Jack Covey is a pseudonym for a teacher in California who comments here often and does prodigious research.
Recently he has been digging into a biofeedback company called Neurocore in which Betsy DeVos has invested millions of dollars. It is based in Grand Rapids, so maybe the owner is a friend or relative. DeVos has said that she will not divest her investment in this company even though there is a clear conflict of interest with the duties of the Secretary of Education.
Jack Covey is convinced that the Brain-enhancement methods of this company are unscientific. He calls it “quack.”
He posted this comment. I recommend the YouTube link to a comedy show I never heard of. I love the bit where “Top researchers warn that dreams can kill you…” I don’t know how Jack comes up with these things. You gotta watch the video.
Jack Covey writes:
“I just thought of another comparison to Neuro-core’s farcical pseudo-science.
“Back in the 1980’s, SCTV did a TV parody of a National Enquirer-based TV show (actually called the “The National Midnight Star” TV Show), and the late John Candy would portray a medical expert or “Top Researcher.”
“Here he is explaining… Dr. Tim-Neurocore-style … how “dreams can kill you”:
(at 00:16 – )
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VbvvftwZbOo
(at 00:16 – )
ANCHORMAN: “Your dreams can kill you, say Top Researchers.”,
TOP RESEARCHER: (graphic reads “Top Researcher”)
“It’s true. Say you were dreaming that you were at a party, and that you’re just wearing … your underwear … or you were running, and you were being chased, but it was real slow because your feet were like lead … and you’ll …
“You’ll probably die.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
My husband has always highly recommended SCTV. Thanks.
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Back in the 1980’s, along with other comedy buffs, I watched this show on Friday nights.
I was drawing a parallel between this video of the late John Candy’s “Top Researcher” character, and some analogous footage of the “top experts” at Neurocore, Betsy Devos’ “brain enhancement” and quack autism cure company.
There’s not much difference.
If the Senate approves her to become the next Secretary of Education, she no doubt will be using her cabinet position to push Neurocore on states and schools as a service provider.
For more on Neurocore, jump back a few threads to the one on Neurocore at this link:
Near the bottom of that thread, there’s coverage of an indescribably ludicrous video of Neurocore’s “Dr.” Timothy Royer presenting Neurocore’s theories and practices at some seminar. It has to be seen to be disbelieved.
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Jack…this was an actual theory of Dr. Amen in the late 1970s. I was doing a study of ADD, ADHD, and other learning disabilites, and the high school site psychologist showed me his biofeedback machine, and had me watch a session. Amen is still around but now selling some product for brain enhancement. The Elmer Gantry types continue to find ways to scam the public for profit…Amways multi level marketing scam owned by the DeVos family, fits right in.
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Here is the GlassDoor page for Neurocore: https://www.glassdoor.com/Overview/Working-at-Neurocore-EI_IE799435.11,20.htm
If you click on the reviews tab, you learn from more than one person that either there is no supervision of workers or the highest rank at a center is a social worker (identified as a “clinical specialist”). Apparently, the only people with MDs or PhDs are in the HQ staff. Also, the pay for employees who are lower in rank than social workers was criticized as being low. If you click on the salaries tab, you notice the pay for the positions listed.
Back at the Neurocore site (www.neurocorecenters.com), I clicked on one of the job openings and found that the company is part of The Windquest Group:
“The Windquest Group is a private equity firm with a family of companies in West Michigan and beyond. Our companies include Boxed Water is Better, Neurocore, Reserve Wine & Food, and The Stow Company. Our goal is to foster the development of products and services that are better for the environment, better for our community, and fearlessly challenge industry standards.”
Neurocore has a bunch of locations in Michigan and, interestingly, a couple locations in Florida.
I don’t know if this information will help Jack or anyone else who’s looking into Betsy’s investments, but I offer it up with that in mind.
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And here it is again, on topic this time:
http://edushyster.com/betsy-devos-alternative-facts/
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Cost: $2,200 and covered by Insurance. Haa haa haa! https://www.neurocorecenters.com/program-contents-costs
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This video is absurd. They attempt to eliminate our brain’s amazing ability to react to instinct. “Collect those stickers, kiddies and remained focused in our paradigm while the house burns down.” https://www.neurocorecenters.com/faq
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MORE ON THE Neurocore video:
At various times, Neurocore’s “Dr.” Tim Royer condemns traditional mental health treatment because … wait for it … it doesn’t have “an exit strategy,” or a point at which the treating physician terminates use of a certain medication. “Dr.” Tim then condemns any prescribed course of medication from the mainstream medical establishment that has no such termination.
He makes an asinine analogy of an ambulance with pharmaceutical treatment.
Eventually, that analogy leads up to this comment:
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( 23:13 – 23:20 )
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULfZtu8wv3I
( 23:13 – 23:20 )
“Dr.” TIMOTHY ROYER:
“HOPE 139 (Neurocore’s former name) and the (HOPE 139’s) Reclaim (Your Brain) series is not about a short-term pharmalogical fix. The best medicine for the brain is the brain itself. The best medicine for the brain is the brain itself.”
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“The best medicine for the brain is the brain itself” —which he repeats twice in succession — is code for Neurcore’s unscientific quackery.
Then later on, “Dr.” Tim ridicules traditional medicine.
Just go to a psychiatrist office, he tells the audience, and “have a good laugh” by asking that licensed physician what “Dr.” Tim believes is the ultimate “Gotcha!” question.l
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( 26:56 – 28:00 )
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULfZtu8wv3I
( 26:56 – 28:00 )
“Dr.” TIMOTHY ROYER:
“For those of you with ADHD, if you want to have a good laugh, go into your physician’s office and ask him … or her — and I have a lot of good friends that are physicians — but ask them:
” ‘What is the exit strategy … for my medicine?’ ”
— (DRAMATIC PAUSE as if he’s made some powerful “Gotcha!” moment)
“You know I had those medicines on my head.”
— (puts back on the idiotic headband with the pill bottles velcroed on it)
“When … WHEN … do I get to get rid of one of these things? What’s the exit strategy?” What IS the EXIT STRATEGY for stimulant meds? THERE IS NONE! OKAY?! You’re just GOIN’ forever with it, and you gotta wonder with all this STUFF in here.”
— (reaches up the headband with the pill bottles velcroed on it)
“And I go to talk to somebody, and I say, ‘Hi, I’m Tim.’ ”
— (DRAMATIC PAUSE)
“Well, AM I Tim? Or WHO am I? Am I REALLY everybody I was made to be, or am I Tim-plus-all -these-other-things?”
— (reaches up the headband with the pill bottles velcroed on it)
“Who AM I under the surface there? For the ADHD child and adult, they always wonder:
” What would I be like without medicine?’ ”
— (takes off back on the idiotic headband with the pill bottles velcroed on it)
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Re-read the last few sentences there. Psychiatric medicine, “Dr.” Tim implies, is going against God’s design of you as a person: “Well, AM I Tim? Or WHO am I? Am I REALLY everybody I was made to be (by God), or am I Tim-plus-all -these-other-things?”
Again, it’s the same anti-science, pseudo-science that is at the core of the extremist Christian mindset of Betsy Devos and her allies.
Earlier, “Dr.” Tim said, “The best medicine is the brain itself “— which, again, is code for “You need to use Neurocore’s treatments,” —which to date, are total quackery, and have no scientific basis whatsoever, and have never been studied or proven to have any efficacy whatosever.
Incredibly Dr. Tim then immediately pivots to the area where Neurocore is at its weakest.
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( 28:00 – 28:11 )
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULfZtu8wv3I
( 28:00 – 28:11 )
“Dr.” TIMOTHY ROYER:
“(At HOPE 139 / now Neurocore) we use quantifiable data. That’s what we’re about here (at Neurocore). Objective science of the brain, and understanding what is at the core of the diagnosis.”
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This is the most ludicrous statement of all, made back in 2012.
THE TRUTH:
NEUROCORE HAS ZERO, NONE, ZILCH, NADA “quantifiable data” OR “objective science” backing up any of its treatments. Neurocore’s has ZERO “understanding (of) what is at the core of the diagnosis.”
As for trashing the concept of idea of accessing mainstream medical establishment, and taking prescribed medicine on an on-going basis, or even a permanent basis, here’s some thoughts.
With some medications, yeah, a patient sometimes has to take it for an indefinite period of time, or perhaps for the rest of the patient’s life… unless a medical breakthrough of some kind comes up with an alternate treatment. To just condemn or dismiss out of hand any and all such treatments as harmful or wrong is nonsense. Whether it’s insulin, or high-blood-pressure medicine or countless others, yes, there is “no exit strategy” to some conditions, unless the exit strategy is to stop taking it and eventually die.
The reason that “Dr.” Tim — a uniquely untrained quack who doesn’t have the medical training or licensing to diagnose a case of the “sniffles”, or to prescribe children’s aspirin — the reason he’s going after traditional medicine is the same reason that Scientology goes after it:
Mainstream medicine is Neurocore’s competitor.
Betsy Devos and other Neurocore honchos want to discredit traditional psychiatric therapy and treatment so that people with ADHD — or so that parents of children with autism, ADHD, autism, etc., who are in need of such legitimate treatment, will instead first choose to go to Neurocore, or for those who are getting legitimate treatment, they will abandon that in favor of Neurocore.
That’s dangerous, very dangerous.
That’s also why the fine print of Neurocore’s contract carefully polnts out that Neurcore guarantees NO POSITIVE RESULTS, and indemnifies Neurocore against any lawsuits that patients might file — you’re doing this at your own risk, so if something goes wrong, you can’t sue us.
The latest is that Dr. Fotuhi, a Neurocore representative, claims that they’ve been recently collecting positive data, and promises that, in a few years, they’ll have data that verfies that Neurocore works.
Two problems with that:
1) you need a non-involved outside entity to make that determination — a peer-reviewed study, for example, conducted by a group with no financial gain. You can’t trust people who have a financial interest in the outcome of a study to control a study. Duh!
2) Assuming you accept that Neurocore can study itself, shouldn’t the folks and Neurocore FIRST do the studies that prove Neurocore’s efficacy before embarking on experimental treatment of patients?
A few posts earlier, Mitchell Robinson calls this the “Ready, Fire, Aim” approach to experimental medical technology medical technology.
Dr. Fotuhi, WHY DON’T YOU CEASE ANY AND ALL NEUROCORE TREATMENTS IF AND UNTIL YOU HAVE PROOF THAT IT WORKS?
Why? Because you can’t make money if you do that.
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