Jul 23, 2012

Universal Medicine man denies cult claim

ABC News, Australia
July 23, 2012

The owner of a controversial health group based on the state's north coast denies it's a cult.

Universal Medicine has a treatment centre near Lismore, and its website offers esoteric healing involving energy cells which it says make up the human spirit.

The Therapeutic Goods Administration is urgently investigating supplements being sold by the group which have not been properly evaluated.

But founder Serge Benhayon says he offers treatments which complement mainstream medicine.

"If everything that is mainstream is working, why is breast cancer, cancers and diabetes through the roof?" he said.

"We are in an age where science and medicine are at their highest, and I'm very pro-science and pro-medicine, but surely there is something missing.

"Einstein said or proved that everything is energy.

"All I've said was everything is because of energy... and every choice that we make brings an energy with it.

"We've been in touch with the TGA (Therapeutic Goods Administration) and according to a spokesman there, there had been no investigation launched.

"But we launched our own investigation and asked them to have a look at our products and to advise us if we've made any mistakes.

"If we've made mistakes, I will correct them immediately.

"It looks like we're cashing in and doing this and there's blog sites that have said we've made 25 million and so forth, but that's totally untrue.

"But we are successful, we're saying things that people are ready to hear and it's their choice whether they come or not.

"It's not something I hold for free and it's not something (where) we keep people in a commune or a compound.

"They can come pay, or leave and have a refund if they're not happy.

"It's very, very unconventional.

"You're going to hear things that you know, don't make sense on one level, if it's based on the convention that you're trained to hear.

"But if you listen, and you put things together it starts to make sense, slowly and slowly," Mr Benhayon said.

Doctor Dan Ewald, from North Coast Medicare Local, says people facing desperate circumstances will often try any treatment available.

"Particularly if they've got a condition that isn't curable, like a chronic-pain syndrome or a cancer that's not responding to therapy, then they get very desperate to search for solutions and are prepared to have a go at everything and anything," he said.

"I'd strongly advise people to talk it over with a good generalist, such as their GP, who can help them try to sort out the wheat from the chaff."

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