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an's oncologist, however, she was not only free of infections, but was in remission of her cancer as well! We also saw the blood of people in the research program who were ostensibly well, yet had various stages of the somatid cycle in their blood. Such people, Naessens claims, are in danger of developing some type of degenerative disease, including cancer. Protective factors have given way, allowing the somatid cycle to progress beyond its normal three stages and break into the danger zone. After more than four years of work, Naessens developed his own technique for isolating somatids. When thus cultured in a Petri dish, somatids reveal a new picture. He observed that in the absence of blood inhibitors, somatids do not remain somatids ad infinitum but enter upon a definite life-cycle. They routinely undergo a series of polymorphic transformations which are pre- dictable and have been repeatedly captured on the Somatoscope. Originally, to observe these changes took 90 hours of sitting at the microscope, but, more recently, Naessens has employed a video recorder. His persistent study of the somatids in culture led Naessens to one of the most revolutionary aspects of his work: his claim that the little somatid particle is only the first stage in a string of poly- morphic transformations. In the blood of healthy people, the somatid cycle has but three phases after formation in the red blood cells: somatid, spore, and then double spore. But in people who have cancer or other degen- erative diseases, or are in the process of developing these, Naessens claims that a kind of natural "gate" gives way and the somatid unfolds 13 additional phases, for a total of 16 phases of the complete macro-cycle. That is why the existence of any of phases 4 to 16 in the blood is a sign of a weakened natural defence system. Naessens considers the elucidation of this cycle as one of the crowning achievements of his long career. He is the first to admit, however, that over the years others have also seen phases of this cycle. Between 1840 and 1900, for example, about 10 sci- entists wrote about them. Between 1900 and the present, there have been over fifty. Most of these scientists dealt exclusively with the bacterial phase, believing that they were working with an externally generated "cancer microbe". Naessens has fully defined a sequence of changes that has only been suspected before: the pleomorphism of an organism normal- ly resident in the human body. DISSECTING THE SOMATID In its cultured, resistant form, the somatid appears to be crys- talline and is remarkably resilient. For example, over the years Naessens has subjected such cultured somatids to high doses of radiation, to carbonising temperatures (200°C) and to dissection. A cultured somatid broke three microscopic diamond knives before it was successfully cut in half. On the other hand, the somatid, as it normally appears in the blood, is quite vulnerable to destruction. During one's lifetime, the concentration of somatids varies, depending on the strength of the natural defences. Naessens also believes that cell division cannot happen without the growth-promoters the somatids produce. That makes them essential to the existence of life. WHAT IS PLEOMORPHISM? leomorphism is defined as the "existence of irregular and P= forms of the same species or strain of micro-organ- isms". This is a well-known phenomenon in certain bacte- ria, yeasts and other microbes. According to one textbook, "Many fungi, particularly those that cause disease in humans, are dimorphic, that is, they have two forms" (C. Villee et al., Biology, Saunders, NY, 1985). Such changeability in microbes is rarely welcomed by doc- tors. Even Encyclopaedia Britannica admits that it "greatly complicates the task of identifying and studying" germs. Some pleomorphism is relatively simple. For example, com- mon brewer's yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) grows in an orderly and harmless way, except when it is faced with a lack of nutrients. Then it turns nasty, throwing out mould-like growths. While brewer's yeast is considered a "health food", scientists call its mouldy form "critical for pathogenesis" (i.e., disease). Interestingly, this change is triggered by "low levels of ammonia"—a major source of nitrogen. This is similar to Naessens's theory about the origin of cancer and other degenera- tive diseases: progressive nitrogen starvation of the healthy cells, caused by overconsumption of nitrogen by pathological cells. Brewer's yeast's unusual behaviour permits otherwise station- ary cells "to forage for nutrients...at a distance from their initial colonization site" (Cell 1992;68:1077-1090). They "penetrate the surface of the agar plate and grow down into the medium". But despite their similarity to brewer's yeast, the pleomorphic organism Naessens has identified goes way beyond anything found in textbooks. The somatid is an astonishing shapeshifter in culture. In rapid progression (less than 90 hours), it can be spore, double spore, bacteria and double bacteria, microbial globular form, yeast, ascii, mycelial form, fibrous thallus, etc. "Foraging yeast" resembles one part of the somatid cycle, where yeasts also change into mycelial (mould-like) forms. But the somatid is inherent in human blood: its recognition would revolutionise microbiology as well as preventive medicine. THE SOMATOSCOPE: NEW VISTAS IN HEALTH Naessens raises hackles in others when he says that the somatid "microbe" and some of its dependent phases inhabit normal blood. Every medical student learns that normal human blood is sterile. A profusion of living organisms in the blood would not be normal or common; in fact, it sounds like septicaemia, a condition that would require immediate treatment with antibiotics. But the most fundamental challenge comes in cancer, for it is the prevailing belief of oncologists that microbes have nothing to do with the onset of cancer. When they do occur in cancer patients' blood, it is only as an "opportunistic" infection or as a contaminant on a slide. The very idea of a bacterial cause—once a popular hypothesis—has now dropped out of the very con- sciousness of modern science. It goes unmentioned in De Vita's 2,747-page orthodox textbook on cancer. All of this helps explain some of the resistance that Naessens has faced over the years. Yet, with all that, the blindness of ortho- dox medicine is hard to accept. There the Somatoscope sits, ready for close examination, just a few short hours from the lead- ing cancer research centres of North America. The Somatoscope offers startling vistas into health and disease. For example, the blood of a woman, who was part of a diagnostic research project, presented a shocking sight: a virtual "zoo" of living, swarming micro-organisms in a single drop of live blood. None of these organisms is written about in standard textbooks, to our knowledge, yet one can readily recognise many of the forms Naessens describes in his somatid cycle. According to this wom- NEXUS - 33 THE SOMATID CYCLE FEBRUARY — MARCH 2000