#1822: Webster Kehr

Webster Kehr is a legendary crackpot and crank magnet. Kehr is a religious fundamentalist (Mormon) creationist and conspiracy theorist, notable for promoting free energy suppression conspiracies and denying the existence of photons (and thus the technology required for the screen on which you are reading). Kehr writes for the website, CancerTutor, which promotes a range of fake, unproven and utterly ridiculous alternative cancer treatments. CancerTutor is formally the website of the organization “Independent Cancer Research Foundation, Inc.” (ICRF), though Kehr and his gang wouldn’t know the difference between research and making up lunatic conspiracy theories on the spot. Nonetheless, the website actually seems to be somewhat popular, and is among the top hits if you search for “natural cancer cure” (which you have no reason to do: go here instead). Kehr apparently retired in 2015, whereupon he received some kind of lifetime achievement award from Ty Bollinger; yeah, that kind of stuff – Kehr wrote the foreword to Bollinger’s book Cancer – Step Outside the Box.

According to Mr. Kehr “cancer is caused by microbes inside the cancer cells.” This is not true, but shows that Kehr probably doesn’t even care whether he got it right. He seems to have gotten the idea from legendary crackpot Royal Rife, who in the 1930s described unknown, non-existent bacteria he thought, without much evidence, were the cause of cancer, the “Bacillus-X”. The main treatment pushed by the CancerTutor webpage is accordingly the BX Protocol, which is advertised to help not only with cancer but, for good measure (remember: the broader the range of application, the greater the income base) “most diseases”, including Alzheimer’s, autism, asthma, autoimmune diseases, blood disorders, cancer, COPD, diabetes (type I and II), epilepsy, heart disease, lupus, Lyme disease, malaria, neurodegenerative disorders, Parkinson’s, respiratory infections, tuberculosis, and “most bacterial and viral conditions”. (The “inventor” of BX protocol is “Dr” Dewayne Lee Smith, who runs the Delta Institute and claims to have a Ph.D. in “biological sciences” from “University of Canterbury” or “Canterbury University” – he seems unsure; The University of Canterbury is a real university in New Zealand, but “Canterbury University” a Seychelles-based diploma mill). What the BX Protocol actually is, is a bit unclear, and it is hard to make sense of Delta Institute’s “explanation”, except that it is supposed to be a “new paradigm” and that Western medicine is flawed because it is merely “treatment of symptoms, and not causation” – and for the BX people there really is the cause of disease: A mythical and undefined “mitochondrial dysfunction” involving undetectable “stealth pathogens”. The protocol involves what is basically homeopathy, an “energized non-toxic biomolecule created from pure crystalline fructose” (i.e. sugar-water) that is potentiated through some unspecified magic ritual involving light(?), and which will “seek out and bond with toxic structures” and “dismantles” the toxins with an “electric field”. Indeed.

The CancerTutor website apparently makes money by referring readers to various quackery and crankery sellers, especially the BX Protocol cure-all (data leaked from Delta Institute show that CancerTutor/Webster Kehr received 15% commission on fourteen sales of BX Protocol.) The current retail-price of BX Protocol is $16,995. Kehr suggests to his readers that they may for instance sell their life-insurance for half its value to a broker he knows personally to pay for the BX Protocol.

How does Kehr know that his advice is good? Well, he’s got anecdotes! He even admits that “[w]e depend on cancer patients to contact us if the [treatment] protocol is not working.” Given that their treatments are often aimed at the terminally ill (or at least people who would die without proper treatment), you can perhaps discern a potential problem with this way of testing the efficacy of the advice you are giving.

It’s not the only cancer cure pushed on CancerTutor, though. Kehr says that there are more than 20 ways to turn cancer cells into normal cells (even though he is demonstrable unable to distinguish a cancer cell from a bacterial infection), and these are “[i]nexpensive, safe and gentle cancer treatments (with 90% cure rates) have existed for decades, but very, very few people know these treatments even exist.” For instance, CancerTutor also advocates biological dentistry and dentists trained by Hal Huggins. Why do few people know about these cures, you think? Ah, you didn’t need to ask: “The reason the media blacklists the truth about the 90% cure rate treatments is that the media is owned by multi-billionaires and the treatments that have 90% cure rates are not profitable enough to satisfy their lust for profits.” Those multi-billionaires also die of cancer, but apparently the profit margin is more important. Why the media and its owners have an economic stake in hiding cancer cures is less clear.

The CancerTutor website is currently run by Kehr’s associate, “acupuncturist /naturopath” Gary Edward Teal. Teal is most notable for his expertise on and promotion of Rife machines, which Teal thinks cure both cancer and infectious diseases (though he is for legal reasons forced to admit that the devices “are sold as electronic test instruments. No suitability or claims for any other purpose is stated or implied … We make absolutely no claims of any cure for any disease”).

As for Kehr, his pseudoscience is – as we mentioned at the outset – not limited to cancer quackery. Kehr is also a creationist and thinks “evolution is the most absurd scientific theory in the history of science!!” He has even written a couple of books about that. The main claim in The Evolution of Evolution is, according to himself, “that human DNA cannot contain enough information to ‘morph’ a fertilized egg (e.g. of a human) into a newborn baby.” So his main beef is apparently not with evolution but with genetics altogether. And in Introduction to the Mathematics of Evolution, his main beef is apparently with Cantor, insofar as he thinks that the set of naturals and the set of reals are the same size (he might not realize precisely what he’s claiming); he admits there is no bijection between them, though, which makes it rather obvious that he doesn’t have the faintest idea what he is talking about – yes, he describes himself as the author of many mathematical papers; MathSciNet doesn’t list a single one, however. (Otherwise the book seems apparently mostly to confuse evolution with abiogenesis and standard PRATTs such as “evolution by mutations cannot add new information” and “random chance cannot produce a human”. Anyone who thinks that line of reasoning is relevant has emphatically not remotely understood the basic principles of the theory of evolution.) Kehr also rejects Einstein’s theory of relativity and, as mentioned, photons.

Diagnosis: One of the most impressive crank magnets on the Internet. If you have a stupid theory or idea, Kehr is apparently willing to adopt it, especially if you cannot procure evidence or reason for it, since the fact that you can’t demonstrates that there is a conspiracy to suppress it. Raging lunatic.

#1821: Michael N. Keas

Michael Keas is a Professor of History and Philosophy of Science at the College at Southwestern (Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary), or possibly (currently) adjunct faculty at Biola University. He is also a Senior Fellow at the radical anti-science organization the Discovery Institute, and a creationist. And although he is not a scientist, I guess the creationist horde considers him to be “close enough”; at least Keas is a signatory to the Discovery Institute’s petition A Scientific Dissent From Darwinism. He is also the primary author of the auxiliary materials for the Discovery Institute’s “textbook”, Explore Evolution.

Despite not being a scientist, Keas apparently “leads workshops for science teachers on how to teach about controversial subjects such as Darwinism.” He has even taught an Intelligent Design course, “Unified Studies: Introduction to Biology”, at the Oklahoma Baptist University, which is one of very few such courses that have been taught for credit at an accredited institution (though OBU, where “the general science, education and chemistry programs … take a strong Intelligent Design advocacy position” is hardly a real university in the ordinary sense of “real university”).

Diagnosis: Not among the loudest Intelligent Design anti-scientists, Keas seems nevertheless to wield rather significant influence in the movement. Dangerous.

#1820: Phillip Kayser

Phillip Kayser, who leads the Dominion Covenant Church in Omaha and is associated with something called Biblical Blueprints, is an alleged libertarian and Ron Paul supporter. He is also a theocrat who wants to impose Biblical death penalties on gay people and adulterers. Strange how Ron Paul tended to attract these people (not really; see below); Paul’s 2012 campaign said they “welcome Rev. Kayser’s endorsement and the enlightening statements he makes on how Ron Paul’s approach to government is consistent with Christian beliefs.”

In laying out his vision for society, Kayser emphasizes that “Whereas Hebrews 2:2 gives a blanket endorsement of all Old Testament penology as justice, the rest of the New Testament gives specifics. It teaches that homosexuals who come out of the closet are ‘worthy of death’ (Rom. 1:32). It teaches that juvenile delinquents who abuse their parents can in certain circumstances ‘be put to death’ (Mt. 15:3-9) and that rejection of this provision was to ‘transgress the commandment of God because of your tradition’.” He assures us, however, that justice would be dispersed fairly and equitably in his ideal society: “The civil government could not round them up. Only those who were prosecuted by citizens could be punished, and the punishment could take a number of forms, including death. This would have a tendency of driving homosexuals back into their closets.” Apparently adultery requires the death penalty, too, and having sex with a woman who is menstruating should potentially also qualify, according to Kayser. Apparently giving equal rights to gay people is “a whole lot worse” than the crimes of King George that led to the American Revolution, and should accordingly be opposed with violence if necessary by true Christians™.

The reason Kayser supports Paul is of course that Paul has promised to give the states the freedom to establish theocratic governments and reject the Constitution at will, which is precisely what Kayser is hoping for. At the “Freedom 2015: National Religious Liberties Conference” (attended by the GOP presidential candidates Ted Cruz, Mike Huckabee and Bobby Jindal), Kayser also admitted that it may be unrealistic to expect the national imposition of Biblical law at present, but still maintained that it could be achieved at state and local levels. He also stated his support for Kim Davis, calling her “a hero” and claiming that “Magistrates must follow Christ in their interposition,” not secular law (because religious freedom, duh!). In the pamphlet he distributed at the conference he advocated capital punishment not only for gays and adulterers, but also for blasphemers, Sabbath-breakers, apostates and witches. “Christians should advocate the full implementation of all God’s civil penalties in every age… Every Old Testament statue continues on the books, and without those statutes, we could not have a consistent ethnical standard.” Even “pagan” nations are obliged to follow biblical law, he writes, as “God held gentile kings accountable to these civil laws.” The government should also execute murderers (including abortion providers), and those guilty of kidnapping, rape, prostitution and bestiality.

Kayser’s work is promoted on the Theonomy Resources website, which is run by Stephen Halbrook.

Diagnosis: His rabid bloodthirst is pretty impressive for someone living in the 21th century. As with so many radical fundamentalists, Kayser seems to run on pure hate; his impact is probably relatively limited, but several GOP presidential candidates have at least been willing to lend him an ear.

#1819: Peter H. Kay

Homeovitality is a branch of homeopathy targeting genetic causes of disease. Oh, yes. Apparently “[i]n 1997, Prof. Khuda-Bukhsh [affiliation not disclosed] proposed that homeopathic substances have the capacity to interact with the genetic blueprint and deliver their benefits by increasing the expression of genes that synthesise health promoting proteins.” Of course, homeopathic substances are just substances and the homeopathic properties of those substances don’t exist and accordingly have no effect on anything whatsoever. But, yes: the idea is “gene targeting by homeopathic DNA,” no less. “The Homeovitality system uses highly diluted DNA molecules [sic] with precise sequences to target genes that produce the body’s natural proteins that have been proven to promote health as well as protect against and resolve many diseases.” In other words, the practicioners create remedies, expose them to DNA molecules (ones similar to the DNA that are responsible for the symptoms of the disease in question – just think about it), but dilute the remedies (while carefully observing the steps of the magic ritual) so much that they don’t actually contain any DNA molecules, and voila: Homeopathic gene therapy. It sounds like a parody of a kindergarten game of pretense wizardry, but there are actually grown-ups being engaged in this stuff full time and in all seriousness.

Several people promote homeovitality, but it seems to be particularly associated with one Peter H. Kay, who, according to a homeopathy websites, is a “world renowned scientist, molecular pathologist, immunologist and geneticist,” who was apparently responsible for the Homeovitality micro-DNA therapy system, which he developed to allow everyone to enjoy “super health.” Apparently Kay is a pioneer in “homeogenetics” (no, seriously), “the future field of study investigating the interactive processes between the genetic blueprint and homeopathy.” And apparently his ideas are supported by homeopathic provings. (For those not in the know; conventional testing demonstrate that homeopathic remedies don’t work, so of course homeopaths have developed their own system of testing: “provings” are what homeopaths use to “prove” what therapies to use (not whether they work – this is the essence of tooth-fairy science) by giving the undiluted substance to healthy people and get them to write down their experiences. Of course, since the homeopathic remedies are diluted versions of the substance, such provings would be utterly irrelevant to the final remedy even if they ended up showing anything interesting, which they don’t.) In any case, homeovitality researchers have “demonstrated”, through provings, that whole genomic DNA from other species can change gene expression. Therefore, their magic potions let you target specific genetic diseases “safely and effectively”. It’s medieval magic and religious fundamentalism gone utterly unhinged. These people are deranged.

But yes, you can purchase an array of Kay’s homeovitality remedies online, including e.g.:

- Age Well, an antiaging treatment (oh yes, nothing shouts “serious science” louder than pushing anti-aging potions.) The potion is created with IL-7, a “natural cytokine that has the ability to stimulate the production of new immuno-competent cells in the bone marrow.” It can also neutralize toxins, kill viruses and help boost the immune system. Of course, in reality drinking solutions containing IL-7 will do exactly nothing except providing the body with a tiny quantity of nucleic acids. And Age Well doesn’t even contain IL-7, but the magic memory of having been in contact with IL-7.

- Cancer Care, which apparently includes (magic memories of) the cDNA for two tumor suppressor genes, which makes no sense even by homeopath’s own lights: a cancer remedy should use a homeopathic dilution of something that causes cancer, shouldn’t it? Not that Kay seems anything but confused by how his remedies are supposed to work, which I suppose is alright since they certainly don’t.

Here is their homeovitality FAQ. [Update: It seems to have gone missing. Which I guess is OK. If you have questions then these products are probably not for you.]

Diagnosis: Utter nonsense, fuelled by the feverish, deluded dreams and religious revelations of a deranged madman and realized with the sophistication of the kids-cartoonversions of witches’ brews. Kay does have a real degree, though, which makes one wonder whether he actually believes what he is peddling.

Hat-tip for this entry: Respectful Insolence.