Miracles: A Perspective From A Physician and Magician (Phygician?*)
By Eric Chico, DO, Magician
The subject of miracles has been of significant interest to me for decades. I fell in love with the art of magic when I was 10 years old. It has been a strong passion in my life for 43 years. Perhaps for some people it is difficult to understand the allure of an impossible appearing magic trick. Magic gave me an interest in understanding all forms of deception. I love reading and learning about magic, mentalism, psychics and scams. The psychology of deception is a fascinating thing. I also love science. I studied biology and chemistry in college, completed medical school and then a Family Medicine residency. In the fall of 2011 I began the M.A. in Apologetics at Southern Evangelical Seminary (SES) and should be completed fall 2018. Now my academic life is Magic, Medicine, and Ministry (the 3 Ms).
Skepticism is high in the magic community as magicians are often called on to investigate claims of the supernatural/paranormal. Magicians are uniquely qualified for this task, having spent years studying various methods to make it appear that we can do the impossible. The goal of someone who takes the study of magic seriously is to learn methods of technique and, of equal importance, presentation that results in the individual audience member experiencing the impossible. Magician Brad Henderson defined magic as, “The feeling one gets when that, which one knows is impossible, occurs undeniably in your presence” (1). It is a rare and wonderful thing when you get to experience exceptionally good magic for which you can come up with no logical explanation and no rational explanation satisfies. For me and the couple thousand magicians across the globe, who take seriously the academic study of deception, it is a fascinating and rewarding study. The negative is, we don’t get to experience that wonderful feeling of astonishment as often.
So, when a magician or someone with a significant knowledge of deception investigates some paranormal claim, deception of some sort is typically discovered as the cause of the event being investigated. My personal investigations have been focused on faith healers, or claims of miraculous healings. Let me start out by saying that I am a Christian because I believe Christianity is true. I am not a Christian because my mother is a Christian (2). Christianity is the best explanation of reality (3). I absolutely believe that God can heal. I have no question about that ability. I have no question about God’s ability to do miracles, but often question whether the miracles that people claim to have witnessed are, in truth, authentic.
We have all heard many anecdotal testimonies of healings or other miracles. I want to strongly caution you that the plural of anecdote is not data. Each claim warrants its own investigation using the appropriate tools of analysis and methods of inquiry unique to the claim being made. Because many people make similar claims, it does not render that claim true. For example, there are many stories of everyone’s favorite cryptozoological entity ‘Bigfoot.’ People exist who will swear that they sighted this creature. There exist grainy photos and videos of this creature. Many people have also admitted to creating hoaxes regarding Bigfoot. There is much anecdotal testimony about Bigfoot, but I do not believe a Bigfoot creature exists (4). The quality of evidence, between those people who believe they have witnessed Bigfoot and those people who believed they witnessed the risen Christ, are worlds apart (5).
Anybody can be fooled. We have all experienced this. I love to be fooled by a creative magic trick. Whenever I get to see some of my favorite magicians such as David Copperfield, Juan Tamariz, Johnny Ace Palmer, David Williamson, etc. I usually get kicked in the head at least once. These people are intentionally trying to fool you. You know that upfront. There is another group of people who are intentionally trying to fool you, but you do not know that upfront. It can be just for fun, like your ornery uncle, or it can be for other, more nefarious, reasons. There are good deceptions (6) and bad deceptions (7). My favorite story occurred one Sunday afternoon in the early 1990s when my sister-in-law came to visit. At the time, I had a habit of making a sound like a cat. I could trap air between my cheek and gum and by forcing it out, it sounded like the meow of a cat. It got to be such a habit that I would do it without thinking. As we were all gathered in the kitchen preparing lunch, I impulsively made that sound. The dog was sitting in the middle of the kitchen floor. She looked at the dog with a puzzled look on her face and then asked if he had made that sound. My wife and I looked at each other with that, “Should we?” look. I immediately responded, “Yes, he does that all the time. Isn’t that crazy?” She said, “I can’t believe that the dog sounds exactly like a cat.” Occasionally throughout the afternoon I would make that sound. She never noticed it was me. She continued to comment that it was unbelievable that the dog sounded just like a cat. As she was getting ready to leave, she and I were facing each other in a doorway and impulsively I made that sound again as she was looking directly at me. Her eyes widened and I knew I was caught, but she said, “You sound just like the dog!”
Why was she fooled? She clearly witness evidence to the contrary, but because she took honesty for granted she came to a logical, but wrong conclusion. She believed she saw and heard the dog meow. It was reinforced by people she trusted and had no reason not to trust. She was escorted ever so lovingly down the garden path…
Besides ‘taking honesty for granted’ another thing that I have witnessed while investigating a miraculous claim is people not hearing the whole story or people getting only half-truths. This is common in the investigations of healings that I have done.
I met N.L. and her family on November 11, 1994. This child was born October 3, 1991. The pregnancy was complicated by third trimester bleeding and N.L. was delivered by C-section. The newborn was discharged home with her mother on day six. Two days later the child was observed breathing fast. A few days after that she, again, was breathing fast and feeding poorly. She was taken to a family physician, who noticed the absence of pulses in her legs and measured decreased blood pressures in her legs. The child was transferred to Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester, New York for further workup and management. The admission physical examination revealed an enlarged heart and an echocardiogram revealed a 9 mm coarctation of the aorta, which is a narrowing in a segment of the aorta. On October 17, 1991 the child underwent surgery to repair the coarctation. She was discharged from the hospital on October 25, 1991 and did well post-surgically.
During a routine yearly cardiac evaluation in 1994, echocardiography identified a subaortic ‘ridge’ or membrane. It is a shelf-like membrane that forms under the aortic valve. It causes obstruction to the flow of blood from the left ventricle into the aorta. This obstruction is in the area of the heart under the aortic valve and restricts flow from the left ventricle into the aorta.
Faced with the reality of a second surgery, the parents brought this child to a faith healing service that I was attending. Her parents brought her forward during a time of prayer and the faith healer placed his hand on her chest as he prayed for her healing. He then turned his attention to the child’s father, requesting that he raise his hands in the air as he continued praying for the family. The healer displayed confidence of the child’s healing by praying, “Lord, touch his (the father’s) heart, let him know that her (the child’s) heart is touched.”
The child was again evaluated by pediatric cardiology on November 21, 1994. During that evaluation an echocardiogram showed, “… a well-repaired coarctation and a bicuspid aortic valve.” A normal aortic valve is tricuspid, meaning that the valve has three leaflets. This child’s aortic valve was reported to be bicuspid, meaning that the valve only had two leaflets. On March 6, 1995, the child underwent a resection of the subaortic membrane. The pediatric cardiovascular surgeon reported the aortic valve was tricuspid and its leaflets appeared to be quite normal. He described an extensive aortic membrane, “which appeared to be quite severely obstructive.” She did well postoperatively.
In a subsequent healing service, that I also attended, one of this child’s aunts testified that this child was miraculously healed citing that the aortic valve went from bicuspid to tricuspid. I got permission from the parents and contacted the child’s cardiologist. This cardiologist generously took time to review the echocardiogram obtained prior to the healing service. It had supposedly demonstrated a bicuspid aortic valve, but the surgeon visualized a normal tricuspid aortic valve. After the review, the cardiologist told me that in some views the aortic valve appeared to be bicuspid and in other views it appeared tricuspid. When the aunt told the church that this child was healed it was her understanding (a wrong understanding) that during the first surgery (the repair of the coarctation) the surgeon had seen the bicuspid aortic valve. The child was then prayed for at the healing service. During the second surgery the surgeon reported a normal tricuspid aortic valve, so the aunt thought a miracle healing had occurred. The aunt did not understand the anatomy and unintentionally gave false information to the church. The first surgery was outside the heart to repair a narrowed portion of the aorta. The cardiovascular surgeon would never have visualized the aortic valve during that surgery. The second surgery was inside the heart to remove a membrane obstructing flow just beneath the aortic valve, so he directly visualized the aortic valve. This is a common example of well-intentioned people conveying information that they do not fully understand that leads to claims of healings that simply are not accurate. This is an example of Christians who make claims, but have not done their due diligence to appropriately and effectively investigate those claims. Accurate investigation and reporting is very important in defending truth and protecting Christianity from illicit criticism. Christians only harm the kingdom of God when we make statements that are not factual and accurate.
Is belief in miracles rational? I think it is. After all, the foundation of Christian belief is rooted in a miracle, namely that of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Belief in the resurrection is a condition of salvation (Romans 10:9). It is central to the Gospel (1 Corinthians 15:1-5). The apostle Paul teaches that if Christ was not resurrected from the dead then: (1) our preaching is worthless, (2) our faith is worthless, (3) we misrepresent God, (4) Christ was not raised, (5) we are still in our sins, (6) the people who have already died have perished, (7) we are to be pitied (1 Corinthians 15:14-19). The miracle of the resurrection of Jesus is foundational to Christianity.
This topic is important because (1) reports of unvalidated (or scientifically unsupported) miracles undermine the general public’s confidence in the Christian faith. Once the reputation of our faith has been tarnished, many people may, understandably, be reluctant to seek Christ, thinking it is superstition or anti-intellectual; (2) When people hear anecdotal testimony about healing miracles the potential harm is incalculable if they themselves do not seek scientifically proven medical treatment; (3) The person who makes false claims looks foolish when those claims are proven false. We represent Christ to non-believers and it is essential that we are truthful and accurate; (4) The craft of magic/deception I love so much should be used to entertain and educate and not be used to just fool, manipulate or deceive. For these reasons I believe it is essential that someone with a knowledge of deception assist in the investigation of miracle claims.
Endnotes
- *Term coined by my 13 year old son, Eric “Point One” Chico.
- Scott Wells, The Magic Word Podcast, https://www.themagicwordpodcast.com/scottwellsmagic/brad-henderson-part-one
- My mother is a liberal Democrat and that ideology influenced me as a young man. As I grew older I rejected, what I feel is erroneous thinking of, liberal democratic ideology. With the same critical thinking, I embraced Christianity.
- A phrase commonly repeated by Apologist Greg Koukl.
- If we ever meet please ask me to tell you the story, “Mel Torme is Bigfoot’s dad.”
- My conclusion about UFOs would be very similar. See the scholarly works of Gary Habermas and Michael Licona.
- Timed lights in your home while you are away, military camouflage, women’s cosmetics (Ha!).
- Lying, dishonest advertising, scam emails/phone calls, etc.
