Magda Palmer

Philip Bradley - 1 May 1989

Sir, — Your front page of July 28 featured Magda Palmer, promoter of healing by crystals. As if that wasn’t enough, another page of the same issue featured a woman promoting colour therapy healing by threads of specific lengths and colours.

A colour therapist who claims a near 100 per cent success rate and the ability to cure cancers “if they are not too far advanced” warrants far more probing than the faintly sceptical approach of journalist Stephanie Edmond, if they are being reported at all.

I’ve not read Magda Palmer’s book. However, I have read about her in a recent issue of the Australasian Post. According to the article the actress Jill Ireland “firmly believes crystals helped her overcome breast cancer and increased the effectiveness of chemotherapy.

“Jill slept on chunks of rose quartz and carried chunks with her”, Magda said. “Her cancer was completely stabilised and since then she has made it her business to tell people about crystal healing”.

How sadly ironic that on the same day I read that, I read in the evening paper that a biopsy of Jill Ireland has shown a recurrence of cancer. A pity the crystal balls did not forsee this. It might have saved Jill Ireland many uncomfortable nights.

The newspaper report quoted Ms Ireland, who is, surprisingly to me, chairwoman of the American Cancer Society, as saying “I want to be as visible as possible so that other cancer victims can take heart”. That’s fine. Nonetheless, I hope she is now telling people any claims of cure by crystals should have been taken with a grain of salt.