Filipino psychic surgery

Domain XI · Traditional medicine & indigenous healing · Eleuterio Terte · 1940 · Philippines

What it is

"Psychic surgery" is a claimed spiritual healing practice in which a healer appears to open the body with bare hands, remove diseased tissue and leave no wound. It is not a psychotherapy and the psychotherapist never performs it, arranges it or refers to it. Reported history: in the Philippines it…

Format

• Phase A: Engagement and cultural assessment (sessions 1-2, individual, optionally with a family member). Goal: understand the problem in the client's own terms. Tools: core CFI (16 questions, four domains), Informant Version with family, Spirituality, Religion and Moral Traditions module. Move on…
• Phase B: Medical status and risk check (same sessions, then ongoing). Goal: know whether a serious illness is under treatment, and whether travel, payment or a decision to stop treatment is imminent. Move on when you know who the treating physician is and the client has agreed (or declined)…

Who practises it, and how they are trained or regulated

• Who holds authority. There is no licensing body for psychic surgeons. The Unión Espiritista Cristiana de Filipinas, founded 19 February 1905 (incorporated 1909), is described as the largest Christian Spiritist association in the Philippines, with more than a thousand local and overseas centres, including in Filipino communities in the US, Canada, Hong Kong, the Gulf states and Europe. Whether the Union endorses or…

Evidence status, as the guide reports it

• Authoritative findings on the physical claim. The FTC's administrative law judge found the operations "pure and unmitigated fakery", produced by sleight of hand, and the Commission ordered tour promoters to stop the claims and warn past buyers. The American Cancer Society (1990) reportedly found…

Questions to explore with your client

• What drew you to it, and what are you hoping it will change?
• Is there physical contact? Was it explained beforehand, and do you feel free to say no or stop at any point?
• Does it involve any substance, plant preparation, remedy or supplement? Has your doctor or prescriber been told, especially about any medication you take?
• Is it a group, retreat or community? How do they respond if someone wants to leave or raises a concern?
• How do you and the practitioner understand what is happening, in spiritual or cultural terms? Is that a source of comfort, worry, or both?
• Who runs it, and what training or registration do they hold?
• What actually happens in a session or meeting, and how often?
• What does it cost, and is there pressure to commit to more?
• How do you feel afterwards, in the hours and days that follow?
• Does it fit with, or clash with, the work we do here?

What practitioners of it watch for

• family splits, scapegoating. Working when the family can grieve together.
• interpreters from the same small community (confidentiality). Working when the client speaks freely.
• defensiveness when a beloved family member arranged the trip. Working when the client asks their own critical questions.
• the patient silenced by family authority; elders' sense of duty to try every option. Working when the patient's own voice is central.
• sarcasm, "debunking" tone, or over-identification that makes you avoid the medical risk. Working when the client discloses more, not less, over time.

When to involve someone else

• New or worsening physical symptoms, or advice to stop or change prescribed medication: involve the client's doctor or prescriber.
• Signs of coercion, isolation from family and friends, escalating costs or secrecy: discuss openly and consider safeguarding.
• A crisis or thoughts of suicide: follow your crisis protocol. In the US, call or text 988; in the UK and Ireland, Samaritans on 116 123.

Drawn automatically from the guide's own sections. Stay curious: neither endorse nor dismiss what the client values, and check anything that matters against the full guide and its sources. Not medical advice.