User:Rebecca T Eaton/Dr Ulric Gaster Williams

Dr Ulric Gaster Williams (22 May 1890 - 21 Dec 1971) was a New Zealand surgeon who turned his back on traditional medicine, believing that the body had the ability to heal itself through clean living. While in school in England, he married a nurse, Mary May Thurling in London, England on April 20th, 1914 and the couple had a son, Owen Neville Williams (known as Peter), on June 2, 1914.

Early Life
Ulric Williams was born into a religious family, son of an Anglican Minister, Reverend Alfred Williams and his wife Alice Gaster, on 22 May 1890 in Putiki, Wanganui, and great grandson of Reverend Henry Williams, a well know English missionary who immigrated to New Zealand in 1823.

Education
He attended Wanganui Collegiate School from 1900 to 1909 and both Cambridge University and University of Edinburgh, the latter of which he graduated from with an MB and ChB in 1918. .

Early Career
After graduating from the University of Edinburgh, Williams served with the New Zealand Medical Corps in England from 1918 - 1920. His parents had previously spirited his new wife and child back to New Zealand in 1919. After the end of WWI, he returned to practice as an honorary surgeon at the Wanganui Hospital in Wanganui, New Zealand in 1920. He and his wife enjoyed the social life that his position brought.

Becoming a Naturopath
By 1934, Williams was suffering a crisis of faith. He became disillusioned with using surgical methods on the human body, God’s perfect creation, feeling it a mutilation of the body rather than healing. He came to believe that he was just treating the symptons and not the cause of illnesses. A spiritual (though not necessarily religious) man, he asked God to show him a better way to heal. Two weeks later he met Mrs Reid who, on a mission to cure her young daughter's tuberculosis, had discovered a health farm that promoted the use of raw food, which had successfully cured her daughter. Williams believed he had found the answer for which he'd been searching. Williams and Reid teamed up and 4 convalescence homes rigorously focussed on clean living resulted.

Dr Williams and his wife completely changed their lifestyle, giving up alcohol and partying, and instead turning to the role of God in life. Dr Williams came to believe that illnesses were caused when patients violated God’s natural law by indulging in toxins such as alcohol, tobacco, refined food, meat, and not enough uncooked vegetables, whole grains, fish, dairy, and nuts. As such he became an advocate for living a healthy life, including exercise and a good diet. To this end, in 1934 he published his book, “Hints on healthy living”, which, in later editions included his recommended diets and recipes. He became a polarising and controversial figure in the medical profession because of his opposition to immunisation, unnecessary surgeries, antibiotics and prescription drugs, and favouring clean living instead. On the same day in 1936 he was both expelled from the British Medical Association due to his controversial treatments and beliefs, and was awarded a degree by the American Naturopathic Association.

Dr Williams began to tour around the North Island, sharing his theories on Healthy Living and the curative abilities of the body. People from around New Zealand began to flock to Wanganui to be see Dr Williams or to enter one of his convalescence homes for treatment for all manner of ills, from cancer, to arthriti, to appendicitis. While the regimen was strict, those he treated remained loyal, more continued to visit.

The Cure
Brenda Sampson, who was a patient of Dr Williams wrote that Ulrich Williams believed there were 4 simple steps to staying healthy.

1. When you’re sick, do not eat if you’re not hungry. If you get an infection, fast for 2-3 days, drink water and take Vitamin C, and the body will cleanse itself using the fever to burn up toxins. 2. Eat fresh, whole, simple, raw fruit and vegetables, unprocessed and unrefined foods. Drink lots of water and natural fruit juices. 3. Exercise in fresh air and do deep breathing exercises to increase intake of oxygen. 4. Live in peace by practising love, faith, and forgiveness. Have a positive outlook on life. Unhappiness leads the body to use illness to find a way out of its unhappiness. Fear and resentment cause hormones to be secreted in the brain which is toxic to the body.

In his last book, Dr Williams wrote that germs are not the cause of disease, but are harmless to the healthy body. It is the body that is already sick that succumbs to illness from germs. To that end, if toxins are eliminated through fasting and intake of liquids, the body will use its fever to enable the germs to heal the body. Use of antibiotics suppresses the body’s therapeutic fever, and prevents a return to true health. He most famously stated that "You don't have to do anything to get better; all you need is to stop doing what's wrong and making yourself sick" and that ""Healthy people do not suffer from, and cannot be infected with TB or cancer. The real causes are dead food, stale air, and negative emotional states."

The Testimonials
Brenda Sampson, herself a patient, gathered testimonials from Williams other patients and shared them in her book.

Publications
The Turnbull Library in Wellington New Zealand holds several books and pamphlets that Williams authored. The book, "Hints on Healthy Living" first edition was published in 1934, with 3 subsequent, larger, editions published between 1935 and 1939. "Health and Healing in the New Age" which is essentially the fifth edition of "Hints on Healthy Eating", published by AH & AW Reed in 1949.

In addition, the library holds the following pamphlets written by Dr Williams "New light on the problem of human suffering" (1935). "Hospitals and hooey or health" (1941). "Health talks: addresses and articles by Ulric Williams", reprinted from articles published in "Democracy", the newspaper of the NZ Social Credit party, (1948).