A form of fakery using slight-of- hand techniques. A pretense at removing diseased organs by psychic means that leave no wound or require no physical incision. A form of quackery.
The surgical side of psychic healing, performed through the mind and spirit of the healer during an alleged visionary experience. The gift of healing must be given to the would-be healer by the spirits; then the skills and practice must be acquired during an apprenticeship and initiation period taking up to five years to complete. Techniques differ, and there are two main centers practicing and teaching psychic surgery: one is close to the city of Manila in the Philippines, and the other is in the village of Congonhas de Campso, north of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. Other centers are now being opened all over the world.
The Brazilian organization was founded by Jose Pedro de Freitas who practiced there between 1950 and 1971, the year he died in an automobile accident. He came to be known as Ze Arigo, the peasant Brazilian surgeon-healer. Arigo used a spirit guide or control in his work. His control was Adolphe Fritz, a German doctor who had died in 1918. When Arigo was working on patients he purported to be in a trance, possessed by Fritz. In this condition Arigo always spoke in a guttural German accent and cupped his hand over his left ear, the ear through which Arigo claimed Fritz always controlled him, fortunately speaking to him in Portuguese as Arigo could not speak German.