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It certainly SEEMS like it must be bogus. But there are lots of people who report anecdotally that it is effective. More than would seem to be accountable for by the placebo effect.
Couple days ago I heard a really interesting story about a US Army field medic named Beecher in World War II. His company was fighting at Anzio, completely cut off from supply, and he had TONS of incoming wounded, and a dwindling supply of morphine. To triage his charges, he asked them, "Solder, as you lie there, do you feel much pain?"
Something like 75% of the soldiers--men with gaping shrapnel wounds, gunshot wounds, severe burns, broken limbs, etc--reported no or minimal pain. Beecher was shocked. Prior to entering the Army, he'd run a clinic where he had frequently seen people with injuries that were of equivalent severity, and they ALL reported significant pain.
Beecher's conclusion is that the determining factor regarding pain is: context.
A soldier is shot. What goes through his mind? "Oh, damn, I'm hit. Wait... I'm still alive! If I make it, I'll get to go home. I'll be a wounded veteran--a hero! I'm going to get the Purple Heart! They'll throw me a parade!"
A shopkeeper is shot in a robbery. What goes through his mind? "Oh, damn, I've been shot. Wait... I'm still alive! Oh hell, how am I going to pay for this? My family is counting on me--how long will I be out of work? How will we ever make it?"
Beecher's assertion is that it's not the injury itself that hurts--or at least, not directly--but rather, the pain is filtered through the story that we tell ourselves about the injury.
Fundamentally, this is the theory that underlies current thinking about the placebo effect. Although nobody quite knows HOW it works, there's no doubt THAT it works. And if that's the case, I don't see the harm in there being a branch of "medicine" (I know, the term is debatable as it applies to homeopathy) that is designed to exploit that mechanism.
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