ABSTRACT
This chapter demonstrates that the ways by which overt deception may be perpetrated by some who would use the name of Complementary and Alternative Medicine for their own ends. It identifies some of the mechanisms that seem to make such deception believable. Many of the mechanisms relate to a recipient’s wish to believe and to social notions of what a healer is. Accora is a real person and the situations described involved both of the authors, some details have been changed to protect the anonymity of all involved. Whilst one is of a healer, the other is of a businesswoman or entrepreneur who is very aware of her performance of a role. For genuine healers who have worked a long time, or perhaps who are registered with the Federation of Spiritual Healers or a Reiki organisation, Accora’s story must raise difficult issues about routing out deception and fraud in their own fields.
