Dan Powell
Member
- Location
- Shropshire
I have recently employed Soil Fertility Services to work for me on a consultancy basis. They've done some thorough soil "audits" and I'm hoping to improve my soils with their help over the next few years. They seem like thoroughly decent professional people.
I'm all for getting my soils more biologically active and I have an open mind about how this can be done using soil conditioners such as bio-mulch and I'm even willing to believe that there is a future in spraying compost tea and bacteria-based products as fungicides....
BUT BUT BUT...
Page 52 of their booklet says the following:
"In the universal scheme of things, there lies somewhere between energy and matter, submicroscopic energy particles called somatids. Somatids do not have any DNA or RNA, yet they maintain a kind of "genetic memory" as they develop. The somatid is considered indestructible because it has survived temperatures of 1000 degrees centigrade and millions and rads of radiation.
"When an animal, plant or microbe cell is functioning properly and is properly nourished, the somatids live through a simple and enegetic three phase cycle. This three phase cycle apparently has a function..... blah blah blah
"These indestructible energy masses have been concentrated into a lower level energy mass waiting to be awakened by the forces of the universe, to revitalise the life cycle here on earth."
A quick google search reveals that Gaston Naessens, the discoverer of somatids (using his whizz bang "dark field microscope"), is a quack, widely discredited and...
http://www.quackwatch.org/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/Cancer/714x.html
In 1967, the American Cancer Society published a detailed report on its investigation of Naessens [3]. The report stated:
Am I being led down the garden path? I'm happy to think outside the box, but I still like to base my reasoning on sound science not discredited rubbish. Or am I misunderstanding the inclusion of this pseudoscience in their otherwise informative booklet?
I'm all for getting my soils more biologically active and I have an open mind about how this can be done using soil conditioners such as bio-mulch and I'm even willing to believe that there is a future in spraying compost tea and bacteria-based products as fungicides....
BUT BUT BUT...
Page 52 of their booklet says the following:
"In the universal scheme of things, there lies somewhere between energy and matter, submicroscopic energy particles called somatids. Somatids do not have any DNA or RNA, yet they maintain a kind of "genetic memory" as they develop. The somatid is considered indestructible because it has survived temperatures of 1000 degrees centigrade and millions and rads of radiation.
"When an animal, plant or microbe cell is functioning properly and is properly nourished, the somatids live through a simple and enegetic three phase cycle. This three phase cycle apparently has a function..... blah blah blah
"These indestructible energy masses have been concentrated into a lower level energy mass waiting to be awakened by the forces of the universe, to revitalise the life cycle here on earth."
A quick google search reveals that Gaston Naessens, the discoverer of somatids (using his whizz bang "dark field microscope"), is a quack, widely discredited and...
http://www.quackwatch.org/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/Cancer/714x.html
In 1967, the American Cancer Society published a detailed report on its investigation of Naessens [3]. The report stated:
- Naessens had proposed two treatments for cancer and leukemia. The first called G.N. 24, was found by a Swiss pharmacist to contain mineral salts and methylene blue. The second, called Anablast, attracted worldwide attention in 1963 when Naessens used it to treat a 4-year old boy.
- Although Naessens claimed to have studied biology at the University of Lille, the school records fall to verify this.
- In 1956, Naessens was convicted of illegally practicing medicine. He was fined 300,000 old francs and made to pay 600,000 old francs to the doctors' "ordre" and "syndicat." After that, made it a condition that a doctor should administer his treatment.
- In 1964, Naessens agreed to a test of Anablast by Professor Pierre Denoix, Director of the Gustave-Roussy Institute at Villejuif, France. Denoix concluded that Naessens was mistaken in the premise on which the serum was based, and that an investigation of cases of cancer and leukemia treated with Anablast bad proved that the serum had no therapeutic value. (In every allegedly successful case Denoix was able to investigate, the patient had first received standard therapy.) Soon afterward, Naessens was indicted for practicing medicine and pharmacy illegally [4].
- Denoix reported that the particles he had seen were well known by hematologists to be products of red-cell disintegration. He also concluded that microorganisms that Naessens cultivated were the result of secondary contamination of the material studied.
Am I being led down the garden path? I'm happy to think outside the box, but I still like to base my reasoning on sound science not discredited rubbish. Or am I misunderstanding the inclusion of this pseudoscience in their otherwise informative booklet?