Andreas Moritz

Andreas Moritz (January 27, 1954 - October 21, 2012) was a book-author, iridologist, vaccine opponent, and inventor of pseudo-medical methods. He was born in Germany, and was living in Greer (South Carolina, USA) since 1998. Meanwhile, possible causes of death are a matter of speculation on the internet. A video taken shortly before his death clearly displays hints of a disease.

In his books and on his websites, Moritz propagated strange and pseudoscientific opinions on cancer as well as his liver cleansing method (liver cleansing according to Moritz).

In his descriptions, he portrayed himself as a medical intuitive, practitioner of Ayurveda, Iridology, Shiatsu and Vibrational Medicine and used the title of a doctor of Ayurveda. Moritz told his website readers that he used to be a teacher of meditation in the past and that he was interested in Ayurveda when he was in New Zealand and India.

He was not only the inventor of a liver cleansing method, but also of an "Ener-Chi Art" (Ener-Chi Wellness Center, LLC), claiming the contemplation on a particular oil-painting had healing effects. His methods of "Sacred Santémony – Divine Chanting" allegedly "delete" interfering "Akasha-chronicle entries" by employing "healing sounds".

Andreas Moritz and Cancer

Cancer is not a disease

Wisdom of cancer cells

In his book Cancer is not a Disease - It's a Survival Mechanism, Moritz described cancer as but one of many ways in which the body tried to change the way a person sees and treats themselves. He added: [...] as you are about to find out, cancer is on our side, not against us [...]. Moritz alleged that 95% of all cancer cases healed spontaneously, if no medical treatment interfered such self-healing process. Similar convictions are known from the German quack and former physician (now barred) Ryke Geerd Hamer, the inventor of Germanic New Medicine, and also from supporters of metamedicine and biologie totale of Georges Sabbah from France.

According to Moritz, cancer always was an extremely rare illness, except in industrialized nations during the past 40-50 years. He ignored the fact that cancer is a disease affecting mostly elderly people. Progress in medicine caused an increase in life expectancy. Together with progress in cancer detection, the increase in life expectancy led to an increase in cancer incidence. Fewer cases of infectious diseases and of death due to accidents brought about an increase in the percentage of cancer as a cause of death.

Moritz saw the origins of cancer in constant conflicts, guilt and shame, as they paralyzed basic body functions, and led to the growth of a cancerous tumor. Elimination of these alleged cancer-inducing factors would result in a complete healing of cancer, Moritz alleged. Therapies used in scientific medicine (operation, radiation therapy or chemotherapy) would effect healing in only 7% of the cases, and only a few patients would survive these cures. According to Moritz, more people died because of therapeutic efforts than from their disease. These strange allegations without any proof are not backed by scientific literature and contradict solid scientific evidence of modern medicine.

Moritz instead believed in alleged statements of one Dr. Hardin Jones (University of California, see below), who is quoted Den Patienten geht es genauso gut, oder noch besser, wenn Sie [sic] nicht behandelt werden [...], i.e. Patients are as well or even better without treatment [...].

He further believed in the concept of a cancer-prone personality, obsolete and outdated theories of psychiatrists Wilhelm Reich, Hans Eysenck, Ronald Grossarth-Maticek, Lydia Temoshok (typus C) and Hürny and Adler (1991). He confounded personality traits and consequences of cancer (for instance depression as a consequence of a severe disease).

"Liver Cleansing" According to Andreas Moritz

Moritz invented a pseudo-medical method he called "liver cleansing". Moritz believed that the majority of all adults in industrialized countries (and especially persons affected by heart disease, arthritis, diabetes, cancer or MS) carried hundreds or even thousands of gall bladder stones, blocking liver function. A so-called "liver cleansing" (an almost identical method is known from American quack Hulda Clark) would "flush" gall bladder stones.

The patient is advised to drink one litre of apple juice every day for a period of six days and then take magnesium sulfate and 1/8 litre of olive oil and grapefruit or lemon juice each. These substances will build up soft lumps in the intestines looking like gall stones; these will end up in the toilet and convince patients they successfully eliminated their gall stones. In fact, as scientific evidence shows, no gall stone will be excreted in these cases.

Hardin Jones, Jones H. B. and Cancer Therapy

Many webpages with ties to alternative medicine contain allegations and speculations claiming that a conventional cancer therapy would harm cancer patients more than no treatment at all. On English language websites, an American physiologist by the name of Hardin Jones often gets presented as "a prominent cancer researcher" from the University of California (Berkeley). The following quotation is repeated time and again: My studies have proved conclusively that cancer patients who refuse chemotherapy and radiation actually live up to four times longer than treated cases.

This quote is assigned to a conference paper from 1969. But in this text, Hardin's above quote cannot be found, see that document here:

So what did Hardin actually say? Hardin was never active as a clinical oncologist, but worked as a statistician and for the former "Atomic Energy Commission" in Berkeley.

Quotes by Hardin are linked to a presentation in 1956. This was more than 50 years ago, when chemotherapy was in its early stages. The article of 1956 contains statistical data related to female patients with breast cancer who both did and did not receive medical treatment. Author Jones says in this article: 'It is most likely that, in terms of life expectancy, the chance of survival is no better with than without treatment, and there is the possibility that treatment may make the survival time of cancer less (page 331). Jones in turn quotes articles, one dating back to 1926 and two from 1927. But even these very dated articles (with 651, 100, 64 and 100 cases resp.) contradict his opinion.

These studies were not modern studies with a control group. According to Jones, the death-rate in case of cancer would remain constant over time (the death rate for all kinds of cancer remains nearly fixed from the moment when cancer is identified page 314). This theory was also known as "The Hardin Jones Principle" and was cited by Linus Pauling in 1989. However, it is known today that this simple theory is invalid. Different cancers have their own and different curves of survival.

The description given by Jones is incorrect, if it was to be related to our times. At the end of the 1950ies, 25% of all breast cancer patients were still alive after 5 years. In industrialised countries of today, this figure has increased to around 80% (USA, in 2003), even considering that breast cancer is detected much earlier today.

Versions of this article in other languages

• Deutsch: Andreas Moritz

Weblinks

• http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2010/02/andreas_moritz_legal_intimidation_in_the.php?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+scienceblogs%2Finsolence+%28Respectful+Insolence%29
• http://skeptico.blogs.com/skeptico/alternative_medicine/

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