Atlas›Domain XI · Traditional medicine & indigenous healing›Guide 025
Guide XI-025

Filipino psychic surgery

Eleuterio Terte1940Philippines
A 38 · L 50 · M 1214 interventions in the Trinity explorer
Client cardCompare
[source: …] where a claim comes from[uncertain] not confirmed in a primary source[synthesis] the writer's reconstruction

1. Introduction

Version followed: the practice as adherents and promoters describe it (Philippine Christian Spiritist framing), the US Federal Trade Commission decision In the Matter of Travel King, Inc., et al. (86 F.T.C. 715, Docket 8949, final order 30 September 1975) for what was actually done, and the DSM-5-TR Cultural Formulation Interview (CFI, APA 2022) with its DSM-5 (2013) supplementary modules for the psychotherapist's own work.

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 was first noticed in the 1940s, with Eleuterio Terte practising it routinely; his pupil Tony Agpaoa, apparently associated with the Unión Espiritista Cristiana de Filipinas, trained others; a 1959 book by Ron Ormond and Ormond McGill brought it to US attention as "fourth dimensional" surgery, and from the late 1960s to the 1980s it drew foreign "healing tourists" [source: Wikipedia, Psychic surgery, citing American Cancer Society 1990 and Ormond and McGill 1959] [uncertain: secondary, unverified]. A historian's 2019 lecture description places the arrival of Kardecist Espiritismo in the Philippines around 1900, links psychic surgery to Espiritista healers operating with their hands and without anaesthesia, and notes thousands of foreign patients during the Marcos years [source: UCSC Humanities Institute 2019, lecture description, Deirdre de la Cruz]. Later Filipino practitioners publicly reported include Alex Orbito [source: SunStar Cebu editorial 2022].

How adherents describe it. Proponents frame the healer as an instrument of God: a promotional page states that the healer's power "comes from the Creator and the Holy Spirit" and calls the work a spiritual process [source: psychicsurgery.yolasite.com]. The 1959 popularisers called it possibly "a miracle of God performed by a fourth dimensional surgeon" [source: Wikipedia, Psychic surgery, quoting Ormond and McGill; uncertain: secondary, unverified]. A Philippine newspaper column by an unnamed long-term observer calls it "baffling and incredible" and says the charge of trickery "has never been conclusively proven" [source: Daily Tribune archive]. These are the adherents' and promoters' beliefs, reported here as theirs.

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 [source: FTC Decision Volume 86]. The American Cancer Society (1990) reportedly found "no evidence" of objective benefit for any medical condition and strongly urged ill people not to seek it [source: Wikipedia, Psychic surgery, quoting ACS 1990; the ACS item itself is indexed as PubMed record 2110023] [uncertain: secondary, unverified]. The FTC finding above is the primary basis for treating the procedure as staged. Full harm account: see "Harm account" below. Brazilian Spiritist surgery (Zé Arigó, João de Deus) is a separate tradition covered in Domain XIV; Domains XII and XIII point to this entry.

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 [source: Wikipedia, Unión Espiritista Cristiana de Filipinas; the article itself is flagged as needing citations; uncertain: secondary, unverified]. Whether the Union endorses or disowns psychic surgery today is not documented here [uncertain]. On the state side, Republic Act 8423 (Traditional and Alternative Medicine Act, 1997) created the Philippine Institute of Traditional and Alternative Health Care (PITAHC) under the Department of Health, whose listed modalities include hilot, acupuncture and herbal medicine [source: SunStar Cebu editorial 2022]; psychic surgery is not among the modalities named there. In 2010 the Philippine Department of Tourism stated it does not promote "so-called faith healers" and includes only Department of Health-accredited providers in medical tourism [source: IMTJ 2010]. Ordinary Filipino folk healing (herbal healers, hilot, spiritual healers found by word of mouth, often family lineages) is a wider and separate field that many families still rely on [source: USC Folklore Archives].

How change happens in the therapist's work. Change comes from the client feeling their faith is respected while they make an informed, unpressured decision about medical care; from naming and working through hope, fear, grief and, after exposure to fraud, shame and anger; and from keeping the medical team, family and faith community in the picture with consent [synthesis].

2. Framework

This is not a staged therapy. The framework below organises the psychotherapist's culturally responsive work with a client (or family) who believes in, has used, or is considering psychic surgery or an online "spiritual surgery" offer [synthesis, built on the CFI structure: source: APA CFI].

  • 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 when you can state the client's explanatory model, the religious meaning of healing for them, and their current medical situation [source: APA CFI; APA Supplementary Modules].
  • 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) contact. If treatment is being abandoned for a serious illness, this becomes the priority [synthesis].
  • Phase C: Decision support and collaboration (2-6 sessions, flexible). Goal: support an informed decision that keeps effective medical care in place while honouring faith; with consent, involve the physician and, if the client wishes, a trusted pastor, priest or Spiritist centre leader. Criterion: the client can describe their medical options from their physician, their spiritual options within their community, and how they fit together [synthesis].
  • Phase D: Integration and aftermath (as needed). Goal: process the experience after a session or trip: hope, disappointment, shame, anger at being deceived, family conflict, financial loss, grief after a death. Criterion: the client or family can talk about it without collapse into self-blame and has re-engaged with care and support [synthesis].
  • Safeguarding (any phase). Children or dependent adults denied medical treatment, financial exploitation, or sexual misconduct by a healer trigger the duties in section 5 and the Harm account [synthesis].

Format: weekly 50-minute sessions are typical; in oncology or palliative settings, shorter bedside contacts and joint meetings with the medical team are common [synthesis]. The CFI modules can be used at intake, later, or repeatedly during care [source: APA Supplementary Modules].

3. Guiding principles

[source: APA CFI and Supplementary Modules for 1-4; synthesis for the rest]

  • Faith is not the problem; fraud and delayed care are. Respect the client's Christian or Spiritist beliefs; target only practices that endanger health or exploit.
  • Attribute, do not adjudicate. Describe divine healing and spirit protection as the client holds them; do not argue theology. Physical claims of opened bodies are a separate, documented matter.
  • The client's perspective first. The CFI exists to hear the problem, its causes and the help sought in the client's own terms; it is not a diagnostic tool on its own.
  • Ask about all help-seeking. Many Filipino families combine hospital care, folk healers, prayer and pilgrimage; asking openly makes disclosure possible.
  • Never advise on medicines or treatments. Questions about stopping chemotherapy, surgery or medication go to the prescriber or treating team, with consent.
  • Both/and before either/or. Look for ways faith practice and medical care can coexist (prayer, blessing, community support alongside treatment).
  • No referral to, arranging of, or participation in psychic surgery. The therapist does not book, accompany, endorse or debunk-by-demonstration.
  • Avoid shaming. People who paid or travelled were often desperate and were deceived by skilled performers; shame drives secrecy.
  • Consent and confidentiality. Contact with physicians, family or faith leaders only with explicit consent, except where safeguarding law overrides.
  • Family is often the unit. Decisions about serious illness in many Filipino families are collective; include family when the client wishes.
  • Know the diaspora context. Overseas Filipino workers and migrants may face cost, insurance and language barriers that make healers more accessible than hospitals.
  • Touch. The therapist uses no touch in this work.

4. Intervention inventory

All interventions below are the psychotherapist's own. None involves performing, arranging, demonstrating or recommending psychic surgery. Example language is illustrative.

4.1 Cultural humility and self-examination

  • Purpose / when: before and throughout work with clients who value Filipino spiritual healing; especially when you notice ridicule, alarm or rescue fantasies in yourself [synthesis].
  • Steps: (1) Note your own reactions to faith healing and to the well-publicised exposures. (2) Separate your view of the physical claim (documented as fakery by the FTC) from your view of the client's faith, which is not yours to judge. (3) Learn the basics of the client's religious world (Catholic, Christian Spiritist, Protestant, folk healing) from the client and community sources. (4) Seek consultation if strong reactions persist [synthesis].
  • Example language (illustrative, to yourself or in supervision): "Am I hearing her faith, or only the risk?"
  • Watch for: sarcasm, "debunking" tone, or over-identification that makes you avoid the medical risk. Working when the client discloses more, not less, over time [synthesis].

4.2 Core Cultural Formulation Interview

  • Purpose / when: at intake with any client whose illness beliefs or help-seeking include spiritual healing; it clarifies the problem from the perspective of the person and their social network, the help available and what they expect from services [source: APA CFI].
  • Steps: (1) Introduce it as wanting to understand the problem in their own words. (2) Work through the four domains: cultural definition of the problem (Q1-3); perceptions of cause, context and support (Q4-10, including cultural identity); self-coping and past help-seeking (Q11-13, including barriers); current help-seeking and the clinician relationship (Q14-16, including language and perceived racism). (3) Paraphrase, do not read mechanically; the form may be reproduced for clinical use with patients, but not modified or translated without APA permission. (4) Use it to inform, not replace, diagnosis [source: APA CFI]. Time for the core CFI: about 15-20 minutes in field-trial reports [uncertain].
  • Example language (illustrative): "People understand illness in many ways. In your own words, what is happening to you, and what have you or your family tried so far, including prayer or healers?"
  • Watch for: guarded answers about healers (fear of judgement), or a medical situation more urgent than the client is acknowledging. Working when the client spontaneously mentions healer visits or plans.

4.3 Spirituality, Religion and Moral Traditions module

  • Purpose / when: when faith shapes illness meaning and decisions, which is typical here; one of 12 DSM-5 supplementary modules, usable as an add-on or standalone, at intake or later [source: APA Supplementary Modules].
  • Steps: (1) Ask about the client's religious identity and community (e.g. Catholic parish, Spiritist centre, charismatic group). (2) Explore what healing means in their faith and who in their community holds spiritual authority. (3) Ask how their faith views medical treatment alongside prayer. (4) Note sources of strength as well as pressures [source: APA Supplementary Modules for the module's existence and use; content of steps paraphrased, synthesis].
  • Example language (illustrative): "What does your faith teach about healing? Is there a priest, pastor or centre leader whose guidance matters to you?"
  • Watch for: the faith community as a resource for continuing medical care; conflicts between family members' religious positions. Working when the client can name trusted spiritual figures who might support treatment.

4.4 Eliciting the explanatory model (Kleinman)

  • Purpose / when: whenever the client sees the illness as spiritually caused or curable, or is weighing a healer against medicine. Based on Kleinman, Eisenberg and Good (1978); the CFI also has an Explanatory Model module [source: Tanenbaum handout; APA Supplementary Modules].
  • Steps: Ask, in your own words, the eight themes: what they call the problem; what caused it; why it started when it did; what it does and how it works; how severe and how long; what treatment they think they should receive; the chief problems it has caused; what they fear most [source: Tanenbaum handout]. Then summarise the model back and compare it, respectfully, with the treating team's model.
  • Example language (illustrative): "What do you think caused this, and what do you hope the healer can do that the hospital cannot?"
  • Watch for: fear of surgery, chemotherapy side effects, cost or distrust of doctors driving the turn to a healer, which are often addressable. Working when the client's fears are named and can be brought to the medical team.

4.5 Asking about healer consultation without judgement

  • Purpose / when: routinely, because families often combine hospital care with folk and spiritual healers found by word of mouth [source: USC Folklore Archives], and because disclosure is the only route to safety planning.
  • Steps: (1) Normalise: many people combine approaches. (2) Ask what, who, where, cost, and what they were told about their illness and their medical treatment. (3) Ask specifically whether anyone advised stopping or delaying treatment. (4) Thank them for telling you [synthesis; CFI help-seeking domain: source: APA CFI].
  • Example language (illustrative): "Many families I work with see a healer as well as a doctor. Have you seen anyone like that, and what did they say about your treatment at the hospital?"
  • Watch for: reports of "tumours removed", advice to stop treatment, large payments, plans to travel. Working when the client tells you before, not after, a decision.

4.6 Distinguishing religious experience from disorder

  • Purpose / when: when a client reports visions, spirit protectors, mediumship or being an instrument of the Holy Spirit, which are held beliefs in Christian Spiritist circles (members describe a medium's revelation from the Archangel Michael and direct mediumship in their history) [source: Wikipedia, Unión Espiritista Cristiana de Filipinas, flagged "citation needed"; uncertain: secondary, unverified].
  • Steps: (1) Ask whether the experience is shared and recognised in the client's community and practised within its gatherings. (2) Check whether it is voluntary, culturally patterned and not distressing or impairing. (3) Apply diagnostic exclusions: DSM-5 dissociative identity disorder excludes disturbance that is a normal part of a broadly accepted cultural or religious practice; ICD-11 6B62 trance disorder and 6B63 possession trance disorder require involuntary, unwanted states outside accepted practice with distress or impairment [source: PMC9199574; ICD-11 6B62 (findacode mirror of WHO text)]. (4) Consult a community member or cultural broker with consent. (5) Do not miss genuine psychosis, mania or delirium, especially in medically ill clients [synthesis]. DSM-5-TR retains these exclusions in substance [source: https://umsystem.pressbooks.pub/aswbprep/?p=1299]; whether it retains identical wording: [uncertain].
  • Example language (illustrative): "In your centre, do others experience this too? Does it come when you choose, or does it take over when you don't want it?"
  • Watch for: pathologising normative belief, and also missing confusion from medical causes (e.g. advanced cancer, medication). Working when the formulation is shared and agreed by the client.

4.7 Informed-decision support about medical care

  • Purpose / when: when a client with a serious illness is considering psychic surgery or a "spiritual surgery" offer instead of, or alongside, medical treatment. Risk flag: the main danger is delayed or abandoned effective treatment (see Harm account). The FTC found the operations staged by sleight of hand [source: FTC Decision Volume 86]; the American Cancer Society's 1990 warning is known here only secondhand [source: Wikipedia, Psychic surgery, citing ACS 1990] [uncertain: secondary, unverified].
  • Steps: (1) Explore what the client hopes for and fears (4.4). (2) Ask what their physician has told them and what they still want to ask; help them prepare questions. (3) Share, factually and briefly, that a US federal agency found the operations to be produced by sleight of hand and that cancer bodies advise against relying on them, if the client wants to know your view [source: FTC Decision Volume 86]. (4) Separate prayer and faith support, which can continue, from any request to stop treatment. (5) Never advise starting, stopping or changing a medicine or treatment yourself; route every such question to the prescriber or treating team [synthesis].
  • Example language (illustrative): "Your faith can stay at the centre of this. What I would not want is for the hospital treatment to stop without your doctor hearing your reasons. Shall we write down your questions for her?"
  • Watch for: the client feeling cornered (back off, keep the door open); urgency from the healer or a tour seller. Working when the client keeps medical appointments while continuing prayer.

4.8 Collaboration with the medical team and trusted faith figures

  • Purpose / when: when the client consents, to keep care coordinated. Collaboration between health workers and traditional or faith healers is a recognised WHO policy direction within health systems [source: WHO Traditional Medicine Strategy page]; with psychic surgery the collaboration is with the client's faith community (parish, Spiritist centre, pastor), not with psychic surgeons [synthesis].
  • Steps: (1) Obtain written consent naming who you may contact and what you may share. (2) Brief the physician on the client's explanatory model and fears, not to report them for belief. (3) If the client wishes, invite a trusted faith figure to a joint meeting about supporting treatment and prayer together. (4) Record agreements [synthesis].
  • Example language (illustrative): "Would it help if Father X or your centre's leader joined us, so your family hears that prayer and treatment can go together?"
  • Watch for: confidentiality breaches in close communities; faith figures who themselves promote healers. Working when the medical team and faith supports give a consistent message.

4.9 Helping the client recognise exploitation

  • Purpose / when: when the client is in contact with a healer, a tour organiser or an online offer [synthesis].
  • Steps: (1) Ask what was promised, what it costs, whether payment is upfront, whether results are guaranteed, whether stopping treatment was suggested, and whether disclaimers or waivers were required (the 1975 promoters used liability waivers while promising cures) [source: FTC Decision Volume 86]. (2) Compare with the red flags in "Recognising it today". (3) Let the client draw conclusions [synthesis].
  • Example language (illustrative): "When someone promises to remove a tumour but asks you to sign that they are not responsible, what do you make of that?"
  • Watch for: defensiveness when a beloved family member arranged the trip. Working when the client asks their own critical questions.

4.10 Working with families

  • Purpose / when: when relatives drive, fund or oppose healer visits. Use the CFI Informant Version (17 questions, beginning with the informant's relationship to the patient) and the Caregivers module [source: APA CFI Informant Version; APA Supplementary Modules].
  • Steps: (1) Get the patient's consent. (2) Hear each relative's explanatory model. (3) Name shared goals (the patient's life and comfort, faith). (4) Mediate between relatives who favour healers and those who favour treatment [synthesis].
  • Example language (illustrative): "Everyone here wants Tita to get well. Can each of you say what you are most afraid of?"
  • Watch for: the patient silenced by family authority; elders' sense of duty to try every option. Working when the patient's own voice is central.

4.11 Integration after a psychic surgery experience

  • Purpose / when: after a client returns from a session or trip, or learns the procedure was a performance [synthesis].
  • Steps: (1) Let the client tell the story in their own sequence. (2) Validate the hope and the spiritual meaning they felt. (3) Address the deception without blame: skilled performers and promotional films misled many, as the FTC record shows [source: FTC Decision Volume 86]. (4) Work with shame, anger, moral injury and doubts about faith; distinguish faith in God from trust in a particular healer. (5) Re-link with medical care if lapsed [synthesis].
  • Example language (illustrative): "You went because you wanted to live and you trusted people who seemed holy. That is not foolishness."
  • Watch for: new depression, suicidal thoughts after lost hope (assess using standard risk practice), spiritual crisis. Working when shame lessens and care is resumed.

4.12 Bereavement support after delayed treatment

  • Purpose / when: for families after a death where effective treatment was delayed or abandoned in favour of psychic surgery [synthesis].
  • Steps: (1) Allow grief before questions of blame. (2) Explore guilt ("we took her there") and anger at healers or relatives. (3) Use faith resources the family values. (4) Watch for complicated grief and offer referral [synthesis].
  • Example language (illustrative): "You chose with love and with what you knew then."
  • Watch for: family splits, scapegoating. Working when the family can grieve together.

4.13 Interpreters, cultural brokers and migration context

  • Purpose / when: for clients more comfortable in Filipino or a regional language, and for migrants; use the Immigrants and Refugees and Cultural Identity modules [source: APA Supplementary Modules].
  • Steps: (1) Use a professional interpreter, not family, for medical decisions. (2) Ask about costs, insurance and access, which make healers more accessible than hospitals for some families [source: USC Folklore Archives]. (3) With consent, consult a cultural broker about community views [synthesis].
  • Example language (illustrative): "Would you prefer to talk in Filipino with an interpreter for this?"
  • Watch for: interpreters from the same small community (confidentiality). Working when the client speaks freely.

4.14 Safeguarding and reporting

  • Purpose / when: when a child or dependent adult is being denied effective treatment, when a client is being financially exploited, or when a healer commits sexual misconduct [synthesis].
  • Steps: (1) Know your jurisdiction's duties (child protection for medical neglect; adult safeguarding for vulnerable adults). (2) Discuss with the client and family first where safe. (3) Report fraudulent health offers to consumer-protection and health-fraud authorities (in the US, the FTC acted on psychic surgery tours) [source: FTC Decision Volume 86]. (4) Document and consult [synthesis].
  • Example language (illustrative): "Because your son's treatment is at stake, I have a duty to involve the medical team. I'd like to do that with you."
  • Watch for: alienating the family; never name or identify minors in records beyond what is required. Working when the child's treatment continues and the family stays engaged.

5. Handling problems

All guidance in this section is [synthesis] unless a source is named.

  • Client refuses to discuss healers: step back, normalise mixed help-seeking, return later; keep the CFI help-seeking questions open over sessions.
  • Client is set on travelling or booking: do not argue the theology; ask them to keep their medical team informed and to keep the next appointment; agree a check-in after the trip; record your concerns and the client's decision.
  • Client wants you to say whether it is real: say you respect their faith; on the physical claim, state briefly that a US federal tribunal found the operations were produced by sleight of hand [source: FTC Decision Volume 86]; avoid mockery.
  • Client says they saw blood and tissue, so it must be real: acknowledge what they saw; the FTC record shows animal blood and tissue were produced by sleight of hand, and physicians saw no surgical entry [source: FTC Decision Volume 86]; give time, not argument.
  • Rupture after you raise risk: repair by naming your concern for their life, not their beliefs; ask how it felt.
  • Overwhelm (fear of dying, hopelessness): slow down, ground, focus on today's decision only; assess suicide risk with standard practice; involve palliative care or supportive oncology.
  • Non-adherence to medical treatment: route to the prescriber; explore barriers (cost, side effects, fear); never advise on medicines yourself.
  • Family pressure toward the healer: family meeting (4.10); protect the patient's own choice.
  • Client is a former healer apprentice or assistant: some former apprentices testified to being trained in the techniques [source: FTC Decision Volume 86]; expect guilt, fear of community reprisal and possible legal questions; refer for legal advice.
  • Online "spiritual surgery" offers: see Harm account; the same principles apply to remote, "energy" or "etheric" surgery claims.
  • Your own anger at healers: take it to supervision; it must not leak into the session.

Harm account

This account is written in full here; Domains XII and XIII point to it. Brazilian Spiritist surgery (Zé Arigó, João de Deus) is covered in Domain XIV. Physical deception is described only as far as is needed to recognise it.

What was actually done

The fullest official record is the US Federal Trade Commission case In the Matter of Travel King, Inc., et al. (Docket 8949): amended complaint 17 May 1974, initial decision by Administrative Law Judge Daniel H. Hanscom 28 February 1975, final order 30 September 1975. Respondents were four travel companies (Travel King/Ramble Tours, Ramble Travel and Tours, Phil-Am Travel Agency, Gem Travel Service) and their principals [source: FTC Decision Volume 86]. As the record describes it, a typical course ran as follows:

  1. Recruitment. Prospective patients, many seriously ill, saw films of the healers at public meetings (including in the Seattle area), newspaper advertisements, TV spots, brochures, reprinted articles and a question-and-answer leaflet. These conveyed that healers opened the body with bare hands and removed diseased tissue, and that cancer, heart disease and multiple sclerosis had been cured; the leaflet claimed "upward of 70%" were happy with the results [source: FTC Decision Volume 86].
  2. Purchase and waiver. Buyers paid for package tours to the Philippines (one advertisement was for a 15-day tour; its price is illegible in the scanned record and appears to be about US$985 [uncertain]). Promoters disclaimed responsibility for medical outcomes through liability waivers and disclaimers [source: FTC Decision Volume 86].
  3. The "operations". In the Philippines, patients lay before a healer who appeared to open the body, draw out blood and tissue, and close it without a wound. The judge found the procedure "pure and unmitigated fakery": the apparent openings were made by sleight of hand, with concealed animal tissue or blood clots produced from the hand and burst to simulate bleeding; one healer used a hidden blade to make a shallow cut. Two former healer apprentices testified that they were taught these methods, and a magician called as a witness described similar ones. Laboratory tests found hog blood in one procedure and non-human small bowel in a "tumour" said to be removed. Physicians reviewing films saw no surgical entry into the body [source: FTC Decision Volume 86].
  4. Outcome and order. The Commission ordered the respondents to stop psychic surgery claims and promotion and to send warning notices about the serious danger to past purchasers and enquirers; restitution, sought by complaint counsel, was not ordered [source: FTC Decision Volume 86]. The Commission is reported as calling it "nothing but a total hoax" [source: Wikipedia, Psychic surgery, citing FTC and New York Times 25 October 1975; uncertain: secondary, unverified].

Other investigations and reports. Writers who reported sleight of hand include physician William Nolen (1974), magician Milbourne Christopher (1975), James Randi (1982, who reproduced the effect) and psychologist Terence Hines (1988); Tony Agpaoa was reportedly "detected several times using trickery" [source: Wikipedia, Psychic surgery, citing these authors; uncertain: secondary, unverified]. The American Cancer Society (1990) reportedly found no evidence of objective benefit for any medical condition [source: Wikipedia, Psychic surgery; PubMed record 2110023] [uncertain: secondary, unverified]. A Philippine editorial notes that many healers "faced charges and exposés" of scams while keeping public trust, naming Alex Orbito as a prominent example [source: SunStar Cebu editorial 2022]. Toronto police charged Orbito with fraud over $5,000 and possession of the proceeds of crime in 2005, alleging that the tissue he appeared to remove was animal parts [source: The Globe and Mail]; the charges were reportedly dropped on 20 January 2006 [source: Wikipedia, Psychic surgery, citing Filipino Reporter] [uncertain: secondary, unverified].

A widely reported 1984 case. A US entertainer, diagnosed with a rare lung cancer, reportedly travelled to the Philippines in March 1984 for a six-week course with a Filipino healer, said he believed the cancer had been removed, and died on 16 May 1984 of renal failure from metastatic lung cancer [source: Wikipedia, Psychic surgery, citing Gardner and the California Death Index] [uncertain: secondary, unverified].

How it caused harm

  • Delayed or abandoned effective treatment. The main harm cited is needless death by keeping ill people from effective care [source: Wikipedia, Psychic surgery, citing ACS 1990; uncertain]. False reassurance that a tumour has been removed (as reported in the 1984 case) can end a patient's motivation for treatment [synthesis, from the reported case].
  • Financial harm. Tour packages, travel, accommodation and healer fees, paid by people often already burdened by illness; liability waivers left buyers without recourse; restitution was not ordered in 1975 [source: FTC Decision Volume 86].
  • Physical risk. Any real skin cut (as with the hidden blade) carries wound and infection risk [synthesis]; long-haul travel while seriously ill carries its own medical risks [synthesis].
  • Psychological harm. False hope followed by despair, shame at having been deceived, anger, family blame, spiritual crisis and complicated grief for survivors [synthesis].
  • Who is most at risk. People with frightening or advanced diagnoses, those who distrust hospitals or cannot afford them (high costs and malpractice publicity fuel distrust in the Philippines [source: SunStar Cebu editorial 2022]), those whose community trusts healers, and families making decisions for a dependent person [synthesis].

Recognising it today

  • Online offers. Promotional pages still describe psychic surgery as power that "comes from the Creator and the Holy Spirit", claim removal of tumours, blood clots and "diseased or dead tissues", mention cancer, describe it as "integrative" with doctors, and carry disclaimers that make no guarantees [source: psychicsurgery.yolasite.com].
  • Rebrandings. "Spiritual surgery", "energy surgery", "etheric" or "remote" surgery offered in person, at retreats or online [uncertain: no specific current offer is documented for this entry].
  • Healing tourism. Packages combining travel with healer sessions; note that the Philippine Department of Tourism stated in 2010 it does not promote "so-called faith healers" and includes only Department of Health-accredited providers [source: IMTJ 2010].
  • Red flags: claims of bloodless bare-hand opening of the body or removal of tumours; testimonials of cancer, heart disease or MS cures; cure percentages; upfront payment and travel packages; waivers disclaiming responsibility; advice to stop or postpone medical treatment; urgency; a colleague, wellness centre or group recommending such sessions or showing films of them [source: FTC Decision Volume 86 for claims and waivers; synthesis for the list].
  • How legitimate practice differs: prayer, blessing, pastoral care and community support that make no claim to remove tissue and support continuing medical treatment; Philippine T&CM modalities overseen through PITAHC under the Department of Health (e.g. hilot, herbal medicine) make no claim to bare-hand surgery [source: SunStar Cebu editorial 2022; synthesis].

What to do instead and how to help those harmed

  • Instead: effective medical treatment from the client's physicians; spiritual care through the client's own parish, Spiritist centre or hospital chaplaincy; psycho-oncology and palliative care; the therapist's culturally responsive work in section 4 [synthesis].
  • Assessment of affected clients: CFI and modules (4.2-4.4), current medical status, suicide risk using standard practice, shame and moral injury, family conflict, financial loss [source: APA CFI; synthesis].
  • Treatment: integration work (4.11), bereavement support (4.12), family meetings (4.10), reconnection with medical care with consent (4.7, 4.8) [synthesis].
  • Ethical, reporting and legal duties: do not refer to, endorse or arrange psychic surgery; act on child-protection and adult-safeguarding duties where effective treatment is being withheld from a dependent person; support clients who wish to report fraudulent health offers to consumer-protection authorities (the FTC acted on US tour promoters in 1975) or police; document carefully; name private individuals only as reliable sources report them and never name minors [source: FTC Decision Volume 86; synthesis].

Sources

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