A general record of my ongoing battle with all forms of nonsense.

Saturday 5 April 2008

Nutri-Energetics Systems

At a psychic fair in October 2007, I came across a stand advertising "Nutri-Energetics Systems - A New Paradigm in Healthcare". Could it be that I had found the holy grail of pseudo-science?



According to their literature (click on the picture to see it in full-resolution), it's a
"revolutionary approach to health, the culmination of 25 years of work into how physics explains biology - through the mapping of the quantum electrodynamics body-field"

.... and it marvel at the multi-disciplinary science:
"the NES-Professional system integrates research from the fields of physics, quantum biology, mathematics and Western and Chinese medicine."

Their claim is that there is a "human electrodynamics body-field" that they've been able to map with their incredible technology. Just pay £45 and put your hand on something that looks like a mouse with tin-foil attached. The system will "read your body-field and compare it to the optimum human body-field, which is encoded in the software".

And if your "human body-field" isn't optimum? They sell "NES Infoceuticals" (small bottles of water) for £12.
"Nutri-Energetics has devised a unique method of imprinting a base of organic colloidal minerals with information representing different aspects of the optimum human body-field. When you take an Infoceutical as drops in water, the QED information acts as a magnetic signpost to the subatomic particles in your body-field; aligning these particles helps to restore optimum health."
Hmmmm.........

My letter to the Advertising Standards Authority (see below) prompted an investigation and the appropriate Adjudication. Success!


-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

10 November 2007

Advertising Standards Authority
Mid City Place
71 High Holborn

London
WC1V 6QT

Ref: A07-43223/ROC

Dear Mr. O’Connell,

I have enclosed the leaflet as requested in your last letter.

It’s extremely difficult knowing where to start with this complaint. The scientific content in the leaflet has simply been made up. Honing in on any specific claim is difficult because the leaflet is comprised almost in entirety of fabricated claims.

I have spent some time going through your web site and picking out the various points that NES’s leaflet would appear to breach.

2.1 All marketing communications should be legal, decent, honest and truthful.

The leaflet is dishonest in that it consists almost in entirety of pseudo-scientific claims that have simply been made up. Specifically, there is no scientific evidence for the existence of a “quantum electrodynamics body-field”. This claim is untruthful; it is pseudoscience. Everything else in the leaflet stems from this claim (e.g their claimed ability to be able to measure this field and manipulate it with “Infoceuticals”).

3.1 Before distributing or submitting a marketing communication for publication, marketers must hold documentary evidence to prove all claims, whether direct or implied, that are capable of objective substantiation.

Relevant evidence should be sent without delay if requested by the ASA or CAP. The adequacy of evidence will be judged on whether it supports both the detailed claims and the overall impression created by the marketing communication. The full name and geographical business address of marketers should be provided without delay if requested by the ASA or CAP.

As this is clearly pseudo-science rather than real science, there can be no credible documentary evidence to back up any of their claims. I have spent time looking for evidence on the Internet and all references to the “quantum electrodynamics body-field” seem to come only from NES or NES affiliated sites. This is clearly not a scientific theory.

The leaflet makes the following unsubstantiated claims:

· That they have managed to map a “quantum electrodynamics body-field”.

· That this body-field “acts as the master control system for the physical body”. (Note: Science has quite conclusively demonstrated that the master control system for the physical body is the brain.)

· That they have “devised a unique method of imprinting a base of organic colloidal minerals with information representing different aspects of the optimal human body-field.”

· That “When you take an Infoceutical as drops in water, the QED information acts as a magnetic signpost to the subatomic particles in your body-field”.

· That “aligning these particles helps to restore optimal health”.

· “The NES software is able to ‘read’ your body-field”.

6.1 Marketers should not exploit the credulity, lack of knowledge or inexperience of consumers.

The advertising material is specifically targeted to exploit consumers with a lack of scientific knowledge. By using scientific language such as “quantum electrodynamics”, “quantum biology”, “field” and “subatomic particles” they try to convince the inexperienced consumer that the product is based upon scientific investigation.

50.1 Medical and scientific claims made about beauty and health-related products should be backed by evidence, where appropriate consisting of trials conducted on people. Where relevant, the rules will also relate to claims for products for animals. Substantiation will be assessed by the ASA on the basis of the available scientific knowledge.

There appears to be no scientific basis for any of their claims. I can find no reference to clinical trials.

Again, the following claims are made:

· That they have managed to map a “quantum electrodynamics body-field”.

· That this body-field “acts as the master control system for the physical body”.

· That they have “devised a unique method of imprinting a base of organic colloidal minerals with information representing different aspects of the optimal human body-field.”

· That “When you take an Infoceutical as drops in water, the QED information acts as a magnetic signpost to the subatomic particles in your body-field”.

· That “aligning these particles helps to restore optimal health”.

· “The NES software is able to ‘read’ your body-field”.

I believe it is appalling that a company is trying to extort £45 for a “Consultation and scan” plus an additional £12 for “Infoceuticals” from ill people who are easily fooled. I do hope you take this complaint seriously.

I look forward to your response.

Yours sincerely,



Simon .

39 comments:

Narrogin's Library Lovers' said...

Hi there,
I am writing this from a small town in Western Australia. I have only just heard of NES and had a consultation about a week ago. I too am sceptical and have been perusing the internet for all info regarding this new concept. My first real concern was more about how, and specifically what do they encode into this liquid.. Is it like trying to tune into our very own frequency? Your concerns are well put.
I am all for new techniques and advancing science but if this is such a science still in its baby stages then shouldn't we, the clients, be paid to be guinea pigs?
thankyou

Simon said...

Hi Cherry,

Thanks for your comment. I suggest that if you have been a victim of the NES scam that you demand a refund. I'll happily give you any support you need in pursuing this.

They claim to encode "information" in the liquid by passing an electric current through it. This is pseudo-scientific nonsense.

The whole basis of their system is based upon the idea that there is a "human body field". There is simply no evidence for this. You don't have a "frequency" to tune into.

I too am all for advancing science. This, however, is not science. They simply use the words of science (field, energy, quantum) to make it sound like science, but they're not doing any scientific research - they're just making up mumbo-jumbo.

I wouldn't worry about being a guinea pig. The liquid is probably harmless - unless you start using it instead of proper medicine, or your belief in it means you don't go to a proper doctor.

I'd demand a refund and report them to whatever the Australian equivalent of Trading Standards is.

Thanks.

curious to know said...

I think I just got taken by this scam. Who are you Simon?

curious to know said...

Oops - I forgot to say I am in the USA - what body do I report this to?

Simon said...

Did you just take a test or were you conned into buying a machine (I hope it's not the machine, they cost a fortune).

I'm in the UK and don't have any experience of dealing with this sort of thing in the USA. There appears to be a place called the Better Business Bureau (http://www.bbb.org/us/) which might be able to help you.

It might also be worth taking them to the small claims court. In the UK, I've used this against people selling fraudulent medical services before with great success. http://consumer-law.lawyers.com/U.S.-Small-Claims-Court.html

Of course, I've never done it in the US.

Good luck!

Simon said...

Curioustoknow: please let me know how it goes and if you get a refund.

Thanks!

Dr. Asa said...

What a bunch of MORONS..
If you want a SCAM, try the multi-trillion dollar Big Pharma drug industry that is the number ONE cause of deaths in the USA.. do some research.. THINK for yourself, do not accept the "science" which is actually based squarely on profit and exploitation. You are 100% upside-down and inside out.. you believe in the common myths and deceptions that have made our culture the toilet bowl that it is...

Simon said...

Very interesting Dr Asa. Do you have any evidence?

Peter said...

To become an expert is the easiest thing in the world, Simon. One only has to rubbish something or someone to get that warm glow of smug self-satisfaction. Well done. Why not become a real expert by admitting you have no idea what this is about and researching it properly. Perhaps it'll be beyond you and you'll need to appoint someone on your behalf? Until you have done so you have no right to assume either the moral or the scientific high ground.

Simon said...

@Peter

If there is anything you feel I've misunderstood, please feel free to explain it in the comments.

Seeker said...

Has anyone purchased a bottle of these NES drops and had it analyzed in a legit lab to find out what it is actually comprised of?

Dr Van Deik said...

I've been a nes practitioner for 4 years and can categorically say I've witnessed miracles using the infoceuticals - seeing many conditions reverse of which allopathic medicine had given up on with the patients ending up on my doorstep.

as to evidence - i'd suggest if you really want to know - that you read their papers, their books and attend conferences.

Simon said...

@Dr Van Deik

I assume then from what you say, you would agree to a test of the system?

Simon

Nurse said...

This is relatively new science, and NES are certainly not the only ones researching quantum physics. Because it is new, people do not understand it, and people are often scared of things they do not understand. How can one be such an expert that they feel qualified to rubbish something they don't understand. I have been to a conference on this subject, and the science behind it was mind blowing. Certainly way too much information to include in an article on the internet, which is where these knockers have done their research. Give it a few years and it will become much more mainstream. (PS I am a registered nurse)

Dart. said...

I have used a NES Professional. My experience says this.
1) It repeatedly fails to diagnose obvious problems in patients. On healthy children it repeatedly comes up with a wild array of "imbalanced" reading. Even my 9 month old dog returns wild readings despite it's obvious good health. My own weekly scans reveal major problems but different each week. My only health issue is lower back disc degeneration and usually it fails to recognise this. NES say that each scan upsets your "body-field" and it refuses to do repeated scans of the same patient inside a week. If you alter your name each scan and do one every hour for a whole day you get a RANDOM array of different results.
Conclusion:- it is a hoax. The scans are not scans at all but the result of random numbers generated by a simple program and then allocated into a series of colourful bar graphs, ostensibly representing a patients health. The actual program loaded onto my computer very quickly where-as Windows XP took about 15 mins. The evidence is that the program contains not much at all.
2) The "infocuiticals" are nothing more than mineral water from Utah. If you are trace mineral deficient they will help but, at $20 (Australian) they are absurdly expensive. I tried them on two separate occassions and they did absolutely nothing and I have never seen them do anything for clients.

I've since found other similar systems on the market which are also obvious hoaxes. Internet info suggests that the "inventor" of this hoax used to market the QXIC which is well documented at "Bad Science" by Dr Ben Goldacre.

My opinion is that this device is a placebo effect trigger. A GP friend of mine says that about a third of all his family clinic patients get better without treatment. Sometimes all it takes to initiate a healing response is a trip to the doctor and a day off work.
It is ascientific to attribute a patients healing to this device when they might have recovered with zero treatment.
The training is a clever marketing exercise which channels prospective purchasers into parting with $12K.
Make up you own mind. Research it thoroughly and then, ask to rent one off the manufacturer for a month so you can test it for yourself. Remember, this set-up does not rely upon operator skill. It "scans" a punter with a key-stroke on your computer.

Please don't believe someone like me on the internet. Work it out for yourself.

NES actually say as a foot-note that their system is ..not intended to dianose or treat any illness...

Yours sincerely,
Dart.

Dart. said...

I have used a NES Professional. My experience says this.
1) It repeatedly fails to diagnose obvious problems in patients. On healthy children it repeatedly comes up with a wild array of "imbalanced" reading. Even my 9 month old dog returns wild readings despite it's obvious good health. My own weekly scans reveal major problems but different each week. My only health issue is lower back disc degeneration and usually it fails to recognise this. NES say that each scan upsets your "body-field" and it refuses to do repeated scans of the same patient inside a week. If you alter your name each scan and do one every hour for a whole day you get a RANDOM array of different results.
Conclusion:- it is a hoax which randomly generates numbers and then allocates them into a series of colourful bar graphs, ostensibly representing a patients health.
2) The "infocuiticals" are nothing more than mineral water from Utah. If you are trace mineral deficient they will help but, at $20 (Australian) they are absurdly expensive. I tried them on two separate occassions and they did absolutely nothing and I have never seen them do anything for clients.

My opinion is that this device is a placebo effect trigger.

Please don't believe someone like me on the internet. Work it out for yourself.

NES actually say as a foot-note that their system is ..not intended to dianose or treat any illness...

Yours sincerely,
Dart.

Simon said...

@Dart

It sounds like you've got a copy of the software. Is this the case? It would be interesting to get it reverse compiled to see what they did.

You can contact me privately via this form: http://leicester.skepticsinthepub.org/Default.aspx/5/Contact-Us

Realist said...

From Australia also, and I can't believe people actually believe in this stuff!

Anyone ever used a multi-meter? attach one to a PC and make some pretty graphs and you have a NES system lols!

Reminds me of pyramid scams from like 20 years ago.

Edward Paine said...

Hi, i've been researching the whole NES system for a few days now, and even read a book by Peter Fraser (can't remember the name, quantom something-or-other), and I'm quite frankly not impressed. Anyways, I'm trying to find out the price for the NES scanning machine and the computer program, how much are they charging people for this stuff?

Mao said...

Dear all,

I'm currently working in a NES company and they actually charge RM28,000 for the machine with software! I've been working for one week and been reading all the stuff, all these do not make sense for me as i'm a psychology graduate, i know the basic of the science and social-body-mind concept that they are using. However, I totally have no idea whether this is a new science or pseudoscience.

p/s: i'm from Malaysia.

Anonymous said...

My mom got scammed into paying $10,000 for one of these machines. She's still convinced that its the real deal. Did anyone ever decompile the software? I really need some rock solid proof to get her away from this stuff. Because now she's reselling it an continuing the scam. Help!

Simon said...

@Anonymous

If you have access to your mum's software, I'd relish the opportunity to try and decompile it to see how it works.

Anonymous said...

I wish someone would let you decompile it Simon.

Anonymous said...

I am as open minded as the next man. I have seen a ghost. I have watched strange lights moving in the sky. I have had disquieting experiences of what might happen after death. In other words, I will believe any damn thing - But even I refuse to believe that information rich quantum water is going to cure all my ills...

Hopefully I just saved a good friend from wasting any more on this (If she wants a hokey cure, I will mix up some snake oil and take her money myself!)

Fight the Power, Simon.

Anonymous said...

Hello

After 6 years of treatment for a damaged inner ear I started the Infoceuticals treatment 1 week ago. Because the 'pharmaceuticals method' didn't assist I tried Chinese medicine and have had good long-term success but not quite enough to get me 'over the line', health-wise.

Because of the sensitivities associated with inner ear sufferers, I have noticed increased glandular / lymphatic problems and poor digestion and sleep (which may or may not be related).

Although some testimonials state that people have had immediate positive reaction to Infoceuticals, I can honestly say that I have not and would suspect a placebo effect (if these testimonials were actually true).

On a side note, it's interesting that the term "Quantum" pops up in the US (and elsewhere) when trying to re-label concepts that would undoubtedly touch the 'race nerve' (i.e. Chinese Taoist concepts, Ayervedic Medicine, Acupuncture etc) when trying to sell a New Age product.

The 'body field' concept is most probably borrowed from Chinese acupuncture and Indian Chakra beliefs... (And doesn't the Church of Scientology have a similar machine for measuring personality?) Just a thought.

As a person who has been through some pretty horrible surgery and who continually experiences some pretty rough symptoms I would recommend that anyone suffering from a serious health problem maintain a good sustained relationship with your GP and / or specialists because, at the very least, they are able to catalogue your progress when trying new and alternative treatments.

Best regards...
Snowy 74

Anonymous said...

In my opinion NES is junk. I was foolish enough to visit two practitioners in a desperate search for help, and my two scans had zero to do with each other. I cannot now recall the details. It's probably a random number generator, nothing more. It is shameful that they actually have a couple of MDs claiming this works. But how could it? Speaking of things with questionable basis do you know Field Control Therapy? Pete

Anonymous said...

I have been locked into using the NES system through a practitioner for 12 months now. Initially I was told it was 6 months. I kept being given more & more bottles of the drops without seeing any physical changes. The 10 sec scan (which is done with two fingers on a plate), seems to be highly unlikely to be able to assess your body to such a depth as it appears to. There is no way of proving that it is correct. Even million dollar medical equipment does not have these capabilities. You only have the scan results to go on. It doesn't appear to correlate with where you are having health issues. I personally would like to know if anyone has ever tested what the drops are made of. I know they say they are supposed to be minerals & they are supposed to bring the body back into alignment with it's perfect blueprint, but it seems to be an infinite journey into becoming broke. I for one need some sort of confirmation that it works. I am always open to trying new things but wonder what is in the minerals. Has anyone with the knowledge ever deciphered the software? If you have please post.

Unknown said...

My family has been introduced to this new "technology" or "science" recently. Naturally I go online to check. Surprisingly, this is the only place I have found negative comments on NES. Are the skeptics really in the extreme minority? Or, the Internet as a whole, is a big market scheme that help promoting anything that anybody wanted to promote. Think about it, how many times you see a negative comment on anything online? But from my science background I know from my guts that the NES thing is totally nonsense.

Anonymous said...

Just like the wild west ,snake oil was used by gullible people , to cure all, just don't understand how someone can purchase a scanner call themselves a therapist , set up a home clinic and start healing people , oh and take there money , how can this be legal

non_non said...

hi from Japan. not sure this forum still active but it's come to japanese market and I've been so skeptical about it to arrive here.
What can you measure with the interface: temperature, oxygen, pulse, magnetic field. as it claims that it got do with something spectrum, I hope it measures it (perhaps from magnetic field). When people got stressed it was proven that temperature rises and they sweat. I believe that the measured values are put into certain algorithms, which is fine. I think the point is the algorithms. If I want to support Peter F-somebody, it was based on his actual cases, or at least on his spiritual inspiration. in that case, his spiritual power might be proven right in future and I would not deny non-ENM such as Chinese herbs with the successful results.

Or, it might be totally Scam if they generate random numers. (or there is no sensor, no bio data is taken)

As for the water, that kind of water was so popular in Japan and I drank a glass of original "micro current of pleasure and happiness", which was equivalent to 100 glasses. of course nothing happened. Now nobody believes in it. it was a gone boom and somebody made fortune.

Japanese saying says you can believe in a sardine head. I don't care if it helps people whether or not it's proven but I hate people selling highly priced lemons to ignorant customers by fooling them with technical words.

Anonymous said...

I got ambushed by a friend. Where I thought I was going out for coffee with her she set me up with a NES practitioner. The practitioner proceeded to tell me I was going to get ovarian cancer, I was heading for an auto immune disease, I will most probably have a heart attack am malnourished?? and even that I put my daughters life in danger for having wifi in our house (even though there are about 5 wifi signals coming into our house already from neighbours and aren't we all surrounded by radio, phone, tv signals and all that???!! These all seem pretty strange predictions to me as I am pretty fit and healthy and happy. At first I was amused but now I feel hurt. She seemed very defensive also, saying that the doctors know who she is and don't like her. And that the government like cancer cause it brings in a lot of money??! I am all for alternate ways of treatment and am a fan of searching for ways to be at my peak of health but NES really rubbed me up the wrong way. Its just plain bullying. Perhaps I would have been more open to it if I didn't feel under attack. I hope that this isn't standard practise because I would hate someone else to be made to feel this way.

arpolwest said...

I got a friend here in Perth Western Australia! She is now advertising a trip to a Bali luxury hotel where on top of NES they get tuition in raw foods. For a while I was having access with her permission on her Facebook account I asked her to change her PW after the process. His own son was complaining how she dared apply that nonsense in his own son! As he found some "prescribed treatment" could be really unhealthy. Here comes another psychological situation, some practitioner start believing her own story in a sort of paranoia! When 12 to 15 I was in a Jesuit Preseminary and I was kicked out no fit enough for the vows of celibacy, later on I became a goldsmith, an atheist and study night high school and then two years of Medicine, going to the Point "have Faith whatsoever the nonsense which applies to all religions, starting with Judaism and its branches Christians of all sorts Muslims and so on, bla bla Resurrection, AsunciĆ³n of the virgin Mary. Muhammad ascending with a white horse! All a big paranoia with big profits schemes!

Christina said...

Hi, I am really interested in looking at the ASA ruling on this NES body scan, because I think someone I know is being scammed, but I can't find the page through the link. Can you give me some more details or another link?

Simon said...

Hi Christina,

I don't think the ASA publishes the ruling for very long, but there's a copy here: http://www.casewatch.org/foreign/asa/nutri-energetics.shtml

Thanks,

Simon

Anonymous said...

Interesting reading - Nes Pro Vision is not based upon science. Confused? The diagnostic software is an algorithm - in basic terms the software has been written to deliver results based upon random probability - no two scans are ever the same - the clever manipulative marketing interface and expensive research are there to cloak and screen the truth. The system as a solution relies upon psycho somatic intervention of a caring person - ie. you are in principle healing yourself - an expensive yet quite imaginative way of turning our neural pathways to healing. Perhaps you would be better off playing the slot machines, stimulating some dopamine and the same result - random probability.

Anonymous said...

NES are still going strong, and my local "practitioner" has built an extension on her already big house, and can enjoy long overseas holidays. I wonder if these are business expenses?

Three of my family use NES - and so long as they are not actually ill - if they want to buy water for £160 a litre, I don't have a problem with it.

Given the breadth of criticism against Homeopathy it is curious how little coverage NES and infoceuticals attract on the internet.

The link you posted for the vanished ASA adjudication is in turn now dead. I would like to read it. Please will you post an alternative?

Unknown said...

Hi simon, my mother is involved with the NES as a practitioner. She's not in good shape and is always complaining of some ailment. Yet is 100% convinced this is science, it can cure cancer, autism, ms, dementia and a number of other conditions. I've been suffering from a back/rib cage injury for 7 years and am told she can fix everything. Although I have an understanding of quantum mechanics, I remain skeptical that this is what its being hyped up to be. I would be willing to get my hands on the software if it could be de-compiled so we know exactly what's happening within the program.

My experience with the nes scans is that they have generally been quite accurate, although based on "mind-body associations". Which can largely be put down to rough truisms that can work on anyone. I have done multiple scans over two years and some areas of the scan do seem to fluctuate and be random. Other areas of the scan does have common themes which are relateable to my condition.

I am of the opinion based on my knowledge of quantum mechanics (purely youtube and internet educted, if you could call it that) that this is a body field, we are composed of energy until acted upon by a conscious observer. See double slit experiment among others. I think this field may in the future be mainstream but there is an element of trickery, fraud and good marketing. Plz help I'm worried about my mothers health and finances.

David said...

I have been a victim of a healer pushing the use of the NES system and very expensive remedies. Is there a legal body in the UK I can follow this up with? Thanks for the help

Alfredo Rodrigues said...

Folks
Any updates on this company?

Is this the company we are discussing about? :
https://www.bbb.org/richmond/business-reviews/health-and-medical-general/nes-health-llc-in-warrenton-va-63400148

If this is true, how can a fraudulent company be operating in the US for such a long time?