Just when you think you've seen it all... A Massachusetts acupuncturist, Tom Tam, has invented a new treatment method he calls Tong Ren, claiming to cure terminal cancer and other serious illnesses by hitting dolls with a hammer. The dolls are plastic acupuncture figurines inscribed with acupuncture meridians and points.

The hammering supposedly focuses "intent" on the proper acupuncture points on an energetic equivalent of the patient's body and harnesses universal consciousness for healing. Orac tells all about it on his blog Respectful Insolence at: scienceblogs.com.

Click on the video there to see a whole roomful of people hammering their dolls in unison. It would be funny if it weren't so pitiful.

Tom Tam deserves a prize for Most Ridiculous New Treatment Method. It will be very hard for the next quack to outdo this silliness.  But I'm sure someone will: human inventiveness and gullibility are inexhaustible.