televangelist-faith "healer"- Peter Popoff....liar and fake

A famous (or perhaps we should say "infamous" ) preacher you may have heard of is Peter Popoff. In the early 1980's he was pulling in over 4 million dollars a year deceiving thousands. Then, he was exposed by a stage magician (and skeptic) by the name of James Randi. Randi attended one of the services where Popoff seemed to "prophetically" know people's names, addresses and ailments and, with a small FM scanner, he discovered that Popoff was being fed information through a wireless receiver in his ear (by his wife backstage). This video clip is an excerpt from an interview with Randi on NOVA.

Peter Popoff- what an evil man.

He never healed anyone though. By intrinsically attempting to appease or reassure another simply explains nothing, and does nothing. A healing process involves the actual physical revival of the mind and body. He's not even a psychologist. All he is is a greedy sick fuck in the name of "god".

My point is that I am very skeptical about the placebo effect entailing its cause, process and consequences. A placebo in my understanding is a psychological illusion and a response to treatment. Correct me if wrong, but Peter Popoff never used a placebo, he simply lied to people. A placebo is an inactive substance containing no medication. Placebos don't improve physical conditions. Placebos do not cure, as many people mistakenly believe; it is the perceived improvement of symptoms that characterizes the placebo effect.

I understand vicariously what you are stating, about the biological processes of conditions involved such as 'stress' and its interconnection with various other health problems. And yes Peter may have periodically reduced the stress within the people. Yet all I am saying is that the effect is a form of psychological illusion, and therefore I think that it was not a cure based method but rather a form of regimen. A regimen that is designed to presuppose the person to make them believe that they think they are "cured". But realistically they are physically the same. Just my thought.

No I was stating that he was enforcing a method of faith based regimen that is designed to presuppose the person to make them believe that they think they are "cured". But realistically they are physically the same, hence he didn't cure anyone. It is a psychological illusion. A placebo of faith, is not literal, but metaphorical. This is of ecclesiastical nature that peter performed. Anyways, besides this note, it just shows that many people have the capacity to superstitiously believe the absurd and the ridiculous ... even after being debunked. Some people find it difficult to give up their faith that they've devoted their lives, time, money and heart for, just like Christianity.