Note added June 27, 2005: This entry was accepted as part of the 11th Circle of Skeptics
. When I was but a Pre-Bad Astronomer, still in high school, I decided to stay up late one night and watch Johnny Carson's show. He had as a guest that night a tiny gnome-like man, shiny pate gleaming and white beard blindingly reflecting the stage lights. He went on stage and performed what is called "psychic surgery", a technique that some people in the Philippines claim allows them to reach inside a person's body and removed diseased tissue, all without even breaking the skin of the patient. This odd little man, gruff of voice but charming in demeanor, demonstrated this technique on a volunteer from Carson's audience, all the while discussing exactly why it was a fraud. He would pull out long strings of what was obviously chicken guts, and dump them ...
