"Take a simple scientific fact or term, build an elaborate fantasy on top of it, promote it, and you have pseudoscience. Live blood cell analysis by darkfield microscopy is an example. It sounds like a legitimate and valuable evidence-based diagnostic procedure; it is not...Live blood cell analysis is not currently recognized by the laboratory profession as a worthwhile laboratory test because it reveals very little diagnostic information. One can only imagine the chaos that would ensue if legitimate laboratory tests had to bear the disclaimer: "This test is for educational purposes only and cannot be used to diagnose, evaluate, or treat any disease or disorder." ...The idea that wand waving, dietary supplements, and alkaline diets can cure the host of strange disorders identified during live blood cell analysis is certainly pseudoscience at its worst. The hope is that we are not slowly travelling backward in time toward Sagan's demon-haunted world through the eyepieces of our darkfield microscopes." Thomas Patterson, professor in the Clinical Laboratory Science Program at Texas State University, The Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (November/December 2012)