The current member of the Legislative Assembly for the British Columbia electoral district of Langley-Willowbrook is Ms. Jody Toor. I鈥檓 not veering off into political punditry; I鈥檓 writing this to clarify Toor鈥檚 courtesy title. 鈥淢s.鈥� Toor, or 鈥淢rs.鈥� if she鈥檚 married. But certainly not 鈥淒r.鈥� Toor.
Canadians may recall听听over her title last October during the election. The Hospital Employees鈥� Union, which includes over 60,000 members in the Western province, even filed a听听with the B.C. college in charge of regulating so-called complementary health professionals. She did not deserve, it argued, to refer to herself as 鈥淒octor.鈥�
That鈥檚 because she graduated from Quantum University.
Yes, you have permission to read that again. Quantum University.
Before we make our way into the quantum realm, a detour to Ms. Toor鈥檚 鈥渃linic鈥� is in order, as the听听for it abounds with weirdness. The URL identifies the clinic as Conscious Mind Labs, but you will see that the word 鈥淢ind鈥� on the site itself has been censored by a black bar. Everywhere.
Toor鈥檚 first name has also been censored on the site, as well as her entire CV. Her face has been replaced by an image of a Pinocchio lookalike. Meanwhile, the founder and CEO of the company, Donald Gauvreau (also known as听), has also censored his first name and replaced his face with an AI-generated sinister clown. You may wonder if this was done in the wake of the assassination of the UnitedHealthcare CEO. According to听, the changes were made sometime between October 4 and November 14, preceding the killing done on December 4.
This website quirkiness, though, is only the tip of the iceberg. The university from which Ms. Toor graduated is not even a university: it鈥檚 part of a parallel system of pretend medicine influenced by quantum physics and New Age beliefs.
And this would-be university was founded by a Quebec doctor who caught flak in the 1990s for using methods that were not exactly orthodox.
Schr枚dinger鈥檚 diploma
Quantum University certainly has an appealing听. In shades of black and gold, punctuated by bright photos of smiling people in Hawai鈥檌, the site invites you to learn how to heal yourself and others, at your own pace, and to 鈥渢ransform your passion into action.鈥�
This welcoming hype vanishes the second you land on听, which is meant to bring you back to the harsh legal light of reality. The degrees it offers are not equivalent to an MD or even to a naturopathic degree, and they don鈥檛 allow you to 鈥減ractice medicine鈥� per se. Even armed with a degree from Quantum University, you cannot examine, diagnose or treat any client for any disease, disorder, injury or condition, or do anything to them that they could听颈苍迟别谤辫谤别迟听as such. Boxes of Cracker Jack treats used to contain useless prizes, but they didn鈥檛 come with lengthy legal disclaimers, if memory serves. (You can, however, have a medical degree from a legitimate university听补苍诲听also get a 鈥渄egree鈥� from Quantum University, in which case you would be a legitimate doctor who has also made some questionable choices.)
Quantum University is not a university. Instead, it is described as an online听听which its听听states is 鈥渘ot accredited by an accrediting agency recognized by the United States Secretary of Education.鈥� It thus borrows the word 鈥渦niversity鈥� in the loosest way possible. Its diplomas appear to be pretty much worthless, so why bother acquiring them? Because a diploma can impress, especially in careers that don鈥檛 require a grounding in science, like aromatherapist or homeopath.
And the desire to impress is key to Quantum University鈥檚 marketing strategy. Its catalog makes the point clear over and over again, bordering on satire. 鈥淓arning a PhD degree allows you to use the title 鈥楧r.鈥�,鈥� it reads. It 鈥渃onfirms you as an authority鈥� and qualifies you 鈥渢o become certified by many respected and prestigious professional associations, organizations, and certification boards.鈥� The words 鈥渞espect,鈥� 鈥減restige,鈥� and 鈥渞ecognition鈥� are impossible to miss in the document.
Quantum University offers 鈥渄egrees鈥� in natural medicine, integrative medicine, and holistic health, and I looked at the听听for their Bachelor in Holistic Health. The legitimate-looking courses鈥攍ike 鈥淗uman Anatomy and Physiology鈥� and 鈥淣utritional Science鈥濃�攁re rare, while the list is overrun by nonsensical course titles. 鈥淢astering Singularity?鈥� 鈥淭he HeartMath Experience?鈥� 鈥淨uantum Physics and Health?鈥�
At its core, Quantum University is about riffing on the mind-blowing ideas behind quantum physics in order to gain the prestige associated with practicing medicine.
Quantum logic
Quantum physics is real, and so is medicine. The problem arises when the two get fused together.
The early 1900s saw the emergence of quantum mechanics, a theory in physics that could start to explain the sometimes bizarre behaviour of atoms and the even smaller particles they are made of. If you鈥檝e ever heard that light behaves both like a particle and a wave, that is a concept from quantum mechanics.
What quantum mechanics excels at describing is the behaviour of the smallest building blocks of our universe鈥斺�渜uantum,鈥� after all, means a small parcel of energy鈥攂ut where it so far has failed to find much traction is in describing the behaviour of very big things: plants, planets and, importantly, people. But the strangeness of the quantum world has been very seductive to fans of New Age spirituality. Its wave functions, uncertainty principles, and quantum entanglements echo the magic of New Age beliefs, but because they are scientific in nature, they provide a rational bridge to these beliefs. They seem to legitimize them. Hence, you can transplant ideas from quantum physics into medicine to vindicate unorthodox beliefs in energy healing and hope the graft takes. That鈥檚 what Paul Drouin did.
According to the听听of the听Coll猫ge des m茅decins du Qu茅bec,听Drouin was initially licensed as a medical doctor in 1975 but in the 1990s was听听of having committed 鈥渁cts derogatory to the honour and dignity of the medical profession.鈥� Specifically, the accusation signalled his use of diagnostic techniques that were unscientific, such as live blood analysis, in order to test for parasites, heavy metal poisoning, and adrenal stress (diagnoses which we now recognize as being commonly abused by practitioners of so-called alternative medicine). The disciplinary board imposed on Drouin fees and a temporary suspension of his medical license.
Drouin听听he faced 鈥渟kepticism and criticism from peers within the conventional medical community鈥� for his unconventional approach, so in 2002 he founded Quantum University, which is 100% online and consists in reading textbooks and viewing videos. Because his institution is not a real university and doesn鈥檛 teach real medicine, he is free to do and say as he pleases, and he can surround himself with a faculty that likewise uses quantum mechanics to legitimize eccentric beliefs about the human body.
Said faculty includes Amit Goswami, an actual physicist who explains God as the universe鈥檚听听and who has published books called听The Quantum Brain, Physics of the Soul,听and听Quantum Economics.听There鈥檚 Bruce Lipton, an actual biologist who wrongfully claims that stress is responsible for听, including heart disease, cancer and diabetes, and who says that thoughts can change reality, so you can听听through positive thinking. And there鈥檚 Rupert Sheldrake, an actual biochemist, who studies the supernatural and formulated his own听.
What these men all have in common is that they are former scientists who veered away from the guardrails of academia so they could spout crank ideas in an unchecked environment. Within the confines of a university, you cannot easily manufacture weird hypotheses and teach them to people as if they were facts. They must be demonstrated and properly referenced. But at Quantum University, it seems you can teach just about anything. This is not how science works. Open-mindedness is essential to the scientific process, yes, but without rigour, experimentations and constant peer review, brain farts are just brain farts.
The Internet has certainly facilitated the growth and sustenance of an alternative ecosystem in which people who felt restricted by science can thrive and teach their crackpot theories. We see predatory journals that will publish anything for a fee; diploma mills which reward just about anyone with a legitimate-looking degree; careers in alternative medicine that don鈥檛 require an accurate understanding of disease; even boards that legitimize pseudoscientific fields like integrative medicine. Quantum University is part of that ecosystem. Just read this line from one of its听: 鈥渁 groundbreaking synergy emerges as Vacuum Engineering (Ark Crystal) meets Consciousness Acupuncture and what I refer to as the Omega Point Technique.鈥� None of this belongs in a medical textbook, and it鈥檚 not because doctors are close-minded.
Which brings us back to the title of 鈥淒octor,鈥� which is not as straightforward as it looks. 鈥淒octor鈥� can refer to a medical doctor or, for example, to a doctor of chemistry if you have a doctorate degree in that field. But interestingly enough, not in Quebec French, where Ph.D. holders are referred to as 鈥淢r.鈥� or 鈥淢s.鈥� or 鈥淢rs.鈥� And an honorary doctorate does not give you the license to call yourself 鈥淒octor,鈥� although听.
But graduating from Quantum University, as Jody Toor did? That should not qualify you for using the title 鈥淒octor.鈥� If memorizing a New Age spiritualist鈥檚 lectures on 鈥渉arvesting subtle energy鈥� as part of a non-university grants you the title of 鈥淒octor,鈥� then I鈥檓 afraid the celebrated word has become as meaningless as the notions taught at Quantum University.
Take-home message:
- A Canadian politician named Jody Toor was using the title 鈥淒octor鈥� because she graduated from Quantum University
- Quantum University is not a university; its diplomas are not recognized by science-based professions; and its graduates are not allowed to practice medicine or perform any act that could be interpreted as such
- Quantum University tries to apply real concepts from quantum mechanics, a theory which helps explain how atoms and their building blocks behave, to medicine and in the process ends up teaching pseudoscientific principles
