The Barefoot Doctor is not an actual doctor.

brilliant. hugely enjoyable... im off to read it again now.

Here are the barefoot docs followers on his website, gently shaking their heads at the webchat... ive never seen so many hugs and virtual kisses. I wonder if the BFD can recommend anything for the nausea i am feeling after reading the light and love from mother moon and her friends...

R D Laing was the pyschiatrist who in the seventies allowed patients to decide their own treatment plans, with erm, mixed results. However, he did write a splendid book called "Knots"

Have you tried massaging your kidneys while chanting?

Here's the old BD peddling his nonsense: -- it has never been my intention to be thought of as a GP nor as a substitute. barefoot doctors have roamed the orient for the past 5000 years, trained in healing sickness in mind, body and soul in as colourful and entertaining fashion as possible - thus to keep the peoples' spirits up - it's to keep this fine tradition alive, having spent 3 years studying psychotherapy with RD Laing, followed by 3 years training in oriental medicine using their taoist-based methodologies, that i poetically call myself a barefoot doctor. -- Now does that style remind you of anybody? The questing positivity. The pious name-dropping. The drooling hunger for mainstream media status. The hippy dippy Brighton scented ethnicity. The lack of hair. Well it certainly puts me in mind of somebody- if only I knew who.

Does it begin it begin with R?

Yeah a right ******!

And what's wrong with being hippy dippy? *lights joss stick and douses self in patchouli*

I enjoyed that a lot Stuart - refreshing to see a complete faker get a sound kicking. Particularly liked the poster who listed all of the complaints he claimed could be cured by massaging the kidneys anti-clockwise while chanting. It still amazes me that Trading Standards haven't given the Boots "Hugely overpriced water with no other ingredients" Homeopathic range a court summons by now. For those who don't know (they don't tend to broadcast it) homeopathy works in exactly the same way as filling a glass with water, putting in a drop of whiskey, pouring a tenth of that glass into an empty glass, filling that with water, repeat x 5 works if what you want is to get pissed on whiskey. It is not 'one of those things that science doesn't understand' - it understands it perfectly - by the time you drink a homeopathic remedy it is the equivalent of expecting a grain of sugar in a bathtub to make the water sweet. It is a way of charging people money for water. There was a lovely piece on The Onion the other day about American medical boards finally licencing "Placebo" for sale, complete with glowing testimonials from patients.

I'm in two minds about this - partly because I met him once and he was charm itself. Seemed very down to earth. I suppose everyone has to earn a living but I don't think his commercial ventures (of which there are many) sit very comfortably with what he "preaches". That said, I do like his OM column and his books but would rather read them sitting on the sofa with a fag in my hand than while massaging my kidneys. I always had the impression he was quite tongue in cheek but I could be wrong.