But Mrs Brooks, who left her role as NI chief executive because of the hacking scandal but denies having had any knowledge of the practice while at the paper, says the phone "was not a personal gift".

BBC: Phone hacking: MPs vote not to recall James Murdoch

The philosophy behind it is called anthroposophy, "a source of spiritual knowledge and a practice of inner development, " according to The Anthroposophical Society in America.

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Perhaps we all underestimated how complicated it would be to move genomic knowledge into the practice of medicine and public health.

WSJ: Should Healthy People Have Their Genomes Sequenced?