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Fake Healer

Azrael 5

Philosopher
Joined
Sep 19, 2003
Messages
6,106
Underground Britain.

Re-posted due to the great server loss of 2005!!

BBC2 programme about Robyn Welch who claimed she could cure cancer and other ailments just with a telephone call! A good skeptical documentary for a change.
Here's some links:
http://robynwelch.com/kiddy.php (Check out testimonials-sepecially Kate,very odd)
http://www.prnewswire.co.uk/cgi/news/release?id=154361
http://icwales.icnetwork.co.uk/0900...59489&method=full&siteid=50082-name_page.html



(Anyone know how to do short links on this new board?)
 
It's the same as it was, innit?

[tests]

Link.

Yep.

The look is different, but it's still VBulletin.
 
When posting a message this is what I see:
You may post new threads
You may post replies
You may post attachments
You may edit your posts

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

vB code is On
Smilies are On
code is On
HTML code is Off

Nothing to suggest posting links.
 
If you go to your user CP and select Edit Options, the last item on the screen allows you to change your posting interface to get more options.
 
I see she seems to have added more stuff about the documentary to her homepage since I last looked at it. It seems to have really got to her! :)
 
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I could honestly only stomach about half of the documentary. I'm not sure if the documenter ever asked any skeptical questions or tried to balance it decently, I just had to turn over.

I switched off when she was talking to the little boy who had warts on him. She 'diagnosed' him with a brain cyst, to which the journo' asked the mother 'have you had this verified medically?'. She said 'no, I trust this woman 100%'.

Interestingly, the boy asked a couple of skeptical questions (How can you see inside my body? How do you know where you're looking?), which were treated in a very patronising way (My, you are an intelligent one, aren't you?Ha ha ha...).

I could have vomited.

Athon
 
As awful as the program was, I didn't think it would be topped, but horizon did just that with Dr Huang, who got $20,000 from an english couple to have OECs injected into his brain. The program left the viewer in no doubt that the patient (suffering from ALS) was expecting to be able to walk in the hours/days following the treatment. The end result? 6 weeks later he was trying to convince his consultant in England that he had perhaps 1cm more range of movement in his index finger, and was still encouraged by the treatment.


There should be a special form of punishment for those who trick desparate people, giving them only false hope and taking large sums of money from them.
 
Surely it must be illegal-in Robyn Welsch's case at least-but if no-one makes a complaint then there is nothing to investigate?
If anyone can set themselves up to take vast sums of money for something they clearly cannot do,isnt it fraud?

athon it was a highly skeptical documentary,and she was tied in knots by the interviewer towards the end.Was worth watching.

Edit to add: Just checked her website and found this gem of a quote:
A.J. has also made a fool of a very nice Dr. Clifford Rose, who has 40 years of practice as a Neurologist, by him stating that he can see inflammation in her head by looking into her eyes with a torch and checking her reflexes. To do this correctly it would take an MRI or Spinal Tap (Lumbar Punch)

Coming from someone who can heal cancer over the phone.....
 
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I could honestly only stomach about half of the documentary. I'm not sure if the documenter ever asked any skeptical questions or tried to balance it decently, I just had to turn over.
It got better towards the end. I too though of switching off as it seemed only slightly critical at first.

I think the best aspect of the programme was how Robyn was allowed to do the damage to herself.

These people create a persona, a guru status, which people are fooled by. This programme, however, showed up someone who’s certainly deluded, and possibly psychotic. It was a great insight into the mind of how these people think.

The real concern, as always in cases like this, is not so much the outlandish claims made, but people’s willingness to accept them without question.
 
What I found very fascinating was the way she portrayed herself as "sweetness and light", all very lovey-dovey, using lots of terms of endearment in her speech, plenty of smiles and so on, yet how quickly this paper thin veneer cracked the moment anything wasn't quite as she demanded it. Not so much as beauty being skin deep but niceness being less then skin deep.

My impression of her was of a manipulative, extremely nasty person who was totally unconcerned about harm she might cause.
 
Surely it must be illegal-in Robyn Welsch's case at least-but if no-one makes a complaint then there is nothing to investigate?

Coming from someone who can heal cancer over the phone.....

IIRC in the UK it is illigal to advertise a cure for cancer (siunce abbout nteh 1930's), watchdog actualy got a couple of "witchdoctors" prosicuted for this abbout a year or so back. Unless it was all a dream.

I think I beeter do a bit of googleing.
 
According to the BCMA, she certainly is breaking the law:
I.1. LEGAL LIMITATIONS ON WHAT YOU CAN DO
I.1.2. The law prohibits you from doing a number of specific things. Whilst this is not an exhaustive list, they include:
* Advertising treatments to cure cancer and carrying them out......
http://tinyurl.com/aotd2
 
IIRC in the UK it is illigal to advertise a cure for cancer (siunce abbout nteh 1930's)
Cancer Act 1939 section 4:
No person shall take any part in the publication of any advertisement ... containing an offer to treat any person for cancer, or to prescribe any remedy therefor, or to give any advice in connection with the treatment thereof ...
 
The question is, is there actually anything on her website that constitutes an offer to treat cancer or advise cancer patients? The "Cancer Section" just contains a load of woo about how evil technology causes cancer, e.g.
The major problem we have is this, man-made electrical power is running anticlockwise, to the clockwise natural divine energy through our systems. As everyone knows you cannot go against the grain of nature without consequence. When you add this to chemical poisening [sic] from man-made products...
Alert2.gif
See: it's set my woo-woo detectors off again.

There are also a few testimonials saying how wonderful she is, and alleging that she has successfully treated cancer patients, but no explicit offer to treat anyone.
 
Nice post Mojo! Incidentally-straying into woo for a moment-is there no evidence to suggest power lines cause cancer? I hear this a lot on the news.Campaigners protesting about power lines for that reason.I always assumed there was something to it.Never bothered to research it,like....:rolleyes:
 

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