III
Treatment of Disease
In 1905 Sir John Fleming invented the vacuum tube and some time later Lee De Forest developed a tube which could amplify electron flow. Samuel Hoffman, an electronics specialist, helped Abrams develop a more advanced version of the little black box which they called the “Oscilloclast.” The oscilloclast was an amplifier that could pick up and “broadcast” beneficial frequencies to a patient.
Abrams had already discovered that certain chemicals caused resonating reflexes similar to those of certain diseases. When he found that quinine caused a resonance change similar to that of malaria, and mercury caused one similar to that of syphilis, he felt that a means of radionic cure was available. When small quantities of quinine and mercury were administered respectively to patients with malaria and syphilis, it was found that the resonating reflex returned to normal. These two substances were long known as cures for those diseases, but the mercury cure was often worse than the disease. Other, more toxic substances were found to cancel out disease, but could not be administered.
In an attempt to avoid toxic cures, Abrams tried following a version of homeopathic medicine in which diluted doses are given. He decided to broadcast the radiations of certain chemicals that had the effect of changing a disease resonance. A patient with syphilis would stand in front of an oscilloclast and, hopefully, the disease would be cancelled out. The results of these experiments were often startling.
There are many people who claim to have been cured by Abrams’ methods. One outstanding case involved the Chief Justice of the High Court of India. The man had been operated on in India for tumors which were described as “sarcoma round cell.” The doctors in India gave him up as hopeless and he went to England in a last-ditch attempt to save his life. The case was so hopeless that he could not find a surgeon who would attempt to remove the rapidly growing tumors.
He was given six weeks to live before he went to a doctor employing Abrams’ methods. He was given oscilloclast radiations for those six weeks and when he went back to his own physician, the size of his tumors showed an amazing reduction. In six more weeks the growths were much smaller than they would have been if the patient had undergone a spontaneous remission. He eventually went back to India to resume his work.
IV
Other Developments
Because of the unorthodox nature of these experiments the Abrams techniques ran afoul with more conservative scientists. Many of the practitioners of medical radionics were persecuted and driven out of practice. Machines were destroyed and few of the “little black boxes” exist today, except as curios in some old doctors’ attics. By modern standards, the early radionics boxes looked like something out of an old Buck Rogers serial. The large antique variable resistors are cumbersome and hard to find today.
Through the years there were several inventors who improved on the original Abrams device. For years Abrams sought to find a way to detect disease without the awkward use of a healthy human subject as a resonator. One of Abrams’ students, Ruth Drown, developed a modification which is used today in most radionic detection devices — it is simply a rubbing plate.
A piece of rubber was stretched over a plate which was attached to the output from the resistor panel. It was kept warm by a small light bulb, but did not employ any other form of electrical current. The physician would merely rub his fingertips over the plate while turning the dials until a “change” in the “texture” of the plate was noticed. When this change occurred, the dial settings were read.
Drown devised circuitries for broadcasting treatments that did not require any electrical current. She was also the first to devise long-distance treatment when she found that the patient did not have to be present.
Abrams was probably the first to do a long-distance diagnosis in San Francisco when he had a patient in New York place an electrode against his body that was connected to the telephone. By dialing long distance, Abrams was able to run a line from his receiver to the resistor set up and thereby get a reading. He had some success with this, but not enough to make it a regular practice. It was assumed that the wire, which stretched for so many miles, may have picked up some interference.
Ms. Drown, however, simply used a blood spot which could be sent through the mail and could be used over and over to keep tabs on the changing condition of the patient. She could also, with an apparent high degree of success, cause changes in patients’ bodies by placing their blood spots on the broadcaster with a chemical cure.
These developments begin to sound a little like those of the witch doctor who uses clay images mixed with blood and hair. It was also found that certain medicine men in Africa use a rubbing block that is very similar in design and purpose to Drown’s detection plate. These rubbing blocks are usually made of smooth hard wood and can be rubbed with the fingertips or a wooden baren to tell the future or find out what is ailing a tribal member. The secrets of using the rubbing blocks were jealously guarded, but their use may have been within the talents of more than half the tribe’s members. Those with moderate psychic sensitivity (i.e., most of us) or those who were good dowsers can be trained to use accurately radionic detection equipment.
