Antonio C. Agpaoa (1939–1982) most well known as Tony Agpaoa was a Filipino practitioner of psychic surgery.
He worked in Manila. It was alleged that Agpaoa could remove tissue from the body of patients without making an incision. His centre in Baguio attracted "thousands of persons annually". However, magicians and skeptics were convinced his feats were the result of conjuring tricks.
In 1968, Agpaoa was arrested and charged with fraud in the United States for pretending to mend a bone in a patient's neck. Instead of facing the charges, Agpaoa "skipped his $25,000 bail and fled back to the Philippines."
According to the magician James Randi, "n some cases, actually performed simple surgical services, removing cysts and draining infected areas; the rest, mostly very spectacular procedures in which his hands appeared to plunge into the body were the usual conjuring tricks." American surgeon William A. Nolen has written "According to the A.M.A. he had separated hundreds of patients from their life savings and had cured no one."
James Randi has noted that Agpaoa had his own appendix removed in a hospital in San Francisco, instead of visiting a psychic surgeon. Agpaoa also took his son to the United States when in need of medical care, but his son did not survive.
References
- ^ Randi, James (1995). An encyclopedia of claims, frauds, and hoaxes of the occult and supernatural: decidedly sceptical definitions of alternative realities. New York, NY: St. Martin's Griffin. ISBN 978-0-312-15119-5.
- Moore, Brooke Noel; Parker, Richard. (1979). Critical Thinking: Evaluating Claims and Arguments in Everyday Life. Mayfield Publishing. p. 179. ISBN 978-0874848410
- Carroll, Robert Todd. (2003). The Skeptic's Dictionary: A Collection of Strange Beliefs, Amusing Deceptions, and Dangerous Delusions. Wiley. p. 314. ISBN 0-471-27242-6
- Neher, Andrew. (2011). Paranormal and Transcendental Experience: A Psychological Examination. Dover Publications. p. 171. ISBN 0-486-26167-0 "Tony Agpaoa, the most popular of the psychic surgeons, has several times been detected in trickery."
- Nickell, Joe. (1993). Looking for a Miracle: Weeping Icons, Relics, Stigmata, Visions & Healing Cures. Prometheus Books. p. 160. ISBN 1-57392-680-9 "Antonio "Dr. Tony" Agpaoa who, in late 1968, was arrested in San Francisco. A month later, on December 19, he was indicted by a Detroit grand jury on a charge of fraud in foreign commerce. The indictment stemmed from a Michigan steelworker's 1966 visit to Manila, where Agpaoa pretended to mend fractured bones in the man's neck. Later X-rays, however, revealed the bones were as before although the man (briefly relieved of pain by suggestion) had believed himself healed."
- Nolen, William A. (1974). Healing a Doctor in Search of a Miracle. Random House. p. 24. ISBN 0-394-49095-9
- Randi, James. (1982). The Truth About Uri Geller. Prometheus Books. p. 182. ISBN 0-87975-199-1 "Tony Agpaoa, one of the wealthiest men in the Philippines as a result of his quackery, had his own appendix removed — in San Francisco, in a real hospital."
  | This Filipino biographical article is a stub. You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it. |