Conspirituality14 Mar 2024

197: Psychic Surgery (feat Brad Abrahams)

The “healer” mutters prayers, flutters his hands over the patient’s belly, then rubs his fingers close to her navel. A stream of what looks like blood shoots out from between his fingers. After a few more finger wiggles, he appears to pull several bloody cocktail shrimp out of an invisible incision. The patient is healed. Of something. Welcome to “psychic surgery.” Documentarian of the uncanny, Brad Abrahams, takes our correspondent seat this week to explain how Shirley MacLaine, Burt Lancaster, Andy Kaufman, Charlie Mingus, and tens of thousands of Americans got drawn into the morbid healing craze that kicked off in the 1970s, and which may have seen its last hurrah with the imprisonment of Brazil’s John of God. Centuries of colonization in Brazil and the Philippines, Brad explains, made conventional medical care basically unavailable for anyone poor or outside of major cities. This left a void for traditional and alternative healing to fill as the only real options, as well as provide a connection to a cultural identity that had been systematically repressed. And of course, charlatans rode the wave. Brad brings his characteristic curiosity, empathy, and cultural competence, holding the door open for us to imagine why this abject form of medical and spiritual fraud speaks so deeply to so many. Show Notes Brad Abrahams Love And Saucers — Brad Abrahams Do you see what I see? | Short Doc about Controversial Conspiracy Theorist Artist David Dees — Brad Abrahams 72: John of Fraud (w/Lisa Braun Dubbels & Mirna Wabi-Sabi) — Conspirituality Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Denne episoden er hentet fra en åpen RSS-feed og er ikke publisert av Podme. Den kan derfor inneholde annonser.

Episoder(822)

Bonus Sample: Today at Death’s Door

Listen to the full episode Matthew considers two registers of painful eulogy: spectacles thrown for elite terrible people, and the music offered for ordinary terrible people, when we can manage it. ...

20 Jul 5min

Brief: Graham Platner’s QAnon Moment

Access ad-free listening and support the podcast Graham Platner’s recent 11-minute video, where he announced he was dropping out of his bid for the US Senate, is filled with some of the hallmarks we ...

18 Jul 40min

317: Jordan Peterson vs the Nuns

Jordan Peterson is back. After a hiatus due to a, well, a whole lot of problems, he’s up for regular posting on his social media channels. We’re going to take a look at what’s happened over the last y...

16 Jul 1h 15min

Bonus Sample: Taco Bell is Doing Better Public Health Than RFK Jr

Listen to the full episode A cyclospora outbreak has caused thousands of Americans to experience explosive diarrhea across 18 states. The CDC still has no idea where it's coming from. This has caused...

13 Jul 6min

Brief: Cult Within a Church Does a Schism

On July 1, 2026, the Society of Saint Pius X consecrated four bishops at its Écône seminary, defying Pope Leo XIV's direct plea to "turn back." Within 24 hours, Rome declared the SSPX's bishops and ro...

11 Jul 42min

316: The War on Science

Support the pod on Patreon With so much emphasis on global politics and the World Cup in recent weeks, we’re going to focus on the somewhat quieter but intensely important bureaucratic dismantling of...

9 Jul 1h 12min

Bonus Sample: Spielberg, Alien Disclosure, and the Death of David Wilcock

Listen to the full episode Three events converge—everything is connected. Steven Spielberg releases his new sci-fi film Disclosure Day The American government’s UAP Disclosure Act drops t...

6 Jul 7min

Book Club: America, USA

“I do not love America, and never have, especially now.” With an opening sentence like that, you know you’re in for a ride, and Eddie Glaude Jr does not disappoint. Derek discusses touch points from ...

4 Jul 29min