Royal Rife
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Royal Raymond Rife (May 16, 1888 – August 5, 1971) claimed to have observed cancer viruses using a special microscope. He also claimed to have rendered, in the living patient, such microbes and many others inert by means of a "beam ray" device, which was claimed to devitalize pathogens by inducing resonances in their constituent chemicals.[1] Information and key parts for the construction of many of Rife's original instruments are absent. After his death, the use of his name in connection with electric devices used in alternative medicine became common.[citation needed]
Biography
Rife was of Scottish ancestry,[2] born on May 16, 1888, in Elkhorn, Nebraska. In 1905, at the age of 17, he graduated from high school. While still at university, he began working part time for Carl Zeiss at their New York offices.[citation needed] Rife said that after a while he moved to Germany and worked part time for Carl Zeiss at their Heidelberg offices, while attending the University of Heidelberg. Rife claims to have worked for six years with Hans Luckel, who was Carl Zeiss's optical scientist and researcher.[3] It is claimed that Rife learned how to grind parabolic lenses.[citation needed]
Near the time of the outbreak of World War One in 1914 Rife was given an honorary Doctorate of Parasitology (Science) by the University of Heidelberg for his work in creating the Atlas of Parasites.[citation needed]
Rife was at one time awarded a Research Fellowship in Bio-Chemistry by a nationally-known Institute for Scientific Research, the Andean Anthropological Expedition.[3]
Rife died on August 5, 1971 in Grossmont Hospital, El Cajon, CA, from a combination of valium and alcohol, at the age of 83.[citation needed]
Rife's microscopes
Rife built a number of microscopes. Rife 1 through to Rife 5 are documented to have existed.[4] At least one was cannibalized for parts to build one or more of the others. The Rife #5 has never been reported to have worked since its original owner, Dr. Gonin in England, "was unable to obtain useful results with either No 4 or No 5."[5]
The Rife #3 microscope was a UV microscope which was claimed to have a resolution greater than any contemporary device and higher than is theoretically possible for a visible light optical microscope.
On November 20, 1931, forty-four doctors attended a dinner advertised as "The End To All Diseases" at the Pasadena estate of Dr. Milbank Johnson. This dinner was honoring Dr. Arthur I. Kendall, professor at Northwestern Medical School, and developer of the "Kendall Medium" or "K-Medium," and Dr. Royal Rife, the developer of the "Rife microscope." Moving microorganisms were supposedly seen in prepared human tissue, still-photographed and motion pictured. [6]
Rife claimed to have used his various "virus" microscopes to directly observe, in vivo in various media and living tissues, the full life cycles of microbes too small for regular visible light microscopes. It is unlikely that these results are possible in practice, due to the ten- to thirty-minute focus time of the microscopes and the small depth of field at such high magnification levels.[citation needed]
Cancer and disease treatment claims
Rife said that he could find a Mortal Oscillatory Rate[7] (M.O.R.) for various pathogenic organisms, and directed his research accordingly, culturing and testing various pathogens with his machine. Rife claimed to have documented the precise frequencies[8] which destroyed specific organisms, and claimed that many, if not all, contagious bacterial diseases could be cured using this radiation treatment, using frequencies that were typically in the 10-100 MHz range (HF to mid-VHF).[9]
A clinic was set up by Dr. Millbank Johnson M.D. which conducted tests using Rife's machine on the growth of typhoid in medium, which he claimed demonstrated no motility of typhoid rods which were exposed to Rife's machine.[10][11] However, no paper was submitted to any peer-reviewed medical journals, nor are any details of the diagnoses of the patients before or after treatment in the cancer trials available, making this essentially unverifiable.
Re-examination of stories
Rife's work was revived in the 1980s. An interest in Rife himself was revived by author Barry Lynes, who wrote a book about Rife entitled The Cancer Cure That Worked! This led to such groups as the Bioelectromagnetics Society.
Those who claim to be continuing Rife's work today are outside the mainstream of medical research. Both Rife's original work and current theoretical and commercial offerings, such as Rife plasma lamp devices, remain unsupported by peer-reviewed research.[12] Quackwatch and other skeptics of alternative medicine have published articles critical of Rife.
Other devices using Rife's name
In the late 1980s a company by the name of "Life Energy Resources" mass-produced a device they called the "REM SuperPro Generator", ostensibly on the foundation of Rife's work (the acronym REM reportedly stood for Rife's Electromagnetic[13]). Three of the company's top distributors: Pat Ballistrea, Michael Ricotta, and Brian Strandberg, served prison time for selling unapproved medical devices and drugs as a result of their trials in 1993, 1994, and 1995.
By the end of the millennium, devices using Rife's name were widely available from many commercial sources. This included microscopes claiming to be derived from Rife's "Universal microscope," as well as devices advertised as "Beam Ray" equivalents claiming to cure anything from the common cold to Lyme disease to cancer. Peer-reviewed research reporting any effects of these machines or the technology involved was not available. It was not clear whether or not any of these devices were actually based on Rife's work. Growing criticism from mainstream science and demands for government intervention were apparent in the media. One example was a December 2000 Sydney Morning Herald article that stated "Cancer sufferers have died after putting their faith in a device with electrical parts worth just $15." Some countries saw the advent of "Rife" clinics which attracted customers worldwide, once again without independent verification or accreditation.
More information
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Rife's experimental and observational claims conflict with several well-established areas of modern science. Those wishing to examine the evidence may compare the external links below with articles on spectroscopy, microscopy, and heterodyning.
See also
- Alternative Medicine
- Bioelectromagnetism
- Electromagnetic therapy
- Energy medicine
- John Bedini
- Quackery
References
- ^ http://www.navi.net/~rsc/rifebook.htm
- ^ Montgomery, Shawn. "Requiem For Royal Rife - Part Two - The Hubbard Interviews: Ben Cullen". search for "scotch" - www.rense.com. Retrieved 2007-07-03.
{{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) - ^ a b "John Crane Trial deposition of Royal Rife". Retrieved 2007-06-23.
{{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) - ^ http://www.rife.de/the_rife_microscopes.html
- ^ http://www.navi.net/~rsc/scisyn.htm
- ^ Kendall, Arthor Issac, MD., PhD. (1931 December No. 6). "Observations on ..." (PDF / Adobe Acrobat 1.2 Mbytes). Retrieved 2007-07-02.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help); Unknown parameter|coauthors=ignored (|author=suggested) (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ http://www.rife.org/newspaper/may%206,%201938.html
- ^ http://www.rife.org/crane/cranetherapy2.html
- ^ http://www.rife.org/john%20marsh/rifeinstrumenthistory.pdf See page 15 (approx.)
- ^ http://rife.org/miscellaneous/no4test-1.jpg
- ^ http://rife.org/miscellaneous/no4test-2.jpg
- ^ Stephen Barrett, M.D. "Rife Machine Operator Sued". Quackwatch. Retrieved 2007-02-12.
- ^ Investigators' Reports, FDA Consumer magazine, September 1996
The Cancer Cure That Worked. Barry Lynes. Markus Books, Queensville, Ontario, Canada, 1987. 169 pages. ISBN 0-919951-30-9
The Cancer Conspiracy: Betrayal, Collusion and the Suppression of Alternative Cancer Treatments. Barry Lynes. 256 pages. Elsmere Press (March 2002) ISBN 978-1885273123
Bird, Christopher: "What Has Become of the Rife Microscope?" New Age Journal. Boston, March 1976.
External links
- Rife devices National Council Against Health Fraud
- FDA Link on the FDA website detailing the successful prosecution of a group selling what they claimed to be a circa 1980's reproduction Rife machine
- Radionics in the Skeptic's dictionary
- Rife.org Reviews the original documents concerning Rife
- The European Rife Information Forum Run by Peter Walker, a Rife experimenter, and contains a wealth of links and information concerning modern Rife research.