Dear katlaughing:

Of course not. Although in 2001 I had surgery at the Pacific Medical Center and can attest to the flakiness of the 'support' facilities available. What I suspect happened must have been something like this:

    A while back a committee of the NIH passed a resolution endorsing acupuncture. It seems the members had been split for quite a while, with the 'anti' group having a clear majority. Then one day, when most of the 'anti' group was out of town, a special agenda was introduced and the resolution was passed. Pure burocratic manipulation. The 'antis' were furious. And rightly so. This kind of sleaze has no place in national policy.

Each hospital is a different case. I wager, though, that all are similar.

PS. By 'serious check' I mean exactly the kind of thing Wolfgang did. When the majority of the validation comes from one person, it's a red flag to any researcher. The man that did most of the Reiki studies, Daniel Wirth, is a real piece of work. His last project involved the efficacy of prayer at an 'in vitro' fertility clinic. The man given as the head of the project says he never heard of it until 6 months after it was finished. The head of the clinic, Dr Cha, isn't responding to comminications and may have gone home to Korea. Since the clinic was associated with Harvard, the story got plenty of press. Anything Wirth says about anything needs to be checked twice.