Yogic Flying and GM Foods:The Wild Theories of Jeffrey Smith

Jeffrey Smith demonstrating “yogic flying” during a Natural Law Party press conference in Springfield, Ill., on Oct. 22, 1996, where he was a member of a party delegation from Iowa.  (Image freely licensed and released for public use.)

Jeffrey Smith isn’t bound by the usual conventions. He once advocated getting thousands of people to collectively practice transcendental meditation – the yogic flying technique, to be precise, as he shows at left (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TM-Sidhi_program) – to reduce crime and increase “purity and harmony” in the “collective consciousness.” Here Smith can be seen demonstrating yogic flying at an Illinois news conference on Oct. 22, 1996, where he was promoting it for the Natural Law Party of Iowa.

Smith is now better known for his theories about biotech agriculture, or GM foods. His self-published books Seeds of Deception and Genetic Roulette have built for him an online profile that has made Smith one of the most widely quoted opponents of biotech ag —despite his evident lack of scientific credentials or other formal training on the subject. (He has had formal training in swing dancing, however, which he used to teach professionally.)

In addition, the “scientific studies” that Smith says support his theories are thoroughly contradicted by a vast body of data and scientific experience; they are wholly irresponsible. In his single-minded campaign against GM crops, Smith has shown an amazing capacity to ignore the scientific literature on almost every topic he discusses.

But, as he showed at that press conference when he explained the role that meditation should play in the “collective consciousness,” Smith is a gifted communicator.

He’s particularly adept at getting his message out via the latest online methods, which he uses to spread his misinformation about biotechnology, in particular, to an ever-widening audience. In his most recent self-published book, Genetic Roulette, Smith claims to show 65 different “documented health risks” associated with biotech foods. Not one of them has been found to be scientifically valid by Academics Review.

Professors Bruce Chassy and David Tribe address each of these claims here, illuminating them in the unfiltered light  of peer-reviewed science.