Face Reflexology
The Truth about Face Reflexology
Face reflexology is the latest New Age fad. In addition, like many New Age fads like putting crystals under your bed or having your “aura” read, this new “science” has an equally dubious foundation. In fact, face reflexology is in many ways just a retread of some old ideas repackaged in a new exotic shell.
Reflexology
Before there was face reflexology there was just plain old reflexology. This older form of reflexology involved a non-oil massage of the hands and feet. The claims for this much older reflexology were much like the claims made for this updated version of face reflexology. You supposedly could promote relaxation and overall health by having a “trained” reflexologist apply a special massage to your hands and feet that focused on ancient Chinese pressure points.
Undergoing this older type of hand and foot massage would supposedly improve your qi (your “life-force”). You can still find some practitioners of this “classic” type of alternative medicine. Like all such New Age practices, they can only really continue to make money if they give a person a sense of being involved in something new and cutting edge. Therefore, the practitioners of this first type of reflexology have evolved into the practitioners of face reflexology.
Face Reflexology
Face reflexology claims to be a mix of three exotic practices. It claims that it gets the notions of “qi” and pressure points from Chinese acupuncture. Then it claims that the facial “body mapping” techniques come from an unspecified mix of Vietnamese and Andean traditions.
These claims are typical of alternative medicines of dubious merit. In order to establish a sense of legitimacy such practices must always be both ancient and exotic. They make the claim that they come from ancient practices because this gives the sufferer a sense of security in the belief that this is not something that the practitioner invented two years ago while looking for a new way of making a buck. China is the favorite when it comes to this kind of claim, because people know that the Chinese originally created many of our present day technologies (e.g., paper).
Secondly, the practice must also be exotic--it is never a practice they in the old West or in New Jersey. It must be outside of the sufferer’s normal frame of reference so that the practitioner can claim that Western medicine hasn’t figured it out yet. (Andean works particularly well for this because it is not only a foreign but also a lost culture.)
Finally, the health benefits of such practices are usually just as vague as their mixed origins. For this reason, websites claim that face reflexology “can be used to treat specific conditions” but is mainly used to “improve overall health,” “increase circulation,” and “empty the lymph nodes.” The claim that such practices can have multiple uses helps to attract business of course. Why only relieve pain or treat an upset stomach when you can claim you can adjust your treatment to cure any ailment? Adding specific but difficult to verify claims like increased circulation or empties the lymph nodes is also helpful because it gives the potential patient a sense of a specific medical benefit but not one that he or she can test.
The Ancient Pseudo-Science of Phrenology
Mapping the face and looking for the significance of in the features is not a new practice. In the nineteenth century, the pseudoscience of phrenology made similar claims about a person’s health and abilities based on the shape of person’s head and face. Of course, the European developers of the “science” imbued it with their racial projections. Phrenology also mixed with ideas coming from the then new theory of Evolution and the misunderstandings promoted several damaging notions about racial tendencies toward criminality.
Face reflexology is not as damaging as phrenology was, but it too bases itself on the same kind fuzzy thinking and pseudo-scientific notions. This is not to say that some might not find some value in it. A massage of the face, foot, or hands can certainly relax a person. In addition, the jury is still out on the effectiveness of acupuncture in pain relief. However, one should understand going into such a session that what you are doing is akin to having your tarot done or reading your horoscope. What you get from it may be more subjective than scientific.