All language subtitles for Weird or What S01E09 1080p AMZN WEB-DL DD+2 0 x264-Absinth_track3_[eng]

(quiet music)

- 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, 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.

Does the human mind possess powers

beyond our comprehension?

A housewife's psychic vision

helps crack a major murder case.

- I never wanted to be
so wrong in my life.

- [Voiceover] Can crimes be
solved with psychic power?

A California man remembers every moment

from every day of his life.

- I can remember something so clearly

and then I go, "Wow,
that was 41 years ago."

- [Voiceover] 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?

- If this was just placebo
effect you would find

a handful of stories.

You don't, you have thousands.

- Yeah! It's a weird world.

And I love it.

(dramatic music)

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 are some facts for you.

Did you know that it can process

over 70,000 thoughts a day?

- [Voiceover] This is
actually a cow brain,

so it's more like seven thoughts.

- Or that it has over 10,000
miles of blood vessels?

- [Voiceover] Could you
put it back, please?

I need that.

- Or that it doesn't feel pain?

- [Voiceover] Ouch, that hurts.

- But these amazing abilities are really

only the tip of the iceberg.

Big question is, what don't we know

about this incredible stuff?

What else can it do?

(laughs) This is so great!

Your brain generates between
10 and 23 watts of power,

enough energy to power a light bulb.

Impressive, huh?

- [Voiceover] This is pathetic!

- Weird or what?

1980, Los Angeles, California.

A massive police search grips the small

suburban community of
local housewife Etta Smith.

- I think we were a little
edgy because having things

like that happen wasn't
the everyday practice.

- 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.

- 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
"a house-to-house search"

everything went haywire.

(woman screams)

It was like I was seeing a movie.

I began to see this area.

I saw trail, I saw a dirt path,

I saw something white through the bushes,

and I knew where it was.

- [Voiceover] 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.

- 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?

- [Voiceover] 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.

- 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."

- [Voiceover] Fighting her fear,
Etta follows her instincts.

- 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 is,
"Run, get out of here.

"Get to the police."

(sirens)

- [Voiceover] 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.

- It was shocking.

I cried till I couldn't cry any more.

They strip-searched me, put me in a cell

by myself.

It was a nightmare.

- [Voiceover] 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.

(gavel knocks)

But even now Etta struggles

to make sense of the whole thing.

- 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 don't know.

It's one of those mysteries.

- [Voiceover] 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?

- I'd say there are two kinds of psychics.

Those who have no psychic
ability but believe they do.

We call them "fantasizers."

The other type also
has no psychic ability,

they know they don't, and
we call them "charlatans."

- [Voiceover] Joe Nickell
researches paranormal claims.

He believes there's no such
thing as psychic vision

or extrasensory perception.

- 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.

- [Voiceover] But if psychic
ability doesn't exist,

how do psychic detectives
achieve such amazing results?

- 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,

a 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.

The number seven?

Seven miles out of town, or
the sheriff's license plate

has two sevens in the number, or--

It's silly stuff.

It doesn't help the police find the body,

but it helps them later rationalize that

somehow people have visions
of a mystical nature.

- [Voiceover] Did Etta Smith
just make a lucky guess?

- It's not so simple
that everyone who claims

to be a psychic is a simple fraud.

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.

And driven unsuspecting
people into the clutches

of fortune tellers and other
people who are engaging

in magical thinking, rather
than rational thinking.

What we need to do in our
society is use the organ

above the neck, that's
able to analyze evidence

and make rational judgements,

not to have feelings and
intuitions and so forth

that don't pan out.

- I see a long life.

Full of riches and a man named 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?

Are psychics real?

How did Etta Smith help solve a murder?

- Etta definitely had a psychic vision.

She had a clairvoyant vision.

- [Voiceover] A Los
Angeles woman has a strange

and sudden vision which
helps police solve a murder.

(camera snaps)

Was it a genuine psychic phenomenon?

Popular psychic Tana Hoy thinks so.

- 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.

- [Voiceover] 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.

- A person can hear a word,
a phrase, and it will awaken

a psychic memory or a psychic
vision within that person.

(newscast in background)

She's wakened 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.

Clairvoyance comes from the French word,

and it means "clear seeing."

And she had visions inside her head

that she could clearly see,
so that would be definitely

considered a psychic experience.

I also would like to say,
everybody is psychic.

Some people have learned to develop it

and tap into it, and others haven't.

Businessmen often talk
about having hunches.

Very common, talk to a
businessman, a stockbroker,

some kind of investor.

He'll say, "Oh, I just had a hunch."

Of a businessman will say,
"Well, I didn't hire that person.

"I just had a gut
feeling it wasn't right."

Women talk about their intuition.

"I just had an intuitive
feeling that this was gonna

"be like this," or, "I
had a sense that person

"wasn't telling me the truth."

Have you ever felt someone was lying

or has a sense about something, or felt

somebody wasn't a good
person, or you could

trust that person, or you
couldn't trust that person?

You had a psychic experience.

We just don't call them psychic feelings,

but anything that you're able to know,

sense, or feel outside of
your normal five senses

is psychic in nature.

- [Voiceover] But if
Etta's vision was for real,

why didn't the police believe her?

- 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.

- [Voiceover] So given
their remarkable successes

should detectives add
psychics to the force?

- 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.

- [Voiceover] But did Etta
Smith really see something

with her mind?

Psychology Professor Tim Moore thinks not.

- 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.

- [Voiceover] Moore
believes something in Etta's

unconscious memory
triggered what she thought

was a psychic vision.

Psychologists call it
"source misattribution."

- 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.

- [Voiceover] Etta Smith
wasn't the killer, so how could

she have any idea where the body was?

- My understanding is
that the actual culprits

were blabbermouths and they
talked about what they had done

in their neighborhood,
which was her neighborhood.

- [Voiceover] Could Etta's
psychic vision be mistaken

for random information she
had nothing to do with?

- If Etta's not concentrating
on the information at the time

that she's hearing it,
because that'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.

- [Voiceover] But how
could Etta have known

the exact location of the
body, the precise road

in the right canyon?

- 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.

That's not a stretch.

- [Voiceover] 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, the
story's most definitely weird.

Or what?

(dramatic music)

You know, the human
brain has been evolving

for uh, uh, hold it, uh ...

Wait, how long has it been evolving?

- [Man] Two point five million years.

- [Woman] 903 B, take two, marker.

(claps)

- [Man] Action.

- 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 ...

Wow, damn--

- [Woman] 903 B, take three, marker.

(claps)

- [Man] And action.

- 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 our memory.

- (Man and woman cheer)

Oh, come on!

Where are my keys?

In the ...

Oh, wow!

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.

- The reaction kind of varies.

A lot of people are amazed,
a lot of people call

it a phenomenon, a strange and unusual ...

- [Voiceover] Even old
friends are still shocked

when they see Bob's power on display.

- [Woman] Ah, very good, very good.

- May 18th, 1980.

- Oh, that's Mount St. Helen's.

- Nerve gas attach in Tokyo subway?

- March 20th, '95.

- Correct.

- Princess Diana's wedding.

- July 29th, '81.

It was a Wednesday.

- [Voiceover] 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.

- I threw a bowl of soup on the ceiling.

(all laugh)

On March 13th, '75 I got--

Sometimes they think you're lying,

they think you're making it up.

- [Voiceover] But every
fact Bob pulls from his mind

is correct.

His memory is somehow perfect.

- When's my birthday?

- November 8th.

- What's the year?

'68.

- What day of the week was it?

- Friday.

- What were you doing that day?

- I was at a football
game watching Beaver Falls

fight Hopewell.

Beaver Falls got beat, I think 28/7.

- Bob is the best friend to have.

(Bob laughs)

He always remembers your
birthday, he remembers

your anniversary.

You also remember stuff that we did

that I completely forgot.

We've been working for a long time

and then he'll call me up and,

"Ten years ago, Nancy, we were on a plane

"to New York to do this story."

And I'm like, "Ten years ago,
yeah, we were, weren't we?"

- Well, usually anniversaries,
I'll do it for that.

If it's, you know, "By
the way, November 8th,

"November 2nd, July 11th."

(all laugh)

- Very good, very good.

So it is cool having you
as a friend, but it's not

something that's always in your face.

I mean, you're very
stealth about your ability.

- Well, that's not my experience,

'cause I watch football
with him, so everytime

we watch a game he'll
say, "Remember that game

"three years ago when someone said this?"

I'm just like, "I don't
remember yesterday,

"like, what are you talking about?"

His ability to remember detail from games

and things that happened in
games, I just realize ...

And because I just
think of you as a buddy,

I think, "God, my memory's terrible!

"I don't remember that
at all, how come I don't

"remember that?"

- [Voiceover] Unbelievable
though it seems, Bob remembers

every detail of every
experience he's ever had.

- It's a little unnerving.

- Sometimes I even amaze
myself when I 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 me and

just totally amazed.

- [Voiceover] 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.

- May 1st, let's go back May 1st.

Ten years.

- Where was I?

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, that's usually
gonna be around draft day.

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

in Laurel Canyon for this
woman named Autumn Brown.

May 1st, '71, was a Saturday,
and I was back east visiting.

I went out drinking for the first time

as a 21 year old in a bar.

It was a Saturday, you know, and they--

And I was-- "Let's see your ID."

"Yeah, here it is, pal, I'm 21."

It was like only three days
after my 21st birthday.

- [Voiceover] Incredibly,
Bob's not the only person

with a perfect memory.

He is part of an exclusive club.

Around 20 people worldwide
have what scientists now call

"superautobiographical memory,"
the ability to remember

every single day of their lives.

- Yeah, the amazing part to
me sometimes is I can remember

something so clearly, and
then I go, "Wow, that was

"41 years ago."

I'm not sure how it works.

It came natural to me.

- 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 call it.

And then I listen--

(phone rings)

And then I simply head towards
the source of the sound,

and I should find it in the last place

I was going something important.

Okay, I know it's in here, no.

(phone continues ringing)

Come on.

No.

Ahh!

You see!

It works every time!

Hello?

The ice cream is in the refrigerator.

So what explains Bob
Petrella's incredible gift?

Could the rest of us have this superpower?

- We all have this capacity.

- [Voiceover] California
man has an incredible gift.

He is able to remember every detail

of every day of his life.

Does he possess a kind of superpower?

- When I first heard about this idea

it didn't smell right to me.

- [Voiceover] Gary Marcus
is a cognitive scientist.

He believes people with super memory

might not be so super after all.

- 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.

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.

Not everybody is.

I think my life is interesting,
but not so interesting

that I spend a lot of time thinking about

what happened to me in the past.

I'm usually focused on
what's going to happen next

rather than what happened in the past.

But some people are
particularly interested.

Just like people might be
interested in genealogy,

or some people are
interested in sports facts

because they like sports.

When I was a kid I paid a lot of attention

to baseball statistics,
because that's what I liked.

Everybody has different
things that they like,

and some of us spend more time than others

trying to actually remember those things.

- [Voiceover] So is supermemory
just a form of obsession?

To find out, Marcus spent
time with other people

who also claim they have it.

- I think that people who
have studied this phenomenon

have focused on what the
people who have the phenomenon

are good at.

But with the person that I
tested that had this kind

of syndrome, I focused on some things

that I thought they might be bad at,

and indeed were.

- [Voiceover] When given
standard memory tests

like recalling lists of
words, Marcus found people

with so-called "supermemory"
did no better than anyone else.

I think we as a species are
worried that we're being

replaced by machines.

And probably worried
with good reason, because

machines do have better memories.

So when you find a person
that at least looks

a little bit like they have
memory as good as a machine,

maybe it makes us feel
better about ourselves.

The reality is, in the
long term, no human's ever

gonna match the memory of a machine.

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.

They're not interested it,
they're not gonna remember it.

- [Voiceover] So has Bob
simply chosen to obsessively

memorize his entire life?

Not everyone is convinced.

Dr. James McGaugh was
the first psychologist

to study super memory.

- The most surprising
thing about this ability

to me is what surprises everybody.

The fact that it can be done at all.

If I should ask anybody
what they did yesterday

then most people could
run through the day,

yesterday, pretty easily,
and even the day before.

They think about it, they can run through.

And that is not unlike what these people

are able to do, except they can do it

for every day of their life.

So the question is, why
is it that these subjects

can do it for all days, and
the rest of it can only do

for one or two days with any reliability

aside from remembering special
days and special events

because we all remember
birthdays and weddings

and funerals and automobile accidents,

and things of that kind.

- [Voiceover] After interviewing
more than a dozen people

with super memory, he's convinced

they're not merely obsessive.

- One of our subjects
made this very clear.

When somebody suggests
that all that she does is

sit around and re-rehearse
all of her information,

and she says, "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."

- [Voiceover] McGaugh
feels that people like Bob

are a real phenomena
with memories way, way

beyond that of even the best minds.

- An average person can learn to do some

memory tricks, and 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.

- [Voiceover] But if
it's not an obsession.

How else would they remember
their lives in such detail?

McGaugh is working on
an incredible theory.

- One possibility is that we
all store all this information

about all 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.

- [Voiceover] But how come people like Bob

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

- 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.

- [Voiceover] 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?

- 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.

- [Voiceover] Do super memorizers
have turbo-charged brains,

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

- And I see the year, and I see the month,

and then it cues in--

- [Voiceover] 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.

- Synesthesia is probably
best thought of as

a crossing of the senses.

So, someone with synesthesia,
when they hear music

they may see colors,
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.

The letter "f" might be a bright
pink color, the number "5"

could be a blue color.

And we think that it's probably
a hereditary condition,

so people with synesthesia typically--

other members of the family
might also have synesthesia.

Their father, their
grandmother might have it.

Research is currently
looking to see what genes

are associated with synesthesia.

- [Voiceover] 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."

- 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.

- [Voiceover] Could the ability
to see time allow people

to keep their memories
perfectly organized?

- If you asked a 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.

- [Voiceover] Sure enough,
when people with super memory

are asked to remember an
event, they speak like they're

seeing it.

- When I see where May 1st is,
I see the year, and I see the

months, and then it cues into
the day, and I say okay--

- [Voiceover] Could this be
proof that Bob and others

with super memory have some
sort of time-space synesthesia?

- I think it's definitely
possible that other individuals

with highly superior
autobiographical memory

could have time-space synesthesia.

Having a 3-D sense of time
could potentially have

huge benefits for someone
when storing memories.

- [Voiceover] Does the ability
to see time explain Bob's

near-total recall, or is it
because he has a slightly

different brain from 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?

You know, it was my
birthday the other day.

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.

(engine starts)

This should do the job!

(saw buzzes)

Yeah!

Oh, well, at least I got it open.

(jazz music)

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?

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.

- We were having 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.

- [Voiceover] In a horrible
freak accident, Julie had

smashed her head on a
shelf behind her seat.

- And that's the last time I
saw my wife for many years,

as far as the Julie I knew.

- I'd fractured the temporal
bone in the back of my head,

which led to a significant brain bleed.

- [Voiceover] It's a very serious injury.

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

- For the next 13 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.

- [Voiceover] 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.

- I lived at my lowest point.

Part of me was terrified for my life.

- [Voiceover] Then one
afternoon in 2008 Julie sees

a tv show featuring a
controversial faith healer.

Immediately she knows something phenomenal

is happening.

- 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."

- [Voiceover] 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.

- And when Dr. Nemeh walked
in, I started feeling

a great deal of warmth in my lower back,

(laughs) and I'm automatically thinking,

"Okay, wait a minute, what
can be happening already?"

- [Voiceover] Could the
power of Dr. Nemeh's prayer

really be having an effect on Julie?

- The life came back into
her eyes that had gone

for all these years.

I just saw a total
transformation in all aspects

of muscle tone, and color,
and warmth, and just life.

It was really amazing.

- [Voiceover] Incredibly,
Julie's pain is gone.

The headaches disappear,
her vision comes back.

She can move normally again.

- 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.

- [Voiceover] Her doctors
can't explain her recovery,

but Julie has no doubts.

- I definitely feel like
I received a miracle.

There is no other explanation for it.

- [Voiceover] But Julie is far from alone.

Thousands claim that Nemeh's
prayers have healed them.

- The Lord took the pain
from me, relieved me of it.

- I had my own personal miracle.

- [Voiceover] From cancer,
to multiple sclerosis,

it appears no disease
or 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
there recovery an incredible

demonstration of the power of the mind?

- Is it psychological?

Well, of course, It's psychological.

- [Voiceover] 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.

- Merely because a patient
undergoes a miraculous

recovery after seeing a
faith healer, in no way means

that the faith healer
had any actual active

role in the improvement.

- [Voiceover] Ross has a
more rational explanation.

He believes the power of healing comes

from the extraordinary
power of the human mind.

- 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.

- [Voiceover] 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.

- If you give the patient
a jar of sugar pills

and you encourage them to believe that

it's some sort of medication
that will help them,

you can provoke a placebo
response, which may have

some actual beneficial effect.

Also, you'll be avoiding any
potential for side effects

or complications from
giving the patient any sort

of active medication.

Now, the downside of that,
and there's a very strong case

to be made, is that this is unethical.

That a doctor who gives
a patient a medication,

including a sugar pill as a
placebo, knowing that it's

inactive, and yet not
telling the patient that,

is lying to the patient.

And whatever the good
intentions of that act are,

it's unethical on its face.

- [Voiceover] 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.

- 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 doesn't

mean that it's not biochemical
or physiological either.

The psyche is an extremely powerful force,

and the brain does indeed manufacture

neurohumerol factors that come into play

in the body's metabolism.

This is well-known.

The anti-depressant pills,
the selective serotonin

reuptake inhibitors
act on brain chemicals,

so we know very well that
mood, and affect, and behavior,

are, to some extent, chemical based.

So why shouldn't a
psychological factor generate

chemicals that also help
patients to feel better?

- [Voiceover] So can
this phenomena explain

Dr. Nemeh's success?

Could faith healing be
a placebo that cures

only because people believe?

- Patients who have strong beliefs

in 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.

- [Voiceover] Can the success
stories of faith healers

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

- 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.

- [Voiceover] Christian radio
host Trapper Jack Keller

has no doubt that Dr. Nemeh is performing

bona fide miracles, something
he's witnessed firsthand.

- I have retinitis pigmentosa
and I'm legally blind.

It's a degenerative retinal disease.

But twice in the 11
years I've know Dr. Nemeh

my vision's been fully restored.

Both amazing, dramatic
moments that certainly

got my attention.

I haven't been able to see
in the dark since I was 13.

And I get up at 2:30 in the
morning to do my radio show

and I actually woke up
before my alarm went off,

and I get up and I just suddenly realize

I can see everything.

I can see the dresser, I see
the chair, I see the table,

the lamp, the fan, I can see everything.

And I'm looking for the light source.

It's pitch black,
where's the light source?

And there was no light source.

It lasted about 60 seconds.

And then the blackness came back.

But for me a beautiful
sign of things to come.

And it's my belief that it will come back

when it most serves God.

- [Voiceover] But how can
someone perform these cures?

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

- 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.

- [Voiceover] So how does it work?

What does Dr. Nemeh do at his services?

- 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 gonna die of cancer,

suddenly, literally,
in the blink of an eye,

the tumor's gone.

- [Voiceover] For Keller,
Dr. Nemeh's healings are part

of a tradition as old
as Christianity itself.

- The healing stories are
written about in the Bible.

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.

- [Voiceover] But why Dr. Nemeh?

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

- I believe Dr. Nemeh was
put on this earth to help

people find their way to God,

and God gave him that
extra portion of faith.

And that faith is being
utilized beautifully.

Miracles are happening
to get your attention.

- 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?

Is Dr. Nemeh performing
modern-day miracles?

Should we take faith healers seriously?

- Faith healers are either knowing

or unconscious frauds.

- [Voiceover] 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.

- Faith healers are either knowing

or unconscious frauds,

but they use various conscious
tricks to lead people

to believe that they've been healed

when they have not been healed.

- [Voiceover] Terence Hines is a professor

of psychology at Pace
University, New York.

He takes a rational
approach to Dr. Nemeh's

success stories.

- The patient's own belief
that they're going to 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 pain killers.

They're released under
situations of high stress

and arousal, so the patient
will in fact believe,

incorrectly, that they've been cured.

Hines has spent time undercover
investigating faith healers.

He found that in some cases
they relied on trickery.

We went undercover at
a faith healing meeting

held in Brooklyn, New York.

And about halfway through
the healing session

an elderly gentleman
was brought up on stage

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 healers

assistants walked up to him and said,

"Sir, would you like a wheelchair?"

So this gentleman sits in the wheelchair,

45 minutes later he
finds himself brought up

onstage and asked to walk.

Well, he can walk!

And he doesn't have the
power to grab the microphone

from the healer and say,

"Well, but I walked in here by myself."

That's a miracle as performed.

At the end of the meeting the faith healer

did something that I find reprehensible.

He said, "Even if you
haven't been called up

"tonight, you're all cured. You go home,

"you throw away that medicine.

"You don't need your insulin any more.

"You don't need that heart medicine.

"You've been cured by Dr. Jesus!

"Throw that medicine away!"

That's disgraceful.

- [ Voiceover] But why would
some faith healers set out

to dupe people.

According to Hines it's a profitable game.

- All faith healers that I've come across

don't charge admission to their services.

It's free.

But 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.

Yea big.

And I thought, "They're
crazy if they're gonna

"get this thing filled with money."

I was the crazy one.

I was pushing the 50, 100 dollar bills

and 20 dollar bills down into the bucket.

I think I probably cleared
about 6,000 dollars.

Now there were 12 ushers.

12 times 6 is 72,000 dollars taken out

of that community in one night.

I could call it a license to steal.

Because, at least in the United States,

since they are a religious
entity, they are exempt

from any and all taxes,
so there's no income tax

on this money.

So, yes, it's a license to steal.

And, at least in the United
States, they are probably

not, in fact, doing anything illegal.

I'm not sure I could, not being a lawyer,

could draft a law that
would be Constitutional,

and make it illegal.

- [Voiceover] Hines believes
it's easy to hoodwink people

into believing they've been cured.

To prove it, he's set up a demonstration

of the power of suggestion.

- So we have an actor
who will play a doctor,

a healer, and one of
the gimmicks that he has

is a neural stimulator.

The patient will be told
this will reduce their pain.

- [Voiceover] In fact, the
neurostimulator is a classic

placebo, a prop that does nothing.

- 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."

- [Voiceover] The first
volunteer reports a pain

in her ankle.

Our fake doctor assures her he can help.

- 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?

- Yeah, it feels-- it's relaxing.

- Phenomenal, look at that!

She's moving it already, right?

- Yeah, I didn't see how it would work,

but actually I had a pain
right at the top of my foot,

and I couldn't even bend
it, but now it seems

to be better.

I can move it, it doesn't
hurt as bad any more.

- [Voiceover] Hine's theory
seems to prove correct

as volunteer after volunteer
are easily decieved

by the fake doctor.

So much so, he feels it might
have been a profitable day.

- The people who reported
a positive change

probably would have given a donation.

Not a huge amount,
because they didn't come

prepared for that, but, yes.

I suspect a donation could
have been wrung from them.

- [Voiceover] So, are faith
healers con men 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?

(dramatic music)

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.

Join me again next time for more stories

that will undoubtedly be weird or what.

(dramatic music)