# Did Royal Raymond Rife find a cure for cancer? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 24, 2001, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-royal-raymond-rife-find-a-cure-for-cancer/89205 "2001-10-24T00:07:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![mcmchugh99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@mcmchugh99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mcmchugh99)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2010, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-royal-raymond-rife-find-a-cure-for-cancer/89205/21 "2010-07-08T04:56:37Z")
All I know about Rife is what I’ve read on the internet, and the claims he made that his treatment could completely cure cancer 100%, even in its most advanced stages. If that were true, and the results could be duplicated, then I don’t believe that it would be humanly possible for the government, the AMA or anyone else to suppress it. They wouldn’t be able to stand up to the public outrage and demand for the new treatment. It would seem that the only way to settle the argument would be to actually test the device on terminal patients who had nothing to lose in any case. ---
**Author:** ![DanBlather](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f4b2a3/32.png) [@DanBlather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DanBlather)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2010, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-royal-raymond-rife-find-a-cure-for-cancer/89205/22 "2010-07-08T05:14:48Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > **bbeaty** > > Welcome to the SDMB. > > When posting, you don’t have to hit the “return” button at the end of the line - just keep typing and the program automatically word-wraps - that way it formats better. Another example of someone trying to suppress the truth. ---
**Author:** ![DanBlather](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f4b2a3/32.png) [@DanBlather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DanBlather)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2010, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-royal-raymond-rife-find-a-cure-for-cancer/89205/23 "2010-07-08T05:19:39Z")
I have a microscope that magnifies 100,000x. Mainstream scientists are ignoring me. I offered to sell it to microscope manufactures but they were afraid it would cut into their profits because all the existing one they had sold were out of date and now customers would have to buy new… Oh, wait ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2010, 12:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-royal-raymond-rife-find-a-cure-for-cancer/89205/24 "2010-07-08T12:03:14Z")
> [@mcmchugh99](#): > > All I know about Rife is what I’ve read on the internet, and the claims he made that his treatment could completely cure cancer 100%, even in its most advanced stages. > > If that were true, and the results could be duplicated, then I don’t believe that it would be humanly possible for the government, the AMA or anyone else to suppress it. They wouldn’t be able to stand up to the public outrage and demand for the new treatment. > > It would seem that the only way to settle the argument would be to actually test the device on terminal patients who had nothing to lose in any case. And we are no closer to commercially available Rife Devices than we were \*\*NINE YEARS AGO \*\*when this thread had its natural life. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2010, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-royal-raymond-rife-find-a-cure-for-cancer/89205/25 "2010-07-10T05:13:06Z")
> [@](#): > > This is the true story of the use of deceit, arson, sabotage, and murder to deliberately bury what doctors called the end to all disease. You can’t blame us for trying. > [@DrFidelius](#): > > And we are no closer to commercially available Rife Devices than we were NINE YEARS AGO when this thread had its natural life. [How wrong you are, skeptical person](http://www.thedetoxbox.com/index_2.html). ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2010, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-royal-raymond-rife-find-a-cure-for-cancer/89205/26 "2010-07-10T14:12:14Z")
> [@cedric45](#): > > This is exactly the problem that Robert Goddard had in the science of rocketry. He had a very hard time and was never believed during his life time, but time (and replicated experiments) proved him right after all. > CedricR. Huh? Robert Goddard held over two hundred patents. So apparently the U.S. Patent Office believed him. Did this Rife guy patent anything? Robert Goddard launched dozens of successful rockets. The Army worked with him to create rocket-based weapons, and he lived more than long enough to see rockets used in warfare. It’s true there were doubters - there are always doubters for all scientific innovators - but it is certainly not the case that he was “never believed.” ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2010, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-royal-raymond-rife-find-a-cure-for-cancer/89205/27 "2010-07-10T14:22:57Z")
> [@DrFidelius](#): > > And we are no closer to commercially available Rife Devices than we were \*\*NINE YEARS AGO \*\*when this thread had its natural life. Apparently, Rife invented a cure for Zombies. ---
**Author:** ![mozchron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c2a13f/32.png) [@mozchron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mozchron)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2010, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-royal-raymond-rife-find-a-cure-for-cancer/89205/28 "2010-07-10T14:36:12Z")
crackpot, with a capital C. As described above, 50,000X for a light microscope is well beyond the theoretical diffraction limit. Its impossible based on everything we know about physics. Ergo, “crackpot”. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. If you are going to tell me water flows uphill, you better prove it. ---
**Author:** ![Covered\_In\_Bees](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7ab992/32.png) [@Covered\_In\_Bees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Covered_In_Bees)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2010, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-royal-raymond-rife-find-a-cure-for-cancer/89205/29 "2010-07-10T19:50:06Z")
> [@mozchron](#): > > crackpot, with a capital C. Interestingly, you didn’t actually capitalize crackpot. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![brujaja](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4af34b/32.png) [@brujaja](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brujaja)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2010, 8:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-royal-raymond-rife-find-a-cure-for-cancer/89205/30 "2010-07-11T08:03:53Z")
I can’t believe all of you missed this, buried on a page in **bbeaty’s** cite (scroll down to the bottom): [It’s a 1920’s-style Death Ray!!!](http://amasci.com/amateur/physvids.html) ---
**Author:** ![jaketheweight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bbce88/32.png) [@jaketheweight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jaketheweight)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2012, 6:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-royal-raymond-rife-find-a-cure-for-cancer/89205/31 "2012-11-30T06:01:32Z")
There is a documentary on this guy it answers alot of your questions, his work was championed by alot of very well respected people in the field at the time. How his machine cured diseases was by finding out the right frequency that would kill each one. He was a scientest not a business man so a group was formed with 4 of 5 guys to sell the machine, and this was his downfall. One of them was the business “guy” and he formed a company called light beams inc or something like that, he was denied a pattent because it was too simple to make and replicate and there could already be alot of similar machines made. The money was not in the machine it was in the frenquencies you needed to tune the machine to in order to kill the disease. So the business “guy” came up with the idea to just have a dial on the machine and that the operator would set to the disease meaning he would never know the frenquency this way they could still make their money without people stealing the idea. This pissed off the AMA in particular Morris Fishbein who was the head of the ama and as corrupt a person as you could find. He basically went to war against the machine and dr Rife. He had them taken to court, a court case which took over a year to compelte, the outcome favored in Rife’s machine but the court case left Rife an Alcoholic he couldn’t handle the stress and imtimidation from Fishbein. A number of machines had been sold to prominent drs in the field who where going to use them to varify for thmeselves if it indeed worked. Fishbein threated and intimidated everyone of them with removel from the ama and other sactions so they gave them all to the ama. The only person who wasn’t intimidated was dr Johnson who had considerable politacal clout, but what happend to him he quickly died after a mysterious illness so there was no one left to protect the machine. There was also one in england and they were going to get Rife to come over and explain everything to them but world war 2 broke out so it was not possible. Dr Burnett in New Jersey had alot of the Rife material and machines but while he was away his entire lab burned down distroying everything. A few years later fishbein was removed from the ama for being insanley currupt, he profited to a great degree from the ama he was in bed with all kinds of drug compaines. Don’t read any of the info on the current rife machines they are scams, Rife has nothing to do with it he died in 1971. Wheather he was right or wrong we probably won’t know because of a perfect storm of events his results could never be independly varified. All I know is that for his human trials he was given 16 termanilly ill patients and he cured all of them by giving them 2 blasts of this machine a week. All 16 recoverd, some of them were brought to his lab by ambulance they were so sick. The documentary plays old tapes of rife and his associates and people who witnessed all these events. It’s a fascinating documentary ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2012, 6:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-royal-raymond-rife-find-a-cure-for-cancer/89205/32 "2012-11-30T06:36:11Z")
> [@jaketheweight](#): > > he was denied a pattent because it was too simple to make and replicate and there could already be alot of similar machines made. Patents don’t work that way. A patent needs to be for something that’s new and non-obvious, meaning that it can’t just be someone else’s idea and it can’t be a completely trivial concept obvious to people who work in the relevant field. Ease of manufacture doesn’t enter into it. > [@](#): > > The money was not in the machine it was in the frenquencies you needed to tune the machine to in order to kill the disease. So the business “guy” came up with the idea to just have a dial on the machine and that the operator would set to the disease meaning he would never know the frenquency this way they could still make their money without people stealing the idea. Except that a patent requires that the entire plans be laid out in public for everyone to see. That’s the deal: You make your invention public, and the government enforces a limited monopoly for you where they’ll help you go after anyone else who makes money off of your invention. You could keep it a trade secret, foregoing the patent and keeping everything under wraps. Except if you do that, you no longer have the governmental monopoly and the first time one of your machines cures someone it will get torn down to component parts and everyone will be making knock-offs within a week. > [@](#): > > This pissed off the AMA in particular Morris Fishbein who was the head of the ama and as corrupt a person as you could find. He basically went to war against the machine and dr Rife. He had them taken to court, a court case which took over a year to compelte, the outcome favored in Rife’s machine but the court case left Rife an Alcoholic he couldn’t handle the stress and imtimidation from Fishbein. So? Even if your story’s true, it has no bearing on whether someone else could have paid Rife for his plans and carried on in his stead. > [@](#): > > A number of machines had been sold to prominent drs in the field who where going to use them to varify for thmeselves if it indeed worked. Fishbein threated and intimidated everyone of them with removel from the ama and other sactions so they gave them all to the ama. What? No. That’s idiotic. If I have a machine that cures cancer, I don’t give a shit about the AMA. I give a shit about curing cancer. > [@](#): > > The only person who wasn’t intimidated was dr Johnson who had considerable politacal clout, but what happend to him he quickly died after a mysterious illness so there was no one left to protect the machine. So… if he had a device to cure disease, why did he die of a disease? > [@](#): > > There was also one in england and they were going to get Rife to come over and explain everything to them but world war 2 broke out so it was not possible. A lot of people traveled from the US to the UK during WWII. So your story is fatally flawed and does nothing to bolster your position. The wall-o-text effect would have stunned me, but, thankfully, I have my +2 Glasses of Skimming and I made my endurance roll. ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2012, 12:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-royal-raymond-rife-find-a-cure-for-cancer/89205/33 "2012-11-30T12:22:17Z")
Not to mention that the AMA doesn’t work like that. They are a professional organization that is totally voluntary to join if you want, and they publish a medical journal, hold conferences, and do lobbying. That’s it. Lots of people seem to think that doctors can be “reported to the AMA” but they have no control over licensing and so forth. The AMA wouldn’t be able to do a damned thing about someone’s research. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2012, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-royal-raymond-rife-find-a-cure-for-cancer/89205/34 "2012-11-30T13:01:59Z")
The AMA currently has a secret program to blast its enemies with Rife sub-frequencies, and destroy their ability to communicate in discrete paragraphs. Pure evil, I tells you. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2012, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-royal-raymond-rife-find-a-cure-for-cancer/89205/35 "2012-11-30T14:52:18Z")
Haven’t read anything but the title. The answer is no. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2012, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-royal-raymond-rife-find-a-cure-for-cancer/89205/36 "2012-11-30T17:36:02Z")
Narrow-minded!!! ---
**Author:** ![Shmendrik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Shmendrik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shmendrik)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2012, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-royal-raymond-rife-find-a-cure-for-cancer/89205/37 "2012-11-30T18:16:25Z")
Extra points for “Morris Fishbein” as the least credible villain name ever. It doesn’t even work as a 1920’s Jewish gangster name. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2012, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-royal-raymond-rife-find-a-cure-for-cancer/89205/38 "2012-11-30T18:20:14Z")
> [@Shmendrik](#): > > Extra points for “Morris Fishbein” as the least credible villain name ever. It doesn’t even work as a 1920’s Jewish gangster name. Even “Moe the Fish” fails to intimidate. ---
**Author:** ![Snarky\_Kong](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a183cd/32.png) [@Snarky\_Kong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snarky_Kong)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2012, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-royal-raymond-rife-find-a-cure-for-cancer/89205/39 "2012-11-30T18:23:39Z")
There was recently an NPR story on some current research based on RRR’s work. Applying sound waves at the resonance frequency of certain cells seemed to kill them. It sounded like there was some limited success and the work’s ongoing. When I get home I’ll look for some info. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2012, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-royal-raymond-rife-find-a-cure-for-cancer/89205/40 "2012-11-30T18:29:03Z")
Here’s the linik to the story from This American Life **Snarky** mentioned: [http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/450/so-crazy-it-just-might-work](http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/450/so-crazy-it-just-might-work) There is also a documentary coming out about the team of researchers. They did have some interesting results but the partnership between the cancer research and the music professor who were working on this had a falling out. It’s worth a listen. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-royal-raymond-rife-find-a-cure-for-cancer/89205.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-royal-raymond-rife-find-a-cure-for-cancer/89205.md?page=3)