Royal Raymond Rife Remotely

I received an email the other day from Joanne O'Brien, who according to her website is a Professional Organiser, Image Consultant and Health Coach. Now, I'm not going to deny that I am probably in need of all three of these services, but despite that I have no idea why I received this email from her (although I accept that I may well have signed up for a newsletter at some point). The email was advertising the health aspect of Joanne's repertoire, promoting an “amazing treatment” called Rife Therapy. It said:

Rife Therapy came about through Royal Raymond Rife who developed the frequencies through his generators that he developed in the 1930's. He began treating people and those he treated had their bodies balanced in a way that enabled them to heal themselves.

This claim is the first of several red flags in the email, mentioning “frequencies” (a favourite science buzzword for cranks) and enabling the body to heal itself (another frequently used claim).

Next we have two quotes from famous people - Tesla and Einstein:

Firstly, from Tesla, “If you wish to understand the universe, then think of Energy, Frequency and Vibration”. The only places online I can find this quote are places like new age spiritual websites and people's LinkedIn business profiles - however hard I search I can't find anywhere that authenticates this as being from Nikola Tesla.

The same can be said for the second quote “Future Medicine will be the Medicine of Frequencies”, supposedly from Einstein. Again there's nothing online showing he ever said this.

Whenever I see quotes being used like this, I immediately become skeptical. I've seen misquotes used by many cranks, like David Icke. And it turns out in this case the quotes are being used in the email to try to justify Rife's ideas. The email says:

“These guys were ahead of their time just as Royal Raymond Rife was ahead of his time.”

However Rife wasn't ahead of his time - his ideas were pure pseudoscience, and these modern day Rife machines are useless. Their operators say they work using a kind of bioresonance - the idea that diseases have a frequency, and that the correct frequency transmitted to someone with a disease can kill that disease - up to and including cancer and HIV. In practice, not only have these machines never been shown to work, but dissected machines have been shown to consist of just a battery and a couple of components designed to give the patient a mild shock. According to Wikipedia, several people with advanced disease who have refused proper medical treatment and chosen Rife Therapy instead have died.

What's worse with the email I received is that Joanne is offering remote Rife Therapy - another level of nonsense. The email says that this is done through quantum entanglement (another dodgy buzzword), and that all you need to do is send her a sample of your DNA - like a fingernail. This new idea doesn't even fit with Raymond Rife's own theories, so it appears Joanne has somehow figured out something Rife wasn't able to.

She goes on to say that:

“I have been treating clients for 20 years and even the biggest skeptics or non-believers have been converted by results within their body after having Rife Frequency Therapy”

As a skeptic I'm having a hard time believing her, but I don't want to have to pay her money to prove her wrong. And sadly this is just one of several useless therapies she offers on her website - she also sells Colloidal Silver, Oxygen Therapy, a Vitamin Scan, Bach Flower remedies and something called Stem Cell Nutrition. Some of that is so weird I've never heard of it before, so I'm going to have to do some reading.