Dangerous ideas of the doctor who defends baking soda cancer cure The normally tolerant Devon town of Totnes has been riled by a conspiracy theory peddling, hate-preaching medic. DAVID PARSLEY meets Stephen Hopwood
DRESSED in his white medical smock, with half-rimmed glasses perched on the end of his nose, Dr Stephen Hopwood appears the stereotypical wise and helpful practitioner. As head of The Arcturus Clinic, the holistic health care clinic in Totnes, Devon, he runs a respected and popular alternative medical centre offering accepted forms of complementary treatments with practitioners and counsellors ranging from massage therapists and flotation tank experts, herbal remedy advisers and reiki healers.
A qualified acupuncturist, Dr Hopwood would appear nothing more than a helpful addition to the healthcare options of the community.
But over the past week he has been at the centre of a storm. He is accused of encouraging people to put their lives at risk by eschewing conventional treatments in favour of unproven holistic cures. He claims a Third World War is imminent because of the West’s persecution of Muslims and accuses the Jewish community of causing the economic crisis.
Dr Hopwood was tolerated in Totnes because it fiercely defends the right to free speech. However, that tolerance ended when he launched his Totnes Cancer Care Clinic a few weeks ago with a conference to promote alternative treatments.
The conference, which took place on Thursday, encouraged people through its doors, saying: “Do you have a diagnosis of cancer? Do you know or care for someone with cancer? Do you have real concerns about the rising incidence of cancer in supporting somebody in healing their spirituality, their mental state, their emotional state, their energetic state, which is how a healer works.”
Asked to provide evidence of any of the claims made by any of the speakers Dr Hopwood admits proof is anecdotal. “The only thing considered concrete evidence is a £5million pharmaceutical industry double blind clinical trial that has been statistically substantiated,” he says. “They haven’t put psychics through double blind clinical trials that are statistically verified. So there is no proof.”
Dr Hopwood also runs an organisation called Totnes Truth Juice, which predicts the destruction of the world in a Third World War and says that 9-11 was a US government plot.
To dismiss Dr Hopwood as a quack, hysteric or simply irritating is unwise. He is an intelligent, persuasive man who is not considered a danger but perhaps should be, given that local health-care store Greenlife was last week selling large quantities of baking soda.
If you want to get to the root of Dr Hopwood’s problem with the world, just ask him who is responsible for our economic crisis. I happened to drop into conversation before our interview started that I had met some well-known financial figures during my time as a business journalist. Dr Hopwood was most interested that I had, only twice, met one figure from a prominent banking family. When I asked Dr Hopwood who is to blame for the global financial crisis he says: “It’s your friend that caused all the problems. The issue is, who issues the currency. They [the family of the man I had met] issue the currency.”
This is a lie. Dr Hopwood is right in only one assertion. The man from the prominent banking family I met is Jewish. The Jewish community does not issue the world’s currencies, nor does it own the US Federal Reserve or control the world’s banking system, as Dr Hopwood also states.
According to Dr Hopwood, the Jewish community controls the world’s financial system. It is another lie but it does appear to point to Dr Hopwood’s underlying motivation for many of his conspiracy theories.
Dr Hopwood asks: “Who owns the Federal Reserve, then?” I point out it is not the Jewish community but that doesn’t stop him. “Who owns a large swathe of our international commercial banking system?” he asks. Again, the answer is not the Jewish community, as he believes. So is it possible that at the root of everything Dr Hopwood espouses there is an anti-semitic streak?
“Yes, and that’s often the accusation but it’s not the case. I have many Jewish friends,” he says.
Back in Totnes, those who have previously tolerated Dr Hopwood’s views are now siding against him. Lawyer Alison Williams has reported him to the General Medical Council and asked that his licence to practise medicine be withdrawn.
Would Dr Hopwood regret being stripped of his medical licence? “Yes, it would be a shame but I could probably do with the £400 a year registration fee. In fact it’s £420. I count things in skiing holidays, so it’s quite a good skiing holiday.”
The full interview is available on The News Hour on the Listen Again function of Totnes FM at totnesfm.co.uk