{{Short description|German-born American naturopath}} {{Infobox person |name = Benedict Lust |image = Benedict Lust 1918.png |caption = Lust in 1918 |birth_date = {{birth date|1872|2|3}} |birth_place = Michelbach, Baden, Germany |death_date = {{death date and age|1945|9|5|1872|2|3}} |death_place = Butler, New Jersey, U.S. |occupation = Naturopath, writer}}
'''Benedict Lust''' (February 3, 1872 – September 5, 1945) was a German-American who was one of the founders of naturopathy in the first decades of the twentieth century.
==Biography==
Lust was born in Michelbach, Baden, Germany.<ref name="Cyclopaedia 1945">Anonymous. (1945). [https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015078229195;view=1up;seq=1005 ''The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, Volume 32'']. New York: James T. White & Company. pp. 505-506.</ref> As a youth, he became ill and was treated by Fr. Sebastian Kneipp, a famous advocate of the water cure system.<ref name="Cyclopaedia 1945"/> In 1892, he moved to the United States as Kneipp's official water cure representative.<ref name="Cyclopaedia 1945"/> Lust attended the New York Preparatory College. He graduated from the Universal Osteopathic College in 1897 and the Eclectic and Naturopathic College in 1904.<ref name="Cyclopaedia 1945"/> He received an M.D. from the Homeopathic Medical College of New York in 1914.<ref name="Cyclopaedia 1945"/>
In 1896, Lust began his career as a naturopath by opening a health center and health food store in New York City.<ref name="Cyclopaedia 1945"/> He also opened the New York School of Massage in 1896 and the American School of Chiropractic.<ref name="Cyclopaedia 1945"/><ref>Cayleff, Susan E. (2016). ''Nature's Path: A History of Naturopathic Healing in America''. Hopkins University Press. p. 34. {{ISBN|978-1-4214-1903-9}}</ref> He published several German and English language magazines advocating hydrotherapy and natural cure. One of his regular customers at the time was Bernarr Macfadden, the popularizer of physical fitness and natural medicine.
Benedict Lust was a disciple of Adolf Just, a German naturopath.<ref name="Leavitt 2012">Leavitt, June O. (2012). ''The Mystical Life of Franz Kafka: Theosophy, Cabala, and the Modern Spiritual Revival''. Oxford University Press. pp. 158-159. {{ISBN|978-0-19-982783-1}}</ref> Lust established a branch of Just's Jungborn in the Ramapo Mountains of New Jersey and translated in 1903 Just's book ''Kehrt zur Natur zurück!'' into English under the title ''Return to Nature; the True Natural Method of Living and Healing and the True Salvation of the Soul: Paradise Regained''.<ref name="Leavitt 2012"/>
In 1901, Lust opened the American School of Naturopathy in Manhattan. He served as the organization's only president.<ref name="Whorton 2002">Whorton, James. C. (2002). ''Nature Cures: The History of Alternative Medicine in America''. Oxford University Press. p. 194. {{ISBN|0-19-514071-0}}</ref> In 1919, the Naturopathic Society of America was dissolved and Lust founded the American Naturopathic Association to supplant it.<ref name="Whorton 2002"/> He operated the ''Herald of Health and Naturopath'' journal. He was also associated with Bernarr Macfadden's ''Physical Culture'' magazine.<ref>Hunt, William R. (1989). ''Body Love: The Amazing Career of Bernarr Macfadden''. Bowling Green State University Popular Press. p. 34. {{ISBN|0-87972-463-3}}</ref>
Lust established health resorts known as Yungborn in Butler, New Jersey, and Tangerine, Florida, which acted as the Winter Campus for the American School of Naturopathy until 2001. He published and translated August Engelhardt's book, ''A Carefree Future'' in 1913.<ref>Hopkins, Prynce. (1944). [https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.$b107932;view=1up;seq=50 ''From Gods to Dictators: Psychology of Religions and Their Totalitarian Substitutes'']. Haldeman-Julius publications. p. 44</ref> In 1918, he published the ''Universal Naturopathic Encyclopedia'' for drugless therapy, and also published ''Nature’s Path'' magazine.
He became known as the "Father of Naturopathy" in America, and his writings and magazines introduced Americans not only to German methods, but also Indian concepts of Ayurveda and Yoga. Paramahansa Yogananda was one of several Indians who wrote articles for ''Nature’s Path'' in the 1920s, gaining wide exposure to a large American audience.
Lust was a vegetarianism activist and opponent of the germ theory of disease, vaccination and vivisection.<ref>Iacobbo, Karen; Iacobbo, Michael. (2004). ''Vegetarian America: A History''. Praeger Publishing. p. 150. {{ISBN|978-0275975197}}</ref><ref>Newton, David E. (2013). ''Vaccination Controversies: A Reference Handbook''. ABC-CLIO. p. 72. {{ISBN|978-1-61069-311-0}}</ref> He considered the germ theory to be the "most gigantic hoax of modern times."<ref>Whorton, James C. (2003). [https://www.starkcenter.org/igh/igh-v8/igh-v8-n2/igh0802e.pdf ''Benedict Lust, Naturopathy, and the Theory of Therapeutic Universalism'']. ''Iron Game History'' 8 (2): 22-29.</ref> Lust eschewed the use of drugs and believed that all diseases, including cancer, could be cured by natural processes.<ref name="Cyclopaedia 1945"/>
Lust died at Butler, New Jersey.<ref>Melton, J. Gordon. (1990). ''New Age Encyclopedia''. Gale Research. p. 270. {{ISBN|0-8103-7159-6}}</ref>
==Family==
Lust was the son of Johannes and Luise Lust.<ref name="Cyclopaedia 1945"/> He married Aloysia Stroebele (Louisa Stroebele Lust) in New York City on June 11, 1900.<ref name="Cyclopaedia 1945"/> Similar to Lust, Stroebele was a naturopath and vegetarian.<ref>Cayleff, Susan E. (2016). Nature's Path: A History of Naturopathic Healing in America. Hopkins University Press. pp. 73-76. {{ISBN|978-1-4214-1903-9}}</ref> Lust's brother was Louis Lust, a baker who operated a bakery near Lust's health center. Louis's son John B. Lust, was also a naturopath.
==Controversy==
Lust was criticized by medical experts for promoting quackery and was often in conflict with the American Medical Association.<ref name="Boyle 2013">Boyle, Eric W. (2013). ''Quack Medicine: A History of Combating Health Fraud in Twentieth-Century America''. Praeger. pp. 85-86. {{ISBN|978-0-313-38567-4}}</ref> On one occasion Lust was convicted of practicing medicine without a license and fined $100.<ref name="Boyle 2013"/> He promoted pseudoscientific treatments such as biological blood-washing and zone therapy.<ref name="Boyle 2013"/><ref>Gardner, Martin. (1957). [https://www.naturowatch.org/hx/gardner.shtml "Medical Cults: Naturopathy"]. In ''Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science''. Dover Publications. {{ISBN|0-486-20394-8}}</ref>
In total, Lust was arrested sixteen times by New York authorities and several times by federal agents.<ref name="Cayleff 2016">Cayleff, Susan E. (2016). ''Nature's Path: A History of Naturopathic Healing in America''. Hopkins University Press. p. 186. {{ISBN|978-1-4214-1903-9}}</ref> In 1921, Lust was arrested for criminal libel against Frances Benzecry, a private detective for the American Medical Association.<ref name="Cayleff 2016"/> Lust wrote that Benzecry was "a disgrace to American womanhood and to the free soil of America on which she treads". He was released after a $10,000 bond was posted.<ref name="Cayleff 2016"/>
==Selected publications==
*[https://archive.org/details/universalnaturop00lust/page/1 ''Universal Naturopathic Encyclopedia''] (1918) *''The Fountain of Youth: Or Curing by Water'' (1923) *''The Crime of Vaccination'' (1926) *''Zone Therapy Or Relieving Pain and Sickness by Nerve Pressure'' (1928)
==See also== *Lebensreform
==References== {{Reflist}} *Lust, Benedict ''Yungborn: The Life and Times of Dr. Benedict Lust and Pilgrimages to the Great Masters'', Healing Mountain Publishing, reprinted 2006. {{ISBN|1-933350-04-0}} [http://www.healingmountainpublishing.com] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070402122529/http://www.healingmountainpublishing.com/ |date=2007-04-02 }} *Boyle, Wade, Kirchfield, Friedhelm ''Nature Doctors'' Medicina Biologica, 1994, {{ISBN|0-9623518-5-7}} *Wassamer & Payne ''Butler New Jersey In Story and Pictures'' Butler Argus, 1951.
==External links== *{{Commons category-inline}} *[https://www.quackwatch.org/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/Naturopathy/immu.html Naturopathic Opposition to Immunization] - Quackwatch
{{Naturopathy}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lust, Benedict}} Category:1872 births Category:1945 deaths Category:Alternative cancer treatment advocates Category:American anti-vaccination activists Category:American book and manuscript collectors Category:American health and wellness writers Category:American osteopaths Category:American vegetarianism activists Category:Fasting advocates Category:Germ theory denialists Category:Hydrotherapists Category:Medical controversies in the United States Category:Naturopaths Category:People associated with physical culture Category:People convicted for health fraud Category:Pseudoscientific diet advocates Category:Emigrants from the German Empire to the United States Category:Hydrotherapy advocates Category:American anti-vivisectionists Category:German anti-vivisectionists Category:People associated with Lebensreform