WEBVTT - Dr. Albert Abrams and His Oscilloclast: Charlatan or Visionary 0:00:02.160 --> 0:00:05.800 Welcome to Criminalia, a production of Shonda Land Audio in 0:00:05.880 --> 0:00:16.000 partnership with I Heart Radio. Neither fury of tongue nor 0:00:16.120 --> 0:00:19.799 truculence of pen can discredit my observations, which are capable 0:00:19.840 --> 0:00:23.800 of analysis and demonstration. A man named Dr Albert Abrams 0:00:23.800 --> 0:00:27.960 once said about his work. His medical contemporaries once considered 0:00:28.000 --> 0:00:32.000 him to be quote a clever, money mad neuropath, according 0:00:32.040 --> 0:00:35.000 to the Jewish Museum of the American West. But what 0:00:35.159 --> 0:00:38.680 makes Abrams a bit different than other con artists will 0:00:38.680 --> 0:00:41.760 meet this season is that though he was dismissed within 0:00:41.800 --> 0:00:45.440 the medical community for quackery and fraud in his time, 0:00:45.880 --> 0:00:49.800 he probably wasn't really a guy running a con, at 0:00:49.880 --> 0:00:54.400 least not on purpose. He truly believed he was revolutionizing 0:00:54.400 --> 0:00:57.920 the way physicians diagnosed their patients, and today he's considered 0:00:57.960 --> 0:01:01.320 the father of radionics. Well, come to Criminalia. I'm Maria 0:01:01.320 --> 0:01:05.400 Tramarqui and I'm Holly Fry, So let's get to know 0:01:05.480 --> 0:01:08.600 a little about Albert Abrams. He was born in San 0:01:08.640 --> 0:01:12.520 Francisco in eighteen sixty three. He earned his medical degree 0:01:12.560 --> 0:01:16.520 from the University of Heidelberg, Germany's oldest university, in eight 0:01:17.080 --> 0:01:21.520 two and took additional graduate courses in London, Berlin, Vienna, 0:01:21.600 --> 0:01:25.880 and Paris. In eighty three, he returned to San Francisco 0:01:25.959 --> 0:01:29.440 to open his own practice. He's noted in more than 0:01:29.480 --> 0:01:34.399 one written instance as having quote exceptional intelligence and productivity, 0:01:34.440 --> 0:01:37.360 and he quickly built up a large and prosperous practice 0:01:37.360 --> 0:01:41.760 in the city. Abrams, though, diagnosed his patients through an 0:01:41.840 --> 0:01:46.880 unconventional method. He mapped out various areas of residence and 0:01:47.000 --> 0:01:51.360 dullness in the human body through controlled percussion, or, to 0:01:51.400 --> 0:01:54.040 put it a lot more simply, he would tap and listen. 0:01:55.280 --> 0:01:58.960 His solid reputation as a physician afforded him opportunities to 0:01:59.080 --> 0:02:02.280 lecture on an number of medical subjects, and that led 0:02:02.400 --> 0:02:05.160 him to a position as a professor of pathology at 0:02:05.200 --> 0:02:10.000 Cooper Medical College from eighteen ninety three to eight. During 0:02:10.120 --> 0:02:13.200 his tenure there, Cooper Medical College referred to him as 0:02:13.280 --> 0:02:19.560 quote our talented young professor. Abrams, though abruptly submitted his 0:02:19.639 --> 0:02:24.160 resignation on May sixteenth. It was accepted by the Board 0:02:24.160 --> 0:02:27.320 of Directors of the college on November fifteenth that year, but, 0:02:27.919 --> 0:02:31.840 as medical historians have noted, it was curiously received and 0:02:31.880 --> 0:02:36.280 approved without the usual expressions of appreciation for services during 0:02:36.320 --> 0:02:38.840 his time at the school. There was no thank you, 0:02:39.080 --> 0:02:42.519 There was no good luck. It's generally believed among experts 0:02:42.560 --> 0:02:44.720 that due to the nature of his work, he was 0:02:44.840 --> 0:02:49.680 asked to resign his position. Abrams may have had a 0:02:49.720 --> 0:02:53.400 good reputation among his patients, but his work was considered 0:02:53.720 --> 0:02:58.280 very controversial in the medical community. A decade of experiments 0:02:58.320 --> 0:03:02.360 and research led Abrams to ellop to basic theories. The first, 0:03:03.280 --> 0:03:07.840 all matter radiates energy, and each element or compounds radiations 0:03:08.320 --> 0:03:12.360 differ from the radiation emitted by any other element or compound. 0:03:12.960 --> 0:03:16.320 The characteristics of each of those radiations are dependent upon 0:03:16.360 --> 0:03:21.079 the molecular constituents of whatever material is involved. So, for instance, 0:03:21.160 --> 0:03:24.800 take organic compounds. They belong to one of four classes 0:03:24.840 --> 0:03:31.079 of molecules, carbohydrates, lipids, proteins, and nucleic acids. Every single 0:03:31.160 --> 0:03:34.720 molecule would have a unique energy I D. And his 0:03:34.800 --> 0:03:38.720 second theory goes like this, The radiations emitted by different 0:03:38.760 --> 0:03:42.160 types of matter of a living organism can be detected, 0:03:42.480 --> 0:03:45.920 can be differentiated, and can be measured by a trained 0:03:45.960 --> 0:03:51.360 practitioner using relatively simple instruments. The whole concept was based 0:03:51.400 --> 0:03:53.720 on the idea that all of us humans and all 0:03:53.840 --> 0:03:58.160 other life on Earth are part of the planet's electromagnetic field, 0:03:58.520 --> 0:04:02.080 and that each living being has its own unique identity 0:04:02.200 --> 0:04:08.119 or electromagnetic frequency. In the early nineteen hundreds, Abrams developed 0:04:08.120 --> 0:04:11.440 and wrote about a physical treatment called spondul the therapy 0:04:11.560 --> 0:04:16.080 or spinal reflexology, a kind of combination of chiropractic and 0:04:16.160 --> 0:04:21.880 osteopathic practices that used controlled percussion, so either that would 0:04:21.920 --> 0:04:25.120 be a practitioner's hand or a plex or instrument to 0:04:25.240 --> 0:04:29.680 perform reflex stimulation. It was also around this time Abrams 0:04:29.680 --> 0:04:32.840 began to expand on his two theories and began to 0:04:32.880 --> 0:04:37.200 claim he could detect what he called energy frequencies in 0:04:37.360 --> 0:04:41.440 his patient's bodies. The idea here was that a healthy 0:04:41.520 --> 0:04:45.280 person's body would have certain energy frequencies moving through it 0:04:45.360 --> 0:04:49.559 that define it as a healthy body. An unhealthy body, 0:04:49.640 --> 0:04:55.040 in comparison, would develop other different or distorted energy frequencies. 0:04:55.880 --> 0:04:59.320 By considering each organ and tissue to have its own vibration, 0:04:59.680 --> 0:05:04.080 when vibration change, it signaled disease was developing. He said 0:05:04.120 --> 0:05:07.360 he could cure people by, as he called it, balancing 0:05:07.520 --> 0:05:13.240 discordant frequencies. Abram's continued to expand his theories on how 0:05:13.240 --> 0:05:17.320 the body emits electromagnetic radiation. He began to claim that 0:05:17.480 --> 0:05:22.000 disease could be diagnosed and treated by applying electromagnetic radiation 0:05:22.520 --> 0:05:27.200 to the human body through an electrically powered device, and he, 0:05:27.279 --> 0:05:29.599 as we'll talk about in a moment, went on to 0:05:29.760 --> 0:05:34.640 invent those devices. His assumption was that external application of 0:05:34.640 --> 0:05:39.280 electromagnetic energy could cure the body's energy field and in 0:05:39.400 --> 0:05:44.800 turn cure the patient's disease. His experiments and discoveries went 0:05:44.839 --> 0:05:49.800 on to be known as radionics. Radionics is also called 0:05:49.920 --> 0:05:55.440 electromagnetic therapy and the Abrams method. Electromagnetic therapy is a 0:05:55.480 --> 0:05:58.240 form of energy medicine, and the idea has been used 0:05:58.279 --> 0:06:03.960 in medical treatments for thousands of years. In traditional Chinese medicine, 0:06:04.000 --> 0:06:07.680 for example, magnetic energy has been used on acupuncture points. 0:06:08.600 --> 0:06:12.120 Minerals called load stones were used to treat many health 0:06:12.160 --> 0:06:15.040 conditions in the tenth and eleventh centuries because of their 0:06:15.120 --> 0:06:20.600 natural magnetic qualities. The biological effects of low frequency electromagnetic 0:06:20.680 --> 0:06:23.680 radiation on the human body have been studied since the 0:06:23.720 --> 0:06:30.080 sixteenth century, but electromagnetic therapies have never been mainstream. Today's 0:06:30.120 --> 0:06:32.279 research in the field is based on the belief that 0:06:32.480 --> 0:06:35.440 every cell in the human body contains its own unique 0:06:35.440 --> 0:06:39.120 electromagnetic energy, and that the unique energy wave can be 0:06:39.200 --> 0:06:43.480 detected before any physical symptoms of disease appear. Sounds familiar, right, 0:06:43.520 --> 0:06:47.560 and that's because it's basically the theory Abrams was working on. 0:06:48.240 --> 0:06:50.919 But still today there's no consensus on whether the effects 0:06:50.960 --> 0:06:56.159 are physiologically significant. We're going to take a break for 0:06:56.160 --> 0:06:59.120 a word from our sponsor. When we return, we'll talk 0:06:59.200 --> 0:07:03.200 more about how Abrams went from well liked professor to 0:07:03.320 --> 0:07:21.360 facing accusations that he wasn't even a real doctor. Welcome 0:07:21.360 --> 0:07:25.680 back to Criminalia. Abraham's caught a lot of crap from 0:07:25.680 --> 0:07:30.520 his peers, and although that probably felt terrible, it doesn't 0:07:30.520 --> 0:07:33.640 seem to have slowed him down. Let's talk about his inventions. 0:07:35.120 --> 0:07:38.320 During the nineteenth century. At the time Abrahams was beginning 0:07:38.360 --> 0:07:41.800 his practice, some pretty big advancements were being made in 0:07:41.840 --> 0:07:46.720 medical equipment. Magnetic insuls were invented, as were new tools 0:07:46.760 --> 0:07:50.560 such as the stethoscope, laring scope, the medical thermometer, and 0:07:50.640 --> 0:07:54.120 the X ray. Abrams did not invent the X ray, 0:07:54.200 --> 0:07:57.920 but he demonstrated the value of it in cardiac diagnosis 0:07:57.960 --> 0:08:04.000 in but shortly after by the end of the eighteen nineties, Abrams' 0:08:04.240 --> 0:08:08.360 colleagues began to point out and greatly discussed what they 0:08:08.400 --> 0:08:14.520 considered to be his growing eccentricities. Abrams was experimenting with 0:08:14.640 --> 0:08:18.080 the increasing popularity of using electricity and using it in 0:08:18.240 --> 0:08:23.040 medical practice with his own magnetic and electrical inventions, and 0:08:23.080 --> 0:08:28.200 that right there was unheard of. He used diagnostic data 0:08:28.280 --> 0:08:30.800 gathered through the use of his devices, of which he 0:08:30.840 --> 0:08:35.000 built about a dozen. That data was analyzed by Abrams 0:08:35.120 --> 0:08:39.000 or by a trained practitioner who detected and measured abnormal 0:08:39.040 --> 0:08:41.760 frequencies while looking for changes in the energy and body 0:08:41.880 --> 0:08:45.720 of the patient, radiations that could be caused by, say, 0:08:45.760 --> 0:08:49.880 a tumor. Operators used abrams as devices to determine the 0:08:49.920 --> 0:08:52.600 location of the disease in the body, and some devices 0:08:52.679 --> 0:08:55.679 also suggested which remedy should be prescribed, such as a 0:08:55.760 --> 0:08:59.679 specific vitamin. His devices, as well as those invented by 0:08:59.679 --> 0:09:03.120 practic sisuers who came after him, were later updated with 0:09:03.160 --> 0:09:07.120 the capability to broadcast, as he called it, forms of 0:09:07.200 --> 0:09:11.160 low energy to treat, for instance, the frequencies of remote patients. 0:09:12.400 --> 0:09:15.480 After nineteen o four, his colleagues began to consider his 0:09:15.559 --> 0:09:18.160 ideas to be more like the writings of a quack 0:09:18.360 --> 0:09:22.160 or a charlatan than of a knowledgeable physician. His peers 0:09:22.200 --> 0:09:24.880 began to claim his work indicated he didn't have any 0:09:25.040 --> 0:09:28.840 understanding of how the human body works, and despite his 0:09:28.880 --> 0:09:34.320 medical degree, that he was not a real doctor. Between 0:09:34.640 --> 0:09:38.240 eighteen ninety one to nineteen twenty three, so pretty wide 0:09:38.280 --> 0:09:42.880 swath of time, Abrahams authored several books on medicinal techniques 0:09:42.880 --> 0:09:46.120 and related subjects. He was a Fellow of the Royal 0:09:46.160 --> 0:09:50.040 Medical Society of London, the Honorary President of the American 0:09:50.080 --> 0:09:54.360 Association for the Study of Spondlo Therapy, and President of 0:09:54.400 --> 0:10:00.600 the American Society of Psychophysical Research. In ninety two, he quote, 0:10:00.840 --> 0:10:04.880 disease is an aberration of the electron structure, a change 0:10:04.920 --> 0:10:08.960 in the otherwise uniform flow of electrons constituting the field 0:10:08.960 --> 0:10:13.560 of energy which is radiated from the physical organism. Abrams, 0:10:13.640 --> 0:10:18.200 as we've said, believed he could diagnose diseases such as cancer, syphilis, 0:10:18.240 --> 0:10:23.560 and tuberculosis through electromagnetic analysis rather than relying on traditional 0:10:23.600 --> 0:10:28.520 methods stethoscopes and jars of leeches and the like. He 0:10:28.679 --> 0:10:31.640 promoted his ideas through lectures he gave across the United 0:10:31.640 --> 0:10:34.319 States and Europe, as well as through his own writings 0:10:34.360 --> 0:10:38.959 and in newspaper advertisements. He also established clinics in cities 0:10:39.000 --> 0:10:41.520 in both the United States and Europe, and in London, 0:10:41.559 --> 0:10:45.559 for instance, his practice featured an electric sign in Trafalgar Square. 0:10:46.320 --> 0:10:50.200 These clinics, they were a huge success and he made 0:10:50.240 --> 0:10:52.920 a good bit of money from them. Though the medical 0:10:52.960 --> 0:10:56.400 theories on which those clinics operated were rejected by abrams 0:10:56.480 --> 0:10:59.640 peers in the medical community, the public seemed to see 0:10:59.640 --> 0:11:03.600 things differently. He continued to lecture, and his lectures continued 0:11:03.679 --> 0:11:08.120 to attract curious audiences. He received favorable mentions by well 0:11:08.160 --> 0:11:11.760 known figures outside of the medical community, including up In Sinclair, 0:11:12.000 --> 0:11:14.439 author of the well known novel The Jungle, which was 0:11:14.480 --> 0:11:18.520 an expose of the appalling conditions inside the meat packing industry. 0:11:20.000 --> 0:11:24.400 Abrams expanded on the idea that different diseases caused tissues 0:11:24.440 --> 0:11:29.000 to vibrate at different frequencies with the development of various instruments. 0:11:29.480 --> 0:11:32.840 We've hinted at these devices already, so let's actually talk 0:11:32.880 --> 0:11:37.400 about them. One of his first inventions was called the Reflexiphone. 0:11:38.000 --> 0:11:41.800 Was this black box with instrumentation used to measure those 0:11:41.800 --> 0:11:46.480 different vibrations. He also experimented with magnets, and he wrote 0:11:46.520 --> 0:11:49.360 about the idea of using them to cure health issues 0:11:49.679 --> 0:11:54.640 such as gastro intestinal ailments. His next invention was basically 0:11:54.679 --> 0:11:59.400 an updated reflexiphone. The dynamizer, as he called it, was 0:11:59.440 --> 0:12:02.760 basically another black box with plenty of knobs and dials 0:12:02.760 --> 0:12:07.280 and wires, and Abrams claimed that he could diagnose the sex, race, 0:12:07.440 --> 0:12:12.400 and disease of the patient, including the patient's religion, and 0:12:12.520 --> 0:12:16.560 that included patients he had never met. So to do so, 0:12:16.679 --> 0:12:21.400 he just required a single drop of blood. Oh but wait, 0:12:21.520 --> 0:12:26.320 not so fast. That drop of blood needed to be 0:12:26.400 --> 0:12:31.319 taken while the patient was facing west very important instructions. 0:12:32.080 --> 0:12:34.360 The blood was then placed on a piece of paper 0:12:34.480 --> 0:12:39.080 and mailed to him for evaluation. As Abram's described it, 0:12:39.160 --> 0:12:42.480 he would then place the paper into the dynamizer, which 0:12:42.520 --> 0:12:45.880 would feed information into other machines he had invented for 0:12:46.040 --> 0:12:49.000 this process. Those other machines were known as the rio 0:12:49.080 --> 0:12:53.920 stat dynamizer, the vibratory rate riostat, and the measuring riostat. 0:12:54.720 --> 0:12:58.120 He aimed for his machines to not only suggest treatment, 0:12:58.440 --> 0:13:01.720 but transfer medication to those who needed it, such as 0:13:01.760 --> 0:13:06.320 prescribing quinine to treat patients suffering from malaria without ever 0:13:06.400 --> 0:13:11.040 needing to see that patient in person. Abram's also invented 0:13:11.040 --> 0:13:14.280 a device he called the asilic last, working with the 0:13:14.360 --> 0:13:17.320 idea that diseases had their own vibrations that could be 0:13:17.360 --> 0:13:21.120 picked up from an electrical device. This instrument was as 0:13:21.160 --> 0:13:26.240 previous devices designed to identify energy waves. The asilic last 0:13:26.280 --> 0:13:32.200 was an electrical instrument used for generating oscillations. That sounds confusing, probably, 0:13:32.240 --> 0:13:35.040 but think of it like this. Think of it like 0:13:35.120 --> 0:13:39.440 how a pendulum swings, and how that looks. It was 0:13:39.600 --> 0:13:44.000 used to reverse diseased frequencies by aiming those frequencies back 0:13:44.280 --> 0:13:46.400 at the affected tissue, so you see how that swing 0:13:46.520 --> 0:13:50.200 is happening. In doing so, Abrams believed he could remove 0:13:50.240 --> 0:13:54.720 disease from that tissue. The reaction was something Abram's called 0:13:54.760 --> 0:13:59.440 the electronic reaction of Abram's simplified as e r A. 0:13:59.440 --> 0:14:03.560 Abram's kept detailed notes of the sounds different diseases made, 0:14:03.600 --> 0:14:07.120 and he calculated the resistance in olms of a range 0:14:07.120 --> 0:14:10.320 of diseases and disorders. These were known in his work 0:14:10.320 --> 0:14:13.920 as radionic rates and ohm. Just to brush up on 0:14:13.960 --> 0:14:18.200 our terminology, here is a measurement of electrical resistance simple 0:14:18.240 --> 0:14:23.240 as that. The original Acila class was a long rectangular 0:14:23.320 --> 0:14:27.880 black box with three rotary switches for adjusting radionic rates, 0:14:27.920 --> 0:14:33.080 a switch button, lightbulb, and four binding terminal posts. It, 0:14:33.280 --> 0:14:35.880 along with his other inventions, have since become known as 0:14:35.920 --> 0:14:41.800 black boxes, while yes, they were literally black boxes. In 0:14:41.920 --> 0:14:45.240 scientific terminology, a black box is a device, or a 0:14:45.280 --> 0:14:50.200 system or an object that produces useful information without revealing 0:14:50.400 --> 0:14:56.320 any information about its internal workings. In Abrahams promoted his 0:14:56.400 --> 0:14:58.840 new e r RA system with a new book titled 0:14:59.200 --> 0:15:04.000 New Concepts in Diagnosis and Treatment, and by more than 0:15:04.040 --> 0:15:07.960 three thousand doctors were using his e r A technology. 0:15:09.040 --> 0:15:12.800 But things weren't actually great. We're going to take a 0:15:12.840 --> 0:15:15.280 break for a word from our sponsor, and when we return, 0:15:15.760 --> 0:15:18.960 we'll talk about how the medical community began to target 0:15:19.000 --> 0:15:36.800 Abrams and his work. Welcome back to Criminalia. The end 0:15:36.840 --> 0:15:40.640 of Abram's career brought both his downfall as well as 0:15:40.680 --> 0:15:44.920 a rise of followers also seeking to understand electromagnetic therapy, 0:15:45.440 --> 0:15:49.040 and a lot of that actually happened after his death 0:15:50.520 --> 0:15:55.200 in ninety two. The British Royal Society of Medicine published 0:15:55.200 --> 0:15:58.760 an unfavorable report on Abrams as well as his theories 0:15:58.800 --> 0:16:01.720 and his practices, and as you may imagine, it had 0:16:01.800 --> 0:16:05.960 negative consequences on his work. It wasn't until the nineteen 0:16:06.040 --> 0:16:10.840 thirties when Dr Ruth Drowned, another pioneer in electromagnetic therapy 0:16:11.040 --> 0:16:14.560 picked up where Abram's left off, and it's Dr drown 0:16:14.680 --> 0:16:17.000 who renamed the e r A system to the more 0:16:17.040 --> 0:16:21.320 common term radionics. Abrams's work went on to find a 0:16:21.360 --> 0:16:26.040 home with George de Laire, Galen, Heronymous, Malcolm Ray, David Tansley, 0:16:26.120 --> 0:16:30.000 Peter Kelly, and others, including the umbrella of the American 0:16:30.000 --> 0:16:35.240 Association for Medico Physical Research today that is, medical physical Research. 0:16:36.200 --> 0:16:40.720 Although considered a joke by those practicing traditional medicine, Abrams 0:16:40.840 --> 0:16:44.520 was not alone in this field of study. Russian born 0:16:44.640 --> 0:16:49.280 scientists and engineer George Lakowski developed the radio cellulo oscillator 0:16:49.320 --> 0:16:53.160 in the nineteen twenties. His theory was that every living 0:16:53.320 --> 0:16:58.560 human being radiates and amidst electromagnetic frequencies. He believed living 0:16:58.600 --> 0:17:02.240 beings had what he called quote a dynamic equilibrium of 0:17:02.280 --> 0:17:06.399 all cells, and that the harmony of multiple radiations reacted 0:17:06.600 --> 0:17:10.840 upon one another. Lakowsky also believed that disease in the 0:17:10.880 --> 0:17:15.240 body was the result of an oscillatory disequilibrium of a cell. 0:17:15.840 --> 0:17:19.520 He described that as the struggle between microbic radiation and 0:17:19.680 --> 0:17:24.960 cellular radiation. So then, under his theory, if microbic radiation 0:17:25.040 --> 0:17:30.040 became dominant, disease was present, but if cellular radiation was dominant, 0:17:30.080 --> 0:17:34.080 then the body was healthy. He, just like Abrams, was 0:17:34.119 --> 0:17:38.720 a controversial and antagonized figure in his time, despite having 0:17:38.720 --> 0:17:41.679 actually had a small amount of success with his treatments. 0:17:42.600 --> 0:17:47.280 Also in nineties, American scientist doctor Royal Raymond Rife invented 0:17:47.320 --> 0:17:49.800 the Rife Machine, a device built on the work of 0:17:49.840 --> 0:17:53.639 Abram's and the theory that's sending an electrical impulse identical 0:17:53.760 --> 0:17:58.840 to the cell's unique electromagnetic frequency could kill cancerous cells. 0:17:58.880 --> 0:18:02.919 The instrument, like Abram's inventions, I mean, it was considered 0:18:02.920 --> 0:18:04.800 a bunch of whui in the nineteen twenties, but when 0:18:04.800 --> 0:18:08.719 it was tested on sixteen terminal cancer patients in nineteen 0:18:08.800 --> 0:18:14.040 thirty four, Rife claimed his machine cured fourteen of those patients. 0:18:14.600 --> 0:18:17.679 Two remaining were also cured, but it was noted they 0:18:17.720 --> 0:18:22.760 had also undergone some other type of treatment as well. Today, 0:18:22.880 --> 0:18:25.720 the Rife machine is used by some to help treat 0:18:25.760 --> 0:18:29.359 conditions like lyme disease, and newer studies suggest that certain 0:18:29.359 --> 0:18:35.040 types of electromagnetic waves may affect tumor growth. The American 0:18:35.040 --> 0:18:40.680 Medical Association joined Abrams's peers to discredit his theories. They 0:18:40.720 --> 0:18:45.359 called him quote the dean of twentieth century Charlatan's about 0:18:45.400 --> 0:18:49.240 his dynamizer. They wrote, quote, the mysterious energy from the 0:18:49.240 --> 0:18:53.480 patient's blood sample or other specimen passes from the subject's 0:18:53.520 --> 0:18:58.240 forehead to the subject's abdomen. Where this mysterious electronic emanation 0:18:58.640 --> 0:19:01.880 sets up certain changes is in the hollow organs, which 0:19:01.920 --> 0:19:06.720 may be detected by percussing the subject's abdomen. Dr Abram's 0:19:06.720 --> 0:19:09.440 claims to be able to tell by this means whether 0:19:09.480 --> 0:19:15.400 the individual whose blood is being tested is suffering from syphilis, sarcoma, carcinoma, 0:19:15.560 --> 0:19:21.440 typhoid fever, malaria, gonorrhea, or tuberculosis, and if so, suffering 0:19:21.880 --> 0:19:25.600 where the diseased area is located. He can also diagnose 0:19:25.640 --> 0:19:29.600 pregnancy and the paternity of the fetus by the same method. 0:19:31.040 --> 0:19:34.359 The A m A. In an attempt to discredit Abrams 0:19:34.400 --> 0:19:39.199 and his inventions, also wrote quote. The absurdity of his 0:19:39.320 --> 0:19:42.879 devices was demonstrated at various times by sending some of 0:19:42.960 --> 0:19:47.040 Abram's disciples specimens of blood purported to be from patients 0:19:47.040 --> 0:19:51.639 who were ill, but we're actually taken from animals. A 0:19:51.680 --> 0:19:55.480 given example was of a sheep. One sheep was diagnosed 0:19:55.520 --> 0:19:59.200 with hereditary syphilis, which a helpful e r A practitioner 0:19:59.320 --> 0:20:03.120 offered to or for two hundred and fifty dollars. Chickens 0:20:03.160 --> 0:20:06.320 were also diagnosed with syphilis, both from samples of their 0:20:06.320 --> 0:20:10.760 blood as well as samples of red ink. The foul 0:20:10.880 --> 0:20:14.000 were also offered a cure for two and fifty dollars. 0:20:14.040 --> 0:20:17.480 So this was not the best show here for Abrams. 0:20:18.720 --> 0:20:23.320 Abrams's inventions were sold to operators, and some operators began 0:20:23.400 --> 0:20:26.359 claiming that they could make a medical diagnosis from a 0:20:26.400 --> 0:20:30.119 person's signature, and it didn't matter whether that person was 0:20:30.200 --> 0:20:33.960 living or dead. Of this, the A. M a replied quote. 0:20:34.040 --> 0:20:37.760 When the autograph of Samuel Peeps was tested, this famous 0:20:37.800 --> 0:20:41.879 diarist was alleged to have suffered from congenital syphilis. The 0:20:41.920 --> 0:20:46.200 autographs of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Edgar Allan Poe gave 0:20:46.280 --> 0:20:50.720 the same result. It wasn't just the A m A 0:20:51.000 --> 0:20:55.280 that was anti Abrams and anti electromagnetic theory. The period 0:20:55.359 --> 0:20:59.480 viewed medical journal The Lancet also reported that blood from 0:20:59.600 --> 0:21:03.320 healthy chickens sent to your A practitioners had been diagnosed 0:21:03.400 --> 0:21:08.840 with major diseases. Scientific American and the American Medical Association 0:21:08.920 --> 0:21:13.000 spent ten months and thirty thousand dollars investigating Abram's E 0:21:13.160 --> 0:21:18.560 r A devices. It's panel of scientists concluded quote analyzed 0:21:18.600 --> 0:21:22.440 in the cold light of scientific knowledge, the entire Abrams 0:21:22.440 --> 0:21:27.080 matter is the height of absurdity. The so called electronic 0:21:27.160 --> 0:21:32.000 reactions of Abrams do not exist, at least objectively. They 0:21:32.040 --> 0:21:36.159 are merely products of the Abrams practitioner's mind. At best, 0:21:36.760 --> 0:21:39.560 it is all an illusion. At worst, it is a 0:21:39.680 --> 0:21:47.119 colossal fraud. Abrams died of pneumonia on January four, at 0:21:47.160 --> 0:21:51.800 the age of sixty one, fifty one Sacramento Street, his home, 0:21:52.200 --> 0:21:56.879 after several days of fighting a bronchial pneumonia infection. According 0:21:56.920 --> 0:22:00.960 to his friends, the doctor had correctly predicted the exact 0:22:01.040 --> 0:22:04.800 date of his death by application of an electronic test, 0:22:06.240 --> 0:22:09.680 scooching ahead on the timeline of it to ninety two. 0:22:10.160 --> 0:22:14.000 The US Court of Appeals found the American Medical Association 0:22:14.080 --> 0:22:19.719 guilty of suppressing new medical technologies, including electromagnetic therapy, in 0:22:19.840 --> 0:22:24.160 favor of pharmaceutical companies, and it took roughly four decades 0:22:24.200 --> 0:22:26.800 after his death for the US Food and Drug Administration 0:22:26.880 --> 0:22:30.600 to crack open his black boxes. Why no one did 0:22:30.640 --> 0:22:34.480 the sooner is kind of a mystery, but a report 0:22:34.560 --> 0:22:38.240 in Beaver County Times explained, quote one type produced a 0:22:38.280 --> 0:22:42.800 magnetic field, as in a vacuum cleaner or doorbell. Another 0:22:43.160 --> 0:22:46.679 was a low powered transmitter generating radio waves on the 0:22:46.800 --> 0:22:50.600 short wave band used by police or taxi cabs. That 0:22:50.720 --> 0:22:54.639 there was really hardly much to write home about. E 0:22:54.920 --> 0:22:59.000 r A disappeared almost entirely from the medical community, but 0:22:59.119 --> 0:23:02.639 the idea, but hind it continued to evolve over the decades. 0:23:03.520 --> 0:23:08.359 Radionics devices were experimented with in agriculture during the nineteen fifties. 0:23:08.640 --> 0:23:12.600 It was highly experimental. But let's talk about a company 0:23:12.720 --> 0:23:15.199 that went by the name u K A c O. 0:23:15.880 --> 0:23:20.000 And that company claimed Abrams's technology could kill pests in 0:23:20.119 --> 0:23:24.960 farmer's fields. They contracted with Dalen Horonymous, a follower of 0:23:25.000 --> 0:23:29.639 Abrams's theories, to build them a slightly modified a silic last. 0:23:30.320 --> 0:23:32.840 Their process went like this, and stay with us because 0:23:32.880 --> 0:23:37.240 this is a little bit of an unexpected ride. U 0:23:37.359 --> 0:23:41.200 K a c O practitioners would photograph a farmer's field 0:23:41.320 --> 0:23:46.680 and then apply a small amount of insecticide to that photo, 0:23:47.200 --> 0:23:52.760 yes to the photo. That photo would then be placed 0:23:52.800 --> 0:23:55.600 in the modified a silic last and the device would 0:23:55.640 --> 0:24:00.600 broadcast the term you'll recognized from Abrams's work that treatment 0:24:00.800 --> 0:24:04.800 to the actual field. So here's an example of one 0:24:04.840 --> 0:24:08.679 of these cases from UK CEO reports. Believe it or not, 0:24:09.359 --> 0:24:11.760 a farmer looking to save his corn field from a 0:24:11.800 --> 0:24:17.000 heavy infestation of Japanese beetles contacted the company when insecticides 0:24:17.000 --> 0:24:20.679 were not doing the trick, practitioners used an aerial photo 0:24:20.720 --> 0:24:23.879 of the field with one corner of the photo cut off. 0:24:24.600 --> 0:24:28.840 Insecticide was applied to the photo, and through their radionics machine, 0:24:28.920 --> 0:24:33.680 they broadcast the imagined insecticide treatment over the actual field. 0:24:34.480 --> 0:24:39.000 So the amazing thing is allegedly it got results. And 0:24:39.160 --> 0:24:43.800 that's not just one report from one farmer. Several farmers 0:24:43.800 --> 0:24:48.719 noted the effectiveness of Abrams's electromagnetic theory and agriculture, and 0:24:48.800 --> 0:24:52.920 some ended their use of traditional chemical insecticides in favor 0:24:52.960 --> 0:24:56.879 of these new techniques. So in that particular beetle example, 0:24:57.320 --> 0:25:01.000 both uk a CEO and the farmer Clay aimed between 0:25:01.080 --> 0:25:04.359 eighty and nine of the beatles either died or just 0:25:04.560 --> 0:25:08.600 left the field in reports that were kept by the company, 0:25:08.720 --> 0:25:11.080 that corner that was cut off in the photo was 0:25:11.119 --> 0:25:13.800 the only part of the field where the beetle infestation 0:25:13.920 --> 0:25:19.160 remained at maximum capacity. Is this lucky coincidence? Was there 0:25:19.200 --> 0:25:23.560 something more going on? There are both stories of success 0:25:23.600 --> 0:25:28.240 and failure, both as anecdotal stories and in written documented 0:25:28.280 --> 0:25:32.760 results of the success stories. As you may imagine true 0:25:32.880 --> 0:25:36.280 or not, those reports did not sit well with chemical 0:25:36.320 --> 0:25:40.360 companies who supplied insecticide to farmers, and they actually lobbied 0:25:40.400 --> 0:25:43.760 the United States Department of Agriculture and the two groups 0:25:43.840 --> 0:25:47.240 joined forces. But uk CEO out of business, and they 0:25:47.280 --> 0:25:51.560 did just that through a publicity campaign intended to discredit 0:25:51.600 --> 0:25:55.440 the company and its process in the ice of farmers. 0:25:55.600 --> 0:25:59.879 So much for that continued study will never know. I 0:26:00.000 --> 0:26:04.840 Electromagnetic therapies haven't fallen out of scientific study. A cancer 0:26:04.880 --> 0:26:09.800 treatment known as the magneto mechanical effect of particles is 0:26:09.880 --> 0:26:13.760 today a growing field of research. The idea is to 0:26:13.840 --> 0:26:19.520 connect magnetic, mechanical and electric phenomena in solid materials like tissue, 0:26:19.960 --> 0:26:24.400 and here it's applied to destroy cancerous cells with vibrations. 0:26:24.440 --> 0:26:27.439 In this technique, magnetic particles are injected into a tumor 0:26:27.600 --> 0:26:31.840 or exposed to cancer cells, and a low frequency alternating 0:26:31.880 --> 0:26:36.280 e m F is applied. Not quite Abram's theory, but 0:26:36.440 --> 0:26:41.040 not quite not Abram's theory. In addition, while the US 0:26:41.119 --> 0:26:44.840 Food and Drug Administration hasn't approved magnetic vibrations for the 0:26:44.880 --> 0:26:50.680 treatment of any medical condition, pulsing electronic devices have been 0:26:50.680 --> 0:26:54.880 approved for treating some diseases and are specifically being researched 0:26:54.880 --> 0:26:59.240 for the promise they've shown in relieving symptoms of multiple sclerosis. Abrooms, 0:26:59.280 --> 0:27:04.000 it seems, does live on. We'll never know if he 0:27:04.119 --> 0:27:07.119 ever thought for a moment this might not work but 0:27:07.160 --> 0:27:09.040 I'm going to keep going, or if he was a 0:27:09.080 --> 0:27:12.200 true believer the whole time. We don't know. It's not 0:27:12.320 --> 0:27:15.120 quite clear. But what we do know is that it's 0:27:15.160 --> 0:27:25.600 time for scam sauce. But you got today. So here's 0:27:25.640 --> 0:27:29.320 the thing. The paragraph that really got me here was 0:27:29.359 --> 0:27:36.080 when we were talking about the dynamizer and specifically prescribing 0:27:36.160 --> 0:27:41.600 quinine to people, because as you know, quinine isn't tonic water, 0:27:41.680 --> 0:27:44.600 which gets used in cocktails all the time. I am 0:27:44.720 --> 0:27:48.800 not tonics best friend, but I'm willing to reach out 0:27:48.800 --> 0:27:51.119 in olive branch, and that is what we're doing today. 0:27:51.200 --> 0:27:54.640 So this is a drink that I'm calling the Dynamizer, 0:27:55.400 --> 0:27:59.920 and it has tonic and it has lots of delicious 0:28:00.000 --> 0:28:06.280 antioxidant property. And you drop a magnet into the bottom. 0:28:06.560 --> 0:28:09.160 There's no magnet in it. There's no trickery like that, 0:28:09.200 --> 0:28:12.880 but there is delicious fruitiness. And I will say the 0:28:12.880 --> 0:28:17.080 the mocked tail version of this is full of delicious 0:28:17.119 --> 0:28:20.560 and good for you fruit. The cocktail has some, not 0:28:20.640 --> 0:28:24.040 as much. First of all, you were gonna juice half 0:28:24.040 --> 0:28:26.879 of an orange. You can do this however you wish. 0:28:27.320 --> 0:28:29.399 I use my same juicer that I used for lemons 0:28:29.400 --> 0:28:31.720 and limes. I just cut the orange down, but whatever 0:28:31.800 --> 0:28:34.280