Mr P. Lannoye

Dr. René-Philippe Halm
General Secretary of the Monaco International Talks ( Health Meeting)

"The International Encounters of Monaco are the only international and independent structure on unconventional therapies. The works that are going to be presented to you were all recognised as acceptable by a scientific committee keen on being rigorous, but also tolerant at a time when the dogmas of scientific thinking are in full evolution. Modern science, since the 19th century, has no longer remained confined to the rigid limits of triumphant mechanistic thinking. Quantum physics is here, for instance, to show us the limits of a too simplistic outlook of natural phenomena. We are very much aware of this evolution of scientific thinking which no longer forces us to consider a piece of information as a phenomenon connected to a simple molecular exchange.

It is convenient to differentiate classical scientific experimentation with its modern criteria of dual-blind testing with a placebo from the therapist's experience. This is going to drive the therapist's whole person, his knowledge, to learn in the light of clinical facts, after learning himself from science within things and phenomena. There is certainly no question here of opposing the experiment thus defined and experimentation as if there were two irreconcilable adversaries. Quite often, these two approaches are complementary and one of the major characteristics of the Encounters is to underline these agreements between the scientific environment and the medical environment. We would like to let today's therapists take into account each of these quality sources of knowledge. Here, we only set out objective and rigorous works so as to make the knowledge of every one of you advance, whether you are a health professional or a journalist in charge of relaying the information we are presenting. Representatives from "consumer" associations are also welcome for identical reasons.

The media still get quite frozen when it comes to speaking of our therapies, so great is the lack of trust concerning the abuse that unconventional therapies are often charged with: lack of rigour, quackery, visionary, imprecise and militant approach of a "new age" type. We are here to demonstrate that serious works do exist and concern unconventional therapies. Great efforts are to be made to convince the media to speak about it, our press attaché will not contradict me! A structure as independent as the Monaco International Talks could only exist if financing came from a neutral organisation and we owe this opportunity to the efforts of Her Serene Highness Princess Antoinette of Monaco, always convinced of the validity and the usefulness of a structure such as ours. We thank her for obtaining a subsidy from the Monegasque government, which we must hail for its generosity.

Thus escaping all the political and industrial economic pressures, we can give the floor to speakers who have a hard time speaking within the framework of the existing official medical structures. Finally, the way in which unconventional therapies settle legally in the world leads us to approach the political and economic problems connected to them and which are true society problems.
We form a very united team around HSH Princess Antoinette de Monaco with our treasurer Mr. Henri Orengo, our secretary Mélina Bernard and the members of the scientific committee; this co-ordination ensures the quality of the Encounters."