Topping the notion that sticking jade eggs up a vagina and subsequently steaming it might seem hard, but Gwyneth Paltrow’s lifestyle company Goop took the challenge by gushing about “bio-frequency healing stickers” that supposedly increase energy, decrease anxiety, and clear up your skin.
The stickers sell on a pseudohealth site Body Vibes at $68 for a 10-pack:
The concept: Human bodies operate at an ideal energetic frequency, but everyday stresses and anxiety can throw off our internal balance, depleting our energy reserves and weakening our immune systems. Body Vibes stickers come pre-programmed to an ideal frequency, allowing them to target imbalances. While you’re wearing them—close to your heart, on your left shoulder or arm—they’ll fill in the deficiencies in your reserves, creating a calming effect, smoothing out both physical tension and anxiety.
Stick a sticker, get good vibes. Um, okay.
So-called “health” and lifestyle blogs are parroting the PR put forth by Body Vibes, but it turns out that the founders of Body Vibes, Madison De Clercq and Leslie Kritzer, are just capitalizing on the pseudoscientific claims of a person named Richard Eaton, the founder of AlphaBioCentrix. “Richard is honestly the brains,” says De Clercq.
There’s no available peer-reviewed research that supports these health claims, so it’s reasonably safe to say this is not based on science. Furthermore, Body Vibes alleges that its stickers are made from carbon fiber, “an exclusive material originally developed for NASA.” NASA sources slammed back, telling Gizmodo that this isn’t true.
“Wow,” Mark Shelhamer, former chief scientist at NASA’s human research division told Gizmodo. “What a load of BS this is.” Shelhamer also referred to the Body Vibes stickers as “snake oil.” Body Vibes has not responded to Inverse’s request for comment.
Eaton declined to give Gizmodo any insight into the science behind the stickers, explaining that, “Most of the research that has been collected is confidential and is held as company private information.” In other words, there’s no way to verify whether anything they say is true.
Body Vibes isn't just appealing to women with its bio-frequency stickers.
Considering the fact that Paltrow recently confessed to Jimmy Kimmel that “I don’t know what the fuck we talk about,” it’s no surprise that Paltrow has emptily endorsed these stickers. And she’s just one out of many people who amplify the claims made by Body Vibes. Here’s a few stellar testimonials from other lifestyle sites:
“While I didn’t necessarily feel different, when I looked back on the past three days (each sticker lasts 72 hours) I realized I’d finished all my work tasks with time to spare.”
“The pulse was less intense. And the coolest part? We didn’t need our usual midday latte.”
“We love that the patches are introducing more people to the idea of vibrational medicine!”
There is, of course, always the possibility that science is working in a way we don’t understand. After all, science is a continual process of disproving old knowledge in light of new findings.
On the “Testimonials” page of the Body Vibes website, the founders wrote: “We live on a blue planet that circles around a ball of fire, next to a moon that moves the sea, and you say you don’t believe in magic. Then, you don’t believe in yourself because you are magic.”
So maybe Body Vibes is so advanced that our contemporary science has no way of explaining it. Or maybe it’s just bullshit.
