You call me ‘promiscuous,’ I call you ‘dishonest,’ a poly person tells the average person who believes that monogamy is the only natural way to love.
You call me ‘denialist,’ I call you ‘believer,’ a dissident person tells the average person who believes that HIV is the only cause of AIDS.
When you call AIDS Dissidents by their own name you exercise leadership in the sexual freedom movement.
Alternative lovestyle communities ignore AIDS Dissidence at their own peril.
From private conversations
“Well, at the time of the Poly Summit I was finishing the Gaia book, remember?” G asked.
“Yes G,” I replied, as we continued our long winded conversation.
“I already had a contract, an established text, which went into the ‘dissidence’ versus ‘denialism’ controversy in the context of global ecology and health. In this book, I explained the whole issue in a lot more detail. It wasn’t just an autobiographical impression of my shock at the impact of the new ideas on me. It was really a full fledged discussion of how AIDS and other immunological diseases and syndromes (including cancer for example), are interpreted in very different ways depending on the scientific paradigm and perspective used to examine them. For example, from an allopathic perspective, where health is viewed as a war against disease, one looks at AIDS as a result of infection, and focuses on the infectious agent believed to be at cause. From a holistic perspective, health is viewed as a result of systemic balance in one’s inner and outer landscape, and so one looks at AIDS as a result of immunodeficiency caused by air, water, and food pollution, stress, fear, and other factors that affect body ecology.”
“Sure, I remember us talking about that. Ok.”
“Well, as the book was going to press, the discoverer of HIV, French scientist Luc Montagnier, was awarded the Nobel Prize.”
“Oh really?” I exclaimed.
“Yes, it happened simultaneously,” G confirmed.
“And how did you feel about that? Didn’t it get you to think that maybe the allopathic hypothesis was right after all? That the dissenters were really just ‘denialists’ who were up to no good? That perhaps you had been accused and humiliated with just cause? I know you tend to respect the decisions of the Swedish Academy
“I do. And to be honest with you, some of that feeling was there. I had no experience of infection or even of partners with infection. I had a roommate who was HIV+ at one point, perfectly healthy, but then that was just one case I could bear witness to.”
“What did you do?”
“I looked up Montagnier on the web immediately. I had known about him from day one, because when the whole panic about AIDS broke, I used to hang out with a bunch of French expats who were scientists. They were my social circle, and, when the American scientist Robert Gallo claimed victory in the discovery of the cause of AIDS, they felt a bit slighted in their national pride, wishing that due credit be given to their compatriot as well.”
“Right, but that did not mean that Gallo and Montagnier did not agree on the cause or the method?”
“I wasn’t sure then. The extent of the difference in their philosophy had not been quite apparent to me. I frantically looked up Montagnier. Found out he was now working on oxidation, writing books on antioxidants, the remedies that holistic healers recommend to those whose excessive stress damages their body’s system of self-defense. ‘Woooooooow!’ I thought. Then I reread Montagnier’s scientific papers: there were two, published at about the same time as those Gallo had published on Science. Papers that ended up constituting the ONLY scientific evidence of the HIV hypothesis for decades, since all laboratory experiments designed to either refute or corroborate it were banned as ‘dangerous’.”
“Banned as ‘dangerous’? Why so?” I asked, surprised.
“Good question. Dissidents suspect that the National Institute of Health was very happy with the ‘solution’ Gallo proposed, which was also good business for pharmaceutical companies who could manufacture medical drugs designed to combat the presumed viral cause, and establish medical protocols that would make these drugs mandatory for anyone with the virus in question--even when perfectly healthy.”
“Ouch . . . . sounds pretty dangerous to me.”
“Sure does. Gets worse. That was also the time, remember, when awareness of impending ecological disaster was growing in environmental science circles. All of a sudden, environmentalism was no longer about local problems: how to keep our good neighborhood neat, how to make sure the landfill ended up located somewhere else. It was now becoming a global awareness that if the switch to a non-fossil fuel economy wasn’t made on time, we would all go under—that the Earth would turn into a scorching hell. There was this sense that all research moneys and energies should be invested in figuring out how to replace oil.”
“Aha! Makes sense. But . . . how did you know about that?”
Oxidation, Water, Food, and AIDS in Africa:
Disclaimer: This Tale does not constitute medical advice in any way. Readers are invited to consult their own healers and health care providers.
References: For scholarly and scientific references to contents and theories referred to in this dialog, refer to Gaia & the New Politics of Love, whose bibliography lists all sources involved.
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