Has anyone tried out bio resonance treatments, such as the Oberon machine? I'm very skeptical (tried it only once since it's very expensive and not covered by insurance) but willing to give it a try.

Here is a link that gives a brief explanation of what it is.

Oberon system device Energy Medicine - Energetic Medicine

and a short film by BBC (in the context of helping ppl stop smoking)

From what I understood, the machine scans your body for organ oscillations and then compares your frequencies to that of other (healthy) individuals from the database. When there is a big discrepancy between your frequencies and that of other healthy people, it is assumed that there is a health issue in the respective organ. So the machine serves as a diagnostic tool, preventive care, as well as therapy tool.

To me it all sounds like a rip off to be honest, but I would do anything to get healthy if there is even a tiny chance that it might help. I have found many websites which warn against falling for it and even go as far as calling it pseudoscience. Here is one example:

» Zap! There goes your hard earned money

I know two people who claim that it has helped them. One of them is indeed feeling better and is actually able to work full time after being seriously ill for one year. Not sure if it was that person's faith and willpower or the machine which helped. A friend of a friend even claimed to have cured herself of cancer through the oberon machine :O

I would like to hear about other people's experiences and opinions on bioresonance therapy. Thanks

[Perna]

Now, apart from the observation that you can find Star Trek fans in every walk of life, notice there what is presented as fact, and what is caveat.

From: Who's holding the smoking gun on Bioresonance? - Bad Science

I don't think we have that yet in the United States, at least I haven't heard of it, though I know it is the rage in UK/EU. I don't really know anything about it but it does not sound very likely to ever be mainstream.

[hamster-bamster]

There is no such thing as "energetic medicine". Any mentions of energies mean that this is a scam. There is a valid place to talk about "energies" in a symbolic, metaphorical sense, but to talk about energies as if they existed is quackery.

I have not checked your links - I am just applying the general high-level rule on recognizing quackery.

If you are curious, I would check whether QuackWatch has written about it.

[hamster-bamster]

Originally Posted by chocmouse

From what I understood,

1) the machine scans your body for organ oscillations and then compares your frequencies to that of other (healthy) individuals from the database. When there is a big discrepancy between your frequencies and that of other healthy people, it is assumed that there is a health issue in the respective organ. So the machine serves as a diagnostic tool, preventive care, as well as therapy tool.[/url]

2) I know two people who claim that it has helped them. One of them is indeed feeling better and is actually able to work full time after being seriously ill for one year. Not sure if it was that person's faith and willpower or the machine which helped. A friend of a friend even claimed to have cured herself of cancer through the oberon machine :O

On (1) - it is obvious that this is a scam. This is the kind of a typically modern scam. So, in the past, there was snake oil. But now, people have become too educated - superficially - to be good targets for snake oil peddlers. By saying that people have become educated superficially, I mean that people have become used to saying all sorts of long words without paying much attention to what those words mean, if anything. So when a modern person sees "organ oscillations", he or she rejoices because the word "oscillation", unlike the word combination "snake oil", sounds scientific. And that is good enough and you can peddle products by using the word "oscillation" - oh, and yes, "frequency" is also a good word for this kind of ad copy.

On (2) - the placebo effect is real.

I agree with some of that but... people have never become too educated nor too sophisticated to resist snake oil and scams. I would bet there is a larger market for snake oil/scams now than at any point in history.

edit: By "people" I mean the general public, not everyone

[hamster-bamster]

Originally Posted by George H.

I agree with some of that but... people have never become too educated nor too sophisticated to resist snake oil and scams. I would bet there is a larger market for snake oil/scams now than at any point in history.

edit: By "people" I mean the general public, not everyone

Point taken. I was just saying that nowadays, you have a much better chance of selling your snake oil if you put some sort of quasi-scientific gibberish that does not make any sense to anybody who cares to try to make sense of it, but does consist of scientific-sounding words...

... on the bottle with the snake oil!