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'Spoon bending' workshop for doctors withdrawn at University of Alberta

A controversial spoon bending workshop at the University of Alberta has been withdrawn.

Law professor had called out faculty of medicine's scheduling of 'energy healing' therapist's workshop

John Bowman · CBC News ·

UPDATE: The University of Alberta says the spoon bending workshop has been cancelled. "It has since been withdrawn by the presenters," a statement from the university said. 

"Pediatric Integrative Medicine rounds this month was going to address existing information about reiki and other energy therapies, highlighting how and why patients and therapists use it for personal and professional health care, and acknowledging that there is a lack of evidence about how, and how well, it works (the evidence-informed part of the rounds, as set out by Royal College)," the statement read. 

Another poster appeared on the campus acknowledging the cancellation and protesting against "the unethical institutional support from the University of Alberta for medical quackery." 

The original article appears below: 

A law professor at the University of Alberta is calling out the school's faculty of medicine for scheduling a workshop called "Spoon Bending and the Power of the Mind." 

Timothy Caulfield, a professor of health law and science policy at U of A, tweeted a poster for the workshop on Wednesday. 

The workshop is to be presented on June 28 by Anastasia Kutt, an Edmonton "energy healing therapist" and "registered reiki master," according to her website. 

"This experiential workshop will teach a guided meditation/energy transfer technique which will have most participants bending cutlery using the power of their minds," the workshop description says. 

"This will not be a scientific evaluation of the process," the poster notes. 

Caulfield's post has been spread around social media by doctors, scientists and others skeptical of spoon bending and of energy healing in general. 

There were many references to illusionist and self-proclaimed spoon bender Uri Geller and to The Matrix. 

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