Every claim of cause deserves to be examined on its merits, and in the context in which it is offered. Dismissing claims out-of-hand is dogmatic. Not all claims can be tested—who has the time?—so it’s not wrong to leave many on the table if it is judged their chance of success, conditioned on information outside the claim, is small.
For instance, I would decline to look into any claim of dowsing, based on many prior investigations which found these claims wanting. Even though I might by this negligence miss discovering a true instance of this power. On the other hand, I do look at scientific claims that reach notice and to me sound wrong. We couldn’t by, say, embracing the slogan “global warming is a hoax”, not consider the merits of arguments put forth in its name, especially given the importance of these arguments to those making decisions about us. And this, of course, is what we have done for many years.
Hence I thought it worth while looking at the paper, recommended to me, “Urological Diseases: Ruqya and Negative Ions Treatment” by Mira Bajirova in the Journal of Reproductive Systems and Sexual disorders. The Abstract:
Urological diseases have two groups of causes: Decreased Oxygen Utilization and Jinn. Decreased Oxygen Utilization is caused by Positive Ions from man-made activities. Positive ions induce acidity and inflammation in our body, which are at the base of almost all diseases; the best treatment against Positive Ions is the use of Negative Ions, while Medicine is powerless in many cases. What is amazing, that the Negative Ions help also to diagnose the presence of the Jinn as a cause of the disease and remove the Evil of Satan as Allah “sent down upon you from the sky, rain by which to purify you and remove from you the evil (suggestions) of Satan and to make steadfast your hearts and plant firmly thereby your feet.” (Quran, Al Anfal 8:11). During the rain and thunderstorm there is a massive discharge of Negative Ions. Jinn contain more Positive Ions. The cure is only by Allah and when Ruqya is associated with Negative Ions the cure is quicker.
This paper is what is known in medicine as a “case report”. These are small stories in which physicians, on a topic where much uncertainty about a particular disease or treatment is acknowledged, describe maladies of (usually single) patients, the characteristics of the patients the physician thought interesting, brief descriptions of treatments given, and what happened shortly after. They are by nature limited and thus classed as anecdotes. But since they are usually written in high-falutin’ language, they take on the mien of science.
Saying Jinn or the Evil Eye cause disease, as Bajirova does, is also science. She has specific claims of cause, embedded in lengthy theological discussion.
Now, you can dismiss all this right away, but given Muslims represent about a quarter of mankind, and that a good fraction of their number take these claims seriously, we are obliged to look into them, especially given that many former Christian lands might soon enough (it seems) be majority Muslim.
Bajirova’s theory is simple: positive ions increase inflammation, which causes disease, and thus “The key to health is to maximize oxygen utilization by eliminating or decreasing the effect of the Positive Ions.” Jinn cause positive ions. She sees the difficulties in attribution, quoting an authority on the matter: “Researching the topic of the Jinn is one of the most difficult of subjects, especially since it has to do with finding out about a hidden world that is not visible and cannot be measured in physical or empirical terms.”
She lists a number of maladies fitting her theory, but given this is a journal of reproduction, she gives emphasis on how men suffer the lack of ability to impregnate their women. For instance: “Idiopathic Male Infertility is caused by Jinn. Jinn may interfere with one of the testicles by pressing it or by other means; so that the testicle would not produce the required sperm count to fertilize the oocyte.”
Jinn are one problem, but so is the “Evil Eye [which] is like an arrow which comes from the soul of the one who envies towards the one who is envied and on whom the Evil Eye is put; sometimes it hits him and sometimes it misses. If the target is exposed and unprotected, it will affect him but if the target is cautious and armed the arrow will have no effect and may even come back on the one who launched it.”
So much for the cause of disease. What of their treatment? Negative ions. “The Most Merciful, The Highest, ‘…sent down upon you from the sky, rain by which to purify you and remove from you the evil [suggestions] of Satan and to make steadfast your hearts and plant firmly thereby your feet.’ (Quran Al Anfal 8:11). Rain contains high concentration of Negative Ions. From this great Quranic verse, we understand that Evil Jinn are composed of more Positive Ions. “
Here is one of the cases which presented to her (she runs an IVF clinic in Paris and has an office in UAE):
Two men, husbands of my two patients, were having prostatitis. They have used different treatments, but the discomfort was persisting. With Negative Ions (Energy stone and Anion napkins), the symptoms disappeared.
The Negative Ions products (Ionbox 20 million Negative Ions, Negative Ions (Anion) napkins, Negative Ions bed, clothes, other products) should be used to diagnose and treat the diseases as the Negative Ions act in two ways: putting the body in alkaline and removing Satan.
Other cases are similar, including one woman suffering persistent Urinary Tract Infections: “I suggested Negative Ions (Anion Napkins containing 6000 units of Anion/cm3 and Energy stone) as Medicine was powerless anyway. Two weeks later, a miracle happened, Mycoplasma disappeared and Ureaplasma became positive to half of antibiotics just by using Negative Ions.”
Bajirova also recommends prayer and fasting. She closes her paper sounding not entirely unlike a Muslim RFK Jr.:
The Messenger of Allah (pbuh) [ “peace be upon him”], sent to all mankind, said: There is no disease that Allah has created, except He also has created its treatment.” (narration by Abu Hurayra, Bukhari) Jinn Possession has been well-documented since Hippocrates (born around the year 460 BC) period. But the term Jinn Possession is seldom mentioned in Medicine. Instead, the doctors speak about the diseases with unknown causes and their symptoms are treated with drugs which take effect by turning the patients into virtual vegetables.
So. Did the negative ion napkins cure the woman’s UTIs, and did they also cure the men’s prostatitis?
I can think of many alternate causes, chiefly those bodies cured themselves, given that people often seek treatment during a crisis, which often is self-resolving, making it appear whatever exterior treatment that was given appear efficacious. But notice that this possibility, which if I had to bet I would take, is offered with less supportive evidence than Bajirova gives.
Others will be tempted to say the placebo effect. Yet since placebos are inert by definition, and have no causative effect of any kind, the cure must therefore be caused by something else, like the mind. And if you allow the mind as a cause, then you are going a great way toward Bajirova’s point of view, except of course in the particulars.
Consider also the side of effects of negative ion pads are likely to be minimal, and that the prayer to help dislodge malign entities can be extremely comforting.
The happiest part of this review is that it is a review. That a journal published this paper, which is a move away from banal consensus-enforcing science. It is worth your time to read this paper, even if in the end you agree with none of it.
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Well, that was interesting. I have this idea we need to reintroduce religion into life, and it’s interesting to see how that would look like IRL when people don’t share your religion. This time I’ll skip over arguing which religion is right and which wrong, I’ll just gently point out no more than one (AKA, almost all) religions are wrong. We know this because all religions disagree on at least one essential point, therefore there can’t be more than one right. This, BTW, may be the reason why Enlightment managed to desacralise and atheise society. If practically all religions are wrong (and European explorers explored the world and documented so many different religions), what’s the point in following religion? How do you know your own is any good?
“How do you know your own is any good?”
By taking the time to broadly study them all, in text, in dogmas, in practice, in miracles, in history, and science and philosophy and how well their apologia holds up against the skepticisms of their most fervent enemies.
And it won’t take very long to narrow down the list to the most plausible one.
People simply don’t want to make that effort anymore than understanding finance, taxes or their family tree.
Jinn Tonic?
I shudder to imagine what lunatic religious or paranormal beliefs might be held by the credentialed medical professionals whose hands I put my health and life in.