Honoring Dr. William F. Bengston (1950–2025)

Following the news of Dr. Bill Bengston’s recent passing on April 16th 2025, it is with deep respect and admiration that I reflect on his life and legacy.

I only met Bill once in person, while attending a workshop he gave in Germany in the summer of 2013. It was a 3-day workshop, and on the last day I approached him during a break and asked him to sign my copy of his book, The Energy Cure.

I walked up to him while his back was to me. “Dr. Bengston, could you please sign this for me?” He turned around and said “Yeah sure”, and took the book. “This is in English, how can you read this?” he asked me jokingly, referencing the fact that we were in Germany and most of the audience was German. I was so nervous that I didn’t get the joke, and I replied “I am English – erm, I mean I can speak English”.

He signed it, and then I asked him to add the date. He said “Sure, what’s the date”? I was so nervous that I had no idea. I had practiced this so many times in my head but had actually forgotten to check the date. He looked at his watch and said, “Don’t worry, I got it”. It was the 29th of July 2013.

He handed me the signed book and smiled with what was the nicest, most sincere smile I have ever seen in my life. “You got it!” he said. And have it I do to this day. It is my most prized physical possession, something I value more than my framed PhD which hangs on the wall opposite the library.

That was the only time I ever saw him in person. But in the years before and after, I must have listened to more or less every interview or podcast he ever did, and boy he did quite a few. Some of the hosts were obvious amateurs, their questions were poor and some even interrupted him while he spoke. And through all that, I never once heard him lose his patience, snap back, come across as arrogant, aggressive or negative in the slightest. Even while I was swearing away in frustration listening to the thing, he was polite and pleasant.

He was also nice on the rare occasions he spoke about the cancer industry. If I remember correctly I heard him use the word “industry” once in one interview, and mention that he didn’t really like them. That was it. Even when he talked about chemotherapy, he tried to be fair and balanced, perhaps too fair if you ask me, but that was him. Simply one of the nicest human beings ever.

He also never boasted. He never said his method was superior or more effective compared to other healing modalities, although - let’s be honest here - it generally is. But he always referenced his healing method as just another healing modality. Always modest and understated.

I also never once heard him make any sales pitches or ask for money. Not that it would be bad if he did – I for one would have certainly monetized my position more if I were in his shoes. But that was who he was. His primary motivation, going by what he said and did, was a genuine curiosity to figure out how this stuff works, as well as a desire to help people.

On the 28th of December 2023 I got a message through my website’s contact form: “Nicely done. Thanks for being so playful”, likely referencing the 3D Vizualizer which I developed as a training tool for rapid image cycling. The name on the form was Bill Bengston, and the email was his academic email address. Though I obviously can’t verify 100% that it was him, the style and content of his message leave me little doubt. Whenever I think of him now, this is the one word that comes to mind. Playful.

Obviously Dr Bengston’s death is a devastating development in terms of advancing his method, scaling it up and making it widely available to the public, which was what he was working on in the last years of his life. It’s very likely he made some arrangements so that things would continue after his passing, but there will only ever be one Bill Bengston. The future will show.