In Popular Culture
- In the 1989 film Penn & Teller Get Killed, comedic magicians Penn and Teller demonstrate how to perform the illusion of psychic surgery.
- A 1989 episode of Unsolved Mysteries featured a police officer whose mother claimed to have been cured by psychic surgery, only to die shortly thereafter; her autopsy revealed several tumors. The policeman described himself going undercover to feign illness and desiring psychic surgery, and having the feeling of the practitioner using sleight of hand to supposedly dig into his tissue, as well suspecting that the "cysts" and "tumors" being removed from his body were in actuality ready made chicken parts.
- In the TV show Criss Angel Mindfreak, Season 2 Episode "Sucker", Criss explains psychic surgery as a deception.
- In the 1999 movie Man on the Moon, a movie based on the life of Andy Kaufman, Kaufman receives psychic surgery and notices the "sleight of hand," laughing in seeming despair. He is next seen dead, with his funeral being conducted.
- In the television show 1000 Ways to Die, a con artist was using this to scam poor country people, only to lead to his death when he used it on a leper from whom he caught the disease.
- In the April 14th, 1999 episode of The X-Files, "Milagro", a man is suspected of using psychic surgery for murder.
- In the TV series Angel (TV series), Season 1 episode "I Fall to Pieces (Angel)" features a doctor who practices psychic surgery.
Read more about this topic: Psychic Surgery
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