Brothers and Sisters;
It's no surprise that Meddie Arismende is coming back to Sonoma County once again; at $160 a pop, he makes $6400 in just 5 days of being here. When he shortly raises his price to $200 a pop, it'll be $8000 for just 5 days of work. (These calculations assume 8 sessions per day; with less sessions the totals will be less, of course) Thus, he is presumably wealthy from exploiting the desperation of sick people.
I know I'll catch flak from many of you closed-minded New Agers for saying this, but my conscience will not allow me to remain silent while this ghoul feeds off the desperately ill. Dig this: "psychic surgery" is always a scam, a fraud, a con game. It's been debunked many times, and some psychic surgeons have been appropriately jailed for this sleazy scam. I intend to do whatever I can to put this Arismende criminal behind bars where he can't victimize the sick anymore.
Here's a brief description, copied from the Internet, of how the con game works:
"Psychic 'surgery' is a type of non-surgery performed by a non-medical 'healer'. The healer fakes an incision by running a finger along the patient's body, apparently going through the skin without using any surgical instruments. The healer pretends to dig his hands into the patient's innards and pretends to pull out 'tumors'. Using trickery, the healer squirts animal blood from a hand held balloon while discarding items such as chicken livers and hearts. The patient then goes home to die, if he or she was really dying, or to live if there was nothing seriously wrong in the first place."
This simple description leaves out some details and variations--for instance, sometimes a fake thumb instead of a balloon is used to hide the animal tissue--but it gives you an idea how the swindle works. It's a sleight of hand trick that many stage magicians can do quite convincingly. Here is a link to a short video that shows world-famous conjurer and paranormal investigator James Randi doing a "psychic surgery":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjF1sUZEy2U
Note how convincing it looks. The difference between Randi and Arismende is that Randi freely admits it's trickery and does it to educate the public about this con game, while swindlers like Arismende claim it's alternative healing and do it to rip off desperate sick people. They make sure no one gets ahold of the "tumors" they pretend to remove from their victims, because whenever such material is lab-tested, it always turns out to be tissue from some barnyard animal such as a chicken, thus proving the phoniness of the "surgery".
Of course, I could always be wrong. I invite Mr. Arismende to prove me wrong (i.e., to prove that what he does is real) thusly:
1. Allow me to be present at one of his "surgery" sessions and to videotape the procedure from all angles of my choice.
2. Allow me to examine his hands just prior to their supposed insertion into the patient's body and at any other time during the procedure.
3. Allow me to examine any other place where he might hide some container of animal tissue (the table or bed, his clothing, towels, etc.) at any time.
4. Allow me to take the tissue he supposedly extracts from the "patient" to a lab for analysis, to determine what species it really came from.
5. Allow me to take a small DNA sample from the "patient" (small hair clipping or mouth swab) so that in the unlikely event that the "removed" material is human, we can determine whether it really came from the "patient".
If Arismende passes this test, I will publically apologize on WaccoBB and announce that he is for real! If he fails this test, he will take a little ride with me to the police station to be arrested for fraud. Fair enough?
Note that there is NO GOOD REASON for him to refuse the test I propose. If he is for real, he can only benefit from such a test, as it will prove his authenticity, and will cause a skeptic (me) to publicly announce his validity! If he refuses such a test, that in itself is evidence that he is a fraud.
Also, if he is for real, there is no good reason that he won't go to:
https://www.randi.org/research/index.html
and take the James Randi Educational Foundation's One Million Dollar Paranormal Challenge, which involves submitting his claim to formal testing under a protocol agreed to by him as a fair test. If he wins (i.e., if he shows that what he does is real under the test conditions), he'll receive one million dollars! Think of all the good he could do with a million bucks, not to mention the pleasure of proving the skeptics wrong! Again, there is no good reason he wouldn't do this if he isn't a fraud.
Of course, since he is a fraud, he won't submit himself to testing either by me or by the JREF. Instead, I predict that he will respond to my challenge in one of the following ways:
1. He'll make some bogus excuse for refusing to submit to testing of his claim, and continue his scam as planned.
2. He'll cancel his Sonoma County appearances to avoid getting busted.
3. He'll pretend to cancel his Sonoma County appearances and sneak into town and pull off his scam more secretly.
To those of you who intend to receive "treatment" from Mr. Arismende: Wouldn't you like to know for sure whether it's real? You can! Simply insist that he give you whatever tissue he "removes" from you, then get it to me for lab-testing. Note that there is no good reason he wouldn't let you have the tissue; after all, if he's telling the truth, it's from your body; it belongs to you! If he refuses to give you the material, cancel your appointment or, better yet, go through with it, then go to the police and have them open a case on him.
I have spoken to the police about busting this con man, but they tell me that they can't open a case until a victim comes forward. So, I appeal to any of you who have been "treated" by this guy and subsequently realize that you were ripped off to come forward. Contact me at 707-527-6163 or [email protected] and I'll support you in going to the police and opening a case, so we can save others from such cynical exploitation.
Also, if anyone knows of a lab at which I can get tissue analyzed to see what species it's from (college biology lab, police lab, local hospital?) please let me know. If we work together, we can protect our brothers and sisters from a heartless swindler.
Love;
Dixon