Dear bdavis,

Regarding health claims in the U.S. ... this has caused a storm of
controversy in the past decade or two when the FDA tried to step in and
mop up the sewage in the "health foods industry" in the U.S. Of course,
the leaders of the opposition were those company owners who had their
livelihoods at stake, and they roused up a helluva fight based on
constitutional free speech rights. In the end, the FDA relented, and the
current laws are such that as long as a product doesn't make a specific
medical claim, it's legal to say anything else. For example, if I want to
sell you a supplement which I believe will cure you of your heart disease,
I can say it "supports the healthy functioning of the heart," but I can't
say it "prevents heart attacks," which is what I really want to say.
It's a lot of semantics and a lot of lawyers make their lives by being
copy-editors in this manner.

With regards to claims such as the ones made by companies which sell
"self-improvement" type of products, they are protected by their
money-back guarantees. As an extreme example, it's perfectly legal to
sell someone a product which claims to teach you how to levitate. If
after 30 days you find that you're still stuck to the ground no matter how
hard you try, you can send it back and get your money back. If the
company returns your money, all is square and there is no basis for legal
action. If the company doesn't return your money, you can hire a lawyer
to contest the case, but in the end, the litigation costs will far exceed the
product price, so it's not much of an incentive. If the company stiffs
enough people, though, then, yes, a class-action suit can be filed against
the company, and in the end, the restitution would just be that you get
the cost of your original product back, and the court system just slaps
the company on the wrist. Maybe the judge will force the company to pay
the legal expenses on both sides, too, as a penalty. But it can't make it
go out of business just because it sells something outrageous. After all,
if that company is surviving as a business, it suggests there's strong
enough support from its customers, who want to be fed the kind of things
it provides to them.

"Buyer beware" is the general motto here. We would hope that all business
people are the pinnacles of ethics and morality, but, well, we have a long
way to go before that becomes a reality.

Regarding Chunyi ... I greatly respect him and his mission in life, but,
of course, I cannot speak on his behalf. I don't think he is purposely
trying to deceive anyone with ill intent, but as in everything else in
life, we all have an infinite capacity to deceive ourselves. I can tell
you this, though ... if he claims to be able to use Qi to consistently
stretch his own fingers to a measurable extent, then I can very easily and
objectively test his claim. If he would like to do so, I would be honored
to be the investigator in that test (which will be conducted very fairly
and documented objectively in the most open-minded manner). Moreover, I
will post the results for all to consider in this forum. I invite him to
contact me, and we can make arrangements.

Best,

HF