Book review

by Barry Lynes

I was challenged by a supporter of medical quackery to read this book as it was sure to convince me that a great man had once defied the laws of the universe and had also found a guaranteed cure for cancer, a man whose achievements had been suppressed by the orthodoxy. Even though the man's work had been suppressed, I was able to find a copy of the book at an underground bookshop specialising in selling books which the establishment do not want people to read (the underground bookshop goes by the name of Amazon.com).

Although dead for years, Royal Raymond Rife remains a giant in the medical quackery and pseudoscience worlds. Not only did he discover the cure for cancer, but he was able to invent a microscope which defied the laws of optics. Of course, he was persecuted and suppressed by the establishment and his ideas and discoveries were lost forever. Or so this book says. In fact, Rife's ideas persist today in a variety of forms, although many of the quacks who have plagiarised his work seem to forget to mention where the ideas came from and then go on to claim them as their own.

Briefly, Rife claimed that all cancers were caused by the same virus and that this virus could change form, sometimes looking like a virus, sometimes looking like a bacterium, and sometimes manifesting itself as a fungus. He could observe these creatures moving about under his microscope by magnifying them 13,000, 17,000 or even 60,000 times, magnifications which "physicists" and "microscope manufacturers" claim are impossible using visible light and only attainable with electron microscopes. Because electron microscopes can only observe killed specimens, Rife had the advantage of seeing the living organisms moving about. He was then able to determine the electromagnetic frequencies which would destroy the microbes and cure the cancer. All cancer.

Physicist Robert Park has described seven signs of what he calls "voodoo science", and Rife showed almost all of them. He either refused or was too busy to publish any of his work in peer-reviewed journals (although some of his supporters published anecdotes in some non-peer-reviewed publications), there was a powerful establishment suppressing his discoveries (the dreadful Morris Fishbein from the AMA tried to buy his silence), all the evidence of cures was either anecdotal or lost in fires, equipment which operated at or even beyond the limits of detection was required to observe the effects, Rife worked in isolation (except for a few acolytes and true believers) and changes to the laws of physics were required if his microscopes were to work. As added evidence of the conspiracy against Rife, some people who initially supported him later changed their minds and admitted that they had been foolish.

If this book had been written as a way of showing an example of pathological science at work then it might have had some value. Instead, it was written by a true believer as a way of promoting Rife's work and promoting the nonsense to a wider audience. This book is less than worthless. I felt that I should have been paid to read it. Not only is it worthless, however, but it is dangerous as it could convince people with real diseases that someone following Rife's absurd ideas might actually be able to cure something.

Please try to buy a second-hand copy of this book. There is no reason why the author should receive a single cent more in royalties for producing this nonsensical hagiography.

See more about Rife here.