Harry Benjamin (naturopath)

Harry Benjamin (1896 to 1966) was a British naturopath and theosophist who practiced in Worthing. He trained under the naturopath Harry Clements, worked on the editorial staff of the magazine Health for All and belonged to the British Naturopathic Association. His most popular book, Everybody's Guide to Nature Cure, ran to thirteen editions and had 53,000 copies in print by 1958. He taught the principle of nature cure, that the body strives toward health and holds within itself the power to return to it, promoted the idea of toxemia, argued against herbalism within naturopathy, and rejected germ theory, a view contrary to established medical science. He was a vegetarian from 1926, a member and president of the Theosophical Society, and drew on the system of George Gurdjieff in his 1961 book Basic Self-Knowledge. This entry records what he held, including claims that medicine does not support, and is not medical advice.