Skeptism about man in 23-year coma

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Skeptism about man in 23-year coma

Posted Nov 24th, 2009 at 8:36 PM and seen

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Rom Houben, the Belgian man who has been in a coma for twenty-three years but is now communicating, is back in the news. The account of his ordeal was possible because of a technique called “facilitated communication.” This involves an assistant guiding his hand on a flat keyboard.

This is what James Randi, the famous skeptic, had to say:

“You see this woman who’s not only holding his hand, but what she’s doing is directing his fingers and looking directly at the keyboard. She’s pressing down on the keyboard, pressing messages for him. He has nothing to do with it.”

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Guy Kawasaki

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over 2 years ago Erik Vlietinck responded:

What's the point of the "famous skeptic"? Is it that Houben has not been in coma for the last 23 years? Because that has been documented in a scientific magazine if I'm not mistaken.

Is it that his ordeal is a fake, a hoax? Or is it that Randi --as most famous skeptics-- has an opinion about everything and everyone that crosses his path and he feels the compelling urge to spawn his comments whether its appropriate or not?

I know these people like Randi very well. We have those in all countries. It's good to be skeptic, but it's another thing to opine about things that you are seeing on TV.

As long as mr. Randi wasn't in the same room with mr. Houben and his mother, and as long as mr. Randi hasn't felt and witnessed what this facilitated communication is about in mr. Houben's case, it would do us all good to take mr. Randi's comments with a grain of salt.

For all us mere mortals know about mr. Houben and his communication, he could be directing the hand of his mother and not the other way around, or mr. Randi could be right.

But determining that by just seeing what it looks like on TV is almost like being clairvoyant, isn't it?

over 2 years ago Erik Vlietinck responded:

Oh, and I just saw that I made a mistake in my first paragraph: he wasn't in a coma all these years. The big news is that many people who are diagnosed to be in a coma really aren't.

They show consciousness on brain scans --not a coma, therefore. That's not said by mr. Houben but by a neurosurgeon at the Univerisyt of Liege.

over 2 years ago Tony Buser responded:

You missed the part where Randi said "I believe that he is sentient. They've shown that with MRI scans".

Facilitated communication seems to me to be more like using a Ouija Board than actually having Houben communicate.

over 2 years ago Erik Vlietinck responded:

Yes, you're right I missed that part, and you're right it definitely looked like mother Houben is "speaking for her son". That actually struck me too, but my point is that --unless you were in the same room and perhaps had the opportunity to check that out-- you can't really tell.

Perhaps that is why mr. Randi is offering money to prove it's Houben himself who's doing the 'talking', but then again that by itself is quite arrogant; Houben doesn't look like he's able to travel far, and who gives a cent, anyway?

Isn't the point that many people who were diagnosed to be comatose aren't?

over 2 years ago Tony Buser responded:

The point is that his communications are most likely bogus, not that he may or may not be in a comma. Randi's blog has a lot more info: http://www.randi.org/site/index.php/swift-blog/783-this-cruel-farce-has-to-stop.html

over 2 years ago Erik Vlietinck responded:

If you must insist the real news is that he wasn't comatose at all, then why not read the comments below Randi's observations?

over 2 years ago Alex G responded:

I really don't understand why they won't let that poor person die already!

over 2 years ago Olivier responded:

in fact it seems that it is about 40% of comas diagnosis which are in fact "LockOut" syndroms.
People are alive but fully conscious. They have a total or complete paralysis of their body and muscles and therefore can't communicate in any way their consciousness (not even by the blink of an eye)
A scan of their brain is the only diagnosis in order to reveal the consciousness activities.
So far, the issue was that we didn't find the proper way to enhance the communication way, in order to reveal consciousness and to be aware about victims' ability to sense and feel the world around them.
This syndrom is known and so far no progress has been done till now.

Thanks now may be to the progress of neurosciences, future mistakes will be avoided.

over 2 years ago rossob responded:

This can be easily proven, simply ask him something the translator can't possibly know about him and verify the accuracy with mother etc, or ask him to repeat his previous answer to a question word for word with a new translator that wasn't present while he first answered. Couldn't be simpler.

The people who have translated his thoughts are not idiots however -- this will already have been done and the veracity proven beyond doubt by the doctors before this ever hit the media. Sometimes the internet is not as smart as it thinks, if you ask me.

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Skeptism about man in 23-year coma