Harald Walach

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Harald Walach

Harald Walach (born February 6, 1957 in Augsburg ) is a German clinical psychologist , scientific theorist and historian . From 2010 to 2016 he headed the Institute for Transcultural Health Sciences IntraG at the European University Viadrina in Frankfurt (Oder) . His scientific work, especially in the esoteric area, is highly controversial.

Live and act

Harald Walach studied psychology and philosophy at the University of Freiburg from 1979 to 1984 as a scholarship holder of the Catholic Cusanuswerk . He then worked from 1985 to 1987 at the Katharina-Werk Basel as head of a center for adult education. From 1988 to 1990 he completed a doctoral degree at the University of Basel , where he received his doctorate in clinical psychology with insigni cum laude in 1991 .

From 1991 Walach worked at the University of Freiburg in the Department of Rehabilitation Psychology and Psychotherapy of the Institute for Psychology, where he dealt with the evaluation of complementary medical methods such as acupuncture and homeopathy . He also studied philosophy and history of science at the University of Vienna , where he also received his doctorate in 1995. In 1998 , Walach completed his habilitation in psychology at the University of Freiburg and from 1998 to 2000 he was the scientific director and coordinator of the DMILS laboratory at the Institute for Frontier Areas of Psychology and honorary lecturer in psychology at the university.

From 1999 to 2005 Harald Walach was head of the research group for the evaluation of complementary medicine at the Institute for Environmental Medicine and Hospital Hygiene in Freiburg. In 2005 he moved to the Department of Psychology at the School of Social Sciences at the University of Northampton as a Research Professor , where he worked until 2009.

After a call to the endowed professorship for research methodology for complementary medicine and medicine , Harald Walach went to Frankfurt (Oder) in 2010 to the private European University Viadrina and was appointed director of the Institute for Transcultural Health Sciences (IntraG). The endowed professorship was temporarily financed by Heel Biological Remedies , a subsidiary of Delton . After the endowed professorship expired on January 31, 2016, the university ended his employment relationship.

Wallach has been practicing meditation since 1975 and has been a Zen student since 1985 . He is married and has four grown children.

Main areas of activity

The research focus of Walach is the effectiveness of complementary medical treatments, in particular homeopathy and mindfulness meditation , as well as the research methods in this area. Among other things, he developed the Freiburg Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFA).

In addition, he researched alternative forms of treatment using randomized controlled and (in some cases double) blinded studies. B. Bach flowers or remote healing , for which he could not determine any effectiveness (and instead attributed effects to the placebo effect ). On the other hand, he claims in public appearances that homeopathic remedies would often work better than a placebo, a claim that other scientists generally contradict according to studies.

Walach advocates a generalized quantum theory or generalized quantum theory , earlier also weak quantum theory , which among other things postulates a quantum entanglement between verum group and control group in studies, which leads to existing effects not being found.

Wallach also deals with spirituality and transpersonal psychology .

Research projects Walachs at the IntraG were (as of September 2012): "Lifestyle-based prevention of (Alzheimer's) dementia", "Mindfulness in school", "Holistic educational approaches for sustainable development", "Psychophysical correlations", "Generalized quantum theory"

Walach is a deputy member of the Homeopathic Therapy Direction Commission (Commission D) at the Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices and works as a reviewer for numerous international journals and committees. He was President of the International Society for Complementary Medicine Research (ISCMR), which he co-founded, and was a member of the scientific advisory board of the blog CAM Media.Watch , which became known for polemical criticism of scientists and journalists reporting on complementary medicine. He is editor of the journal Research Complementary Medicine and director of the European office of the Samueli Institute.

In his function as director of the institute, he was responsible for the master’s degree in Complementary Medicine, Cultural Studies, Medicine , and since 2012 Cultural Studies - Complementary Medicine , at the Viadrina.

"Weak quantum theory"

The background for Walachs Theses on complementary medicine is by him jointly with the Freiburg physicists Harald Atmanspacher and Hartmann Romans developed "weak quantum theory" ( W eak Q uantum T heory, WQT). It was first published in 2002. This means that the mathematical formalisms of quantum mechanics that apply in the atomic area can also be transferred to areas of everyday life. For example, Heisenberg's uncertainty principle , which applies in the atomic range , according to which the simultaneous exact measurement of position and momentum of a particle is impossible, should have its equivalent in the macroscopic world in the pairs of opposites such as matter-spirit, structure-freedom or law-justice, which should also not be measured at the same time. This represents an extension of the complementarity principle. In science, however, this theory has not been taken up because the complementary principle is completely irrelevant for objects the size of our everyday life.

Analogous to the quantum mechanical entanglement of atomic particles, Walach postulates entanglement in the macroscopic range. Quantum entanglement only occurs with individual particles or extremely cold, small particle systems (molecular size) that are also cut off from the outside world. Here they form a common state and behave like an object. Therefore, this phenomenon has no relevance for everyday use, since such conditions cannot be maintained or exist, as a result of which the quantum effects are lost. Wallach, on the other hand, transfers the principle to everyday objects, for example psychotherapists are "entangled" with their patients.

Because of various criticisms of the term “weak quantum theory” (WQT), Walach and co-authors also use the terms “generalized quantum theory” (abbreviation VQT) and, more recently, “generalized quantum theory” (abbreviation GQT).

Awards

The Hufelandgesellschaft eV , the umbrella association of the medical associations for naturopathy and complementary medicine, awarded a group work on classical homeopathy in the treatment of tumor patients by Matthias Rostock, Walach and four other scientists with the Hufeland Research Prize 2011 . (This prize is not related to the Hufeland Prize .) The group work examined 639 tumor patients who had either visited a clinic specializing in homeopathy or a conventional cancer center. In its appreciation, the Hufeland Society emphasized that "[in] the results [show] in the homeopathic group a clear improvement in the quality of life after 3 months, which continued after 12 months". Harald Matthes (board member of the Hufeland Society) described the study as the "[first] component of the necessary scientific evaluation of integrative oncology including homeopathy". On the other hand, in the “conclusion” of the work: “ In our prospective study, we observed an improvement of quality of life as well as a tendency of fatigue symptoms to decrease in cancer patients under complementary homeopathic treatment. It would take considerably larger samples to find matched pairs suitable for comparison in order to establish a definite causal relation between these effects and homeopathic treatment. ”Nina Weber stated on Spiegel Online that the study“ did not come to a clear result ”and Andreas Michalsen (board member of the Hufeland Society) also made it clear that the study did not provide“ proof of the effectiveness ”of an additional homeopathic treatment.

The Society for Critical Thinking (GkD), the Vienna regional group of the Society for the Scientific Investigation of Parasciences (GWUP) awarded Walach in October 2012 with the negative award " The Golden Board " 2012. This was justified by the fact that he “tries to give esoteric and alternative medical nonsense an academic image”. As a supervisor and professor at the Viadrina, Walach had praised a master's thesis on the subject of the Kosyrew mirror . This is supposed to be able to open space-time gates and enable telepathy . Mario Sixtus gave the laudatory speech. In the laudatory speech, he described the IntraG as a “bullshit compression and refinement test facility” and stated: “Even after bullshit has been pumped through the university, it remains bullshit. The only result: the university stinks. ”On the other hand, Bettina Reiter (co-editor of the journal“ Forschungsende Komplementärmedizin ”, headed by Walach) spoke in Der Standard of a“ redundant repetition of the word 'bullshit' ”and that“ the 'society for scientific investigation of Parawwissenschaften eV '[...] apparently successfully infiltrated the Brandenburg University Structure Commission ".

criticism

Harald Walach and the institute he heads have repeatedly been criticized by the press and the skeptic movement with accusations of esotericism .

On June 8, 2012, the university structure commission of the state of Brandenburg presented a final report on the university landscape of the state. In this, "radical structural concerns" were expressed against the Institute for Transcultural Health Sciences (IntraG) headed by Walach . The teaching staff, as well as in research, lacked mostly medical knowledge. “All in all, the institute's staffing and material resources required for research in a university setting appropriate to the topic are not discernible from the point of view of the commission.” The university structure commission recommended that the university “emphatically refrain from offering the MA program 'Cultural Studies - Complementary Medicine in the future '". Even the continuation of the institute was not endorsed either as an in-institute or as an affiliated institute . In February 2013 the Viadrina decided to ignore the recommendation of the university structure commission and to continue the institute on condition that a cooperation with a medical faculty would be entered into within the next two years. In July 2015 the institute announced a cooperation with the Medical University of Poznan .

The blog CAM Media.Watch, which supported Wallach, also came under fire. One of the scientists criticized there, the professor of alternative medicine Edzard Ernst , complained that “essentially ad nauseam it is repeated that [he] is an extremely bad scientist”, that his “results can in no way be trusted”, that he is “politically motivated "And his" fan club "consist of" atheist fundamentalists ". The Süddeutsche Zeitung criticized that CAM Media.Watch is being financed by homeopathic manufacturers in order to pillory critics of their products. The operator of CAM Media.Watch rejected the allegations and described them as "allegations as well as half-truths and falsehoods". The German Central Association of Homeopathic Doctors (DZVHÄ) also responded to the allegations with a press release. Two of the five manufacturers of alternative medicines involved apparently withdrew from the financing of CAM Media.Watch after the allegations became known. The blog was discontinued after the author's death in January 2014.

Walach himself sees the IntraG institute, which he directed until 2016, as the “spearhead of the Enlightenment ”, as it wants to broaden the horizon of what is currently accepted: “Because science always defines itself by using the methods currently available and with methods to be newly developed new terrain, new thoughts, new worlds opened up. In that sense, I would call ourselves the spearhead of the Enlightenment, because we try to continue what we know at the moment. "

Weak quantum theory

An overview of the internal academic reception of the WQT is provided by an incomplete list of peer-reviewed publications that were not written by Lucadou, Atmanspacher, Römer, Walach or members of their research groups. A critical to negative discussion takes place in publications of the skeptic movement . The physicist Philippe Leick dealt with Walach's theory in Der Skeptiker and comes to the conclusion: “At this point in time, the weak quantum theory is nothing more than a set of mathematical axioms . It cannot be used in its current form in the natural sciences, as there is not even an approach as to how the correspondence between its mathematical framework and quantities from the 'lifeworld' can be established. The philosophical-verbal argument that is supposed to introduce complementarity and entanglement in the lifeworld is very optimistic and contains some gaps, and the analogies to quantum mechanics are generally not very convincing. The WQT wants to explain a lot - if not everything - regardless of whether an explanation is needed at all, but does not make any verifiable predictions. "

The weak quantum theory postulated by Walach was criticized by Holm Hümmler for several reasons:

  • Two terms from quantum mechanics were taken (complementarity and entanglement), but they got a completely different meaning; the meaning originally derived from physics is being lost for everyday objects in the macroscopic world
  • the term weak quantum theory is also misleading, since no quanta occur or are described in this theory ; the quantization described from quantum mechanics (division of energy into the smallest units) is nowhere mentioned in the so-called weak quantum theory.
  • a mathematical formalism is applied, which however has no relevance to reality
  • So far no experimental checks have been carried out, for example by methodologically well-carried out tests (double-blind, randomized controlled studies ); these are even rejected by Wallach.

Walach's hypothesis of the weak quantum theory is criticized in homeopathy because it contradicts Hahnemann's teachings . Esotericists also avoid Walach's hypothesis and rarely cite it as evidence.

Publications (selection)

  • Scientific homeopathic drug testing: double-blind crossover study of a homeopathic high potency against placebo or do homeopathic remedies work on healthy people like placebos? . Haug, Heidelberg 1992, ISBN 3-7760-1265-X (Dissertation Basel 1992)
  • Notitia experimentalis Dei - knowledge of God through experience. Studies on Hugo de Balma's text "Viae Sion lugent" and German translation . Salzburg 1994, ISBN 3-7052-0937-X (Dissertation Vienna 1995).
  • Notitia experimentalis Dei - Hugh of Balma's mystical epistemology of inner experience: a hermeneutic reconstruction = Experiential knowledge of God . Salzburg 2010, ISBN 978-3-902649-77-5 .
  • Away with the pills. Self-healing or why we have to take responsibility for our health. A polemic. Irisiana Verlag, Munich 2011
  • Spirituality. Why we need to continue the education. Drachen Verlag, Klein Jasedow 2011
  • Homeopathy as a basic therapy. Plea for the scientific seriousness of homeopathy. Karl F. Haug Verlag, Heidelberg 1986
  • Holistic Medicine - Theoretical Considerations and Attempting a Vision. In: Medicine versus Medicine. Edited by Albrecht, Henning, Hippokrates Verlag, Stuttgart 1993
  • First person epistemology. Spirituality and Subjectivity in Science. with Nikolaus von Stillfried. In: Tattva Viveka , Vol. 19, No. 53, 2012, pp. 28-37 ( [1] ).
  • I think neuroscience is completely overrated. In: Matthias Eckoldt : Can Consciousness Be Conscious? Carl-Auer, Heidelberg 2017, pp. 229–246.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Press release on idw.de.
  2. Esoteric Institute before the end? (June 18, 2012); Press release ( Memento from November 4, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 147 kB) of the IGHH eV and the IGBM e. V.
  3. Prof. Dr. Dr. Farewell to Harald Walach ( memento of March 18, 2017 in the Internet Archive ), Department for Press and Public Relations, European University Viadrina.
  4. Prof. Harald Walach: Inner and outer experience - Zen and science
  5. Harald Walach et al .: Research on homeopathy: state of the art . In: Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine (New York, NY) . tape 11 , no. 5 , October 2005, p. 813-829 , doi : 10.1089 / acm.2005.11.813 , PMID 16296915 .
  6. Marcus Majumdar et al .: Does mindfulness meditation contribute to health? Outcome evaluation of a German sample . In: Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine (New York, NY) . tape 8 , no. 6 , December 2002, p. 719-730; discussion 731-735 , doi : 10.1089 / 10755530260511720 , PMID 12614525 .
  7. ^ Paul Grossman et al .: Mindfulness-based stress reduction and health benefits. A meta-analysis . In: Journal of Psychosomatic Research . tape 57 , no. 1 , July 2004, p. 35-43 , doi : 10.1016 / S0022-3999 (03) 00573-7 , PMID 15256293 .
  8. Harald Walach et al .: Are the clinical effects of homoeopathy placebo effects? In: Lancet (London, England) . tape 366 , no. 9503 , December 17, 2005, p. 2081; author reply 2083-2086 , doi : 10.1016 / S0140-6736 (05) 67877-4 , PMID 16360778 .
  9. Harald Walach et al .: Circular instead of hierarchical: methodological principles for the evaluation of complex interventions . In: BMC medical research methodology . tape 6 , June 24, 2006, p. 29 , doi : 10.1186 / 1471-2288-6-29 , PMID 16796762 , PMC 1540434 (free full text).
  10. Harald Walachet al .: Measuring mindfulness-the FreiburgMindfulnessInventory (FMI). In: Personality and Individual Differences 40 (8), 2006, pp. 1543-1555, doi: 10.1016 / j.paid.2005.11.025 ; Harald Walach et al .: Empirical assessment of mindfulness - the construction of the Freiburg questionnaire on mindfulness (FFA) and further validation studies. In: Thomas Heidenreich, Johannes Michalak (ed.): Mindfulness and acceptance in psychotherapy. Tübingen, DGVT, 2004, pp. 727-770; Nina Buchheld, Harald Walach: Mindfulness in Vipassana Meditation and Psychotherapy: The Development of the “Freiburg Questionnaire on Mindfulness”. In: Journal for clinical psychology, psychiatry and psychotherapy 50, 2002, pp. 153–172.
  11. Harald Walach et al .: Effectiveness of distant healing for patients with chronic fatigue syndrome: a randomized controlled partially blinded trial (EUHEALS) . In: Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics . tape 77 , no. 3 , 2008, p. 158-166 , doi : 10.1159 / 000116609 , PMID 18277062 .
  12. ^ H. Walach et al .: Efficacy of Bach flower remedies in test anxiety: a double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized trial with partial crossover . In: Journal of Anxiety Disorders . tape 15 , no. 4 , July 2001, p. 359-366 , doi : 10.1016 / s0887-6185 (01) 00069-x , PMID 11474820 .
  13. Globuli and Co ( Memento from July 29, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) broadcast on ZDF on November 30, 2011
  14. Harald Atmanspacher, Hartmann Römer, Harald Walach: Weak Quantum Theory: Complementarity and Entanglement in Physics and Beyond. Archived copy ( memento of July 29, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) online ; Harald Walach: Generalized Quantum Theory (Weak Quantum Theory): A theoretical basis for understanding transpersonal phenomena. online ( memento of January 5, 2012 in the Internet Archive ); Publications on generalized quantum theory  ( page no longer available , search in web archivesInfo: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. .@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.europa-uni.de  
  15. ^ N. Kohls, Harald Walach: Psychological distress, experiences of ego loss and spirituality: Exploring the effects of spiritual practice. In: Social Behavior and Personality 35, 2007, pp. 1310-1316.
  16. Harald Walach, N. Kohls, W. Belschner: Transpersonal Psychology - Psychology of Consciousness: Chances and Problems. In: Psychotherapie Psychosomatik Medical Psychologie 55, 2005, pp. 405–415.
  17. IntraG - Current project overview ( Memento from October 17, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
  18. Members of the commission according to § 25 Paragraph 6, 7 and 7a Clause 8 AMG for human medicine, homeopathic therapy direction (Commission D), department of medical statistics in the Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices  ( page no longer available , search in web archivesInfo: The link was automatically marked as broken. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.bfarm.de  
  19. Editorial Board of the journal Research Complementary Medicine
  20. ^ Message from the Samueli Institute
  21. Information on the Master’s degree in Complementary Medicine - Cultural Studies - Medicine ( Memento from June 19, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 1.6 MB) at the Viadrina European University; Study guide for the Master’s program in Cultural Studies - Complementary Medicine ( Memento from December 21, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) of the European University Viadrina.
  22. a b c d e f g Holm Gero Hümmler : Relative quantum quark: Can modern physics prove esotericism? Springer-Verlag, 2017, ISBN 978-3-662-53829-6 , pp. 159-166 .
  23. Harald Atmanspacher, Hartmann Römer and Harald Walach Weak quantum theory: complementarity and entanglement in physics and beyond , Foundations of Physics, Volume 32, 2002, pp. 379-406, Arxiv
  24. Lecture in the seminar 'Entanglement and Mathematics'
  25. Press release of the Hufeland Society on the research award (PDF; 226 kB)
  26. ^ Matthias Rostock, Johannes Naumann, Corina Guethlin, Lars Guenther, Hans H. Bartsch, Harald Walach: "Classical homeopathy in the treatment of cancer patients - a prospective observational study of two independent cohorts" , In: BMC Cancer 2011, 11:19 doi: 10.1186 / 1471-2407-11-19 .
  27. Confusion about research award : How homeopathy suddenly helps cancer patients Spiegel Online, July 19, 2012
  28. Press release "The Golden Board" ; “Golden Board in front of the head” for German university professor Der Standard, accessed on October 19, 2012; Pseudoscientific nonsense “price for shit” taz , accessed on October 22, 2012
  29. Bernd Kramer: Kozyrev-Spiegel: Master's thesis at Viadrina Uni proves clairvoyance. In: DER SPIEGEL . May 7, 2012, accessed February 23, 2020 .
  30. Sebastian Herrmann: Looked too deep into the tube. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung . June 12, 2012, accessed February 23, 2020 .
  31. ^ Edzard Ernst: Professor Harald Walach, pseudo-scientist of the year. October 21, 2012, accessed February 23, 2020 (UK English).
  32. ^ Laudatory speech by Mario Sixtus
  33. Brettl in front of the head - Hackl in the cross
  34. Sebastian Herrmann: Looked too deep into the tube. Esoteric at the Viadrina University. Süddeutsche Zeitung , online , May 10, 2012; Stefan Locke: Successful, but invented. Fraud with “Gravitational Waves” Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , online , April 21, 2012; Bernd Kramer: Esoteric master's thesis - I see something that you don't see , Spiegel Online , May 7, 2012, online
  35. University structure commission of the state of Brandenburg: final report. from June 8, 2012, online ( Memento from July 3, 2012 in the Internet Archive ); Bernd Kramer: Hocus-pocus Vanishing Bus. Impending end for esoteric institute. Spiegel Online , June 22, 2012, online
  36. ^ "Para sciences as a subject" in the daily newspaper , March 14, 2013, online ( memento of March 16, 2013 in the Internet Archive ); “The 'Hogwarts on the Oder'?” Sächsische Zeitung , March 19, 2013, online ; “'Magic School' on the Oder?” Berliner Zeitung , March 19, 2013, online ; “Institute of the European University under criticism” Berliner Morgenpost , March 20, 2013, online ; “Viadrina continues to offer alternative medicine” Märkische Oderzeitung , March 18, 2013, online ; Cooperation with medical university entered into, July 9, 2015, online ( Memento from July 15, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
  37. ^ Edzard Ernst: "Little H" ( Memento from September 27, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
  38. Jens Lubbadeh: Dirty methods of gentle medicine. Article in the SZ from June 30, 2012
  39. Thank you, SZ! Reply to Jens Lubbadeh: "The dirty methods of gentle medicine" CAM Media.Watch, July 2nd, 2012
  40. Is-factual-criticism-of-journalists-character assassination?
  41. Weleda and the wisdom of the people Friday, July 9, 2012; DHU provides funding on Twitter, July 25, 2012
  42. Edith Kresta: Professor of alternative medicine - "We are the spearhead of the Enlightenment" , taz , June 15, 2012, online
  43. List of peer-reviewed publications on the WQT ( Memento of February 22, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 108 kB)
  44. Philippe Leick: The weak quantum theory and homeopathy. Der Skeptiker 3/2006 (online)  ( page no longer available , search in web archivesInfo: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / rolakxchg.ro.ohost.de