Psychic Surgery; What’s up doc?

You may notice that the above image is actually taken from the film Nightwatch, I’m a big horror movie fan, and this seemed most fitting!

I was recently employed to create a fraudulent demonstration of psychic surgery for a ‘Circus of Horrors’ style show.

It was marvelous fun, so I thought it just to write up my findings here!

Let’s start at one – What is psychic surgery? Simply put, a patient would go to a psychic surgeon to be healed of whatever ailment ails them, (i.e. cancer or simply a headache) or to be looked at (or into) and any breaks or tears in their ‘aura’ located.

Ze Arigo (born  was a peasant in Brazil, who became one of the most famous psychic surgeons of all time. In 1955 as Arigo was a young adult, he began seeing visions of a man dressed in surgical gear and his sleep was disturbed by the sound of a mysterious voice.

This ghost surgeon introduced himself to Arigo as Dr. Fritz, a surgeon who had died in the first world war. So Arigo’s career began as a psychic surgeon, he never claimed that he was the doctor, only performing under direction of Fritz. Arigo saw up to 1,500 patients a day, he never took a fee from his patients. Apparently no one died or experienced a worsening of their condition after seeing Arigo.

The typical treatment from a psychic surgeon would involve them massaging your skin, usually the stomach if lying down, and creating a painless incision with their finger tips.

From this incision, blood would pour and bits of ‘bad flesh’ would be taken out, the incision would then be healed and the blood wiped away. Voila, you’re healed!

In reality, it has been found that this is merely a sleight of hand trick and a placebo effect.

Naturally, there are still cases around the world that have not been de-bunked, perhaps these powers really do exist, but I don’t know how Copperfield’s flying illusion works either.

DC