Health
Faith Healers
Philippine faith healers are known around the world. The more sensational supposedly perform operations with their bare hands, without any trace or scar remaining after such an "operation". Others claim to be able to cure people without even touching them.
Treatment by a faith healer can be observed at the clinic of Gary Magno at 564 Rotary Circle (Remedios Circle), Malate, Manila. This "clinic" is always full of patients, and treatment is done in a room with a window allowing full view to other patients. Upon request, one may even enter the "treatment" area for a closer look, photos or videos.
So-called opening of a body (psychic surgery) is an everyday event in this "clinic". The patient is fully awake and holds a crucifix. One "operation" takes no more than five minutes. After the "operation", no scar remains and the patient just walks out of the "clinic". Addresses of some faith healers:
Rev. Gary Magno & Bro. Gary Magno Jr
Manila: 564 Rotary (Remedios) Circle
Malate, Mon-Sat 14:00-18:00
Baguio: 44 South Drive, Tel 442-69-67
donations expected
Alex Orbito
Orbit Tours & Travel
Bayview Park Hotel, 1st Floor
1118 Roxas Boulevard
Manila, Philippines
website: http://www.pyramidofasia.com
email: sacredjourney@pyramidofasia.com
Donations are only expected from people who can afford it.
Fohral
Suite 12, gr fl Midland Plaza Hotel
Adriatico St, Ermita, Mla, Tel 521-16-87
Mon-Sat 9:00-18:00; donations expected
Bro. Alfredo Yambao & Sis. Emma Yambao
46 8th Ave, Cubao, Quezon City
Sun 9:00-12:00
1-1 B Road 1, Alley 28, Project 6
Quezon City, Sat 14:30-17:00
donations expected
Monica Villegas & Amelia Calzado
Holy Family Chapel, Batac National Hwy
Batac, Ilocos Norte; Mon-Sat 8:00-17:00
donations expected
Josephine Sison
Barrio Barangobong, Villasis, Pangasinan
Claus Ruediger v. Hertzberg
German faith healer in Philippine style
c/o Wasch-Haus, 14 Juana Osmena St
Cebu City; Mon, Wed, Fri 10:00-11:00
Ramon Labo
This faith healer was elected mayor of Baguio City but later stripped of the position for alleged Australian citizenship. It is rumored that deposed President Ferdinand Marcos was for some time a patient of Labo who supposedly performed "psychic surgery" on his kidney.
Health Frontiers
Faith healers and particularly so-called psychic surgery are controversial topics abroad and in the Philippines. The most respected Philippine health columnist, George Nava True II, has criticized (to put it mildly) the practice in a number of articles. In his column 'Health Frontiers' in the Philippine Daily Inquirer October 17, 1989 he wrote:
"Their names and faces may differ but the modus operandi of psychic surgeons is basically the same. Under a 'trance,' the healer supposedly penetrates the patient's skin with his hands or sometimes with a knife. He then removes whatever it is that causes trouble and 'closes' the skin in one swift movement. There are no scars, no stitches on the patient's skin. But there is usually plenty of blood to distract people seeing they were fooled. For years, this health hoax has flourished in Brazil and the Philippines thanks largely to some travel agencies who are promoting these 'wonder healers' and playing with the lives of the sick.
In 1975, the US Federal Trade Commission ordered four such agencies to stop advertising these phony healers but such a move has not put a stop to this big racket. 'Because we are dealing here with desperate consumers with terminal illnesses who want to believe psychic surgery will cure them, no amount of disclosure will suffice to drive home to all the point that psychic surgery is nothing but a total hoax,' it said. Books are the next offenders.
Since there is no law which prohibits lies from being published, anyone can make money from a book about psychic surgery even though it is laced with distorted facts. The public, ever hungry for miracles in this cold, scientific world, will never know the difference. Then there are 'surgeons' themselves who are making a living out of many desperate people. Like other forms of health quackery, the victims of psychic surgery are not only the gullible or those with dreaded diseases.
They include alienated individuals who feel they are not getting enough attention from their doctors, movie and TV stars, some professionals and others who have been influenced by the advertising hype and false propaganda about psychic surgery. How these people can entrust their health, and more importantly their lives, to a strange healer who makes ridiculous claims and who has no medical background whatsoever escapes the realm of reason.
One who did and paid dearly with his life for it was Andy Kaufman, a star of the US hit series, 'Taxi', who suffered from lung cancer. Discover magazine reports that in 1984, Kaufman and his girlfriend visited Jun Labo, one of The Country 's popular surgeons, now mayor of Baguio City. Labo 'operated' on Kaufman twice daily, his girlfriend said, removing what appeared to be bloody tissues from the actor's chest. After a series of treatments which cost $25 each, Kaufman returned to the United States in high spirits. He was impressed with Labo's work.
A few weeks later, the 35-year-old actor was dead.
The late Tony Agpaoa, another famous Filipino psychic surgeon, was also exposed as a fraud when a piece of tissue he allegedly removed from a patient turned out to be chicken gut. In his book, Healing, A Doctor in Search of a Miracle, Dr. William A. Nolen tells of his visit to the Philippines where he watched Agpaoa operate.
He followed up many of the healer's patients and found none of them were really cured... How do psychic surgeons really operate? Discover magazine describes it this way: 'This illusion is produced by bending the fingertips so that the middle knuckles of the fingers press firmly on a patient's body. The tissues and blood, which usually come from animals, are concealed before the operation and produced at the appropriate time by the surgeon, who uses standard magician's sleight of hand to make them appear.' The reason why psychic surgery does work for some people is simple.
The human body can heal itself. Most ailments are self-limiting and disappear in time without any treatment. Naturally, if you visit a psychic surgeon and become well, the former will get all the credit and your cash. There is, however, nothing magical about being fooled by a psychic surgeon for this could cost you your life.
Dr. Lynn Rayner of the John A. Burns School of Medicine, University of Hawaii said, 'The placebo benefits of the treatment may be substantial, but they are only temporary and cannot alter the course of serious diseases. The morality of charging hundreds or thousands of dollars for a short-lived relief of pain and false hope is highly questionable, especially when people are diverted from treatments which might save their lives."
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