Radionics

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Definition

Radionics is a highly controversial field that claims to detect and modulate life force using electronic devices. Patients can be diagnosed and treated without even meeting the practitioner, who uses a radionic "black box" to tune into "vibrational frequencies" from a sample of hair or blood. The device is then used to "broadcast" healing frequencies back to the patient, who may be hundreds of miles away.

Origins

The seeds of radionics can be found in radiesthesia, a diagnostic technique employing pendulums or dowsing rods developed by three French priests during the early 1900s. The founding father of radionics was Albert Abrams, an American neurologist (1864–1924) who believed that his machines could, from a sample of blood, hair, or even handwriting, determine a patient's sex, race, financial status, religion, and underlying causes of illness. His therapeutic machines were hermetically sealed and were not sold, only leased on the condition that they never be opened. Investigators who examined the devices around the time of Abrams' death found nothing inside to which they could attribute potential medical benefit. The principles of distance healing were developed by a U.S. chiropractor, Ruth Drown, during the 1930s. Drown also maintained that her devices could produce x-ray-like images of a patient's condition, based solely on a blood sample. A scientific committee that examined these images in 1950 detected no recognizable anatomic structures in them, and concluded they were simply "fog patterns."

Benefits

For legal reasons, most radionics practitioners and manufacturers of radionics equipment are cautious of making public pronouncements about specific health benefits. However, a journal published by radionics founder Albert Abrams claimed the technology was effective against diseases as serious as cancer, tuberculosis, and syphilis. Court testimony has indicated that similar claims are made by present-day practitioners.

Description

Radionics advocates believe that underlying causes of diseases emit radio-like frequencies that can be detected by their equipment. A bundle of hair or a card containing a few dried drops of blood is placed into a receptacle in the machine. This "witness" is then analyzed using either a moving pendulum or a detector pad on which changes in surface tension are noted. In this way, areas of "resonance" are detected. Treatment may employ both appropriate frequencies generated by the machine, as well as the extra-sensory abilities of the healer. During the 1990s, computerized "adaptive biofeedback-type" devices were developed, allegedly capable of monitoring and responding "every 200 millionths of a second" to changes in the patient's body. Radionic treatment may be supplemented by homeopathic remedies, color therapy, and herbal extracts.

Precautions

Patients need to understand that the claims of radionics are highly controversial and, in some cases, grandiose. One radionics organization based in Canada not only offers certification in 18 healing-related fields, but also advertises its willingness to advise on such diverse subjects as gambling, animal breeding, management consulting, gardening, financial investments, engineering, prospecting, and archeology. This institute claims that radionics has been proven "in hundreds of controlled studies over the past 80 years," but refuses to divulge the names of its graduates "given the controversial nature of radionics." Furthermore, this group will not correspond with any potential client until an initial fee of at least $300 has been paid in U.S. currency. Another manufacturer of radionics-type equipment claims the ability "to enter the mind of any person on this planet" and to "compel them to do your will." It is particularly important to carefully read the literature offered by radionics practitioners, which often contains revealing disclaimers. A medical opinion should be sought in all cases of serious illness.

Side Effects

Radionic therapy is non-invasive and has no known side effects.

Research & General Acceptance

Most physicians dismiss radionics as quackery, arguing that any observed benefits are caused only by placebo effect. In the United States, medical devices must be approved by the federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and a 1998 district court decision in Minnesota determined that the sale of an unapproved radionics "black box" device violated state laws against deceptive trade practices and consumer fraud. The sale of such equipment to terminally ill patients constituted "health quackery at its worst," said Hubert Humphrey III, the state's attorney general. "This deplorable conduct aimed at vulnerable, desperate consumers is health fraud in its darkest form and will not be tolerated in Minnesota," Humphrey said. Radionics advocates, on the other hand, say they suffer from systematic government oppression.

Training & Certification

Home-study courses and/or certification in radionics are offered by institutions in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. In some cases these institutes also market radionics equipment.

Resources

Organizations

The Radionic Association. Berlin House, Goose Green, Deddington, Oxford England OX5 4SZ.

[Article by: David Helwig]

The instrumental detection of hypothesized vital energy patterns as a means of diagnosis and therapy of disease. In radionic theory, all living things radiate an electro-magnetic field which has different characteristics in health and disease conditions. Energy patterns are given a numerical value or "rate" usually calibrated on the dials of a diagnostic apparatus called a black box. The original black box, sometimes called the E.R.A. or Oscilloclast, was the invention of Dr. Albert Abrams, a San Francisco physician.

The black box consisted of several variable rheostats and a thin sheet of rubber mounted over a metal plate. A blood sample from the patient was put into the machine, which was connected with a metal plate placed on the forehead of a healthy person. By tapping on the abdomen of this person, the doctor determined the disease of the patient according to "areas of dullness" in relation to dial readings on the apparatus. This strange procedure brought together the special sensitivities of radiesthesia or dowsing and medical auscultation.

After the death of Abrams in 1924, his procedures were developed by Ruth Drown of the United States in the 1930s and George De la Warr in Britain. De la Warr devised black boxes that dispensed with the auscultation techniques of Abrams and even an apparatus which produced photographs relating to the condition of the patient whose sample was placed in the machine. De la Warr claimed that they registered a radiation pattern showing the shape and chemical structure of the radiating body, and given a suitable sample the camera plate would register not only regional tissue but also its pathology.

It should be noted that Abrams was attacked by the American Medical Association, but in England a committee of the British Medical Association gave him some initial approval in 1924. Then in 1950 Drown was given a test under the auspices of the American Medical Association. It was completely negative and had the effect of driving radionics out of the United States. Defenders of radionics have argued that the worth of the diagnostic techniques is based upon the consciousness of the operator, a fact which in itself takes the practice out of the realm of medical science and into the field of parapsychology and spiritual healing.

In England, the De la Warr Laboratories designs and manufactures radionic instruments and offers diagnosis and treatment for patients. It may be contacted at Raleigh Park, Oxford, UK. There is also a Radionic Association in Britain, which trains and represents radionic practitioners, located at Field House, Peaslake, Guildford, Surrey.

In the late 1960s, William A. Tiller, then chairman of the Department of Material Medicine at Stanford University, reported favorably on his experience in 1971. In 1975 an important development in American radionics studies was the U.S. Radionic Congress held in Indianapolis, Indiana, April 19-20, 1975, at which papers on research in the field were presented and discussed. Amongst those present was Thomas G. Hieronymus, regarded as the dean of American radionics researchers, whose patented invention of a machine to analyze a new type of radiation in 1949 led to American interest in radionics under the name psionics. Psionic was a term coined by John Campbell, Jr., editor of Astounding Science Fiction, to denote a combination of radionics and psi phenomena. He gave instructions for building a Hieronymus machine in the June 1956 issue of ASF.

Sources:

Abrams, Albert. New Concepts in Diagnosis and Treatment. Physico-Clinical, 1924.

Day, Langston & G. De la Warr. New Worlds Beyond the Atom. London, 1956.

Inglis, Brian. The Case for Unorthodox Medicine. New York: Berkeley Publishing, 1969.

Proceedings of the Scientific and Technical Congress of Radionics and Radiesthesia London May 16-18, 1950, London, n.d.

Tiller, William A. "Radionics, Radiesthesia and Physics." In The Varieties of Healing Experience. Palo Alto, Calif.: Academy of Paraspsychology & Medicine, 1971.

Young, James Harvey. The Medical Messiahs. Princeton N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1967.

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