Science occurs when two things happen. First, someone discovers a truth through a process of experimentation. Second, someone else confirms that truth through duplicating the process. But what happens if the first someone refuses to share the details of their research with anyone else? And what else happens when other people take what the first someone said as true without corroboration?
In the case of Louis Pasteur, 100 years of medical research gets derailed.
Louis Pasteur popularized germ theory — the hypothesis that diseases are caused by infection agents called germs — in the late 19th century. If you’ve ever heard of “pasteur”-ized milk, then you’ve been exposed to the long-lasting effects of Pasteur’s work.
Germ Theory Explained
Briefly, germ theory states that diseases are caused by infections of microorganisms called “germs”, such as bacteria and viruses.
While it was commonplace for doctors shift the blame for illness from acts of God to unseen physical attackers, the practice of medicine remained nothing but a combination of nastiness and absurdity.
The attitudes persisting from ancient times into the 18th century are neatly summarized by William White in The Story of a Great Delusion, “There was no scientific knowledge of the laws of health; diseases were generally regarded as mysterious dispensations of Providence over which the sufferers had little control; and a great part of medicine was a combination of absurdity with nastiness.”
Not until the invention of the microscope could anyone put forth evidence to support germ theory. Even then, assumptions and logical jumps were made to fit evidence into a theory instead of constructing the understanding of reality around the data.
While he wasn’t the first to propose a theory of germs, Louis Pasteur was the man who brought germ theory to the forefront of scientific study and infused his research into medical practices. However, as you’ll see, Pasteur’s work was nothing more than an unscientific fraud that was left unquestioned and unchecked before being adopted into modern medicine as the foundational approach to sickness and healing.
Louis Pasteur’s Work
In the early 1860s, Louis Pasteur gained his celebrity scientist position by popularizing germ theory. His process of experimentation included finding sick people, isolating the bacterium (so he claimed), and giving the “pure” culture to animals — typically by injecting it into their brains. When the animals inevitably became sick, Pasteur claimed successful infection and disease caused by bacteria.
Historian Dr. Gerald Geison investigated Pasteur’s work by comparing his personal notebooks to his published papers. Of his findings, he wrote in 1995 in his book The Private Science of Louis Pasteur, “During his lifetime, Pasteur permitted absolutely no one — not even his closest co-workers — to inspect his notes… [He] arranged with his family that the books should also remain closed to all even after his death.”
Truly, it’s remarkable that anyone could have taken an ounce of Pasteur’s science seriously with this level of secrecy shrouding his work. Scientific theories require reproducibility by unbiased third parties, and Pasteur did not allow anyone to see his notes, double check his conclusions based on his own data, or perform their own duplications of his work to confirm accuracy.
The only logical conclusion that can be drawn is that Pasteur deliberately deceived those with whom he shared his work, scientists and the public alike.
We only know the intimate details of Pasteur’s work now because one of his grandsons ignored his wishes and donated Pasteur’s notebooks to the French national library in 1914, making them available for public viewing.
These notebooks revealed the extensive fraud that Pasteur had committed in his studies.
His claims of purifying bacteria cultures for his studies were false, as that was an impossible task at the time. The Contagion Myth by Thomas S. Cowan and Sally Fallon Morell reveals “the only way [Pasteur] could transfer disease was to either insert the whole infected tissue into another animal (he would sometimes inject ground-up brains of an animal into the brain of another animal to “prove” contagion) or resort to adding poisons to his culture which he knew would cause the symptoms in the recipients.”
On his deathbed, Pasteur admitted the truth about his life’s work and studies, “The germ is nothing; the terrain is everything.”
But, by that point the damage was done. Germ theory had been swept into the mainstream and embedded in every facet of treatment protocols or recommendations for healthy living.
Religion of Germs
Modern medical practitioners, including alternative and functional medicine doctors, have accepted germ theory as law. The manner in which the medical establishment talks about germ theory would lead anyone who didn’t know better to believe that all germs have been thoroughly investigated and that their ability to cause disease has been absolutely proven. Neither of these statements are true.
In fact, every effort made to prove germ theory has failed and provided bountiful evidence in direct contrast. Pasteur himself knew this to be true based on his dying admission.
Our trust in the medical establishment has been blindly misplaced. Dr. Robert Mendelsohn, MD says it best in his book Confessions of a Medical Heretic, “Modern medicine can’t survive without our faith, because modern medicine is neither an art nor a science; it’s a religion. Just as ‘why’ enough times and sooner or later you’ll reach the chasm of faith.”
Keep asking “why” and “how” enough times and eventually you’ll be met with the frustratingly familiar phrase, “Trust me, I’m a doctor.”
Modern Failings
How is it that 100 years later, nobody has circled back to question the basis of modern medicine to the extent that even health-awakened practitioners don’t know the truth?
Massive amounts of money fund the efforts of Big Pharma to keep doctors-in-training from asking questions or seasoned practitioners from stepping out of line from the narrative. Since many of our modern drugs are based on the concept of killing germs or managing the symptoms caused by germ attacks, there’s a lot of money to be made and lost by treating health from a germ theory perspective.
In 2019, global pharmaceutical sales reached $1.03 trillion, with the US making up $492 billion of the market. By the end of Q3 of 2020, those sales had already been surpassed with global sales at $1.07 trillion and the US at $514 billion [Statistica]. Sales of brand name drugs accounted for 80% of the 2019 US sales, with Humira topping the list in 2018 and 2019 by generating $21 billion in revenue each year [Statistica, Statistica]. Humira is a drug used to treat the symptoms of autoimmune conditions causing arthritis, which is a gross abuse of the human body and mistreatment of disease.
Beyond the finances, I believe there is a general lack of critical thinking and asking the right questions enough times. Medical students have so much to memorize that they don’t stop to question the base science and original studies that were used to construct the practices they’re learning about. Doctors are either ignorant to the extent that they themselves participate in our flawed healthcare system as recipients or are bullied into submission. Germ theory has been so embedded into our health culture that nobody even thinks to question it or consider alternative reasons for “germs” being present at the site of disease.
If Not Germs?
In fact, Louis Pasteur got one thing right. “Terrain is everything.”
Terrain theory suggests that it is our environment which contributes to disease, not tiny attacks by microorganisms. Toxicity of food, water, air, electromagnetic fields, and the mind are the only things that make us ill. Even genetic predispositions are due to the poisoning of DNA somewhere in the ancestry line. If the body becomes deprived of certain nutrients, the compounds that step in to fill the gap are oftentimes toxic as in the case of glyphosate exposure and sulfate impairment.
People talk about certain things that help boost the immune system — or help with the flu or whatever the illness of the day is — but really those things are reducing inflammation and ultimately removing toxicity in the body. Supplements like spirulina, vitamin C, and turmeric support the body’s detoxification pathways such that your body is “immune”, or unaffected.
The true key to lasting health and avoiding disease is maintaining a pure mind-body-spirit environment where you are nourished in each aspect and avoid poisons like toxins and negativity.