Skepticism: Faith healers and Sham

It was somehow a rainy day when my mother and I went to a church to maybe attend mass. There we stumbled upon some faith healing sessions. I was kind of skeptical about the faith healers cause as far as I know, the church (Roman Catholic) that we went to, only endorses “Priest” faith healers. (The faith healers were just laity.)

The faith healers doing the session wears red shirts with a yellow print. They were wearing black pants.

It was good because they have their followings with them. A dozen or more maybe.

As I watch what is happening. I saw people being “healed” fall backwards. The assistants of the faith healers were there to catch them. After that, they let the person lie down first and on to proceed to the next person.

I wonder. Why do they fall down?

It was our turn. Curious about what is happening, my mission was to clandestinely find out what exactly is going on. Is the “Holy Spirit” affecting them? Did they lost consciousness? Why did they fall?

It was our turn to stand. As I waited I observed how the assistant faith healer prayed over the faithful.

Now, there I was in front of the assistant faith healer. She asked me to stand straight up. Put my feet together, and clasp  my hands like praying.

What do you think happened afterwards?

I did fall, and the glory of the Holy Spirit  was delved upon me. Sorry to speak but, that did not happened.

I just had logically reversed engineered what the assistant faith healer had just done to the other persons that attended.

How to pretend to be a faith healer and make someone fall down:

1.  Let them stand in front of you.

2. Let them relax and breath air.

3. Make them put their feet together.

4. Make them clasp their hands in a prayer position

5. Tell them to close their eyes

6. Murmur words and say “Trust in God”

7. Continue to murmur words and hover your hands over theirs.

8. Very and Slightly push their hands

9. Repeat until the person falls

That is how it is done. By Making the person stand with their feet together, they’ll lose their sense of balance. Added the factors that their hands are in a prayer position and their eyes are closed. A slight push would do the trick. If anything happens, Trust in God.

Enemies of Reason; Episode 1: Slaves to Superstition

Enemies of reason is a two part television documentary written and presented by remarked evolutionary biologist, skeptic, atheist Richard Dawkins.

At this television documentary, he discusses how we humans are very susceptible to irrational beliefs and superstitions.

The first episode, Slaves to superstition discusses how simple irrational beliefs can affect our lives. Some of these are;

• Astrology – What’s your sign?There’s really nothing wrong if you deal with this playfully, however if you rely on astrology to govern your life, imagine how constricting that would be.The series made an experiment where they had given 20 people that week’s reading for Capricorn, but as a test, they told that the one that what was given was their own star sign. See What happens on the sample clip.

• Psychics – The series also tested the powers of the psychics.

  Richard Dawkins asked a psychic to read him and tell him his fortune. The woman told Dawkins that he could hear Dawkin’s father on the other side. Richard Dawkins later revealed his father was still alive and that he frequently visits him.

Derren Brown: Messiah

Derren Brown seeks out an adventure to America disguising himself as a psychic, a Christian evangelist, a new age fanatic, an alien abductee and a person who can talk to the dead.

The mission, to let the leading experts at that field endorse him and make them believe that he is the true deal.

Leading at the end of the show. Derren Brown garnered the endorsements of  the leading experts on that field.

The show  highlights the power of suggestion and our tendencies to accept certain beliefs and people’s abilities without questioning them.

Tools of the Trade:

Richard Dawkins: Enemies of Reason
On Deception foreword by Derren Brown
Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion
The Handbook Of Psychic Cold Reading: Psychic Reading For The Non-Psychic
The Right Way to Do Wrong

Sometimes people adhere to what we only believe as true. We even sometimes collectively select the evidences that only proves it true. Whichever the case, by being aware of what is happening, sticking to reality, and using our senses to rationally think of our decisions, we can distinguish delusions from reality.

-Marco Lee

Related Articles:

1. Critical Thinking: A look at some of the principles of critical thinking
2. The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution, Richard Dawkins
3. My Spirituality as an Atheist
4. My atheism is no threat to the church
5. Liberals and atheists smarter? Intelligent people have ‘unnatural’ preferences and values that are novel in human evolution
6. Science Versus Religion