Waymon Doyne Miller

Confirming the claims of Alfred Pohl, the family of Donny Morton, and others, Waymon Doyne Miller testified that William Branham's healing claims were not accurate.  Miller attended William Branham's meetings in Johannesburg, South Africa, and after witnessing several people claim to be healed, Miller decided to investigate further.

According to Miller, investigating Branham's claims was difficult.  Very little data was released to the public.[1]  Miller collaborated with other ministers who attended Branham's meetings, however, and one minister very close to the platform knew some of the "healed" personally.[2]  This minister sent a letter describing the deceitful tactics and false claims in the Branham meetings, which Miller published in his 1956 book "Modern Divine Healing".

The letter:

Mrs. N., a woman of about forty-five 'miraculously' arose from her bed and walked away during the first meeting.  There were flashlight photos of her in the morning paper.  Her husband was said to be amazed.  But a little investigation showed me: (1) That she was suffering from menopausal disturbances, which laid her low for a day or two, then left her normal possibly for a week or more.  The paper said that she had been 'bedridden for ten months'.  This was proved to be false.  (2) Her own doctor told me she was by no means bedridden.  (3) an elder of her church had visited her four days previous to her healing, and she had entertained him to tea.  (4) Neighbors said they had seen her walking about.  No denial of the false statement ever appeared in the press, either by her or by the church which sponsored this campaign.

T. B. cases.  I personally interviewed the assistant Medical Superintendent of a well-known T. B. Hospital here.  More than twenty cases of those attending the campaign claimed to be cured.  I knew several personally.  He stated that the X-ray showed no change in lung structure, but added, 'Of course, it is theoretically possible for the disease to have been eradicated from the body, in which case the residual damage to lungs would remain.  But if this is so we shall know within a week or two by means of tests.'  No such evidence has since been forthcoming.  He told me that several were considerably worse for having gone.  Excitement had induced hemorrhages in several instances.  Cases of T. B. complicated with diabetes were considerably worse, he said, as shown by sugar tests.

Of these twenty T. B. cases no less than six were unshaken by the X-ray evidence, and still believed themselves either cured or on the way to it.  I walked into one ward and one patient, J. A. said to me, 'We're all cured here.'  The same patient has since discharged himself at his own responsibility.  So has one other of the six, but I know him quite well, and he is at home, unable to work, and far from cured.

Mrs. A. S., a heart case for twenty-four years; in and out of the hospital, and really a chronic case it seems.  She was 'cured' for the first night, attending every subsequent meeting, climbing stairs, amazing her family, sleeping normally.  Her case was specifically mentioned as one of the most astonishing proofs of divine healing.  The detailed report of her healing appeared in the paper a week or so after the campaign's conclusion.  The roving reporter had written it some days earlier. 

Unfortunately, I had spotted a funeral notice of the same name the day before the cure notice appeared!  I rang the news editor and asked, 'Did you know that this lady whom you have written up as a wonderful cure died yesterday? 'Yes,' he said, 'I have just discovered it.'

Dr. M. P., twenty-three years old, was a houseman at Addington Hospital.  As a medical student he had leukemia, but bravely carried on his studies.  He knew he was doomed, in the human sense, but showed amazing pluck.  I was there when Branham dramatically singled him out and said, 'Cancer of the blood!  You are cured!  It was dramatic in a big way.  But I suspected that Branham knew all along that he was in the audience near the front, for he was a hospital case, and a doctor besides, and many others knew of his presence.  Well, Dr. P. went back to the hospital, discharged himself the next morning, strongly against the advice of the Medical Superintendent, went to his home at Shepstone, seemed well for twelve hours, got sick again, and was dead in less than a month.

But this is not the worst.  An American paper contained an article by Bosworth on the Durban campain.  In it Bosworth cites this wonderful cure, adding that the hospital staff examined him the next day and found his blood entirely free from cancer, whereas exactly the opposite was the case!  The medical staff thought him foolish to leave, said there was no change in his blood condition, and they were proved right.  The same Bosworth article mentioned crowds of 80,000 to 100,000 at Greyville race-course, whereas its utmost capacity is just over twenty thousand.  Of course, his friends in the States would not know any better on this point, and they would swallow it as it stands.

The A. family, well known to me, members of my church.  No less than four of this large family claimed cures; the mother from arthritis, a daughter from some purely imaginary complaint, a little boy from a deficiency of red corpuscles, and so on.  I have often visited this family.  None of them appears to be any different than before.  Mind you, the mother claims to be wonderfully improved, but she is just as she was before to outward appearance: shuffles about, and has pain in her joints.  Two other members of this family who were not in this business, but who are Christian believers, tell me that they see no change in their mother, their little brother, or in their sister.  Yet this family is quoted as the one family that has benefitted most by the campaign.

And so it continues right through forty-six cases.  I have not made any check lately, i.e., within the last two months, but the evidence before me is such that I can come to no other conclusion that the cures claimed are so largely exaggerated as to be almost fraudulent in their claim.