Ze Arigo and the Rusty Knife

Destiny McMickel

                   

Psychic surgery is a procedure that usually involves an incision using bare hands or kitchen utensils, the removal of pathological matter and the immediate healing of the incision. It is popular in countries like Brazil and the Philippines. Although the procedures are medically fraud, it has helped to cure a variety of illnesses such as tumors, blindness and depression. In the 1950’s, a man named José Pedro de Freitas from Minas Gerais, Brazil was presumed to be possessed. These possessions led him to perform illegal psychic surgeries. This man was better known as Ze Arigo, but today people know him as the Surgeon of the Rusty Knife. Ze Arigo was born into a poor family in the early 1920’s. He left school in the third grade and began working in a mine at the age of 14. With lack of education, it was likely he would work at the mine for the rest of his life.

At the age of 30, Ze Arigo began to suffer from insomnia, trances, hallucinations, and headaches. During one these many hallucinations, Ze Arigo claimed to channel an entity that was a bald man in a doctor’s coat in an operating room. The spirit identified himself as Dr.Fritz and told Ze Arigio he was a German surgeon who died during WW1. Dr. Fritz possessed Ze Arigo and guided him through the psychic surgeries he performed to cure thousands of people in Brazil. He gained a lot of popularity for these surgeries. People were amazed how he would only use unclean kitchen utensils or his hands and how the patients didn’t experience any pain. Ze Arigo opened up a small clinic providing his services free at charge to politicians, lawyers, scientists, aristocrats, and peasant poor people. Paranormal website editor and experiencer Deena Budd states in her article “Psychic Healer Ze Arigo” that Arigo was able to write prescriptions for medication in modern pharmacology, confirm diagnoses or blood pressure readings without even examining his patients.
 
Ze Arigo was eventually persecuted by the government for illegal practice of medicine.  After being sentenced to 15 months in prison the president pardoned Arigio and he was set free. The government weren’t the only people to persecute Ze Arigo, he was also persecuted by the church according this article “Arigo–The Surgeon with the Rusty Knife.” The church accused Ze Arigo of being a witch doctor and accused him of practicing witch craft. I understand the government’s reason for persecuting Ze Arigo, but I am still lost as to why the church would go persecute him. Ze Arigo continued to conduct these psychic surgeries up until his death in 1971 due to a horrific car accident.





Works Citied:
Grodon1. “Arigo: Brazil's Surgeon of the Rusty Knife.” Online Video Clip. YouTube. YouTube, 20 Jan.2013. Web. 19 Oct.2015.

Nicholson, Andrew. “Ze Arigio: Psychic Surgery with a Rusty Knife. MysteriousUniverse. Mysterious Universe. 22 January 2013.Web. 19 Oct. 2015

Budd, Deena. “Psychic Healer Ze Arigo.” Bellaonline. Minerva Webworks LLC. N.D. Web. 19 Oct. 2015.
PreciousMedia. “5 Psychic Surgeons.” K.O. Jewel. N.P. 3 May, 2013. Web. 19 Oct. 2015

Krishna. “Arigo–The Surgeon with the Rusty Knife.” UnexplainedMysteries. UnexplainedMysteries.11 July, 2012. Web. 19 Oct. 2015.

Other Websites for Further Research:

http://www.anomalist.com/reports/healing.html
This link gives information on Dr.Fritz, the man who was supposedly possessing Ze Arigo by guiding him through the psychic surgeries that were performed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aS0jAhbGP1E
This video above shows Ze Arigo in action performing the surgeries that helped thousands of people in Brazil.

http://www.britannica.com/topic/hallucination
The link above talks about what hallucinations are and the history of hallucinations. Ze Arigo experienced many hallucinations.