About Rolf Hefti

And...

The Purpose Of
Rolf-Hefti.com

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Who Is Rolf Hefti?

The Backstory For Rolf-Hefti.Com

"Independence is my happiness, and I view things as they are, without regard to place or person; my country is the world, and my religion is to do good." (Thomas Paine, 1737-1809, Political Theorist, Activist, and Author, in 'The Rights Of Man', 1791)

Hello,

This is Rolf Hefti.

I'm a scholarly independent health investigator and writer. I'm the author of the book “The Mammogram Myth”, and have articles published at Orthomolecular Medicine News Service, GreenMedInfo, and Natural News. Commentaries of mine have also been published by the purported "world's top-tier medical journals" BMJ (formerly the British Medical Journal) and the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM).

Incidentally, I'm one of the most published commenters on a landmark scientific follow-up appraisal of a large mammogram study The BMJ selected as one of the top 5 research papers among its several thousand published studies and articles during the entire decade of 2010-2019. Meaning I was someone who had one of the largest number of submitted commentaries ("rapid responses") to that seminal update of a noted mammogram study published by The BMJ. Except... my last submitted mammography letter which, instead of publishing, The BMJ censored (see the essay My BMJ-Banned Mammogram Document).

In addition, this “rapid response” commentary work of mine at the BMJ was used as citations at three different occasions in a critical exposé-style film documentary about mammography, called "Boobs: The War On Women's Breasts", which was released in 2020 (Smith, 2020).

Originally I'm from Switzerland. Currently I reside in the USA.

Below I share some background information about myself and the creation of this website.

Why Am I Interested In Nutritional Supplements & Health?

–Derailed By Pain And Suffering (Health Issues)...

"Try to become not a man of success, but try rather to become a man of value." (Albert Einstein, PhD, 1879–1955, Scientist, Nobel Prize Winner)

When I was about twenty years of age I began studying sociology and social psychology at the University of Zürich, Switzerland.

Unfortunately, some unforgiving health issues which plagued me since I was a child forced me to ultimately abandon my promising academic path. Consequently, I didn't get a degree. And never have.

Fortunately, my health problems opened up new and more fundamental perspectives about my personal aspirations and about the value of my health and of life itself.

In other words...

My “derailing” off one set of tracks led to a “rerailing” onto another set of tracks.

I perceived the customary goals of individualistic ambitions, which tend to be primarily economic aspirations and yearnings for high status since they are strongly shaped and mapped out by a capitalistic Western culture, as insignificant, hollow, and shallow compared to attaining and having good health.

Apparently, actor Christopher Reeves (1952-2004) who played Superman in feature films, experienced a similar shift in perception after his tragic horse riding accident that left him severely paralyzed for the rest of his life, as he openly admitted in a public speech:

“I’ve had to leave the physical world. By the time I was twenty-four, I was making millions. I was pretty pleased with myself...I was selfish and neglected my family. Since my accident, I’ve been realizing...that success means something quite different. I see people who achieve these conventional goals...none of it matters.” (Schlosser, 2002)

It became painfully clear to me that health is wealth, rather than wealth is health. It became painfully clear to me that the value of, and the respect for, human life trumps the fabricated “need” for material aspirations and prosperity.

So I recognized that my ambition should always be directed towards attaining and maintaining health, first and foremost, rather than attaining and accumulating wealth.

And as importantly...

My own personal experience with pain and suffering fostered my feelings of empathy, compassion, and appreciation. Both for my own life and for the lives of other people, and life in general. I wanted to make a constructive difference in other people's lives. A difference that would prevent or relieve suffering in others.

This website is an outcome of my metamorphosis, a term that essentially means a "profound change".

An Avalanche Of Insights And New Perspectives

“Our goal should be a world such that every person born into it has the possibility of leading a good life.” (Linus C. Pauling, PhD, 1901-1994, Scientist, Two-time Nobel Prize Winner)

My health issues, my world of seemingly endless pain and suffering, naturally urged me to adopt, and inevitably enforced in me, a disposition to (critical) thinking rather than (blind) believing. The unpleasant personal state actually demanded of me to question and doubt some of the most fundamental things. Things many people consider "sacred", "taboo", or "crazy" to ponder about, or things that are assumed to be so absolutely and completely true or “obvious” that there's no need to think about them.

For example, I asked myself...

How can alleged “intelligent” and “good” people of various (industrialized) nations consider themselves (or humankind) a “success” when much of humankind is starving, and afflicted by disease and suffering? How can any person perceive himself or herself as “a success” in view of this most basic and painful reality?

After all, most misery, injustice, and corruption in the world is sustained by presumed “good people”, by “intelligent”, "successful", “nice”, law-abiding citizens. How? The human rights advocate and establishment critic Martin Luther King, Jr (1929–1968) illuminated the answer for us:

“We must learn that passively to accept an unjust system is to cooperate with that system, and thereby to become a participant in its evil.” (King, 1977) [emphasis added]

Other great minds had expressed this reality-based insight years prior to Martin Luther King's declaration. For instance, Ella Wheeler Wilcox, (1850-1919), a writer, referred to people's verbal-behavioral apathy in the face of injustice as “to sin by silence” in a poem of 1914 (Wheeler Wilcox, 1914). I've addressed this notion explicitly in my article about Covid-19 (“The 2 Married Pink Elephants In The Historical Room”).

Hermann Hesse, (1877-1962), a German-born Swiss novelist and Nobel Prize winner in literature, wrote this in 1919:

“We kill at every step, not only in wars, riots, and executions. We kill when we close our eyes to poverty, suffering, and shame. [...]. In the same way all disrespect for life, all hardheartedness, all indifference, all contempt is [...] nothing else than killing.” (Hesse, 1919)

The life conditions of an individual, and by extension of a society and the state of the world at large, are, as a rule, the outcome of what we as individuals focus(ed) on –or, respectively, have not focused on, such as errors and mistakes.

Therefore, are “conventional goals”, the official concepts of human intelligence, prosperity, or success nothing but states of denial? Intellectually concocted notions devoid of any real compassion?

What's more important, an individual's success or the success of humankind? What's more important, an individual's success or the “success” of nature?

Where is my cultural socialization leading me to on these crucial issues?

The recognition of the immense value of health (and life) made me ask myself in astonishment why we –as individuals and as a society– don't first (above everything else) focus our personal and collective efforts and ambitions to guarantee basic health for every person (and other life forms) on the planet, rather than predominantly pursuing economic individualism and running after other personal prestigious goals and ever-increasing corporate profits?

Because of the ramifications of my health issues I could, on a deeper level, relate to the saying by Dr. Linus Pauling (see his quote above).

Wouldn't the preferential focus and actual manifestation of the “goal” Pauling pointed at be the type of empathy humankind could be rightfully proud of? Wouldn't it epitomize “success” in the most basic, most valuable way possible? But in “developed” nations individual success is most often thought of as a sign of, or result of, possessing intelligence. If you're “successful”, i.e., have wealth, status, and possibly fame, the assumption is that you obviously must be intelligent.

Is it a sign of intelligence that humans, via their actions, have plundered, severely polluted and destroyed much of the ecosystem of the planet with toxic chemicals and all types of harmful radiation, and with the use of other technological “wonders” which are all invented and developed by so-called highly intelligent people?

The acclaimed writer Aldous L. Huxley (1894–1963) noted that:

“Technological progress has merely provided us with more efficient means for going backwards.”

The heralded supreme intellectual, physicist Stephen Hawking, PhD, (1942-2018), uttered this admission in 2010:

"I believe intelligence is probably overrated. It's not necessarily a good thing for a species' survival."

I realized that intelligence, ambition, "goodness", and success are terms defined by the culture we live in.

Not by the planetary environment. Not by people who are in reverent touch with nature.

Looking at the results and impact of so-called human intelligence, ambition, and success from the perspective of nature, the environment, and all living creatures, the way human endeavors have affected them, clearly, human intelligence and prosperity haven't much reflected upon them in a positive manner. What really shines, however, are human neglect, negligence, disregard, ignorance, arrogance, cruelty, and idiocy.

This is reminiscent of a recent statement I've read:

“[...] people today [=all types of people, including scientists and other so-called highly intelligent persons] have no better grasp of the consequences of their actions than superstitious and unscientific people centuries ago. Modern technological man is just as easily bamboozled by propaganda as ancient man was by superstition and ignorance.” (Paul Craig Roberts, PhD, American economist and former US government official, in 2012, commenting on the main lesson that emerged from reading Charles C. Mann's book '1493' (2011)) [explanation & emphasis added]

Nature doesn't “care” about the multitude of important-sounding terminologies, designed and defined by some arbitrary human standard, such as intelligence, success, wealth, ambition, fame, authorities, or whether a person has impressive professional degrees, but...

... whether its life-enabling presence is respected, valued, guarded, protected, and fostered.

It is the reason why the perceptive filmmaker Peter Joseph said in an interview of 2009:

"We have to learn how to identify and break our own indoctrination if we expect to move forward at all as a civilization."

Bottom line?

It all comes down to preserving or adding to the life force of the environment, not to taking it away. This suggests that humans, in relation to their behavior to nature, should lead with giving, nurturing, and sustaining, not with taking, neglecting, and exploiting, just like in any mutually flourishing person to person relationship.

The author and entrepreneur Jim Rohn (1930-2009) once said:

“Success is not so much what we have as it is what we are.”

Ultimately, I propose, “success” is really “what we are”... as a conglomerate of people, as a whole of humankind and nature.

I sensed that real, true intelligence, success, and goodness, regarding any human being's “achievements”, is the demonstration of respect for all life and nature by way of a person's actions, despite that this may not bring you personally the much-sought-after acclaim and glory by many of your human peers.

A while back, a famous anthropologist remarked:

“I must admit that I personally measure success in terms of the contributions an individual makes to her or his fellow human beings.” (Margaret Mead, PhD, 1901-1978)

Without a doubt, externalizing Dr. Linus Pauling's reflection would make for a better, more compassionate world.

The necessity of Pauling's insight is apparent for no other reason than that poor individual health oftentimes leads to poor productivity and performance, and, especially in third-world nations, to poverty and an early death.

Around 1914, for instance, over 1,000 people died each month in colonies of the southeastern US from pellagra, an acute vitamin B3 deficiency (=a lack of niacin), because their diet consisted primarily and almost exclusively of corn that had not been prepared the traditional way of “primitive” “non-civilized” American indigenous peoples making it a more complete food via their ancient method of nixtamalization (Melby, 2023), and those “non-primitive” “civilized” individuals who survived the scourge had not enough energy to care for themselves –which lead, in a vicious cycle, to increasing rates of poverty (Martin, 1977).

Undoubtedly, good health is generally a prerequisite to, or a part of, “leading a good life”.

Questioning Conventional Education

“One time when I was around 10 I went home from school, went into the backyard, my father was there and he said 'Well Ralph, what did you learn in school today? Did you learn how to believe or did you learn how to think?'” (Ralph Nader, Consumer Advocate & Former Presidential Candidate)

The “truth”, for most people, is what a society or culture exposes its people to. Whether it is by way of its traditions, mores, its formal educational system, its media outlets, or the influence of its private industries (corporations) via their marketing and public relations power.

My health predicament also led me to view the traditional system of education in a critical manner. In particular as a student of sociology, certain thoughts and observations began to slowly emerge...

What direction, on what path, is our society and educational system steering us into? What is the function of governments and institutions such as the educational system (formal education)? What purpose does a government and the institution of formal education serve? Is it to develop independently thinking, compassionate people or is it largely the indoctrination of the culture's ideologies and agendas by establishing compliant “intelligent” and “good” members of a society to the effect of securing the status quo?

The fundamental answer to all of that is practically the same now (after over a decade into the 21st century) as it was when I attended the University of Zürich (at around 1990). John Kozy, PhD, for instance, supplied an appropriate description in 2012:

“Governments have never existed to solve problems domestic or international. Governments and their institutions exist merely to further and secure the interests of favored groups, but We the People are never the favored group.” [emphasis added]

In corroboration of this, Eric G. Campbell, PhD, a sociologist, described the fundamental condition which leads to the well-documented bias of scientific objectivity in a (deregulated) capitalistic society when he stated:

“There isn't a single sector of academic medicine, academic research or medical education in which industry [=for-profit corporations] relationships are not a ubiquitous factor.” (Seife, 2012) [explanation added]

Few people seem to be aware of these facts because we live in a culture whereas official authorities and the conventionally taken path of formal education are perceived as exclusively trustworthy and reliable. This in spite of many contrary observations by some of the most insightful and influential people of both modern and past times.

Here are some fitting examples attesting to that:

“I should wish to see a world in which education aimed at mental freedom rather than imprisoning the minds of the young in a rigid armor of dogma calculated to protect them though life against the shafts of impartial evidence. […]. The wish to preserve the past rather that the hope of creating the future dominates the minds of those who control the teaching of the young.” (Bertrand Russell, 1872-1970, Philosopher & Social Critic, Nobel Prize Laureate)

“Men are born ignorant, not stupid; they are made stupid by education.” (Bertrand Russell, 1872-1970, Philosopher & Social Critic, Nobel Prize Laureate)

“We are faced with the paradoxical fact that education has become one of the chief obstacles to intelligence and freedom of thought.” (Bertrand Russell, 1872-1970, Philosopher & Social Critic, Nobel Prize Laureate)

“The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education.” (Albert Einstein, PhD, 1879–1955, Scientist, Nobel Prize Winner)

“I was not expected or taught to seek for truth, but to receive what my masters imposed on me as truth.” (William H. Holcombe, MD, 1825-1893)

"We need a lot less propaganda for "education" and a more individual creative search for learning. [...]. The existing [Western societal] system of education is little more than a conditioning mechanism. It has little to do with education in the true sense, and a lot to do with control of the individual." (Antony Sutton, PhD, 1925-2002, Economist, Historian, and Author) [explanation added]

“Education is a method whereby one acquires a higher grade of prejudices.” (Laurence J. Peter, PhD, 1919-1990, Educator)

“I prefer the company of peasants because they have not been educated sufficiently to reason incorrectly.” (Michel de Montaigne, 1533-1592, Writer)

“If you take a highly intelligent person and give them the best possible, elite education, then you will most likely wind up with an academic who is completely impervious to reality.” (Halton C. Arp, PhD, Contemporary Astronomer)

"[...] self-education is, I firmly believe, the only kind of education there is." (Isaac Asimov, PhD, 1920-1992, Scientist & Author)

"The most valuable degree is a degree of common sense." (John J. Moelaert, Author)

“[...] when you go to school and use your intellect every day for years it is not easy to let go of it. Intellect becomes the apotheosis [=saintly ideal], and takes the place of where feelings should be.” (Arthur Janov, PhD, 1924-2017, Psychologist, Academic Hall of Fame, in 2011) [explanation added]

In other words, “being educated” according to the official mandate doesn't necessarily equate to possessing the real facts or having wisdom or having common sense.

It dawned on me that getting MORE cultural inculcation (such as through "higher education"), or adhering to its pervasiveness and persuasiveness, wasn't the answer –the true answer, and challenge, was in becoming (MORE) aware of all types of inconvenient truths, disregarded by the culture, and then acting acccordingly.

Above all, the world, it seems, needs aware, perceptive, empathetic people rather than "educated" (i.e., heavily culturally indoctrinated), mentally/emotionally dull people.

As Janov proposed:

“Our goal should be to produce feeling human beings, not mental giants because feeling is the essence of life; there is no life without it; not joy, no ecstasy, no depths of sadness, no nothing; just a big emptiness.” (Arthur Janov, PhD, 1924-2017, Psychologist, Academic Hall of Fame, in 2011)

Pain And Suffering (Health Issues) Became A Catalyst For Change

“We generally change ourselves for one of two reasons: inspirations or desperation.” (Jim Rohn, 1930-2009, Author and Entrepreneur)

Unfortunately, people tend to change predominantly because of pain (“desperation”) rather than because of gain (“inspiration”) –see my treatise on “Civilized” Humans' Soullessness Spectrum Disorder.

Hence, it was pain and suffering (“desperation”) that led me to new insights. And it was pain and suffering (“desperation”) that motivated me to make constructive changes in my life. By the way, this is a very common phenomenon because it often takes a serious health problem or some other personal crisis to make a person change.

And...

It was pain and suffering that also motivated me to try to make useful changes in other people's lives. As with this website, Rolf-Hefti.Com, for instance.

Alongside gaining eye-opening and inspiring but disenchanting recognitions, my central focus and intent was to solve my debilitating health issues.

Starting in my early teens, my pain-fueled desperation sparked in me an ever-growing interest in the things that support and maintain human health. I read ferociously and passionately a substantial amount of information on medicine, nutrition, health, nutritional supplements, psychology, anthropology, sociology, and philosophy.

I've read anything that would elucidate what the facts are about human nature and human health. Anything that would give me a truthful clue on how to resolve my deep-rooted health problems. Researching (reading and studying) became the greatest passion of mine. And still is to this day.

Among the pearls of value I came across was the recognition of a vast amount of sound scientific data on the immense benefits of nutrition and nutritional supplements, topics I developed a strong fondness about.

I was particularly very impressed by the myriad of remarkable scientific evidence in favor of high-impact supplementation. And I was saddened, horrified, and flabbergasted that –it seemed to me at the time– very few people were taking food supplements in Switzerland (a supplement market practically didn't exist). I wasn't well aware then of the deep political and sociological forces behind this inexplicable, non-constructive, truth-muffling reality. (It is this indelible personal discovery about the power of supplements which, ultimately, forms the springboard for the website you're on now).

In my search for a solution to my health issues, I discovered that the reason why a number of healing approaches failed me was because they weren't based on valid facts but were rooted in authoritarian dogma, tradition, or marketing propaganda.

But...

... dogma, persuasive propaganda, and the veneer of authority and traditions didn't change one iota on my health problems. These purveyors of presumed importance couldn't wow or cajole my profound suffering.

Choosing The Path Of An Independent Health Investigator

"You have a choice in life between two sets of principles: power and privilege, or justice and truth. And you have to make a choice." (Chris Hedges, U.S. Author, Social Critic, and Pulitzer Prize Winner)

Upon the resolution of my health issues I decided, due to my different outlook on things, not to re-enter the formal educational system to obtain official credentials.

Instead of once again taking on the usual conventional path of getting a “higher education” and getting subjected to theories and views favored by a particular university, and the agendas of a certain culture, I choose to do my own research and gain knowledge “freely”, without being methodically led into a peculiar way of thinking and or adhering to a particular ideological perspective.

To cite the astute John Kozy, PhD, once more:

“Human beings had been teaching themselves and others for millennia before what we know as a “teacher” ever existed. [...]. A healthy curiosity is the only weapon against ignorance. [...]. Learning whether what is taught makes sense is ultimately essential.”

And as Steve Jobs (1955–2011), Co-founder of Apple Computers, said at his 2005 Stanford Commencement Address:

“The minute I dropped out [from college] I could stop taking the required classes that didn't interest me. And begin dropping in on the ones that looked more interesting.” [explanation added]

In a similar manner, but reflecting a more intellectual, further reaching form of observation, the following words by American biologist Ray Peat, PhD, (1936-2022), bear great significance:

"While self-regulation and the generation of knowledge is pleasurable, having knowledge imposed isn't. When our steering system is commandeered by authorities, our patterns of knowledge will be compartmented, and arranged in a fixed pattern. This kind of knowledge either deteriorates, or it seeks more of its own kind." (Peat, 2010)

And...

“Our job, in our own culture, is […] trying to make our culture more humane [...] to open whatever is closed, to generate possibilities by working on what has been neglected.” (Peat, 1976)

After I became more and more aware of the prime motivations of industrialized societies, whereas respect for life, the environment, and the truth frequently take a backseat to private industry interests and dogmatic traditions, I decided to do independent research to hopefully arrive at the facts about nutrition, health, nutritional supplements, corporate medicine, unconventional medicine, and the culture in general rather than getting ensnared by some ideology and agenda of a corporation-dominated nation.

All of the material on this site is totally self-funded by me, Rolf Hefti, hence the reference thereof as a source of “independent research” or “independent investigation” (=free from outside funding). More precisely, none of my investigative work –whether it is my website articles, my book, or any articles I had published elsewhere (e.g., at the “Orthomolecular Medicine News Service” or “GreenMedInfo”)– was sponsored or directionally influenced by any charitable, academic, industrial, or governmental organization or individual.

Does My Lack Of Formal Degree (Automatically) Disqualify The Information I'm Presenting?

“[...] I have found that people with philosophical or scientific “training” are often very intent on telling others what they “can't” see, or mean, or experience.” (Raymond Peat, PhD, 1936-2022, US Biologist, in 1976)

As mentioned above, I don't have a formal degree or any other official “trustworthy” credentials attesting of my “authority, intelligence and success”. Should you, therefore, disregard what I, Rolf Hefti, come up with?

Well, according to the advice by a scientist with remarkable official credentials, John W. Gofman, MD, PhD, (1918-2007) what really matters is this:

“Whether a report is by an XYZ committee [=a person with a degree, or an organization of authority] or by an independent analyst, what will count in the end –with regard to human health– is the work's scientific content. The rest is noise.” (Gofman, 1990) [explanation added]

The esteemed Nobel Prize recipient Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) denoted:

"Have no respect for the authority of others, for there are always contrary authorities to be found." (Russell, 1951)

In similar fashion, another scientist with highly acclaimed credentials, Nobel Laureate Richard P. Feynman, PhD (1918-1988), advocated:

“Have no respect whatsoever for authority; forget who said it and instead look at what he starts with, where he ends up, and ask yourself, 'is it reasonable?'” (Feynman & Leighton, 1988)

In other words, what really matters in the end are sound scientific facts (i.e., truth, objective reality, that “what is”), not your educational background, not your race, not your nationality, not your gender, not official degrees, awards, and the guise of authority.

Naturally, this rather liberating notion tends to challenge and threaten the sanctioned decrees and the commonly glorified status of authorities, whether they be persons, institutions, corporations, governments, or the tenets of so-called superior races –so they categorically don't popularize it or acquaint their adherents with it.

Trust facts, not authorities.

Just to clarify: my saying “trust facts, not authorities” does not mean, or imply, to not pay attention to authorities, to not think (critically) about what they're saying. Neither does it mean, or imply, that they can not be factual or truthful. “Trust facts, not authorities” means that trust –meaning reliance, or personal intellectual commitment and orientation– ought to be on facts (the truth, the actual reality) instead of any particular authoritative person or organization of authority.

Of course, this means that if the information is factually valid, regardless of its source (official or unofficial), if the data has “substance” as Dr. Gofman referred to it, then anyone, potentially, could come up with reasonable insights and draw sound conclusions, whether the person has a conventional formal degree or not.

In fact, being decorated with formal degrees, official accolades, and possessing a lofty authoritative status inside the mainstream establishment could pose significant obstacles to finding, and getting to, the real truth of all sorts of things.

Commonly, with formal degrees, official accolades, and authoritative status come personal, professional, institutional, and cultural commitments. As a result, these formal proofs of social importance, given by core elements of our highly commercialized world (=a world dominated by for-profit businesses), can be –and frequently are– “mental roadblocks” (which typically are culturally acquired and then become self-imposed impediments) in the certificated authorized specialists. Cognitive roadblocks that tend to –just about unnoticeably– limit, obscure, misguide, and warp the perception of truth and the actual reality.

A stellar case study on the truthfulness of this, exposing the real world we live in, is the fraudulent orchestrated 2008 economic collapse (Ferguson, 2010; Titus, 2016) where hundreds (if not thousands) of apparently (or supposedly) clueless PhD economists could not see it coming “down the pike” while a NON-PhD analyst had predicted this exact economic “crisis” since 2001 and had published a couple of explicit academic papers on it before it had happened (Grim, 2009).

This is markedly akin to how I recognized from the start that the officially framed and hyped plague-like and humanity-dooming “Covid-19 Pandemic” was a totally inhumane, planned, political Mega Crime-Against-Humanity (I first alerted my newsletter subscribers about The Criminal Covid-19 Fraud Operation in early April of 2020), while the vast majority of MDs, PhDs, and other “higher educated” individuals anywhere on the planet could not see it (read my essay “The 2 Married Pink Elephants In The Historical Room”).

An erudite keen individual with an expansive open-minded mentality –whose name shall remain undisclosed here (per the request of this correspondent) but who has multiple college/degree qualifications in several fields of study– had told me, referring to my admission of lacking an official degree, that:

“As for the lack of degree, my wide ranging lifelong curiosity has shown me that the people who get closest to the truth on any topic are NOT specialists who miss vast amounts of relevant but tangential information, but good quality investigative journalists such as John Pilger and Frank Joseph.”

And talking from personal experience, US psychologist Bruce Levine, PhD, offered us this:

“Having steered the higher-education terrain for a decade of my life, I know that degrees and credentials are primarily badges of compliance.” (Levine, 2012) [emphasis added]

To further convincingly challenge and bust a myopic rigid conformist mental frame about a necessity to hold an official academic degree (and not at all because of some personal ego-gratifying comparison of myself with the following people, as some readers might be tempted to insinuate), lots of well known distinguished scientists and geniuses never had a formal degree (throughout their entire lives), such a Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519), whose famous “The Vitruvian Man” decorates every webpage of this site at the header's top left side, Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790), a scientist, inventor, politician, and a “founding father of the United States”, Charles Darwin (1809-1882), a biologist, naturalist, geologist, and clergyman, who created the theory of evolution, Thomas Huxley (1825-1895), a biologist and anatomist, Thomas Edison (1847-1931), an inventor (e.g., he invented the first commercial light bulb), or in more contemporary times, Richard Leakey (1944-?), a paleontologist and activist, and Stephen Crothers (1957-?), an astronomer (more precisely a nonconformist astronomer or heretic of the astronomy officialdom).

Human history, especially that of the civilized world, reveals that the vast majority of people have always exhibited a strong tendency to readily rely on the ruling or formal authorities (or bodies of authority) for guidance and entities to place their trust into, despite that this trust has consistently and reliably been undermined by the reigning authorities –and thus, has largely been unjustified– throughout the ages.

In alignment with an inclination anchored in human biology, having been brought up through the process of socialization to always "respect authorities", i.e., obey and follow authorities (rather than to always respect, obey, and follow truth), it is always much easier and much more agreeable –and it happens practically automatically– for people to conform with authoritative edicts, advice, and narratives than to think about, and independently examine, what the authorities want them to believe or do, or don't want them to believe or do.

The psychologist Arthur Janov, PhD, 1924-2017, had written about this:

"The powers who reign do not want us to think; they want us to believe, to be engaged in endless studies of the official scripts so as to be further inculcated and more easily led. It looks like thinking but it actually replaces thought. [...]. That is the ticket; impregnate ideas until they become part of us, and then we follow them without question. It is a true principle in advertising [...]." (Janov, 2015) [emphasis added]

(The big danger of conformist "thinking", and acting, is encapsulated in a striking Einstein saying –see the home page for the exact Einstein quote).

In commercialized cultures, so prevalent across the planet in the 20th and 21st centuries, official "education" is more often than not unofficial advertisement of corporate industries and cartels, which frequently operate under the disguise of non-profit groups, foundations, institutions, or other organizational set-ups with crafted images of high social approval.

Moreover, the surrender of individual responsibility is most becoming to those individuals and groups who will "shoulder" that disposed responsibility and who assume and hold power –that is, the authorities– which enables, builds, and amplifies their power.

The convenient abdication of individual power results in the convenient enhancement of authoritative power.

Wade Frazier, an independent investigator and writer, has called attention to this symbiotic interplay between the individual (i.e. the general public) and the authorities when he stated:

"The American medical paradigm plays into people's sense of learned helplessness and their desire for immediate self-gratification at all costs."

Perhaps my greatest unofficial “qualification” is my rather strong curiosity, my inquisitive desire to find out the truth of things, my propensity to question all kinds of things. Which, and this is very important, is different to “finding”, repeating, or rather thoughtlessly believing, the truths propagated by people and organizations in positions of authority and tradition.

Why Am I Using A Lot Of Quotes & References?

“Have you ever observed that we pay much more attention to a wise passage when it is quoted than when we read it in the original author?” (Philip G. Hamerton, 1834-1894, Writer)

Besides the fact that many notable quotations tend to convey sharp insights and timeless wisdom, there are two principal reasons for my generous usage of citations:

• I'm aware that most people put their trust in “credible” authorities which are usually people with degrees, status, wealth, fame, and reputation. Most people have been accustomed to orient themselves in the world thru "arguments-by-authority" (instead of "arguments-by-informational merit").
  
  So I let official authorities, experts –people with degrees and standard credentials– “do the talking” by me citing many of these officially recognized and acknowledged sources. After all, I'm not saying that authorities are always wrong. Although many of whom, conceivably most of them, are probably mostly wrong (most of the time) –which is essentially a conclusion drawn by John Ioannidis, MD, PhD, a medical scientist and the world’s most cited mainstream medical researcher (Ioannidis, 2005).
  
  But beyond that reason, and of much greater importance...
  
  I'm after the facts, rather than what the various authorities dispense. That means, whatever it is that I have come to recognize as being the facts I will reference, regardless whether it emanates from an prestigious authority or someone totally unknown or even vilified and officially denounced.
  
  Because...
  
  Ever since Edward L. Bernays (1891–1995), the father of propaganda, advocated in the early decades of the 20th century for the ruling establishment (governments and private corporations) to “use” authoritative expert figures the public held in high esteem, such as scientists and doctors, to introduce, promote, and “peacefully” conform to a product, service, or ideology (Tracy, June 2012), this public relations tactic has been very effectively used with great consistency by both government agencies and influential private corporations to advance their perspectives.
  
  Therefore, I'm fact-oriented, rather than authority-oriented, to see past the widespread propaganda present in all types of cultures.
  
  
• I respect your need for substantiation, your right to be in a position that allows you to validate (or invalidate) whatever is presented to you. After all, I have that requirement too. Essentially, I'm in agreement with the concept of “scientific journalism” offered by Julian Assange, an investigative journalist, whistleblower, political prisoner, and the founder of Wikileaks:
  
  “I have been pushing this idea of scientific journalism that things must be precisely cited, the original source, or as much of it as possibly available should be put in the public domain so that people can look at it, just like in science so that you can test to see whether the conclusion comes from the experimental data. Otherwise you probably just made it up. [...]. And in fact that is what happens all the time people just make it up. And they make it up to such a degree that we are led to war. Most wars in the 20th century have started as a result of lies. Amplified and spread by the mainstream press. And you go, “well that is a horrible circumstance, that is terrible that all these wars start with lies”. And I say no, this is a tremendous opportunity, because it means that populations basically don't like wars and they have to be lied into it. And that means we can be truthed into peace. And so that is the extremely optimistic thing.” (Assange, 2013) [emphasis added]
  
  

Ultimately, both reasons serve the purpose of “taking me, Rolf Hefti, out of the picture as much as possible” so that you hopefully are left with the objective facts, rather than my own personal opinions, views, and potential biases.

The Purpose Of Rolf-Hefti.com

–I Do Have An Agenda: Providing Value

"[...] with love comes truth [...]." (Wade Frazier, Writer)

I do have an agenda: your health, and mine.

My agenda, the most basic intent or mission of this website, is providing value to you.

My intention is to make your life better, by helping you to maintain, improve, or re-gain your health by sharing my research findings with you on this site.

To phrase this more poetically, my mission, my goal, is to be a light which illuminates the truth, to the extend I'm succeeding at uncovering and recognizing it. My aim is the facts. The truth.

By increasing light you can see what is accurate, as the illumination dispels darkness, revealing an environment in which assumptions are less common, or, ideally, are largely gone.

Now, this mission includes raising awareness about vitamin benefits, supplement risks, and misconceptions surrounding dietary supplements.

But it also includes...

• bringing the errors of modern medicine at large into the spotlight (e.g., their claims that mammograms and medical x-rays are virtually harmless –see my (e)book The Mammogram Myth: The Independent Investigation Of Mammography The Medical Profession Doesn't Want You To Know About), or,

• shining light on some of the medical orthodoxy's abusive practices, such as when bias-prone instruments of organized medicine use their immense economic power to suppress arguably meaningful breast cancer information and data on mammogram screening –see A Mammogram Letter The British Medical Journal Censored)

... because this type of information only appears to be completely unrelated to the theme of health supplements.

And, at last, it boils down to:

“[...] knowing is for others. Knowing is for the world, knowledge is responsibility.” (Raymond Peat, PhD, 1936-2022, US Biologist [Peat, 1976]) [emphasis added]

This website conveys provisional conclusions on nutrition, allopathic medicine, “natural medicine”, politics in medicine, health, and nutritional supplements based on my research of these subjects.

Because I am of the belief that this information can help to improve your health and make your life better (as it has done for mine), I decided to share it with you by creating this website. Especially since I had crippling health issues myself, know quite well what pain and suffering is, and then found help after searching for a solution, I feel a moral responsibility to share what I know, in the hope to make a difference in your life, to make your life a little bit (or even a lot) better.

The vision of Rolf-Hefti.com (and thus of Rolf Hefti) is to help create a better, more compassionate, more humane world.

I believe this cannot be accomplished efficaciously without good health, both on the individual and the collective level. (Despite that disease, pain, or personal crisis are often the springboard for igniting a stronger sense of empathy and compassion.)

In the end...

“People need to raise their sights and get away from the idea that material needs are the ultimate in importance. People need proper food and shelter but they also need –if they are to be healthy– knowledge, hope, love, friendship, and many other things of a non-material nature.” (Roger Williams, PhD, 1893–1988, Pioneer Of Nutrition Research)

This website strives specifically to pass on to you some “proper knowledge” on wellness topics (and associated subjects), “alternative medicine” (which, historically, is in reality traditional medicine), “mainstream medicine” (which, historically, is in reality non-traditional medicine or alternative medicine), and the politics permeating all arenas of the corporate culture and corporatized world. No matter whether you arrived here to seek nutritional supplement advice (or health advice in general) out of “desperation” or “inspiration”.

That sums up most of the backstory about me, Rolf Hefti, and Rolf-Hefti.com.

To Your Health,
Rolf Hefti

P.S.
Stay in touch by subscribing, for free, to Rolf Hefti's Newsletter.

Discover what others think and opine about my body of written works by visiting Testimonials: What Others Say About Rolf Hefti's Articles.

P.P.S.
From its inception in 2011 until May of 2021 my website (its domain name/URL) was called "www.Supplements-And-Health.com". In late May of 2021 I transitioned it to "www.Rolf-Hefti.com". You can also find, get to, and access Rolf-Hefti.com through https://www.RolfHefti.com (or www.rolfhefti.com).

And finally...

If you have any questions, suggestions, or comments about Rolf-Hefti.com, please feel free to contact me through this page: Contact Me

---

References

• Assange J, "When Google Met Wikileaks", 2014 (the cited quote is from the “Transcript of secret meeting between Julian Assange and Google CEO Eric Schmidt” on 19-Apr-2013, which is part of the book: https://archive.fo/VkXZV or https://archive.fo/e5qbn [accessed 25-Dec-2018])
• Ferguson C, “Inside Job”, Documentary, 2010
• Feynman RP, Leighton R, “What Do YOU Care What Other People Think? Further Adventures of a Curious Character”, 1988
• Gofman JW, “Radiation-Induced Cancer From Low-Dose Exposure: An Independent Analysis”, 1990
• Grim R, “Priceless: How The Federal Reserve Bought The Economics Profession”, HuffPost, www.huffpost.com, 23-Oct-2009 | Updated: 13-May-2013 [https://tinyurl.com/vme5v9m5 | https://archive.ph/Md9mM; accessed 14-July-2024]
• Hesse H, in “Vivos Voco”, a monthly magazine, March 1919 (as cited in Eberhard Arnold, 'Salt & Light: Living The Sermon On The Mount', Ch. 8, Pp. 48-49, 4th Edition, 1998)
• Ioannidis JPA, “Why Most Published Research Findings Are False.”, PLoS Med. 2005 Aug;2(8):e124. Epub 2005 Aug 30.
• Janov A, “On the Beliefs that Kill", in 'Janov's Reflections On The Human Condition', www.arthurjanov.com (Blog), 20-Jan-2015
• King ML Jr, “Strength To Love”, 1977
• Levine BE, “Why Anti-Authoritarians Are Diagnosed As Mentally Ill, And How This Helps America’s Illegitimate Authorities Stay In Charge”, www.brucelevine.net, 23-Feb-2012 [http://archive.is/3n5xn; accessed 1-Feb-2019]
• Martin W, “Medical Heroes & Heretics”, Devin-Adair, 1977
• Melby K, “Our Forgotten Sacred Relationship With Food”, Organic Consumers Association, www.organicconsumers.org, 5-June-2023 [https://tinyurl.com/5x6vhhtn | https://archive.is/UxQYt; accessed 19-June-2023]
• Peat R, "Mind & Tissue: Russian Research Perspectives on the Human Brain", 1976
• Peat R, "How do you know? Students, patients, and discovery”, Ray Peat's Newsletter, www.raypeat.com, Sept-2010
• Russell B, "The Best Answer to Fanaticism--Liberalism; Its calm search for truth, viewed as dangerous in many places, remains the hope of humanity", in the article's segment entitled "A Liberal Decalogue", The New York Times Magazine, 16-Dec-1951
• Schlosser E, “Fast Food Nation -The Dark Side Of The All-American Meal”, 2002
• Seife C, “How Drug Company Money Is Undermining Science: The pharmaceutical industry funnels money to prominent scientists who are doing research that affects its products--and nobody can stop it”, Scientific American, December Issue, Epub (Ahead Of Print), 21-Nov-2012
• Smith MS, "Boobs: The War On Women's Breasts", Film Documentary, WayMark Productions, 2020
• Titus J, “The Veneer Of Justice In A Kingdom Of Crime”, Film Documentary, 2016 [https://is.gd/u0rC7h | https://tinyurl.com/y82atx2d | http://archive.is/qRkng | https://is.gd/XzQCbD | https://tinyurl.com/yc5gnhz5; accessed 9-May-2020]
• Tracy JF, “The Technocratization Of Public Education: Subverting Educational Practices”, Global Research, June 14, 2012
• Wheeler Wilcox E, “Protest”, a poem from her book 'Poems Of Problems', 1914

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