A Disturbing Evening Of Woo And Emotional Upset

Russell Tomes - 1 May 2019

In late March, representatives from NZ Skeptics attended an evening session of ‘Psychic Healing’ in Christchurch, as performed by so-called ‘psychic-healer’, Jeanette Wilson. NZ Skeptics Society was formed in part to examine and counter this sort of ridiculous woo, so we felt it was important to investigate and report on the sort of depths to which woo-sters will go.

We must admit that we were half-expecting to see the absurd display of fake-blood, animal parts, magical self-closing wounds, and the sleight of hand that one is accustomed to hearing about in association with ‘Psychic Surgery’. If we are to be clear, psychic surgery was described by the US Federal Trade Commission in 1975 as a ‘pseudoscientific medical fraud’. Although it has been around for quite a while, the largest part of modern interest seems to have started back in 1960, when it was introduced by ‘Fate’ paranormal magazine, and called “bloodless surgery”. But, almost sadly, this is not the ‘psychic healing’ that was presented.

What we saw was initially the silliest thing, though, and we had to stifle a few laughs. The psychic stood at the front with her ‘patient’ and said that the ‘spirit world doctors and surgeons’ were about to start work, and that she ‘doesn’t do anything’ except be a ‘channel’ for them. She then proceeded to wave hands and making the silliest noise “eeeeeeeeee”, for prolonged periods of time, all the while narrating how the ‘healing’ was proceeding. Predictably, at the end of it, the person agreed that the pain, or whatever, had lessened, and that they were able to move their (insert appropriate body part) shoulder/hip/arm/hand again more than they could than before. More on this thoroughly explainable phenomena shortly.

So, perhaps unfortunately, no gore, no blood, no chicken hearts, but the theatrics were certainly there.

First impressions

Jeanette had a mostly pleasant, friendly and disarming way of speaking, and this seemed to go a long way towards the audience acceptance of her overall performance. Her show was well-polished, and very fluid. We noted that she presented all her views as though they were already-accepted facts, and along with her almost constant babble, it left no room or gaps for questions or thinking.

We acknowledge that Jeanette certainly gave the impression that she truly believed almost everything that she said and did.

Disturbing

There were two ways, though, in which this whole evening session was actually very disturbing. Firstly, she was just about the most anti-science person we have ever come across, and secondly, the emotional distress that some of the ‘patients’ were exhibiting was palpable.

A comprehensive pseudoscience checklist was covered, from the anti-science position, including anti-vax, anti-fluoride, anti-chlorination, big pharma, pseudo-medical diagnoses, pseudo-psychiatric sessions, conspiracy-theorist, anti-GMO, anti-‘nasty’-chemicals, anti-EMF from your phone, pseudo-optometric diagnoses, and pseudo-biological descriptions of normal body processes, chakras, energy pathways, white-light, and crystals.

The most distressing part for us was watching real people be pushed almost to tears (and real tears for some of them) as she waved her hands, and made her pseudo-medical speech. Then she told them to let the inner child go free, made the “eeeeeeeeee” noise, and proclaimed them ‘fixed’. These people broke down in public, in a completely uncontrolled environment, and discussed/admitted to the audience their personal health or mental issues. Although we were only there as observers, her actions almost crossed the line where we felt that we really had to intervene. Almost.

This is an example of where we could see real possible harm being done. These vulnerable and perhaps ill-informed people were being convinced that they were being healed, and that their illness or disease had really gone. To quote the American Cancer Society “Death, disability, and other unwanted outcomes have occurred when faith healing was elected instead of medical care for serious injuries or illnesses”. And as part of their healing, some people go through a cathartic and possibly humiliating release in an uncontrolled and unsafe environment.

James Randi demonstrating ‘psychic surgery’ on ITV series “James Randi, Psychic Investigator”

What really happens when someone appears to be healed?

The Derren Brown show called “Miracle” demonstrates quite succinctly what is going on with people apparently having no more pain, or ‘being healed’, being able to bend previously painful joints, etc. We would recommend “Miracle” to all readers.

In summation, we might call it ‘the Cathedral Effect’, perhaps to coin a new term. This is the name that might be given to the eerie feeling you get when you step into a cathedral; the shiver down your spine, the feeling of awe, the strange echoes which lend credence to a feeling of spirits nearby, all those sorts of things. The cathedral has been expertly crafted to give you that exact reaction; the extra emphasis of a large expansive interior, the patterns of light, the feeling of majesty and awe, and especially if you are already half-expecting ‘spirits’.

Similarly, when someone expertly primes a group to expect a ‘healing’, and the circumstances and powers of suggestion are just as conducive to it, then a ‘healing’ is exactly what appears to happen, both for the audience onlookers and the recipient. The person on the stage feels special, all the attention is on them, etc.

In psychological terms, this is partly the Hawthorne effect, where individuals modify aspects of their behaviour in response to their awareness of being observed, and the ‘demand characteristics’. This is where individuals unconsciously alter their behaviour to fit some expected outcome, perhaps in this case, something like “everyone else has got a healing, so I am going to have one as well”. There are probably other psychological effects at work as well.

The whole experience releases a flush of natural opioids into the body. The opioids work to temporarily dull or completely mask any pain feelings or sensations. None of the pain relief lasts for any significant time at all, perhaps an hour or two, perhaps even to the next day. Certainly long enough for the ‘patient’ to proclaim that the ‘healing’ has worked.

This is almost identical to how evangelical faith-healers work, where they also create expectations of spirits and magic, all in amongst the spectacle of a giant building and a large crowd, etc. The words spoken, the audio volume, the crowd sounds, the atmosphere of a multitude of people, all of these work to lift those expectations to the level that the opioids are released. Derren Brown does this expertly in his show.

In the psychic healing session, most of the evangelical crowd mechanisms are replaced by the theatrical hand-waving, slight physical touching of the ‘patient’ on or near the affected area, and the (weird) sound of the “eeeeeeeeee” noises.

All the other nonsense

There was also so much other utter bunk than just the ‘spirit surgeons’. As we first entered the room, we were handed a small glass of what she called micronised purple rice powder. The rice is powdered so finely that, apparently, the rice energy goes directly into the body’s cells, bypassing the gut, feeding the mitochondria instantly. This apparently speeds up the psychic healing, and allows the spirit surgeons to work better. Anyone reading this with a modicum of knowledge about biology would surely have angry smoke coming out of their ears by now.

Just before half-time break, she also started on about other woo, including cell phone signals, saying that they were in fact microwaves, just like a microwave oven, and that these cell phone microwaves affect the body, making it have less strength and less balance. She performed the bunk ‘Power Balance’ balance-test to ‘prove’ how cell phones affect your balance.

Then, what a surprise, it turned out that she sold the remedy: a silly piece of clear plastic which she said blocks these ‘nasty’ waves.

At the table at the back of the room, there was everything on sale from her books, to CDs, pinhole glasses, EMF ‘protectors’, and others, including, of course, the purple rice powder. Not forgetting the blatant ‘buy my stuff now, especially the micronised-purple-rice, we even have EFT-POS’.

We approximated that about half of the 21 attendees bought something from the stand at the back.

Quick bit of real science: cellular signals are indeed technically in the ‘micro’ wave range (450–3800 MHz), but on completely different frequencies from microwave ovens. Just like radar, AM and FM radio waves, visible light, radiant heat, home Wi-Fi, etc are all non-ionising radiation. This, combined with the fact that the power strength in the cellular signal is very weak (50-times less power-strength than what it would take to harm anyone), and that this power is being constantly adjusted downwards to the minimum needed to maintain a good connection with the nearest tower, make cellular signals incapable of doing anything except carry data. The only known health effect of cellular signal radiation is slight heating of water in the body. As water is a good conductor, any heat is dispersed very quickly, leaving no ill-effects at all. For all the same reasons, this is why nobody ever boiled to death when watching the TV on CRT screens.

In short, cell-phones cannot have the effects claimed by Jeanette Wilson.

Is the ‘psychic healer’ knowingly performing bunk?

A problem that we had when assessing Jeanette Wilson, is that she, and probably others like her, actually seem to believe what she was saying. If we are being charitable, we would suggest that Jeanette’s view is constantly being reinforced by her misperception of what is really happening, not understanding anything about natural opioids, or how these are released. She is mistakenly interpreting the healing results always as positive, and gaining constant confirmation of her ‘powers’ and the apparent existence of the ‘entities’ and ‘the surgeons’. Perhaps she has heard similar stories of ‘healings’ , and constructed a narrative which neatly fits everything into her world-view.

Even if she really does believe that it is all true, does that relieve her of the responsibility or the consequences of her actions?

Magical thinking and claims need to be confronted and challenged wherever they appear. Surely, a progressive society with a solid scientific basis cannot properly evolve if this sort of demonstrable bunk is allowed to exist unquestioned or undisputed?

So, we return to the question of “what’s the harm?”

There are three things to consider:

1. The audience was comprised of adults who attended of their own free will; it was their choice, and no-one should interfere.

2. The obvious emotional distress that many attendees exhibited was disturbing to us as onlookers, so we can only guess as to how it affected the person on stage.

3. Jeanette was not really healing anyone; any coincidental effect was temporary at best.

Addressing each of these

The audience did indeed attend of their own free will, and, from what we could ascertain, they all appeared to be there for largely the same reason, genuinely looking for some sort of cure or remedy for some ailment. The question is therefore whether they would still attend if they had full knowledge of what is really happening, and that they have been conned out of their money? The harm is the vampiric feasting on the desperation of the unwell. We note that there was certainly no attempt by Jeanette in her advertising to describe the event as being ‘for entertainment-only’, or similar. It was most certainly touted as a ‘healing’ event. This itself reflects Jeanette’s stated belief that what she does is real. We would suggest that Jeanette would have little or no audience if the attendees were in full possession of the facts.

This first point leads into the second matter to consider. Same question: would the attendees have allowed themselves to be put through the obviously distressful, public, cathartic session if they were aware of the false nature of such events? Psychiatric-safety issues aside, we would suggest that audience size would diminish rapidly.

The last consideration is perhaps the most serious. The most harm would appear to be where people turn away from real medicine to concentrate on ‘alternative medicine’ (AM). A recent study from Yale University showed, for example, that people who turned to AM were two and a half times more likely to die from their cancer than those on conventional treatments. The harm is quite clear.

It should be an easy job, then, to educate people or to expose fraudsters? Unfortunately, amazing and cheap cures always seem to find a ready audience in those who are desperate. We would encourage all people to be vigilant for snake-oil peddlers, and to think critically when assessing whether to attend such events.