Edwin Frederick Bowers | |
|---|---|
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| Born | 1871 |
| Occupation(s) | Alternative medicine proponent, spiritualist |
Edwin Frederick Bowers (born 1871), best known as Edwin F. Bowers was an American alternative medicine proponent. Styling himself as a medical doctor, he is known for pioneering reflexology during the early decades of the twentieth century.
Bowers with William H. Fitzgerald had invented "Zone therapy", a form of reflexology. In 1917, they collaborated on a book titled Zone Therapy. [1] It has been widely criticized as there is no evidence it is beneficial for any medical condition and has been dismissed as quackery. [2] [3] [4] [5]
Bowers' credentials were called into question. In 1929, the American Medical Association stated:
Nutritionist Bernarr Macfadden promoted Bowers as a doctor of medicine. However, physician Morris Fishbein wrote that "Dr. Bowers is not a doctor of medicine, and the only M.D. he has is the one Macfadden gives him." [7]
In Britain and America of the nineteenth century, male facial hair was considered acceptable or even desirable, with luxurious growth being the ideal. However, as the germ theory of disease became more accepted, the public was urged to eschew items such as long, street-sweeping ladies' dresses and other germ-harboring areas, in order to remove germ contamination. By the 1900s, beards and mustaches themselves were deemed dangerous. In 1916, Bowers contributed an article to McClure's Magazine , calling for clean-shaven faces:
Bowers was a convinced spiritualist. He had defended the fraudulent medium Frank Decker. In his book Spiritualism's Challenge, Bowers made incorrect statements about a magician and was threatened with a lawsuit from the Society of American Magicians. He later removed the incorrect statements from his book. [9]
Bowers held séances at his home in West End Avenue, New York City. At one of these séances, professional photographer William van der Weyde produced an alleged spirit photograph of deceased psychical researcher James H. Hyslop. Bowers and other spiritualists were convinced the photograph was genuine. [10] According to Fulton Oursler the photograph was a fake. Weyde had taken a photograph of Hyslop before his death and had a plate in his possession that had never been developed. [11]
Spiritualism was a social religious movement in the nineteenth century, according to which an individual's awareness persists after death and may be contacted by the living. The afterlife, or the "spirit world", is seen by spiritualists not as a static place, but as one in which spirits continue to evolve. These two beliefs—that contact with spirits is possible, and that spirits are more advanced than humans—lead spiritualists to the belief that spirits are capable of providing useful insight regarding moral and ethical issues, as well as about the nature of God. Some spiritualists will speak of a concept which they refer to as "spirit guides"—specific spirits, often contacted, who are relied upon for spiritual guidance. Emanuel Swedenborg has some claim to be the father of Spiritualism. Spiritism, a branch of spiritualism developed by Allan Kardec and today practiced mostly in Continental Europe and Latin America, especially in Brazil, emphasizes reincarnation.
A séance or seance is an attempt to communicate with spirits. The word séance comes from the French word for "session", from the Old French seoir, "to sit". In French, the word's meaning is quite general: one may, for example, speak of "une séance de cinéma". In English, however, the word came to be used specifically for a meeting of people who are gathered to receive messages from ghosts or to listen to a spirit medium discourse with or relay messages from spirits. In modern English usage, participants need not be seated while engaged in a séance.
Reflexology, also known as zone therapy, is an alternative medical practice involving the application of pressure to specific points on the feet, ears, and hands. This is done using thumb, finger, and hand massage techniques without the use of oil or lotion. It is based on a pseudoscientific system of zones and reflex areas that purportedly reflect an image of the body on the feet and hands, with the premise that such work on the feet and hands causes a physical change to the supposedly related areas of the body.
Chromotherapy, sometimes called color therapy, colorology or cromatherapy, is an alternative medicine that is considered pseudoscience and quackery. Chromotherapists claim to be able to use light in the form of color to balance "energy" lacking from a person's body, whether it be on physical, emotional, spiritual, or mental levels. For example, they thought that shining a colored light on a person would cure constipation.
Morris Fishbein M.D. was an American physician and editor of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) from 1924 to 1950.
Mediumship is the practice of purportedly mediating communication between familiar spirits or spirits of the dead and living human beings. Practitioners are known as "mediums" or "spirit mediums". There are different types of mediumship or spirit channelling, including séance tables, trance, and ouija.
Eusapia Palladino was an Italian Spiritualist physical medium. She claimed extraordinary powers such as the ability to levitate tables, communicate with the dead through her spirit guide John King, and to produce other supernatural phenomena.
William Hope was a pioneer of so-called "spirit photography". Based in Crewe, England, he was a member of the well known spiritualists group, the Crewe Circle. He died in Salford hospital on 8 March 1933.
The American Society for Psychical Research (ASPR) is the oldest psychical research organization in the United States dedicated to parapsychology. It maintains offices and a library, in New York City, which are open to both members and the general public. The society has an open membership, anyone with an interest in psychical research is invited to join. It maintains a website; and publishes the quarterly Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research.
Leonora Piper was a famous American trance medium in the area of Spiritualism. Piper was the subject of intense interest and investigation by American and British psychic research associations during the early 20th century, most notably William James and the Society for Psychical Research.
Walter Franklin Prince was an American parapsychologist and founder of the Boston Society for Psychical Research in Boston.
Hereward Carrington was a well-known British-born American investigator of psychic phenomena and author. His subjects included several of the most high-profile cases of apparent psychic ability of his times, and he wrote over 100 books on subjects including the paranormal and psychical research, conjuring and stage magic, and alternative medicine. Carrington promoted fruitarianism and held pseudoscientific views about dieting.
Henry Lindlahr was the author of one of the cornerstone texts of American naturopathic medicine, Nature Cure, which includes topics about disease suppression versus elimination, hydrotherapy, and the importance of fresh air and sun bathing.
James Hervey Hyslop, Ph.D., LL.D, was an American psychical researcher, psychologist, and professor of ethics and logic at Columbia University. He was one of the first American psychologists to connect psychology with psychic phenomena. In 1906 he helped reorganize the American Society for Psychical Research (ASPR) in New York City and served as the secretary-treasurer for the organization until his death.
Joseph Francis Rinn (1868–1952) was an American magician and skeptic of paranormal phenomena.
Frank Decker was a 20th-century American spiritualist medium who was discovered to be a fraud.
James Martin Peebles was an American physician, prolific author and organizer of many professional, medical, and Psychic/Spiritualist religious associations.
Randolph Stone was an Austrian-American chiropractor, osteopath and naturopath who founded polarity therapy, a technique of alternative medicine. He had an interest in philosophy and religions, and encountered Ayurvedic philosophy on a trip to India. His background in chiropractic was shaped by his studies of various Eastern concepts of energy medicine, including Ayurveda, traditional Chinese medicine, yoga, and reflexology.
Ada Maud Besinnet Roche (1890–1936) also known as Ada Bessinet was an American spiritualist medium.