Former unconventional methods of treatment offered by
the Watchtower Society
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by the Watchtower Society
In its early years of existence, the Watchtower Society tried to advertise themselves by recommending unconventional methods of treatment. We describe them below.
C. T. Russell (dec. 1916) asked in 1915 about the controversial advertisements in their Watchtower magazine, replied the following, mentioning, among others, the “treatment of cancer”:
Once we put into THE WATCH TOWER a notice about Miracle Wheat. Many of you saw it. We believe we did right in putting that notice in. We also put in a notice about some kind of beans and one about some special cotton. Some of the friends were benefited by each of these notices. We also put in a notice recently about a cure for cancer. We have had hundreds of letters come in from Truth friends, and hundreds from others; and a great many have reported good results. To some extent this has helped forward the Truth. People saw that we were not trying to get their money, saw that we were trying to do them good, and became interested (The Watchtower July 15, 1915 p. 5729, reprints).
One of that adverts was published in the Watchtower in 1913:
A CURE FOR SURFACE CANCER
Cancer troubles are becoming more numerous. We know of no remedy for internal cancers except surgery. Even then a cure is doubtful. We have recently learned of a very effective and simple remedy for cancers which show themselves on the surface of the body. We are informed that a physician, after testing this remedy, paid $1,000 for the information, and that he has established a Cancer Hospital which is doing good work. The recipe has come to us free and we are willing to communicate the formula, but to those only who are troubled with surface cancers and who will write to us directly, stating particulars. No fee will be charged, but in order to protect the sufferers, we require a promise that they will not sell the formula to others, nor receive pay for the use of it, nor communicate the formula to anybody. Any one known to be a sufferer can be informed of the terms on which the prescription is obtainable through us. (The Watchtower July 1, 1913 p. 5268, reprints).
After C. T. Russell’s death such activity was discontinued.
C. T. Russell also published the following information about the medicine against appendicitis and typhoid fever:
CURE FOR APPENDICITIS
It is known that only about three out of every one hundred operated upon for appendicitis really have a diseased appendix needing removal. We give below a simple cure for appendicitis symptoms. The pain in the appendix region is caused by the biting of worms near the junction of the transverse colon with the small intestines, low down on the right side of the abdomen. This remedy is recommended also for typhoid fever, which is also a worm disease. The medicine is Santonine: dose, 3 grains, an hour before breakfast; repeated for four mornings, or until all the symptoms disappear. Then one dose per month for three months to eradicate all germs. This recipe is of incalculable value. Not only will it save the surgeon’s and hospital fees of perhaps $200, but it saves weeks of ill health, inconvenience, convalescence and loss of salary. (The Watchtower January 15, 1912 p. 4963, reprints).
The Watchtower Society got so fascinated by the invention of radio, that they not only claimed that soon resurrected Abraham would be broadcasting, but they also considered the radio as healing device for many diseases, in those days, as well as in the future. Soon after the Watchtower Society had set up their own radio station they started advertising that listening to the radio could have special healing power.
Thus on February 26, 1922, Brother Rutherford delivered his first radio broadcast, in California. Two years later, on February 24, 1924, the Watch Tower Society’s own radio station WBBR, on Staten Island, New York, began broadcasting. Eventually, the Society organized worldwide networks to broadcast Bible programs and lectures. By 1933 a peak of 408 stations were carrying the Kingdom message to six continents! (Jehovah’s Witnesses—Proclaimers of God’s Kingdom 1993 p. 80).
With great improved broadcasting stations we can expect Abraham from Mount Zion to direct the affairs of the whole earth. (A Desirable Government 1924 p. 30).
Radio has been directly employed in the treatment of cases of rheumatism, neuritis, pneumonia, and deafness. Men that have not heard a sound in thirty years have been able to hear when the radio headpieces were attached. Leo Kuehn, of Detroit, a deaf-mute twenty-eight years of age, an intelligent, educated man, learned to speak after a few lessons by radio. His first uttered words were: Holy, holy, holy." It was a well-chosen tribute to the Author of his blessings. (The Golden Age March 12, 1924 p. 365).
Disease will wither and die. Plagues will be swept from the earth. How? by radio vibrations streaming across the earth of such infinite strength that they will kill and shatter germ life. The air we breathe will be teeming with health. We all know how clear and invigorating the air is after an electric storm. Radio will cause it always to be so. (The Golden Age March 12, 1924 p. 365).
Nowadays, the Watchtower Society no longer promotes this kind of a treatment, because it sold its radio station:
By the mid-1950’s, the growing ranks of Kingdom publishers were reaching more people right at the doors of their homes. This proved to be far more effective than the radio in helping individuals understand Bible truth. So in 1957 it was decided to sell WBBR and direct our resources to the expanding missionary work in other lands. (The Watchtower August 1, 1994 p. 25).
In the 20s of the 20th century, the Watchtower Society began to advertise the Radio Biola – a device, that was supposed to detect and treat diseases:
I am exclusively announcing in THE GOLDEN AGE prior to its general publication elsewhere, The Electronic Radio Biola, which means life renewed by radio waves or electrons. The Biola automatically diagnoses and treats diseases by the use of the electronic vibrations. The diagnosis is 100 percent correct, rendering better service in this respect than the most experienced diagnostician, and without any attending cost. This little instrument automatically measures the body energy, its power of resistance to disease and, if disease exists or if the energy of the body is below par, corrects it. This is done by radio vibration, which makes the human body its own dynamizer, or anti-toxin manufacturer. It restores underbalance in diseased tissues, accomplishing the work gradually. The "balance" in the life cells is completely restored. The operation of the Biola is such that it discovers and locates disease processes in their very beginning, before great damage has been done, rearranges the electrons and the body equilibrium, and enables nature to restore the organs or parts to normal. (...) This is a great step forward, marking the Biola as the most valuable treatment apparatus obtainable today, and well worthy of notice in the columns of a magazine like THE GOLDEN AGE, which looks forward to perfect days ahead. (...) In conclusion, the Biola is unquestionably a wonderful addition to the science of medicine, some of its greatest advantages being: (...) These things in themselves furnish undoubted evidence that we are entering the Golden Age, so longed for by all of earth's inhabitants, where each will have his heart's desire for life, liberty and happiness under perfect conditions. (The Golden Age April 22, 1925 pp. 454-455).
On page 479 of the above-mentioned publication, a reader could find the advertisement of the Radio Biola, its price and the information how to order it.
Positive opinions about Radio Biola were also published in another magazine, where several letters with praising words from users were cited. (see The Golden Age December 2, 1925 pp. 140-141).
For many years, the Watchtower Society taught that the “electrical ring” would drop soon to the ground, that would kill all bacteria, diseases and bring health to people. This prophecy has been described many times, especially in the 1920s:
There are scientists who claim that the Earth still has one ring about it, an electrical ring which, falling, will in a few years destroy fermentation, microbes and parasites, and greatly assist plant and animal life. (Scenario of the Photo-Drama of Creation 1914 p. 2).
See also: The Golden Age June 23, 1920 p. 594; The Golden Age July 5, 1922 p. 623; The Golden Age December 20, 1922 p. 178; The Golden Age October 8, 1924 p. 25.
After many years, the Watchtower Society has withdrawn their words and replaced by new light, writing since then about the destructive nature of the electrical ring. They have classified it now a “pseudoscientific hearsay”:
A report persists in circulating that there is a destructive electrical ring descending toward the earth, and that, when it hits, life not miraculously preserved by Jehovah will be wiped out. Did not the Awake! magazine comment on this some years ago? (...)
Yes, the Awake! of July 8, 1952, in its article entitled “Our Atmosphere, Man’s Stairway to the Stars,” had a subheading called “Does Electrical Ring Threaten Us?” It pointed out that while there are electrical layers in the ionosphere, the harmful radiations are prevented from reaching earth by the ozone layer. Nor is there any danger that the ozone layer will be destroyed, leaving us vulnerable to this bombardment, because the ultraviolet rays that, along with cosmic rays, cause the electrical layers of the ionosphere also create this ozone layer by their action on the oxygen in the earth’s atmosphere. In other words, the rays create the roadblock. As long as the rays are there the preventive layer will be there. So it seems that the electrical layers above us offer nowhere near the threat that the idle rumors about them do, which are parroted about without any scientific basis. Certainly it is worse than fruitless to occupy our time spreading such rumors when that time is urgently needed to preach the unquestionable warnings of Jehovah’s Word. So we should use our time to preach about what we know, based on God’s sure Word, rather than preaching pseudoscientific hearsay that is advanced by those who yearn to be sensational. (The Watchtower August 15, 1955 p. 511, emphasis added).
At some point in time, the Watchtower Society, on the basis of “science” and “providential leadings”, set a specific plant diet. All other foods, medicines and drinks (except wine) were classified as “poisons”. By doing so they also referred to the “Golden Age”:
The Scientific Basis of Longevity
From its basic standpoint longevity has in the past been a much neglected subject, as it was once supposed to be rather too deep for human understanding. But through providential leadings in the preparation for the glorious Golden Age scientific research has uncovered many of the mysteries surrounding human destiny, among which are some of the basic principles controlling the span of human life. The dispensational message of the day which, boiled down into few words, is “millions now living will never die”, has awakened an intense interest in this subject. (The Golden Age January 14, 1925 p. 244).
The majority of people are still using a radically abnormal diet; and probably ninety percent, or even more, are drug addicts in some form. Tea, coffee and tobacco are all drugs, and are rushing the race into the abyss of mental imbecility and insanity. No stimulative foods and drinks have any value to the human system in their stimulative properties. In meat the evil effects of its stimulative properties are practically offset by its nourishing qualities. In olden days, when fresh acid fruits were scarce and modern methods of preserving were unknown, wines, temperately used, were beneficial, and their stimulative effects were more than made up for the release of potassium into the system. Drug foods and stimulative and refined foods must all be discarded in a regenerative diet, and a vegetable diet adhered to mostly, with the exceptions of eggs and dairy products. Perhaps some forms of sea foods can for a time be used and even be beneficial, as they are rich in certain elements of food value. There is no question that present dietetic light is amply sufficient for a decisive start towards permanent longevity. In this, faddism must be avoided; such as restricted diet, fasting, the selection of special foods because of their supposed vitamine value, etc. (The Golden Age January 14, 1925 p. 247).
In time, the Watchtower Society stopped to propagate its diet recommendations, except the food that contained blood. Since 1927 it consumption was prohibited.
Their chief resort is the knife, the efficacy of which is liable to prove only temporary, at best, since the growth may come again. Radium is used as a curative agent, though to a rather limited extent. (...) My attention was first called to the subject of cure for cancer about eighteen years ago when I was staying in Norwich, Connecticut, for about two months in the summertime. While there I met a lady, a resident of the city, somewhat less than fifty years of age, who had been cured of malignant cancer of the breast by living on grape juice and taking every day a high enema of plain warm water, temperature of comfortable warmth, from 100° to 105°. (...) Within the last two or three years I have heard of a few well-authenticated cases of cure. of cancer by remedies made from herbs in some cases and by the grape juice cure in others. In no case have I heard of fever or vomiting or other symptoms of discomfort after the cure had begun to work. It is probable that the daily high enema would tend to relieve the patient of such distressing conditions. (...) While staying in Norwich I met, besides the two cancer patients, a minister from Pennsylvania who had come to Norwich to take the fruit juice treatment for the cure of arteriosclerosis. He claimed to be entirely cured. He had been able to be up and around and to take a walk each day while taking the treatment and said he had lost very little flesh and no strength whatever. Another case which I was told about as a remarkable cure was that of a truck driver who had cut the flesh of his right hand or arm and blood poisoning had set in. The physicians he consulted could not prevent the poison from spreading, and decreed that his right arm would have to be amputated. He was a man about forty years of age, and the loss of his arm would have meant loss of work for him, possibly for the rest of his life. He heard of the grape juice cure as something which would prove efficacious in cases of impurity of the blood. He decided to try it, and did so with complete success. In these cases, as in the cancer cases, the high enema every day was an essential part of the treatment; and as also in the cancer cases the treatment lasted a little less than forty days, when the tongue cleared, which indicated that the curative process had completed its work and that the patient was in a condition to begin to take solid food. (The Golden Age April 2, 1930 pp. 434-436).
During that time, even Frederick W. Franz (1893-1992; the later president of the Watchtower Society), described a meeting with a sick man named Christophel who got inspired by an article in the Golden Age propagating the grape treatment. Franz recommends him another book to read and then quotes Christophel’s letter in which he describes the miraculous recovery from a cancer due to this diet. F. Franz does not personally comment on the effectiveness of the diet, but writes that he gladly publishes this interesting letter for readers (The Golden Age December 24, 1930 p. 216)
In the last 20s of the twentieth century, several articles were published discussing the grape treatment: The Golden Age December 26, 1928 pp. 206-207; The Golden Age May 29, 1929 pp. 563-564; The Golden Age August 7, 1929 p. 722; The Golden Age November 13, 1929 pp. 104-105; The Golden Age November 27, 1929 pp. 144-145.
Germs, the Modern Superstition
Do you know that the germ theory has never been proven? And it cannot be proven either. If it had been proven, it would not be a theory. It has been truly said that “knowledge without evidence is superstition”; and that applies to the germ theory also. It is a leftover superstition of a past age, when man feared that the earth was inhabited with hideous monsters that were hiding everywhere, in the air, in the sea, in the darkness, etc., always ready to jump out and devour him or make life otherwise miserable for him. (...) However, the medical profession have accepted the theory as though it were a proven fact, probably because it is the most profitable part of their repertory. (...) Germs do not cause disease as the most of you people have been led to believe. This theory of the cause of disease is very much misunderstood by the masses.(The Golden Age March 18, 1931 p. 404).
Another article published in 1931 (The Golden Age October 14, 1931 pp. 23-26) agrees that microbes are “superstitions”. It provided answers to a number of related issues and supported it with the Bible. To be more convincing, authors drawn the attention to the ungodly behavior among doctors and scientists.
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