Rutherford and Strange practices
“Judge” J. F. Rutherford, the Watchtower Society’s second president, claimed that angels transmitted information inaudibly into his mind. Everything he wrote and published from The Watchtower magazine to his books were the result, he said, of these angelic communications. Under the telepathic direction of these angels from 1918 until his death in 1942, Rutherford and others of the “remnant” of Jehovah’s Witnesses promoted numerous occult practices and beliefs. These put into serious question the spiritual purity of the “angels”.
Radiesthesia
Radiesthesia is an occult science or art. The Society has defined it as “sensitivity to radiations.”[1] It is said to be “a development of the art of dowsing (water witching)” and the two have become somewhat synonymous. [2] The term was coined to describe the theory that water witching operates by unknown, invisible vibrations or waves that are detected by the dowser. Dowsing itself, and why it apparently seems to work at times, is still a source of controversy in the scientific community. [3]
The Society in more recent years has denounced radiesthesia as having to do with the occult, psychic phenomena, and spiritism. [4] This includes other practices than dowsing such as radionics and the ERA. As usual though, they have not mentioned that they themselves were deeply involved in such things themselves. Below is an overview of some of the forms of radiesthesia they were involved with.
1. The ERA Ouija Board
Starting in about 1922, the Watchtower Society began endorsing the “electronic reactions of Abrams” or the ERA. This theorized that the human body emitted radio or electronic waves like a broadcasting station or in the form of an aura. Diseased tissues in the human body radiated at different wavelengths. Different theories and devices were developed to try and treat diseases by altering or eliminating the “disease vibrations.” This field has more recently come to be known as radionics. This has also come under the occult term radiesthesia, or more specifically, “medical radiesthesia.” [5] The founder of this theory, Dr. Albert Abrams invented the “dynamizer” which diagnosed diseases by tuning in to the disease vibrations. His second machine, the oscilloclast, cured diseases by transmitting back at disease tissue the same vibrations or waves as it was transmitting.
The electronic reactions of Abrams and his oscilloclast device quickly became a huge controversy in the popular press in the early 1920s. This started when Upton Sinclair wrote his pro Abrams article “House of Wonders” in Pearson’s Magazine about his visit to Abrams clinic in San Fransisco. [6] Many articles, pro and con, appeared in numerous popular level magazines from 1923 to 1925 as a result. [7]
It didn’t take long for scientists and those in the medical field to denounce the whole thing as quackery and more akin to psychic (or spiritistic) phenomena than medical science. [8] This apparently ended most of the credibility of the ERA, though British researchers, while finding no basis for the theory or the devices, none-the-less found that some ERA practitioners did get some kind of “reactions.”[9]
Various ERA devices were used by the Bible Students/Jehovah’s Witnesses both at Bethel headquarters and at various “Truth clinics” around the country. In 1925, The Golden Age magazine printed an article by Dr. R. A. Gamble on a new version of the oscilloclast he called the “Electronic Radio Biola” which not only diagnosed diseases, but cured them by transmitting back into the diseased tissues the same radio wavelengths that the disease itself transmitted under the theory that “like vibrations cancel out like vibrations.” [10]
In 1930 The Golden Age published the article “Ouija-Boards, Small and Large” by Roy Goodrich after he and Rutherford had a running dispute over the ERA and apparently eventually got into a shouting match over it. [11] Goodrich believed the ERA devices were nothing more than a complex Ouija Board and could not work unless the operator of it was a spirit medium. [12] He documented in the article several bizarre, clearly occultic uses of the device by a doctor at one of the “Truth clinics” visited by Witnesses, some of them prominent headquarters personnel. Goodrich concluded his 1930 article by saying it was high time for the Bible Students to “flee this spiritistic snare of Satan.” [13] The Society had a Bethel headquarters doctor write a rebuttal in a later Golden Age, declared the matter closed, and continued to use and promote the ERA devices at Bethel. [14] Goodrich continued to complain to Rutherford, Woodworth, and later N. H. Knorr on into the 1940s about their use of this “ouija-board.” For this he was eventually disfellowshipped.
It wasn’t until 1953 that the Society officially ended this endorsement. In an Awake! article that year they claimed “radionics” as it was then called was medical quackery. [15] Goodrich, who had by this time been disfellowshipped over the issue, complained that while the Society did finally admit the ERA was quackery and had nothing to do with medical science, they didn’t admit they were involved in this “quackery” themselves, or that it was spiritism. In 1962 and 1963, however, a few articles appeared in the Awake! and Watchtower denouncing the ERA theory and “radionics” as occultic, psychic, and spiritism. [16] They even compared it to a Ouija Board like Goodrich had earlier, thus confirming or conceding Goodrich’s charge of spiritism. Again, however, no mention was made by the author(s) in these articles that the Society had been involved in such “spiritism” and this “Ouija Board” for decades. No mention was made, of course, of Goodrich’s earlier exposé article.
2. The Grape Cure
The Grape Cure was a book and medical plan endorsed by the Watchtower Society. Dr. Roland Jones was one of Rutherford’s doctors who endorsed the Grape Cure. Several others of the board of directors (now called the governing body) endorsed the book and cure including Fed Franz who endorsed it in writing.
According to Roy Goodrich in his Demonism and the Watchtower booklet, “the book has the earmarks of demonism all over it and through it.”[17] In a tract on the subject he said the book endorsed astrology and other occult practices and ideas. The author, Joanna Brandt, claimed to have become “super-conscious” and had “unerring ‘hunches’” and came in touch with her “subliminal self”. The book was therefore a result of “divine illumination” she said.
The Society’s endorsement of this book can be explained by their belief in medical radiesthesia. The book promoted the idea that the grape was “magnetic” and “pep[ed] up your mind” as is was “charged with the magnetism of the Sun.” The “vibrations of the Sun” are contained in the grape and eating grapes allows you to obtain these “vibrations” in concentrated form, while meat-eaters only get “animal vibrations” from the animals they eat! [18]
3. Radio Solar-Pad
Another Rutherford endorsement that could be included under the name of medical radiesthesia is the “Radio Solar-Pad.” This was a belt that was to be worn around the waist. It contained a small amount of radium. This was supposed to revitalize its wearer.
Radium is a radioactive element and is therefore destructive and dangerous to living organisms. It is used occasionally to treat cancer today. It is used to destroy cancer cells in a similar manner to radiation therapy. [19] During the early part of the century some speculated and believed radium could be used for medical purposes, but the medical and science communities quickly discovered the ill effects of radioactive material such as radium. Many died using quack medical cures that used radium. [20]
Rutherford’s physician, Dr. J.W. Coolidge, promoted the use of radium and the radio solar-pad in the June 23, 1920 Golden Age. Rutherford followed it up with his own comments on how he was helped by the pad with his pneumonia. Coolidge’s comments on the use of radium are typical of the naivete of it’s supporters and is also akin to later theories of medical radiesthesia. He spoke of the body’s “vital forces” and “force of life” that could be revitalized by radium emanating the same energy or force of life back into the body, etc. [21]
Reading both short articles on this by Coolidge and Rutherford is fascinating for numerous reasons and somewhat amusing today as is much of what was published in The Golden Age. I am sure the average JW would be embarrassed by such quackery and the occult/mystic ideas promoted in them.
Spiritism
1. Honest Demons
Rutherford believed that some demons were honest, could repent, and could be saved if they took God’s side at Armageddon. They were in the same spiritual condition as the “great multitude”! In contrast to this, Rutherford and the Society had a complete hatred for Christianity and Christian leaders. Anything that had anything to do with Christians and their “clergy” were denounced, and if present within the Bible Students, eliminated from the Society. Examples of this are replacing crosses with upright “stakes,” and not calling their church a church, but a “Kingdom Hall.” Nothing was too small or trivial to be denounced and removed from the Bible Students if it was in some way connected to the Christian churches.
Christianity and church leaders were full of spiritual “scum”, “jackasses” and “SOBs” according to Rutherford. All were destined for destruction at Armageddon. In contrast to this gloomy fate, some demons were honest hearted beings who could repent and be saved at Armageddon. These were simply “tricked” and “seduced” by the wiles of Satan and the wicked demons into sinning and they probably never intended to disobey God. [22]
Why did they have such a sympathy for the spiritual plight of demons and a complete hatred for all things Christian? One obvious place to look for an explanation is the spirits who taught Rutherford.
2. Necromancy
Despite denouncing the spiritistic practice of necromancy (communicating with the spirits of the dead) from the beginning of the Watchtower Society, shortly after Rutherford became president, the Watchtower Society claimed that they were being enlightened and directed by the spirits of the dead. They claimed that the dead members of the “anointed” class or 144,000, and specifically the spirit of the deceased C. T. Russell, were directing the Society from beyond the grave. [23]
To his credit, Rutherford eventually eradicated this belief and claim by the 1930s. [24] However, ending this spiritistic method of spiritual enlightenment was simply replaced with another, equally spiritistic practice. Starting in 1930 Rutherford began to repeatedly claim that the remnant were taught by invisible angelic spirits who transmitted thoughts into their minds. Hardly an improvement!
3. Automatic Writing
Under the telepathic direction of angels since 1918, Rutherford not only believed in honest demons and hated Christian leaders with a passion, he promoted, along with other high ranking Watchtower officials, “new light” from “honest,” repentant demons. He even promoted “new light” from demons given to a medium through automatic writing.
In 1924 The Golden Age magazine promoted the book Angels and Women. This book was a revision of the 1878 novel Seola by J. G. Smith. The revision (Angels and Women) was written by a “close associate” of C. T. Russell and published by Bible Students. The revisor believed the book was “dictated to the women who wrote it by one of the fallen angels who desired to return to divine favor.”[25] The Society endorsed it in two Golden Age magazines as shedding some new “light.” They believed it was dictated to its author by an honest demon who wanted to repent.
Some Bible Students were hesitant to purchase and read the book to receive this new light once they learned of its demonic origin. The Society however didn’t see anything wrong with receiving new light from a demon and continued to promote it. It was apparently sold at the Bethel headquarters as late as 1949. [26]
Rutherford once stated that:
Witches are those creatures who yield themselves as instruments for use by the Devil and his angels and permit themselves to be employed as mediums for communication between wicked spirits and men on earth. [27]
According to this, J. G. Smith was a “witch” and a spirit medium. The Society itself said she was “compelled” to write the book under the direction of a fallen angel (demon). Angels and Women was, therefore, produced by “automatic writing.” The Golden Age also claimed that “automatic writing most certainly is demonism.” [28] This would mean that they endorsed “demonism” as a source of light.
Pyramidology One well known occult involvement by the Watchtower Society is pyramidology. The Society’s founder, C. T. Russell, believed that the Great Pyramid was “God’s Stone Witness and Prophet” that corroborated his theology and especially his chronology. The Encyclopedia of Occultism and Parapsychology made the following statements that sum up what pyramidology is about:
There has been much speculation by occultists about the pyramid structures of ancient civilizations… the uniqueness of pyramid construction and shape is thought to have some occult significance…. Occult speculations regarding the Great Pyramid have arisen mainly around its constructions, dimensions and possible use…. The pyramidology cults which ascribe occult significance to the dimensions and measurements of the Great Pyramid date back to the 1830s,…. mathematician John Taylor and Scottish astronomer Charles Piazza [sic] Smyth claimed that the pyramid embodied divine revelations and prophecy, calculated from its measurements…. It was from Smyth’s calculations that Charles Taze Russell, founder of the sect of Jehovah’s Witnesses, based his own prophecy of the Second coming of Christ… [29]
The author of this article on pyramidology believed other explanations for the structure and dimensions of the Great Pyramid were more plausible:
Less far fetched is the suggestion that the plan of the Great Pyramid and its internal structures structures may have embodied a mystical symbolism of the journey of the soul, as described in the Egyptian Book of the Dead (Papyrus of Ani). [30]
Hundreds of pages of Bible Student (JW) literature were devoted to the “occult”, i.e., hidden meaning and significance of the Great Pyramid. This was a form of divination. From the Pyramid they divined the future as well as the past history of mankind. Their prophecies based on the Pyramid, of course, like all other Watchtower prophecies, fell to the ground unfulfilled.
To his credit, Rutherford ended the Society’s involvement with Pyramidology in 1928. [31] He said the Great Pyramid was “Satan’s Bible” and not “God’s Stone Witness”. [32] After the “new light” that they were reading “Satan’s Bible” for years, the Society continually printed news items about occult and spiritistic activity in, and connections to, the Great Pyramid. [33] Their comments about the occult, even Satanic nature of pyramidology, is a severe indictment of the Society’s involvement with pyramidology if true. [34]
References and notes:
1. The Watchtower, November 15, 1962, p. 679.
2. Encyclopedia of Occultism and Parapsychology, 2nd ed., pp. 1111-12.
3. Raloff, Janet, “Dowsing Expectations, New reports reawaken scientific controversy over water witching,” Science News, vol. 148, no. 6, pp. 90-1 (August 5, 1995).
4. The Watchtower, Nov. 15, 1962, pp. 679-80.
5. Rawcliffe, D. H., Illusions and Delusions of the Supernatural and the Occult, pp. 362-5.
6. Pearson’s Magazine, June, 1923. See Scientific American, October, 1923, p. 230.
7. Popular magazines that dealt with the ERA pro or con include Dearborn Independent, Pearson’s Magazine, Progress, Survey, Forum, and Hearst International Magazine.
8. “The Abrams Cult in Medicine,” Nature, vol. 113 pp. 809-10 (June 7, 1924), vol. 114, pp. 525-6 (October 11, 1924); “Our Abrams Investigation,” Scientific American, (October, 1923 to August, 1924); Journal of the American Medical Association, June, 1923; Discovery, vol. 6, pp. 107-10 (March, 1925). The Scientific American committee that investigated the ERA contained a “psychic member” who “had delved into spiritualism and telepathy” as the claims for the ERA were similar to spiritistic claims. The committee came to the conclusion that “The whole thing bears striking resemblance to the subjective psychic phenomena. Compare it to the Ouija…. Compare it with automatic writing…. The ERA technique… works&endash;when it does work&endash;in just this [same] way.” (Scientific American, March, 1924, p. 212. See also, The Saturday Evening Post, February 2, 1946, p. 93.)
9. Smith, Whitley, “Abrams&endash;Scientist or Quack?”, Forum, vol. 4, pp. 199-204 (August, 1925); “The Inquirery into the Abrams “Dynamiser” and Similar Apparatus,” Discovery, vol. 6, pp. 107-110(March, 1925); “Dr. Abrams and His Box,” Spectator, vol. 134, pp. 107-110 (March 24, 1925).
10. The Golden Age, April 22, 1925, pp. 451-455. See, “The ERA Ouija Board (part one)”, JW Research Journal, vol. 2, #1, pp. 7-15 by the author.
11. Goodrich, Roy, Demonism and the Watchtower, (Ft. Lauderdale, FL.: The Bible Way), 1969, pp. 29-30.
12. The Golden Age, March 5, 1930, p. 355, ¶1.
13. Ibid., p. 362, ¶6.
14. Work, Mae J., “What is E.R.A.?”, The Golden Age, April 30, 1930, p. 483 ff.
15. “Quack Cures and Food Fads,” Awake!, September 22, 1953, pp. 20-23.
16. The Watchtower, November 15, 1962, pp. 679-680; “Those Mysterious Radionic Machines,” Awake!, January 8, 1963, pp. 12-14.
17. Demonism and the Watchtower, p. 9.
18. Goodrich, Roy, The Spook Cure, n.d..
19. Considine, Douglas M., editor, Van Nostrand’s Scientific Encyclopedia, 8th edition, pp. 2637, 2638; McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Science and Technology, 6th edition, 1987, pp. 160-1.
20. An interesting account of this is given in Roger Macklis’ article, “The Great Radium Scandal” in Scientific American, August, 1993, pp. 94-99.
21. Coolidge, J. W. “Life and the Life-Giver,” The Golden Age, June 23, 1920, pp. 606-7; Rutherford, J. F., “Comments on the Foregoing,” Ibid., p. 607.
22. The Golden Age, May 9, 1923, p. 503; The Golden Age, March 30, 1932, p. 390, etc.. See JW Research, vol. 1, #3, pp. 3-12.
23. See JW Research, vol. 2, #1, pp. 25-28 for a discussion and documentation of this.
24. Rutherford, J. F., Jehovah, 1934, p. 191; The Watchtower, May 1, 1934, p. 131. Recently, the Society has stated that the governing body of the JWs may be enlightened by those members of the 144,000 who have died and gone to heaven as a resurrected god, thus opening up the door to necromancy again. See Revelation&endash;It’s Grand Climax at Hand!, 1988, p. 125.
25. J. G. Smith, Angels and Women, 1924, (New York, NY: A.B. Abac Co.), p. 5.
26. Letter from Claire Weissman to author, undated, 1995. See letters section in this issue.
27. The Watchtower, June 1, 1937, p. 166.
28. The Golden Age, March 30, 1932, p. 394.
29. Encyclopedia of Occultism and Parapsychology, third edition, pp. 1107-8.
30. Ibid., p. 1107.
31. “The Alter in Egypt”, parts 1 & 2, The Watchtower, November 15, December 1, 1928.
32. The Watchtower, November 15, 1928, p. 344.
33. See for example, “Practical Lessons on the Great Pyramid”, The Golden Age, January 23, 1929, p. 269.
34. There are more examples of Rutherford’s involvement in the occult than has been discussed here and in previous issues of this journal. We will document and discuss more in the planned ‘Occult Theocracy’ issue(s) of this journal, hopefully next year. This will look at the Society’s involvement in the occult, such as various forms of divination and radiesthesia (or “uncanny powers” as they sometimes call it) from their beginning to the present.
sidgi
