What People Are Getting Wrong This Week: Do MedBeds Exist?
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Last Saturday night, someone allegedly the President of the United States posted a video on Donald Trump’s TruthSocial account that appeared to show the President appearing on Fox News’ My View with Lara Trump to announce “America’s first MedBed hospitals” and the imminent release of “MedBed cards” so Americans could access those hospitals.
“These facilities are safe, modern, and designed to restore every citizen to full health and strength,” Trump says in the video .
The video was clearly generated by artificial intelligence. Fox News confirmed that the story never aired on any of its platforms, and TruthSocial’s post was removed on Sunday. While this incident raises many questions, I’ll focus on just one: what the hell are MedBeds?
Real MedBeds vs. Fake MedBeds
While there are actual “medical beds” that, for example, tilt patients to prevent bedsores or provide continuous vital signs monitoring, the MedBeds mentioned in the video are not one of them. MedBeds is a deep dive into the world of conspiracy theories: miracle beds that use quantum field theory, vibrational energy, and/or holograms to cure all illnesses and injuries. They can restore lost limbs or reverse aging—and all you have to do is lie on one for half an hour. Cool, but not real—there’s no evidence to support the existence of such technology.
MedBeds is a predominantly far-right theory, largely overlapping with QAnon and NESARA/GESARA , but there are also many people on the far left who believe in MedBeds. Different theorists may have different ideas about the origins of MedBeds: sometimes they are reverse-engineered alien technology, and sometimes they are military-made, but almost all MedBeds proponents agree that the “elite” is hiding this technology from us, ordinary people, stealing all our youth and health for themselves. As belief in MedBeds has grown over the past decade, scammers have predictably emerged.
MedBed is a scam
It’s impossible for so many people to believe a hoax without trying to make money from it. That’s why companies like Tesla Biohealing (no relation to us) sell you the MedBed ” Biophotonizer-M ” so you ( or your pet ) can enjoy “your own quantum healing environment at home.” There’s also an anti-aging bed , or you can book a session with a ” ThetaPod ,” which looks like this:
These companies seem to studiously avoid making specific medical claims about their MedBeds, but they certainly suggest medical benefits, and those claims are highly questionable (are some MedBeds part of the ” Antichrist system “?).
It’s easy to see how such advertising slogans catch people’s attention. The websites look legitimate, the claims sound plausible , and the people spreading nonsense about MedBed might seem legitimate too. But they’re not.
It always brings us back to science fiction.
If you’re wondering where MedBeds actually come from, it’s science fiction. The current MedBed conspiracy theory is essentially based on the plot of the 2013 sci-fi film Elysium . But MedBeds also appear in earlier science fiction. In the original Star Trek, Dr. McCoy’s sickbay is full of “biobeds” capable of curing what his tricorder couldn’t. In the 1951 film The Day the Earth Stood Still, Gort revives Klaatu using a chamber very similar to descriptions of MedBeds. And if we expand the definition of a “MedBed” from a physical object to a description of what it does , the history of MedBeds dates back at least to ancient Sumer.
The eternal allure of the fountain of youth
The earliest surviving great work of literature, The Epic of Gilgamesh , details the protagonist’s search for a substance that grants eternal youth. Gilgamesh speaks of a thorny plant at the bottom of the sea, not a medical device hidden by wealthy individuals, but the idea is the same. People have been searching for the true Fountain of Youth—a source of water that cures all diseases and reverses aging—since at least 500 BCE. The search for an elixir that counteracts aging inspired alchemists, who laid the foundations for chemistry, which has led to all real medical advances that extend our lives.
The Main Lesson of MedBeds
There are no MedBeds hiding in secret military bunkers about to be deployed by some shadowy cabal, and the government isn’t about to send you a “MedBed card.” But the desire that drives people to believe in miraculous cures is very real, very old, and practically universal. Judging by the comments on MedBed videos, the people attracted to these remedies are sick, old, and scared. Real doctors have advised them to get their affairs in order; you can’t blame them for seeking hope—sooner or later, we all ask for a little more time.
Gilgamesh was driven by the same fear as the Medbed believers. The hero journeys to the bottom of the sea and finds a plant that grants eternal life, but before he can return to the surface, he is abducted by a serpent. The lesson is clear: we cannot live forever. Instead of despairing, Gilgamesh concludes that humans cannot live forever, and the meaning of life lies in living a virtuous life and in the legacy we leave behind.