Wait, so the JWs have a history steeped in quackery then? I always wondered why people in my congregation went to flea market docs, literally buying bullshit from the flea market because everyone knows if you drop $150 on both rental you're a healer for sure. Iridology and reflexology, getting toxins out of your feet, oil pulling, etc. There was a sister in Indiana with a magic machine. A sister in Tennessee with magic beans of some sort, pills in supplement form. Funny how the evil medical establishment just wants your money but Bob and Mary sell you things proven to do nothing yet you willingly reach in your pockets for cash while praising them.
A sister at our KH with 2 kids died young. Rather than getting real medical help for the cancer she had she invested in all the quackery. They had a part on a meeting asking for money later to send her to New York to specialists. She finally went and the actual doctors said there was nothing they could do. The tumors were allowed to grow for too long and she was too compromised.
My mom was playing cards with a little old sister who pulled out a little box and shocked herself. It was a box of Radio Shock parts and batteries with leads coming out. She was shocking her colon cancer away. She knew it was working because the black color of her stool was the toxins leaving her body. Makes you want to scream.
So many fairy tales were peddled in the congregations. Everyone wants to feel special, like they have some secret knowledge of truth, whether spiritually or medically, and people wasted precious resources on each.
There's a great podcast that just wrapped their second season called "The Dream". Season 1 was about MLMs. Season 2 was about "wellness" and alternative medicine of sorts. Fascinating stuff.