Esoteric Scam Sauteure: "Healy" Wins Satire Prize "Golden Board" 2024

The award, for which the broadcaster AUF1 TV, classified as right-wing extremist in the constitutional protection report, and the Austrian Veterinary Chamber were also nominated, was announced on Monday evening at a gala in the Vienna City Hall.

160 Nominations for "Golden Board in Front of the Head"

A total of 160 nominations were received by the Vienna Skeptics (Society for Critical Thinking, GkD), who award the prize on behalf of the Society for the Scientific Investigation of Parasciences (GWUP). On this basis, the "shortlist" of three names was subsequently nominated by a jury - including the psychologist Sigrid Pilz, the former head of the Universities Conference (uniko), Oliver Vitouch, or the science communicator and "Science Buster", Martin Puntigam.

"Healy" Secures Satire Prize 2024

"Healy" is touted as a medical product for pain treatment, including chronic pain and migraines, as well as supportive treatment for mental illnesses such as depression and anxiety disorders, with a lot of scientific vocabulary, the organisers explained in a press release. A "quantum sensor" measures the ideal "frequency" of the user and causes a "bioenergetic field harmonisation". However, the quantum sensor is "nothing more than a simple infrared diode, available for 20 cents", it says, referring to "the proud price of up to 4,500 euros for high-class Healy devices".

Several research platforms, medical information portals and consumer centres would come to partly devastating assessments. The talk is of "cheating with bioresonance", "questionable frequency therapy", for which scientific evidence is lacking, and an "esoteric scam". The decisive factor for the victory was not only the considerable commercial interest and widespread distribution, but also the handling of critics, according to the expert jury. The danger posed by Healy and similar devices is that users could neglect necessary and medically effective therapy, as well as the financial risks.

Lifetime Achievement Goes to Swiss Sect Founder Ivo Sasek

Swiss Ivo Sasek, who was awarded the "Golden Board for Lifetime Achievement", is described as "something like a role model of a radical Christian preacher with a penchant for conspiracy theories". He uses his channels to provide a platform for "conspiracy theorists of all kinds and his self-founded extreme evangelical and anti-democratic sect Organic Christ Generation (OCG)". The OCG has up to 2,000 followers in the German-speaking area, with Sasek demanding absolute obedience and a consistent separation from the unrepentant "sinners", i.e. normal society. Three of Sasek's sons have managed to leave and are now "exposing the religious abuse of power, the hostility to science and the anti-Semitism prevalent in the OCG", according to the skeptics.

(APA/Red)

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