Case file · High strangeness
Psychic surgery in Baguio
Filipino 'psychic surgeons', centred on Baguio, claimed to open bodies with bare hands and remove diseased tissue; in 1984 comedian Andy Kaufman, dying of lung cancer, travelled there for treatment.
1984 CE · 16.41, 120.60 · status: hoax
The account
Healers such as Tony Agpaoa drew foreign patients from the 1960s. Kaufman died in May 1984, shortly after returning.
The sceptical view
Investigators have repeatedly shown the 'surgery' is sleight of hand using animal tissue and fake blood; it has cost patients money and timely treatment.