Gillian and Raymond Brown

Rev Raymond Brown, 70, was rapped by the advertising body over claims on his website that he could cure joint pain, infertility and heart conditions.

Mr Brown, an ordained minister in The International Church of Saint Paul at Harmony Church in Limestone Road, Burniston, says he can prove all the claims on his website and told The Scarborough News that he was being “persecuted”. He bills himself as himself as a ‘spiritual surgeon’ who heals people when his body is possessed by a 2,000-year-old spirit called Paul of Tarsus.

“Paul was blinded on the road to Damascus after having a vision of Jesus Christ,” said Mr Brown.

He says it is Paul who heals the patients and says he cannot stop claiming to treat people.

He added: “Why should I say I don’t cure these things or stop these things when I do? Otherwise after all these years how would I still exist?

“We have the testimonials to prove it.

“Last year we had an investigation by Trading Standards and they read the testimonials and passed us.”

The Trading Standards investigation was launched on the back of a Daily Mail article which claimed Mr Brown treated people with cancer. Something he denies.

“I have always said that if you have cancer you should go down the medical route,” he said.

“I am waiting to hear if I have throat cancer at the moment and I am going medical, If I could cure cancer why wouldn’t I just cure myself? I can’t cure cancer.”

However, he did admit that he uses his ‘powers’ to shrink cancer patients’ tumours but tells them that it is not a cure and does not charge them. He normally charges in the region of £35 for a treatment.

Mr Brown, who has been featured on the BBC’s Secrets of the Paranormal, now lives in Scarborough with his wife Gillian, whom he met more than 20 years ago when she came to him to have a repetitive strain injury in her wrist treated.

He has been treating people for 48 years.

He added: “I have cured thousands of people when I say I it is Paul who cures people through me.”

“What qualifies me is what I have done for more than 45 years, the testimonials of people I’ve treated. You’ve got people who say they are healers and they can cure this and cure that and I’ve never ever professed to cure anything I cannot help.”

Despite these claims, the Advertising Standards Agency, (ASA) is not letting up its stance that Mr Brown is indulging in ‘misleading advertising’. A statement on its website adds: “The Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP) Compliance team has contacted Raymond Brown on several occasions about claims to treat health conditions, including: “sciatica and disc problems, frozen shoulders, carpal tunnel, joint pain, tennis elbow, arthritis, rheumatism, IBS, stomach pain, endometriosis, hiatus hernia, infertility, eyes, ear, nose, and throat problems, ME, neurological conditions, and heart conditions”.

“CAP and ASA are yet to see robust evidence that Raymond Brown is suitably qualified to treat the more serious of these conditions such as infertility, endometriosis and heart conditions, or that he holds robust evidence to prove that he can treat the less serious conditions e.g. joint pain.”

Mr Brown, however, is defiant.

“People have been chasing us to take this off, taken that off, we’ve taken everything off of our website that we can, apart from everything that’s real,” he said.

“How the hell can you take off what’s real?

“What is true? How the heck can you take it off?

“We have tried to do everything they have asked of us.

“It is an insult to me. It’s disgusting that I have to, at my age, defend myself like this. It is like I am being persecuted.”

The Browns came to Burniston last year following the death of Gillian’s mother but the church there has been run under Paul’s teachings for a number of years.

“I don’t mind them saying to me ‘you can’t do this, you can’t do that’ but for them to say to me you have not helped or cured people when I have is wrong.” Mr Brown produced pictures of him treating the late actor Sir John Mills and boxer Chris Eubank as well of hundreds of other patients.

At this point of the interview with Mr Brown, he was possessed by his spirit, Paul of Tarsus.

Speaking in a stilted manner Paul said he’d ‘come through’ to defend his friend.

He said: “My name is Paul of Tarsus.

“I work through this man Ray Brown, I have done for many years. I only want to serve God, the people and to help those who I can.

“Meaning I have never ever gone against the medical in any way.

“That is why I, as Paul, am very respected in all circles of the medical profession and I can prove that without a doubt. I did not want to come to speak to you today as Raymond is a person who is very private and suddenly we have two people arrive on the door so we have, I guess, someone who wants to put down Raymond’s work, I don’t know but they are not putting down Raymond’s work they are putting down my work.