All language subtitles for Weird.Or.What.S02E09.WEBRip.x264-ION10

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WILLIAM SHATNER: You know,
I've been around for a while.

Met some interesting people,
done some crazy things.

So you just might think
that there's not much that

can take me by surprise.

You'd be wrong.

The world is full of
stories and science and

things that amaze and
confound me every single day,

incredible mysteries that
keep me awake at night.

Some I can answer.
Others just defy logic.

NARRATOR: Does the human
mind possess powers beyond

our comprehension?

A housewife's psychic
vision helps crack

a major murder case.

ETTA SMITH: I never wanted
to be so wrong in my life.

NARRATOR: Can crimes be
solved with psychic power?

A Californian man
remembers every moment

from every day
of his life.

BOB PETRELLA: I can
remember something so

clearly and then I go wow,
that was forty-one years ago.

NARRATOR: Is total
recall possible?

And a faith healer cures
terminal disease with prayer.

Is it a miracle, or an amazing
display of mind over matter?

TRAPPERJACK KELLER: If this
was just placebo effect,

you would find a
handful of stories.

You don't. You have thousands.

WILLIAM SHATNER: Yeah,
it's a weird world.

And I love it.

[♪]

WILLIAM SHATNER:
The human brain.

It's the most complex,
advanced and many would

say beautiful
thing in nature.

But how much do
we know about it?

Well here's some
facts for you.

Did you know that it
can process over 70,000

thoughts a day?

BRAIN: This is actually
a cow brain so it's more

like seven thoughts.

WILLIAM SHATNER: Or that
it has over 10,000 miles

of blood vessels?

BRAIN: Could you put it back
please? I need that.

WILLIAM SHATNER: Or that
it doesn't feel pain?

BRAIN: Ouch, that hurts.

WILLIAM SHATNER: But these
amazing abilities are

really only the
tip of the iceberg.

The big question is what
don't we know about this

incredible stuff?

What else can it do?
This is so great.

Your brain generates
between ten and

twenty-three watts of
power, enough energy to

power a light bulb.

Impressive, huh?

BRAIN: This is pathetic.

WILLIAM SHATNER:
Weird or what?

NARRATOR: 1980. Los Angeles,
California.

A massive police search
grips the small suburban

community of local
housewife Etta Smith.

ETTA SMITH: I think we
were a little edgy because

having things like that happen
wasn't the everyday practice.

NARRATOR: A hospital nurse
is missing and feared dead.

Astoundingly, Etta was
about to find herself at

the center of the
investigation -

in the most bizarre way.

ETTA SMITH: I made it a
point to listen to the

news during the day about
this nurse missing and the

news said they were making
a house-to-house search.

At the moment that they
said house-to-house

search, everything
went haywire.

It was like I was
seeing a movie.

I began to see this area.

I saw a trail, I
saw a dirt path.

I saw something white
through the bushes and I,

I knew where it was.

NARRATOR: For the first
time in her life, Etta's

had a psychic vision.

She's convinced she knows
where the nurse is.

She's terrified
and confused.

ETTA SMITH: I didn't know
what to think of it.

There's some things that
you just can't explain away.

I'm arguing with myself.

Should I go
tell the police?

They're gonna
think I'm crazy.

But what if she's there
and she needs help?

NARRATOR: Etta decides
to drive to where she

believes the nurse to
be - a nearby canyon.

Just being there seems
to increase her newfound

psychic abilities.

ETTA SMITH: I see a big
spray of dirt and tire

marks and I laid my hands
into the tire prints, and

as soon as I did I could
feel trauma, I mean bad.

By then, my heart is
just fluttering and I'm

thinking all I want to
do is get out of here.

NARRATOR: Fighting her fear,
Etta follows her instinct.

ETTA SMITH: Down the
embankment, out the dirt

path, I see something.

There was white
nurse's shoes.

And I said oh my
God, it's her.

I never wanted to be
so wrong in my life.

All I could think of was
run, get out of here,

get to the police.

NARRATOR: When the police
arrive, Etta's in for a

huge shock.

Instead of thanking her,
they're convinced she must

have had something to
do with the murder.

To her horror,
she's arrested.

ETTA SMITH: It
was shocking.

I cried 'til I
couldn't cry anymore.

Strip-searched me, put
me in a cell by myself.

It was a nightmare.

NARRATOR: After four days
behind bars, Etta is

finally released.

Soon after, the killers
- three local men - are

arrested and convicted
of rape and murder.

Etta sues the police for
false arrest, and after

six years of legal
battles she wins.

But even now, Etta
struggles to make sense

of the whole thing.

ETTA SMITH: I don't know
if it was her spirit that

came and touched me to
allow me to have the

vision that I had.

I, I don't know. I, it's
one of those mysteries.

NARRATOR: What did Etta
Smith experience that day?

Did she have a genuine
psychic vision?

Remarkably, many psychic
detectives claim to solve

crimes by means of
mysterious insights.

Is this possible?

JOE NICKELL: I'd say there
are two kinds of psychics

- those who have no
psychic ability but

believe they do and we
call them fantasizers.

The other type also has no
psychic ability, they know

they don't and we
call them charlatans.

NARRATOR: Joe Nickell
researches paranormal claims.

He believes there's no
such thing as psychic

vision or extrasensory
perception.

JOE NICKELL: The history
of ESP has been a history

of self-deception,
deception, wishful

thinking, playing games
with statistics, and not

one person has been able
to do anything meaningful.

NARRATOR: But if psychic
ability doesn't exist,

how do psychic detectives
achieve such amazing results?

JOE NICKELL: The typical
psychic engages in

something we call
retrofitting or after the

fact matching.

You throw out some
so-called clues -

I'm getting water, I see a
tall structure - and then

the next thing you know
the search party found the

remains and in comes the
psychic saying, you know,

I mentioned water and that
body was found near a

creek or a pond or Riverside
Drive or a water tower.

Remember the tall
structure I mentioned?

And they get by with this.

NARRATOR: Did Etta Smith
just make a lucky guess?

JOE NICKELL: It's not so
simple that everyone who

claims to be a psychic
is a simple fraud.

Some, some of course are.

But some are simply
self-deceived.

They're what would
generally be called a

fantasy-prone personality.

And they believe that what
they imagine seems very

real to them and yet they
have no special powers.

The average psychic
detective is no use to police.

In my opinion, they
provide no real evidence,

they create false hope,
and they have done it at

the expense of promoting
ignorance and superstition

in our society.

WILLIAM SHATNER: I see a
long life full of riches

and a man name Stephen.

Does that ring a bell?

You know many of us have
been to palm readers,

fortune tellers, people
who claim to have amazing

psychic abilities who are
really nothing but fakes.

But Etta Smith wasn't someone
performing cheap tricks.

She saw something in her
mind even the police

couldn't understand.

Would she do it just
for fame and fortune?

Or is she truly psychic?

No Stephen?

What about Harry?

NARRATOR: Are
psychics real?

How did Etta Smith
help solve a murder?

TANA HOY: Etta definitely
had a psychic vision.

She had a
clairvoyant vision.

NARRATOR: A Los Angeles
woman has a strange and

sudden vision which helps
police solve a murder.

Was it a genuine
psychic phenomenon?

Popular psychic
Tana Hoy thinks so.

TANA HOY: When I first
read Etta's story my

reaction that I had was
wow, this woman had a

spontaneous
psychic memory.

I believe that the spirit
was drawing her, pulling

her to go and
find her body.

NARRATOR: If anyone can
testify to how important

psychic visions can be
to the police, it's Hoy.

He's helped investigators
solve a double-homicide

and, while on live radio,
predicted a terrorist

attack ninety minutes
before the Oklahoma City

bombing in 1995.

TANA HOY: A person can
hear a word, a phrase, and

it will awaken a psychic
memory or a psychic vision

within that person.

She's awakened this
vision and she saw the

canyon where the body was.

That's an example of
clairvoyant experience:

clear seeing.

And when she placed her
hand in the tire tracks

she was making a direct
connection with the energy

imprint of the vehicle.

Etta definitely had
a psychic vision.

She had a
clairvoyant vision.

NARRATOR: But if Etta's
vision was for real,

why didn't the police
believe her?

TANA HOY: We're going back
to 1980 so back then we

didn't have the awareness of
psychics that we have today.

Today we see TV shows and we
see psychics on talk shows.

I don't feel that she would
have been arrested today.

NARRATOR: So given their
remarkable successes,

should detectives add
psychics to the force?

TANA HOY: A lot of
psychics when they work

with police departments they
don't do it for publicity.

They do it to help
and give back.

So it happens a lot more
than we ever hear about.

NARRATOR: But did Etta
Smith really see something

with her mind?

Psychology professor
Tim Moore thinks not.

TIM MOORE: I think Etta
may have overheard

information in the
community without fully

processing it at the time that
she acquired it, but later

on it registered and prompted
her to go to the police.

NARRATOR: Moore believes
something in Etta's

unconscious memory
triggered what she thought

was a psychic vision.

Psychologists call it
source misattribution.

TIM MOORE: Source
misattribution - you have

information to which you falsely
attribute having acquired

as a result of experience
when in fact it's been

suggested to you or provided
to you by someone else.

NARRATOR: Etta Smith wasn't
the killer, so how could she

have any idea where
the body was?

TIM MOORE: My
understanding is that the

actual culprits were
blabbermouths and they

talked about what
they had done in their

neighbourhood, which
was her neighbourhood.

NARRATOR: Could Etta's
psychic vision be mistaken

for random information she
had nothing to do with?

TIM MOORE: If Etta's not
concentrating on the

information at the time
that she's hearing it

because it's not the focus
of her attention,

the information nevertheless
gets in but she doesn't

remember the source.

At some later date she
hears information on the

news that the police are
looking for a missing body.

She recollects somewhat
hazily or without

appreciating how she came
by that information.

NARRATOR: But how could Etta
have known the exact location

of the body - the precise
road in the right canyon?

TIM MOORE: I believe she's
familiar with the area so

the original information
could easily have

triggered a cognitive map.

The canyon roads there,
for example, are pretty

distinctive.

She may have intuited,
just on the basis of what

she overheard where
the body probably was.

I mean that's
not a stretch.

NARRATOR: Did the
unexpected recall of

a hidden memory lead
Etta to the body?

Or did she experience a
genuine psychic event,

which helped solve a case
the police could not?

Whatever the truth, this
story is most definitely

weird or what?

[♪]

SHATNER: You know, the
human brain has been

evolving for
uhhh - hold it.

How long has it
been evolving?

DIRECTOR: 2.5
million years.

WILLIAM SHATNER: 2.5 million
years. Got it. Okay.

ASSISTANT: 903
Baker, take 2 marker.

DIRECTOR: Action.

WILLIAM SHATNER: You know,
the human brain has been

evolving for two and a
half million years but

perhaps one of the
greatest things that sets

us apart from any other
creature is the power of -

damn!

ASSISTANT: 903,
take three, marker.

DIRECTOR: Action.

SHATNER: You know, the
human brainas been

evolving for two and a
half million years but

perhaps one of the
greatest things that sets us

apart from any other creature
is the power of our memory.

[Applause]

Where
are my keys?

Oh wow.

NARRATOR: They say that
everyone has a special

talent, and in Bob
Petrella's case that's

certainly true.

But he possesses something
so special it sets him

apart from the
rest of humankind.

BOB PETRELLA: The
reaction kind of varies.

A lot of people are
amazed, a lot of people

call it a phenomena that's
strange and unusual.

NARRATOR: Even old friends
are still shocked when

they see Bob's
power on display.

FEMALE FRIEND: Very
good. Very good.

MALE FRIEND:
May 18th, 1980.

BOB: Oh, that's
Mount St. Helens.

MALE FRIEND: Nerve gas
attack in Tokyo Subway.

BOB: March 20th, '95.

MALE FRIEND: Correct.

FEMALE FRIEND: Princess
Diana's wedding.

BOB: July 29th, '81.
It was a Wednesday.

NARRATOR: It may seem that
Bob just has a gift for

remembering trivia, but
there's much more to his

incredible talent.

He can remember nearly
every single moment from

every single
day of his life.

BOB: I threw a bowl of
soup on the ceiling on

March 13th, '75.

BOB PETRELLA: Sometimes
they think you're lying.

They think you're
making it up.

NARRATOR: But every fact Bob
pulls from his mind is correct.

His memory is
somehow perfect.

MALE FRIEND:
When's my birthday?

BOB: November 8th.

MALE FRIEND:
What's the year?

BOB: Sixty-eight.

MALE FRIEND: What day
of the week was it?

BOB: Friday.

MALE FRIEND: What were
you doing that day?

BOB: I was at a football
game watching Beaver Falls

play Oakville.

Beaver Falls got
beat, I think 28 to 7.

NARRATOR: Unbelievable
though it seems,

Bob remembers every detail of
every experience he's ever had.

FEMALE FRIEND: It's
a little unnerving.

BOB PETRELLA: Sometimes I
even amaze myself and I'll

remember mundane things
about when I got a haircut

or what I had for
lunch on a certain day.

A lot of people are like,
they look at you and just

totally amazed.

NARRATOR: But how
is this possible?

We all know our memory
is far from complete.

Words and names stick on
the tips of our tongues,

to say nothing of the
inconsequential details of

daily life.

MALE FRIEND: May 1st. Let's go
back May 1st. Ten years.

BOB: What was that?

Well May 1st, '91 I was
wrapping up a job at

Pacific State University.

That was a Tuesday and
that was the NFL draft.

Yeah, yeah, yeah and then
May 1st '81 I was house

sitting in Laurel Canyon for
this woman named Autumn Bond.

NARRATOR: Incredibly,
Bob's not the only person

with a perfect memory.

He is part of an
exclusive club.

Around twenty people
worldwide have what

scientists now call super
autobiographical memory -

the ability to remember every
single day of their lives.

BOB PETRELLA: Yeah,
the amazing part to me

sometimes is I can
remember something so

clearly and then I'll go wow,
that was forty-one years ago.

I'm not sure how it works.

It came natural to me.

WILLIAM SHATNER: A man
with a super memory that can

remember the tiniest detail
from every part of his life?

Now that's impressive.

But he's not the only one.

You see I've got some
tricks of the trade myself.

For instance I've
forgotten where I put my

phone and to stimulate my
memory I use another phone

to uh call it.

And then I listen and then
I simply head towards the

source of the sound and I
should find it in the last

place I was doing
something important.

Okay. I know it's in here.

No. Come on.
Yeah. No. Ah you see?

[phone rings]

It works every time.

Hello?

The ice cream is in
the refrigerator.

NARRATOR: So what explains
Bob Petrella's incredible gift?

Could the rest of us
have this super-power?

JAMES MCGAUGH: We all
have this capacity.

NARRATOR: A Californian
man has an incredible gift.

He's able to remember
every detail of

every day of his life.

Does he possess a
kind of super power?

GARY MARCUS: When I first
heard about um this idea

it didn't smell
right to me.

NARRATOR: Gary Marcus is
a cognitive scientist.

He believes people with
super memory might not

be so super after all.

GARY MARCUS: I think
what's really happening in

this syndrome is that
people are really spending

a lot of time studying
their own lives.

People might try to
remember the past

because they want to
hold on to it.

It's not necessarily
voluntary though.

Most of us if we're
interested in something

don't obsess over it.

I think one thing that
often happens in this

syndrome is people are
particularly interested

in the details of
their own lives.

NARRATOR: So is super memory
just a form of obsession?

To find out, Marcus spent
time with other people who

also claim they have it.

GARY MARCUS: I think that
people who have studied

this phenomena have
focused on what the people

who have the phenomena
are good at but with the

person that I tested that
had this kind of syndrome

I kind of focused on some
things that I thought they

might be bad at
and indeed were.

NARRATOR: When given
standard memory tests,

like recalling lists of
words, Marcus found people

with so-called super
memory did no better than

anyone else.

GARY MARCUS: The idea of
photographic memory is a

myth and there's no human
being that really has the

level of control over their
memory that a computer does.

People with superior
autobiographical memory

get really good at
memorizing the details of

their own lives but it doesn't
extend to everything.

If they're not interested
in it they're not gonna to

remember it.

NARRATOR: So has Bob
simply chosen to

obsessively memorize
his entire life?

Not everyone is convinced.

FEMALE FRIEND: See I
don't even remember this!

NARRATOR: Dr. James
McGaugh was the first

psychologist to
study super memory.

JAMES MCGAUGH: The most
surprising thing about

this ability to me is what
surprises everybody -

the fact that it can
be done at all.

NARRATOR: After
interviewing more than a

dozen people with super
memory, he's convinced

they are not
merely obsessive.

JAMES MCGAUGH: One of our
subjects made this very

clear when somebody
suggested that all that

she does is sit around and
re-rehearse all of her

information and she said
let me get this straight.

I have a full time job
and I have a life and I'm

supposed to be sitting
around re-rehearsing all

of those experiences.

Highly unlikely.

NARRATOR: McGaugh feels
that people like Bob are

a real phenomena with
memories way, way beyond

that of even
the best minds.

JAMES MCGAUGH: An average
person can learn to do

some memory tricks.

There are individuals who
have memorized the number

Pi out to 30,000 places.

But that type of ability
is restricted to that kind

of information.

People with superior
autobiographical memory

capture their daily
experiences and it doesn't

really make much
difference what kind of

information it is,
they just hold it.

NARRATOR: But if it's not
an obsession, how else

would they remember their
lives in such detail?

McGaugh is working on
an incredible theory.

JAMES MCGAUGH: One
possibility is that we all

store all this information
about all of our

experiences in our
brain someplace.

We all have this capacity
and they are able to tap

this capacity in
ways that we can't.

NARRATOR: But how come
people like Bob are able

to do this and the
rest of us can't?

JAMES MCGAUGH: We're
beginning to find that

there are some regions of
the brains of our subjects

who have this strong
memory that are larger

than the same regions in
control subjects of the

same age and sex.

NARRATOR: It's believed
part of the brain called

the caudate nuclei is
seven times larger in

people with super memory.

Could this somehow
explain Bob's gift?

JAMES MCGAUGH: If the
human brain is capable of

doing that, that tells us
that the human brain has

this amazing capacity.

There's something really
important here, something

unique and something
important.

NARRATOR: Do super
memorizers have turbo

charged brains?

Or is there another answer
to this mystery of the mind?

BOB: And I say okay and I
see the year and I see the

month and then it
cues in to the day.

NARRATOR: A man has
an amazing ability.

He can remember almost
every moment from every

day of his life.

But how?

Dr. Mary Spiller is a
psychologist at the

University of East London.

She believes super memory
could be explained by a

medical condition
called synesthesia.

MARY SPILLER: Synesthesia
is probably best thought

of as a crossing
of the senses.

So someone with
synesthesia, when they

hear music they may see
colours or when they hear

words they might
have tastes.

So for example, the word
tomorrow might taste like bacon.

The word computer might
taste like ice cream.

NARRATOR: It's an amazing
concept, but how could it

result in super memory?

Dr. Spiller believes
people like Bob may have a

rare form of the
condition, called

time-space synesthesia.

MARY SPILLER: People with
time-space synesthesia see time.

For example, someone may
think of the months of the

year as being located in a
circle around their body.

So January could be here
and then February, March,

April, May and so on
around their body and this

can work for
years as well.

NARRATOR: Could the
ability to see time allow

people to keep their
memories perfectly organized?

MARY SPILLER: So if you
ask the synesthete where

is this particular Monday
in 1978, they always know

where in space that moment
in time is, almost as if

they're looking it up
in a filing cabinet.

This gives people with
time-space synesthesia an

advantage when it comes
to remembering

when things happened.

NARRATOR: Sure enough,
when people with super

memory are asked to
remember an event,

they speak like they
are seeing it.

BOB: And I see
where May 1st is.

I see the year and I see
the month and then it cues

into the day.

NARRATOR: Could this be
proof that Bob and others with

super memory have some form
of time-space synesthesia?

MARY SPILLER: I think it's
definitely possible that

other individuals
with highly superior

autobiographical memory could
have time-space synesthesia.

Having a 3D sense of time
could potentially have

huge benefits for someone
when storing memories.

NARRATOR: Does the ability
to see time explain Bob's

near total recall?

Or is it because he has a
slightly different brain

than the rest of us?

Or, are people with super
memory such fans of their

own lives they can't stand
to forget a minute of it?

Weird or what?

[♪]

WILLIAM SHATNER: You know it was
mybirthday the other day.

As you can see I got some
really great presents.

The problem is with this
new fangled packaging,

it's a miracle if
you can get them out!

Hang on.

This should do the job.

Oh well at least
I got it open.

But do miracles, even
small ones, have a

rational explanation?

Or are they gifts from a
divine and superior power?

Or are they
something else?

NARRATOR: In 1993, Julie
Spohn was living a happy

life with her children
and husband Greg, but one

August night her life was
suddenly ripped apart.

GREG SPOHN: We were having
a dinner and suddenly

Julie sat down and I heard
a cracking sound like a

broken baseball bat and saw
her head fall to the table.

NARRATOR: In a horrible
freak accident, Julie had

smashed her head on a
shelf behind her seat.

GREG SPOHN: And that's the
last time I saw my wife

for many years as far
as the Julie I knew.

JULIE SPOHN: I'd fractured
the temporal bone in the

back of my head and which led
to a significant brain bleed.

NARRATOR: It's a
very serious injury.

In that moment, Julie's
world turned upside-down.

JULIE SPOHN: For the next
thirteen years to put it

bluntly my life
was pure hell.

I literally had headaches
every single day.

I had visual problems.

I couldn't walk.
I couldn't sleep.

NARRATOR: Julie visited
some of the best doctors

and specialists in the
world, but they were unanimous.

Julie's brain injury would
leave her in excruciating

pain for the
rest of her life.

JULIE SPOHN: I lived
at my lowest point.

Part of me was
terrified for my life.

NARRATOR: But then one
afternoon in 2008, Julie

sees a TV show featuring
a controversial faith healer.

Immediately she knows something
phenomenal is happening.

JULIE SPOHN: It was
just incredible.

I just had a really
distinct peace come about

me and I thought I really
want to go see this man.

NARRATOR: The faith healer
is Ohio-based

anesthesiologist
Dr. Issam Nemeh.

He claims to heal terminal
illnesses through prayer.

Two months after seeing
him on TV, Julie decides

to meet him.

JULIE SPOHN: And when
Dr. Nemeh walked in

I started feeling a great
deal of warmth in my lower

back and I'm automatically
thinking okay wait a minute.

What can be
happening already?

NARRATOR: Could the power
of Dr. Nemeh's prayer

really be having
an effect on Julie?

GREG SPOHN: The life came
back into her eyes that

had been gone for all
these years and I just saw

a total transformation in
all aspects of muscle tone

and colour and
warmth and just life.

It was really amazing.

NARRATOR: Incredibly,
Julie's pain is gone.

The headaches disappear.
Her vision comes back.

She can move
normally again.

JULIE SPOHN: And I said I
don't think I need this

cane anymore and I
proceeded to walk right

out to the car and get
in the car all by myself

which I couldn't
do before.

It was obvious something
major had happened.

NARRATOR: Her doctors
can't explain her

recovery, but Julie
has no doubts.

JULIE SPOHN: I definitely
feel like I received a miracle.

There's no other
explanation for it.

NARRATOR: But Julie
is far from alone.

Thousands claim that Nemeh's
prayers have healed them.

SLABY: The lord took the pain
from me, relieved me of it.

DELORES: I had my own
personal miracle.

NARRATOR: From cancer to
multiple sclerosis,

it appears no disease,
ailment or condition

is too powerful for
Nemeh's healing powers.

As word spreads, people
travel from all over the

world to attend
his services.

But what's happening
to people like Julie?

Are they really
experiencing miracles

at the hands of a
faith healer?

Or is their recovery an
incredible demonstration

of the power of the mind?

GILBERT ROSS: Is
it psychological?

Well of course it's
psychological.

NARRATOR: An Ohio doctor
claims to cure terminal

diseases through prayer.

Is he really a
miracle worker?

Gilbert Ross is the
medical director of the

American Council on
Science and Health.

Being a skeptic is
part of his job.

GILBERT ROSS: Merely
because the patient

undergoes a uh miraculous
recovery after seeing a

faith healer in no way
means that the faith healer

had any actual active role
in the, in the improvement.

NARRATOR: Ross has a more
rational explanation.

He believes the power of
healing comes from the

extraordinary power
of the human mind.

GILBERT ROSS: The
successful faith healing

is entirely the result
of the placebo effect.

It's purely dependent upon
the patient's belief that

the faith healing
is effective.

NARRATOR: The placebo
effect is a recognized

medical phenomenon.

People who believe they are
getting treated get better.

Incredibly, in some
clinical trials,

placebos have proven more
effective than surgery.

GILBERT ROSS: If you give
the patient a jar of sugar

pills and you encourage
them to believe that it's a,

some sort of medication
that will help them,

you can provoke a placebo
response, which may have

some actual
beneficial effect.

NARRATOR: Nobody knows
exactly how it is that

placebos can be so
powerful, but it's

accepted that the mind has
awesome healing abilities

and that just believing in
a cure is a powerful medicine.

GILBERT ROSS: The placebo
effect is real in that a

certain percentage of
patients will feel better

just from the
intervention.

Is it psychological?

Well of course it's
psychological if you're

not administering an
active ingredient but that

doesn't mean that it's not
real and it, it doesn't

mean that it's not
biochemical or

physiological either.

NARRATOR: So can this
phenomena explain

Dr. Nemeh's success?

Could faith healing be a
placebo that cures only

because people believe?

GILBERT ROSS: Patients who
have strong beliefs and

spirituality including
religion would be more

receptive to all sorts of
placebo effects including

faith healing.

It has to do with some
kind of ritual and the

patient's sincere belief
that what they're going

through with the faith
healer is going to help them.

NARRATOR: Can the success
stories of faith healers

like Dr. Nemeh be explained
by medical mind over matter?

TRAPPERJACK KELLER: If
this was just placebo

effect, if it was just
temporary you would find a

handful of stories.

You don't. You have hundreds,
you have thousands.

NARRATOR: Christian radio
host Trapperjack Keller

has no doubt that Dr.
Nemeh is performing

bona fide miracles, something
he's witnessed first hand.

TRAPPERJACK KELLER: I have
retinitis pigmentosa.

I'm legally blind.

It's a degenerative
retinal disease but twice

in the eleven years
I've known Dr. Nemeh my

vision's been
fully restored.

Both amazing dramatic
moments that certainly got

my attention.

NARRATOR: But how can
someone perform these cures?

Where does Dr. Nemeh's
healing power come from?

TRAPPERJACK KELLER: He's
not doing the healing.

He takes no credit for it.

God does it all but he
gets to be the spectator.

He gets to
watch it happen.

He's the connector.

NARRATOR: So how
does it work?

What does Dr. Nemeh
do at his services?

TRAPPERJACK KELLER:
Something happens and it

happens over and over again,
thousands of times over.

I've seen people with MS,
I've seen people with

blindness, people who've
been told they're going to

die of cancer suddenly
literally in the blink of

an eye the tumour is gone.

NARRATOR: For Keller,
Dr. Nemeh's healings are

part of a tradition as old
as Christianity itself.

TRAPPERJACK KELLER: The
healing stories are

written about
in the Bible.

You know, you take it back
to Jesus time and then the

apostles were healing and
you realize that it's

always been there.

Absolutely.

There are so many stories
about miraculous healings

from the apostles.

Nothing's changed,
nothing's changed.

NARRATOR: But
why Dr. Nemeh?

Why is it that he has the
gift and not anyone else?

TRAPPERJACK KELLER: I
believe Dr. Nemeh was put

on this earth to help
people find their way to

God, and God gave him an
extra portion of faith and

that faith is being
utilized beautifully.

Miracles are happening
to get your attention.

WILLIAM SHATNER: This
is an incredible story.

But is it just
that, a story?

Do faith healers hold the
power to heal the sick or

the dying in the
palm of their hands?

Do they possess something
that science cannot

identify, something
beyond this world?

Or are they less
than angels?

NARRATOR: Is Dr. Nemeh
performing modern day miracles?

Should we take faith
healers seriously?

TERENCE HINES: Faith
healers are either knowing

or unconscious frauds.

NARRATOR: Thousands of
seriously ill people

report being cured at the
hands of a faith healer.

Some say it's a miracle.

Others think it's all simply
the power of suggestion.

TERENCE HINES: Faith
healers are either knowing

or unconscious frauds,
that they use various

conscious tricks to lead
people to believe that

they've been healed when
they have not been healed.

NARRATOR: Terence Hines is
a professor of psychology

at Pace University,
New York.

He takes a rational
approach to Dr. Nemeh's

success stories.

TERENCE HINES: The
patient's own belief that

they're going to be cured
I think certainly plays a role.

Getting people excited so
that they won't feel pain

through perhaps endorphin
release is another trick.

Endorphins are the body's
natural painkillers.

They're released under,
under situations of high

stress and arousal.

So the patient will in
fact believe, incorrectly,

that they've been cured.

NARRATOR: Hines has
spent time undercover

investigating
faith healers.

He found that in some cases
they relied on trickery.

TERENCE HINES: We went
undercover at a faith

healing meeting held in
Brooklyn, New York and

about halfway through the
healing session an elderly

gentleman was, was brought
up onstage in a wheelchair.

The faith healer laid his
hands on this gentleman in

the wheelchair and
bade him walk and this

gentleman got out of his
wheelchair, walked up and

down the stage to
great applause.

It was a miracle.

But, in fact, one of the
other members of the team

had noticed this gentleman
walk into the meeting hall

under his own power
earlier in the performance.

As he neared the stage,
one of the faith healer's

assistants walked up to
him and said sir, would

you like a wheelchair?

So this gentleman sits
in the wheelchair.

Forty-five minutes later,
he finds himself brought

up onstage and
asked to walk.

Well he can walk.

That's how a miracle
is performed.

NARRATOR: But why would
some faith healers set out

to dupe people?

According to Hines,
it's a profitable game.

TERENCE HINES: All faith
healers that I've come

across don't charge admission
to their, to their services.

It's free.

Uh but at the, during the
service they certainly ask

for donations.

At the faith healing
meeting I went to, I

became a volunteer
usher and I was given a

collection bucket, ye big,
and I thought, they're

crazy if they're gonna
to get this thing filled

with, with money.

I was the crazy one.

I was pushing the fifty,
hundred dollar bills and

twenty dollar bills
down into the bucket.

I think I probably cleared
about 6,000 dollars.

Now there were
twelve ushers.

Twelve times six is 72,000
dollars taken out of that

community in one night.

I would call it a
license to steal.

NARRATOR: Hines believes
it's easy to hoodwink

people into believing
they've been cured.

To prove it, he set up a
demonstration of the power

of suggestion.

TERENCE HINES: So we have
an actor who will play a

doctor, a healer, and one
of the gimmicks that he

has is a neurostimulator.

The patient will be told
this will reduce their pain.

NARRATOR: In fact, the
neurostimulator is

a classic placebo - a
prop that does nothing.

TERENCE HINES: And what we
expect to find is that a number

of people, not everybody,
but a number of people

will say my God, my pain's
really gone, I can feel that.

NARRATOR: The first
volunteer reports a pain

in her ankle.

Our fake doctor assures
her he can help.

DOCTOR: So I'm
gonna turn it on.

I want you to keep
breathing and when I turn

it on you're gonna feel
the energy coming out

through your head, okay?

Here we go.

Do you feel the difference
that this is making already?

WOMAN: Yeah it
feels, it's relaxing.

DOCTOR: Phenomenal.
Look at that.

She's moving it
all ready, right?

WOMAN: Yeah.

WOMAN: I didn't see how it
would work but actually

like I had a pain like
right at the top of my

foot and now - I couldn't
even like bend it but now

it seems to be better.

Like I can move it.

It doesn't hurt
as bad anymore.

NARRATOR: Hines' theory
seems to prove correct as

volunteer after volunteer
are easily deceived by the

fake doctor, so much so he
feels it might have been

a profitable day.

TERENCE HINES: The people
who, who reported a

positive change probably
would've given a donation.

Not a huge amount because
again they didn't come

prepared for that.

But yes, I suspect a
donation could've been

wrung from them.

NARRATOR: So are faith
healers conmen who prey on

the weak and vulnerable?

Or can healers like
Dr. Nemeh channel

science-defying miracles
into ailing bodies?

Or is it simply that our
own minds are so medically

potent that people like
Julie can heal themselves

with the power of belief?

Weird or what?

[♪]

NARRATOR: So there we
have it, three stories

exploring the untapped
power of the human mind.

A woman's paranormal
vision helps solve a murder.

Can horrific crimes be
solved by psychic powers?

A Californian man can
remember nearly every

moment from every
day of his life.

Can we all one day
have total recall?

And a faith healer cures
terminal illnesses

through prayer.

Is it a modern day
miracle, or an awesome

demonstration of
mind over matter?

You decide.

WILLIAM SHATNER: Join me
again next time for more

stories that will
undoubtedly be

weird or what?

[♪]