Many Americans can’t afford a visit to the doctor, but they can easily pick up a guidebook in Amazon’s “self-healing” category. For less than ten bucks, you get your hands on a copy of New Secrets of Self-Healing: Unleash the Power with Mental Tools by Roger Sarasa, which offers instructions in powerful visualizations.

“When you practice these techniques,” the back cover promises, “your body’s immune system shifts into high gear immediately and responds with immense vigor.”

The self-healing genre isn’t new, but it has multiplied in the last ten or so years. Sick people are finding it increasingly difficult to afford care, so they are turning to home remedies, alternative medicine, and self-healing practices more and more. Meanwhile, the self-publishing divisions of Amazon and Google are turning a quick profit by connecting consumers with uncredentialed authors.