Many of us were simultaneously touched and disturbed by the story a few days back of the Belgian man, Rom Houben, who, after what was thought to have been 23 years in a persistent vegetative state, was found to have been conscious, but paralyzed, the entire time. Shocking, right? There's a problem with the story, though. Apparently Mr. Houben is now communicating through something called Facilitated Communication. That is where a "trained" facilitator, a nurse, guides the disabled person's finger over the keys of a keyboard. FC is bunk. It is a fraud. It does not work. It is the equivalent of using a human Ouija board, and selling the type of false hope that charlatan psychics use to help grieving people "communicate" with lost loved ones.

Mick Hartley has a post with all the links: Doubting Mr Houben. Do watch the video Mick links to to see FC at work. Houben's entire body is out of commission, but the facilitator manages to move his finger deftly across the keyboard typing out the letters. This is fraud on video.

The story, if possible, just got sadder, or at least rather more pathetic.