From: <CEvans1950@aol.com>
Hello,
Here is a faith healer that I imagine most laying-on-of-hands Christians
would decry, and yet is there any meaningful difference between his
practices and those of the other psychosmatic-doctors of the world?
I don't think so.
It would seem likely that those subject to psychosomatically-aided cures
were subject to psychososmatically caused-or-influenced ailments. Or perhaps
psychosmatic cures can aid in even non-psychosomatically-induced diseases.
The efficacy of head-trip medicine has nothing to do with the truth of the
associated legends (since there are so damned many conflicting versions of
them) and everything to do with the malleability of the human mind.
Sincerely,
Caroline is right: So-called "faith healers" don't do anything
fundamentally different than any so-called "witch doctor" in the
various developing countries around the world. The faithful still believe
in the idiot nonsense sold to them by the frauds which take advantage of
their religious superstitions.
FEATURE-Thai witch-doctor buries patients in sand
BURIRAM, Thailand, June 24 (Reuters) - Pan Rerngprasarn buries his patients
up to their necks in hot sand and then stands on them. And they pay for the
privilege.
Pan is a witch-doctor in a village 400 km (244 miles) northeast of Bangkok
and says he can cure everything from cancer to mental illness with ancient
Cambodian healing arts.
His patients, some considered hopeless by doctors practising conventional
medicine, travel from far and wide to Pan's village and all seem to believe
that Pan's treatment works.
"I use four elements -- earth, wind, fire and water -- and combine them
with Cambodian magic power to cure these hopeless patients who have already
given up on modern hospitals," said Pan, who learned his method from a
guru 40 years ago.
Pan, 81, starts treating people by touching their foreheads, making them
drink holy water and blowing his magic power on to them.
He then rubs herbal medicines into their bodies and buries them naked in
specially-built sand holes, where they stay for at least an hour.
"Blowing their head represents the wind element, holy water is water,
rubbing medicine and burying in sand represent earth," Pan explained
the comprising four elements.
ALL CONDITIONS TREATED
The patients who visit Pan come from all walks of life and suffer from a
variety of conditions ranging from cancer to kidney problems, paralysis and
mental disorders.
They come in wheel chairs, with walking sticks and on other people's backs to
visit and at any one time there are 35 patients in beds, and hundreds of
others are outpatients seeking daily treatment at his shack home.
Patients say the magic and herbal medicines of the man they call
"Father" have cured them and brought back their lives.
"I feel relieved and my condition is improving steadily," said
Prasobsri Kamsuree, 58, emerging after an hour buried in the sand in the
full glare of the midday sun.
Prasobsri, a millionaire businesswoman who owns one of Thailand's biggest
gasoline stations, has ovarian cancer.
She has already had an operation, and has had the full benefit of modern
medical treatment but has finally turned to Pan and his remedies.
"Eight months after the operation I kept bleeding and I felt that my
chance of survival had gone. I gave up modern medical treatment and came
here for my last hope," she said.
She said her condition had improved steadily and her bleeding had now stopped.
DANGEROUS PRACTICE?
The provincial health office says Pan's treatment is dangerous and difficult
to assess independently. Because people trust and believe in his method, the
authorities say there is nothing they can do to stop patients visiting him.
Conventional doctors say some of Pan's methods are especially dangerous.
Pan's "fire massage" is one such treatment, which involves stepping
on a patient's stomach with feet heated up by contact with a sheet of burning
iron.
Pan's 70 kg can do real harm, doctors say.
An official at the public health office of Buriram Province, northeast
Thailand, said Pan and his treatment were the subject of a local
investigation.
The official, who declined to be identified, gave no other details. He said
there was a possibility that legal action might be taken to stop Pan
practising.
PAN SAYS HE HAS CURED THOUSANDS
But Pan says he has cured more than 10,000 patients since he began practising
40 years ago and stresses he treats all patients for free as an act of
"merit-making," to improve his chances of a better reincarnation.
His patients, in traditional Thai fashion, pay homage to Pan in exchange for
treatment. Patients say they pay 420 baht each for a "master of ceremony"
fee and 20 baht for each round of additional treatment.
"I use my magic power and meditation to find the raw material of herbal
medicine from the jungles and put the magic power into it," Pan said.
Pan says he wants to retire and only keeps going to please his patients.
"I have been thinking of retiring but these hopeless patients keep coming
to me. I cannot turn them down. But I may stop treatment in the near
future," he said.
"This may be the last year."
($1 - 41 baht)
21:36 06-23-98
Copyright 1998 Reuters Limited.
Return to The Skeptic Tank's main Index page.
Date: Wed, 24 Jun 1998 08:02:30 EDT
Caroline
Fredric L. Rice, the Chairman of The Skeptic Tank adds:
By Sutin Wannabovorn
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