Miracle Cures

daniel-p

For those who recognize quackery in the medicinal form:

Do you find a disproportionate amount of Witnesses - primarly older women - promoting and peddling miracle cures?
Or do you think the occurence is the same as outside the Organization?

daniel-p

edit: I shouldnt say "primarily older women" - that's just been my experience. I do know of many men who promote miracle cures as well.

seattleniceguy

Hey daniel-p,

Spot on. Medical zaniness has a long history in the organization. Check out these quotes from WT publications:
http://quotes.watchtower.ca/medical-miscellaneous.htm
http://quotes.watchtower.ca/vaccination.htm
http://quotes.watchtower.ca/aluminum.htm

If you peruse those quotes, you'll start to notice that some of the ideas still persist among Witnesses. I personally remember mistrust of aluminum, for example. And the idea that ordinary things like milk or olive oil can become cure-alls is common in most halls. I think there are several factors behind this. First, historical inertia. Even after the Society stops denouncing aluminum in print, there are still going to be hundreds of thousands of people who have been indoctrinated for years that aluminum is the root of all medical problems. So they continue to spread the idea. They avoid aluminum purchases. They talk about how the world is suffering because of its wonton aluminum use, and so on. This creates a culture where other similar forms of quackery are embraced and flourish. Another, probably more fundamental, factor is that JW culture does not encourage critical thinking, which creates an environment where such ideas easily spread.

Certainly makes for interesting reading, though! :-)

SNG

garybuss

I know Witnesses who won't eat a baked potato in a restaurant if the potato was baked while being wrapped in aluminum foil. I know more than a few Witnesses as well as non Witnesses who self diagnose, and prescribe themselves vitamins. I'm personally aware of a non Witness man who took self prescribed vitamins and minerals until his liver quit working.

upside/down

I could write VOLUMES on this...

Witnoids think they can "health" themselves into "perfection"...it's so silly.

And don't even get me started on "toxins" & "detoxing"....or I'm gonna SCREAM!!!

u/d(of the if vitamin C prevents colds...how come I still get colds...as I take vitamin C EVERYDAY? class)

Virgogirl

It's always some health craze... chelations, colonics, Echinacea. For awhile, everyone was hypoglycemic. My elder at work was recently on a liquid diet of some brown nasty fluid of salts and vitamins, while doing his colon cleansings. Ugh!

daniel-p

I have personally seen, and continue to see, general paranoia over conventional medicine and treatment. For instance, Sister So-and-so gets cancer. They are paranoid about doctors (after all, they just want to give you blood, right?) so they go to the Hoxsey Clinic in Tijuana. Sister So-and-so's cancer abates for a while and they are elated. Six months later the cancer gets more aggresive. This time she goes to the hospital and gets chemotherapy. Three months later she dies. What did she die from? The cancer or the chemo?

I have seen this time and time again - even in my own case which I will not elaborate on at this time. But I have seen for a long time that critical thinking is not really encouraged by the Society. There has been efforts made to get witnesses to be a little more open to conventional medicine (see recent Awake cover article on doctors) but the question still arises:
If our faith in the "new world" is so sure, why are we so frantic and irrational in coping with death-dealing diseases?

The survival mechanism kicks in, naturally, but our senses are clouded by our inability to think critically.

tetrapod.sapien

Do you find a disproportionate amount of Witnesses - primarly older women - promoting and peddling miracle cures?

Ah ha ha! yes dan, yes! so bang on man. nice to have you around.

cheers,

TS

Lady Lee

My ex has been peddling miracle cures for the last 20 years or more. First it was miracle hair growth remedies then vitamins. Now he is selling some new thing that "almost saved his life". I found his web page the other day.

He used to use this hair remedy and swore it was growning new hair. Why a 35 yr old man with a full haed of hair and no male pattern baldness in the family thinks he is losing hair and then regrowing it is beyond me

I think his real problem is the publishing company he volunteers for.

well... and perhaps a few other things

fairchild

He used to use this hair remedy and swore it was growning new hair. Why a 35 yr old man with a full haed of hair and no male pattern baldness in the family thinks he is losing hair and then regrowing it is beyond me

That's precious, lol.

Reminds me of this guy who peed around his garden every day to keep the elephants out. His neighbor said.. but there are no elephants in this part of the world. The man replied.. see?? I told you it worked!

Miracle Cures

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