An Actual Med School Was Going to Teach Spoon Bending

'Medical quackery'
By Michael Harthorne,  Newser Staff
Posted Jun 3, 2016 1:39 PM CDT
An Actual Med School Was Going to Teach Spoon Bending
"Instead, only try to realize the truth: There is no spoon...bending workshop. Because it's been canceled."   (Shutterstock)

Whoa. Medical faculty at the University of Alberta in Canada booked a reiki expert to lead a spoon-bending workshop—and no, this is not a joke. “This experiential workshop will teach a guided meditation/energy transfer technique which will have most participants bending cutlery using the power of their minds," says a poster for the workshop, "Spoon Bending and the Power of the Mind," per the CBC. The poster boasts that "typically 75% or more" of workshop attendees will be able to bend spoons with nothing but their brain. The spoons were to be provided.

“Just let that sink in," writes one skeptic at Science Blogs. "Whoever runs the Pediatric Integrative Medicine Rounds thought that it was a good idea to invite an 'energy healer' to demonstrate how to use the 'power of the mind' to bend a spoon!” Unfortunately for aspiring spoon-benders, the workshop was canceled after a law professor at the University of Alberta tweeted a photo of the poster, bringing countless accusations of promoting "medical quackery" against the university. “Bending spoons is a great entry level activity. Sadly my med school taught science," tweeted a New England pediatrician. “Solid skills for every physician to possess. Yikes," added a Canadian researcher and city councillor. (More quackery stories.)

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