ABSTRACT
Some of the surgeries by Brazilian Spiritist healers that I had witnessed and videotaped were similar to treatments provided by conventional medical doctors. Growths inside and outside the body were removed and pterygiums scraped from eyes. But more treatments were performed only to “let the spirits in to do their work,” as the healers repeatedly told me. Other than the fact that no healing was expected to ensue from the cutting that simulated actual (arthroscopic) surgery, how did this process differ from the so-called placebo surgeries performed on the arthritic knees and other organs of patients in the United States by licensed physicians in conventional hospital settings? It was not uncommon for those receiving this invasive placebo to do as well or better than the patients receiving “actual” treatment.
