Oh, jesus. The horror.
It was a conference that made promises and required £89 to attend, and it was full of desperate, sick people.
The speaker appeared to impress the audience with numerous “cures” for cancer, including one that he claimed had an “80 per cent cure rate”. He then revealed that his friend had been miraculously cured from lung, lymph node and bone cancer with a salt used by sheep farmers.
“That’s what I need!” an elderly lady called out from the audience, her frail voice filled with excitement. “I have a lung cancer that has metastasised quite badly.”
Adrian Jones, the speaker, an Australian naturopath who has no medical qualifications, gave her a reassuring reply: “Maybe you should talk to me some time.”
Among the quack cures they were promoting was something called The Black Salve
.
The ointment, also known as drawing salve, contains sanguinarine – derived from bloodroot – and is often mixed with zinc chloride, a corrosive chemical. The paste is used on a topical area to destroy skin tissue, leaving behind a black scar which later falls off.
Video footage of the event obtained by The Telegraph shows Mr Jones telling the audience: “The immune system appears to combine with the salve to kill the cancer.”
The video also shows Mr Jones saying that the salve offered a “100 per cent guaranteed cure for any sort of skin cancer” and that a liquid version, Amazon Tonic III, provides a “70 or 80 per cent cure rate for internal cancers”.
When a man, who was recovering from throat cancer after successful radiotherapy treatment, asked if he would have been helped by treatment with black salve, Mr Jones replied: “Absolutely, absolutely.” He suggested that gargling the corrosive substance would have been the best option.
I suggest that Mr Jones gargle daily with the nasty stuff, as a preventative. To prevent him from misleading the public further.
By the way, here are the hazards of zinc chloride.
Potential Acute Health Effects: Very hazardous in case of skin contact (irritant), of eye contact (irritant), of ingestion, of inhalation. Hazardous in case of skin contact (corrosive, permeator), of eye contact (corrosive). The amount of tissue damage depends on length of contact. Eye contact can result in corneal damage or blindness. Skin contact can produce inflammation and blistering. Inhalation of dust will produce irritation to gastro-intestinal or respiratory tract, characterized by burning, sneezing and coughing. Severe overexposure can produce lung damage, choking, unconsciousness or death. Inflammation of the eye is characterized by redness, watering, and itching. Skin inflammation is characterized by itching, scaling, reddening, or, occasionally, blistering.
Potential Chronic Health Effects: CARCINOGENIC EFFECTS: Not available. MUTAGENIC EFFECTS: Classified POSSIBLE for human. Mutagenic for mammalian somatic cells. Mutagenic for bacteria and/or yeast. TERATOGENIC EFFECTS: Not available. DEVELOPMENTAL TOXICITY: Not available. The substance may be toxic to kidneys, pancreas. Repeated or prolonged exposure to the substance can produce target organs damage. Repeated exposure of the eyes to a low level of dust can produce eye irritation. Repeated skin exposure can produce local skin destruction, or dermatitis. Repeated inhalation of dust can produce varying degree of respiratory irritation or lung damage.
Right. Drink that. Apply it to your face.
Mr Jones also claimed that 92 per cent of cases of breast cancer are linked to root canal work.
These people know they are breaking the law and endangering desperate people. The advertisements for the meeting did not say where it was; they had people go to a nearby town, where they were given train tickets to take them to the semi-secret event. And then there is this:
When contacted by The Daily Telegraph, Mr Jones said: “Any and all my comments were presented with the stated and carefully worded disclaimer, in summary, that I presented such comments as a journalist, who is merely presenting what practitioners and/or lay people have said about certain matters.”
“I did not, and do not, make ‘claims’ about a topical paste that may or may not have ‘certain rates of success at treating cancers’, as you allege, and would consider such assertions as defamatory.”
Speaking with the carefully worded disclaimer that I am merely presenting the facts as reported and describing the opinion of qualified people on certain matters, Mr Jones, and all of the speakers at that “conference”, are the evil sludge of humanity, con artists exploiting people’s pain to make a buck, and doing far more harm than good. Arrest and criminal charges would be a kinder treatment than they deserve. The quotes above are taken from a video recording of the event, and he rather clearly did make those claims.
Alternative medicine kills.
Bottom right guy cracks me up:
Did someone forget to proof read this, or does ‘renounced’ actually mean something in this context?
Given that I couldn’t find any trace of him on the search engines, he certainly isn’t renown.
Sorry, I may be being blind, but is there a link to the article quoted here?
It is the alternative to medicine, if by alternative you mean the opposite of a thing.
[Jim the frog @3 : yes, it’s just below the photo at the top of the article. ]
I’m getting a bit of a Sovereign Citizen vibe from that, despite the lack of punctuation in his name. Googling his name leads to this: “Tricks and Traps of the Court”:
http://alcva.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/tricks-traps-of-court-from-carl-michael.html
Seems legit.
Moggie, he’s definitely a S.C., and he doesn’t lack for odd punctuation — check the poster image (“: Mark-kishon : Christopher”). Sad to see this drivel spreading to Britain.
The poster has the same kind of typos that early-email-era spam has, and a dark Dr Bonner type hyphenated screed at the bottom. Bizarre.
How does sovereign citizen stuff work in the UK? I thought it was based on glitches in the ratification of certain amendments to the US constitution that somehow magically invalidated the existence of the country.
Ha, why didn’t I look more closely at the poster? Yes, the guy does indeed have multiple colons, so no doubt he’s especially full of shit.
Google tells me that :Mark-kison: Christopher is part of the “sovereign citizen” movement. In the US, such “sovereigns” think that their names are trademarks when punctuated in different ways (I have no idea what it would mean in the UK, but considering that the UK has an actual sovereign, it’s probably high treason). Such “sovereigns” often think they’re exempt from income taxes and even drivers license regulations.
The colons are wrong, grammatically and logically, but they’re not accidents
That was quite a good article from the Telegraph, which is often pretty shabby when it comes to science reporting. In the comments there were a few people defending this crap. One in particular left a long screed about how dishonest scientists were (citing climate change) and including the sentence; “The phrase ‘The science is settled’ tells you all you need to know about state sponsored science.”
I responded that I had only ever seen that phrase used by non-scientists disputing scientific findings, never by actual scientists. Can anyone think of an example of a reputable working scientist using that actual phrase?
don1,
That was you? Good luck ‘debating’ an AGW denialist.
About the science is settled, there is a deleted wikipedia article about it, which mostly claims it is a rhetorical phrase used by AGW deniers (guess where your debating partner gets his talking points from?)
@10: In Canada and the UK, they’re called “Freemen” or “Freemen on the land” (the latter having to do with some crackpottery about being governed by Admiralty law instead of whatever land-lubbers have to obey — there is stuff in Kent Hovind’s pleadings about being a “ship in port”). I don’t recall what pseudo-legal hook the non-US nuts hang their crackpottery on, but the basic idea is the same: the legal “you” isn’t the same person as the flesh-and-blood you, the former is the one who owes taxes (and debts generally), and Magic Punctuation is how you tell them apart.
Well, since it pretty much comes from the Christian Identity movement, which came from the British Israelism movement, it is just a matter of it coming full circle.
Featured on the poster:
Jim Humble, who apparently is so humble that he just bothered to show up and not actually be a speaker himself (why that entitles him to a spot on the poster is one of the mysteries of life itself I guess), but is not so humble as to describe himself as Archbishop Jim Humble of something called Genesis II Church of Health & Healing and whose claim to fame is a ‘miracle cure‘ which is basically bleach. Taken orally. Why this guy is not in jail is anyone’s guess.
Mark Kishon Christopher: a sovereign citizen, albeit a UK one, which makes things rather weirder (as stated above, most SovCit beliefs centre around the constitution of the US, which has nothing to do with the UK). Also a “Reverend Mark Kishon Christopher of the Genesis II Church of Health and Healing” and a pusher of the same bleach-drinking scam, so appears to be an accomplice of the above criminal Humble. Also dumb enough to include what appears to be his thumbprint to the poster.
Adrian Jones: appears to be more of a generic Australian woomeister (although meister might be giving him a buit too much credit) who pushes black salve.
Susanne Jager: seems to be a nobody. Pushing some quack remedies.
Robert Verkerk: now here is a more dangerous individual. Head of the Alliance for Natural Health, who indeed lobby for all kinds of woo. This bit should tell you all you need to know about this con artist:
This guy has indeed legitimate degrees form legitimate universities. Apparently, he didn’t retain any knowledge about what science is.
Dirk Schrader: my joy of this day is linked to an image of this guy bravely standing up and “renouncing” his occupation as veterinarian. So I go with, not a typo :)
Eamon Knight,
Too many links ate up my comment, but one of the links pointed to a site with slightly more explanation. Apparently “British Colon” thinks the UPU own all infrastructure or some such, and also pays the salaries of all judges. Doesn’t make sense? Of course not.
Markbuchacolons is apparently using another dodge some of the Sovereign Citizens et al. like to use, claiming to be a priest/minister etc. They claim that laws don’t apply to them since pretty much anything they’re doing is church business, like owning and driving a vehicle.
Super sweet! I might get claws coming out of my hands like Wolverine if I eat this stuff
I looked up the “honored quest (not speaker)” Jim Humble (MMS). MMS stands for “Miracle Mineral Supplement” which Wikipedia describes as “a toxic solution of 28% sodium chlorite in distilled water.” The term was coined by Humble in his book, a favored way to make bucks with cure-alls. It’s been banned in Canada and is considered dangerous. Perhaps Mr. Humble couldn’t speak for a reason.
The woman purports to be a pain relief therapist “& Egoscue & Scenar,” which are specific pain relief scams. Egoscue refers to Pete Egoscue who has a book (see) titled Pain Free: A Revolutionary Method for Stopping Chronic Pain and their website claims they have 25 clinics worldwide. The German Wikipedia describes Egoscue as “ein US-amerikanischer Buchautor und Anbieter von Gesundheitsdienstleistungen.” Nothing in the English Wikipedia. From pictures on the website it looks like postural integration and basic physical therapy…probably the least harmful treatment in-and-of itself except for taking people’s money by offering false hopes of pain relief when perhaps you need a tumor removed.
Scenar or Skenar is an acronym for “Self-Controlled Energy Neuro-Adaptive Regulator (or Regulation)”. It’s an “adaptive electrical stimulator” device, apparently developed in Russia. I assume this is basically a vibrator and certainly not something that can “talk to the body,” “hear the body,” or “recognize the body’s energy resources” as one website describes it. These devices sell on Amazon for $400-$500, which appropriate disclaimers. One comment on Amazon says the device uses “Russian” batteries that are not standard.
As always, let the buyer beware.
Interesting to see that Double-colon Miller is a Triple-colon Federal Judge now.
So, it’s mutagenic, then. Most of our cells, not counting gut bacteria, are mammalian somatic cells, and our DNA repair apparatus is hardly different from that of yeast.
@robro #19:
Got to be careful with those Russian batteries…
:-o
That’s not bleach.
That’s worse than bleach.
Bleach is hypochlorite. Chlorite has two oxygen atoms per ion instead of just one. It oxidizes harder. It’s more corrosive.
“I am the terror that flaps in the night. I am the batteries that are not included. I am Darkwing Duck.”
#22- I believe chlorite is actually a weaker oxidizing agent than hypochlorite; hypochlorite is good for oxidizing alcohols to ketones and acids, whereas chlorite doesn’t work for that. (Hmmmm…..the CRC assures me that chlorite is slightly better than hypochlorite in acidic solution, and than hypochlorite is stronger in basic solution…either way, the difference is about 0.1 V.)
don1 (#11): Can anyone think of an example of a reputable working scientist using that actual phrase?
I don’t have a specific example, but I’m sure the phrase is used often by scientists. The thing is, there are two ways of defining it. The scientist assumes it has a provisional status; it means something like “We have this phenomenon pretty well figured out.” A contrarian, on the other hand, will take it to mean that the scientist is saying everything has been worked out down to the last detail. Thus, if the contrarian can point to the tiniest discrepancy, he thinks he’s demolished the scientist’s entire argument.
It’s like the opposite of how the word “theory” is treated. To scientists, a theory describes a well-supported body of knowledge. Contrarians think it means “opinion” or “guess.”
I just can’t read that headline without mentally adding “IT’S RAINING MEN”.
OK, I admit I am not fluent in Woo.
“For-our-private-congress-is-with-our-claim-of-knowledge-of-purging-of-the-foul-from-our-bodies-and-minds-is-the-with-authority-of-men-and-women-with-the-guardianship-of-the…”
Does this have any rational translation to English or was it meant to be just a string of random words?
…precious bodily fluids…
azpaul3, that is “quantum-language-parse-syntax-grammar”, popularised by the David Wynn Miller mentioned there, another sovereign citizen crank. Apparently it’s for more than just tax evasion: his wikipedia page says that he claims this form of writing could end war! It’s pure cargo cult stuff. My guess: Mr Colon, having observed that legal documents are often written in a rather impenetrable language, thinks that a copyright notice written in Miller-speak will operate like a magical cheat code in any subsequent court case which cites the poster.
Interesting. Wikipedia doesn’t really help. :-( It does say, though, that sodium hypochlorite powder explodes when struck with a greasy hammer, and confirms that chlorite is not nice.
Maybe that explains a few things. Chlorous acid cannot be concentrated very high without disproportionating.
Moggie wrote:
I think you mean, : Federal Judge : David-wynn : Miller : or perhaps just DAVID WYNN MILLER. I just don’t know which version has the more powerful magical powers.
@28 :Moggie:
thank-you-most-of-the-explanation-which-you-gave-for
now-autonomous-tax-free-individual-I-am-from-safe-of-the-for-the-which-of-now-have-you-poison
:azpaul:3: