Alex Chiu

Alexander Yuan-Chun Chiu (born February 8, 1971) is a San Francisco, California businessman who has invented a number of products that allegedly achieve remarkable results in healing.

Products

Magnetic devices

He markets magnetic rings, called the Immortality Device, which he says he believes, based upon his personal theories and experiences, arrest and even reverse the aging process, leading to immortality when worn nightly. He believes this lessens the intensity of most diseases and aids in fighting them, and especially aids in preventing their occurrence.

He has and still provides free directions on how to construct them for a user who does not want to obtain the rings that he personally makes. The rings he makes are made from an adjustible ring of plastic (grey or white for normal, black for neodymium) with teeth, inscribed with a positive and negative sign corresponding with which side the magnets. Two magnets are in each ring, one above and below the finger, so that the corresponding attraction will supposedly accelerate the whole body's magnetic flow.

His rings come in a cheaper and weaker variety of earth magnet, and Neodymium, a superior form which he says have a much stronger effect on health, though they are more disconcerting to accustom to at first.

The rings are worn on the pinky finger of each hand and must be aligned in a certain direction, under the idea that they increase the body's cellular magnetic flux, which is supposed to increase health. Wearing them with the wrong directions is supposed to have the opposite effect, greatly harming the user's health.

He also sells magnetic foot braces, which accompany the rings. Unlike the rings, they go around all the toes of the foot, not just the pinky.

Due to the varying levels of power from supposedly harming health in reverse flux to supposedly enhancing it in positive, at neodymium levels, with the combined effect of rings and footbraces, observing differences in proper scientific trial should not be hard to detect. This makes the lack of evidence for the rings provided so far only as testimonial, suspicious.

He has also said in the past that he is working on developing a true "heal the handicap" machine, based upon coil magnets, and possibly electromagnetism.

Food and ingested medicine

His most recent product for sale is a capsule he calls the Gorgeouspil which, if taken daily in conjunction with the rings, he believes alters the appearance of the patient to make them eventually look "even more gorgeous than supermodels!". He claims that his pill can even change bone structure, namely in the face. None of these claims have been independently verified.

He has sold American Ginseng and Green tea which he believes are very healthy substances, and which enhance the effects of the rings. He has also sold some sort of rose oil product.

Fortune telling

Alex sells Bible Decoder software which can presumably predict the future by observing the implications of code in the Old Testament.

He also believes in the use of I-Ching in telling the future.

Chiu's views

His claims are commonly viewed as outrageous, and are mostly based on the thousand-year-old alternative health treatment, magnet therapy, which he takes credit for. He also has popular internet conspiracy theories on his page that he credits himself as the creator of as well. He is considered by many to be an infamous snake oil salesman and quack.

Business dealings

Some claim that he has not honoured his refund policy because he claims his customers are lying or incapable of knowing that his device actually works.

Free rings for advertising

In the past, Alex claimed to give out free rings for clicks on a banner or link that directed to his site. For 80 clicks, an advertiser affiliate would receive a free pair of basic rings. This advertising tactic is largely responsible for his internet cult fandom and large levels of expansion. Some had claimed difficulty with this offer, in a variety of areas:

Problems logging into the affiliate page at times.
Time consuming calculation of unique clicks
Lack of correlation between unique click count and bar-graph stated click counts
Clicks lost when order is placed, yet order is not sent out
Order said to have been sent out not received.

Most cases have been resolved due to Alex's keeping a phone line open at all times which he does personally answer. In one case, when the free earth magnet rings were not received, to make up for the trouble and delay he sent out Neodymium rings as compensation.

His website is available in a number of languages, including English, and has links to pages explaining his plans for, among other things, a world-wide corporation, a device for teleportation and a method for exactly divining the future. One of his web pages ^* claims that he is not Taiwanese but Chinese and that his device for eternal life is not designed for Taiwanese who deny being Chinese.

According to his website, he follows the Jewish religion and bases much of his philosophy on the Old Testament (referred to as the Tanakh by Jews). He claims that immortality is possible as described in the Tanakh and offers predictions as to who he believes will be the Messiah. [http://www.alexchiu.com/messiah.htm. He is also a supporter of the state of Israel, believing its establishment to be a fulfillment of Biblical prophecy.

Alex Chiu has also achieved internet fame through pop-culture flash movies called animutations.

He has also been featured on the podcast Infected with Martin Sargent.

While not the rings specifically, magnet therapy in general has been featured in the Bullshit episode on Alternative Medicine, where it was shown to probably be placebo.

External links

Alex Chiu's various websites

Websites critical of Alex Chiu

Immortality Institute, an often encountered subject on the forum which receives criticism by the leading members

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