Psychic surgery

Although psychic surgery varies by region and practitioner, it usually follows some common lines. Without the use of a surgical instrument, a practitioner will press the tips of his/her fingers against the patient's skin in the area to be treated. The practitioner's hands appear to penetrate into the patient's body painlessly and blood seems to flow. The practitioner will then show organic matter or foreign objects apparently removed from the patient's body, clean the area, and then end the procedure with the patient's skin showing no wounds or scars.[8]

Most cases do not involve actual surgery although some practitioners make real incisions.[9] 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.[3]

Accounts of psychic surgery started to appear in the Spiritualist communities of the Philippines and Brazil in the mid-1900s.[10] The 16th-century explorer Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca records an account, related to him by Native Americans, of a bearded figure known as "Mala Cosa" (Evil Thing), who would take hold of a person, cut into their abdomen with a flint knife, and remove a portion of their entrails, which he would then burn in a fire. When he was done the incision would close spontaneously.[11]

In 1975, the Federal Trade Commission declared that "'psychic surgery' is nothing but a total hoax".[2] Judge Daniel H. Hanscom, when granting the FTC an injunction against travel agencies promoting psychic surgery tours, declared: "Psychic surgery is pure and unmitigated fakery. The 'surgical operations' of psychic surgeons ... with their bare hands are simply phony."[29]

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.[30]

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.[3]

The British Columbia Cancer Agency "strongly urges individuals who are ill not to seek treatment by psychic surgeon."[31]

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.[3][32]

The physician William Nolen investigated psychic surgery and his book Healing: A Doctor in Search of a Miracle (1974) uncovered many cases of fraud.[33] Tony Agpaoa a famous psychic surgeon was several times detected in trickery.[34] Stage magician James Randi says psychic surgery is a sleight of hand confidence trick. He has said that in personal observations of the procedure, and in movies showing the procedures, he can spot sleight-of-hand moves that are evident to experienced stage magicians, but might deceive a casual observer. Randi has replicated the appearance of psychic surgery himself through the use of sleight-of-hand.[35][36] Professional magician Milbourne Christopher also investigated psychic surgeons at work, and observed sleight of hand.[37] On his A&E show Mindfreak in the episode "Sucker", illusionist Criss Angel performed "Psychic Surgery", showing first-hand how it may be done (fake blood, plastic bags and chicken livers were used).

Randi says 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. However, 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.[35][38]

John Taylor has written there is no real case for psychic surgery as the explanation of fraud is highly likely in all the operations.[39] 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.[8]

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.[8]

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.[3]

James Randi using sleight of hand to duplicate "psychic surgery" on his Open Media series for ITV in 1991

• In the 1989 film Penn & Teller Get Killed, comedic magicians Penn and Teller demonstrate how to perform the illusion of psychic surgery.
• A 1989 episode of Unsolved Mysteries featured a police officer whose mother claimed to have been cured by psychic surgery, only to die shortly thereafter; her autopsy revealed several tumors. The policeman described himself going undercover to feign illness and pretended to desire psychic surgery, having the feeling of the practitioner using sleight of hand to supposedly dig into his tissue, as well as suspecting that the "cysts" and "tumors" being removed from his body were actually ready-made chicken parts.
• "Milagro", a sixth-season episode from The X-Files, features a killer accused of using psychic surgery on his victims, killing them in the process.
• In the BBC TV series Full Circle with Michael Palin, Michael Palin witnesses two separate instances of psychic surgery in the Baguio district of the Philippines. On raising his suspicion with the medic that it seemed a sleight of hand to him, the medic told him he was a westerner and could only understand the surgery if he had a third eye. Palin assists another medic in a surgery and was told that no contamination happens in this procedure because of the use of garlic.
• In the 1993 novel by Ana Castillo, So Far from God, Filipino Dr. Tolentino performs psychic surgery on La Loca after diagnosing her with HIV.
• In the 1998 Christmas Special of the BBC1 series Jonathan Creek, entitled "Black Canary", the husband of the illusionist known as Black Canary undergoes psychic surgery at the start of the episode and this form of surgery forms a plot device throughout the special.
• In the 1999 movie Man on the Moon, a movie based on the life of Andy Kaufman, Kaufman receives psychic surgery and notices the "sleight of hand". He is next seen dead, with his funeral being conducted.
• In the TV series Angel, Season 1 episode "I Fall to Pieces (Angel)" features a doctor who practices psychic surgery.
• In the TV show Criss Angel Mindfreak, Season 2 Episode "Sucker", Criss explains psychic surgery as a deception.
• In the television show 1000 Ways to Die, a con artist was using this to scam poor country people, only to lead to his death when he used it on a leper from whom he caught the disease.
• In the 2012 movie Red Lights Simon Silver, an alleged psychic, performs a psychic surgery on stage.
• In a deleted scene from the 2016 movie Deadpool, Wade Wilson (Ryan Reynolds) visits a psychic surgery clinic in an attempt to cure his cancer, but upon realizing the clinic is scamming innocent clients into spending their life savings on simple sleight of hand, he attacks and murders the head surgeon in front of the staff.

• Alternative cancer treatments
• Faith healing
• Gray's Anatomy (film)
• Health fraud
• List of topics characterized as pseudoscience
• Psychic
• Psychokinesis

• Gordon, Henry. (1988). Extrasensory Deception: ESP, Psychics, Shirley MacLaine, Ghosts, UFOs. Macmillan of Canada. ISBN 0-7715-9539-5
• Nolen, William. (1974). Healing: A Doctor in Search of a Miracle. New York: Random House. ISBN 0-394-49095-9
• Randi, James. (1982). Flim-Flam! Psychics, ESP, Unicorns, and Other Delusions. Prometheus Books. ISBN 0-87975-198-3
• 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. ISBN 0-85117-191-5

• James Randi debunks "psychic surgery"
• Turkish Television Brian Brushwood debunks psychic surgery
• Unconventional therapies - Psychic Surgery — overview by the British Columbia Cancer Agency
• Psychic "surgery" — definition in the Skeptic's Dictionary
• Abstract
• "Psychic Surgery" (1990) Ca. Cancer J. Clin. 40(3) 184-8 Terte/Agpaoa origins; exposed by Milbourne Christopher and Robert Gurtler.
• "Sideshows of Science", David Perlman, San Francisco Chronicle, January 8, 2001. Reference to "psychic underground"
• 'Psychic surgeon' a heel, not a healer, police say Globe and Mail story on Orbito's 2005 arrest in Toronto