What is the link between quantum physics, which has just been crowned with a new Nobel Prize, and “quantum therapies”? The first is neither more nor less than a scientific revolution that has upset our understanding of matter, while the second are devoid or almost devoid of scientific basis – they have been partially kicked out of Doctolib when the company was forced to ban alternative therapies in August. How have therapeutic drifts been able to adorn themselves with the trappings of a scientific revolution? Explanations.
What is quantum physics?
Born in the first part of the XXe century, quantum physics is a set of physical concepts and mathematical tools that describes the behavior of matter at the level of the atom. It has upset our understanding of matter inherited from classical mechanics. In this new theoretical framework, particles and light indeed have properties that break with the laws of traditional physics and defy common sense.
French physicist Alain Aspect received the 2022 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on quantum entanglement. His research, which he describes as “second quantum revolution”, showed in the 1980s that under certain conditions, particles, even when far away, could be linked by an invisible thread. It is not only a theoretical revolution: these advances have enabled major technological advances.
Why has quantum physics given rise to esoteric drifts?
Very early on, the extraordinary properties described by quantum physics aroused fantasy. “It’s one of the few scientific objects that allows you to fantasize, and a pretty brilliant sci-fi medium”, summarizes Richard Monvoisin, science educator and author of Quantox. Ideological misuses of mechanics quantum (Book-e-book editions, 2013).
For several players in quantum physics, the properties of the infinitely small have called into question the conception of the world. Erwin Schrödinger, author of the famous “cat experiment” of the same name, thus devotes the second part of his life to philosophical works which bring him closer to Vedanta, a Hindu doctrine, and formulates the hypothesis of an awareness of universe. Following a mystical illumination, the American physicist of Austrian origin Fritjof Capra made in The Tao of Physicsin 1975, parallels between quantum physics and Eastern mysticism.
When, in the aftermath of the Vietnam War, in the 1970s, the hippie movement turned towards spirituality, Asian religions and esotericism, students in quantum physics participated in the emergence of the New Age, a heterogeneous spiritualist movement . The Tao of Physics became one of its bestsellers. “We have a recovery of science, which gives a scientific varnish to pseudoscientific or esoteric theories; it allows them to tell that they bring such unique answers to the world that they go beyond the limits of science », explains Romy Sauvayre, sociologist of beliefs at the CNRS. Thus appear pseudo-disciplines combining quantum terminology and a body-mind approach.
What is “quantum medicine”?
Created in the late 1980s by Indian-American endocrinologist Deepak Chopra, author of the bestselling The Quantum Body. Find health at the edge of body and mind (1989), “quantum medicine” postulates that the human body and the mind form a whole, releasing a vibratory field, the balance or imbalance of which is synonymous with health or illness. The practitioner is supposed to help rebalance the energies of the patient.
The discipline is inspired by the concepts of quantum physics, but above all by its vocabulary. She multiplies the references to the German biophysicist Fritz-Albert Popp, who popularized the concept of “biophotons”, photons emitted by living bodies. Quantum medicine takes it up on its own and postulates that it is possible to treat thanks to “electromagnetic waves emitted by the body”.
Quantum medicine actually borrows mainly from Chinese and Ayurvedic medicine. She sprinkles them with newer concepts such as bioresonance, the idea that a living body generates waves that are measurable. In particular, it gave birth to machines for biofeedback (or “biological feedback”), supposed to capture the patient’s vibrational waves and interact with them.
Is this discipline scientifically admissible?
In the case of quantum medicine, the scientific character is lacking. “In Chopra’s Quantum Healing, it’s terrible to say, but nothing makes sense,” Judge Richard Monvoisin. Asked about his clumsy borrowings from quantum physics, Deepak Chopra recognized in 2013 what he sees “just a metaphor. »
The theory is even violently rejected in the academic world. “An absurdity”, swept away in 2016 the French physicist Claude Aslangulprofessor emeritus at the Pierre-et-Marie-Curie University, “because it associates two words relating to two disciplines using methodologies that are inevitably and radically different because they pursue objectives that have nothing in common”. For him, it is impossible to transpose physics from the infinitely small to “the human organism in its entirety and its complexity which it would be illusory and vain to want to reduce to a set of elementary mechanisms”. “When you put lots of atoms together, the quantum levels go down. On a human scale, the quantum levels are going to be so tight that there is no more effect,” was pressing in Marianneat the beginning of the year, the academic Julien Bobroff, physicist and professor at the University of Paris-Saclay.
In “quantum medicine” and its many associates (quantum acupuncture, quantum sophrology, etc.), the borrowing from the sciences is more of a sleeve effect. “What pleases is the word, which is both mysterious and scientific. “Hypnosis” is not bad, but with “quantum hypnosis”, we give the impression of going much further! » emphasizes Romy Sauvayre. As for the notion of bioresonance, it has never been scientifically validated.
What are the risks ?
From a medical point of view, quantum medicine does not go beyond the placebo effect. Many therapies whose effectiveness has never been proven are not inherently dangerous since they have no measurable effect. But resorting to alternative medicine can be a source of delayed diagnosis and loss of luck.
Some “quantum” therapists suggest that the devices at their disposal make it possible to identify cancer cells. “Do we have the right to treat with a speculative theory? People’s lives are at stake.” worries Bruno Falissard, an epistemologist specializing in the evaluation of unconventional medical theories.
“Quantum” therapies can also be very expensive. A “quantum bioenergeticist” which offers Internet users a mixture of esoteric vocabulary and pseudoscientific discourse thus charges more than 400 euros for the two-day masterclass. On alternative medicine portals or on their own platforms, other practitioners claiming “quantum” therapies offer their services for around sixty euros, or even more.
These therapeutic offers arouse the extreme vigilance, in particular, of the Directorate General for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Preventionparticularly when these practices are carried out by health professionals whose profession is regulated by law, such as sophrologists, acupuncturists and hypnotherapists.
In 2019, a masseur-physiotherapist promoting “integrative quantum therapy” was thus condemned by the National Order of Masseur-Physiotherapists, after appeal, to a three-month ban on exercise (including a month and a half suspended sentence) for having promoted without reserve a “new, insufficiently proven practice” and breached its duty of care. William Nelson, an American who sells “biofeedback” whose prices can go up to 17,000 euros per unit, took refuge in Hungary since his conviction in the United States for medical deception.
“Quantum medicine”, false therapies that surf on the revolutions of quantum physics