It’s amazing how folks in BC can consistently come up with astonishing and baffling ideas, scams, and nonsensical whims and turn them into businesses. They seem to thrive on ever more zany hoaxes to separate the gullible from their money. In the last BC Follies, I noted that clever operators offered guided forest bathing where one could receive soothing tree energy to relieve stress. Some of those operators are now offering music medicine. I guess if forest bathing wasn’t strong enough to wash away your cares, a good dose of CCR rock and roll will do the trick – okay, the latter works for me, along with a few beers.
I think I am on the right track, though – according to a music therapy journal: “Because of music’s connection to the limbic system in the brain, it can help you access the relaxation response and calm your nervous system, slowing down your breathing. It really helps shift your mind from what it’s stuck on or worried about and helps you land in the moment you’re in.” Apparently, there is a difference between music therapy and music medicine; as one might expect, BC wellness resorts offer assorted music therapies and forest bathing. I guess the combined services are for hard-core cases. It gets even better with the latest new-age feel-good flight of fancy.
Are you feeling sluggish, depressed, sad, tired, or just generally blah – well, you need to rush over to BC, where several crafty entrepreneurs have a cure for what ails your over-stressed soul and inner spirit. All you need is 15 minutes, or more if you feel super blah, inside a Harmonic Egg. In the words of one of the BC operators, it’s an egg-shaped enclosure that utilizes light, colour, sound, frequency, and vibration to activate the body’s natural ability to balance and restore itself and reset the autonomic nervous system at the cellular level. Apparently, it’s an energy therapy based on the science of bio-resonance with the ancient wisdom of sacred geometry. Wow, and here I thought goat therapy was supposed to help folks with too much time on their hands.
Harmonic egg therapy is not just a BC phenomenon, but it’s sure taken off in that airhead province, as one might expect. Images from harmonic egg promoters show a somewhat cramped enclosure – anyone with even the slightest sense of claustrophobia might find it a terrifying experience rather than a relaxing regenerative wellness encounter.
I can understand why BC citizens are stampeding to engage in new-age airhead therapies, considering the woeful state of their medical system. Last year, BC spent $16 million on a program to send cancer patients to Bellingham, Wash., for radiation therapy. The services are carried out by two large American “private” clinics. That would be private clinics that the BC NDP government refuses to allow to be established in their socialist healthcare paradise. BC healthcare unions are curiously quiet about spending those millions on a private clinic.
One can imagine the enraged howls of protest from ideology-obsessed Alberta healthcare unions if the UCP government sent Alberta patients to Montana for timely healthcare services. It gets worse; my BC relatives report going to hospital emergency departments just to get a prescription. Apparently, by accident or design, there are very few walk-in medical clinics in BC. Those that exist require appointments to, I guess, walk in.
A report from a BC think tank observed that due to the extra hoops, permitting, environmental assessments, blockades, etc., the TMX pipeline’s completion was delayed by two years. All those extra billions in expenses and delays will cost every BC taxpayer $500 each in lost taxes and higher prices for retail gas. The elitist gang of BC anti-energy critics responded that the cost of the delay to the Alberta oil energy and government was probably a lot higher. It’s hard to beat that logic, but then I guess BC citizens like higher prices and more taxes being they re-elected their NDP government. It boggles the mind.
Another province is trying to horn their way onto the folly list. A clever farmer near St John’s has been offering cow-cuddling sessions as a relaxation therapy for stressed city folks. I guess there aren’t enough yoga goats around, and cows have now been brought in to help deal with the thousands of uptight Newfoundlanders who are in dire need of animal relaxation therapy. I expect the farmer is laughing all the way to the bank.
Will Verboven is an ag opinion writer.
