Much loved Kiwi actor Sam Neill has died suddenly. In March 2023 Neill announced he had been diagnosed with Stage 3 angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma (a rare form of blood cancer) the previous year. Neill underwent chemotherapy which failed to stem the cancer progression so he switched to bi-weekly infusions of a rare specialised anti-cancer drug which initially showed promise, until it too failed. In 2025-2026 Neil enrolled in an experimental CAR T-cell gene therapy trial in Australia. This involved harvesting his own T-cells, genetically modifying them using viral vectors to program them to target his specific cancer type and then replacing them into his body. In April 2026 Neill announced that he was cancer free. Current newspaper articles report that during the last few weeks Neill had been suffering from pneumonia. His immediate cause of death has not yet been announced.
Neill hoped that the publicity surrounding his illness would lead to more government support for CAR T-cell gene therapy treatment. According to an article in Nature, CAR T-cell therapy costs about NZ$820,000 per shot. 85% of patients go into initial remission but only just over half of them are still in remission at the end of the first year. CAR T-cell therapy is not without serious risk. It can cause severe side effects, including cytokine release syndrome (CRS), a dangerous inflammatory response that ranges from mild flu-like symptoms in less severe cases to multi-organ failure and even death. The Nature article reports that with a combination of newer powerful adjunct drug regimes and vigilance, a team of attending doctors is required to try to work out how far to push treatment without triggering CRS.
Neill may have not been fully aware of research which shows that genetic modification therapies including CAR T-cell treatment can leave patients immunocompromised. You may have seen the recent article reprinted by Stuff newspaper “‘Biohacker’ Bryan Johnson diagnosed with incurable disease. We mentioned Bryan Johnson last year in our article “The Big Debate: How Many New Doctors Will NZ Need if the Gene Technology Bill is Passed?“. Johnson is a 48 year old billionaire who employs 30 doctors to manage his health using biotechnology. He takes 91 pills each day and undergoes intravenous infusions and blood transfusions. Last year he boasted he only ages 8 months for each calendar year he lives. A Netflix documentary about him failed to mention the extreme risks involved in his search for the elusive elixir of eternal life. In his latest report Johnson reveals that he has developed an incurable autoimmune form of gastritis (AIG) whereby his stomach is eating itself. This not the first hiccup in Johnson’s journey, previous biotech interventions had to be abandoned after damaging his health.
“AIG causes irreversible damage: nutritional deficiency, anaemia, and over a long horizon, elevated cancer risk,” the Silicon Valley mogul wrote recently on social media.
Bryan Johnson has a huge cult following who admire him as a pioneer guinea pig working for the future benefit of mankind. Judging by some of the adoring and encouraging comments on his social media page, they have swallowed Johnson’s belief that AIG must have developed as a result of some fast food he ate in his youth. Johnson’s adherents may not be aware of multiple studies showing that autoimmune conditions can develop in response to gene therapies. The recognised mechanisms include:
- Viral vectors designed to ‘carry’ genetic inserts can be rejected by the immune system leading to inflammatory conditions.
- Foreign proteins created by inserted genetic material can be attacked by the immune system leading to targeted immune destruction.
- Insertional Mutagenesis: Gene therapies utilising integrating vectors (like retroviruses) can disrupt normal gene regulation, potentially leading to cancerous transformations or abnormal immune dysregulation.
As was the case with the Covid vaccine, gene therapy can lead to long term production of foreign proteins by a proportion of the body’s own cells which have been genetically transformed. As a result, a permanent state of autoimmune rejection can be created whereby the body is fighting itself, resulting in immune exhaustion, tissue inflammation and run on disease manifestation including cancers.
Ten years ago the proximate death of a participant in a gene therapy trial such as Sam Neill would have led to the long term suspension of the trial pending an exhaustive investigation into the possible causes and risks. This is no longer the case. Very high levels of risk, including unassessed long term hazards to human health particular to highly mobile genetic sequences, no longer trigger pauses in the rapid growth of biotechnology experimentation.
Johnson fits into an erroneous view about life that is increasingly receiving wide publicity—the idea that the complex structure of our genome is the result of random events and is actually very inefficient, hampered by historical accidental pathways of evolution. According to this misguided belief system, which is shared by some leading researchers, biotechnologists should be able to redesign human physiology to work more simply and efficiently. Some articles published during the last couple of years predict that by the year 2036, transhuman gene therapy will be routine. This is pure fantasy. As we reported in our most recent article “The Long Read: There is already enough evidence to design a health policy that works“, our present knowledge of genetic function is very incomplete. Sober assessments published in the scientific literature such as “Gene Therapy in Rare Genetic Disorders: Current Progress and Future Perspectives admit to unsolved, stubborn problems with immune rejection which are indicative of the body’s own genetic intelligence working to protect its essential integrity from invasive gene therapy vectors.
In parallel with the development of experimental gene therapy techniques, there is a growing realisation that gene therapy can alter human psychology. This can affect an individual’s sense of self and identity, which may manifest as imposter syndrome or alienation. In other words, just as the immune system can attack transformed genetic structures and byproducts, so can conflicts arise within the self as a result of gene therapies, characterised by psychological impairment of function, emotion or intelligence.
In fact our DNA is part of a much wider system rooted in the unified level of natural law identified by theoretical physics which is recognised to have the self-referral qualities of human awareness. From this perspective, our fundamental physiological structure cannot be regarded as random or inefficient, it is the vehicle which supports the highly sophisticated and unique expression of consciousness. The physiological expression of the faculties of identity (ego), intellect (decision-making), mind (thinking) and the five senses (channels of perception) is not a random occurrence, as we discussed in our article “The Structure of Consciousness” it is the material expression of consciousness knowing itself.
Contemplate for a moment what has already been ventured and what is planned for the future in the field of biotechnology not forgetting the disastrous 30 million excess deaths during the pandemic documented by Our World in Data. Biotechnology researchers are busy planning and enacting experiments which will affect the whole world’s population without possibility of containment, recall, or remediation. Here in NZ as we lumber towards another election, we can ponder the lack of any clear understanding about the risks and dangers of biotechnology on the part of political parties who are currently planning to approve GE liberalisation and ramp up funding. This mimics a worldwide trend. It seems as if biotechnology experimentation at home and in the world at large is drifting towards disaster. If you have visited Niagara Falls you will be familiar with the syndrome, the current can grip unwary boats and gather pace in the race to the precipice. Immediate evasive action is required.
A year ago in our article “Two Roads Diverged in a Wood” we compared the lymphoma cancer rates in NZ (12.5 cases per 100,000, the highest in the world) and Bhutan (0.65 cases per 100,000, 19 times less than NZ). Bhutan has a policy of fully supporting organic agriculture with a goal of 100% organic production. In our latest article “The Long Read: There is already enough evidence to design a health policy that works” we reiterated the need to move on from health policies that are favouring promotion of costly high risk biotechnologies. Instead, there is abundant research which shows simple natural approaches to health like the promotion of organic agriculture, fresh diets, exercise and meditation can have very broad spectrum positive effects on national health and well being without adverse effects or significant expenditure. We need to learn from the last few years. Our challenge is to educate the population and the government.
