These bracelets and necklaces circling the globe are nothing new but are being repackaged and marketed in such a way that I cannot walk down the street anymore without hearing someone say “power balance” “Phiten” or “balance necklace/bracelet”.
What are these things that athletes and even our cherished Texas Rangers are wearing? Two of the Texas Rangers pitchers by the names of CJ Wilson and Neftali Feliz wear the Phiten necklace. This balance necklace is supposed to have micro titanium sphere zones in the center.
In Uganda where there are still primitive tribes wearing nothing but leather flaps over their genitals you will see most of the tribal men and women wearing rubber bracelets manufactured in China. The medicine men in the tribe sell them to their tribe to assist in warding off evil spirits. This would be a spiritual balance bracelet.
The bracelet receives powers from the shaman medicine man in the tribe but the Phiten bracelet somehow offers athletic ability through titanium sphere zones. In the case of the Phiten bracelet there are no prayers or rituals chanted over the bracelet.
You would think when wearing the Phiten necklace or bracelet you would be dealing with a much more scientific technology but instead the titanium sphere zones are just a way to make you a believer. The Uganda tribes believe in their bracelets because of the rituals and chanting supposedly done on the bracelets which is just another excuse to give to people similar to saying they have a titanium sphere zones that have magical powers.
The sphere zones somehow are supposed to increase CJ Wilson’s atheletic ability but this is nothing more than push button marketing where doing nothing gets you your dreams and more.
The truth is CJ Wilson spent years and years practicing pitching to be as good as he is. The necklace gives him no competitive edge other than as a placebo.
A good counter test subject is Cliff Lee who is also a Texas Rangers pitcher. Cliff Lee does not wear one of these necklaces and performed much better over the year than did CJ Wilson.
Also take a look at the extraordinary Texas Rangers pitcher Neftali Feliz. He wears some type of balance necklace as well. I am not sure if it is a Phiten necklace but it just goes to show how much superstition is in sports excellence.
It does not matter how smart or gifted you are there are people who will believe in these balance bracelets and necklaces regardless of how much evidence is out their to show that they are scams.
I walked into my local pharmacy in Lindale Texas the other day to see the notorious Power Balance bracelet for sale on the front counter. They were selling it for $19.95 which is usually the price I see it for at other places.
Right next to it was another bracelet called the Phiten Sporting Bracelet. This one claims some different health benefits such as the ability to enhance circulation and promote relaxation in the arm, wrist and shoulder.
I couldn’t believe a pharmacy was selling this considering I put places like the pharmacies in a scientific category in my mind that isn’t necessarily a business accustomed to selling wacko science products.
For instance I usually see ear candles in wellness and herb type stores but rarely do I see ear candles fro sale in my local pharmacy.
The new Phiten sporting bracelet is 100 % silicone which I don’t understand would be touted as being such a great benefit. If they were to say it was 100% made out of gold I might buy it.
These Phiten bracelets have embedded micro titanium sphere zones in them. What is a micro titanium sphere zone? I don’t know and I am sure that is what Phiten hopes many people will think as well so as to let peoples imaginations run wild and come up with their own scientific explanation.
A fun fact about the Phiten brand bracelets is that some pretty big sports stars use this brand. CJ Wilson with the Texas Rangers wears a Phiten necklace and pitches on a professional MLB pitching mound. And it’s not just him that wears this type of thing. Pretty much all the pitchers wears these necklaces accept for Cliff Lee who has now left the Rangers to play with the Phillies.
The balance bracelet enthusiasts and believers out there that are quick to give testimonials on all the ways the bracelets have healed their bodies as well as go into how the bracelets work in a pseudo science kind of manner.
So for those who prefer micro titanium balls in their bracelets over hologram stickers here is another bracelet for you.
In places like Kenya African tribes where rubber bracelets to ward off evil spirits. The tribe medicine men will sell these bracelets to the members of the tribe and they are everywhere there.
Now take a look at these balance bracelets in America. The bracelets use carefully crafted language to explain that you may see a promotion of enhanced balance, relaxation, and well being.
They will not outright claim anything as scientific fact as they can simply wait on the thousands of people who buy these bracelets to offer positive testimonials.
An interesting aspect to these testimonials is that many of them follow a very similar sales pitch type structure.
The comment starts off by saying they are skeptics themselves and are by nature a skeptical person. They go on to offer an impressive credential or two like that they are a doctor or engineer.
The testimonial is setup with offering the idea that the person is a skeptic to let those reading it put their guard down that maybe this comment is for real.
The person offers a good credential like that they are a doctor, scientist, engineer and then they begin on how they tried the balance bracelet and it fixed their back, or their balance or any number of ailments.
These fake testimonial comments are peppered throughout the Internet on many blogs and sites to give a higher percentage of positive comments than negative.
If it weren’t for these fake comments you would likely see a much higher percentage of negative comments as opposed to positive ones.
On the other end of this you do in fact have several real comments from people who are believers in balance bracelets.
I have a cousin who uses the EFX balance bracelet and he is a smart guy. Both him and his wife swear that it has releaved both back pain and headaches for them.
All I can say is that the bracelets work very well as placebos but do the bracelets actually do something scientific to cause my cousin to stop having a headache beyond placebo? No!
So are balance bracelets scams? The placebo effect works but that being said the bracelets are indeed scams there is simply no other way around it.
The Power Balance bracelet is being sold in a few stores in Tyler Texas and throughout the whole country. This hologram bracelet fad has taken off beyond my wildest imagination.
When I first heard about the healing powers of hologram bracelets and an MLM opportunity to sell them I just about fell out of my seat laughing. The idea that a bracelet with a little hologram sticker can some how balance your body, cure headaches, allow you to achieve straight A’s in school and so on didn’t seem like something the mass public would fall for.
I was way off in my confidence in the American public as even some of my own family are believers in the Power Balance bracelet.
My cousin wears the EFX brand of balance bracelets but there seems to be a never ending list of balance bracelet companies out there. The price is always in the range of $20 – $40 and some companies claim more radio frequencies in their to further balance your body above and beyond their competitors.
Ours Goes to 11 Dudes
The added frequencies claim reminds me of that Spinal tap movie when Joemeek’s SC2 stereo compressor, known affectionately as “the green box” has an input gain knob that goes up to 11 compared to other stereo compressors which only go up to 10.
The insanity surrounding these bracelets continues to amaze me as actors, professional sports players and successful people in my own family buy and wear these on a daily basis.
My cousin commented about the EFX bracelet:
“Susie and I have the EFX brand and I have noticed a significant change in my lower back pain.”
Videos about the Power Balance bracelet show vague promotional lingo that steer clear of actually factually saying they really do something. You will hear things like “promote balance” or “may do this or that”
What you won’t hear from company spokesmen are verifiable factual scientific statements that they are proven to cure a headache, back pain, and other such nonsense.
EFX Bracelet
In my mind the Power Balance bracelet is nothing more then a scam just like the EFX, Q(chi) ionic/biomagnetic bracelet, Q Ray bracelet, and the plenitude of other sucker bracelets out there.
It will take you about 2 minutes to go out on youtube and research how these balance demonstrations really work. They are easy to do carnival tricks but turn thousands of people into balance bracelet wearers everyday.
Can a Rubber Band Do the same as a Balance Bracelet?
A buddy of mine was telling me about this thing called Cie Aura that has some type of radio frequency hologram device that is supposed to balance the body. It turns out there are a lot of these retarded snake oil healing bracelets out there.
If you are a believer I am sorry I called you retarded but don’t let a blog offend, that’s super sensitive! Geez!
I had heard of the IRenew Bracelet, the Power Balance Bracelet, and the Pure Energy Band but this was now a new one I hadn’t yet heard of before. I chalked them all up to being the same scam.
I looked on the internet and found several more of these bracelets going by different names.
What immediately struck me was how many sports stars and NFL athletes were endorsing these things.
Supposed really influential people and sports role models are convinced and sold on these things and it simply shocks the heck out of me.
The balance bracelets are supposed to emit a frequency that is attuned to the body. If you go to a state fair they will perform carnival style tricks to convince you the technology in the bracelet really does balance the body.
As has been repeated before there is nothing new under the sun. Yes new inventions are made but general philosophies and ways of convincing people about false things still happens as it has for thousands of years.
If you do your research and look for things on the internet about “Applied Kinesiology” you will see that many scientists have debunked this long ago.
The idea that the body responds to worn items, things ingested, or holding things has been around for ever. People pay mega bucks to believe these things because it appeals to a strong desire in human nature.
In regards to balance bracelets the feeling it evokes in people is health and the fountain of youth.
No matter how old you get a desire to remain in peak physical condition will always be something everyone wishes for and most want a push button effort to get there.
Can a Livestrong Bracelet do the same thing an IRenew Bracelet can?
The power balance bracelet idea meets the push button need for instant balance which for many equals instant physical stability, agility, and performance. The added promise of less headaches and arthritis some who sell this claim offers even more push button health benefits.
Many of these people would laugh and joke about a TV evangelist or tent revivalist who prophesied over someone that they had diabetes and would now be healed simply by him laying hands on them.
As an added note these TV evangelist get their information from cards filled out by the elderly prior to a crusade who quickly forget they just handed over the same information he prophesied over them about.
In an MLM many of the people selling the products are believers in the product. The sales people go to enough meetings and learn the parlor tricks to convince others without ever seeing that it is a scam.
The same people at state fairs doing the tricks and gimmicks to convince others believe in the product themselves. They don’t even see that were themselves taught a trick to than trick others.
This pawn effect brings in many new converts to the power balance bracelet craze and there is simply no end in site for this thing.
A company by the name of Lifewave was exposed on WorldWideScam for selling hologram stickers and claims were not just made that it offered health benefits to your body but could improve a cars gas mileage.
I have seen news people on TV wearing these superstitious bracelets which leads me to believe that my theory is correct that many of these news people are guided more by their feelings than by the facts.
While I was at the fair in east Texas this guy put one of these bracelets in my hand. The one he used was called the Pure Energy Band. The claim was made that it had more frequencies in the bracelet than many of the other bracelets.
He asked me to hold my hands out on each side and stretch my body as far as I could to one side.
He then marked how far I had stretched to one side. After this stretch he put the bracelet on me. I did the stretch again and was able to stretch quite a bit further.
The problem here is that without the bracelet I tested this later at home. When you do this stretch you are always to go much further on the second attempt.
This is simply the power of stretching ones body and then doing it again a second time.
In reality the body continually learns and adjusts on each attempt at doing the same thing over again. Try this out you will see that those parlor tricks work even without having a balance bracelet in your hand.
This same test was done without the bracelet with some of my friends and they were able to go further the 2nd time without owning one of these bracelets.
There is another test the guy at the fair did and it involved me standing on one of my feet as he pushed down on an arm.
I lost my balance the first time around. He had me hold the bracelet and he did the same test again. This time I maintained my balance. The problem with this is when I got home and tested this theory out with my wife I didn’t have the bracelet. On the second attempt having my wife perform the test I experienced the same good balance as I did with the bracelet.
The body simply learns and balances better each consecutive time you do it. There is no special trick or science behind wearing a bracelet with frequencies.
When I pointed out to my friend who has a brother who works for one of these scam bracelet companies that it was fraud and showed her all the evidence she still wouldn’t admit to it being a scam.
All that is going on here is a placebo effect. Someone could be wearing a Livestrong bracelet, a rubber band, or broken condom on their wrist and get the same results. These people will not admit to being scammed because they would look like stupid retards.
Voodoo Bracelets in Africa the equivalent to balance bracelets in America
January 3rd, 2011In places like Kenya African tribes where rubber bracelets to ward off evil spirits. The tribe medicine men will sell these bracelets to the members of the tribe and they are everywhere there.
Now take a look at these balance bracelets in America. The bracelets use carefully crafted language to explain that you may see a promotion of enhanced balance, relaxation, and well being.
They will not outright claim anything as scientific fact as they can simply wait on the thousands of people who buy these bracelets to offer positive testimonials.
An interesting aspect to these testimonials is that many of them follow a very similar sales pitch type structure.
The comment starts off by saying they are skeptics themselves and are by nature a skeptical person. They go on to offer an impressive credential or two like that they are a doctor or engineer.
The testimonial is setup with offering the idea that the person is a skeptic to let those reading it put their guard down that maybe this comment is for real.
The person offers a good credential like that they are a doctor, scientist, engineer and then they begin on how they tried the balance bracelet and it fixed their back, or their balance or any number of ailments.
These fake testimonial comments are peppered throughout the Internet on many blogs and sites to give a higher percentage of positive comments than negative.
If it weren’t for these fake comments you would likely see a much higher percentage of negative comments as opposed to positive ones.
On the other end of this you do in fact have several real comments from people who are believers in balance bracelets.
I have a cousin who uses the EFX balance bracelet and he is a smart guy. Both him and his wife swear that it has releaved both back pain and headaches for them.
All I can say is that the bracelets work very well as placebos but do the bracelets actually do something scientific to cause my cousin to stop having a headache beyond placebo? No!
So are balance bracelets scams? The placebo effect works but that being said the bracelets are indeed scams there is simply no other way around it.
Tags: African Tribes, Ailments, Back Pain, Balance Bracelet, Balance bracelet EFX, Bracelets, Cousin, EFX balance bracelet, efx balanec bracelet scams, Evil Spirits, Hea, Headaches, Medicine Men, Negative Comments, Pitch Type, Placebos, Relaxation, Sales Pitch, Skeptic, Skeptics, Smart Guy, Testimonial Comments, Type Structure, Voodoo
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