---
title: "List of topics characterized as pseudoscience"
chunk: 8/18
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_topics_characterized_as_pseudoscience"
category: "reference"
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
date_saved: "2026-05-05T03:29:53.539791+00:00"
instance: "kb-cron"
---

Earthing therapy or grounding is a therapy that is claimed to ease pain, provide a better night's sleep, and assist with symptoms of inflammation by being in direct physical contact with the ground or a device connected to electrical ground. Practitioners claim that Earth has an excess of electrons which people are missing due to insulating shoes and ground cover. Being in electrical contact with Earth is claimed to provide the body with those excess electrons, which then act as antioxidants. A 2012 systematic review study showed inconclusive results related to methodological issues across the literature. Subsequently, a 2017 systematic review of the benefits of spending time in forests demonstrated positive health effects, but not enough to generate clinical practice guidelines or demonstrate causality. Electrohomeopathy (or Mattei cancer cure) is a derivative of homeopathy invented in the 19th century by Count Cesare Mattei. The name is derived from a combination of electro (referring to an electric bio-energy content supposedly extracted from plants and of therapeutic value, rather than electricity in its conventional sense) and homeopathy (referring to an alternative medicinal philosophy developed by Samuel Hahnemann in the 18th century). Electrohomeopathy has been defined as the combination of electrical devices and homeopathy. Electromagnetic hypersensitivity (EHS) – reported sensitivity to electric and magnetic fields or electromagnetic radiation of various frequencies at exposure levels well below established safety standards. Symptoms are inconsistent, but can include headache, fatigue, difficulty sleeping and similar non-specific indications. Provocation studies find that the discomfort of sufferers is unrelated to hidden sources of radiation and "no scientific basis currently exists for a connection between EHS and exposure to [electromagnetic fields]."
Energy medicine, energy therapy, energy healing, vibrational medicine, psychic healing, spiritual medicine, or spiritual healing are branches of alternative medicine based on a pseudoscientific belief that healers can channel healing energy into a patient and effect positive results. This idea itself contains several methods: hands-on, hands-off and distant (or absent) where the patient and healer are in different locations. While early reviews of the scientific literature on energy healing were equivocal and recommended further research, more recent reviews have concluded that there is no evidence supporting clinical efficiency. Facilitated communication is a scientifically discredited technique that attempts to aid communication by people with autism or other communication disabilities. The facilitator holds the disabled person's arm or hand during this process and attempts to help them move to type on a keyboard or other device. Research indicates that the facilitator is the source of the messages obtained through FC (involving ideomotor effect guidance of the arm of the patient by the facilitator). Studies have consistently found that FC is unable to provide the correct response to even simple questions when the facilitator does not know the answers to the questions (e.g., showing the patient but not the facilitator an object). Rapid prompting method - a closely related discredited technique. Fad diet - a diet that becomes popular for a short time, similar to fads in fashion, without being a standard dietary recommendation, and often making pseudoscientific or unreasonable claims for fast weight loss or health improvements. Fad diets are generally restrictive (such as low-calorie diets e.g. fasting, or high protein-low carbohydrate diets e.g. Atkins diet), and are characterized by promises of fast weight loss or great physical health (such as "detoxification" or diets purporting to be alternative cancer treatments). Fad diets are not supported by clinical research and their health recommendations are not peer-reviewed, thus they often make unsubstantiated statements about health and disease. Faith healing – act of curing disease by such means as prayer and laying on of hands. There is no material benefit observed in excess of that expected by the placebo effect. The Feldenkrais Method is a type of exercise therapy devised by Israeli Moshé Feldenkrais (1904–1984) during the mid-20th century. The method is claimed to reorganize connections between the brain and body and so improve body movement and psychological state. There is no good medical evidence that the Feldenkrais method confers any health benefits. It is not known if it is safe or cost-effective, but researchers do not believe it poses serious risks. Functional medicine is a form of alternative medicine that encompasses a number of unproven and disproven methods and treatments. Its proponents claim that it focuses on the "root causes" of diseases based on interactions between the environment and the gastrointestinal, endocrine and immune systems to develop "individualized treatment plans". Opponents have described it as pseudoscience, quackery and, at its essence, a re-branding of complementary and alternative medicine. Germanic New Medicine – Sometime after his son's death in 1978 Ryke Geerd Hamer developed testicular cancer; believing there was a link between the two events Hamer developed "Germanic New Medicine" (GNM). According to GNM no real diseases exist; rather, what established medicine calls a "disease" is actually a "special meaningful program of nature" (sinnvolles biologisches Sonderprogramm) to which bacteria, viruses and fungi belong. Hamer's GNM claims to explain every disease and treatment according to those premises and to thereby obviate traditional medicine. The cure is always the resolving of the conflict. Some treatments like chemotherapy or pain relieving drugs like morphine are deadly, according to Hamer. These "laws" are dogmas of GNM, not laws of nature or medicine, and are at odds with scientific understanding of human physiology. Germ theory denialism – the pseudoscientific belief that germs do not cause infectious disease and that the germ theory of disease is wrong. Hair analysis is, in mainstream scientific usage, the chemical analysis of a hair sample. The use of hair analysis in alternative medicine as a method of investigation to assist alternative diagnosis is controversial and its use in this manner has been opposed repeatedly by the AMA because of its unproven status and its potential for health care fraud. Health bracelets and various healing jewelry such as ionized bracelets, hologram bracelets and magnetic jewelry, are purported to improve the health, heal, or improve the chi of the wearer. No claims of effectiveness made by manufacturers have ever been substantiated by independent sources. Hexagonal water – A term used in a marketing scam that claims the ability to create a certain configuration of water that is better for the body. The term "hexagonal water" refers to a cluster of water molecules forming a hexagonal shape that supposedly enhances nutrient absorption, removes metabolic wastes and enhances cellular communication, among other things. Similar to the dihydrogen monoxide hoax, the scam takes advantage of the consumer's limited knowledge of chemistry, physics and physiology. Homeopathy – the belief that a patient with symptoms of an illness can be treated with extremely dilute remedies that are thought to produce those same symptoms in healthy people. These preparations are often diluted beyond the point where any treatment molecule is likely to remain. Studies of homeopathic practice have been largely negative or inconclusive. No scientific basis for homeopathic principles has been substantiated. Bach flower remedies (BFRs) are solutions of brandy and water—the water containing extreme dilutions of flower material developed by Edward Bach, an English homeopath, in the 1930s. Bach claimed that dew found on flower petals retain imagined healing properties of that plant.