Alice Shortcake
Graduate Poster
- Joined
- Jul 5, 2007
- Messages
- 1,134
In March this year I began to investigate Adrian Pengelly, a man who claims he has the ability to successfully treat cancer with his bare hands - using that mysterious "energy" known only to New Age healers and their scientifically illiterate clients, of course. Last week he was the featured "Rogue Trader" on the BBC's "Watchdog" programme, in which he was secretly filmed telling a cancer patient that he had a 60% - 65% success rate in treating cancer.
Here's a summary of what I discovered:
1 - Cancer-related website claims
PLEASE NOTE: The following excerpts from Pengelly's website - www.adrianpengelly.co.uk - reflect the state of the website in March 2009. Since being exposed on the internet and TV he has made a few relatively minor alterations.
For someone whose healing skills are famous round the world Mr Pengelly has a rather underwhelming internet presence. I suspect this may be a deliberate ploy to minimise the chances of his claims coming to the notice of Trading Standards. And who, exactly, considers him to be "the most gifted healer of his generation?"
That’s one heck of a claim. “Tens of thousands” of successful cases, most of which “have been successfully healed often beyond all medical expectation”? As we shall see, the Testimonials section of his website comes as something of a disappointment.
Mr Pengelly promptly goes on to show that he is scientifically illiterate:
Absolute nonsense.
Can Mr Pengelly produce evidence for this mysterious "energy" - which can't even be detected by scientific means - leaving physical marks? Because if so he may be in the running for a Nobel Prize.
Can Mr Pengelly name these "physicists"?
Michael Holt was neither a science writer nor a physicist. He was a retired teacher of maths and geometry who also wrote puzzle books for children.
This is interesting. Would Mr Pengelly be willing to submit to properly conducted tests? His claim about stopped clocks and watches sounds sounds suspiciously like Uri Geller’s long-discredited act, but it should be easy enough to prove or disprove.
Mr Pengelly adds:
This sounds suspiciously like the "slaying in the spirit" used by fundamentalist Christian faith-healers. I would suggest that the lucky recipients of Mr Pengelly’s healing suffer these symptoms because he tells them what to expect.
It hardly seems necessary to attend one of Mr Pengelly’s clinics to ask the opinion of the doctors who apparently flock to them. Surely a few online responses from the doctors themselves, complete with their full names and professional qualifications, would be just as effective?
Next, Mr Pengelly's Distance Healing:
Environmentally friendly! Yes, waves of imaginary energy wafting through the ether are unlikely to cause any damage.
No, it isn’t in the least bit hard to believe. Thanks to the power of suggestion anyone inclined to take this mumbo-jumbo seriously is likely to feel better knowing that Mr Pengelly’s healing vibrations are heading their way. But what about those people who didn’t even know they were on the receiving end of his mystic powers?
Again, never underestimate the power of suggestion. I suspect that the patient, having been informed that he or she has been the unwitting recipient of Adrian’s “healing”, will say something to the effect of “Gosh, I THOUGHT I felt better when I woke up on Friday morning!”
Consider another statement about Distance Healing:
I do hope that these cancer patients were still taking prescribed medication and continuing to receive mainstream treatments such as chemotherapy...and that Mr Pengelly can produce proof that he has in fact achieved “remarkable results”.
As for his work with animals:
How very convenient - no point in asking Mr Pengelly for their names, then.
Next, have a look at the testimonials on Mr Pengelly's website from people who claim that he either cured their cancer or kept it in remission. It’s clear from the FAQ section of his site that Mr Pengelly knows perfectly well that he’s on thin ice here:
Note the wording of this reply – Mr Pengelly doesn’t actually state that the UK is one of those “many countries”. The Cancer Act of 1939 states that:
No person shall take any part in the publication of any advertisement containing an offer to treat any person for cancer, or to prescribe any remedy therefor, or to give any advice in connection with the treatment thereof.
http://www.statutelaw.gov.uk/content.aspx?LegType=All+Primary&PageNumber=77&Nav From=2&parentActiveTextDocId=1085680&ActiveTextDoc Id=1085680&filesize=26534[/quote]
Here’s a little thought experiment: imagine that you’ve just been diagnosed with cancer. Then read the following testimonials and ask yourself: “Would I be tempted to seek Adrian Pengelly’s help?”
The very first one, from IL of Shropshire – who also seems to be a New Age healer - gives Adrian the credit for making her cancer disappear:
Had she received conventional medical treatment? We aren’t told, but her testimonial implies that Mr Pengelly was the sole cause of this happy outcome. Interestingly, one of his supporters featured on the "Watchdog" programme gave Mr Pengelly the whole credit for his cure despite the fact that he was also receiving mainstream cancer treatment.
IL goes on to make a strange claim:
I do wish Mr Pengelly would NAME these "top universities and leading research organisations". Who exactly is carrying out this research? IL gives the impression that these bodies are somehow validating the treatment offered by Mr Pengelly and herself.
JC of Worcester also gives Adrian the credit for keeping her cancer, for which she had received chemotherapy, in remission:
It doesn't seem to occur to JC that it was chemotherapy that turned her from a cancer victim to a cancer survivor. I also find it a little worrying that Mr Pengelly is giving advice about lifestyle and diet changes.
HE of Australia writes:
If I were to contract a serious illness, eg cancer, I would leave Australia and move to somewhere close to him... Why? Wouldn’t it be cheaper and easier for Mr Pengelly to carry out Distance Healing?
K of Herefordshire provides one of those odd testimonials so frequently encountered on New Age sites – it goes into great detail about the patient’s ailments but doesn’t say exactly what, if anything, the healer did to improve the situation. She finishes by saying:
Unfortunately he or she ruins the otherwise fairly reasonable tone of the testimonial by adding:
BH of Birmingham was also impressed:
This seems to be a simple case of misdiagnosis on the doctor's part - and it doesn't take any mystic abilities to notice the symptoms of severe jaundice! Also, Mr Pengelly's website consists of virtually nothing but extravagant claims and thinly-veiled insinuations that he is a miracle worker.
MG of Herefordshire writes:
It’s now fifteen months since MG’s doctor advised that chemotherapy should be discontinued. When did Mr Pengelly receive this testimonial? Does he ever check up on his patients? Is MG still alive? I think we should be told.
AP of London’s testimonial is particularly disturbing:
So AP’s reaction on being told that he or she may have a potentially life-threatening cancer was to put themselves into the hands of a fellow New Age healer who claimed to be PROVED right more than 92% of the time. Is AP still “well”? Did he or she ever seek conventional medical treatment? Is AP still alive?
Another reply on Mr Pengelly’s FAQ page is rather disturbing:
What exactly does Mr Pengelly mean by “in general”? He says elsewhere that no potential patients are turned away, but are there medical conditions in which he won’t “work with people having conventional medical treatment?” The Watchdog film proved that Mr Pengelly does indeed advise cancer patients not to undergo chemotherapy, and he worded this in a particularly disgusting way - he told them that this is the advice he would give were they members of his own family.
If Mr Pengelly wants to convince sceptics he could begin by producing:
IL of Shropshire
JC of Worcester
BH of Birmingham
MG of Herefordshire
AP of London.
2 - "Sir" Adrian Pengelly and his imaginary title
Mr Pengelly also claims to hold the title of "Sir" Adrian Pengelly. It was discussed by Mr Pengelly and other forum members on the website www.timetriallingforum.co.uk (Mr Pengelly is a keen racing cyclist):
Yet more nonsense from "Sir" Adrian, who is apparently so accustomed to dealing with credulous people it never occurred to him that someone might take the trouble to look up his alleged ancestor in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. There was indeed a distinguished judge called Sir Thomas Pengelly (1675-1730), but he was First Baron of the Exchequer, not Lord Chancellor. "Baron" is this context is a job title, not an inheritable one. Sir Thomas died unmarried and childless - so much for Mr Pengelly being descended from his second son! Needless to say, the name Pengelly does NOT appear in Burke's Peerage. I posted the above information on the forum and within a couple of days the entire thread was deleted.
If Mr Pengelly really cannot use the term "Mr", it's because he has paid an outfit such as www.elitetitles.co.uk to change his name by deed poll to "Sir Adrian Pengelly". The title is utterly meaningless, but it speaks volumes about Mr Pengelly's dishonesty and his need to be regarded as someone special.
3 - Mr Pengelly's academic qualifications
On the above forum he referred to an uncompleted PhD - sources close to him have no recollection of him even starting one. On another website he claimed:
When I contacted the Alumni Department of Birmingham University they could find no record of a student named Adrian Pengelly.
By the way, notice another illegal claim made on the same page:
4 – Mr Pengelly’s CRB Clearance
According to Mr Pengelly’s website he will “continue to work” in hospitals and hospices. This clearly implies that he has done so in the past. Mr Pengelly does NOT work at at least two hospices in his local area, St Michael’s Hospice in Hereford and St Richard’s Hospice in Worcester.
He does however claim to work with children at his two “clinics”. Does Mr Pengelly have CRB clearance?
A few days after Watchdog was aired the Daily Mail published a stupendously credulous article about Pengelly by Rebecca Hardy, a showbusiness editor who usually writes vacuous fluff about vacuous celebrities:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1214957/Can-man-cure-cancer-bare-hands.html
Nowhere in this article does Hardy mention that Pengelly's claims are ILLEGAL. In fact she doesn't seem to understand this, despite the fact that it was made clear on Watchdog. Her article is essentially a free advert for Pengelly's services, and sure enough some of the people who posted comments on the article are asking how they can get in touch with Pengelly! This raises an interesting question - is the Daily Mail, through its support for Pengelly, complicit in breaching the Cancer Act of 1939? Moderately-worded posts critical of Pengelly have also been removed within a couple of hours yet some bizarre pro-Pengelly posts from people who give the impression of being mentally disturbed have been allowed to remain.
I'm amused by Hardy's claim to be a sceptic (although she confuses this with being a cynic), yet she clearly knows nothing about the cold reading techniques that Pengelly used to impress her!
I have reported this article to the Press Complaints Commission.
Here's a summary of what I discovered:
1 - Cancer-related website claims
PLEASE NOTE: The following excerpts from Pengelly's website - www.adrianpengelly.co.uk - reflect the state of the website in March 2009. Since being exposed on the internet and TV he has made a few relatively minor alterations.
For someone whose healing skills are famous round the world Mr Pengelly has a rather underwhelming internet presence. I suspect this may be a deliberate ploy to minimise the chances of his claims coming to the notice of Trading Standards. And who, exactly, considers him to be "the most gifted healer of his generation?"
That’s one heck of a claim. “Tens of thousands” of successful cases, most of which “have been successfully healed often beyond all medical expectation”? As we shall see, the Testimonials section of his website comes as something of a disappointment.
Mr Pengelly promptly goes on to show that he is scientifically illiterate:
Absolute nonsense.
Can Mr Pengelly produce evidence for this mysterious "energy" - which can't even be detected by scientific means - leaving physical marks? Because if so he may be in the running for a Nobel Prize.
Can Mr Pengelly name these "physicists"?
Michael Holt was neither a science writer nor a physicist. He was a retired teacher of maths and geometry who also wrote puzzle books for children.
This is interesting. Would Mr Pengelly be willing to submit to properly conducted tests? His claim about stopped clocks and watches sounds sounds suspiciously like Uri Geller’s long-discredited act, but it should be easy enough to prove or disprove.
Mr Pengelly adds:
This sounds suspiciously like the "slaying in the spirit" used by fundamentalist Christian faith-healers. I would suggest that the lucky recipients of Mr Pengelly’s healing suffer these symptoms because he tells them what to expect.
It hardly seems necessary to attend one of Mr Pengelly’s clinics to ask the opinion of the doctors who apparently flock to them. Surely a few online responses from the doctors themselves, complete with their full names and professional qualifications, would be just as effective?
Next, Mr Pengelly's Distance Healing:
Environmentally friendly! Yes, waves of imaginary energy wafting through the ether are unlikely to cause any damage.
No, it isn’t in the least bit hard to believe. Thanks to the power of suggestion anyone inclined to take this mumbo-jumbo seriously is likely to feel better knowing that Mr Pengelly’s healing vibrations are heading their way. But what about those people who didn’t even know they were on the receiving end of his mystic powers?
Again, never underestimate the power of suggestion. I suspect that the patient, having been informed that he or she has been the unwitting recipient of Adrian’s “healing”, will say something to the effect of “Gosh, I THOUGHT I felt better when I woke up on Friday morning!”
Consider another statement about Distance Healing:
I do hope that these cancer patients were still taking prescribed medication and continuing to receive mainstream treatments such as chemotherapy...and that Mr Pengelly can produce proof that he has in fact achieved “remarkable results”.
As for his work with animals:
How very convenient - no point in asking Mr Pengelly for their names, then.
Next, have a look at the testimonials on Mr Pengelly's website from people who claim that he either cured their cancer or kept it in remission. It’s clear from the FAQ section of his site that Mr Pengelly knows perfectly well that he’s on thin ice here:
Note the wording of this reply – Mr Pengelly doesn’t actually state that the UK is one of those “many countries”. The Cancer Act of 1939 states that:
No person shall take any part in the publication of any advertisement containing an offer to treat any person for cancer, or to prescribe any remedy therefor, or to give any advice in connection with the treatment thereof.
http://www.statutelaw.gov.uk/content.aspx?LegType=All+Primary&PageNumber=77&Nav From=2&parentActiveTextDocId=1085680&ActiveTextDoc Id=1085680&filesize=26534[/quote]
Here’s a little thought experiment: imagine that you’ve just been diagnosed with cancer. Then read the following testimonials and ask yourself: “Would I be tempted to seek Adrian Pengelly’s help?”
The very first one, from IL of Shropshire – who also seems to be a New Age healer - gives Adrian the credit for making her cancer disappear:
Had she received conventional medical treatment? We aren’t told, but her testimonial implies that Mr Pengelly was the sole cause of this happy outcome. Interestingly, one of his supporters featured on the "Watchdog" programme gave Mr Pengelly the whole credit for his cure despite the fact that he was also receiving mainstream cancer treatment.
IL goes on to make a strange claim:
I do wish Mr Pengelly would NAME these "top universities and leading research organisations". Who exactly is carrying out this research? IL gives the impression that these bodies are somehow validating the treatment offered by Mr Pengelly and herself.
JC of Worcester also gives Adrian the credit for keeping her cancer, for which she had received chemotherapy, in remission:
It doesn't seem to occur to JC that it was chemotherapy that turned her from a cancer victim to a cancer survivor. I also find it a little worrying that Mr Pengelly is giving advice about lifestyle and diet changes.
HE of Australia writes:
If I were to contract a serious illness, eg cancer, I would leave Australia and move to somewhere close to him... Why? Wouldn’t it be cheaper and easier for Mr Pengelly to carry out Distance Healing?
K of Herefordshire provides one of those odd testimonials so frequently encountered on New Age sites – it goes into great detail about the patient’s ailments but doesn’t say exactly what, if anything, the healer did to improve the situation. She finishes by saying:
Unfortunately he or she ruins the otherwise fairly reasonable tone of the testimonial by adding:
BH of Birmingham was also impressed:
This seems to be a simple case of misdiagnosis on the doctor's part - and it doesn't take any mystic abilities to notice the symptoms of severe jaundice! Also, Mr Pengelly's website consists of virtually nothing but extravagant claims and thinly-veiled insinuations that he is a miracle worker.
MG of Herefordshire writes:
It’s now fifteen months since MG’s doctor advised that chemotherapy should be discontinued. When did Mr Pengelly receive this testimonial? Does he ever check up on his patients? Is MG still alive? I think we should be told.
AP of London’s testimonial is particularly disturbing:
So AP’s reaction on being told that he or she may have a potentially life-threatening cancer was to put themselves into the hands of a fellow New Age healer who claimed to be PROVED right more than 92% of the time. Is AP still “well”? Did he or she ever seek conventional medical treatment? Is AP still alive?
Another reply on Mr Pengelly’s FAQ page is rather disturbing:
What exactly does Mr Pengelly mean by “in general”? He says elsewhere that no potential patients are turned away, but are there medical conditions in which he won’t “work with people having conventional medical treatment?” The Watchdog film proved that Mr Pengelly does indeed advise cancer patients not to undergo chemotherapy, and he worded this in a particularly disgusting way - he told them that this is the advice he would give were they members of his own family.
If Mr Pengelly wants to convince sceptics he could begin by producing:
IL of Shropshire
JC of Worcester
BH of Birmingham
MG of Herefordshire
AP of London.
2 - "Sir" Adrian Pengelly and his imaginary title
Mr Pengelly also claims to hold the title of "Sir" Adrian Pengelly. It was discussed by Mr Pengelly and other forum members on the website www.timetriallingforum.co.uk (Mr Pengelly is a keen racing cyclist):
Yet more nonsense from "Sir" Adrian, who is apparently so accustomed to dealing with credulous people it never occurred to him that someone might take the trouble to look up his alleged ancestor in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. There was indeed a distinguished judge called Sir Thomas Pengelly (1675-1730), but he was First Baron of the Exchequer, not Lord Chancellor. "Baron" is this context is a job title, not an inheritable one. Sir Thomas died unmarried and childless - so much for Mr Pengelly being descended from his second son! Needless to say, the name Pengelly does NOT appear in Burke's Peerage. I posted the above information on the forum and within a couple of days the entire thread was deleted.
If Mr Pengelly really cannot use the term "Mr", it's because he has paid an outfit such as www.elitetitles.co.uk to change his name by deed poll to "Sir Adrian Pengelly". The title is utterly meaningless, but it speaks volumes about Mr Pengelly's dishonesty and his need to be regarded as someone special.
3 - Mr Pengelly's academic qualifications
On the above forum he referred to an uncompleted PhD - sources close to him have no recollection of him even starting one. On another website he claimed:
When I contacted the Alumni Department of Birmingham University they could find no record of a student named Adrian Pengelly.
By the way, notice another illegal claim made on the same page:
4 – Mr Pengelly’s CRB Clearance
According to Mr Pengelly’s website he will “continue to work” in hospitals and hospices. This clearly implies that he has done so in the past. Mr Pengelly does NOT work at at least two hospices in his local area, St Michael’s Hospice in Hereford and St Richard’s Hospice in Worcester.
He does however claim to work with children at his two “clinics”. Does Mr Pengelly have CRB clearance?
A few days after Watchdog was aired the Daily Mail published a stupendously credulous article about Pengelly by Rebecca Hardy, a showbusiness editor who usually writes vacuous fluff about vacuous celebrities:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1214957/Can-man-cure-cancer-bare-hands.html
Nowhere in this article does Hardy mention that Pengelly's claims are ILLEGAL. In fact she doesn't seem to understand this, despite the fact that it was made clear on Watchdog. Her article is essentially a free advert for Pengelly's services, and sure enough some of the people who posted comments on the article are asking how they can get in touch with Pengelly! This raises an interesting question - is the Daily Mail, through its support for Pengelly, complicit in breaching the Cancer Act of 1939? Moderately-worded posts critical of Pengelly have also been removed within a couple of hours yet some bizarre pro-Pengelly posts from people who give the impression of being mentally disturbed have been allowed to remain.
I'm amused by Hardy's claim to be a sceptic (although she confuses this with being a cynic), yet she clearly knows nothing about the cold reading techniques that Pengelly used to impress her!
I have reported this article to the Press Complaints Commission.
