chantal collapsed, it was her direct actions that caused the death of that woman. The fact that people pay her exorbitant amounts of money proves that her “patients” put their trust, and their lives, in the hands of a charlatan. That alone makes her culpable in Chantal death, and I hope the Quebec government agrees with me.
from The Good Atheist
