Dr. Albert Abrams : Con-Man

In 1923 and 1924, the Scientific American magazine investigated the "electronic reactions of Abrams". The investigation lasted one year and cost the Scientific American about $20,000 dollars. The Scientific American reported on the progress of the investigation monthly from October 1923 to September 1924.

The Scientific American investigation and its conclusions

In the second month they printed the results of their first test of an E.R.A. practitioner in New York City. The practitioner was to assertain the diseases contained in six vials. These contained cultures from six diseased patients. The results of this first test were typical of the rest the Scientific American conducted with E.R.A. diagnosticians. The results were published in this chart .....

Each tube containing a pure germ culture of one specific disease was diagnosed as a grouping of many diseases. As an example, tube #2, which simply contained Pneumacoccus, was diagnosed as syphilis, tuberculosis, streptococcus, malaria and the flu. "The purity of the germ culture was questioned" by the physician. Acoording to him there was no such thing as a pure germ culture. After more testing, the doctor "sought a reason for his failure". This was typical of the obstacles the committee faced in the testing of E.R.A. and its practitioners. The Scientific American accommodated these complaints by eliminating any possible electronic contaminations.

The committee concluded that the E.R.A. was occult or psychic in nature. Before beginning thier first test with doctor X, they claimed the preliminaries (subduing the light in the room, etc.) reminded them "of a psychic séance". After the tests with other doctors that included similar and even more bizarre claims and procedures, they came to the conclusion that: The whole thing bears striking resemblance to the subjective psychic phenomena. Compare it to the ouija board.... Compare it with automatic writing.... The ERA technique works-when it does work-in just this way.

They also noted its occult nature frequently. Quote " Dr. Abrams claimed that his electronic diagnosis enabled him to tell how old was the donor of the drop of blood, whether he was white, black, red or yellow; what diseases he was suffering now; what diseases could be expected in the future... and the expectancy of life."

Dr. Abrams diagnosed his own "life expectancy" and predicted his death would occur in January of 1924 based on his own E.R.A. diagnosis. He died on that day.

After one year of tests the Scientific American committee's conclusion as to the scientific basis of the E.R.A. was that it was "the height of absurdity" and "utterly worthless". Their official statement is as follows ..... "This committee finds that the claims advanced on behalf of the electronic reactions of Abrams, and of electronic practice in general, are not substantiated; and it is our belief that they have no basis in fact. In our opinion the so-called electronic treatments are without value."