AIDs, BK Neville Hodgkinson & Pseudoscience at The Spectator

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jann

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AIDs, BK Neville Hodgkinson & Pseudoscience at The Spectator

Post27 Oct 2009

Pseudoscience at The Spectator
Oh, dear. I recalled recently that The Sunday Times had run a series of articles in 1992-3 by the paper's then Science Editor, Neville Hodgkinson, disputing that the HIV virus caused Aids. Hodgkinson now describes himself as a spiritual speaker and author who has been a "student and teacher of meditation with the Brahma Kumaris ... for over 20 years", in which capacity I assume he has less scope to cause avoidable harm.
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ex-l

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Re: Pseudoscience at The Spectator

Post28 Oct 2009

Evidence again that Brahma Kumaris is bad for your brain ... Neville's involvement with the BKWSU goes back to 1981, almost 30 years. See, p 83 of the hagiographic 'Peace & purity: the story of the Brahma Kumaris' by his now ex-wife, then part-time-BK Liz Hodgkinson which he, Jayanti Kirpalani and Maureen Goodman clearly made sure was doctored correctly, even if Neville wished that AIDs patients were not doctored correctly.

The article is from The Times, a paper of record for the United Kingdom. Obviously, I know zero about the science involved but I did like one quote from the critics on the sbuject.
Ben Goldacre wrote:On 'Aids denialism at the Spectator' (Saturday 24 October 2009, The Guardian).

These groups know that in our modern media ... where truth is halfway between the two most extreme views ... to insert doubt is to win.

I always point out that 'Purity and Peace' provides evidence to support the claim that the living leadership of the BKWSU have known all along about the historical revisions, cover-ups and denials ... and a whole load more. It references many original materials from the 30s but none of the philosophical controversies, e.g. Lekhraj Kirpalani thinking he was God, there being no God Shiva until after 1950 and the numerous failed predictions of Destruction. In many ways, Purity and Peace was the start of the re-write rot. Liz was nice but kind of dim when it came to spiritual and political stuff, whilst having her head screwed on when it came to money and career.

If you join the BKWSU, and want to climb the ranks like Neville has, you have to be prepared to leave your personal and intellectual credibility and integrity at the door, and be prepared to walk out with a far lighter wallet at the end of it.

jann

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Re: Pseudoscience at The Spectator

Post04 Nov 2010

AIDS; Virus or Drug Induced?

CRY, BELOVED COUNTRY: How Africa Became the Victim of a Non-Existent Epidemic of HIV/AIDS by Neville Hodgkinson
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Re: Pseudoscience at The Spectator, and useless sniping

Post08 Nov 2010

I got through most of the article ...
In February 1994, the Journal of Infectious Diseases published the results of a study conducted in Kinshasa, Zaire, to try to establish whether HIV infection was associated with leprosy. About 70% of 57 leprosy patients, and 30% of a group of 39 contacts, tested positive according to two leading versions of ELISA. But after laboratory investigations, it was found that proteins from the leprosy agent were causing crossreactions with the 'HIV' test. When this was taken into account, the researchers concluded that in fact only two of the leprosy patients, and none of the contacts, were HIV­infected. Testing with Western Blot was even more misleading. It gave a positive reaction in 85% of the patients who were negative with the other tests. The authors, who included Harvard's Dr. Max Essex, one of the originators of the theory that HIV originated in Africa, pointed out that the microbe responsible for tuberculosis is in the same family of mycobacterial agents. They concluded that ELISA and Western Blot tests 'may not be sufficient for HIV diagnosis in AIDS­endemic areas of central Africa where prevalence of mycobacterial diseases is quite high'

and
As Professor P.A.K. Addy, head of clinical microbiology at the University of Science and Technology in Kumasi, Ghana, told New African magazine: 'I've known for a long time that AIDS is not a crisis in Africa as the world is being made to understand. But in Africa it is very difficult to stick your neck out and say certain things. The West came out with those frightening statistics on AIDS in Africa because it was unaware of certain social and clinical conditions. In most of Africa, infectious diseases, particularly parasitic infections, are common. And there are other conditions that can easily compromise or affect one's immune system

At least Neville went there to find some things out for himself ...
This gave me the push I needed to undertake a venture that the Editor had long since approved, namely, to mount our own investigation of AIDS in Africa. Was the situation as described by Harvey Bialy in Uganda and Ivory Coast also true of other central African countries? On August 18, armed with the Bio/Technology paper, I flew to Nairobi, Kenya and began to make inquiries.

Here, within the article, is the News report:
On August 1, 1993, the Editor ran our most challenging story to date across the top of the front page. The headline read: 'New Doubts Over AIDS Infections As HIV Test Declared Invalid'. The story began:

The 'AIDS test' is scientifically invalid and incapable of determining whether people are really infected with HIV, according to a new report by a team of Australian scientists who have conducted the first extensive review of research surrounding the test.

Doctors should think again about its use, say the authors. 'A positive HIV status has such profound implications that nobody should be required to bear this burden without solid guarantees of the verity of the test and its interpretation', they conclude. The findings, likely to cause intense debate in the medical fraternity and anguish for many HIV positive people, are contained in an article published by the respected science journal, Bio/Technology. Many people who appear to be infected by HIV, say the researchers, can be suffering from other conditions such as malaria or malnutrition that produce a positive result in the test. Even flu jabs can produce the same effect. As a result, predictions by the World Health Organisation that millions are set to die because of being HIV positive may be wildly inaccurate.

The paper also lends powerful support to the theory, held by growing numbers of scientists, that HIV is not the true cause of AIDS. One of its authors, Eleni Eleopulous, a biophysicist at the Royal Perth Hospital, said this weekend: 'There is no proof that people labelled as 'HIV­positive' are infected with such a retrovirus. We should really question the role of HIV in the causation of AIDS.'

From the integrity of the article itself, and the professionalism of Neville Hodgkinson it's inane to to say
'BK is bad for your brain'.

Although you may have quoted a critic of the report, no doubt there are many others who support it ... and give it a deserved consideration, myself being one.
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ex-l

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Re: Pseudoscience at The Spectator

Post08 Nov 2010

I see it was my quote from 2009 that you referred to. I will admit that AIDs is not an issue I have any interest or involvement with. Should we separate Neville's private life from his cult adherence? Perhaps.

I remember that prior to my writing that we had been leaked emails that proved Neville was involved in the jossling against this website, which at the time was the only all inclusive discussion forum for BKs, ex-BK, PBKs and the friends and family of emails, and that the line was pretty snobbish and non-conciliatory. From memory, he referred to it as a "poison pen" attack. He has never made any effort to contact us directly and he has continue promote the Brahma Kumaris.

Is AIDs an issue that he is personally interested ... did all the royalties from the book go to an AIDs charity or into his pocket? AIDs is, as he noted in his book, good for business after all. At the time he wrote it, wasn't he living in the Oxford Global Retreat mansion house? I would say he remains one of the Kirpalani Klan's leading frontman and advisor.

It has been nearly 20 years since he wrote that stuff, what has happened since then? I see he makes it into various AIDs resources such as: ReviewingAIDs.com, Immunity.org.uk, AIDS Denialism, likened himself to the President of South Africa 10 years ago, gets likened to a Holocaust Denier by author Richard Wilson, finds supporters and promotes the latest movie on it. He continues to write on the subject.

Of course, the medical industry is not beyond question. It does kill a lot more people than the Brahma Kumaris at present and sucks up infinitely more money ($200 bn to AIDs in the USA alone) but it does also provide some genuine services.

If I was to re-write the post today, I would probably make it more along the lines of Neville Hodgkinson sharing a nose for making money with the Sindi Kumaris ... a sort of "cash from chaos" comment. Any good journalist knows, "controversy sells".
Hodgkinson is one of a group of four journalists who are active in the dissident movement, his fellow “truthers” being Celia Farber, Liam Scheff and Joan Shenton ... [who] exist on the margins of the denialist movement. They get the odd article published, and are copiously cited on denialists websites with frequent references made to their previous jobs. The Sunday Times had to get rid of Hodgkinson after a litany of complaints about the paper’s reporting made by scientific and medical community.

Celibate BK Hodgkinson recent interest has been in women who use a vaginal gel during sex ... pass me the analysts couch, Sigmund.

One of the funny press quotes has Hodgkinson worshipping as an End of the World cult, awaiting the return of a Golden Aged "flat earth" and "worshipping a naked, hairy man with snakes around his neck". I can see how they got that bit right ... mistaking the Brahma Kumaris Shiva with the Hindu Shiva. Now, that is the Brahma Kumaris' fault for stealing every other religion's names and ideas. Yes folks, Hodgkinson is waiting for the End of the World (they call it Destruction) and the return of a nuclear powered Golden Age for 900,000 BKWSU followers. And, yes, folks the god of the Brahma Kumaris is called Shiva ... but not that one. Their one is a point of light which exclusively possesses their spirit mediums at the Indian HQ and speaks through them.

I think Hodgkinson was a little bit dishonest to skillfully play dumb about all that criticism. It is all very close to the truth.
One example of this “pushing back the goalpost” technique was the former Sunday Times journalist and prominent AIDS denier Neville Hodgkinson’s claim that HIV tests are invalid because HIV has never been isolated. When scientists provided evidence that HIV has been isolated, the demand changed; Hodgkinson argued that the isolated virus was “impure”.

Denialists now demand that the virus be isolated in “pure form”, that is uncontaminated by proteins. The demand for a pure virus devoid of cellular proteins is impossible to meet as it defies the biological nature of viruses. Such shifting of the grounds of debate allows denialists to claim that they are the ones following the evidence, and it is the AIDS establishment – an alliance of careerist researchers and greedy drugs companies – who are propagating pseudoscience.

All denialism is entrenched in conspiracy thinking.


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Re: AIDs, BK Neville Hodgkinson & Pseudoscience at The Spectator

Post09 Nov 2010

From the integrity of the article itself, and the professionalism of Neville Hodgkinson it's inane to to say
'BK is bad for your brain'.

I take back what I said earlier. BK has made Hodgkinson completely brain dead. He has immense talent and courage as a professional journalist, yet when the subject matter is Yagya history' and the evolution of BK into its present day form, he is proved incapable of stringing two words together. He can appear on live tv to discuss 'vaginal gel' as an expert commentator, yet when it comes to discussing Yagya related matters with his peers he is silent, or should his condition be interpreted as 'pussy whipped underling'.

Thanks for filling in some of the gaps ex-l/jann.
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ex-l

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Re: AIDs, BK Neville Hodgkinson & Pseudoscience at The Spectator

Post10 Nov 2010

button slammer wrote:I take back what I said earlier. BK has made Hodgkinson completely brain dead ... He can appear on live tv to discuss 'vaginal gel' as an expert commentator, yet when it comes to discussing Yagya related matters with his peers he is silent ...

I know that he was approached regarding the Advanced Knowledge but, apparently, his response was he had already gone through too much upheaval adopting Brahma Kumarism and did not want to face going through it all again to look at Advanced Knowledge .. and, of course, he knew about some of the tension/bannings/threatening attitudes towards it.

My guess is his position is relatively comfortable up at the Oxford mansion house and within the BKWSU hierarchy and, having invest a lot of time, money and his reputation into the religion, he would not want give it all up ... even if it was clearly wrong or not true.
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Re: Hypocrisy and vice....

Post12 Nov 2010

ex-l wrote:My guess is his position is relatively comfortable up at the Oxford mansion house and within the BKWSU hierarchy and, having invest a lot of time, money and his reputation into the religion, he would not want give it all up ... even if it was clearly wrong or not true.

As Boris Pasternak has Yurii say in Doctor Zhivago,
"Your health is bound to be affected if, day after day, you say the opposite of what you feel, if you grovel before what you dislike ... Our nervous system is not just fiction, it's part of our physical body, and it cannot be forever violated with impunity."

This thread is simply too rich for words right now. Here's an appropriate theme tune dedicated to lost souls, trapped like wing clipped birds of Maya, in the gilded cages of the Oxford Mansions ... singing .. to no one ... in particular ... remember,

    'The chains of gold are no less ...'

Pink Floyd wrote:Mother, do you think they'll drop the bomb?
Mother, do you think they'll like this song?
Mother, do you think they'll try to break my balls?
Mother, should I build the wall?
Mother, should I run for President?
Mother, should I trust the government?
Mother, will they put me in the firing line?
Is it just a waste of time?

Hush now baby, baby, don't you cry
Momma's gonna make all of your nightmares come true
Momma's gonna put all of her fears into you
Momma's gonna keep you right here under her wing
She won't let you fly, but she might let you sing

Momma's will keep Baby cozy and warm
Oooo Babe, Oooo Babe
Ooo Babe, of course Momma's gonna help build the wall

Mother, do you think she's good enough for me?
Mother, do you think she's dangerous to me?
Mother will she tear your little boy apart?
Mother, will she break my heart?

Hush now baby, baby, don't you cry
Momma's gonna check out all your girlfriends for you
Momma won't let anyone dirty get through
Momma's gonna wait up until you get in
Momma will always find out where you've been
Momma's gonna keep Baby healthy and clean
Oooo Babe, Oooo Babe
Ooo Babe, you'll always be Baby to me

Mother, did it need to be so high?
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window dressing, and the horoscopes of christ and krisna

Post29 Nov 2010

ex-l wrote:My guess is his position is relatively comfortable up at the Oxford mansion house and within the BKWSU hierarchy and, having invest a lot of time, money and his reputation into the religion, he would not want give it all up ... even if it was clearly wrong or not true.

This reminds me of the early days when Dada Lekraj had his shop in Calcutta. He had a reputation for ostentatious and extravagant displays of jewelry. His buiseness was run on the basis of pomp and show. VIPs and dignitaries were attracted to the shop on this basis. The Christian sanskars of external glamour and sweetness are prevalent in places like the Oxford Mansions. It is just of shop full of fake jewels, cheap trashy bling. The only reason personalities like Hodgkinson are given residences is to add a little Christian glamour/pomp and show to the place.

On a more serious note it is astonishing that a professional journalist such as Hodgkinson is capable of speaking out against mega corporations and institutions, running his theories against the grain of the establishment. He can speak on live news. He travels the world in the pursuit of truth, the freedom of speech, and the free press. Yet has nothing to say on the historic revisionism of the Brahma Kumaris, the mass mutilation of the Murlis, the re-engineering of the yagyas structure, the unaccountabilaty of non elected officials, the crass violations against srimat, all relating to his own fundamental inner belief that God was/is playing a part whithin human society here on planet earth?

It seems the guy is just a massive hypocrite, is just plain dumb, is in the comfort zone (kumbakarna/living dead), or has a gagging order imposed on him? Maybe just another castrated dog playing fetch and roll over for the Seniors ? Who knows? but when the revelations from the Yagya origins are released, I am sure some of these sweet silent puppies will change to werewolves during the ensuing bloodbath of the howling accusations and defamation.

''Souls will pull out their own hair wnen they realise the Father is here and they missed Him. They will prove themselves to be the greatest fools''

The heat is on in these Palace and Mansion pressure cookers of the BK world. All the elements required for an allmighty atmic detonation are already in place. The friction created within these bomblike residences will certainly prove to be catastrophic to the Brahmin world. How ironic that the 'angelic' peacemakers of the world, the BKs, destroy themselves through their own stupidity and false pride.
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Re: AIDs, BK Neville Hodgkinson & Pseudoscience at The Spectator

Post30 Nov 2010

I always thought he and Jayanti made a nice couple.
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Mr Green

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Re: AIDs, BK Neville Hodgkinson & Pseudoscience at The Spectator

Post30 Nov 2010

ex-l wrote:I always thought he and Jayanti made a nice couple.


... but she shines for Mikey boy
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Re: AIDs, BK Neville Hodgkinson & Pseudoscience at The Spectator

Post30 Nov 2010

Ha! And before than Julian ... I always thought they would have made a very royal couple "in their next life" ... ho ho ho ... but I fear the "Hugh Grant of the BKWSU" rather fell into a hell and is off the VIP dinner list now.
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Mr Green

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Re: AIDs, BK Neville Hodgkinson & Pseudoscience at The Spectator

Post30 Nov 2010

yes poor old julian, got in a bit of a tis
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always here to help...

Post01 Dec 2010

ex-l wrote:I always thought he and Jayanti made a nice couple.

Yes.
and, when the honeymoon is over
the mutual toli feeding ends
everkeen drishti begins to fade
a redbulb'd glow of true loves light grows dim
his beloved refuses to reveal the secrets of the trance
once so freely shared
and she, when once so ardent to share the Murli point
now sulks sour across the table
takes refuge behind The Times
now he, winces, at the sound
of a swishing sari
and blinks, blinded
as
a long grey ponytail,
wet from the 4th shower of the morning
(pre VIP meeting)
whips poor Nev kneeling, besides
an old trusty toli tin, polished
with hope
beneath his faithfull white doily
patterned
with faded angels

alone now

meditating on a point of light
before a printed picture
that
never speaks, or hears, or feels,
what ol' Nev holds in his good ol' heart

'he is very obedient' she says to the class
'he is Babas child, and my
B****'

'Oh Baba' sighs Nev
''How did it come to this?
Perhaps those kind hearted souls on BK-i
will help, even if they once, did spank my a**''
:D

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