‘Cellular Memory’ Fails Memory Test

After having an argument on a message board about whether Cellular Memory could really exist (see last post), I was offered that the following expert would back up these strange theories of Dr Gary Schwartz. His name is Dr Paul Pearsall and you can see his impressive home page here.

Paul Pearsall, Ph.D., is a licensed clinical psychoneuroimmunologist. Try saying that drunk.

Now, the quackometer gives this result to Dr Paul’s Home Page: QUACKERY LEVEL 2 and says that faint quacks can be heard.

Now the quackometer is not always right. And with Paul’s CV looking so impressive, maybe I need to see if the quackometer is working right. He is after all Clinical Professor at the Department of Nursing, University of Hawaii at Manoa. And also, “Designated as one of the most influential scientists of the 20th century by Oxford University Biographical Society” according to his web site.

The thing is, Dr Paul does appear to fully endorse the rather strange “cellular memory” theories of Dr Gary Schwartz and he co-authored an article on the subject, “Organ Transplants and Cellular Memories” in Nexus magazine. Well, that is enough to warrant a bit of digging.

As always, anyone who so prominantly has to display so many qualifications, positions held and other credentials might be making an ‘appeal to authority’ and using this to hide rather shaky ideas. I really must find a way to get he quackometer to spot such stuf. For example, anyone who quotes their name as Dr XXXX YYYY PhD is asking to be checked out. One or t’other usually suffices.

My first two googlings presented a couple of problems. His web site states he has won the “Rush Gold Medal Award from the International Psychiatric Association”. So I google “Rush Gold Medal” and Paul Pearsall appears first in the list (after a bit of guff). Is he the only person to have won this medal? Why no International Psychiatric Association endorsement. Obviously, something for me to follow up.

Next, I looked at: “Designated as one of the most influential scientists of the 20th century by Oxford University Biographical Society”. Nothing. So I google “Oxford University Biographical Society”. Just our new friend again??? Do the Oxford University Biographical Society not have a web site? Are they so stuck in their mediaeval academic ways that they have no internet presence? Is the only award ever made to our new friend? What about the other “influential scientists of the 20th century”. Do they not want to shout about their award too?

Mr. Earl Bakken also claims the Scripps Clinic Trail Blazer Award for Contributions to Integrative Medicine in the same year as Dr Pearsall. Shall we see a fist fight between them perhaps?

Dr Pearsall claims that he is “Fully licensed and board certified clinical neuropsychologist, License Number 000773” Even better, the American Board of Clinical Neuropsychology lists all its members and guess what, under ‘P’ for Pearsall, no-one of that name exists. A pattern is beginning to emerge.

Here is the lists of academics in the Faculty of Medicine, University of Hawaii at Manoa where he apparently holds a professorship. Looks like another oversight.

I got bored there. I leave it as an exercise for the reader to check up on everything else.

So is Dr Pearsall right about the theories of ‘cellular memory’?

Well one thing is sure, as “one of the most requested speakers in the world” is that he is very, very busy. I’m not quite sure how he finds the time to do the basic research on cellular memory. He charges $20,000-30,000 for a lecture, and having done 5000 of them, he must be very busy and very, very wealthy by now. That’s over $100,000,000 wealthy just from after-dinner speaking.

All I can say is that there appears to be some memory problems somewhere, either with Universities from Oxford to Arizona, or with Dr Pearsall. Before more speculation on cellular memory, maybe there ought to be more investigations into Dr Pearsall’s cerebral memory.

Nice Hawaiian shirts though.