Alfredo Bowman

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Alfredo Bowman

Born Alfredo Darrington Bowman[1]

26 November 1933[2]

Ilanga, Honduras[1]

Died 6 August 2016 (aged 82)

Barrio Ingles La Ceiba, Honduras

Cause of death Pneumonia

Occupation Herbalist,[2] witch doctor[2][3][4]

 Patsy Bowman[5]
Spouse(s)
 Maha Bowman

Children 17

Alfredo Darrington Bowman (26 November 1933 – 6 August 2016),[2] better

known as Dr. Sebi (/seɪbiː/), was a Honduran self-proclaimed herbalist and healer,
who also practiced in the United States for a period in the late 20th and early 21st
centuries. Bowman claimed to cure all disease with herbs and a vegan diet based
on various pseudoscientific claims, and denied that HIV caused AIDS. He set up a
treatment center in Honduras, then moved his practice to New York City and Los
Angeles. Numerous entertainment and acting celebrities were among his clients,
including Michael Jackson, Lisa ‘Left Eye’ Lopes, and John Travolta.[6]
Although he used the title and name Dr. Sebi, Bowman had not completed any
formal medical training. He was considered a quack by licensed doctors, attorneys,
and consumer protection agencies in the United States. He was arrested being
accused by New York state of practicing medicine without a license. After trial,
Bowman was acquitted based on the legal definition of "medicine" for his herbs. He
was later charged in a civil suit that resulted in him being prohibited from making
therapeutic claims for his supplements.[7]
In May 2016, Bowman was arrested in Honduras for money laundering, after being
found carrying tens of thousands of dollars in cash with insufficient accounting for
its origin. During several weeks' detention in jail, he contracted pneumonia. He
died in police custody as he was being transported to a hospital.

Biography[edit]
Early years and career[edit]
Bowman was born in 1933 in Ilanga, Honduras. He first learned of herbal healing and related
traditional practices from his grandmother; his grandfather was originally from Haiti. [8] Bowman
who was of African descent, identified himself as an "African in Honduras", not as an African
Honduran.[2]
Bowman became dissatisfied with Western medical practices in treating his own illnesses such
as asthma, diabetes, impotency and visual impairment and visited an herbalist in Mexico
named Alfredo Cortez who confirmed to him that he was dying. [9][10]
After that, Bowman began his own healing practice in Honduras. He developed a treatment
that he called the "African Bio-Electric Cell Food Therapy", and claimed that it could cure a
wide range of diseases, including cancer and AIDS, as well as a variety of chronic conditions
and mental illnesses. He also developed related herbal products.[2]
Bowman set up a center in the 1980s near La Ceiba, Honduras, and marketed his herbal
products in the United States. He called his center the USHA Research Institute, as located in
the village of Usha.[citation needed]
According to McGill University, Bowman's diet and food therapy was based on the
discredited alkaline diet and showed a fundamental misunderstanding of genetics. [11] His beliefs
on the origin of disease denied germ theory and factored in faux-afrocentric[12][13] claims about
the unique genetic characteristics of Africans and their diaspora,[2][14] which was referred to as
"race pseudoscience" in a critical article published by McGill University. [11]
In the early 1980s, AIDS had newly been recognized as a disease as an epidemic started in
the United States, with numerous cases in New York and other major cities. Bowman claimed
that HIV is not the cause of AIDS and used herbal remedies to treat people. [15]
In 1987, Bowman was arrested and charged in New York with practicing medicine without a
license. The jury acquitted him, saying the state had failed to prove he made a medical
diagnosis. In the 1990s, he was sued in New York for making claims of therapeutic benefits for
his products; as a result of the civil case, he was prohibited from making such claims. He
relocated to Los Angeles, where he cultivated celebrities among his clients. [7]
He gradually earned considerable revenue, more than $3000 a day, after giving advice and
developing a wide range of celebrity clients, such as Lisa Lopes, Steven Seagal, John
Travolta, Eddie Murphy and Michael Jackson.[1] He reportedly treated Jackson in 2004, before
the latter went to trial.[2]