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"The physician is only allowed to think he knows it all, but the quack,
ungoverned by conscience, is permitted to know he knows it all; and with
a fertile mental field for humbuggery, truth can never successfully
compete with untruth."
- Dr. Albert Abrams
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The history of radionics begins with the discoveries of Dr. Albert Abrams
around the beginning of the 20th Century. Abrams was a respectable
physician who began to pursue his theories of diseases having specific
vibratory rates that could be detected by tapping on the patient's abdomen
or spine.
He refined his diagnostic techniques with invented devices such as the
"dynamizer." According to Martin Gardiner, in his book Fads and
Fallacies in the Name of Science:
It was a box containing an insane jungle of wires. One wire ran to an
electrical source, and another was attached to the forehead of a
healthy person. A drop of blood was obtained from the patient, on
a piece of filter paper, and placed inside the box. Abrams would then
percuss (tap) the abdomen of a healthy person, who was stripped to the
waist and always - for a reason never made too clear - facing
west. By listening to the sounds, the doctor was able to diagnose
the ills of the patient...
Not only that, but without the patient even being present, Abrams could
tell the patient's age, sex and religion. If a drop of blood from the
patient was not available, a lock of hair or even a handwriting sample
was enough (he diagnosed ills of long-dead historical personalities in
this manner).
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Dr. Abrams demonstrates his diagnostic
technique. |
After the dynamizer came the "oscilloclast" and the "reflexophone." His
disciples were never permitted to examine the wiring in the boxes, which
were rented to trained practitioners. Gardner again:
Shortly before the doctor's death, however, a committee of scientists
opened one of the magic boxes and issued a report on what they found. It
contained an ohm-meter, rheostat, condenser, and other electrical gadgets
all wired together without rhyme or reason.
Since patients did not have to be physically present to be diagnosed by
the devices, a thriving industry was created in which people could send
in blood samples and receive diagnoses through the mail. Some sceptics
took advantage of this anonymity. Blood from a rooster was sent to
Abrams, who diagnosed "malaria, cancer, diabetes, and two venereal
diseases."
Among Dr. Abrams' converts was author Upton Sinclair, who wrote that
Abrams "has made the most revolutionary discovery of this or any other age.
I venture to stake whatever reputation I ever hope to have that he has
discovered the great secret of the diagnosis and cure of all major
diseases." Further, Abrams had treated "over fifteen thousand people,
and my investigation convinces me he has cured over ninety-five percent."
Gardiner sums up Sinclair's many apologetics for Abrams as a "clinically
perfect statement of the persistence of irrational belief on the part of
a convert to a totally worthless set of theories hatched in the brain of
a brilliant paranoid." High critical praise, indeed.
Dr. Ruth Drown took things a step further, able to not only diagnose but
to cure from a distance - any distance - as long as the operator of her
Homo-Vibra Ray mechanism had a blood sample from the patient on-hand.
Not only that, but the device could create X-Ray-like pictures of the
patient remotely.
In 1950, the University of Chicago formed a committee to investigate Dr.
Drown's methods at work - she had been having remarkable success in
finding enthusiastic promoters, including... well, read between the lines
in the university's announcement:
On the face of it, the Drown claims appear to be totally unworthy of
serious consideration by anyone, least of all a university. However,
certain friends who are members of lay boards that have been of great
assistance to the university have urged that the Drown claims be
investigated so that they may be repudiated if found unworthy or adapted
to the benefit of mankind if they should prove to be worthy.
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This radiograph was made using a
blood crystal from a patient. It allegedly showed a patient's abdomen,
complete with evidence of a recent surgery. |
It wasn't even close. In her first test, Dr. Drown took six photographs
using her machine on blood samples. None were clear enough for her to
base a diagnosis on. The testing committee decided that
the film images which have intrigued Mrs. Drown and her disciples are
simple fog patterns produced by exposure of the film to white light
before it has been fixed adequately. These images are significantly
identical regardless of whether or not the film is placed in Mrs.
Drown's machine before being submitted to the highly unorthodox
processing which has been devised by her. In the numerous old films
shown us by Mrs. Drown we can see no resemblance to the anatomical
structures, appliances, bacteria, etc., that Mrs. Drown professes to see.
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Dr. Drown's radionic camera
Test two, a diagnostic test using blood samples was equally disastrous.
Healthy patients and ones with obvious medical problems were remotely
diagnosed by Dr. Drown as suffering from a motley assortment of maladies.
After badly misdiagnosing three patients, the remaining seven tests were
abandoned. According to the testing committee:
The machine is a sort of Ouija board. It is our belief that her alleged
successes rest solely on the noncritical attitude of her followers. Her
technic is to find so much trouble in so many organs that usually she
can say 'I told you so' when she registers an occasional lucky positive
guess. In these particular tests, even this luck deserted her.
Test three tested the healing powers of Dr. Drown's machines. Drown had
claimed to have treated the hemorrhaging of a traffic accident victim in
Italy by using her machine in California. She was confident she'd be able
to stop the bleeding of two lab animals from one room over. Two dogs had
their arteries perforated; two dogs bled to death; the committee report:
In the opinion of all observers, including herself, Mrs. Drown failed
completely to control or modify hemorrhage.
Spectacular failures such as these have hardly slowed the radionics
industry. Indeed, if the links in the column to the right are any
indication, radionics is going strong.
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The Mark 1 Radionic Camera
The modern radionics expert, with her thousand-dollar medical dowsing rod,
her extensive training in the subtleties of homeopathic diagnostic samples
and remote healing, her wholesale appropriation of respectable-sounding
medical terminology and trendy new-age jargon - what are we to make of
her and her practice?
It's cheap and easy to determine that the apparatus and theory of
radionics is complete bunk. The fact is, though, that as a form of faith
healing it does heal some people with remarkable success, and a
success that medical science might be unable to match with its techniques.
Medicine has long acknowledged that in order to scientifically test the
efficacy of a new medicine, for instance, it must be compared to the
effects of a
placebo
administered with equal solemnity, ritual and belief.
This is because the solemnity and ritual and belief can themselves
heal.
Establishment medicine often seems to treat this as an inconvenient fog
that makes the respectable diagnosis of physical ailments with
chemical remedies more difficult.
Faith healers, like radionics practitioners, use
placebo healing
as a technology, intuiting that to master the authoritative trappings of
a cure may heal more patients than a conservative and prudent scientific
diagnosis and treatment.
An establishment physician diagnoses depression from a checklist of
symptoms, represented in a patient's case history and in interviews with
the patient. He knows that scientific, double-blind tests have shown
that chemicals that inhibit the "reuptake" of "serotonin" can cause the
patients depression-indicative symptoms to lessen or disappear.
The radionics practitioner discovers from the patient, who describes
himself as depressed, overworked and struggling with the challenges of
raising teenagers, clues as to where disturbances in the "subtle energy
fields" that create the multidimensional interference pattern that is the
patient's body and life may be found. She knows from her training and
experience that by using her precision instrument, she can influence not
only the patient's bodily health but the very circumstances of his life
that are causing him distress.
In some patients, a placebonic cure of their love-lives or their terrible
commute or rotten landlord - or perhaps more importantly, the treatment
by a medical practitioner who agrees that these environmental irritants
are to blame (at least in part) for the problem - may lead to better
results for the patient than all the scientifically-proven treatments
of scientific medicine.
I happen to believe in the nostrums and rituals of establishment medicine,
and I have no patience for a healer who wants to clear my chakras with
tachyonic chi-crystals. But, on the other hand, an MD in a white lab coat
with a stethiscope can boggle me with equally nonsensical diagnoses and
courses of treatment, expressed in a language that I respect (even if I
don't fully understand) and have confidence in, and I'm sold.
So here's an ethical question for Dr. Reader: If you have no idea what is
wrong with a patient and don't really know how to proceed or know of no
therapy that's likely to promote healing for a particular patient - are
you honest with your patient?
Is it better to honestly confess the limitations of medical knowledge and
technique, or is it better to put your hard-earned trappings of medical
authority to good use in the "theatrapeutical" creation of a potent
placebo cure?
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Radionics on-line
More about The
Incredible Drown Case can be found in this essay from Ralph Lee Smith.
A poem called
"The Dynamizer and the Oscilloclast"
by Jack Coulehan commemorates the work of Dr. Abrams.
Glen Callender wrote about the spondylotherapy of Dr. Abrams in his
essay "Dynamize Me!"
Richard Van Vleck did a write-up on
The
Electronic Reactions of Albert Abrams for American Artifacts:
Scientific Medical & Mechanical Antiques, including several
diagrams and photos and a good historical overview of the reaction of
the scientific establishment to Abrams's theories and techniques.
The Watchtower Observer discusses
Dr. Albert
Abrams and the E.R.A. and the Jehovah's Witnesses initial enthusiasm
for radionics.
The Radionics and Dowsing
Institute can also teach you about homeopathy, supersensonics, chakra
clearing, and color therapy.
Albert Abrams, A.M.,
M.D., LL.D, F.R.M.S. was roasted by the American Medical Association
in their journal.
Learn about Eugene
Crum who not only could cure illness through radionics, but
"...administer 'Financial treatments,' by means of which money could
be put into the hands of his patients... fertilize fields to a distance
of 70 miles; kill dandelions over any particular area; and treat golf
greens as far from Indianapolis as Decatur, Illinois, so that clover
would turn brown and dry up and give the grass a chance to grow."
A 1923 paper by William Hudgings, called
"Sympathetic Vibratory
Physics - It's a Musical Universe!" is a sympathetic investigation of
the theories of Albert Abrahms, M.S., LLD., F.R.M.S. by way of a gee-whiz
look at atomic physics.
At the Moinhos
Velhos retreat in Portugal, radionics is used "to detect the various
Miasma (inherited cellular memories from our ancestors) which are the
fertile breeding ground for diseases." But don't call that lawyer!
"Although our Radionic test may have the appearance of a medical
diagnosis, we want to emphasise that this is not a medical test."
"The Large Healing Templates affect the chromosome factor which opens a
wave factor of a higher color code. This allows it to function
simultaneously with many double helixes, in many Light-time zones towards
the building of the body of Light which can work directly with multiple
physical embodiments of the Over self. Our energy conversion has been
prepared and focused through a series of interconnecting geometric
pyramidal cones of color and sound to regenerate us throughout the eons of
time transition. Sound harmonics are placed in numerical sequences in the
Large Healing Templates
which correspond to all spheres of manifestation."
The RAD 300 Nine Dial Orgone
Radionics Device with a Built-in Super Heavy Duty EPU 2200 HDS Welz Chi
Generator may run you U.S. $1,195 but it's "the most powerful
radionics device there is." ("It has the power of nine knobs.")
"Radionics is a healing art where physics and para-physics, science and
religion, meet and merge," according to
this essay
on the practice.
Radionics: At
the Crossroads of Science & Magic is the title of a page put out by
Altered States of New Zealand, which sells a
"Vibra-Tune
HVR-9 Experimental Radionic Transceiver" ("named the HVR-9 after Ruth
Drown's Homo-Vibra Ray nine dial unit and functions with the same
instructions") for NZ$995.
A page on Radionic Photography once noted that "this technology can also
photograph energy patterns, dimensional realms and even thoughts!! For
example, by simply tuning into the
cruxifiction [sic.] of Christ,
one can obtain a photograph of the event.... or even a photograph of the
thoughts of Christ or others during this event."
The article Quack
Cures and Radionic Ouija Boards discusses how the Jehovah's Witnesses
were initially enthusiastic about radionics, but later soured on the
"gadgets."
Radionics is
explained in detail by The Light Party in this essay, which notes that
"[t]he scope of Radionics in theory is unlimited; in practice it is limited
by the sensitivity, knowledge and expertise of the practitioner."
Psychic
Methods of Diagnosis and Treatment in Acupuncture and Homeopathy
includes radionic instruments, of course, but so much more besides!
Spectro-Vibratory Imaging
Radionics for Healing and Interdimensional Communications Applications
isn't just another line from the Rocky Horror Picture Show, it's exciting
news from Dr. Donald R. Beans. He gives tips of the cap to Drs. Abrams
and Drown and then talks about his new (US$825) instrument which "conforms
to all the basic tenets of radionics while offering a new paradigm based on
light, color, and crystal energetics."
"[T]he Aetherius Society's most
unique attribute is our ability to potentize such movements [as the
Harmonic Convergence] with our radionic equipment" such as a Spiritual
Energy Battery and Radiator.
The PanAmerican School
of BioEnergetic Medicine discusses magnetism and homeopathy, noting
that the fantastic results of radionics is due in part to the fact that
they "simply inverted any wave coming into the device from the patient and
since the source of the energy is the patient, once the disease energy was
nullified, no more will reach the inversion amplifiers and treatment
ceases automatically."
Learn about "a radionic symbol and rate for removing the toxic radiation
effects of barcodes on packaging" in the
Adelaide
Fountain Newsletter.
You just want to scream "control group" when you read the
Results on treatments with
Radionic Medical Devices report put out by Radiónica (check out
their Asthma Insoles).
Etherapy (US$640-950), a
program that "changes your PC into a powerful radionic instrument,"
diagnoses and cures not just people "but situations as well, by means of
wishboxes. In this way we might help the patient the comes along with a
severe headache because of the lack of success of his restaurant. The
results are frequently astonishing. For instance, in a very dry period
where the author lives, he succeded [sic.] to attract rain within 5
days."
L. Ron Hubbard invented the
E-Meter for
his Scientology leviathan - a device that shares terminology, methods,
and bogosity with the various radionics machines.
Golden Age Tours & Exhibitions "perceives its mission as setting up a
vibration within cell groups of humans to resonate with the Earth, via this
vibration, bringing about deeper integration to the local Earth/human
symbiosis. This is a new science, Geomancy, or 'Earth acupuncture.'" In
case you were curious, "[t]his is done through precise use of computerized
metaphysical models generating resonating thought forms... amplified by
radionic carrier waves."
McGurk
Electrical Services sells a line of radionic instruments such as the
"MKIV Remedy Maker" which assists in homeopathic pharmacy: "The Remedy
and it's 'Rate' are selected in the usual way but the potency is determined
by the practitioner 'tuning' into the patient and rotating the Q.L. knob
until a stiction effect is felt."
Metaphyiscal Radionics, a US$140 course from the Delphi Center, not only
restores
"the integrity of the Auric field," but includes "spirit releasement,
removal of negative implants and tracking devices [and] heals the damage
done by exposure to harmful electromagnetic fields."
Information
on Energy Levels helps to distinguish the concept of energy level from
those of vibratory frequency or potency. Also of interest is that "the
amount of energy in people can also be measured, and can be used as a
means of assessing their spiritual development (should one want to)." Well,
who wouldn't want to be able to measure whether you or your friends
are mere sub-60-unit blind materialists, or 35,000-unit Moseses. (Also
on-line are Testimonials
and References from satisfied customers).
One of the opportunities offered at the Mental & Spiritual Energy
Clearing Workshop is a demo of the Life Energy Amplifier
(US$2,900-9,980), which can amplify "the energy fields of gemstones,
tachyon cells," etc. and graft them "with its orgone/prana output." Not
only that, but you can also "release cellular memory (traumatic energy
signatures) through the use of the LEA's noble gas electrodes and its
scaler [sic.] wave output."
One page once noted ominously that "some radionics researchers have died
under mysterious circumstances associated with some as yet unknown
noxious form of energy. This would indicate that the radionic 'carrier'
might be somehow associated with the 'cold current' of free energy."
A page called Structural Links once started off by saying: "A radionics
expert once stated that radionics is part of ceremonial magic. He
considers the tuner a solidified thought form and the rates representing
agreements with the subtle nature spirits."
The Australian Skeptics have published an analysis:
Radionics, Good
for Everything.
At this Radionic
Page, you can see an animated image of how radionics works and learn
how to perform your own experiments with radionics at home: "[N]ow that
we know that there is no electronic basis to this apparatus, we can free
it from hardwiring. It now exists as an html document."
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