Filipino healers - truth or medical fraud? Healers and manual operations.
03.09.2015
For several years now, the minds of ordinary people have been excited by stories and legends about people who allegedly do surgical operations without using any medical equipment and instruments, through cunning manipulations and passes of the hands. But let's talk about everything in order...
Philippine Heelers
The phenomenon of Filipino healers has not had much time to live. The first known “surgeon from God” appeared no more than 60 years ago. Healers (from the English heal - heal) perform miracles that they cannot yet explain modern science. They perform the most complex operations without a scalpel, in dirty shacks, in a matter of minutes.
After their actions, there are no scars, cuts or generally visible traces of any intervention left on the patient’s body. These operations were repeatedly recorded on cameras, samples of blood and tissues extracted from the bodies of patients were examined, but they were never able to completely record all the details of the operation. All tissues were recognized as belonging to the patients (but not always, more on this below), so the very fact of the operation cannot be questioned.
The healers themselves say that they heal by faith and refer to the Bible, according to which Christ healed only by the power of faith and predicted that there would be other similar healers. Researchers can assume that these Filipino healers seem to be entering another dimension. Special energy pushes tissue cells apart without damaging them. Thus, when the healer removes the hands from the patient, the tissues close without damage.
This is also the reason for pain relief. All patients unanimously claim that they do not feel anything other than a slight tingling sensation at the operation site. The same energy, as it were, sterilizes the hands of the “surgeon” during the operation and the surrounding tissues. Sometimes the parts recovered are not organic, meaning they do not belong to living things. Thus, the healer extracts a certain material embodiment of all negative energies.
True, despite all this, people, as always, are divided into two camps: skeptics and believers. Some are not convinced by the recordings, since using the possibilities of cinema, even in the 20th century, it was possible to film anything and any way. In turn, supporters of the method of psychic surgery are not dissuaded even by the revelations of the most famous of the Filipino healers - Agpao. In one of whose operations a forgery was recorded on his part.
Arigo - Jose Pedro de Freitas
As usually happens, superpowers in medicine were discovered in someone who has nothing to do with it. Arigo was an ordinary day laborer and miner. When his abilities showed, he began to receive 1,000 people a day. He had a clinic in Belo Horizonte (a city in Brazil). It may be strange to talk about a magician, but a miracle worker has good statistics.
Arigo was never caught cheating during his practice. He even passed tests arranged for him by professional doctors. True, as Victor Sparov (a well-known researcher in the field of parapsychology) claims: one way or another, no one seriously tested Arigo anyway, but he passed the tests that he had with honor.
Official medicine is better
Of course, all these stories are fascinating, but you still shouldn’t rely on chance and the skill of a miracle worker. It is better to put yourself in the hands of your family doctors, because their knowledge is not random, but systemic. Moreover, what should you do if suddenly during your operation the gift is denied to the seer? It is better to be treated either traditionally chemically or homeopathically.
True, for some, homeopathy is a refuge for charlatans and slackers. There is no other way to answer this than: “Everyone has the right to choose to be treated in one way or another.”
Leonid KUZNETSOV
OPERATION WITHOUT A KNIFE?
“We saw how the hands entered the patient’s body and blood appeared. The healer’s four fingers pierced the man’s stomach. Then with two or three fingers he carefully pierced the patient’s skull, each time taking out bloody pieces of tissue and blood clots. Again and again we tried to see as the scalpel flashed in the light or an expression of pain appeared on the face of the person being operated on. But there was no change in the face; the patient did not experience anything that would cause tension; he himself calmly watched the doctor’s work. After three minutes, he stood up from the bed. he passed by us, we touched his forehead, hoping to find a trace of a wound. The skin was clean.
Putting these impressions on paper, I come to the conclusion: I learned to treat people with other methods indicated by science. But, having become acquainted with a new type of "healing", I asked myself: what is ten, twenty or even thirty years of study to master the latest medical technology, compared to this? Nothing".
This is the story of a twenty-five-year-old doctor from West Germany, published in the pages of one of the largest Philippine newspapers, The Times Journal, on September 17, 1980.
Arriving in the Philippines, I naturally tried to learn as much as possible about the country, I was interested in life, customs, traditions, etc. An article by a graduate of a modern medical school, Rolf Kuhl, about Philippine healers, which, by the way, he wrote together with a biology student faculty and which caught my eye did not make much of an impression on me then. It was a story about a miracle. Well, the East is rich in miracles, no less exciting than piercing a person’s skull with your fingers. But I cut out Kuhl’s report from the newspaper and put it in a folder that I called “Traditions, customs, miracles and curiosities.”
I must say that this folder filled up faster than all the others. Well, for example, in sections such as " medical care", "the situation of workers", "who's who in Southeast Asia" and others. What is there in this folder! For example, an almost full-page report about how the heart of the statue of the Virgin Mary, located in one of the churches in the city of Baguio. The report tells how the wounds suddenly opened on the statue, how the blood flowed, how even the voice of the virgin herself was heard, and this was written for a serious and widely read newspaper by Mr. Juvinal K. Guerero, a member of the Supreme Court of the Philippines. , former governor of the province of La Union (he held this post for eleven years, was twice recognized as the best governor of the country). I visited the church where the miracle happened and the dried drops of blood on it. True, the doctors of Baguio said: when analyzing the blood that appeared so unexpectedly, it turned out that there were no blood cells in it, and they could not add anything specific. Nevertheless, the popularity of the church in Baguio has grown enormously. Today, perhaps, no other one attracts as many believers as this one.
Along with relatively modern “miracles”, the Philippines also has its own, ancient ones, born long before the day when Magellan landed on its shores with the Catholic cross and the Virgin Mary. For example, a Filipino peasant should not start harvesting rice during the full moon, otherwise he will lose the entire harvest, and his wife should not sweep the yard at nightfall - she may thereby disturb the spirits living underground. This is very dangerous, since the spirits are very touchy and, in retaliation, they will, of course, deprive either the woman or her husband of sight. But if the careless housewife comes to her senses in time and asks for forgiveness, then everything will work out.
In the mountains of central Luzon, I was lucky enough to see many strange things. For example, fortune telling by the entrails of an animal, as a result of which we learned that our journey to Sagada (which is high in the mountains along dangerous road) will be successful. And indeed, an hour and a half after we left the city of Bontoc, where the fortune-telling took place, we found ourselves in a small village and were allowed to attend an interesting ceremony. It began with slaughtering a pig, putting grass and rice on it and starting prayers. More precisely, it was mainly the old woman who prayed. Apparently, she made her request (to heal the daughter of one of the village residents) to the trees, mountains, and clouds running across the sky.
In fact, explained the teacher at the University of the Philippines who accompanied me, the prayer is addressed mainly to “anita.” Anitu is a spirit that lives on earth, but he is either invisible or hides well. Anita is omnipotent. He can help a person, but he can also bring him a lot of trouble. He was probably offended by the peasant for something, which is why his daughter got sick.
We must pay tribute to the main person in this ceremony. Taking advantage of the opportunity that sacrifices had already been made to Anita, that is, everything had been paid for, that people had gathered, the old woman did not stop after making a request to help the sick girl. She informed Anita about the concerns of her fellow villagers, who were kind and hardworking, hinting that the Almighty would enter into their position. “Parpakem nan likhat mi,” she began, that is, take all troubles, mainly rats, away from our fields, help us reap the harvest...
I asked those participating in the ceremony if anita would help. No one had any doubts. Even at the veterinarian who happened to be in the village at that time.
- What about beliefs in general? - I turned to the husband of the head of the ceremony. They say that you Bontocs don’t lock your houses, don’t put locks on your barns, and the harvest in the field is protected only by a branch cut from a tree, which they will speak before sticking it into a pile of grain?
“That’s how it is,” answered the old man. “But there are often cases when people steal rice and enter a home without asking or permission. And everything comes from books, from reading and writing. Young people believe that they are smarter than old people and know more than us. They learned to read, write and play cards. So they violate our customs! It’s good that the girl’s parents adhere to the old rules and did not take the patient to the doctor. What is a doctor? This is not Anita. And the doctor charges a lot...
In Sagada, I became convinced that the Igorots indeed do bury, or at least until recently buried, their most respected relatives in hanging coffins. A small niche is cut out of the rock, then wooden stakes are driven in - they, together with the ledge, hold the coffin. Here they observe, for example, the “apei” ritual, carried out in order to “warm the field” that it was decided to sow with rice. A fire is made, water is boiled on it and poured onto the ground, then a chicken is sacrificed to the fire, always black or at least dark; Ceremony participants warm themselves up with rice vodka, etc.
Pre-Christian beliefs are not only alive in mountainous Luzon; on the island of Panay, pregnant women are not advised to look at the sunset, otherwise the child will be born with many birthmarks. On the island of Sulu, childless women are encouraged to wear a monkey skin belt in order to become pregnant. On the island of Mindanao, in all difficult, and even more dubious cases, some nationalities consult the moon. And finally, the belief in anting-anting is widespread throughout the Philippines. This is an amulet that protects against the evil eye and enemy bullets. It brings good luck to both the peasant who bets his last pennies on a rooster participating in cockfights, and the rich man who decides to try his luck in a Las Vegas gambling establishment. An anting-anting can be a medallion containing a piece of paper with a saying from the Bible, or an image of the Virgin Mary, or a boar's tooth, a coin, or a shell.
Local beliefs are enriched, or rather replenished, as a result of communication with neighbors. Everyone has something to brag about. In Singapore, I saw many official institutions that are engaged in ensuring the safety of housing from evil spirits, from evil people, from evil manifestations of the elements. In Malaysia, I had the opportunity to be present during the hunt for ikan akung, that is, for the “king fish”. When the birds sang their last songs before going to bed and the tropical sun faded away, Majid sat down at the oars, lit a torch and headed along the shore. Suddenly, in the light of the wavering flame, a small fish with a cross on its head appeared, sparkling with delicate gold scales. The light acts on her like a hypnotist. She freezes. Immediately the net transfers the captive to a round jar. This great luck. Ikan Akung are usually hunted at night. She is caught by luck: goldfish should bring great wealth. Therefore, it is valued very dearly and is affordable only by those who already have a lot of gold without it. Ikan Akung is acquired by tin and rubber “kings”, owners of enterprises that produce the most modern equipment on computers - after all, an additional ally in the fierce competition.
Majid told me many more interesting things. Well, for example, about a Chinese in their village who raises the dead and even makes them walk. This operation is needed when someone has died far from their home village, and relatives want him to rest next to the graves of their ancestors.
“We call these people “walkers,” Majid clarifies, “and when they bring the dead to the village, everyone hides in their houses, the windows are tightly curtained, because if a living person looks at a dead man returning to the grave, he will die immediately.” .
On the Philippine island of Sulu, a husband whose wife is pregnant has no right to dig a grave or make a coffin, because by doing so he will shorten the life of his unborn child.
All these beliefs, rituals, testimonies and stories of miracles passed down from generation to generation add up to a certain system of views, the center of which is supernatural forces that manifest themselves in different ways in different situations. However, with the collapse of the colonial system and the spread of knowledge thanks to the efforts of enlighteners, magic and everything connected with it is already losing its position. People learn that their beliefs are directed against them by foreigners.
At one time, Colonel Lansdale, the chief representative of the US CIA in the Philippines, organizing the suppression peasant protests, widely used the belief in vampires. Specially trained agents killed a man, pierced his neck in two places and hung him upside down. At the same time, a rumor spread that communists had the ability to turn into vampires. And then the peasants find a bloodless corpse. Many left their homes in horror, thereby weakening the rebel forces. When Lansdale’s cunning became known, many Filipinos began to doubt whether the heavenly bearers of evil (and therefore good) supernatural forces really exist.
In Hong Kong I was amazed huge amount palmists, astrologers, fortune tellers. But the most popular among the people now are members of the Hak Tao “Black Path” society. They are called "da siu yang", or "those who strike the little people." As a rule, the “applyers” are old women dressed in traditional black dresses. They stay in groups, each of which, as a journalist from the South China Morning Post told me, is “a miniature coven of witches.” Witches are popular because they actively interfere in human relations.
“For example, a worker was offended by the owner,” they told me. - Of course, it’s dangerous to complain to the authorities, calling for a strike is even more dangerous, and for any protest you will be arrested. The offended person goes to “da siu yang” and asks to place a curse on the owner, who in this case, thanks to his vile traits, is transferred to the category of “little people”. The witch readily agrees. The instruments of her witchcraft are a cup of rice, a censer and a pair of slippers. So, let's get to it. First of all, the old woman writes the name of the offender on a piece of paper. Then the paper is set on fire and when the flame flares up, flip-flops are used. “Da siu yang” hits the flames with them, thus striking the nonentity, that is, the offender. At the same time, she scatters rice, thus feeding and strengthening the evil spirits who must punish the owner. For a curse on the offender, the offended person pays a dollar, maybe two. But, if a person asks to curse someone all day, then the cost of the execution naturally increases, sometimes up to ten or twenty dollars.
“So how,” I asked, “does it work?”
In response, the journalist shrugged his shoulders. But another journalist, Frena Bloomfield, a specialist in folk beliefs, also for a long time living in Hong Kong, I am absolutely sure that “little people”, as a rule, endure the blows of “da siu yang”.
In this situation, Filipino healers are becoming more and more popular, because their activities, their magic are presented as reality. Over the years, this idea began to assert itself more and more insistently. The glory of the healer ("healer" from English word heal - to heal) spread throughout the world. Accompanied, by the way, by an incredible number of descriptions of impressions, comments, assumptions, conjectures, hypotheses, questions. Of course! Surgery without a knife! How can you not visit a healer? There are about fifty famous healers registered in the Philippines. On January 15, 1983, the creation of a circle of Filipino healers was announced. Not everyone, however, entered into it. Some chose to remain outside of society.
One day (it was Saturday) I took a clipping of an article by a German doctor, to which dozens of others were added, re-read them and went to Alex Orbito, one of the leading healers in the Philippines. Having driven about twelve kilometers along Epifanio de Los Santos Street (it resembles our Garden Ring and performs almost the same functions, only a little narrower and with a larger number of cars, so each kilometer takes ten to twelve minutes), we turned left and breathed a sigh of relief - quiet area, with rare passers-by. At number 9 Maryland Street there is an ordinary one-story house. In front of him, behind a thick fence, is a tiny garden with a bench and a porch. There is a table with a book where you need to write down your last name. I was already fifty-seventh on this list, although there was an hour and a half left before the start of the appointment and, naturally, the operations, that is, 10.30. Fifty-six people who had arrived earlier sat down right there on the porch, others went into a narrow room that resembled a tiny cinema hall with chairs (about forty, no more) lined up in two rows. Instead of a screen there is a glass partition. Behind it is a room measuring four meters by eight with a table. On it is a Bible, two 1.5-liter bottles of water and a plate with cotton swabs.
There is a portrait of Christ behind the table, and a wheelchair in front of the table. This is the operating room. The door opens out onto the courtyard, where I saw ducks, chickens, a dog in a large cage (“very angry, we only let it out at night,” they explained to me), a small car was being unloaded, and something was being cooked or heated on a kerosene stove. . If you go to the right from the front porch, you find yourself in a large room. This is the living room. On the walls are newspaper clippings of articles on medical topics, posters. In general, the living room somehow reminded me of an antique shop after a sale - everything valuable was sold out, all the works of the masters, leaving only things of no artistic or historical interest: figures of horses, Japanese lanterns, vases, a dark table, a wicker sofa. All different colors, style, age, and all this seems gloomy, I think this is also because it weakly penetrates here sunlight.
Behind a narrow door is a small office. While we were waiting in the living room, a girl approached us with a stack of books called “Faith Healing and Psychosurgery.” The book came out recently. You can buy it. Here, in the healer’s house, it cost a little more than in the city store.
- Why?
- As you know, real healers do not take money for treatment. A real healer should not abuse either wine or amorous hobbies. You can, of course, thank him with a gift. And if in money, then they should be taken to the clinic next door. They will be received there. When a healer needs money to buy cotton wool or repair, for example, a chair, he will go to the same clinic and take from the “account” there as much as he needs. We don't have enough funds. Book sales go some way to making up for this shortage.”
(To be fair, it should be said that other healers are not so scrupulous and take money, and the size of the amount does not bother them; on the contrary, the more, the better.)
But then Alex Orbito entered the room. Average height, wearing a white shirt and dark trousers. Someone once told me that shoes with slightly higher heels indicate that their owner suffers from an inferiority complex. But the owner of the house, Alex Orbito, whom I saw, did not suffer from the above-mentioned complex. The strong-willed face revealed a strong, decisive character.
Subsequently, when we began to meet frequently with A. Orbito, I became convinced that he was an excellent speaker, although he had not studied oratory, nor had he studied medicine. A reputable Hollywood company wanted to invite Alex to play the role of a stern and wise judge who knows no emotions. But Alex Orbito could also be invited to play the role of the good-natured, simple guy, for his smile is charming. This smile for a moment made me forget that in front of me was a man whose name had already been included in many books and articles.
“Yes, yes,” said Alex Orbito, seeing me, “you will stand nearby, you can take pictures, but now excuse me, I’ll leave you for five minutes, an Australian correspondent is waiting for me, he’s come for an interview.”
Alex Orbito treats the press with respect, but rarely does he tell a journalist about himself. He is the son of a driver, one day he saw a face in a dream unknown woman. And in the morning the neighbor brought her to him and said: “Help...” - “With what?” - the young man was surprised. At that moment, some kind of insight came over him, and he removed something from the patient’s stomach, which, in all likelihood, was the cause of the illness, because the woman felt better. This was the first operation, after which hundreds of others followed.
The door soon opened, and Alex Orbito, turning to his assistant, who was a young Frenchwoman, a graduate of the Sorbonne, said: “Let’s begin.” Without changing into scrubs or putting on any of the surgeon's "armor", Alex Orbito sat down at the operating table and, with his head in his hands, closed his eyes. Both the assistants and the patients sang a prayer. Apparently, the cloud revealed the sun, it looked through the window, and the healer’s varnished nails flashed brightly.
But now the prayer is over. Alex Orbito stood up. The first to lie down on the trestle bed was a Filipino woman of about thirty. Orbito lowered her jeans, his hands went into her stomach, and a second later something similar to cellophane film appeared with droplets of blood. She broke off. Orbito "sank" his hand again and pulled out a fragment. The woman, groaning slightly, stood up and went out into the courtyard. I followed her.
-What bothered you? - I asked the woman.
- My neighbor is an evil woman, and what’s more, she has an evil eye. She threw something into my food. Now I feel good.
I'm back to operating table. An Australian, a corpulent man of about sixty, was already lying on it. Again Alex Orbito's hands went into his stomach, this time he pulled out a blood clot.
- What did you complain about? - I asked the Australian when he got up from the table.
“I had a stomach ache,” the patient answered quietly.
Then the operating table or operating chair (Alex Orbito simultaneously removed a cyst, opened an ear, and took something out of it from patients who sat on the chair) began to be occupied one by one by members of the West German tourist group.
- How did you feel at the time of the operation? - I asked a question to a woman who complained about her pancreas.
- A pleasant tickling and nothing more, but now I feel a slight burning sensation.
- Complex operations, - commented my friend Jaimse Likauko, the author of four famous books about healers. - But they were also more difficult. He opened the back of the head of one American who suffered from headaches (with his bare hands, of course), removed blood clots and closed them again.
“Next...” Alex Orbito said.
Operations take a maximum of two minutes. One of the healers operated on two thousand patients in eleven months.
An incredible number of books and articles have been published about Filipino healers. Hypotheses and theories have appeared (mostly their authors believe that operations without a knife are possible), one of which suggests that an energy unknown to us is concentrated at the fingertips of healers, which does not tear the tissue and, pushing the molecules apart, allows the fingers to penetrate the body. It is suggested that the healer is capable of creating a certain magnetic field, and if it coincides with magnetic field Luzon (the authors of the theory claim that it exists, that it is special, why, they say, only Filipinos can perform operations and only on the island of Luzon, and best of all in the province of Pangasinan, where all the famous healers came from), then operations can be performed. The magnetic field or unknown energy ensures the sterility of the space above the resulting wound, which is open only for a moment. Others believe that no autopsy is taking place. Healer, being a carrier astral energy, directs it into the patient's body, it is faster than x-rays or radio waves, reaches the sore spot, dematerializes it, takes it out of the body, after which it materializes again and in its original form is thrown into a vessel for the extracted disease. This theory belongs to Dr. Hans Naecheli, President of the Swiss Society for Physical Research.
Yes, healers are credited with supernatural powers: the ability to create unknown energy, the ability to direct it exactly to the place that needs treatment. It is believed that this is where their popularity comes from. However, I have come to the firm conviction that the popularity of healers rests and flourishes mainly on other grounds. Among the clippings about miraculous healings I have an article about healers-dentists. They, however, do not treat teeth, but only remove them. But every tooth is pulled out. Moreover, either with bare hands, or with the help of a stick, much less often with tongs. And most importantly - completely painless, almost without any unpleasant consequences. At the University of the Philippines, a dissertation was even defended on this topic. Its author is Constanza Fernandez Clemente. A psychologist by training, she watched for several months as healers removed teeth with their bare hands. One day she herself had a need, a necessity, and she went to a certified dentist - a tooth had to be removed. But since she was about to give birth, the doctor, fearing possible consequences, did not dare to take up the tongs. He advised to contact a healer. And although, as Clemente shares his impressions, the crown of the tooth did not come out completely, Rodolfo Laganzod Kaminong in the blink of an eye, or rather in three seconds, pulled it out, using, however, forceps. Clemente did not feel any pain during or after the operation.
Kaminong explained the ability to relieve people from pain as follows: “I owe my gift to God. Once, when I was still living in the city of Olongapo, a rock dove flew to me and told me that I could pull out teeth.”
To another dentist, Khun Meldia, insight came in a different form. “I was sixteen years old,” the Times Journal newspaper reports. “During a holiday, when I drank too much wine, I heard a man complaining about a tooth. I asked him to open his mouth, took the tooth. I didn’t even know that he pulled it out, and realized it only when the blood began to flow." For ten years now, the newspaper adds, Meldia has been removing her teeth. Using the same method, that is, with his bare hands, only now he places a handkerchief on the sore tooth to prevent his fingers from slipping.
In Zamboanga City, on the island of Mindanao, I stayed at the Lantaka Hotel. I met with local newspapermen, publishers, and politicians in the city, and photographed the city and its surroundings. And suddenly I got a toothache. Got sick on Saturday. During the night, my cheek became so swollen that it was scary to look at. There was no hope left that I would have time to fly to Manila, so I went to the hotel administrator and asked him to show me the doctor’s address. The girl administrator, after listening to me, said that on Sunday the famous dentist, a graduate of the capital’s university, does not accept appointments. But a ten-minute walk from the hotel, a wonderful craftsman is a doctor. “Go to him,” the administrator smiled, “you won’t regret it, and he charges inexpensively.”
Soon a taxi - a "traisakl" (motorcycle with a sidecar) stopped near a one-story house. When someone knocked on the gate, a woman appeared and invited him in. The room in which I was asked to wait for the doctor was ordinary. From time to time, chickens came in from the yard (the door did not close, because a draft was the only salvation in the heat, and the heat was forty degrees), they were driven out by a boy of about seven. The chickens ran away, then appeared again. I watched the boy for about seven minutes when the owner himself finally appeared. After greetings and a short introduction (the doctor saw that I was unwell), I sat down in a chair that was different from the others in its large size. No injections, no rubbing. The healer took the forceps and... My operation was perhaps even faster than Constanza Clemente's, at least not three seconds. But unlike her, I felt acute pain. Then for another three hours after the operation I felt pain. However, I was grateful for the timely help. What would happen to me if it weren’t for the healer?
This is exactly the question I am asking now to explain (in part, of course) the popularity of traditional healers. The health challenges in the Philippines are far from over. After I began to forget about the pulled out tooth, I had a conversation with the mayor of the city. And I learned that for the two and a half million people in Western Mindanao, which includes Zamboanga, there are only 240 doctors. Of this small number, only forty specialists work in rural areas. Who should the patient contact? He looks at the healer as a savior, he is his last hope. And he should be paid incomparably less than a certified doctor. If in Manila I had to pay 150 pesos just to prepare a tooth for a filling, then in Zamboanga I paid only 25 pesos for the entire operation. And that’s because I’m a foreigner. A local patient would have paid five times less or thanked him for his help with half a dozen eggs.
I’ve heard for a long time about those who perform operations without instruments or incisions at all. Sensational news about the mysterious “surgeons without a scalpel”, or healers (from the English word heal) living in the Philippines, has been exciting people for decades.
What kind of phenomenon is this? Does it really exist or are we being fooled again and cheated out of money? 
The first healer to become known outside the Philippines was healer Eleuterio Terte. He began treating people in 1926, at the age of 25. Moreover, at first he used a knife for operations, for which he soon paid the price - he was accused of “illegal medical practice.”
Having with difficulty extricated himself from the investigation, during which he swore an oath not to take up a scalpel again, Eleuterio Terte began to think about how to live further. And unexpectedly he discovered that he didn’t need a knife: he could act with his bare hands.
The trained hands of a well-prepared person are actually a terrible weapon. A skilled special agent can kill an enemy with one finger. For example, in China, for a long time, healers practiced who could easily pull out a diseased tooth by grabbing it with two fingers.
History is silent about how and on whom Eleuterio Terte trained, learning to open a patient’s body with his bare hand without leaving any scars on it.
He became famous after he helped a certain American officer, and director Ormond recorded his manipulations on film and released the film in wide release.
Then Dr. Steller, a professor of physics at the University of Dortmund, got involved. He was not too lazy to write a whole work about Eleuterio Terte, in which he admitted that, observing “operations without a scalpel,” he did not find any “sleight of hand.”
The professor assured that Filipino healers can perform surgical operations with their bare hands without hypnosis, without anesthesia, without pain and infection.
He was echoed by the Japanese physician Isamu Kimura, who examined the blood after a number of Terte’s operations and determined that it belonged to the operated patients. True, sometimes the analysis showed that the clots were of inorganic origin, that is, they did not belong to either a person or an animal, but looked like dyes. But Terte explained this by saying that these clots are nothing more than the materialization of the disease itself, “ bad energy"in the hands of a healer.
Healers are grouped mainly in the Baguio region, claiming that there is some kind of special cosmic environment, thanks to which local healers acquire superhuman strength.
In fact, Baguio is the only cool place in the Philippines with wonderful, peaceful landscapes. Tourists from all over the world willingly come to Baguio. It is precisely because of the abundance of tourist clients that healers have chosen these places.
So, healers are healers who use the centuries-old experience of traditional Philippine medicine, which allows them to perform surgical operations using only their hands. Allegedly, they push the patient’s tissues apart, perform the necessary actions, and then a very fast healing spread fabrics. In some cases there is blood, but it quickly stops, and in others it does not happen at all! But all these cases have one thing in common - minutes after the operation, no traces remain on the patient’s skin!
These specialists also have another name – “psychic surgeon”.
How can this be? After all, the Philippines, to be honest, is not the most developed country in which modern medicine can reach such heights. Maybe the Filipinos know a secret that allows them to expand human abilities so much? Or is it just sleight of hand?
Rumors about such miracle operations, of course, awakened the desire of many people to see everything with their own eyes, and some even decided to test the effect of healers “in their own skin.”
It must be said that there are quite a lot of such specialists in the Philippines who can perform bloodless, seamless and painless operations. What talented people!
The healers themselves say that God and faith help them “heal” the sick. Therefore, in the “operating room” there is always a crucifix of Christ and the Bible. Moreover, at the beginning of the “reception day,” the healer puts his hands on the Bible and begins to mutter something, and when he considers that he has reached a “certain condition,” he begins to perform operations. One healer can perform many operations per day. Like on a conveyor belt - one patient leaves, another comes in, etc. Moreover, each operation (and these are abdominal operations!) lasts only a few minutes. 
According to healers, they feel the sore spot with the tips of their fingers, which emit streams of energy. How are these operations carried out? The patient lies down on the couch, and the healer begins to massage the painful part of the body. At the same time, there is no talk of any kind of sterility, anesthesia and other “preoperative things”. He fingers the skin, warms it up, and then suddenly plunges his hand into the collected skin fold, from which drops of blood are released. Slurping sounds are heard. The healer feels the tumor or diseased organ inside, removes it (again with just his fingers) and pulls it out. Some kind of organic material is actually visible in his hands. Drops of blood from the patient's skin are wiped with a napkin moistened coconut oil, and then, after a few moments, no traces of intervention remain on the skin. This is the picture observed by the witnesses present at the operation. Moreover, representatives of the media from different countries were present at such operations more than once, and everything that happened was repeatedly filmed.
What is the patient's experience? He supposedly feels no pain, only pleasant sensations. The next question that arises in any sane person’s mind is whether the healer’s patient is a “decoy” who has not undergone any treatment at all. medical interventions? Maybe this is a staging? A kind of advertising to attract real patients from whom you can take a lot of money for supposed help provided to them? After all, it is clear that a person suffering from some kind of illness is ready to go to great lengths to recover and save his life. Even if traditional medicine considers this quackery. And it must be said that there are many such people, and healers, accordingly, get richer and richer. After all, the operation costs on average about two thousand dollars.
Healers say that people who have undergone surgical treatment should not immediately run to get an ultrasound - they need to wait a couple of months. After all, the healer starts the healing process, which will continue for more than one week. For the same reason, the patient should not wash for some time after the operation.
Often people who have lost their last hope go to healers. History knows more than one case when Filipino healers “operated” famous people. For example, American presenter Andy Kaufman underwent surgery with a healer and was diagnosed with lung cancer; he died a few months later. 
In 1975, the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) declared that the activities of healers were fraudulent. This was done on the basis of a court decision that prohibited the American travel agencies organize wellness tours to healers, which specifically noted: “The operations of healers are a pure and complete fake, and their “surgery” with their bare hands is a simple fake.”
In 1990, after conducting research, The American Cancer Society (ACS) stated that there was no evidence of any positive effect of surgeons' operations on the course of the disease and persistently urges patients not to waste time and not resort to their help . The British Columbia Cancer Agency has the same position. The essence of the claims is not that healers’ operations can directly harm the patient, but in the possible delay, or even exclusion usual treatment, which is fraught with fatal consequences.
In Russia, no official cases related to healers could be found. However, there are interviews with famous surgeons who studied this phenomenon. For example, the story of Dr. med. Gershanovich M.L. - Professor, Head of the Department of Therapeutic Oncology of the Research Institute of Oncology named after. prof. N. N. Petrova. When he was the team doctor for Anatoly Karpov in 1978, he was in Baguio as part of the world championship match with Viktor Korchnoi. Then I managed to visit the healer, and for research purposes. Gershanovich M. decided to undergo surgery himself to find out the truth. He wanted a varicose vein on his leg and a small, benign tumor, a basal cell carcinoma, removed above his left eye. Both are very convenient for demonstrating the result, since they were clearly present on the body. Despite all the efforts of the healer, the removal did not work. And even vice versa. As a result of these efforts, the mentioned formations became inflamed and they had to be urgently operated on at home, in Leningrad. Gershanovich M. L. expressed the result of the experiment on himself with the words: “After everything I saw, I can take an oath: there was no surgery, there was a skillful trick.”
The popular illusionist James Randi, known for exposing psychics, considers the “surgery” of healers to be a fraud of deft hands. He claims that their actions can only deceive unprepared spectators, but are completely obvious to professionals. By the way, through his Foundation he offers a million American dollars to anyone who has proven supernatural abilities. Randy himself easily repeated the actions of the healers. Quite a few active magicians did the same. For example, Milbourne Christopher, Robert Gurtler, Criss Angel.
Explaining the actions of the healer, James Randi claims that his hand, located under the fold of the patient’s collected skin, creates in the latter full feeling penetration inside. The removed fragments are easily depicted as straightened lumps of animal entrails hidden either in the hand or in an easily accessible place at table level. Simulation of bleeding was achieved by Randy using a small bag of blood, or a sponge soaked in blood. However, to enhance the plausibility of the illusion, there are known cases of making real cuts
Psychic surgeons are trying to enter the global market. They travel to different countries, train doctors there, and invite especially gifted ones for an internship in the Philippines. But special development this activity was not received. In developed countries, healers are considered scammers whose activities are strictly prohibited.
Therefore, those who want to be cured have to go to the Philippines. 
Not long ago, Baku journalist Sharif Azadov visited the Philippines. This is how he describes his meeting with one of the most famous healers.
“Alex Orbito is a short, thin 43-year-old man with pleasant features. He first discovered his abilities as a healer when he was sixteen years old. He studied with his father, also a healer. But Alex’s son, unfortunately, does not have the ability to concentrate energy, and therefore went to a regular medical college."
Orbito works every other day for 45-50 minutes a day, it can’t do any more. Must rest, replenish lost energy. He does not operate on children, he is afraid of damaging mental centers, and treats them only with manipulations.
Orbito says goodbye to journalists, saying that he needs to concentrate before operations. And when they start, they will come for us. There is a glass partition in the large room, behind which is an operating room. Before the operation begins, all those present sing psalms.
When Orbito entered the partition, everyone fell silent. Taking the Bible in his hands, the healer leaned over - the silence became complete. He sat like that for about fifteen to twenty minutes.
The operating room is an ordinary room with a narrow table. Two nurses in ordinary sweaters and skirts, the healer himself in the same T-shirt that he was wearing during our conversation. Several jars of oily liquids catch your eye. The only medical stuff here is cotton swabs.
There was no long hand washing either; the healer simply rinsed his hands in a jar of white liquid. And so after each operation - he dipped his hands into the jar and wiped them with the same towel.
The first patient was a woman. The healer, with quick, short movements, clicked out small bumps from her breasts, while pinkish blood barely flowed. The woman's face was calm and did not reflect any pain or discomfort.
Then a woman with an umbilical hernia lay on the table. “I stood close to the operating table and timed all operations,” writes Sharif Azadov. - Before my eyes index finger The healer, after a little massaging, suddenly entered the stomach like dough.
There was blood, but only a little, and Orbito pulled out a piece of meat from there. Then he began to vigorously stroke this place, as if tightening it, lubricated it with oil, and the woman calmly stood up from the table. There was not a shadow of suffering on her face. The operation lasted forty-three seconds.
He also removed the appendix, although in just over a minute. Once upon a time, I also had my appendix removed, and, if I’m not mistaken, it lasted more than an hour. Again, before my eyes, the healer’s fingers easily, without tearing the tissue or pressing, entered the human body. The patient's face is calm, slightly wary, but no more. You can see how the healer is doing something there, inside. Then he removed and showed the appendix to the patient and threw it into a white basin.
I asked Orbito how he connects the ends of the vessels, and he explained that he does not sew them together, but sort of seals them with energy. It’s interesting that he works with one hand, and with the palm of the other he seems to create a biofield. Bending over, I carefully looked at the place where my appendix had just been removed before my eyes. Not a seam, not a trace of a wound..."
This is how Sharif Azadov ended his story. But here is a description of the same events, belonging to another eyewitness, more prepared, and therefore looking at things more soberly.
It’s not at all easy to figure out whether the operation is really being done or whether it’s just an appearance,” said Mikhail Lazarevich Gershanovich, professor, doctor medical sciences, an oncologist by profession, - At first, the healer’s actions make a stunning impression. Even to people who are skeptical. And I was not just skeptical - I was obsessed with the idea of experiencing the work of healers on myself, examining it from the inside.
Gershanovich traveled to the Philippines with Anatoly Karpov as his doctor when he conducted the world championship match with Viktor Korchnoi in Baguio.
In a conversation with journalists - Oleg Moroz and Antonina Galaeva - Gershanovich said that, being a convinced materialist, and, moreover, a doctor, he did not take into account all the evidence of ecstatic eyewitnesses - you never know what will seem to a person in a state of suggestion. 
“Therefore, the question of whether there is a “Philippine miracle” did not interest me,” said Gershanovich. “I was firmly convinced that he was gone.” The laws of nature are unshakable. Cut or spread the skin with your fingers, subcutaneous tissue impossible. No films, no evidence will convince me otherwise. At least until I try the Filipino “knife” on my own skin. Moreover, if they open me up, I won’t believe it, I’ll find out how they did it. So, with this mood I went to the healers. However, besides curiosity, I also had another incentive: at that time, Anatoly Karpov’s father was seriously ill. And I wanted to look in folk medicine, including the methods of healers, something that could help him. Alas, I did not find anything like that, and this further strengthened my skepticism.
Moreover, Gershanovich personally suffered from the intervention of the healer. He asked to have a tumor removed from his left eye. It was the so-called basal cell carcinoma, which is still being debated among doctors whether it is a malignant tumor or not (it does not metastasize).
While waiting his turn, Gershanovich had the opportunity to observe the work of healers and their patients. It seemed surprising to him that almost all healers have some kind of main profession that feeds them - a mechanic, a mason... And in between, when there is an influx of tourists, they practice chiropractic. In addition, it struck Gershanovich that patients from time to time were people whom he had already seen with other healers in the same role...
In general, the more Gershanovich looked closely at the healer’s work, the more his conviction became stronger: there is no surgery here, there are skillful tricks and nothing more...
But now it’s my turn,” the professor continued his story. - I asked to remove a tumor under my left eye and a varicose vein on my leg (by the way, very convenient for demonstration - it would be immediately obvious whether it was removed or not). Hiller readily agreed, warning, however, that he must pray over me.
Finally the healer said that the spirit had appeared and he was ready to begin. For a long time, he painfully squeezed the tumor with iron fingers, tenacious like pincers, but nothing happened.
After that, the tumor began to grow quickly, and I had to hurry to remove it. Not in the Philippines, of course, but at home, with an excellent surgeon. So, only a small scar remains as a memory of that adventure. But he wouldn’t have existed, Gershanovich is sure, if he had turned to the same surgeon right away, even before his trip to the Philippines.
Regarding varicose veins, the healer also beat him up quite a bit. As a result, thrombophlebitis developed, which then also had to be treated for a long time using conventional methods...
In general, as statistics show, 90 percent of healer patients, upon returning to their home, are forced to seek treatment again. medical care- already to ordinary doctors.
The remaining ten percent is divided approximately equally. Five percent were people who did not need any surgery at all; their malaise was only a consequence of excessive suspiciousness. And finally, the remaining five percent comes from people whom healers actually helped.
For example, in one patient, the healer removed an atheroma (benign tumor) on the chest. But this atheroma was special, like a large blackhead - it was associated with a blockage sebaceous gland, had an outward course and, therefore, could easily be removed by simple extrusion.
That, in fact, is the whole story about the secrets of Filipino healers. As they say, draw your own conclusions. All I have to do is add to what has been said the mention of one more piece of evidence that I discovered on the Internet. Former doctor Stanislav Suldin, having arrived in the Philippines, decided to get rid of stones at the same time as his vacation. gallbladder. The healer performed the operation and said that everything was fine now.
However, upon returning to Moscow, Stanislav still had to undergo a cholecystectomy - an operation to remove stones from the gall bladder.
“There was no healer nearby, the anesthesia was normal, and our surgeons, guys from my stream at the institute, operated,” writes Stanislav. “For which I thank them very much.” And he adds: “The guys found no traces of the healer’s intervention, they simply did their job. They are practical and don’t believe in miracles.”
What can we say in conclusion? In my opinion, great value in this story has suggestibility. A person with an agile psyche will easily believe in a virtually bloodless operation, and in the instant healing of tissues, and in positive effect. So be it, if the healer’s actions did not harm the body, but only calmed the patient’s psyche.
As they say, to be treated by Filipino healers or not to be treated is everyone’s business. Be healthy!
