Letters to the Empire

The LA Times article announcing HIV activist Christine Maggiore’s death said “According to officials at the Los Angeles County coroner’s office, she had been treated for pneumonia in the last six months.”  This does not mean she had been suffering from chronic PCP pneumonia for six months; but it was enough for Aids proponents.

Aids drug front-man Seth Kalichman, eager to promote his new book on Aids “denialism” has been quick to capitalize on Christine’s passing. “For my own part, I have stated that when a person who tested HIV positive dies of pneumonia they have, by medical definition, died from complications of AIDS” he trumpets triumphantly on his blog. But is that what she died of? At the end of my previous post is an article by Celia Farber, titled “In Her Own Words, a Dec 19 Email From Christine Maggiore” – in which it is clear that Christine suffered an acute, short-lived episode, a sudden breakdown in health.

“So what?” sneers Seth, repeating the dogma. “When a person who tested HIV positive dies of pneumonia they have, by medical definition, died from complications of AIDS.”

But in the actual medical canon, we read,  “If the pneumonia is recurrent and/or of the genus Pneumocystis (carinii) jiroveci (also known as PCP), it is considered an AIDS-defining condition in HIV-infected persons.” See Stringer JR, Beard CB, Miller RF, Wakefield AE. A new name (Pneumocystis jiroveci) for pneumocystis from humans. Emerg Infect Dis [serial online] 2002 Sep;8. Available from:http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/EID/vol8no9/02-0096.htm

Yes, just the same as if they died of 30-odd other diseases, almost all of which have been known to man since the dawn of time. “HIV” is a wonderful catch-all, an umbrella term for linking all sorts of conditions together which otherwise would not be linked together. Pneumona is just pneumonia; but pneumonia + “HIV” = Aids. TB is just TB; but TB  + “HIV” = Aids. It’s wonderfully circular, but there you go. So arguing here that Christine Maggiore died of pneumonia, but not an “Aids defining” pneumonia is basically arguing along fictitious lines, as if we all agreed to describe a mathematics with the starting-point, “2 + 2 = 5”.

I would like, again, to bring my reader’s attention to the same passage that I included in my past post, from Matt Irwin’s “Aids & Voodoo Hexing”. Celia Farber wrote, “She always tried to be stronger than any human being could ever be asked to be. I feared for her life, always. I feared the battle would kill her, as I have felt it could kill me, if I couldn’t find enough beauty to offset the malevolence. This is a deeply occult battle, and Christine got caught in its darkest shadows.” Dr Irwin’s essay puts these words in context, and give real pause to thought; while the Aids bandwaggon rolls on, adding this event as one more item to the “mountain of proof” that “HIV = Aids = death”.

 “[...] A more recent article by Meador appeared in the Southern Medical Journal in 1992. Dr. Meador gave case histories of two people who received death-hexes from medicine men. The two men had very different outcomes, apparently due to the ability of one of their physicians to alter the belief structure of the patient. One of the most astounding elements of his case histories is that one of the men was a Haitian given a death hex by a medicine man, while the other was an American given a death hex unintentionally because of a false positive liver scan which appeared to indicate widespread metastatic cancer, when in actuality there was none. The “medicine man” who placed this second hex was Dr. Meador, himself, the author of the article.The first patient, a poorly educated man near death after a hex pronounced by a local voodoo priest, rapidly recovered after ingenious words and actions by his family physician. The second, who had a diagnosis of metastatic carcinoma of the esophagus, died believing he was dying of widespread cancer, as did his family and his physicians. At autopsy, only a 2 cm nodule of cancer in his liver was found. (page 244)The actions of the physician whose patient made a dramatic recovery were truly remarkable, and involved something more akin to theatre, rather than medical treatment:The patient had been ill for many weeks and had lost a large amount of weight. He looked wasted and near death. Tuberculosis or widespread cancer was considered the likely diagnosis. The patient refused to eat and continued a downward course depsite a feeding tube.

He soon reached a stage of near stupor, coming in and out of consciosness, and was barely able to talk. Only then did his wife ask to speak with Dr. Daugherty privately… The wife told him that about 4 months before hospitalization, the patient had an argument with a local voodoo priest. The priest summoned him to a local cemetery late one night, and… annonced that he had “voodooed” him, that he would die in the very near future.

Dr. Daugherty spent many hours that evening pondering… what he could do to save this moribund man. The next morning he gathered 10 or more of the patient’s kin at the bedside; they were trembling and frightened to even be associated with this doomed man. Dr. Daugherty announced in his most authoritative voice that he now knew exactly what was wrong. He told them of a harrowing encounter at midnight the night before in the local cemetery where he had lured the voodoo priest. Dr. Daugherty reported that he had… choked the priest against a tree nearly to death until the priest described exactly what he had done. Dr. Daugherty announced to the astonished patient and family “That voodoo priest made some lizard eggs climb down into your stomach and they hatched out some small lizards. All but one of them died leaving a large one which is eating up all of your food and the lining of your body. I will now get that lizard out of your sustem and cure you of this horrible curse.” With that he summoned the nurse, who had, on prearrangement, filled a large syringe with apomorphine (a powerful emetic for inducing vomiting). With great ceremony, Dr. Daugherty squirted the smallest amount of clear liquid into the air and lunged towards the patient, who by now had gathered enough strength to be sitting up wide-eyed in the bed. Although he pressed himself against the headboard trying to withdraw from the injection, Dr. Daugherty delivered the entire dose of apomorphine. With that he wheeled about, said nothing, and dramatically left the ward. Within a few moments the patient began to vomit. When Dr. Daugherty arrived at the bedside the patient was retching, one wave of spasms after another. His head was buried in a metal basin. After several minutes of continued vomiting and at a point judged to be near its end, Dr. Daugherty pulled from his black bag, carefully and secretively, a live green lizard. At the height of the next wave of retching, he slid the lizard into the basin. He called out in a loud voice, “Look what has come out of you. You are now cured. the voodoo curse is lifted.”…

The patient’s eyes widened and his mouth fell open. He looked dazed. he then drifted into a deep sleep within a minute or two, saying nothing. The sleep lasted until the next morning. When he awoke, he was ravenous for food. Within a week the patient was discharged home, and soon regained his weight and strength. he lived another 10, or more, years, and died of an apparent heart attack. No one else in the family was affected…

I reflected on this case for many years. I could make no sense of it until I read Walter Cannon’s classic paper, “Voodoo Death”. (pages 244-245)Dr. Meador goes on to describe Cannon’s paper, and summarizes the aspects necessary to cause a voodoo hex to succeed, including deep belief in the hex by the victim, the family, and the community, as well as initial social isolation followed by expectant preparations for death. Before describing the American man who died after a false liver scan, he asks the following question: Even if such a strongly held belief could cause death, most Westerners think of hexing as a bizarre superstitious practice limited to ignorant people. It has no pertinence to modern Western society… does it? (page 245).This patient died with only a small patch of pneumonia and a small nodule of cancer in his liver. His wasting syndrome was unresponsive to antibiotics, and he died “thinking that he was dying of cancer, a belief shared by his wife, her family, his surgeons, and me, his internist” (page 246). Meador asks yet another question of the reader: “If the first patient was cured of a hex, did the second die of a hex?”.

Some of the descriptions of the first patient’s illness bear remarkable resemblance to AIDS. The patient “had lost a large amount of weight”. He looked “wasted and near death”. Tuberculosis or widespread cancer was considered the likely diagnosis, and tuberculosis is one of the most common “AIDS-defining illnesses”. Several types of cancer are also considered AIDS-defining. The patient “continued a downward course despite a feeding tube”, showing that malnutrition alone did not explain his demise. He also suffered from severe dementia.

Kaada (1989) presents a review of research into the opposite of the placebo effect, dubbed the “nocebo” effect. This is the negative effect on health associated with harmful beliefs and psychological stressors. He comments on voodoo hexing and the ability to resist its power as follows:“In its most extreme, nocebo-stimuli may cause death, as in voodoo-death in primitive societies, an example of the fear-paralysis reflex. Whether the outcome is positive or negative is determined, inter alia, by the subject’s possibility of coping with the situation.”This could explain why some people live for years after an HIV diagnosis with no ill health, while others succumb in much shorter time.”

As Christine lived far longer than expected according to the “HIV” dogma, one wonders if she might not have been dead years ago, had she subscribed dutifully & credulously to a regimen of  ”life-saving” ARV’s (”LSARV’s). In any event, I am convinced that self-proclaimed “crusaders” like Kalichman, Wainberg, Moore & the like are only doing the Aids Dissident movement service, by driving into public awareness the knowledge that there is a debate on “HIV” to begin with. This actually represents a failure of nerve on the part of the Aids Establishment as a whole, because for nigh on two decades, the policy of flat-out ignoring dissenting voices worked very well. Now, the establishment of sites dedicated to “negating denialist lies”, like aidstruth & Seth’s own blog, while providing fodder for some, are sowing seeds of doubt elsewhere, where none existed before. 

The battle-lines have changed forever; & I am confident that Christine Maggiore’s life & death have, & will further serve the Dissident Cause, & add to the slowly-tipping balances towards Truth.