Why are many Catholics against reflexology?

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Angel_Gabriel said:
Foot massage is one thing, after all, the feet have muscles. Moving and releasing energy blockages via pressure points on the feet (or hands or ears) is quite another
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Why is that against Christianity. Do you say that it is a mortal sin to use reflexology?
 
Yes, there are certain contra indications such as heart transplant, recent surgery, broken bones in foot, for infections, varicose veins and first trimester of pregnancy where it is advised to refrain from practising.
 
I guess I felt I had betrayed God and Jesus by practising alternative therapies. I worried that I had placed my confidence in another god without realising it (this certainly does happen in reiki and transcendendal meditation where another god is called upon). Lucifer can be deceptive and draw people to him via new age. I recently watched a number of YouTube videos about near death experiences and people spoke about how the went to hell before Jesus saved them. They thought they were ‘good people’. I became frightened and didn’t want to put my soul, or my families, in jeopardy.
 
My mother would never go to another reflexologist, esp someone interested in new age. Only one session a week is advised and there is sequence to follow so that reflexes for all system and organs are pressed on for only a number of times. It is difficult to overdo it and imbalance the energy. A session lasts about 50 mins and much if that time is spent massaging the for also.

It was a doctor who mapped ten longitudinal zones of the body onto feet. The soles of feet apparently correspond very accurately to the map of organs on body. So the toes are like the persons head - they contain reflex points for brain, sinuses, face, teeth and glands in brain etc The base of toes is the shoulder, neck and so on. He divided it into 10 zones…five on each foot. I guess because when have five fingers and five toes on each side of midlife of body that he found it easy and clear to divide zones of reflex points into 10 zones, 5 on each side of midlife.

If my mother got the same benefit from a foot massage and she did from a reflexology treatment doesn’t bother me - as long as the reflexology system did not spiritually harm her. If reflexology is a placebo and merely another type of foot massage doesn’t bother me, as long as I’m not putting my faith in an unknown source. The scientific side bother me, the spiritual side does.
 
  1. I’m Eastern so mortal sin isn’t a phrase I’m apt to use
  2. the concept of Qi does not exisit in Christianity. We are body and soul. So moving around energy (Qi) blockages in the body doesn’t go along with what Christianity says about us.
 
Most pseudoscience is harmless spiritually. However, I believe it to be unethical b/c I don’t want to take people’s money for something that hasn’t been scientifically proven to work. That’s just me and that’s how I feel as a Massage Therapist. I’m helping people relax as a therapist…it doesn’t do much else but if people can leave my table, go home and NOT bite off their family’s heads then I did my job and I helped them.
 
Good grief: “reiki, reflexology, transcendendal meditation, yoga, Pilates and kinesiology”

Pilates is nothing spiritual whatsoever. It’s an exercise style, not a belief system, nor a healing system.

Yoga is controversial. I do it occasionally since I don’t believe in any of the Hind gods. I follow it as an exercise approach, but the risk can be there because it is tied into spirituality and practitioner /teachers can bring that in to their prompts without thinking twice. But I just ignore it and smile.

Here’s a good reason to ignore all that the woman had to say:

“Kinesiology is the scientific study of human or non-human body movement. Kinesiology addresses physiological, biomechanical, and psychological dynamic principles and mechanisms of movement.”

Nothing risky or spiritual here. Seriously - this person sounds like a religious quack, speaking on her own without basis in Catholicism.
 
Sheeniac said:
“Kinesiology is the scientific study of human or non-human body movement. Kinesiology addresses physiological, biomechanical, and psychological dynamic principles and mechanisms of movement.”

Nothing risky or spiritual here. Seriously - this person sounds like a religious quack, speaking on her own without basis in Catholicism.
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Kinesiology is perfectly fine…it’s nothing more than the study of human movement. It’s Applied Kinesiology that is the problem. People often confuse the two. The latter is the pseudoscience.
 
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A footrub feels very good, it helps people relax. If they have stress headaches, stress stomach aches, etc, when something is relaxing these symptoms of stress go away. I know people who pay for a pedicure just so someone will rub their feet!

There are no peer reviewed double blind studies that provide proof my big toe effects my liver as far as I know. As stated above, this all began with New Age concepts of Qi.

Hang up a sign that says “Relaxing Foot Massage”
 
This in itself sounds to be very new age.

We have free will. Aside from the effects of Original Sin or the natural consequences of our parents sins (if they gambled away the family farm for example), we are not punished for the sins of our ancestor.

Someone asked Jesus about this, remember? He was very clear that we don’t suffer illness from our forefathers sins.

Reading souls is a gift that is given to some priests.

I’d wonder if this woman has the approval of her Bishop to make these claims. That mass was at a home instead of a parish raises the eyebrow that your Bishop did not give approval.
 
A friend of mine, then aged about 40, suffered from chronic bursitis. He went from one doctor to another without ever achieving any lasting improvement. After several years, he was persuaded to try acupuncture, which he didn’t believe in, just as he didn’t believe in homeopathy or any other “alternative” medicine. Acupuncture worked. It cured his bursitis.

I have never known personally anyone who tried reflexology treatment, but what from what I’ve been told about it , it seems to be in the same category as acupuncture – that is, you’re not required to “believe” in any theoretical explanations. You’re just treated by a reflexologist, and either it works or it doesn’t. Just as when you have a headache you take an aspirin, and either it works or it doesn’t. You don’t have to “believe” in anything, you just have to swallow a pill.
 
And here’s the problem. With both acupuncture (Acupressure too) and reflexology the person doing the technique is actually using pressure or touching( in some way) the person receiving the technique. Without double blind studies with control groups I’m not sure how we can accurately test that a specific technique is working. How do we know what exactly is being affected? Any time you touch someone it’s bound to have some sort of effect, even if it just makes them laugh b/c they’re ticklish. Acupuncture uses fine needles…of course there must be something that is stimulated…the question is, what exactly? Nerves? muscles? No one knows exactly…at least not yet. The same can be said for Trigger Point Massage…these things hurt but know one really knows exactly what Trigger Points are yet.

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[Add to earlier]

Someone told me once that their dog had successfully been treated by acupuncture, though I no longer remember what the dog was being treated for. In any case, if it works for a dog, that makes it pretty clear to me that it doesn’t involve superstitious belief of any kind. I have yet to meet a superstitious dog.
 
The thing is, how was the dog able to tell people that it no longer felt pain or whatever the ailment was? Dogs are very good at learning how to compensate for injury.
 
I learned a long time ago not to take anything some individual member of any church says is dogma. Personal opinions sometimes come across as though they are doctrine. In fact the person stating it may believe so. But I always check things out for myself and take no idle notion as the final truth.

Reflexology (in my opinion) is no different than massage therapy, chiropractic, or physio therapy. All will work for many people.
 
I’m sure the owner of the dog could tell. My wife and I can tell what’s wrong with our dogs when they get ill, and we can tell when they have recovered.
 
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