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Mercado's assistant. Granada Television

José Mercado, a "psychic surgeon." Granada Television

Mercado's hands as he pulls a "tumor" from the victim, withholding some of the material for a repetition of the trick a few moments later. Granada Television

The film showed the "surgeons" at work kneading the flesh vigorously, usually that of the abdomens of fat persons. (Thin people have to be content with lesser treatment, for reasons that will become clear.) Much water and oil was applied, and then the miracle began. From beneath the hands a stream of blood spurted, and an incision seemed to appear. José Mercado, the performer, was suddenly awash in a pool of blood and reached for a wad of cotton, which was pressed into his hand by an assistant. This wad was dabbed about, the two hands coming together in the process. The left hand was pressed to the body, the right fingers went under it, and after a bit of poking about a fresh gush of blood was seen. Then a scrap of whitish tissue began to be pulled up from the body. It snapped loose and was discarded. Another piece was produced from beneath the left hand and treated the same way. The area was mopped up and no incision was seen to remain. The operation was over.

After trying unsuccessfully for days to obtain some of the tissue and/or blood that resulted from the fake operations, Scott finally snatched a "tumor." His account is revealing. "I grabbed what appeared to be a large growth which came out of the body. Two thirds of it proved to be cotton wool. One-third of it was a long stringy piece of tissue a long stringy piece of meat which could be anything from a piece of lamb chop... a piece of human body, I suppose. If you want my guess, lamb chop. And it's not very funny. It's very distressing."

Scott would be interested to learn of Dr. P. J. Lincoln's discoveries concerning a bloodstain and a "tumor" brought back by another group of patients from the Philippines also treated by psychic surgeons. Lincoln is a specialist in blood group serology and forensic medicine at London Hospital Medical College. He found that the blood sample was from a cow, and that the "tumor" was a piece of chicken intestine. But, incredibly, the have a rationalization for all this, claiming that the miracle has now been proved all the greater! Supernatural forces, they tell us, have converted the deadly tumors into innocuous substances that cannot infect human beings.

Photo 1. The author's hands approach the patient at the beginning of "psychic surgery." Note the false thumb on the right hand. Technology Review

Photo 2. The hands are placed upon the site. Technology Review

How is it all done? Certainly there is lots of blood, and the chicken guts don't just come from nowhere, do they? No, no more than the magician's rabbit comes from nowhere. I recall the remark of one magician who was asked how he pulled a rabbit from a hat. "Well," he said, "the first thing is to get the rabbit into the hat." True, true.

Photo 3. The flesh is kneaded and creased. Technology Review

There are two gimmicks. One is a simple device that can be purchased in any magic trick shop. Examine Photo 1. It is visible there, purposely, if you look hard. It's a false thumb—sort of a large thimble that looks like a thumb—and it's filled with blood before the operation. The body is wet down and the maneuvers shown in the following photos are performed. In Photo 2 the false thumb is being pulled off the real thumb to cause the blood to flow, along with the bits of tissue concealed with it. In Photo 6 the fake is being put back on the thumb, and in Photo 7 it is being picked up in the cotton wadding to be discarded.

But José was getting much more blood from another source. When he reached for more cotton, something else was handed him too. It was a small piece of a balloon, red in color and loaded with blood. His fingers went under his hand to puncture that balloon, and then pulled forth the piece