Wikipedia founder calls alt-medicine practitioners “lunatic charlatans”

A diagram about Emotional Freedom Techniques that is hosted on Wikipedia.

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Several months ago, the Association for Comprehensive Energy Psychology (ACEP), an alternative medicine non-profit, began a petition on Change.org asking Wikipedia to “create and enforce new policies that allow for true scientific discourse about holistic approaches to healing.” The petition reached 7,000 signatures in mid-January and then largely stalled. But this weekend, Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales responded to the request, saying that no amount of signatures would get him on board with ACEP's request.

In its petition, ACEP wrote to Wikipedia, “people who are interested in the benefits of Energy Medicine, Energy Psychology, and specific approaches such as the Emotional Freedom Techniques, Thought Field Therapy, and the Tapas Acupressure Technique, turn to your pages, trust what they read, and do not pursue getting help from these approaches which research has, in fact, proven to be of great benefit to many.”

”These pages are controlled by a few self-appointed 'skeptics' who serve as de facto censors for Wikipedia,” the petition continued. “They clothe their objections in the language of the narrowest possible understanding of science in order to inhibit open discussion of innovation in health care.” As of this writing, another 800 people have signed the petition in support of a revision of Wikipedia's policies.