What follows is a collection of quotes from Watchtower Society literature.This information will help researchers understand the mindset that existed within the Watchtower Society regarding science and medicine at the time the blood doctrine was beginning to crystallize, and in the intervening years. Editorial comments are in red.
Thomas Edison, the inventor and electrician, of phonograph and telephone fame, has been experimenting with the new light “X-Rays.” and has succeeded in taking a photograph through oak eight inches thick. But, as suggested in our last issue, Theosophists and others are claiming the new discovery as a part of their deception outfit. The Scriptures forewarn us that Satan will bring to bear strong delusion in this our day.
Thank God, they shall not deceive “the very elect.” Obedience, faithfulness to the end, is the condition upon which we may make our calling and election sure. In other words, if we are faithful to the Word and Spirit of the Lord, he will carry us through. – The Watchtower 03/01/1896 (Reprints p. 1942) (NOTE: Edison invented the phonograph, but the telephone was invented by Alexander Graham Bell.) Emphasis ours
A new lymph treatment for all germ diseases is announced in New York. The antitoxin is of mineral and carbolic acid compound, called Aseptolin. Great things are hoped for it as an arrester of diseases. No doubt recent discoveries are but preparations for the Millennial blessing, so that when, twenty years from now, the times of restitution shall be fully ushered in, and none except willful sinners will die, it will not appear so strange to mankind, and still leave room for faith respecting the real source of all blessings. – The Watchtower 03/01/1896 (Reprints p. 1942)
SHOULD THE CONSECRATED USE MEDICINES?
This question naturally suggests itself. We are neither commanded nor forbidden to use medicines….Nothing, then, in their covenant of full consecration, prevents the saints more than unbelievers from using natural means for their relief. – The Watchtower 07/15/1896 (Reprints p. 2009)
We give below a simple cure for appendicitis symptoms. The pain in the appendix region is caused by the biting of worms near the junction of the transverse colon with the small intestines, low down on the right side of the abdomen. This remedy is recommended also for typhoid fever, which is also a worm disease. – The Watchtower 01/15/1912 p. 26 (Reprints p. 4963) Emphasis ours.
… We have recently learned of a very effective and simple remedy for cancers which show themselves on the surface of the body. We are informed that a physician, after testing this remedy, paid $1000 for the information, and that he has established a Cancer Hospital which is doing good work. The recipe has come to us free and we are willing to communicate the formula, but only to those who are troubled with surface cancers and who will write to us directly, stating particulars. No fee will be charged, but in order to protect the sufferers, we require a promise that they will not sell the formula to others, nor receive pay for the use of it, nor communicate the formula to anybody. Any one known to be a sufferer can be informed of the terms on which the prescription is obtainable through us. Emphasis ours.
LA GRIPPE AND TYPHOID FEVER REMEDIES
One of the simplest we know of for La Grippe and Typhoid Fever, especially in their earlier stages, is to put the bulk of a pea of cayenne pepper into a little milk, stir it thoroughly and swallow it. Do this twice a day for about three days. – The Watchtower 05/15/1915 (Reprints p. 5689) Emphasis ours.
Diseased Tonsils Cause Stupidity
Stupid children require attention for a different reason. It has been estimated that from 3,000,000 to 5,000,000 American school children have adenoids, diseased tonsils and other glandular defects, which are making them appear stupid and are causing them to be backward in school. The child troubled with adenoids breathes through his mouth, and a lax lower jaw and vacant, sleepy eyes gives an unmistakable expression of stupidity and dullness. The transformation in such children when the adenoids, by a slight operation, are removed, is often very rapid. The child with adenoids is stupid and sleepy, because he is not getting enough oxygen, and his blood is consequently laden with impurities and the cells of his the brain are not properly nourished. – The Golden Age 10/01/1919 p. 19 Emphasis ours
Even years ago it was known by some people that the use of pacifiers by babies is one of the chief causes of diseased and enlarged tonsils and adenoid growths, which result from the suction. – The Golden Age 11/26/1919 p. 153 Emphasis ours
Few people know that the normal functioning of the bowels and a clean intestinal tract make it impossible to become sick….From four to six quarts of warm water injected into the colon is what constitutes an internal bath. It should be taken every day for at least six months… – The Golden Age 03/31/1920 pp. 437, 438
It has been discovered that many dentifrice’s, widely advertised, widely used, and alleged to be excellent for the teeth and gums, are the principal cause of the disease pyorrhea…Take the advice of THE GOLDEN AGE; discontinue all other dentifrice’s, use the cheapest and best dentifrice in the world, common baking soda, and be forever free from pyorrhea. – The Golden Age 06/08/1921 p. 534 Emphasis ours
But the dog-rabies-vaccine imposition is the latest…. Rabies! When it has been shown conclusively that there is no such thing as rabies! – G23 1/1 p. 214 Emphasis ours
It has never been proven that a single disease is due to germs. – G24 1/16 p. 250
“Disease is Wrong Vibration. From what has thus far been said, it will be apparent to all that any disease is simply an “out of tune” condition of some part of the organism. In other words the affected part or the body “vibrates” higher or lower than normal. I have named this new discovery … the Electronic Radio Biola, . . . The Biola automatically diagnoses and treats diseases by the use of electronic vibrations. The diagnosis is 100 percent correct, rendering better service in this respect than the most experienced diagnostician, and without any attending cost.” Advert for WT Electronic Radio Biola, Golden Age, 4/22/25, pp. 453). Emphasis ours
“There is no food that is right food for the morning meal. At breakfast is no time to break a fast. Keep up the daily fast until the noon hour…Drink plenty of water two hours after each meal; drink none just before eating; and a small quantity if any at meal time. Good buttermilk is a health drink at meal times and in between. Do not take a bath until two hours after eating a meal, nor closer than one hour before eating. Drink a full glass of water both before and after the bath.” (Golden Age, 9/9/25, pp. 784-785 )
Pasteurization of Milk is good.
PASTEURIZATION of milk simply means holding milk at 142 to 145 degrees for thirty minutes. It is never boiled. Nothing is added and nothing is taken away. In cities where pasteurization is required there has been a reduction in deaths from diphtheria and tuberculosis to about half the former number, and a still greater reduction in the number of deaths from typhoid fever, scarlet fever and diarrheal diseases. – The Golden Age 07/25/1928 p. 679
A GERMAN subscriber writes in that he understands that the German government has prohibited aluminum ware for cooking purposes. We would be interested to have confirmation of this report, with fuller particulars than are now available. – The Golden Age 07/25/1928 p. 684
…if ten thousand doctors swore on ten thousand Bibles that aluminum ware is harmless to human beings, I would not believe them… – The Golden Age 07/25/1928 p. 695
…since discontinuing the aluminum vessels I hardly know what headaches and indigestion are and my bowels move freely and regularly, every morning and some times at noon and usually every night. – The Golden Age 11/14/1928 p. 114
…the fact that cancer is caused by chemical poisons, and not by germs of any kind or by what is known as virus. – The Golden Age 11/14/1928 p. 115
…I transferred my lot of aluminum from the kitchen to the junk pile. In a short time our food began to digest, the pains left, and we both have very good health for people of our age. – The Golden Age 11/14/1928 p. 115
All human ailments have their start in the intestines. – The Golden Age 11/28/1928 p. 133
What the people need more than food is faith in God, and a set of active bowels which means a healthy brain….Up until now he has been poisoned, stupefied, clogged and hampered by the Devil. He has been a slave to politicians, wholesale food magnates, preachers, railroads, bad cooks, worse doctors, an abnormal appetite, greedy undertakers and aluminum cooking utensils. – The Golden Age 11/28/1928 pp. 136, 137 Emphasis ours
On second thought – keep your tonsils.
ONCE a year there is a wholesale removal of the tonsils of all new inmates of the Odd Fellows Home at Corsicana, Texas. The man who cuts out these tonsils probably feels that he is improving upon the work of the Creator in the original design of these children, but as a matter of fact he is lessening their powers of resistance against disease and positively harming them. – The Golden Age 11/28/1928 p. 142
…”Is aluminum cooking ware injurious to the health?”…”Food should not be allowed to remain overnight or for any period of time in such a vessel.” Golden Age 11/28/1928 p. 145
{The Golden Age prints a retraction (sort of) to an article on aluminum poisoning.} – The Golden Age 11/28/1928 p. 145
…”I must congratulate you upon the splendid work you are doing in helping to educate the public upon the dangers to health of aluminum…I can appreciate the good work you are doing in the public interest, and sincerely trust it will receive due public recognition.” – The Golden Age 11/28/1928 p. 145
…the invisible enemies of the public health, who are determined to keep aluminum on the market for financial reasons. – The Golden Age 01/09/1929 p. 243
“Thinking people would rather have smallpox than vaccination, because the latter sows seeds of syphilis, cancers, eczema, erysipelas, scrofula, consumption, even leprosy and many other loathsome affections. Hence the practice of vaccinations is a crime, an outrage, and a delusion.“(Golden Age, 1/5/1929, p502) Emphasis ours
SO-CALLED medical science has made another “discovery”. That is not extraordinary, for it has made many in ages past and will make many more in ages to come, for “discoveries” are easy to make by an institution founded on ignorance, error, and superstition. Some day so-called medical science will discover that all its “discoveries” have discovered nothing but its own ignorance. – The Golden Age 01/09/1929 p. 245
Some Simple Remedies
Acting on the principle that all disease, except where mechanical lesions are present, is caused by impure blood and obstructed circulation, the logical procedure in every-day ailments is to aid elimination and improve the blood circulation. The following recipes are entirely harmless and have proved effective when all other means have failed…. Appendicitis …elderblossom, peppermint and yarrow; best crushed ginger,…A cure is usually certain in the most severe cases. Do not be afraid of the perspiration caused. You may vomit at first,… Asthma …vervain, horehound, and elecampane… Cancer …Here is an herbal remedy that has cured many very severe cases. Violet leaves, yellow dock, red clover tops… Diptheria …red sage… Epilepsy …onions…valerian root, vervain, wood betony and scullcap… Heart Affections …motherwort, gentian root and scullcap,…Spinal manipulation… Liver Affections …Horehound, agrimony, crushed ginger, gentian,… – The Golden Age 02/06/1929 pp. 304, 305, 306, 307
{article on the dangers of aluminum cookware.} – The Golden Age 05/01/1929 p. 503
{story where aluminum caused the deaths of twin goat kids.} – The Golden Age 10/16/1929 p. 52
Just one joint of the vertebra stiffening up and bringing pressure upon the nerve centers will bring about a draining of the suprarenal glands with the result that our vitality will be used up faster than we can manufacture it, and the first thing we know we begin to get shaky and slow down, so that it is hard work to drag ourselves through the day.
Can this be overcome? Surely so. Just place yourself in the hands of a first-class osteopath or chiropractor, and frequently, within an hour or so after the first adjustment you will begin to feel your vitality coming back….Avoid the loss of organs of the body by surgical operations….Avoid the use of aluminum cooking utensils and alum baking powders,…Sleep on the right side or flat on the back, with the head toward the north so as to get the benefits of earth’s magnetic currents.
Avoid serum inoculations and vaccinations, as they pollute the blood stream with their filthy pus….Stop chewing gum, as you need the saliva for your food….medicines are of little value,… – The Golden Age 11/13/1929 pp. 106, 107 Emphasis ours
…I happen to know that those who are using the exclusive grape diet in connection with other therapeutical measures (such as hydrotherapy, electrotherapy and spinal stimulation, etc.) are much more successful in the treatment of cancer cases… – The Golden Age 12/11/1929 p. 180 Emphasis ours
One more point: The Golden Age (by way of extractions) stated some time ago that approximately 65 percent of earth’s millions were moronists, or had the mentality of a child from 12 to 15 years of age. That being true (and it appears to be),… – The Golden Age 12/11/1929 p. 180 Emphasis ours
Pasteurization of Milk is Bad.
Added to this is the fact that they are compelled to drink milk from cows that have also been subjected to a liberal injection of tuberculin, a most terrible deadly poison. This poison enters directly into the blood circulation. Hence the milk. Then this milk is sterilized, or scalded to the boiling point or nearly so, destroying much of the life-giving nourishment of the milk, but not injuring the poison therein.
Scalded milk, for either adults or children, is very constipating. This in turn causes more deaths and resulting ailments than do all other causes combined, I surely believe. – The Golden Age 07/24/1929 p. 682
…I want to express my appreciation of the good work you are doing in publishing the health articles, also of the truth regarding aluminum kitchen utensils. – The Golden Age 10/02/1929 p. 20
…surely there must be something rotten in its back yard when a magazine professedly devoted to the health interests of the people lends itself as the mouthpiece of the spider in the face of the thoroughly proven unhealthfulness of aluminum kitchen ware. – The Golden Age 10/02/1929 p. 21
Quite likely there is some connection between the violation of human blood [vaccines] and the spread of demonism…. Vaccines cause demonism, and are useless. Golden Age 31 2/4 p.293,294 Emphasis ours
Do you know the germ theory has never been proven? And it cannot be proven, either. If it had been proven, it would not be a theory. It has been truly said that ‘knowledge without evidence is superstition’; and that applies to the germ theory also. It is a leftover superstition of a past age, when men feared that the earth was inhabited with hideous monsters that were hiding everywhere, in the air, in the sea, in the darkness, etc., always ready to jump out and devour him or make life otherwise miserable for him…now that we have come into this enlightened age, we have discarded the hideous monster superstition for want of positive proof, but we are still just as foolish as our forefathers of old. We have turned from a gigantic monster theory, to the germs, which are so small that we cannot hear, see, feel, smell or taste them. Yet they are just as ferocious as the monsters of old, ‘lurking everywhere, ready to attack man and send him to an early grave. According to the inventors of this preposterous idea, the germ’s only aim in life is to make life miserable for man. But fortunately for all of us, it is only an idea. G31 3/18 p. 404
We do well to bear in mind that among the drugs, serums, vaccines, surgical operations, etc., of the medical profession, there is nothing of value save an occasional surgical procedure. Their so-called “science” grew out of Egyptian black magic and has not lost its demonological character…. we shall be in a sad plight when we place the welfare of the race in their hands. – G31 8/5 pp.727,728 Emphasis ours
“The earlier in the forenoon you take the sun bath, the greater will be the beneficial effect, because you get more of the ultra-violet rays, which are healing.” (Golden Age, 9/13/33, p. 777)
Aspirin causes heart disease – G35 2/27 pp.343, 344
DEATHS from cancer have increased steadily since 1900. At that time 63 of every 100,000 persons died from that cause; the present death rate is 102 per 100,000. The rate of progress in the wrong direction has kept step steadily with the increased use of aluminum cooking utensils. – The Golden Age 09/23/1936 p. 803
…there is not one single thing about Satan’s kingdom that is right, not even it’s most-boasted cooking utensils. – The Golden Age 09/23/1936 p. 803
Hydrophobia (Rabies) is more of a mental hoax than a reality . . . Pasteur does not cure hydrophobia; he gives it. The Golden Age 09/23/1936, p. 814 Emphasis ours
Pasteur’s teachings have cost untold millions in health and they have destroyed unnumbered lives in the world….Pasteurization of milk is only good to preserve it, but bad for the consumer…And so one more gasbag blows up. – The Golden Age 09/23/1936 p. 814 Emphasis ours
The physiological action of aspirin, or of any of this general group or class of drugs, is to reduce, or relax, arterial tension and weaken the contractility or elasticity of the muscular fibers of the heart. By the excessive and continuous use of aspirin, the heart muscles become soft and flabby, the heart valves relax and lose the power to properly perform their normal function, and by degrees the blood begins to regurgitate or flow back through the weakened heart-valves with each heart pulsation, thus gradually and unawares producing a valvular heart-lesion, which, when once established, is never cured, but continues to grow worse and worse until death results. Emphasis ours
Acetylsalicylic acid, aspirin, is potentially a dangerous drug, and its unqualified use as a home remedy is a menace to good health, and should be discouraged. – The Golden Age 09/23/1936 p. 822 Emphasis ours
Vaccines are a cruel hoax. – G39 5/31 p.3
“Man on earth can no more get rid of these demonic `heavens’ [the organization of wicked spirits] than man can by airplane or rockets or other means get up above the air envelope which is about our earthly globe and in which man breathes.” [_The Truth Shall Make You Free_, 1943, p. 285]
A Blood transfusion is ‘nutrition’ – W51 7/1 p.415
Hereditary traits are passed by blood transfusions – W61 9/15 p.564
“Most psychiatrists and psychologists tend to overcategorize the mind and allow for little if any influence from the fleshly heart, looking upon the word “heart” merely as a figure of speech apart from its use in identifying the organ that pumps our blood. . . . The heart is a marvelously designed muscular pump, but, more significantly, our emotional and motivating capacities are built within it. Love, hate, desire (good and bad), preference for one thing over another, ambition, fear-in effect, all that serves to motivate us in relationship to our affections and desires springs from the heart.” (The Watchtower, March 1, 1971, p. 134) Emphasis ours.
“A peculiar factor sometimes noted is a so-called ‘personality transplant.’ That is, the recipient in some cases has seemed to adopt certain personality factors of the person from whom the organ came. One young promiscuous woman who received a kidney from her older, conservative, well-behaved sister, at first seemed very upset. Then she began imitating her sister in much of her conduct. Another patient claimed to receive a changed outlook on life after his kidney transplant. Following a transplant, one mild-tempered man became aggressive like the donor. The problem may be largely or wholly mental. But it is of interest, at least, that the Bible links the kidneys closely with human emotions.” (The Watchtower, Sept. 1, 1975, p. 519)
“What are we to understand, then, by the word ‘heart’?. . . . What an amazing number of different functions and capabilities are ascribed to the heart! Do all of these reside in the literal heart? That could hardly be so. . . . in nearly a thousand other references to ‘heart’ in the Bible, ‘heart’ is obviously used in a figurative sense. . . . obviously, a distinction must be drawn between the heart organ and the figurative heart.” (The Watchtower, Sept. 1, 1984, pp. 3-7) Emphasis ours.
“The ancient Egyptians believed that the physical heart was the seat of intelligence and the emotions. They also thought that it had a will of its own. The Babylonians said that the heart housed the intellect as well as love. The Greek philosopher Aristotle taught that it was the seat of the senses and the domain of the soul. But as time passed and knowledge increased, these views were discarded. Finally the heart became known for what it is, a pump to circulate the blood throughout the body.” (The Watchtower, June 1, 1986, p. 15) Emphasis ours.
Like the ancients, the Watchtower Society believed and taught the same sort of silliness about the heart until 1984 – just two years earlier.
Conclusion:
After considering the Watchtower Society’s the Society’s published and often contradictory record of scientific statements and medical advice, one can only wonder why anyone would want to seriously consider them as a source of information and direction on matters of health, science or medicine.
Noteworthy is the following comment:
“A long acquaintance with the literature of the Witnesses leads one to the conclusion that they live in the intellectual `twilight zone.’ … Whenever their literature strays onto the fields of philosophy, academic theology, science or any severe mental discipline their ideas at best mirror popular misconceptions, at worst they are completely nonsensical.” [Alan Rogerson, Millions Now Living Will Never Die: A Study of Jehovah’s Witnesses, p. 116, Constable, London, 1969]
Is it any wonder the Watchtower Society has long ceased to print its older publications. How would the average person, or even the average Jehovah’s Witness react if he had access to such information? How should knowing that the Watchtower’s policy on blood originated in this atmosphere of scientific ignorance and lunacy effect how we view it? Is it any wonder that Bethel libraries are closed to researchers, and even the vast majority of Jehovah’s Witnesses.
Brilliant site. Very funny if it wasn’t such a terrible tragedy that millions of people believe in these nonsensical doctrines thereby causing irreparable destruction to not only themselves but countless innocents.
And I use to think no one could top Richard Pryor for outlandish humor. However, Watchtower now is the recipient of that special award. Who would have thunk it.
Even if blood transfusion was non-scriptural, Christ Himself breached scripture to heal the sick, and that is a good enough example for me. ” You healed a sick woman on the Sabbath ” he is challenged,by the leader of the synagogue, a man who thought his interpretation of Scripture very important, in Luke 13 10-17. In other words, Christ elevated the healing of the sick to greater importance than obedience to somebody or another’s interpretation of scripture, even if the man thinks his interpretation of Scripture very important, as Watchtower does.