10/18-19/79 The Beacon, Virginia Beach, Va. [Published thrice
weekly w/Ledger Star & Virginian-Pilot] article:
Beach chiropractor prescribes colors, psychic vibrations
By GARY STEMM, Beacon Staff Writer
Janet Whittenberg's son suffers from cerebral palsy. Betty
Drury's son is mentally retarded. And a Virginia Beach woman
who asked not to be identified has a son whose brain is
severely damaged.
The three mothers have a common bond in that doctors have
told them their sons are beyond medical help. And they have
a further bond. They all take their sons to Charles F.
Whitehouse, a Virginia Beach chiropractor, for treatment with
colored lights and psychic vibrations.
It doesn't matter to them that Whitehouse has been branded a
hoaxer and a quack. And they're not worried because
Whitehouse is under investigation by state and federal
officials because of the treatments he uses.
He uses radionics, which he calls etheronics, and color
therapy. Neither treatment is original with him. But he
feels the way he is combining them is original.
Whitehouse's theories, according to different opinions, are
either hoaxes or potential scientific breakthroughs.
"We disapprove of what he is doing," said Dr. John Jay
Krueger, public relations spokesman for the Virginia Beach
Medical Society. "We think it's a hoax." Dr. Krueger is
even stronger in his personal opinions, calling Whitehouse's
work "quackery."
The Virginia Medical Board and U.S. Food and Drug
Administration began investigating Whitehouse in 1975 after
a complaint from one of his former patients. The FDA became
involved since it regulates the use of medical equipment.
A medical board spokesman said recently that the
investigation is still active. If the board found
Whitehouse's conduct to be unethical, it could revoke his
license to practice in the state.
Whitehouse acknowledges that he is being investigated. But
he doesn't think it's a very thorough investigation. "They
never come in here, talk to me and see what we're doing or
check with the people we've treated," he said. He feels that
if his theories were scientifically investigated, they would
be proven to work.
Mrs. Whittenberg, of Norfolk, says she has obtained results
from Whitehouse. Her 3-year-old son, Shannon, she said, has
been getting better since she started taking him to
Whitehouse for treatment.
"I had gone to so many doctors and hospitals," she said. "He
was a vegetable. He did not do anything. They said his
brain was deteriorating, and there was nothing they could do.
They considered him a terminal case."
On the advice of a neighbor, she took Shannon to Whitehouse.
"I saw results within a month," Mrs. Whittenberg said. "He
had only two teeth in his mouth and in one month every tooth
had come in. He had stopped growing and he started growing
again. He was all yellow but that faded away.
"Now he is very alert, knows everyone in the family and
watches TV. I am very pleased."
Mrs. Drury, of Newport News, said she has seen "tremendous
improvement" in her 15-year-old son, James, since she began
taking him to Whitehouse.
"He remembers better, keeps up school work better, writes
better, recognizes more words, and his features are
changing," Mrs. Drury said. "Before we took him to Dr.
Whitehouse, he was very hyperactive, he tore up everything
and he couldn't even tie his shoes.
"After a month of treatment, he suddenly sat down and tied
his shoes. And he hasn't torn up anything since. Everyone
in the family notices the difference."
Mrs. Drury said doctors told her that James was uneducable
and untrainable. But, she said, he is learning more all the
time.
"His speech therapist at school is amazed at the difference,"
she said. "He has started making 100s on every one of his
tests."
The Virginia Beach mother said she has been taking her
6-year-old son to Whitehouse since February.
"There's been a lot of progress," she said. "It's a very
strange coincidence if it isn't due to Dr. Whitehouse. I'm
encouraged by what I see. I'm very pleased. But I don't
know that I'm really ready yet to have my name be used."
The woman said she hasn't yet made up her mind about
Whitehouse's treatment. "I'm not easily led," she said. "It
goes against a lot of things I've been taught. I listened to
him explain it and I kept saying to myself, 'I think this is
crazy.' Some of it is so bizarre it's incredible. It just
doesn't make any sense."
But, she said, she has continued to take her son to
Whitehouse because the boy has slowly but steadily been
improving. And medical doctors, she said, had told her
there was nothing they could do.
She said her son has suffered from brain damage since birth
and could do little more than roll over before Whitehouse's
treatment.
"He has since become aware of his surroundings, he scoots all
over the place, he is starting to relate to people and he is
developing a temper," she said. "He still can't walk or talk
but he can do a lot of vocalizing with sounds."
Whitehouse specializes in the treatment of the mentally
retarded. But he also treats persons with cancer, heart
problems and other illnesses. He treats them by shining
colored lights on them and bombarding them with psychic
vibrations.
Whitehouse charges anywhere from $50 for a basic three-hour
treatment to about $532 for a complete treatment of body,
soul and mind which takes about 300 hours. Since the
treatment is basically psychic, the patient doesn't
necessarily have to come to his Birchwood Park Drive office.
The treatment can be given psychically.
Treatment is available without charge for the mentally
retarded through the Etheronics Research Foundation.
Whitehouse helped found the non-profit organization, located
next to his office, last December for research purposes.
Whitehouse claims a basis for support of color therapy in
work being done at the University of Minnesota.
Dr. Douglas Pratt of the university's biology department said
he is researching the effect of colored lights on plants. He
said he has found that very deep reds and very deep blues do
have an effect on the growth of plants. But he said he knows
of no basis for believing it would have the same effect on
humans.
Support for Whitehouse's theories does come however, from Dr.
William Tiller, chairman of the department of material
science at Stanford University. He spent a year
investigating the work of George de la Warr, a radionics
researcher in Oxford, England.
"My experience is that it is very effective in the hands of
the right person," Tiller said during a telephone interview.
"Radionics is an intuition training device. Basically, the
human being is the instrument and the device helps the
individual to attune. The operator is the key, not the
device."
Tiller also believes there is promise in color therapy.
"There is Soviet work going on right at the moment in which
they are shining laser beams at acupuncture points and,
depending on the wavelength or set of wavelengths that they
use, they are indeed producing healing modalities.
"They're getting rather strong effects of recuperation in
people for a whole variety of conditions but it depends
very much upon the colors and color combinations they use.
And in this particular case, it's laser light."
Tiller said he never had heard of Whitehouse. He said that
just because a person uses radionics or color therapy doesn't
mean he isn't a "kook." But, he said, both fields deserve
scientific research.
"My own feeling is that it's tomorrow's physics," Tiller
said. "But my colleagues don't necessarily think that."
- - - - -
Medically banned color therapy not a new idea
Radionics was developed in the early 1900s by Dr. Albert
Abrams, a San Francisco physician. His theory was that
diseases could be diagnosed by evaluating radiation from the
human body.
He devised a machine, the oscilloclast, to measure the
radiation. His work was never considered successful but his
theories were refined and expanded by other self-proclaimed
researchers.
Color therapy also has been advocated for years by
self-proclaimed experts. But it has long since been banned
as a medical treatment. It is based upon the aura, which
according to Virginia Beach chiropractor Charles Whitehouse,
is an electromagenetic field which appears to extend about
three feet around the human body.
Many occultists believe that people can be trained to see the
multi-colored auras. Some say they can diagnose diseases by
interpreting the intensities of the different colors and the
distances they extend from the body.
Whitehouse says the aura is an electronic duplicate of the
physical body. He calls it the etheric body. He has
developed a machine, based on radionic principles, which he
calls an etheronic analyzer. He says he can measure changes
in the concentration of energies in the aura. And, he says,
he can measure the strength of the energy coming from any
specific part of the body.
He believes that every part of the normally working body
radiates a specific level of energy. If all energies are at
their normal levels, an individual's etheric body is in
balance. But if the energy levels are either too high or too
low, the body is out of balance or in disharmony.
And disharmony in the etheric body, he says, can result in
disease in the physical body. Nothing happens in the
physical body, he believes, unless it first happens in the
etheric body.
Whitehouse believes that by bringing the etheric body, the
aura, back into balance, he can treat a physical disease.
And, he says, the aura can be brought back into balance by
shining specific combinations of colored light on it.
Different combinations are used to treat different problems.
To find out what particular energy levels are normal for a
person, Whitehouse uses his etheronic analyzer to help him
psychically tune himself to that person's mind. He asks the
mind what the normal energy levels should be for each part
of the body he wants to check. The answer comes in a
numerical readout on the analyzer. Whitehouse then
concentrates on the specific parts of the body and gets a
readout on what the energy level actually is.
To contact a person's mind, Whitehouse first needs a
Polaroid picture of the person. The picture, he says,
captures the vibrations from that person's body. He places
the picture in a coil in the analyzer, which, he says, helps
amplify the vibrations and allows him to tune into the
person's mind.
To get a readout, he rubs one hand on a sensitive plate of
the analyzer and starts moving dials on the instrument with
the other hand.
Each dial is circled by numbers. His hand rubbing on the
plate makes a squeaking sound which increases or decreases in
intensity as he moves the dials. When the sound stops
altogether, each dial is pointing to a number. The series
of numbers is the readout.
The person whom Whitehouse is contacting may be in the next
room, or may be miles away. "With the mind, there is no
distance," he said.
Whitehouse said that about seven of every 10 persons could
be trained to use the analyzer. The key to success is the
psychic ability of the operator. "The instrument is an
extension of the operator's mind," he said. "It permits you
to use your mind to a greater degree than before."
Using the readout, Whitehouse determines what combinations of
colored lights are needed to treat a person. If the person
is in his office, the treatment is given by actually shining
the lights on him. But the patient doesn't have to be there.
Each color of light, Whitehouse said, vibrates at a different
frequency. So in place of using lights to treat someone, he
can use vibrations. This is done by setting the dials on the
analyzer to the numbers which correspond to the vibrations to
be used. The picture of the person to be treated is placed in
the coil. The vibrations start in the operator's mind and
are picked up by the analyzer and transmitted to the patient.
"The machine is a focal point for the operator's
sensitivities," Whitehouse said. "You tune your mind and
your energy penetrates its energy field. The instrument
operates as your mind operates. And it keeps doing the
vibration pattern even after you walk away from it."
The vibrations reach the patient's etheric body and "energize
it to start vibrating and do what it should be doing."
Before treating a person for any specific illness, Whitehouse
first cleans out the person's aura. This is necessary, he
says, because the aura may have ruptures or leaks. Ruptures,
he says, can occur from such experiences as being
administered anesthesia, having an accident, suffering
emotional shock or high fever, smoking marijuana or taking
hallucinogenic drugs. Ruptures also can be caused, he says,
by acute drunkenness. About seven of every 10 persons, he
believes, have leaks in their auras.
When a leak occurs, Whitehouse says, a discarnate entity, a
ghost, may attach to the person through the ruptured aura.
If there are several leaks, a person may have several
entities attached to his body. And each entity, he says,
places a drain on the body.
With certain combinations of colored lights or vibrations,
Whitehouse forces the entities out of the body and seals
the leaks in the aura so they can't get back in.
Whitehouse believes that his entity theory is the explanation
for the phenomenon of possession. He admits that the theory
sounds pretty wild and that many of his patients have
problems accepting it. "It's a hairy thing that freaks
people out," he said.
Whitehouse claims support in his entity theory from what he
says was the experience of Dr. George Ritchie, a Virginia
psychiatrist. Whitehouse says he heard Ritchie describe an
out-of-body experience. The doctor reportedly said he saw
entities attaching themselves to people through openings in
their auras.
Dr. Ritchie, who lives in White Stone, a town on the
Chesapeake Bay north of Tidewater, replied to all questions
on the subject with "no comment."
Edgar Cayce Readings © 1971, 1993, 1994, 1995 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation