Mind-bending drugs kill two: doctor faces charges

Sep 21, 2009, 11:30 GMT

Berlin - After distributing mind-altering drugs to a tantric therapy group, leading to two deaths, a Berlin doctor was facing charges Monday of causing dangerous bodily harm with fatal consequences.

Two men, aged 59 and 28, died after taking the substances at a group therapy session Saturday in the doctor's suburban home.

Another of the 12 patients, aged 55, was in critical condition and being kept in a coma, police said.

The doctor was an adherent of Samuel Widmer, sometimes described as a 'guru,' who offers tantric 'enlightenment' with drugs at his own 'university' on a farm in Luesslingen, 20 kilometres from the Swiss capital Berne.

Voicing shock at the deaths, the mentor told the German Press Agency dpa he had trained the doctor 15 years ago.

Widmer insisted that he himself only used legal substances. 'I expect he was using something different, because my substances are non-dangerous,' the Swiss said by phone.

Based on worship of Indian deities, tantrism has spread to the West with 'religious' ceremonies incorporating drugs and sex. The Swiss site, the Cherry Blossom Community, says it houses 75 adults and 60 children.

Widmer says he has two wives. He has campaigned in the past in favour of incest between fathers and daughters.

A judge remanded the Berlin doctor, 50, in custody late Sunday on two charges of causing dangerous bodily harm with fatal consequences and six charges of causing dangerous bodily harm. He admitted distributing the drugs.

His name-plate described him as a practitioner of 'psycholitic' therapy, a concept rejected by standard medicine which claims mental disturbance can be healed by taking ecstasy, LSD and 'magic mushrooms.'

News reports said the doctor, who was born in the former Soviet Union, had a licence to practice medicine and was assisted at the session by his de-facto wife, an alternative medicine healer. They have four children.

Clinical psychologists said they feared their whole profession might be dragged down by world disgust at the case. Dieter Best, chairman of the German Psychotherapy Association, said, 'This wasn't psychotherapy at all.'

In a radio interview, Eva Jaeggi, an Austrian psychoanalyst, described the practices as the work of a 'charlatan.'

Police said they will not disclose the substances involved until laboratory tests are conducted, but news reports said the doctor's repertoire included amphetamines and LSD. Detectives said a tiny amount of heroin was also in the drug cocktail.