ally have no proof against faith healers.” Marchant
added: “The Canadian Embassy in Manila had
signed three death certificates for people who
would never return alive from their miracle tours
(although not from Agpaoa’s tours). Of more than
20 known cancer cases who went to Baguio from
Vancouver three and fours years ago, not one is still
alive according to the BC Cancer Agency.... In
1974, Donald F. Wright and Carol Wright testified
before a U.S. Federal Trade Commission hearing in
Seattle investigating travel agents promoting tours
to visit the Philippine healers. The Wrights, from
Iowa, students and believers of ESP and magnetic
healing, traveled to the Philippines in 1973 to study
psychic surgery. Eventually they were convinced
that what they saw was not surgery but trickery,
and they learned the methods from their surgeon
teacher. They were taught how to shop for animal
parts used to make up a ‘bullet.’ A bullet is actual
animal tissue or a clot of animal blood and cotton,
which is made to appear like tissue coming from
inside the body. They were taught how to make the
bullet, wrap it, prepare the tissue, how to hide the
bullet and then how to transfer it onto the patient.”
(Source: http://www.bccancer.bc.ca/PPI/Uncon-
ventionalTherapie)
In his essay ”Unraveling the Enigma of Psychic
Surgery” (http://www.ca-sps.org/HarveyJMartinIII.
html, 1999), Harvey J. Martin III wrote: “While the
persecution of the Filipino healers was getting into
gear, the Institute of Noetic Sciences published a
report on aspects of the placebo effect that were
known only to a select group of medical
researchers. One of the topics covered in the report
was the little known subject of placebo surgery. In
the 1950s, several American doctors conducted an
experiment designed to determine the merits of the
surgical procedure for angina pectoris. In the exper-
iment, three of five patients received the operation.
The other two were merely placed under anesthe-
sia, and given a surface incision, which was then
sutured. Once awakened, the five patients were
monitored during their recovery from the opera-
tions. To the amazement of the physicians, a signif-
icant percentage of the patients who had received
placebo operations were cured. In 1961, Dr. Henry
Beecher reviewed two double-blind studies of the
placebo operations. These studies convincingly
demonstrated that the actual operation produced
no greater benefit than the placebo operation. In a
separate study conducted by Dr. Leonard Cobb and
his associates, placebo surgery proved to be more
effective than the real thing. Cobb reported that
fully 43% of the patients who received placebo
surgery reported both subjective and objective
improvement. In the patients who had received the
real operation, only 32% reported satisfactory
results. What this research established is that the
mere form (metaphor) of surgical procedures can
produce the same results as the actual surgical
procedures.” (Source: http://www.metamind.net/
enigmaipsysur.html)
The National Council against Health Fraud
(NCAHF) Consumer Information Statements on
Faith Healing and Psychic Surgery (1987) offer
guidelines on psychic surgery and other alternative
healing methods: “(1) ‘Faith healing’ refers to the
apparently beneficial outcomes of rituals or reli-
gious activities on behalf of the afflicted. Unless
such outcomes are clearly miraculous (e.g., the
restoration of an amputated body part) they may
simply be regarded as fortuitous and probably
involving psychological mechanisms. This does not
deny the value of faith healing for psychological
conditions but places limitations upon its useful-
ness for the purpose of minimizing unnecessary
harm and maximizing its possible therapeutic
value. (2) Faith healing should never be done pub-
licly or in such a manner that the afflicted must
demonstrate his/her faith by discontinuing needed
medications, removing supportive braces, or per-
forming potentially trauma-inducing acts. (3) Faith
healers should provide their ‘gift of healing’ with-
out fee or acceptance of donations (i.e., in the
example of Christ, in whose name they often claim
to heal). (4) Potential healees should be psycholog-
ically prepared to accept null effects to prevent
them from taking such results as a sign of divine
rejection or punishment. (5) The alleged removal
of diseased tissue from the body without leaving an
incision as has been practiced in the Philippines for
some years is denounced as a complete fraud; not
only does it waste money and cause psychological
harm through promoting false hope, it can prevent
people from seeking valuable health care before it
becomes too late for effective therapy.”130 psychic surgery