#3008: Patricia Herman

Patricia Herman is a behavioral scientist at the RAND corporation and Co-Director of the RAND Research Across Complementary and Integrative Health Institutions (REACH) Center. She is also a “licensed naturopathic doctor”, which makes her qualified for an entry here by default – even though she might immediately come across as one of the less chaotically delusional figures in naturopathy (the comparison class is … colorful), something that ultimately probably makes her more dangerous than some of her colleagues.

 

Herman is a pusher of the de facto CAM scam-by-smoke-and-mirrors known as non-pharmacological interventions, and has, most notably, published papers e.g. on the ‘cost-effectiveness’ of alternative medicine approaches, thus making her a figure of some importance in the grand strategy of trying to provide a sheen of legitimacy to the nonsense practices falling under the heading ‘complementary and alternative medicine’. Her contributions to the study of the economics of CAM include e.g. a paper attempting to do something close to a systematic review by applying economic analysis quality checklists to a number of what the authors deemed “high-quality” studies of alternative treatments to conclude, of course, that there seemed to be a number of “highly cost-effective, and even cost saving,” such therapies. And that, of course, is entirely what you’d expect them to find given the standards they use for “high-quality”. In reality, given that the treatments in question don’t offer meaningful clinical benefits, any cost-effectiveness analysis is meaningless, making their effort an instance of tooth-fairy science. Her paper “The Problematic Economics of Integrative Oncology” is discussed here (yes, she does recognize that the costs of woo are high but fails magnificently to draw the proper conclusions from that recognition).

 

Diagnosis: Yes, she does come across as a Very Serious Person on the issue of complementary and alternative medicine. And no, you shouldn’t listen to what she has to say.

 

Hat-tip: Science-based medicine

 

#3007: William James Herath

Nothing says ‘paradigm-shattering discovery’ like a book on a scientific topic published by a vanity publisher from an author with no background in the relevant scientific field. There are plenty of these. William James Herath’s WHAT IS EVOLUTION?, published by something called ‘Createspace’, purports to show “how evolution is undefined, unscientific, and unlawful” and outline “why evolution is, in fact, illegal and unfit for the public classroom”, and though we haven’t bothered to actually look at its contents we nevertheless feel confindent about giving the author an entry here. Apparently, Herath presented some of his main findings at the Pensacola Truth Conference in 2018, where he ostensibly demonstrated “how to scientifically and legally shut down the claims of evolution, along with explaining destructive aspects of the false theology of God using evolution to create, aka theistic evolution,” accompanied by “a 4-week discussion guide designed to help youth pastors open a conversation addressing the ‘Faith Cavity’ of biological evolution” entitled HOW DID WE GET HERE?. He also shared “tips, tricks, stories, and secret weapons from his youth pastor experiences.”

 

Apparently, the book shows that teaching evolution in public schools is illegal because “it is only a theory” and because “there is no accepted definition of what evolution actually means”. On reading the latter, we immediately suspected that Herath – given his demonstrated level of scientific wherewithal – had looked at a couple of dictionaries and found discrepancies. And indeed, that’s precisely what he did: “The National Academy of Sciences also claims evolution to be a fact and offers three definitions of the term, and all of which conflict with Webster’s definition of evolution.”

 

According to his bio, Herath is an apologetic speaker with the Ratio Christi Speakers Bureau and has served on the National Vineyard Church Curriculum Team. He is also a filmmaker, though we haven’t had the opportunity to delve into his cinematic oeuvre. Moreover, “in addition to being an author/speaker, Herath has appeared in over forty national television commercials.” So there.

 

Now, Herath modestly admits – in the Kickstarter campaign he used to launch his book project – that “I am not the most qualified person to write this book, just being honest”, but “Like atheist and New York Times Bestselling Author Richard Dawkins not being the most qualified person to to write The God Delusion, I am equally unqualified to write a book about the constitutionality of evolution”. At least there is an inimitable personal style to his prose.

 

Diagnosis: Writing in 2026, his discoveries hasn’t yet quite managed to turn the wheels of science, but that’s presumably because it takes a while for scientists to become aware of what hit them when the impact is as earth-shattering as Herath’s.

 

#3006: Jami Hepworth

Jami Hepworth is not herself an MD but she is, apparently, the wife of an MD. Hepworth therefore does her antivaccine activism under the moniker “Skeptical Doctor’s Wife”. Whatever skills and knowledge of medicine her husband had access to in medical school has not been transferred to her by osmosis; indeed, she readily admits that her “increasingly unorthodox views according to the Western medicine paradigm have presented a bit of a rocky road for us”.

 

So Hepworth parrots all the standard anti-vaccine tropes, and although she claims to be “steeped in knowledge of the most relevant peer-reviewed literature”, she was apparently unaware that vaccines do not contain cell lines derived from aborted babies (which is, of course, a stock piece of intentional deception widely regurgitated on anti-vaccine sites). A perhaps more telling self-ascription of competence is her claim to also be steeped in “the gaps in the story about vaccines as shared by official sources” – yes, the stuff they don’t want you to know about. Like all anti-vaccine activists, Hepworth is more than anything else a conspiracy theorist.

 

Hepworth’s actual credentials consist of a BA in German literature from Brigham Young University, something she informed the public about when testifying against Nevada bill AB123, which was designed enhance the data collection process and centralize immunization information for rapid use during an outbreak. During the testimony, Hepworth referred to vaccination as an “example of medical cannibalism” and also stated that, over time, the cell lines actually used to grow viruses to make some vaccines “wane” (Hepworth avoids mentioning what mechanism she thinks is in play), meaning that vaccine manufacturers repeatedly “have to get new cell lines” (yes, it’s the vaccine manufacturers are engaged in the purchase and sale of abortion conspiracy theory because of course it is – this is the kind of person we’re dealing with here). She also, of course, asserted that vaccines are not tested against saline controls, because that’s what she has decided to believe; damn the facts and damn understand how vaccines or scientific testing works.

 

But yeah, it’s all there. Hepworth denies that herd immunity is real, because she confuses waning immunity from pertussis vaccination with lack of herd immunity, and she denies that anyone in developed countries dies of the diseases that wevaccinate against. And so on.

 

Diagnosis: In fairness, Hepworth is ultimately a minor figure – a conspiracy theorist with a facebook page where she complains about how ‘uncivil’ pro-vaccine advocates are because they refute her nonsense and advocate for vaccines. But she did try to get attention, so we’ll oblige her.

 

Hat-tip: Respectful insolence

 

#3005: Tyler Henry

A.k.a.  Tyler Henry Koelewyn – the full name he used when he was working as a clairvoyant for a new-age shop in California before being picked up by TV.

 

We suppose Greg Hendrix is too minor, and the stories of his antics too old (though one wonders what he’s up to these days), even for us. Tyler Henry, however, is not a minor figure. Tyler Henry is a major celebrity and heir-apparent to charlatans and delusional dingbats like Sylvia Browne and John Edward. Henry is a self-declared ‘clairvoyant’ and ‘medical intuitive’ (“Tyler can often physically sense the prior medical conditions of the spirits he is attempting to communicate with”), and a reality show personality who has appeared in in reality show series like Hollywood Medium with Tyler Henry and Life After Death with Tyler Henry, after getting his breakthrough following a 2015 appearance on Keeping Up with the Kardashians, where he gave a reading to one of the Kardashian sisters. He has subsequently gone on to give multiple readings to a variety of celebrities, including Megan Fox and Kristin Cavallari – of course, to make his show work, Henry usually has to claim that he doesn’t know who the celebrity he is talking to is so that they can be impressed when he relates information about them that is readily available via Google (yes, that’s the level of silly we’re talking about) – the most famous one being perhaps his reading with La Toya Jackson, in which he claimed to contact Michael Jackson (he didn’t), and the Alan Thicke affair, on which Henry largely bases his claims of being a ‘medical intuitive’. He has also published some books (Between Two Worlds: Lessons from the Other Side and Here & Hereafter: How Wisdom from the Departed Can Transform Your Life Now; yes, he mixes his psychic bullshit with bullshit selfhelp bullshit – what did you think?).

 

Henry, who needless to say has no more psychic powers than a bathtub, uses a mix of deceptive cold reading and hot reading techniques to get his results, which tends to produce the usual responses among the silly-of-mind partially in virtue of the Forer effect and partially because mundane predictions that an average 10-year-old could have made or providing information that’s readily available through Google (or, usually, nothing of substance whatsoever) sound impressive to idiots (like Jeryl Lippe of lifeandstylemag) when it is coming from a celebrity.

 

But although Tyler Henry and his antics may immediately strike you as light and laughable entertainment, there is a serious and tragic side to it. Tyler Henry is a grief vampire, a self-proclaimed psychic medium (one of many) who ‘prey upon the loved ones of those who have recently died [to] exploit the grieving for their own monetary gain’; and such actions are not only exploitative but risk causing significant harm to people in already difficult situations. And Henry isn’t only claiming to contact long-ago grandmothers but to put grieving relatives in touch with victims of suicide. This is, needless to say, not a good idea. Henry’s efforts has of course been promoted by Dr. Phil, but then Dr. Phil is himself a dangerous loon. Fortunately, good people are paying attention as well.

 

There is decent coverage of Henry and his ilk here.

 

Diagnosis: No, it’s not really funny even though it’s hard not to laugh. Henry himself can laugh, too, of course – all the way to the bank – for Henry is, regardless of whether he himself genuinely believes he has the abilities he claims to have or not (he probably does believe so), a fraud and a dipshit.

 

#3004: Robert Henderson

Robert Henderson is a delusional wingnut pastor and committed Trump cultist – so committed in fact, that he declared that God had called him to serve as Trump’s spiritual running mate before the 2020 election. He also wrote a book, Praying for the Prophetic Destiny of the United States and the Presidency of Donald J. Trump from the Courts of Heaven, which, according to himself, was based on three prophetic dreams he had about Trump. Moreover, Henderson proclaimed (e.g. in his book Prayers and Declarations that Open the Courts of Heaven) that anyone who opposed or ran against Trump was “fighting with God” and that Trump “should never be criticized” because “he sits in the seat of the president of the United States of America” and it is an offense toward God Himself to criticize a sitting president when the president is the one Henderson wants to be president. Of course, if the president is someone else, things are different. With regard to the Biden administration, for instance, “everything that they’re seeking to accomplish, it is all designed to weaken America” (in order, perhaps unwittingly, to usher in a one-world government under the dominion of Satan).

 

In fact, Henderson claims to believe that he is partially responsible for Trump’s 2016 victory – that is, in part, the gist of those three prophetic dreams he claims to have had. The first dream concerned an imaginary phone call from Trump during the 2016 primaries in which Trump asked him, Henderson, to hold a pro-Trump conference, which he did and which ostensibly helped Trump secure the nomination. The second dream, occurring after Trump won, concerned Trump asking him to be a part of his Cabinet: Henderson interpreted the request as Trump asking him to be Trump’s representative in “the courts of Heaven”, which he promptly accepted and which, entirely and exclusively according to what Henderson claims to have dreamt, secured Trump’s victory in said courts. (The third dream occurred following Trump’s inauguration and was the one in which he (Henderson) was asked to serve as Trump’s spiritual running mate in 2020.)

 

A self-declared “apostle”, Henderson belongs to an “apostolic family” named Global Reformers, whose purpose is to “Secure Nation’s Destinies From the Court of Heaven”. According to Global Reformers, “the thing that has hindered the fullest manifestation of the kingdom of God in the earth is the satanic realm still is holding nations under their influence because we as the church have yet to enforce and execute into place the finished works of the cross”, and Henderson and his fellows have been granted, by the Court of Heaven, the legal right to enforce God’s edicts and policies; their declarations and prayers hence tend to contain a lot of pseudolegal jargon, such as requests to “revoke the rights” of “demonic entities” to influence American politics. And his prayers work: In September 2020, for instance, Ruth Bader Ginsburg died just weeks after Henderson claims to have asked God to remove her from the Supreme Court; “that’s no accident,” said Henderson (part of Henderson’s beef with Ginsburg was of course abortion, though for Henderson that issue isn’t primarily “about the babies” but “about a blood altar that is inviting demonic powers”). In other words, Henderson hired a (divine) hitman to murder a Supreme Court justice he didn't like. He is fine with that.

 

As for the 2020 elections, which he likened to 9/11, and his self-proclaimed divine mandate, Henderson would spend much of the period wearing a shirt with an American flag because it would cause God to remember the United States of America (the cognitive faculties of Henderson’s God have some notable weaknesses). And during the campaigns, he called on God to dispatch an army of angels across the country – specifically singling out Pennsylvania and Michigan – to prevent the Democrats from stealing the election. “We release and commission and dispatch the angels into that place in Pennsylvania and in Michigan, Lord, and in all these states that have yet to be called, Father,” ranted Henderson (it is perhaps noteworthy how clear Henderson was that said angelic armies were his to command – God is merely the supplier), and declare that “they would not purposefully be delayed for the purpose of fraud. We break that. We remove that.” Such assistance was needed, since Trump was up against powerful enemies, including Covid, which Henderson said was a demonic plan to disrupt the economy and thereby prevent Trump’s reelection. He also also diagnosed vice-presidential candidate Kamala Harris as being governed by “the Antichrist spirit” and arranged prayer rallies to prevent said spirit from defeating Trump.

 

After his and Trump’s efforts failed, some people were understandably a bit miffed by all those self-declared prophets like Henderson who had declared that Trump was going to win. Henderson confidently dismissed their concerns: “Just because somebody prophesies something doesn't mean it’s going to come to pass”, said Henderson, and besides, the prophecy that Trump would win was “just one little piece of prophesying. In fact, I would say it’s a minor piece.” Silly people.

 

During the 2024 election campaigns, Henderson was again critical of Kamala Harris and stated that “the burning, searing, exposing heat of God now causes her campaign and her herself to wither away and become as nothing”. Meanwhile, Henderson did his part in trying to motivate people to vote for Trump. At self-proclaimed prophet Hank Kunneman’s Opening the Heavens conference, Henderson for instance reported having once miraculously healed a man who had developed a potentially fatal condition from voting Democratic: Some locals had told Henderson about some random person (apparently this is the kind of things random locals tell Henderson) of a man who was in the hospital with a serious condition that the doctors didn’t know how to treat; apparently this person was also a lifelong Democrat, even though people had told him that he “is in agreement with the spirit of death because of his vote” – which happens to be Henderson’s view on voting behavior as well (“Do you understand that when you vote, you come into agreement with spirits? So you need to make sure your vote is connecting you to the right thing in the spirit world”). So Henderson started praying for God to intervene and save this person from the “spirit of death that is claiming the legal right to take him out”. And lo and behold: five minutes later the hospital called someone in his audience to tell them the guy had been cured (that’s apparently the kind of thing that happens in Henderson’s audiences). “I want you to hear this: His vote connected him to something in the spirit world that had to be undone. Now, hopefully he repented. Hopefully he’s a good, solid Republican now.”

 

Diagnosis: Even by New Apostolic Reformation standards, Henderson is a deranged shitshow. Apparently he’s got some listeners, but those listeners would listen to anything anyways so it’s unclear whether Henderson and his delusions make much of a difference. Still.

 

#3003: Bryn Henderson

No, you can not.

We’ve talked about stem cell quackery a number of times before – but then it is a serious issue: Stem cell clinics in the US and beyond keep preying on people in genuinely shitty situations with ‘experimental’ but evidence-free, expensive and potentially dangerous cures and treatment regimes, sometimes accompanied by credulous anecdotes of “miraculous recoveries”. And people in shitty and desperate situations are easy targets for cynical and/or delusional grifters and woo-providers – they don’t, after all, even need to promise anything, since a mere glimmer of hope will usually do to part their victims from their savings (and said victims will often not be in any position afterwards to file any complaint).

 

One such business is (or was) the Regenerative Medical Group (RMG). RMG has claimed to provide “induced pluri-potent stem cells from your own cells via an affiliated laboratory” to not only regenerate cartilage and repair injury but to treat Parkinson’s disease, macular degeneration, cerebral palsy, multiple sclerosis, osteoarthritis, strokes, chronic kidney disease, and cardiovascular disease and even (of course) autism – executive director of RMG, Bryn J. Henderson (DO, JD, FACPE, CIME), claimed that RMG has helped “dozens” of children with autism using stem cells. As Henderson sees it, the stem cells circulate through the body, cross the blood-brain barrier and “make new cells” that change the course and prognosis of these kids and that most of the time, the change is major, along several parameters. If you wonder about the evidence for such claims you’ll look in vain beyond some alleged testimonials. Note also that there are, in fact, no actual live stem cells in the “amniotic stem cell treatments” people like Henderson and companies like the RMG are offering.

 

Now, although authorities have struggled (or been hesitant) to address the problem, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) was ultimately sufficiently fed up with Henderson’s deceptive nonsense to bring deceptive advertising charges against him and his companies (in addition to RMG, Henderson was running something called Telehealth Medical Group) in 2018, in particular over his claims that amniotic stem cell therapies could restore the vision of blind people and “reverse autism symptoms.”

 

We’re actually not sure about the status of RMG these days, but Henderson is at least currently affiliated with something called InnovateMed, where he is described as an authority on regenerative medicine. 

 

Diagnosis: Well, maybe he’s learned something? We’re not particularly optimistic, though.

 

#3002: Albert Hendershot & Harold Sorenson

This is some old shit, but we deem it worth mentioning here since people like Albert Hendershot and Harold Sorenson are still around (Hendershot and Sorenson may, for all we know, be around themselves) and certainly up to no good these days either. Yes, Hendershot and Sorenson are birthers, and they were among a number of dingbats who filed lawsuits challenging Barack Obama’s eligibility to be president after the 2012 election. Hendershot filed an unsuccesful suit in Alabama in December 2011 alleging that Obama’s birth certificate was forged – Hendershot claimed he had “staggering” evidence that Obama was using a fraudulently obtained social security number issued in Connecticut – and that he was therefore ineligible to be on the Alabama primary ballot. Sorenson filed a similar suit in 2012, with an additional request that Judge Helen Shores Lee, who is black and also had presided over Hendershot’s suit, should recuse herself because “she has racial bias and a lack of Constitutional knowledge.” The suit was not particularly more successful than the Hendershot one (and these were not the only ones in Alabama), and the court awarded the Alabama Democratic Party its costs and fees, though they promised not to collect the money from Sorenson as long as he refrained from “bad-mouthing the court and this decision.” It is worth mentioning that Sorenson filed a similar suit in 2008 challenging the eligibility of both Obama and McCain.

 

Diagnosis: Whatever. We have some suspicions concerning what these incoherently paranoid morons are up to today if they are still around, however. And there are plenty of others like them if they are not.