Spa C came up in evidence-based medicine and pharmacology, drawn early to the strange lawless country of dietary supplements, where products need no approval before sale and the burden falls on regulators to prove harm after the fact. He learned that mislabeling and contamination are not rare accidents but common features, that some of the most trusted natural products carry real risks, and that the same few blockbuster supplements are bought by the ton on evidence that ranges from decent to nonexistent. He grew into the referee almost no one else wanted to be, cheerful about debunking, ruthless about safety, and never contemptuous of the ordinary person just trying to feel better. He came to IACS because the school's promise, to state plainly what the evidence shows and where it stops, is the entire job he had already given himself, and because the framework's respect for a well-earned closure matched his respect for a well-earned belief. He teaches appraisal as a transferable superpower, so a student never needs him again, and he is happiest when someone walks out able to read a label, spot a bad claim, and ask their pharmacist the one question that keeps them safe.
IACSInt'l Academy for Consciousness Studies