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Maharishi Vedic Approach to Health

Maharishi Vedic Approach to Health (MVAH) (also known as Maharishi Ayurveda or Maharishi Vedic Medicine ) is a form of alternative medicine founded in the mid-1980s by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, who developed the Transcendental Meditation technique (TM). Distinct from traditional ayurveda, it emphasizes the role of consciousness, and gives importance to positive emotions. Maharishi Ayur-Veda has been variously characterized as emerging from, and consistently reflecting, the Advaita Vedanta school of Hindu philosophy, representing the entirety of the ayurvedic tradition.

A 1991 article in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) found that promoters of MVAH failed to disclose financial incentives when they submitted a letter for publication and that their marketing practices were misleading. A 2008 study published in JAMA reported that two of the 19 Maharishi Ayurveda products tested contained heavy metals. A 1991 British case found two physicians guilty of "serious professional misconduct" for using MVAH in the unsuccessful treatment of HIV.

Theoretical basis
Maharishi Vedic Approach to Health uses a model for understanding health and disease that is fundamentally different from that of modern medicine. According to MVAH researcher Hari Sharma, MVAH views the body as an abstract pattern of intelligence whereas he feels modern medicine views the body as a machine. He says that the world view of MVAH is closer to the reality described by 20th century physics, which challenged the reductionist materialist world view by finding that quantum mechanical phenomena contradict the idea of solid matter, that causality is less definite, that material existence is connected in unexpected and nonlocal ways, and that a reductionist view is untenable at the quantum level. Sharma says that "Vedic thought discusses a unified field of pure, non-material intelligence and consciousness whose modes of vibration manifest as the material universe." Disease results from losing connection with this underlying field of intelligence.

Components
The approach does not use modern medicine or biology. According to Hari Sharma, MVAH views the body as an abstract pattern of intelligence. Proponents claim that through MVAH, the Maharishi revived the ancient Vedic system of health care. MVAH identifies 40 approaches, each said to be based on one of the 40 branches of Vedic literature.

In Alternative Medicine and Ethics, Stephen Barrett describes 20 components to Maharishi Ayurveda: "The full range of the Maharishi Ayur-Veda program 'for creating healthy individuals and a disease free society' has 20 components: development of higher states of consciousness through advanced meditation techniques, use of primordial sounds, correction of the 'mistake of the intellect', strengthening of the emotions, vedic structuring of language, music therapy, enlivening of the senses, pulse diagnosis, psychophysiological integration, neuromuscular integration, neurorespiratory integration, purification (to remove 'impurities due to faulty diet or behavioral patterns'), dietary measures, herbal food supplements, other herbal preparations, daily behavioral routines, prediction of future imbalances, religious ceremonies, nourishing the environment and promoting world health and peace. Most of these cost several hundred dollars but some cost thousands and require the service of an ayurvedic practitioner."

A traditional vaidya treats patients individually, diagnosing them and then individually preparing or instructing the patient how to prepare treatments for the entire complexity of their individual symptoms, whereas Maharishi Ayur-Veda takes a mass-market approach.

Technique
The TM technique is the main modality which proponents say improves mental health and promotes "collective health" in MVAH. A 2007 review of meditative practices that included Transcendental Meditation concluded that the definitive health effects of meditation cannot be determined as the scientific evidence was of poor quality, though the review has been criticized for using an inappropriate method for assessing quality. The review found that TM "had no advantage over health education to improve measures of systolic blood pressure and diastolic blood pressure, body weight, heart rate, stress, anger, self-efficacy, cholesterol, dietary intake, and level of physical activity in hypertensive patients". Another review did find a reduction in diastolic and systolic blood pressure in those who practiced TM compared to controls. The review and its primary author were partially funded by Howard Settle, a proponent of TM.

Pulse diagnosis
Practitioners utilize pulse diagnosis (known in Sanskrit as "nadi vigyan"), which they say is like "plugging into the inner intelligence of the body". Based on "imbalances", recommendations related to herbal preparations, diet, daily and seasonal routines, exercise, and physiological purification are offered. Proponents say that the pulse can be used to detect "imbalances at early stages when there may be no other clinical signs and when mild forms of intervention may suffice". According to Deepak Chopra and Sharma, pulse diagnosis can detect a variety of diseases, including those unrelated to the cardiovascular system, including asthma, cancer, and diabetes. William Jarvis, president of The National Council Against Health Fraud, described pulse diagnosis as a variety of palm reading and that Chopra refused to have pulse diagnosis tested by JAMA in a blinded protocol "on the grounds that a blinded experiment would 'eliminate the most crucial component of the experiment, which is consciousness.'"

Multimodal therapies
MVAH health centers and spas offer a series of multimodal therapies including a purification therapy called panchakarma. Panchakarma means "five actions", and is intended to clear impurities from the body and to balance the doṣas. The first preparatory step is called "snehana", involving the ingestion of prescribed quantities of ghee over several days, followed by a purgative. The actual panchakarma then begins with "abhyanga", a herbalized full-body oil massage and continues with one or more additional treatments, including "svedana", a herbalized steam bath; "shirodhara", in which warm sesame oil is poured on the forehead; "nasya", an oil massage of head, neck and shoulders combined with steam inhalation and nasal drops; and "basti", a herbal enema. Additional therapies generally undertaken in association with panchakarma are "Maharishi Gandharva Veda" music therapy and aromatherapy. Typical panchakarma treatments take 2 hours per day, over the course of 3 to 14 days, and are recommended several times per year as ideal, usually in conjunction with the change of seasons.

Products
Herbal products are manufactured and distributed by several Maharishi Ayurveda companies, including: Maharishi Ayurveda Products Pvt. Ltd. (MAPPL) in New Delhi, Maharishi Ayurveda Products International (MAPI) in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and Maharishi Ayurveda Products Europe B.V., in the Netherlands. Maharishi Ayurveda Products International (MAPI) of Colorado Springs sells more than 400 products and in 2000, was said to be the largest ayurvedic company in North America, with reported sales of $20 million in 1999. Some ayurvedic herbal formulas are called rasayanas that use whole plants in various combinations.

Maharishi Amrit Kalash
The original Maharishi Ayurveda product is Maharishi Amrit Kalash (MAK), a two-part ancient formula introduced by Balraj Maharishi based on classical ayurvedic texts and referred to as "nectar" and "ambrosia" or "MAK-4" and "MAK-5". It uses a combination of dozens of different herbs and fruits. Ingredients include herbs such as white musali, liquorice, giant potato, aswagandha, gum arabic tree, Indian asparagus, caper, aloe, Curculigo orchioides, amla, Tinospora cordifolia, simpleleaf chastetree and elephant creeper.

Heavy metals
A 2008 study by Robert B. Saper, published in JAMA, found that one-fifth of 213 ayurvedic samples manufactured in either the U.S. or India and obtained via the Internet contained detectable levels of heavy metals such as arsenic, mercury or lead. Two of 19 MAPI products tested, "Vital Lady" and "Worry Free" were found to have detectable levels of lead, while the others had no detectable levels of lead, mercury, or arsenic. Ted Wallace, president of MAPI, stated that the company tests its products before and after shipment from India to the US, and that its products are examined for purity, heavy metals, residual pesticides, and biological contaminants.

Michael McGuffin, president of the American Herbal Products Association said that eliminating every trace of arsenic, mercury or lead from products would require "an entirely new food supply". According to McGuffin, the government and professional agencies set widely different safety standards for lead, mercury and arsenic and that while most of the products in Saper's article have lead levels that exceed California's standard, only two violate the World Health Organization's standard. A 2008 review has stated that "adverse health outcomes at blood lead levels below this threshold have been well demonstrated", and concluded that "it is increasingly acknowledged there is no threshold for the adverse consequences of lead exposure".

In 2008, a lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court against Maharishi Vedic Education Development Corporation ("MVED"), Maharishi Ayurveda Foundation and Maharishi Ayurveda Products Ltd. ("MAP Ltd"). The Plaintiff claims that she contracted lead poisoning from Garbhapal Ras, an herbo-mineral product she purchased in India. According to the Iowa Department of Public Health, Garbhapal Ras contained nearly 3% lead. The product was manufactured by MAP Ltd. in India, and prescribed for her by a physician at the Maharishi Ayurveda Arogyadham clinic in Delhi. A spokesperson said that MVED is not involved in the manufacturing, prescribing, or sale of products from the Indian clinic where the product was prescribed and purchased. The spokesperson said that products sold in the U.S. are subject to inspection, testing, and quality control.

David Whitley, director of "Ayurveda Limited" in the United Kingdom, writes that the Maharishi Ayurveda Council of Vaidyas approves of the use of arsenic, lead, and mercury under the supervision of trained and certified vaidyas, in accordance with ancient Ayurvedic texts. He claims that the benefits of heavy metals are increased and the side effects are minimized when used properly. Whitley acknowledges that these compounds cannot be licensed for sale in the UK.

Maharishi Sthapatya Veda
Maharishi Sthapatya Veda (MSV), is a system of Vedic architecture. Maharishi Global Construction in Fairfield, Iowa designs buildings which "connect the individual intelligence of the occupant of the house to the cosmic intelligence of the universe", saying that homes with entrances facing west invite "poverty, lack of creativity and vitality" and "anxiety, depression, bad luck and even criminal tendencies". In Maharishi Sthapatya Veda, the architect takes into account three major factors: the orientation of the structure, room placement and the proportion of the rooms, windows, doors, walls etc. and their dimensions.

Maharishi Vedic Astrology
Maharishi Vedic Astrology (also known as Maharishi Jyotish) premises that planets influence individual health. Jotyish is a vedanga within the field of vedic literature. Maharishi Jyotish is premised on the ability to precisely calculate mathematically the unfolding pattern of life, and to locate the trends and tendencies of an individual life within that pattern, making it possible to determine in advance whether a difficult period was coming, and to take action in the present to amend a future difficulty. Maharishi Jyotish asserts that the solar system has an influence on the human brain, cells and DNA. According to the Maharishi and his successor, Tony Nader, there is a correspondence between the nine Grahas of Vedic Astrology and the structure of DNA, the brain and the structure of cells. Each graha is associated with a gemstone: Maharishi Vedic Astrology associates the planets with the basal ganglia, thalmus and hypothalamus; the 12 Bhavas (astrological houses) with cortical areas; the 12 Rashis (zodiac signs) with the cranial nerves; and the 27 Nakshatras (lunar mansions) with groups of the brainstem.

Yagyas
Correction of imbalances discovered through Maharishi Jyotish is possible, the Maharishi said, through the performance of "yagyas" by vedic pandits in India. Yagyas are ceremonies designed to restore the balance between the individual and the environment. Yagyas performed on Maha Shivaratri, (the day of Shiva), are said to enliven spiritual and material aspects of one's consciousness, and to promote progress in all areas of life; those performed on Maha Lakshmi are said to bring prosperity, growth and good fortune; while those performed on Akshaya Tritiya are said to enhance lasting success in one's activities.

Andrew Skolnick describes Maharishi Yagyas as Hindu ceremonies to appease the gods and beseech their help on behalf of afflicted followers that can cost tens of thousands of dollars, and which the patient neither takes part in nor witnesses. He wrote that, while Chopra and Nancy Lonsdorf, medical director of the Maharishi Ayur-Veda Center in Washington, D.C. denied that they prescribed yagyas or that yagyas were part of Maharishi Ayur-Veda, Chopra's Lancaster Center did recommend yagyas for its patients, and a TM-Movement fundraising letter states that Lonsdorf prescribed an $11,500 yagya for a seriously ill patient of hers.

According to Skolnick, patients with serious illnesses often paid hundreds or thousands of dollars for gemstones prescribed by Maharishi Jyotish astrologers. The movement's company called "Jyotish Gems" sells gemstones prescribed by Maharishi Jyotish astrologers to ward off the effects of bad influences in one's horoscope.

Nader writes that various gemstones correspond to the planets of Maharisi Jyotish, and also correspond to parts of the body. The Maharishi described Maharishi Light Therapy with Gems (MLG) as a vedic technology. According to Rainer Picha, Minister of Health for the Global Country of World Peace, training in the therapeutic use of gemstones is conducted at the Maharishi European Research University (MERU) in Holland.

Maharishi Vedic Vibration Technology
According to its website, Maharishi Vedic Vibration Technology (MVVT), "utilizes a refined impulse of Vedic sound, or Vedic vibration, to enliven the inner intelligence of the body and restore proper functioning". According to author Cynthia Ann Humes MVVT consists of the recitation of mantras from Vedic or other orthodox texts by the MVVT expert, while blowing on or touching the afflicted body part. Frontiers in Bioscience published two studies online in 2001, including one by Tony Nader, the Lebanese neuro-scientist and researcher, who succeeded the Maharishi.

Sound therapy
A form of classical Indian music called Maharishi Gandharva Veda is purported to integrate and harmonize the cycles and rhythms of the listener's body. Gandharva Veda is an upaveda and is codified in a number of texts that came to be known collectively at Gandharva Veda, an auxiliary text attached to Sama Veda. Mukund Lath writes that Gandharva Veda is a sacred corpus of music, derived from the still more ancient sama, a sacred Vedic form of music. Compact discs of the music are published by the Maharishi University of Management Press.

Listening to recitation in Sanskrit from a specific branch of the vedic literature that corresponds to the appropriate area of the body as determined by a MVAH expert.

Health Centers
According to the movement's Global Good News website, there are 23 Maharishi Vedic Health Centres in 15 countries. In 2011, the Maharishi Ayurveda Hospital in New Delhi, India became the first ayurvedic hospital in Northern India to receive accreditation from the National Hospital Accreditation Board of Hospitals (NABH). The Raj is a health spa in Maharishi Vedic City, Iowa. Deepak Chopra founded the spa in 1987 and was its medical director. Ayurvedic spas have also been established in two locations in Germany: Bad Ems in Rhineland-Palatinate, and Bissendorf in Lower Saxony.

Training
Courses to train physicians, nurses and health professionals in the principles and practices of Maharishi Ayurveda are offered by the Maharishi Ayur-Veda Association of America (MAAA) in various locations in the USA. These courses include Continuing Medical Education credit. The faculty and curriculum committee of the MAAA include: Stuart Rothenberg, Robert Schneider, Walter Moelk, Nancy Lonsdorf, Richard Averbach, Gary Kaplan, and Vaidya Manohar Palakurthi. Courses are offered in conjunction with the Scripps Center for Integrative Medicine in La Jolla, California.

Courses in Maharishi Ayur-Veda for health professionals are also conducted at the Maharishi College of Perfect Health, International Maharishi Ayur-Veda Training Centre at MERU, Holland. These courses include: post graduate training, Maharishi Aroma Therapy, Maharishi Light Therapy with Gems, Maharishi Ayur-Veda Health Educator, Vedic Mind-Body program and Presentation of Medical Research. The faculty includes Rainer Picha, Walter Mölk, Robert Keith Wallace, Roswitha Margarete Geelvink-Tradel, and Bob Apon.

The Maharishi College of Vedic Medicine was located at 2721 Arizona Street, NE Albuquerque, New Mexico in the 1990s and 2000s. There is now a campus in San Diego.

Origin of Ayurveda and its relationship to Maharishi Ayurveda
Maharishi Ayur-Veda is described as a modern restoration of the holistic perspective of the original texts of Ayurveda found in the Vedas. In MVAH, the Veda is said to be an "abstract blueprint of creation". The knowledge and technologies of MVAH are based on the understanding that the order displayed throughout the entire universe, including within the human physiology, is governed by a fundamental underlying intelligence. According to the Maharishi, illness comes about when there is a lack of coordination between the body's inner intelligence and its outer expression.

As with traditional Ayurveda, Maharishi Ayur Veda describes material creation according to panchamahābhūtas theory, in which the five elements of earth, air, fire, water and ether combine to form three doṣas: vāta, pitta and kapha. The theory of both traditional and Maharishi Ayurveda is that the body's function is governed by the three doṣas, which designate body types and the physical and mental traits they typify. An individual's doṣa contains various combinations of vāta, pitta and kapha, which can vary with the seasons and time of day. Disease symptoms are attributed to imbalances in one's doṣa, which can be detected through pulse diagnosis or a questionnaire. Balance is achieved through a variety of products and procedures, many of which are specific to one's doṣa. Maharishi Ayur-Veda does not stray from these traditional common interpretations of doṣa.

Maharishi Ayur Veda emerges from and consistently reflects the Advaita Vedanta school of Hindu philosophy, and is the upaveda of Atharva Veda. Maharishi Ayur Veda represents itself as representing the entirety of the Ayurvedic tradition.

The practices of Maharishi Ayur-Veda are said to be authentic, though Francis Zimmerman says that they are biased toward gentleness, avoiding violent or painful treatments that were historically part of ayurveda in early India. He also says that Maharishi Ayur-Veda involves an ideological confusion of Ayurvedic categories. In 1985, Maharishi Ayurveda doctors met with outside consultants, who suggested that some traditional Ayurvedic remedies would not be accepted by American consumers. The principal difference between Maharishi Ayur-Veda and traditional Ayurveda is the emphasis on the role of consciousness and the use of Transcendental Meditation, as well as the highlighting of the need to express positive emotions and attuning one's life to the natural rhythms of the body.

Maharishi Ayur Veda also holds that perfect health is a state present within every person, that can be chosen by the individual, and that the physical body is a portal to a "quantum mechanical body" that exists at the subatomic level where matter and energy are one, and that every organ and process in the body has a quantum equivalent. Tony Nader, called Maharajadhiraj Raja Ram, who is the Sovereign Ruler of the Global Country of World Peace, identifies this concept of "quantum healing" with the Maharishi's theories of Vedic Science.

Individual metabolic differences and seasonal variations as described in MAV are an important part of a healthy diet. MAV considers taste and quality to be central features in the classification of foods, and seasonal factors as crucial in determining nutritional needs. MAV also advises use of certain herbal nutritional supplements to maintain optimum health.

Deepak Chopra, founding president of Maharishi Ayur-Veda Products International, Inc (MAPI), the American Association of Ayurvedic Medicine and former medical director of the Maharishi Ayurveda Health Center for Stress Management and Behavioral Medicine, says, according to Stephen Barrett in an article in the journal Alternative Medicine and Ethics, that "If you have happy thoughts, then you make happy molecules. On the other hand, if you have sad thoughts, and angry thoughts, and hostile thoughts, then you make those molecules which may depress the immune system and make you more susceptible to disease." Barrett goes on to say that, while the TM technique and other relaxation techniques may temporarily relieve stress, claims made by Chopra that happy or sad thought may affect the molecular levels of the body and the immune system have no scientific basis.

Reception
According to the book Global and Modern Ayurveda, while Maharishi Ayur-Veda was instrumental in the popularization of Ayurveda in the 1980s and early 1990s, its role in global Ayurveda has now been marginalized. Authors Smith and Wujastyk attribute the virtual disappearance of MAV as an influence in global Ayurveda to the following factors: (i) isolating and describing itself as being authentic, thereby inferring that other forms of Ayurveda are "disbarred from legitimacy"; (ii) raising "its prices stratospherically" for its medicines and treatments, which placed it beyond the means of all but "the most committed and enthusiastic (and wealthy) followers"; and (iii) "become stridently opposed to allopathic medicine". In the same volume, Suzanne Newcombe cites criticism of the commercial nature of Maharishi Ayur-Veda, but says that "Maharishi Ayur-Veda is an important part of the practice of Ayurveda in contemporary society, despite the ideological claims of those who oppose the system." Smith and Wujastyk write that previously it was a requirement that MAV practitioners have a medical degree, but in 2005, all medical doctors with MAV training were replaced by Maharishi Ayurveda practitioners from India.

Author Philip Goldberg writes that Maharishi Ayurveda "attracted attention" due to the "TM movement's aggressive promotion". Author Frederick M. Smith writes that in the UK "the Maharishi organization had a clear marketing plan and a full-time public relations officer up until at least 1992." In 1991, journalist Andrew Skolnick wrote that the TM movement's marketing of Maharishi Ayurveda was a "widespread pattern of misinformation, deception, and manipulation of lay and scientific news media." These were seen as efforts to gain "scientific respectability". According to an article by Ralph Smith, a similar concern was raised in the 1980 book TM and Cult Mania.

Chalmers and Davis
In October 1991, the Professional Conduct Committee of the British General Medical Council found Roger Chalmers, Dean of Medicine of the unrecognized Maharishi University of Natural Law, Mentmore and Leslie Davis, Dean of Physiology at that institution, guilty of "Serious Professional Misconduct" in connection with their use of Maharishi Ayur-Veda for the treatment of AIDS and HIV, and ordered them erased from the List of Registered Medical Practitioners. (Chalmers was subsequently reinstated. ) The Committee found, among other things, that there were no proper and approved clinical trials for the treatments, there was inadequate scientific evidence to support the treatments, that they were prescribing and that they had made false and misleading statements on the value of MAV in the treatment of HIV and AIDS and about the TM-affiliated "World Medical Association for Perfect Health".

Independent tests of the pills prescribed by Chalmers and Davis showed that they had, at best, a negligible effect on HIV, but were 100,000 times more toxic than AZT. According to a 1990 report in The Independent regarding the accusations, the claim that Maharishi Ayurvedic has no side effects "appears to be inaccurate." The article says that separate warnings had been issued in the past on side-effects of both Transcendental Meditation and the Maharishi Ayurvedic diet, such as a warning by the British Dietetic Association on the potential dangers of the Maharishi Ayurvedic diet to AIDS patients. According to Suzanne Newcombe, alternative treatments often receive little attention in the U.K. and MAV was the focus of GMC only because the treatments involved AIDS patients, which she characterized as a vulnerable and controversial group at the time.

Sharma and Chopra
In 1991, the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) published an article on the benefits of Maharishi Ayur-Veda titled "Letter from New Delhi: Maharishi Ayur-Veda: Modern Insights into Ancient Medicine," authored by Hari Sharma, then of The Ohio State University College of Medicine and now of The Ohio State University College of Medicine's Center for Integrative Medicine, Brihaspati Dev Triguna, of the All India Ayur-Veda Congress, and Deepak Chopra, of the American Association of Ayurvedic Medicine

A subsequent article in JAMA by Andrew A. Skolnick alleged that the authors of the first article had not disclosed their financial ties with organizations that sell the products and services about which they wrote. The article also investigated the marketing practices surrounding Ayur-Veda products and services. It was alleged there was a "widespread pattern of misinformation, deception, and manipulation of lay and scientific news media". It challenged the Sharma et al. claim that Maharishi Ayur-Veda was more cost effective than standard medical care. Additionally, the article reported that in the late 1980s, herbal researcher Tony Nader, at the time a PhD candidate in neuroscience at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, had been criticized for misrepresenting his research promoting Maharishi Ayurveda Products International (MAPI) herbal products as being sponsored by MIT and Harvard. The article reported that Nader and David Orme-Johnson were criticized by the organizers of the Annual Meeting of the Society for Economic Botany, which was held at the University of Illinois in Chicago in June 1987. According to the organizers, Nader and Orme-Johnson submitted research abstracts for the conference, but the presentation that they made had little to do with the abstracts. Instead it was a promotion for the herbal remedies of MAPI and for Transcendental Meditation. The JAMA article quotes a former TM teacher and chair of the TM center in Washington, D.C., as saying that he had been told to deceive the media.

A letter to the editor by Chopra and Sharma was published in JAMA in October 1991. Chopra and Sharma wrote that many of the criticisms they had received in letters to the editor were inflammatory and had depended heavily on emotional and unfounded charges, without sound scientific backing and few references. They went on to say that the criticisms were directed largely at the TM organization, rather than to the approaches of Maharishi Ayur-Veda. Andrew Skolnick, in a letter to the editor of JAMA, says Chopra and Sharma did not deny and made no apology that they had concealed from JAMA their financial ties to organizations selling and marketing the products and services about which they wrote, and claimed to have no such conflicts of interest on their signed author's form. Skolnick later published an account of how JAMA was deceived. The journal Science summarized the issue as "an ugly episode that has implications for all scientific journals and for scientists who could possibly be construed as having a conflict of interest".

In response, two TM organizations then headed by Deepak Chopra sued Skolnick, JAMA editor George Lundberg, and the AMA in 1992, seeking an injunction and $194 million in damages. The suit alleged Skolnick's news report on TM's health care products and services was libelous and that it tortuously interfered with their business interests. In August 1992, in a noted decision, the trial court rejected the plaintiff's motion to enjoin JAMA and Skolnick under the Illinois Deceptive Practices Act from publishing statements about them and Maharishi Ayurveda, observing that the plaintiffs did not allege that the statements about them had been false or misleading, and holding that "plaintiffs have little likelihood of prevailing on the merits of their disparagement claim", and that JAMA and Skolnick's alleged defamatory statements were protected as "fair comment and criticism" on an issue of public concern. Shortly thereafter, the case was dismissed without prejudice in March 1993. In 1997, Newsweek reported that according to Chopra's lawyer the suit was "settled for an undisclosed amount." Newsweek later published a correction and clarified that there was no monetary settlement. Philip Goldberg's 2010 book American Veda says that the lawsuit was settled in 1993.

Flint
In 1994, Jonie Flint sued Chopra, the Maharishi Ayur-Veda Health Center in Palo Alto California and Brihaspati Dev Triguna over her husband David's death from leukemia. Two months following a visit to the center at which a primordial sound treatment was prescribed by Chopra, Triguna declared Flint cured of leukemia. Flint followed other Maharishi Ayur-Veda treatments at Triguna's directions over a period of nine months, at a cost of more than $10,000, but died of leukemia. Flint was assisted in filing her lawsuit by the National Council Against Health Fraud. Chopra's attorneys said that the suit against him would be dismissed before trial. They said that David Flint was desperate and that Chopra saw him for 45 minutes for spiritual counsel and gave him a primordial sound technique. They also said that Flint signed a form saying that he understood that sound therapy wasn't a substitute for conventional therapies, and that the form Flint signed also absolved Chopra and his organization of responsibility in the event the treatment was unsuccessful.

Trademarks
Maharishi Ayur-Veda, Maharishi Ayurveda, Maharishi University of Management, Maharishi Vedic Approach to Health, Maharishi Vedic Astrology, Maharishi Vedic Medicine, Maharishi Vedic Vibration Technology, and Transcendental Meditation are trademarks licensed to Maharishi Vedic Education Development Corporation.

title: Maharishi Vedic Approach to Health


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MVM

MVM may refer to:
 * MVM Arts and Science College, Dindigul, India
 * MVM Entertainment, a British distributor of Japanese animation
 * MVM Group, a Hungarian electricity company
 * MVM, Inc., a security contractor in the United States
 * MVM (TV channel), a Portuguese television channel
 * Maharishi Vedic Medicine
 * Maharishi Vidya Mandir Schools, a group of private schools in India
 * The IATA code for Machias Valley Airport in Machias, Maine.
 * Mann vs. Machine, a Team Fortress 2 game mode
 * MetroCard Vending Machine, a ticket machine used on the New York City Subway and Port Authority Trans-Hudson
 * Minute Virus of Mice, the type species of the genus Parvovirus
 * Modiran Vehicle Manufacturing Company, an Iranian car firm

 * Muniyandi Vilangial Moonramandu, a 2008 Tamil film
 * MVM, magister utriusque militiae, a Roman military office, literally master of both forces, i.e. cavalry and infantry
 * MVM, (Man Woman Society) was a Dutch feminist action group
 * MVM 110, an Iranian-assembled Chinese budget car

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: MVM


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Jon Culshaw

Jonathan Peter Culshaw (born 2 June 1968) is an English actor, comedian and impressionist. He is best known for his work on the radio comedy Dead Ringers since 2000.

Culshaw has voiced a number of characters for ITV shows including 2DTV (2001), Spitting Image (1994–96) and Newzoids (2015–2016), as well as appearing in The Impressions Show alongside Debra Stephenson from 2009 until 2011.

Early life and career
Culshaw was born on 2 June 1968 in Ormskirk, Lancashire, and educated at St Bede's RC High School and St John Rigby College, Wigan.

Culshaw's radio career began in hospital radio in Ormskirk. His first job was at Red Rose Radio (now Rock FM) in Preston in 1987, where, even then, he used to occasionally read the weather in the voice of Frank Bruno. He did voice-over work, then was catapulted to prominence with Spitting Image, where he voiced around forty characters, including John Major in the 1990s, who was then the Prime Minister.

For around four years in the late 1980s, Culshaw was a DJ on commercial radio station Viking FM, based in Hull, and also had a breakfast show on Pennine Radio (now the Pulse of West Yorkshire) and Radio Wave in Blackpool. It was a receptionist at Viking FM who persuaded Culshaw that he should go onstage with his impressions and make it his living. Culshaw later appeared on BBC Radio 2's It's Been a Bad Week, appeared as a guest on the BBC Two Star Trek Night quiz in August 1996, and was also a regular guest on the Chris Moyles afternoon show on BBC Radio 1 from 1998 to 2002, where he would phone up commercial organisations such as a Kwik-Fit garage in the voice of Patrick Moore or Obi-Wan Kenobi politely requesting whether they could service his X-wing fighter and how much time it would take.

Radio
Culshaw rose to fame in January 1998 while working with Steve Penk on Capital Radio, by impersonating William Hague and succeeding in contacting Number 10 Downing Street. He was put through to Tony Blair who, despite instantly discovering the ruse, had a lengthy conversation with him until a member of Blair's staff ended the call.

Culshaw was one of the stars of the BBC Radio 4 comedy series Dead Ringers, which ran from 2000 to 2007 as well as the BBC Two television series of the same name, from 2002 until 2007. The radio series of Dead Ringers made a return to BBC Radio 4 in 2014.

In 2018, Culshaw gave a rare dramatic performance as David Bowie in the BBC radio play The Final Take: Bowie in the Studio, an imagined account of Bowie as he works on his final album and looks back over his life.

Television
Between 2001 and 2002, Culshaw hosted a programme on ITV called Alter Ego, where he interviewed male celebrities in their own style of speaking, a form of simultaneous translation. Culshaw also appeared on 2DTV, a cartoon version of Dead Ringers. In early 2004, using the same production team, he had his own programme, The Impressionable Jon Culshaw commissioned for ITV.

In 2005, Culshaw was a celebrity contestant on Comic Relief Does Fame Academy and was the fourth person to become eliminated. In the same year, he also appeared in the BBC General Election coverage, in the guises of Tony Blair and George W. Bush. In January 2006, Culshaw presented one series of the BBC programme Jon Culshaw's Commercial Breakdown. In November 2007 and December 2008, Culshaw, a keen amateur astronomer, appeared on The Sky at Night impersonating a young Sir Patrick Moore. In March 2011, he appeared again on the 700th episode of The Sky at Night, reading viewer questions to the panel of experts. Culshaw later appeared two months later reporting on the Northern Lights.

In January 2008, he appeared on Big Brother: Celebrity Hijack, as part of a pub-quiz team with Chris Moyles. In May 2008, Culshaw appeared in the BBC documentary series Comedy Map of Britain.

Since 2009, Culshaw has starred in the BBC One comedy sketch show The Impressions Show alongside Debra Stephenson.

On 13 March 2010, Jon was a guest judge on the BBC One charity programme Let's Dance for Comic Relief. In 2013, he appeared as a contestant on the show, where he performed a routine to "Praise You" by Fatboy Slim. However, he was eliminated by the public vote.

In 2010, Culshaw appeared in the television series, Missing as Des Martin. In November 2013, Culshaw appeared in the one-off 50th anniversary comedy homage The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot.

Since 2015, he has voiced a number of characters alongside Debra Stephenson for the ITV sketch show Newzoids. A second series aired in 2016.

In 2017, Jon was one of the minor hosts of the Channel 5 documentary series Secrets of the National Trust. In February 2021, Culshaw appeared on Celebrity Mastermind, doing "Doctor Who – the Jon Pertwee Years" for his specialist subject.

Until 2023, Culshaw narrated the Channel 4 property series 'Sun, Sea, and Selling Houses'.

Film
In film, Culshaw appeared as Tony Blair in the 2004 film Churchill: The Hollywood Years and voiced Piston Pete in the 2008 film Agent Crush.

Impressions
Some of Culshaw's most famous impressions include former British Prime Ministers Tony Blair and Boris Johnson, Obi-Wan Kenobi (as portrayed by Alec Guinness), Russell Crowe, Presidents George W. Bush and Donald Trump, Ozzy Osbourne, comedian Michael McIntyre, presenter Dale Winton, newsreader Brian Perkins, Sir Patrick Moore, Tom Baker and Les Dawson.

Doctor Who
Culshaw has appeared in numerous Doctor Who related productions in various roles. This first came to fruition with his impersonation of Tom Baker's Fourth Doctor for both the TV and radio versions of Dead Ringers.

He has also appeared in the webcast "Death Comes to Time" and audio drama The Kingmaker. In the latter, he got to perform his Tom Baker impression "for real" (voicing tape recordings of the fourth Doctor), although his nominal part was that of Earl Rivers. In 2019, he appeared in a trilogy of Doctor Who audio dramas alongside Fifth Doctor Peter Davison, playing the shape-shifting android Kamelion. He later started playing Brigadier Lethbridge Stewart alongside Tim Treloar as the Third Doctor.

Awards and honours
In 2006, Culshaw received an honorary fellowship from the University of Central Lancashire in Preston. In December 2010, he was awarded an honorary doctorate by Edge Hill University. In July 2013 he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from the University of Leicester. In March 2019, Culshaw sat for British impressionist artist Sherree Valentine-Daines for a portrait painted to mark the opening of the Clarendon Fine Art Gallery in Hampstead, London.

Charity
Culshaw is a celebrity ambassador for the charity Trekstock.

Culshaw also supports the Starlight Children's Foundation.

Culshaw regularly presents Gold Duke of Edinburgh's Awards as part of his support for the charity.

In 2016 he participated in the Great North Run to raise funds for the Jon Egging Trust, a charity set up in memory of the Red Arrows flight lieutenant who died while flying at the Red Arrows Display at the Bournemouth Air Festival.

Filmography

 * Film

 * Television

 * Guest appearances

 * Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? (2007, 2013)
 * Celebrity Are You Smarter than a Ten Year Old? (2008)
 * Hotel Babylon (2008)
 * Celebrity Mastermind (2008)
 * Heston's Eighties Feast (2010)
 * The Sky at Night (2011)
 * Stargazing Live (2012)
 * Celebrity Antiques Road Trip (2012)
 * Britain's Secret Treasures (2012)
 * Pointless Celebrities (2012, 2014)
 * The Chase: Celebrity Special (2013)
 * Tipping Point: Lucky Stars (2014)
 * Holiday of My Lifetime (2014)
 * Bruce Forsyth's Hall of Fame (2014)
 * Get Your Act Together (2015)
 * All Star Family Fortunes (2015)
 * This Week (2015)
 * Sunday Brunch (2015)
 * The Paul O'Grady Show (2015)
 * Celebrity Money for Nothing (2017)
 * The Hairy Bikers Home for Christmas (2017)

Audio clips

 * Prank call.
 * The Time Lord contacts terrestrial organisations by telephone.
 * Voice over work.
 * Viking FM jingle
 * Talking about his work on Dead Ringers.
 * Interviewed on Radio Lancashire in July 2006
 * Helping out with Budget 2005 on Radio Five Live
 * Would You featuring celebrity vocals
 * Talking on Danny Baker's programme.
 * This is the Radio Four News with Brian Perkins.
 * Are you sitting comfortably? It's time for Dead Ringers to begin.

Video clips

 * Receiving his honorary degree in Preston (YouTube)

title: Jon Culshaw


text:
Paparazzi

Paparazzi (, ; ; : masculine paparazzo or feminine paparazza) are independent photographers who take pictures of celebrities, prominent public figures, and other high-profile people; namely professional athletes and entertainers who typically go about their usual daily life routines. Paparazzi tend to make a living by selling their photographs to media outlets that focus on tabloid journalism and sensationalism (such as gossip magazines).

Description
Paparazzi tend to be independent contractors, unaffiliated with mainstream media organizations, who track high-profile people and take pictures of them opportunistically. Some journalists have described the behavior of paparazzi as stalking,  and anti-stalking laws in many countries address the issue by seeking to reduce harassment of public figures and celebrities, especially when they are with their children. Some public figures and celebrities, such as Adele, Prince Harry, and Kristen Stewart, have expressed concern at the extent to which paparazzi go to invade their personal space. The filing and receiving of judicial support for restraining orders against paparazzi has increased, as have lawsuits with judgments against them.

Paparazzi are often a problem for celebrities, as the latter have become increasingly objectified and worshipped by fans (see: Celebrity worship syndrome), especially through social and mass media. This happens because constant exposure to and coverage of these figures leads people to treat celebrities like they are their social intimates, whom they admire, gossip about, or copy habits from. A 2009 study which anonymously interviewed a number of celebrities showed that it was a common sentiment that being pursued by paparazzi causes a loss of personal life, lack of anonymity, and a feeling of constantly being watched. This causes them to compensate by forming separate identities, one an image offered to the public, and one reserved for moments of privacy and intimacy.

It is also a common practice for celebrities to willingly invite paparazzi to take photographs of them, the main reason being to maintain or increase their relevance and exposure.

Famous paparazzi
Walter Santesso portrays Paparazzo in the 1960 film La Dolce Vita, marking the character as the eponym of the word paparazzi.

Ron Galella is well known for his obsessive stalking of several celebrities, most notably Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. Galella has been defined "the Godfather of the U.S. paparazzi culture".

Rino Barillari is an Italian paparazzo known as "The King of Paparazzi" in Italy. He was awarded the Commander of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic in 1998.

Precursors
Intrusive photojournalism has existed since the nineteenth century. The invention of quicker and more portable cameras facilitated the process of capturing unauthorized celebrity photographs and publishing them in illustrated newspapers, which started appearing in the 1890s. One of the first instances of a "snatched photograph" was in 1898, when two photographers were able to capture a photograph of Otto von Bismarck on his deathbed through bribery.

Etymology
A news photographer named Paparazzo (played by Walter Santesso in the 1960 film La Dolce Vita directed by Federico Fellini) is the eponym of the word paparazzi. In his book The Facts on File Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins, Robert Hendrickson writes that Fellini named the "hyperactive photographer ... after Italian slang for 'mosquito'". As Fellini said in his interview to Time magazine, "Paparazzo ... suggests to me a buzzing insect, hovering, darting, stinging." Those versions of the word's origin are sometimes contested. For example, in the Abruzzo dialect spoken by Ennio Flaiano, co-scriptwriter of La Dolce Vita, the term paparazzo refers to the local clam, Venerupis decussata, and is also used as a metaphor for the shutter of a camera lens.

Further, in an interview with Fellini's screenwriter Flaiano, he said the name came from the book Sulla riva dello Jonio (1957), a translation by Italian poet Margherita Guidacci of By the Ionian Sea, a 1901 travel narrative in southern Italy by Victorian writer George Gissing. He further states that either Fellini or Flaiano opened the book at random, saw the name of a restaurant owner, Coriolano Paparazzo, and decided to use it for the photographer. This story is further documented by a variety of Gissing scholars and in the book ''A Sweet and Glorious Land. Revisiting the Ionian Sea''. By the late 1960s, the word, usually in the Italian plural form paparazzi, had entered English as a generic term for intrusive photographers. A person who has been photographed by the paparazzi is said to have been "papped".

In other languages
A transliteration of paparazzi is used in several languages that do not use the Latin alphabet, including Japanese (パパラッチ), Korean (파파라치), Ukrainian (папарацці), Russian (папарацци), Bulgarian (папараци), Thai (ปาปารัสซี) and Hebrew (פפראצי). Chinese uses, meaning "puppy squad". Khmer uses អ្នកប្រមាញ់រូប (anak bramanh roub).

Social media era
For the majority of the history of paparazzi from the 1950s–2000s, paparazzi have been viewed as "invasive, aggressive, and greedy men" who would commonly clash with public figures, but they have since become calmer and less combative. Social media grew in size during the 2010s, which made shooting sensational photos more accessible to the public and allowed celebrities to better control what pictures of them were publicized. This in turn cheapened the value of sensational photos, and made the paparazzi industry riskier and less profitable. Although tensions still remain, more celebrities have begun to regularly (or during a setback) invite, befriend, or ask paparazzi to take photos of them to sustain their careers, such as Kim Kardashian and Rihanna. (However, since the mid-2000s, social media has contributed to the industry's growth in Hindi cinema and more invasion of privacy there.) Public distrust has also increased around staged paparazzi photos.

Legality
Due to the reputation of paparazzi as a nuisance, several countries and states restrict their activities by passing laws and curfews, and by staging events in which paparazzi are specifically not allowed to take photographs. In the United States, celebrity news organizations are protected by the First Amendment. However, to protect the children of celebrities, California passed Senate Bill No. 606 in September 2013. The purpose of the bill is to stop paparazzi from taking pictures of children or wards in a harassing manner because of their parent's occupation. This law increased the penalty for harassment of children. California Civil Code sections 1708.7 and 1708.8 explicitly address stalking and invasion of physical privacy.

Injunctions
In 1972, paparazzo photographer Ron Galella sued Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis after the former First Lady ordered her Secret Service agents to destroy Galella's camera and film following an encounter in New York City's Central Park. Kennedy counter-sued claiming harassment. The trial lasted three weeks and became a groundbreaking case regarding photojournalism and the role of paparazzi. In Galella v. Onassis, Kennedy obtained a restraining order to keep Galella 150 ft away from her and her children. The restriction was later reduced to 25 ft. The trial is a focal point in Smash His Camera, a 2010 documentary film by director Leon Gast.

In 1997, Diana, Princess of Wales and partner Dodi Fayed were killed in a limousine crash as their driver was speeding, trying to escape paparazzi. Another person, Trevor Jones, survived. An inquest jury investigated the role of paparazzi in the incident, but no one was convicted. The official inquests into the accident attributed the causes to the speed and manner of driving of the Mercedes, as well as the following vehicles, and the impairment of the judgment of the Mercedes driver, Henri Paul, through alcohol.

In 1999, the Oriental Daily News of Hong Kong was found guilty of "scandalizing the court", an extremely rare charge where the judiciary find that the newspaper's conduct undermines confidence in the administration of justice. The charge was brought after the newspaper had published abusive articles challenging the judiciary's integrity and accusing it of bias in a lawsuit the paper had instigated over a photo of a pregnant Faye Wong. The paper had also arranged for a "dog team" (slang for paparazzi in the Chinese language) to track a judge for 72 hours, to provide the judge with first-hand experience of what paparazzi do.

Time magazine's Style & Design special issue in 2005 ran a story entitled "Shooting Star", in which Mel Bouzad, one of the top paparazzi in Los Angeles at the time, claimed to have made US$150,000 for a picture of Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez in Georgia after their breakup. "If I get a picture of Britney and her baby," Bouzad claimed, "I'll be able to buy a house in those hills (above Sunset Boulevard)." Paparazzi author Peter Howe told Time that "celebrities need a higher level of exposure than the rest of us so it is a two-way street. The celebrities manipulate."

In 2006, Daniella Cicarelli went through a scandal when a paparazzo caught video footage of her having sex with her boyfriend on a beach in Spain, which was posted on YouTube. After fighting in the court, it was decided in her favor, causing YouTube to be blocked in Brazil. This caused major havoc among Brazilians, including threatening a boycott against MTV Brasil, where Cicarelli worked, unless she was fired. The block only lasted a few days, and Cicarelli was not dismissed. The legal action backfired as the court decided she had no expectation of privacy by having sex in a public location. Cicarelli appealed the decision, and the case was finally settled in 2015 with the Superior Court of Justice of Brazil awarding Cicarelli and her boyfriend in the video damages of R$250,000 (US$64,000) from Google.

Following the publication of photographs showing Catherine, Princess of Wales sunbathing whilst topless at the French holiday home of her husband's cousin Viscount Linley, it was announced on September 14, 2012, that the royal couple were to launch legal action against the French edition of Closer magazine. It was the first time that a senior British royal has sued in a court outside the UK. The reason cited for the legal action is that the Duchess had a right of privacy whilst at the home—the magazine responded that the pictures had been taken from the public highway. The injunction was granted on September 18, 2012, and the publishers of the magazine were ordered not to publish the photographs in France and not to sell the images. The publishers were also ordered to hand over the original material of the published pictures under threat of a €10,000 fine for every day of delay in doing so. In 2017, the magazine was ordered to pay €100,000 in damages to Catherine and William, and another €90,000 fine to two staffers.

In the United Kingdom, Sienna Miller, Amy Winehouse, and Lily Allen have won injunctions that prevent the paparazzi from following them and gathering outside their houses. Miller was awarded £53,000.

In 2013, rapper Kanye West faced assault charges after attacking a photojournalist. He stated that he would fight to get the law changed, so celebrities can profit from paparazzi's work.

Other measures
In addition to legal action, celebrities have taken other measures to avoid paparazzi. When Daniel Radcliffe was performing in the play Equus in London, he wore the same hat and jacket every day for six months, to make the photos look old and therefore "unpublishable".

In popular culture
The E! network program Celebrities Uncensored used footage of celebrities made by paparazzi.

Lady Gaga released the single "Paparazzi" in 2009 for the album The Fame, which she described to be "about wooing the paparazzi to fall in love with me". It received critical acclaim and charted in the top ten in the United States and the United Kingdom.

title: Paparazzi


text:
Iraq Dossier

Iraq – Its Infrastructure of Concealment, Deception and Intimidation (more commonly known as the Iraq Dossier, the February Dossier or the Dodgy Dossier) was a 2003 briefing document for the British prime minister Tony Blair's Labour Party government. It was issued to journalists on 3 February 2003 by Alastair Campbell, Blair's Director of Communications and Strategy, and concerned Iraq and weapons of mass destruction. Along with the earlier September Dossier, these documents were ultimately used by the British government to justify its involvement in the invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Dossier
The term Dodgy Dossier was first coined by online polemical magazine Spiked in relation to the September Dossier. The term was later employed by Channel 4 News when its reporter, Julian Rush, was made aware of Glen Rangwala's discovery that much of the work in the Iraq Dossier had been plagiarised from various unattributed sources including a thesis produced by a student at California State University. The most notable source was an article by then graduate student Ibrahim al-Marashi, entitled Iraq's Security and Intelligence Network: A Guide and Analysis.

Whole sections of Marashi's writings on "Saddam's Special Security Organisation" were repeated verbatim including typographical errors, while certain amendments were made to strengthen the tone of the alleged findings (e.g., "monitoring foreign embassies in Iraq" became "spying on foreign embassies in Iraq", and "aiding opposition groups in hostile regimes" became "supporting terrorist organisations in hostile regimes").

In its opening paragraph the briefing document claimed that it drew "upon a number of sources, including intelligence material". Before the document's release it had been praised by Tony Blair and United States Secretary of State Colin Powell as further intelligence and quality research. The day after Channel 4's exposé, Blair's office issued a statement admitting that a mistake was made in not crediting its sources, but did not concede that the quality of the document's text was affected.

The claims contained in the September and 'Iraq' Dossiers were called into question when weapons of mass destruction (WMD) were not found in Iraq, and the dossiers were encompassed by House of Commons Foreign Affairs Select Committee inquiry. The Committee subsequently reported that the sources should have been credited, and that the dossier should have been checked by ministers before being released. The dossier had only been reviewed by a group of civil servants operating under Alastair Campbell. The committee stated that the publication was "almost wholly counter-productive" and in the event only served to undermine the credibility of the government's case.

The controversy over the Iraq Dossier was mentioned frequently in the government's conflict with the BBC over the claim in the September Dossier that Iraq could deploy biological weapons within 45 minutes of an order to do so, and the controversy surrounding the death of Dr. David Kelly. Andrew Gilligan, the BBC journalist who wrote a report which claimed that the September Dossier had been deliberately exaggerated, stated before the Hutton Inquiry that recalling the February Dossier had led him to file his report based on his interview with Dr. Kelly without seeking confirmation from other sources. Whether or not the September Dossier was inconsistent with the original intelligence, it was altered in ways that made it inconsistent with itself.

The dossier became a point of amusement in British politics. During one Prime Minister's Questions, Michael Howard (then leader of the Opposition), informed Blair, "I have got a great big dossier on his past and I haven't even had to sex it up." The term "Dodgy Dossier" was used again in January 2017, in reference to the "Steele Dossier" on a supposed sex scandal involving US President Donald Trump.

title: Iraq Dossier


text:
Wikipedia talk:Avoid weasel words

Wholesale replacement of weasel
Given that a consensus has been claimed (but is currently 50-50) for merging this page into "words to watch" I will try to facilitate the process by replacing the article as standing with the sentences it is being reduced to. This will give people the chance to see what if anything is missing. --BozMo talk 20:02, 24 April 2010 (UTC)

MoS naming style
There is currently an ongoing discussion about the future of this and others MoS naming style. Please consider the issues raised in the discussion and vote if you wish GnevinAWB (talk) 20:50, 25 April 2010 (UTC)

Mustelaphobia?
I'm not sure if this is the proper place to bring this up, but some have said that many weasels strongly object to the term "weasel words" as it presents their species in an unfavourable light based on false negative stereotypes and prejudice. There is a general Consensus among both the Mustelid Council of Europe (MCE) and North American Coalition for the Social Progress of Weasels, Ferrets and Ermines (NACSPWFE) that this term is outdated, inaccurate and unfair to weasels and their kin. Perhaps the authors' of Wikipedia's "Avoid Weasel Words" policy should seriously consider replacing "weasel words" with a more modern, less offensive descriptor that does not carry such blatant connotations of speciesism. 67.142.172.26 (talk) 01:02, 9 August 2010 (UTC)

"Verbosity of varmintal descent"? 68.144.100.86 (talk) 09:16, 11 May 2012 (UTC)

Nice try to be silly, 67.142.172.26, but you will soon hereby be blocked for your vandalism at 22:19, 2 September 2010 for Talk:Global warming, 22:02, 21 May 2013 for Frost weathering, 21:52, 2 December 2013 for Nun. --Adeptzare3 (talk) 00:41, 24 March 2014 (UTC)

How ironic
"It is a generally accepted..." This is a weasel phrase, by the page's own definition. No deception intended, just sloppy.Sometimesage (talk) 22:51, 21 May 2020 (UTC)Sometimesage (talk) 22:46, 21 May 2020 (UTC)Sometimesage (talk) 22:39, 21 May 2020 (UTC)Sometimesage (talk) 22:38, 21 May 2020 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Sometimesage (talk • contribs) 22:21, 21 May 2020 (UTC)
 * But context matters. Wikipedia can make generalising statements reflecting the consensus of its own editors in Wikipedia namespace. The editors can decide, collectively, what is "generally accepted by them, and then describe that in a guideline, and that is not weasel wording. (Unless the guideline means not generally accepted by editor consensus but by academics at large or something, in which case that WOULD be weasel wording, and indeed be ironically placed). 2600:1702:4960:1DE0:AD80:F27C:76D:C5D0 (talk) 03:51, 27 March 2022 (UTC)

title: Wikipedia talk:Avoid weasel words


text:
Church of Denmark

The Evangelical-Lutheran Church in Denmark or National Church (Folkekirken, or unofficially den danske folkekirke; Ilagiit), sometimes called the Church of Denmark, is the established, state-supported church in Denmark. The supreme secular authority of the church is composed of the reigning monarch and Denmark's Parliament, the Folketing. , 71.4% of the population of Denmark are members, though membership is voluntary.

Chalcedonian Christianity was introduced to Denmark in the 9th century by Ansgar, Archbishop of Hamburg-Bremen. In the 10th century, King Harald Bluetooth became a Catholic and began organizing the church, and by the 11th century, Christianity was largely accepted throughout the country. Since the Reformation in Denmark, the church has been Evangelical Lutheran, while retaining much of its high church pre-Reformation liturgical traditions.

The 1849 Constitution of Denmark designated the church "the Danish people's church" and mandates that the state support it as such.

The Church of Denmark continues to maintain the historical episcopate. Theological authority is vested in bishops: ten bishops in mainland Denmark and one in Greenland, each overseeing a diocese. The bishop of Copenhagen is primus inter pares.

Dioceses
The Church of Denmark is organized into eleven dioceses, each led by a bishop, including one for Greenland (the Faroe Islands was a twelfth diocese until 29 July 2007). The most senior bishop (primus inter pares) is the bishop of Copenhagen, currently Peter Skov-Jakobsen. The further subdivision includes 111 deaneries and 2,200 parishes. There are about 2,400 ordained pastors (Danish: præst).

Parishes
Each parish has a parochial council, elected by church members in four-year terms. The parochial council leads the practical business of the local church and decides employment of personnel, including the pastors, musicians, verger, and sacristan. The pastor (Danish: præst) is subordinate to the council, except in spiritual matters such as conducting church services and pastoral care. Parishes in the same local area are grouped into deaneries, with one priest serving as Rural Dean. Deaneries, parochial councils, and pastors are all subordinate to the bishop of the diocese.

Voluntary congregations
A special feature is the possibility of creating voluntary congregations (valgmenighed) within the Church. These account for a few percent of church members. They are voluntary associations, electing their own parochial council and parish pastor, whom they agree to pay from their own pockets. In return, they are exempt from church tax. The voluntary congregation and its pastor are subordinate to the bishop of the diocese, and members remain full members of the Church. Historically, when a parish was dominated by a conservative majority and priest, the liberal minority would often set up a voluntary congregation with their own priest – and vice versa. Today the voluntary congregations are often a solution for people who find the idea of a free church appealing, but wish to keep some bonds to the church.

Parish optionality
Another, less commonly used feature is parish optionality (sognebåndsløsning, literally "parish bond release"). If a Church member is dissatisfied with the particular pastor of his residence parish, he may choose to be served by another pastor who matches better with his Christian views, for example in a neighbouring parish.

Membership
According to official statistics from January 2023, 72.1% of the inhabitants of Denmark are members of the Church of Denmark, 1.1 percentage points less than the previous year. Membership rates vary from 54.4% in the Diocese of Copenhagen to 82.0% in the Diocese of Viborg. In recent decades, the percentage of Danes that are members of the church has been slowly declining, the most important reasons being immigration from non-Lutheran countries, withdrawal of some members, and a somewhat lower rate (56.2%) of Danish infants being christened.

Any person who is baptised (usually infant baptism) into the Church of Denmark automatically becomes a member. Members may renounce their membership and later return if they wish. Excommunication is legally possible but a rare occurrence. Examples include declared Satanists. A church member supporting reincarnation was excommunicated, but the Supreme Court overturned the excommunication in 2005.

Faith and church attendance
According to the latest inquiry about 2.4% of church members attend services every week, although on Christmas Eve more than a third of the population attends. The church is still widely used for traditional family ceremonies including christenings and confirmations. In the year 2022, 31.2% of weddings and 80.7% funerals were performed in the Church of Denmark, and 66.5% of children in grade 7–8 were confirmed. The level of weekly church attendance is similar to that in Norway and Sweden.

According to a 2009 poll, 25% of Danes believed Jesus is the Son of God, and 18% believed he is the saviour of the world.

Doctrine
The church is aimed at having a wide acceptance of theological views, as long as they agree with the official symbolic books as stipulated in the Danish Code of 1683. These are:
 * The Apostles' Creed
 * The Nicene Creed
 * The Athanasian Creed
 * The Augsburg Confession
 * Luther's Small Catechism

Revised versions of the Old and New Testament were authorised by Queen Margrethe II in 1992. A revised Hymn Book was authorised in 2003. Both the Bible translations and the Hymn Book implied widespread public and theological debate.

Historically, there is a contrast between a liberal current inspired by N. F. S. Grundtvig and more strict, pietist or Bible fundamentalist movements (such as Indre Mission). These tensions have sometimes threatened to divide the Church. Tidehverv is a minor fraction based on a strict Lutheranism and anti-modern, national-conservative views.

The Church of Denmark is member the World Council of Churches, the Lutheran World Federation, the Communion of Protestant Churches in Europe and the Porvoo Communion.

Liturgy
The Communion Service includes three readings from the Bible: a chapter from one of the Gospels, from one of the Epistles or another part of the New Testament and, since 1992, from the Old Testament. Texts are picked from an official list following the church year. Some liturgical features have a fixed content but are free to the form. This accounts for the Common Prayer following the sermon, where the priest is encouraged to mention the royal house. Some will simply mention "the Queen and all her House" whereas others will list all members of the royal house by name and title.

The sermon, as in other Protestant churches, is a central part of the service. The priest takes a starting point in the text of that Sunday, but is free to form a personal message of it. At special occasions, even non-priests may be allowed to preach. Hymns are also very central. In contrast to Roman Catholic and Anglican churches, Danish congregations sit while singing and stand while listening to Bible readings.

As in other Lutheran churches, the Church of Denmark recognizes only two sacraments, Baptism and the Lord's Supper. These are usually included in the Communion Service. Formerly, individual or shared confession was a condition to receive the Lord's Supper. An official confession ritual still exists, but is now used very rarely. There are also official rituals for confirmation, wedding, blessing of a civil wedding and funerals. Emergency baptism may be performed by any Christian if necessary, and later the child will then be "ratified" in Church.

Church and state
As supreme authority of the Church of Denmark, the monarch must be a member (article 6 of the Constitution). This applies to the royal princes and princesses as well, but does not apply to their spouses. Traditionally, though, every foreigner who has become a member of the royal family has converted or become a member of the church; as a result, the Prince Consort Henrik converted from Catholicism before marrying the Queen in 1968, and Mary Donaldson also converted from Presbyterianism before marrying Crown Prince Frederik in 2004.

Freedom of religion
With the Reformation in Denmark in 1536, Lutheran Christianity was established as the state religion. For the next century, in a time when religious wars swept Europe, harsh persecution of other faiths followed (Lutheran orthodoxy). Exceptions were granted only to foreign diplomats. For at least a period in the 16th century, small circles of clandestine Catholicism prevailed. From 1683, Roman Catholic, Reformed and Jewish congregations were allowed in the new town of Fredericia, the latter two also in Copenhagen. Non-Lutherans were also allowed in Friedrichstadt and on Nordstrand in Slesvig and in Glückstadt in Holstein. With the constitution of 1849, freedom of religion was introduced in Denmark, but Lutheranism remained the state church.

Recognised and approved religions
A religious community does not need any state approval in order to enjoy the freedom of religion granted by the constitution. However, state-approved congregations (godkendte trossamfund) enjoy several privileges. They may conduct legal weddings, establish own cemeteries, get residence permits for foreign priests, are exempt from corporate and property tax, may apply for means from the state lottery fund, and members may tax-deduct membership fees and presents to the congregation.

Additionally, those congregations recognised by royal decree before 1970 (anerkendte trossamfund) may name and baptize children with legal effect, keep their own church registers and transcribe certificates on the basis of such registers.

This legal distinction between "recognised" and "approved" communities remains, but is mainly a historical one. Communities recognised before 1970 includes only eight well-established Christian communities as well as one Jewish community. From 1970 until the 1990s only a few more Christian congregations were approved, but since 1998, a much more liberal practice has ensued. Since then, a board of independent experts decide about approval of new religious communities. The board includes professors of law, religious studies and theology and works under the Ministry of Justice, deliberately separate from the Ministry of Ecclesiastical affairs. It merely investigates whether the organisation fulfills basic definitions, such as having a doctrine, creed and cult, in order to be called a congregation of faith. In 2003, the approval of the Forn Siðr religion caused some public debate.

Lack of central authority
The Church is in practice barred from having official positions in political or other matters, since it has no central bodies that could define such stances: nor a spiritual leader (such as an archbishop), nor a central assembly or synod. Bishops have the last say on doctrinal questions within their respective dioceses. The King (in practice the Minister of Ecclesiastical Affairs) and Parliament are the central bodies, but they usually keep to administrative matters and abstain from interfering with spiritual questions. Church laws are rarely changed, and, when it happens, only administrative matters are affected.

Firstly, these principles are generally believed to ensure a non-sectarian, tolerant church where parishioners and priests enjoy a high degree of freedom to practise their own interpretation of Lutheran Christianity. Secondly, many Danish politicians and theologians claim that only this church-state-model will ensure the division of politics and religion, since the Church cannot interfere with political matters or even claim to speak with one voice on behalf of its members. They frequently discourage the term state church and argue it is, as its name states, the "people's church".

Article 66 of the Danish Constitution stipulates a church ordinance shall be laid down by law. This promissory clause dates back from the first Constitution of 1849 but was never put into practice. It was feared that splits could occur if a central authority were created.

In very few cases have politicians deviated from their traditional hands-off course in church doctrinal matters. Where they have done so, it has been with the declared aim of preventing a possible split in the church. See the issues of Female clergy and Same-sex marriage below.

Civil registration
The Church of Denmark conducts civil registration of births, deaths, change of name etc. (vital records). The keeping of such kirkebøger ("church books") is a centuries-long tradition, dating from when the parish rectors were the only government representatives in rural areas. In 2002–03 the traditional church records were replaced by a new national electronic registration system called Personregistrering. After protests in 2005, the Minister for Education and Ecclesiastical Affairs Bertel Haarder announced that people who for various reasons did not want to send their registration forms (e.g. births and namings) to the local church office could now send their forms to a central office located in Nykøbing Falster.

In 2010 parents' duty to report the birth of their child was abolished. Instead, it was decided that in the future it was the task of the midwives to report all births in Denmark (only when a midwife isn't present at the birth of a child are the parents still obliged to report the birth of the child).

From 1 December 2014 all applications should be submitted in digital form whenever possible.

Economic support
Article 4 in the Constitution of Denmark stipulates that "The Evangelical Lutheran Church shall be the Established Church of Denmark, as such, it shall be supported by the State." On the other hand, article 68 ensures that citizens are not obliged to pay personal contributions to any religion other than their own. It has been questioned how these two principles can co-exist. Non-members do not pay church tax, but an additional state subsidiary accounts for 12% of the Church's income. This means every citizen, even a non-member, contributes with an average of 130 kroner annually (US$23). In addition, the bishops are high-ranking officials whose salary is fully paid by the state. In return, certain public tasks are carried out by the Church, such as conducting vital records registries and managing graveyards which are open to all denominations.

Separation of church and state
While the debate about separation of church and state emerges occasionally in Denmark, the current arrangement is supported by most political parties. It has been challenged for decades by the left wing and by atheists; more recently also by some ideological liberals and some members of free churches.

Proponents for a separation (disestablishment) argue the state church violates equality of religions and the principle of the secular state. Proponents for the current system argue that membership is voluntary, that the existence of a state church has ancient historical roots, and that the church fulfils certain administrative tasks for the state. They also argue it would be difficult to decide whether church-owned real estate should be handed over to the state or not. The former possessions of the Catholic Church were ceded to the Crown at the reformation in 1536.

According to a poll conducted by the free daily MetroXpress in April 2007, 52% wished to split church and state, 30% were against, and 18% undecided. Minister for Education and Ecclesiastical Affairs Bertel Haarder, spoke out against a split: "Church and state will be separated when more than half of the population are no longer members. N. F. S. Grundtvig said so, and I support that." The opposition Social Democrats also argued against a split, but said there should be more equality between denominations, possibly by a state subsidiary paid to other approved religious communities as well. Immigrant groups and the Muslim society are divided on the issue, as some think official Christianity is preferable to a purely secular state.

Pure equality of religions exists only in a minority of Western European countries. Besides Denmark, only the Faroe Islands, Iceland, England and Greece have official state churches, while Scotland has an officially recognised "national church" that is not connected to the state. Spain, Portugal, Italy and Austria have official ties to Catholicism (concordat), but these ties do not extend to Catholicism being recognised as the state religion in these countries. Further there are varying degrees of public funding of the church in Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Norway, Sweden, in most cantons of Switzerland, and in the Alsace-Moselle region of France.

Similar Nordic Evangelical-Lutheran churches

 * Church of Sweden – Svenska kyrkan
 * Church of Norway – Den norske kirke
 * National Church of Iceland – Þjóðkirkjan
 * Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland – Suomen evankelis-luterilainen kirkko (Swedish: Evangelisk-lutherska kyrkan i Finland)
 * Church of the Faroe Islands – Fólkakirkjan

Female clergy
The ordination of women, having been discussed within the church since the 1920s, has been allowed since 1948, despite some rather strong early resistance from the clergy. The then Minister of Ecclesiastical Affairs was contacted by a parochial council who wished to employ a female priest. He decided there was no legal obstacle to that. The first woman to become a bishop was instituted in 1995. As of 2021, a majority of priests are women.

Among a small conservative minority, resistance to women ordained as clergy remains. In 2007 the Bishop of Viborg, known as a moderate conservative, revealed that he had given special consideration to priests who were known to be against ordained women. He had organised ordination ceremonies in such a way that new priests who so wished could avoid shaking hands with, or receiving the laying on of hands from, women ordained as priests. According to the bishop, this had happened twice in the 100 ordinations he had performed. The matter became headline news amidst a debate about Muslim fundamentalists who refuse to shake hands with members of the opposite sex. The Minister for Education and Ecclesiastical Affairs, Bertel Haarder, said he would discuss the matter with the bishops, but also stated that tolerance for various views should be respected. In contrast, the Minister for Employment, Claus Hjort Frederiksen, thought that the priests in question should be dismissed, as public employees are obliged to shake hands with anyone.

Same-sex marriage
A 2011 poll of the Danish public found that 75.8% of Danes approve of same-sex marriages being performed in the church.

According to a 2011 survey of 1137 priests, 62% of them supported same-sex marriage in the Church on the same basis as for heterosexuals, while 28% were against. A map of the results hints at the traditional west–east division, with a conservative wing being dominant in central West Jutland (the former Ringkjøbing Amt) and on Bornholm, but liberal priests dominating in most other cities.

In 2004, a poll among pastors said 60% were against church marriage of same-sex couples.

Early position of the church
Since Denmark approved same-sex civil unions (registered partnership) in 1989, the question of church blessing ceremonies for such unions emerged. After an enquiry from the Danish National Association of Gays and Lesbians in 1993, bishops set up a commission to reach a stance on the matter.

An early stance on registered partnerships was reached in 1997. Bishops maintained that the ceremony of marriage was God's framework for the relation between a man and a woman, but this view of marriage was not affected by the fact that some people chose to live in a responsible community with a person of the same sex, approved by society, i.e. a registered partnership. The bishops disapproved of institutionalising new rituals, but couples who wished a non-ritualised marking in church of their registered partnership should be obliged. In such cases, it would be up to the rector to decide, and he should seek advice from his bishop.

At this time, many churches chose to bless registered partnerships, however this blessing was distinguished from a legal ceremony, which was performed by a mayor or another municipal official.

Same-sex marriages accepted
On 15 June 2012 the Church of Denmark made the decision to perform same-sex marriage ceremonies and not merely bless them; therefore Denmark now recognises same-sex marriages. In early 2012 Minister for Equality, Ecclesiastical Affairs and Nordic Cooperation, Manu Sareen introduced a bill approving same-sex marriage, which was passed in parliament in June 2012. A wedding ritual with liturgy has been developed and presented to parliament by the eleven bishops who are in favor of same-sex marriages being performed in church. Manu Sareen and a majority of bishops initially proposed the ritual would not declare the same-sex couple 'spouses', but 'life partners' (livsfæller, a Danish neologism), but the minister later changed his mind on this detail. Two conservative organisations within the church, Inner Mission and Lutheran Mission, as well as one of the twelve bishops, maintain their protests against same-sex marriage. It will be up to each individual priest to decide whether he or she will conduct marriages of same-sex couples. The first same-sex couple was married on Friday 15 June.

The process towards the official recognition of same sex marriage in the Church of Denmark began on 8 February 1973, when 'Provo Priest,' Harald Søbye, performed a wedding of a male couple, although not legally recognised, on a suggestion from a journalist at the newspaper Ekstra Bladet, which announced it as 'The World's First Gay Wedding'. On 25 February 1973, Harald Søbye performed another wedding, this time of a female couple, in a television programme. The state prosecutor investigated the cases, but concluded that the priest's use of his vestment was not illegal. Søbye had been retired in 1964 for political activism, but remained an ordained priest within the church. During the next 15 years, Søbye performed approximately 210 blessings or weddings of same-sex couples.

When Denmark introduced registered partnerships in 1989, the issue of same-sex marriage for some years received little attention. Church blessings of these partnerships slowly gained ground (see above). Later, the possibility of registered partnership, or same-sex marriage, performed by the church came under discussion. The issue was brought up in an unusual way by Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen in 2004, who said he would approve of such a change, although he claimed to speak as a private person on this issue, not as prime minister.

Views among proponents vary whether such a ceremony should be called 'marriage' or merely 'registered partnership' (registreret partnerskab), as the original same-sex civil union was called. In practice, clergy have been allowed to decide for themselves whether to perform same-sex marriages or not, similar to the right to deny remarriage of divorced persons (a policy employed by a conservative minority of priests).

Constitutionality
A further controversy is that this new practice may be against the Danish constitution; §4 of the Danish constitution states: "The Evangelical Lutheran Church shall be the Established Church of Denmark, as such, it shall be supported by the State."

§4 not only establish "Folkekirken" as the state church, but also gives certain boundaries as to what the state church is. It is forced to follow the Lutheran doctrines and if, as some critics claim, the Lutheran doctrines explicitly state that homosexuality is a sin then it is a violation of the constitution to allow gay marriages in the state church.

Gay clergy
Gay and lesbian clergy exist, and this is generally considered a strictly personal issue. Parish councils are central in selecting and employing new priests, including interviews with candidates. Once employed, parish priests are public servants and cannot be discharged except for neglect of duties, which will finally be the bishop's decision.

In 2011 a female priest serving two small island parishes was fired after controversies with the parish council of Agersø, while the neighbouring Omø supported her. She claimed to have been ousted because of her sexuality, but the parish council rejected this accusation and mentioned 'cooperation problems' as the cause. Twenty years earlier she had come out as lesbian and a practitioner of sadomasochism in a Swedish TV programme.

In 2009 a parish priest in Tingbjerg, a Copenhagen suburb, moved away from the parish to a secret address after assaults against his vicarage, his car and the parish church. The vicarage was put up for sale. According to Avisen.dk, local youths claimed they harassed him because he was openly homosexual, among other reasons. The priest himself denied this was the issue, but rather claimed the assaults were part of a general tendency in the 'crumbling district', and intensified after he spoke out in public about the local youth crime. A Sunday service held a few weeks later was attended by several prominent guests supporting the priest, including Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen, Minister for Education and Ecclesiastical Affairs Bertel Haarder, and photographer Jacob Holdt. Tingbjerg is a single-plan public housing area, marked by gang violence and youth crime, and the most criminal district of Copenhagen.

Declaration Dominus Iesus
In 2000, the Church of Denmark's ecumenical department publicly criticized the Roman Catholic declaration Dominus Iesus, which controversially used the term "ecclesial community" to refer to Protestant denominations, including Lutheran churches. The Church of Denmark argued that there is a destructive effect on ecumenical relations if one church deprives another of the right to be called a Church and that it is just as destructive as if one Christian denies another Christian the right to be called a Christian.

title: Church of Denmark


text:
Talk:Lists of books

Older discussion
I'm keen to make this real, although it seems hard to identify all the books without category tags. Anyway, the sorting order should ignore the little initial words like "A" and "The", otherwise T and A sublists are going to be extra-long. :-) Stan 00:43 19 Jul 2003 (UTC)

After noticing how people search for titles in a library catalog, I believe it's best to provide more than one link to the same book. When a book becomes so well known by its exact title (or by a shorter version of the title) people don't think about the words grammatically, and don't realize that they can/must drop the 'a', 'an' and 'the' at the beginning of the title. I would encourage listing a title such as The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn three times: under 't', and under 'a', and under 'h'. GUllman 22:21 19 Jul 2003 (UTC)

P.S. Following the format of List of people by name, if the list of one letter becomes too long, we start lists with the first two letters. If the list of titles starting with 'The' becomes too long, we start lists that start with 'The A', 'The B', etc. GUllman 22:21 19 Jul 2003 (UTC)

After thinking about it, I've decided to follow the example set in List of movies. Titles that begin with 'A', 'An' and 'The' will be alphabetized according to the second word in the title (except foreign titles like Les Miserables will still be listed twice: under 'L' and under 'M'). ... But I still think that books that are well known under more than title (such as Huckleberry Finn) should be given entries under each of those possible titles. GUllman 20:20 22 Jul 2003 (UTC)

What exactly is the point of this entry?
Well, the section heading says it all really. It's unclear to the person (like me) who stumbles across this page what is being aimed at. Surely not a list of every book ever published? Not only is it difficult to see why that would be appropriate for an encyclopaedia, but it would be an impossible task (and the list is far shorter than a genuine attempt at universaility would indicate). Yet it's not a listing of every book for which there's a Wikipedia article (because many of the books listed don't have articles), nor of every book referred to in a Wikipedia article (many are missing). In fact, going through the list, there's no apparent criterion for inclusion; it could be a list of somebody's bookshelves.

So I'm genuinely puzzled. What exactly is the point of this entry? If there is one, could it be explained on the index page? Mel Etitis ( Μελ Ετητης ) 17:49, 30 Jan 2005 (UTC)

It's just like all the other open-ended lists on Wikipedia like 'List of people', 'List of sports' or 'List of Star Wars characters'. It IS intended to be a list of all books that have Wikipedia articles; whenever someone wrote an article about a book, they should have placed a link here; if someone wrote an article about a person, they should have included a link on 'List of people'. But most people didn't, leaving only a few people to try to maintain the list. And now, there is also a category system of books by title to keep up with. At least one of these is needed to give users an overview of what is available on Wikipedia, and to give editors ideas for articles that are still needed. GUllman 23:39, 1 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Thanks; as I random about the place, I'll keep an eye open for book articles not on the list, and add them where necessary. I still wonder, though, if a short explanation couldn't be placed on the index page, if only for casual and easily perplexed visitors. I can do that it you'd like (based on your explanation to me). Mel Etitis ( Μελ Ετητης ) 23:47, 1 Feb 2005 (UTC)

List of lists
I hope extending the list so considerably will add to rather than detract from its usefulness. The main lists are still at the top. I don't see the advantage in having the list numbered, so I'm going to replace the numbers with bullets. Robina Fox 18:55, 12 May 2007 (UTC)

I love this page!
What a great idea. Now I know this page is here, I will use it again. It's such a quick way to get an idea of whether something I'm looking for is likely to be around, and if so, where. I have a cheeky suggestion though. Lists are so useful, that having a list of lists can be even more useful. Here's the cheeky suggestion -- a list of all lists of lists. ;) Alastair Haines 19:31, 12 May 2007 (UTC)
 * You asked for it. Here's the list of lists, and here's the list of all lists of lists.  (I gave the former its first major expansion under the title "Lists of articles by category", but the name has since changed.) GUllman 22:27, 14 May 2007 (UTC)

Selective lists
At the risk of stating the obvious, the selective lists section is for lists which are not comprehensive, either because they are already set (e.g. the Big Read) or depend on a vague or POV selection criterion (e.g. "important" or "classic"). Robina Fox 13:33, 14 June 2007 (UTC)

 * The only lists that I notice have POV selection criterion are List of famous books and novels, List of important children's books, and List of children's classic books. The others with a selection criterion are from calculated popularity or sales of books, or set by a well-known and authoritative person or organization.  Most of the lists (such as the main list of books) have no criteria except for having a Wikipedia article; these are valuable to Wikipedia's writers and users as an overview of which articles exist and are needed. GUllman 23:14, 14 June 2007 (UTC)

The format of the list....
Take a look at List of newspapers--222.67.204.235 (talk) 11:18, 18 May 2009 (UTC)
 * That is a list of templates - I can't see how it would work with this list. Robina Fox (talk) 11:37, 18 May 2009 (UTC)

How to Books on Wikipedia
Would be nice to have that too. --Ludvikus (talk) 19:32, 4 October 2009 (UTC)

Lede
i changed the lede, and was accurately corrected, but would like to propose another difference: per Lists of films, "This is a summary list of articles containing lists of books". i prefer to remove references to WP directly in articles, including ledes.Mercurywoodrose (talk) 16:42, 11 November 2009 (UTC)
 * Concur (per WP:SELF). -- Quiddity (talk) 21:18, 11 November 2009 (UTC)

Lists vs. bibliographies
This started with List of books about Oakland, California, with my question being: what is WP policy or consensus for lists, or bibliographies, that include many items not themselves shown to be notable, but which are, or can be, used as reference material for other articles, or for research in general. I see we have oodles of lists of books where each item is shown as notable, and a number of very impressive "Bibliography of XXX" articles which list lots of works that are themselves not notable. Are these two distinct types of lists? what are the inclusion criteria for works on a subject if we are not attempting to show their specific notability. I think my main concern is that for any subject, there is a huge number of books which mention the subject in passing at a minimum, and which have at best marginal notability within their field, let alone notability to justify a separate article here. I feel like allowing too many books of marginal or tangential content to fill up these lists waters them down and renders them useless. examples, both real and hypothetical: from the oakland list, it includes books NOT about the city of oakland. now that to me is just right out, as they say in the UK. other examples would be obscure pamphlets, vanity press works, or any works collected by simply using search strings at google or amazon and adding everything found. Oh, and if the "list of books about xxx" and "bibliography of xxx" are really the same thing, we should settle on a single form of name for them.Mercurywoodrose (talk) 23:15, 3 July 2011 (UTC)
 * Not everything mentioned in Wikipedia has to be notable in itself - that is a criterion for individual articles. "Bibliography of XXX" articles are usually created when a full bibliography would unacceptably lengthen the article on the author. Regarding your Oakland example, if a list of books about Oakland contains a book you know is not about Oakland, just remove it. A "list of books about XXX" has XXX as the subject matter; a bibliography of XXX is a list of books etc written by XXX - not the same thing. Robina Fox (talk) 12:52, 9 October 2013 (UTC)

Missing a List of novels
I wonder In which list to put a novel which doesn't fall in historical, fantasy etc, just a plain novel. Schlafes Bruder. --Gerda Arendt (talk) 11:10, 14 May 2018 (UTC)
 * I'd suggest in this case: 1992 in literature, List of fiction works made into feature films (0–9, A–C), and to add the author to List of German-language authors. --- Robina Fox (talk) 17:12, 14 May 2018 (UTC)

Publishers
I added a section for Publisher Lists as I'm working on two right now.--Jaldous1 (talk) 23:35, 14 May 2018 (UTC)

title: Talk:Lists of books