Psychic surgery is a pseudoscientific 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. 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.
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 their 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. Most cases do not involve actual surgery although some practitioners make real incisions. Accounts of psychic surgery started to appear in the spiritualist communities of the Philippines and Brazil in the mids.
When he was done the incision would close spontaneously. In the Philippines , the procedure was first noticed in the s, when performed routinely by Eleuterio Terte. In , the procedure came to the attention of the U. Alex Orbito , who became well known in the United States through his association with actress Shirley MacLaine [ 14 ] was a practitioner of the procedure. On June 14, , Orbito was arrested by Canadian authorities and indicted for fraud.
Psychic surgery made U. The origins of the practice in Brazil are obscure, but by the late s "spiritual healers" were practicing in the country. Many of them were associated with Kardecist spiritism , a major spiritualistic movement in Brazil, and claimed to be performing their operations merely as channels for spirits of deceased medical doctors.
