Tony Agpaoa

Antonio C. Agpaoa (1939-1982) most well known as Tony Agpaoa was a Filipino practitioner of psychic surgery.[1]

He worked in Manila. It was alleged that Agpaoa could remove tissue from the body of patients without making an incision.[2] His centre in Baguio attracted "thousands of persons annually".[1] However, magicians and skeptics were convinced his feats were the result of conjuring tricks.[3][4]

In 1968, Agpaoa was arrested and charged for fraud in the United States for pretending to mend a bone in a patients neck.[5] Instead of facing the charges, Agpaoa "skipped his $25,000 bail and fled back to the Philippines."[1]

According to the magician James Randi, "[i]n some cases, [Agpaoa] actually performed simple surgical services, removing cysts and draining infected areas; the rest, mostly very spectacular procedures in which his hands appeared to plunge into the body were the usual conjuring tricks."[1] American surgeon William A. Nolen has written "According to the A.M.A. he had separated hundreds of patients from their life savings and had cured no one."[6]

James Randi has noted that Agpaoa had his own appendix removed in a hospital in San Francisco, instead of visiting a psychic surgeon.[7] Agpaoa also took his son to the United States when in need of medical care, but his son did not survive.[1]

References
  1. Randi, James (1995). An encyclopedia of claims, frauds, and hoaxes of the occult and supernatural: decidedly sceptical definitions of alternative realities. New York, NY: St. Martin's Griffin. ISBN 978-0-312-15119-5.
  2. Moore, Brooke Noel; Parker, Richard. (1979). Critical Thinking: Evaluating Claims and Arguments in Everyday Life. Mayfield Publishing. p. 179. ISBN 978-0874848410
  3. Carroll, Robert Todd. (2003). The Skeptic's Dictionary: A Collection of Strange Beliefs, Amusing Deceptions, and Dangerous Delusions. Wiley. p. 314. ISBN 0-471-27242-6
  4. Neher, Andrew. (2011). Paranormal and Transcendental Experience: A Psychological Examination. Dover Publications. p. 171. ISBN 0-486-26167-0 "Tony Agpaoa, the most popular of the psychic surgeons, has several times been detected in trickery."
  5. Nickell, Joe. (1993). Looking for a Miracle: Weeping Icons, Relics, Stigmata, Visions & Healing Cures. Prometheus Books. p. 160. ISBN 1-57392-680-9 "Antonio "Dr. Tony" Agpaoa who, in late 1968, was arrested in San Francisco. A month later, on December 19, he was indicted by a Detroit grand jury on a charge of fraud in foreign commerce. The indictment stemmed from a Michigan steelworker's 1966 visit to Manila, where Agpaoa pretended to mend fractured bones in the man's neck. Later X-rays, however, revealed the bones were as before although the man (briefly relieved of pain by suggestion) had believed himself healed."
  6. Nolen, William A. (1974). Healing a Doctor in Search of a Miracle. Random House. p. 24. ISBN 0-394-49095-9
  7. Randi, James. (1982). The Truth About Uri Geller. Prometheus Books. p. 182. ISBN 0-87975-199-1 "Tony Agpaoa, one of the wealthiest men in the Philippines as a result of his quackery, had his own appendix removed — in San Francisco, in a real hospital."


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