Sometimes, living here in the Boston area and spending so much time with the Boston Skeptics can have an insulating effect, to the point where you almost forget that weeds of woo might be growing in your own back yard.

A few months back, I was riding the T when I noticed ads for something called The Lydian Center just down the road in Cambridge. At first glance, these ads (promoting information sessions about health issues) seemed innocuous enough. My BS detector started to go off when I saw that one particular session advocated natural medicine’s role in pregnancy and childbirth. Once I dug a little bit deeper, it became clear to me that the Lydian Center was far worse than those seemingly-benign ads let on.

According to their mission statement, the Lydian Center is “a healing center dedicated to helping children and adults reach their fullest potential.” Well, who doesn’t want to reach their fullest potential? NOT THIS GUY, that’s for sure! And how does the Lydian Center make this happen? Apparently, by promoting every single kind of alt-med woo under the sun. Aside from the usual suspects (Naturopathy, Homeopathy, Hypnotherapy), here  are some highlights:

- Brain Gym: A method “based on the principle that we can educate the whole person through movement,” Brain Gym teaches that “neurologically-specific movements” (whatever those might be) can “take us out of stress, help signals cross the hemispheres of the brain, improve vision, coordination, cognition, and behavior.” This sounds fishy, and a little research shows that Brain Gym has been eviscerated by Ben Goldacre, and was the subject of a letter-writing campaign by Sense about Science, the British Neuroscience Association, and the Physiological Society. Not exactly promising credentials…

- Sound Healing: Music soothes the savage beast, as they say, but apparently it can do SO MUCH MORE! Sound Healing is based on the idea that because “we are actually only .001% solid” and “[t]he other 99.9999 of us is vibration,” sound can be used to do… well, exactly what it does is unclear. But it involves listening to perfect fifths played on tuning forks! To quote:

The pure, linear harmonics created by these perfect fifths enter the system in two ways:
1. the frequencies can actually move cranial bones, by setting up wave forms that move through the cerebrospinal fluid and release blocks in connective tissue, and
2. the frequencies enter the hearing mechanism, and are translated into electro-magnetic signals, which promote flexibility within the nervous system. The effect is extremely relaxing.

Leaving aside, for a moment, the fact that ALL sounds are vibrations entering your “hearing mechanism,” and the fact that all sensory input is conveyed by “electro-magnetic signals” (seeing as it’s how nerves work and all), what intrigues me is how occasionally listening to tones on a tuning fork could possibly counterbalance all of the other noises we hear all day, every day. Nor do I see how that can be any more relaxing than listening to good music in the comfort of my own home. Call me closed-minded, I guess!

- Colon Hydrotherapy: I think this one speaks for itself…

- Infant Chiropractic: This is, perhaps, the most insidious thing at the Lydian Center. We all know how dangerous chiropractic can be to people of ANY age, so somehow I’m not comforted by the Center’s claims of using an “entirely non-force approach.” The Center encourages chiropractic care for such infant maladies as “neurological delays, unequal use of the limbs, learning disabilities, language delays” and more, but many of these symptoms could be signs of serious developmental problems. Even if the Center uses a “non-force” approach and avoids damaging infants with rough spinal manipulations, to suggest that unproven chiropractic modalities can “cure” anything might lead parents to forego legitimate treatment. For children this young, such a delay could be the difference-maker in catching a condition while it is still treatable.

In closing, the lesson I hope you take from this brief foray into the Lydian Center’s wacky ideas is that you can never really close your eyes to the world around you. Even in Cambridge, the home of august institutions like Harvard, MIT, and Mount Auburn Hospital, the weeds of woo can take root. It is our duty to make sure these weeds don’t choke the life out of our friends and loved ones, or block them from the light of reason.

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