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Psychic surgery is a medical fraud in which practitioners create the illusion of performing surgery with their bare hands and use sleight of hand, fake blood, and animal parts to convince the patient that diseased lesions have been removed and that the incision has spontaneously healed. The technique may fool the general public, but it can be observed by experienced stage magicians, who use the same sleight of hand techniques for entertainment.
The United States Federal Trade Commission described psychic surgery as a "total hoax". It has also been described as fraud, fakery, deceitful,Martin III, Harvey J. 1999. “Unraveling the Enigma of Psychic Surgery.” Journal of Religion & Psychical Research 22 (3): 168. Irrationality, Charlatan,Martin Gardner (1991). 087975432X, Prometheus Books. 087975432X and quackery.Clague, A E, S J Bryant, A J Splatt, and A S Bagley. “Psychic Surgery 'quackery".” The Medical Journal of Australia 1, no. 4 (February 19, 1983): 153. Even supporters have been forced to admit that sleight-of-hand tricks were "widely used" and that charlatans were common and miracles unlikely. Psychic surgery may cause needless death by keeping the ill away from life-saving medical care. Medical professionals and skeptics classify it as sleight of hand and any positive results as a placebo effect.David Vernon in Skeptical - a Handbook of Pseudoscience and the Paranormal, ed Donald Laycock, David Vernon, Colin Groves, Simon Brown, Imagecraft, Canberra, 1989, , p47
Psychic surgery first appeared in the spiritualist communities of the Philippines and Brazil in the middle of the 20th century; it has taken different paths in those two countries. Terence Hines. (1988). Pseudoscience and the Paranormal: A Critical Examination of the Evidence. Prometheus Books. p. 245.
Most cases do not involve actual surgery although some practitioners make real incisions. The lack of pain upon incision has been attributed to a type of hypnosis.
In regions of the world where belief in evil spirits is prevalent, practitioners will sometimes exhibit objects, such as glass, saying that the foreign bodies were placed in the patient's body by evil spirits.
In 1959, the procedure came to the attention of the U.S. public after the publication of Into the Strange Unknown by Ron Ormond and Ormond McGill. The authors called the practice "fourth dimensional surgery", and wrote "we still don’t know what to think; but we have motion pictures to show it wasn’t the work of any normal magician, and could very well be just what the Filipinos said it was — a miracle of God performed by a fourth dimensional surgeon."
In "...1973, a group of medical doctors, scientists, and parapsychologists visited the Philippine Islands to study a phenomenon that was causing increased furor amongst health professionals ... Filipino psychic surgeons, also known as spiritual/magnetic healers."
Alex Orbito, who became well known in the United States through his association with actress Shirley MacLaine was a practitioner of the procedure. On June 14, 2005, Orbito was arrested by Canadian authorities and indicted for fraud. On January 20, 2006, the charges were dropped as it then seemed unlikely that Orbito would be convicted.
Psychic surgery made U.S. tabloid headlines in March 1984 when entertainer Andy Kaufman, diagnosed with large cell carcinoma (a rare lung cancer), traveled to the Philippines for a six-week course of psychic surgery. Practitioner Jun Labo claimed to have removed large cancerous tumors and Kaufman declared he believed this cancer had been removed.Martin Gardner. (2000). From the Wandering Jew to William F. Buckley Jr: On Science, Literature, and Religion. Prometheus Books. pp. 32-33 Kaufman died from renal failure as consequence of a metastasis lung cancer, on May 16, 1984.
A known Brazilian psychic healer who routinely practiced psychic surgery was Zé Arigó, who claimed to be channeling a (fictional) medical doctor named Dr. Fritz. Unlike most other psychic healers, who work bare-handed, Arigó used a non-surgical blade. Other psychic healers who claimed to channel Dr. Fritz were Edson Queiroz and Rubens Farias Jr. Later, one João de Faria, also known as João de Deus, became popular while he operated in Abadiânia, state of Goiás. Faria has since been arrested and found guilty of the rapes of several women. Dozens of similar accusations are awaiting trial.
According to the descriptions of BDORT, Brazilian psychic surgery appears to be different from that practiced in the Philippines. Omura calls attention to the fact that practitioners in Brazil use techniques resembling qigong, shiatsu massage, and chiropractic manipulation. Some patients are also injected with a brown liquid, and alleged minor surgery was performed in about 20% of the cases observed. While Arigó performed his procedures using kitchen knives in improvised settings, Omura reports that the clamping of blood vessels and the closing of the surgical wounds were performed by licensed surgeons or licensed nurses.
In 1975 the FTC stated:
It has been found that "psychic surgery" is pure fakery. The body is not opened, no "surgery" is performed with the bare hands or with anything else, and nothing is removed from the body. The entire "operation" is an egregious fraud perpetrated by sleight-of-hand and similar tricks and devices.
In 1990, the American Cancer Society stated that it "found no evidence that 'psychic surgery' results in objective benefit in the treatment of any medical condition," and strongly urged individuals who are ill not to seek treatment by psychic surgery.
The British Columbia Cancer Agency "strongly urges individuals who are ill not to seek treatment by psychic surgeon".
While not directly hazardous to the patient, the belief in the alleged benefits of psychic surgery may carry considerable risk for individuals with diagnosed medical conditions, as they may delay or forgo conventional medical help, sometimes with fatal consequences.
Randi said the healer would slightly roll or pinch the skin over the area to be treated. When his flattened hand reaches under the roll of skin, it looks and feels as if the practitioner is actually entering into the patient's body. The healer would have prepared in advance small pellets or bags of animal entrails which would be palmed in his hand or hidden beneath the table within easy reach. This organic matter would simulate the "diseased" tissue that the healer would claim to be removing. If the healer wants to simulate bleeding, he might squeeze a bladder of animal blood or an impregnated sponge. If done properly, this procedure may deceive patients and observers. Some "psychic surgery" procedures do not rely solely on the "sleight of hand" described, as at least one Brazilian "surgeon" also cuts his victims' skin with an unsterilized scalpel to heighten the illusion.James Randi. (1995). Psychic surgery in An Encyclopedia of Claims, Frauds, and Hoaxes of the Occult and Supernatural. St. Martin's Press.
John Taylor has written there is no real case for psychic surgery as the explanation of fraud is highly likely in all the operations.Taylor, John. (1980). Science and the Supernatural: An Investigation of Paranormal Phenomena Including Psychic Healing, Clairvoyance, Telepathy, and Precognition by a Distinguished Physicist and Mathematician. Temple Smith. pp. 31–36. The practitioners use sleight of hand techniques to produce blood or blood-like fluids, animal tissue or substitutes, and/or various foreign objects from folds of skin of the patient as part of a confidence trick for financial benefit.
Science writer Terence Hines has written:
The "operation" starts as the hand appears to enter the patient’s belly. This is accomplished by creating an impression in the belly by pushing down and flexing the fingers slowly into a fist—the fingers thus appear to be moving into the belly, but are really simply hidden behind the hand. The blood that further disguises the true movement of the fingers and adds drama to the proceedings can come from two sources. One is a fake thumb, worn over the real thumb and filled with a red liquid. Such a fake thumb is a common magician’s implement. Blood can also be passed to the surgeon in red balloons hidden in cotton the psychic surgeon is using, the cotton and its hidden contents being passed to him by an "assistant". The bits of "tumor" can also be passed to the psychic surgeon this way, or hidden in the false thumb... the "tumor" material turns out to be chicken intestines or similar animal remains. The blood is either animal blood or red dye.
Two "psychic surgeons" provided testimony in a Federal Trade Commission trial that, to their knowledge, the organic matter supposedly removed from the patients usually consists of animal tissue and clotted blood.
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