Well, folks, it is that special time of the year, one of six in which the Pearl family releases another edition of their free magazine No Greater Joy . The magazine seems sometimes more to function as an ad for various Pearl family books. Right now that book that is being relentlessly promoted is Debi’s book on brains – Create a Better Brain Through Neuroplasticity

We’ve already covered four other articles written by Debi in promotion of this book:

And here we are again, at Debi’s bad brains pondering. She is also sounding off again about autism in this piece. Much of this month’s magazine issue is purportedly written by missing in action patriarch and all around beating children enthusiast Michael Pearl. He thinks Gentle Parenting is sinful. He tells a nonsensical tale of a dropped chocolate pie and marriage. Eventually we will look at that but for today we’re stuck on Debi’s bad brains.

The book is finally available in a digital format so expect a review of each chapter starting this Friday. Oh boy! I cannot wait to read this pile of claptrap!

So Debi has another of those infamous Pearl letters, that might or might not be genuine, asking why the writer’s baby has stopped being so smile-ly at 7 months old.

Debi jumps right to mirror neurons, saying that baby is no longer doing the mirroring thing by smiling at everyone that smiles at him, just now starting to discern good folks from bad folks and figuring out who gets his smiles.

Not so fast there, Debi. Scientists cannot even agree if humans have mirror neurons, how they work, or what purpose they serve. So far all research has been conducted on monkeys, not humans.

There’s just not much of hard cold scientific data on mirror neurons and not much agreement among scientists on much concerning those neurons. They’re run IMRI on people attempting to isolate where the neurons might be found, but cannot even agree on that either. The information on mirror neutrons isn’t just on Wiki either, there is much information on university and scientific websites backing this up.

But lack of scientific proof never stopped Debi Pearl before and it’s not stopping her now:

Oh my! Everything I’m seeing says that science isn’t entirely sure when it is mirroring in small children and babies and when it is legitimate thoughtful interaction. Debi is taking a tiny bit of truth here and extrapolating it out into something that has not a shred of evidence to back it up.

Back in 2005 (eons ago in the research world!) it was theorized that missing mirror neurons might have played a role in autism, but this has since been debunked. From the British Psychological Society :

Whoopsie! There goes Debi’s theory!

Then there is this:

There are tons of disreputable websites, rife with conspiracy theories that are pushing this idea. What there is not is much in the way of legitimate scientific studies backing up the idea of cell phones in the pants pocket warping the sperm enough to cause autism. I am seeing no legit research backing this up.

Northwestern University went even further in their research, reporting that they also do not believe that lack of eye contact based on parents with cell phones is bad science as well.

They also had this to say about examining if something is true or rumored in regard to autism. I think it bares repeating because this is how you should approach this horrid book filled with falsehoods!

And with that I leave you. One wonders how and why Debi came up with her half truths, crackpot ideas and downright lies. I am reminded of this:

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