Pseudoscience: Consists of statements, beliefs, or practices that are claimed to be both scientific and factual but are incompatible with the scientific method (unproven, not testable, or opposed to the consensus of traditional science).
Psychic Surgery
Definition: Psychic Surgery is a form of alternative medicine practiced most commonly in Brazil and the Philippines. Proponents believe that healers can reach inside the body and pull out tumors and other growths without scarring or wounding the patient.
Reasoning: Almost all cases of ‘Psychic Surgery’ can be explained as simple sleight-of-hand, with the ‘healers’ palming animal guts, and using bags of blood to make it appear that the patient is bleeding. The American Cancer Society has found that there is no evidence that Psychic Surgery works on cancer patients.
More Information
- James Randi performing Psychic Surgery
- The FTC cracks down on Psychic Surgery in the 1970s
- Psychic “surgery”
Conclusion: Psychic Surgery is nothing but a high-stakes (And potentially deadly) magic act. Best to leave this to the Stage Magicians.
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