PREHISTORY

In the 1970s, when I worked as mechanical engineer in Leningrad, USSR, and had written my PhD dissertation in the field of physical chemistry, I was introduced to what was called “psychic healing.” I saw a movie about Filipino “psychic surgeons” privately brought and shown at the Academic Institute of Neurophysiology. I didn’t think about how it might have been faked – I thought What if this is true? Science progresses through paradoxical observations.

Thus, when in 1985 in Dallas, TX, I had an opportunity to join a group of 50 Americans traveling to Mazatlan, Mexico, to be treated by a Filipino psychic healer, Romy Bugarin, I jumped on the wagon. Results of his treatment were remarkable and, as he promised, they manifested in around two months. Symptoms of my cardiovascular problems, that my cardiologist advised treating by bypass surgery, disappeared for the ensuing six years.

During my trip to the Philippines in 1988 I have seen many local people coming to the healers for treatment – they wouldn’t come if it didn’t help. There where many foreigners as well.. A year later I sent a letter to Maximo U. Grullon E., President of an Insurance company in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, who was treated by Marcelo Jainar in my presence for pancreatic cancer. Frankly speaking, I expected a sad response from his wife but I received a letter from him, part of which is cited below.

“…I have discussed my unexpected good health with Dr. Coit [Dr. Daniel Coit, Memorial Sloan, Kettering Cancer Center, N.Y., NY] and have requested that he may certify the miracle but he says that he will do it when I complete 5 years after the operation.”

This is what led me to believe that a serious scientific study of the phenomenon would benefit mankind.