Magician Criss Angel demonstrates psychic surgery

Some things to consider about psychic surgery:

If there could be a painless, non-invasive and very inexpensive cure for cancer that took only minutes to perform, why has there been so little notice of it in the world outside rural Phillipines and parts of South America? Why isn't it heralded as the discovery of the ages?

Why haven't the American Medical Association, the American Cancer Society, the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, the Lance Armstrong Foundation and the millions of people working towards a cure for cancer endorsed it?

Psychic surgery has existed for at least the past one hundred years and, most likely, much longer than that. With hundreds of practitioners in the world, why would anyone ever have died of cancer in the past a hundred years? Wouldn't a cure such as this have made the entire field of oncology obsolete?

Finally, what does it tell you if a stage magician admittedly performing a magic trick can replicate psychic surgery? Can you even tell the difference between the magician and the psychic surgeon?

What is psychic surgery?

"Psychic surgery" is a procedure in which the alleged healer appears to insert their hands into a patient's body (at which point blood appears to flow), removes tumors, flesh, kidney stones or objects such as glass and then cleans the patient's skin of blood. The patient's skin appears to have no wound and no scar although certain practitioners make actual incisions.

Psychic surgery has routinely been debunked as a "confidence game", meant to elicit money from the patient. It is simple sleight of hand and can be replicated by any stage magician.

Psychic surgery is widely practised in the Phillipines and is known to have been practised in Brazil since the early 20th century. It also exists in other parts of Asia, South America and was brought by immigrants to Canada and the United States.

Psychic surgery has also drawn many Western tourists to the Phillipines, most notably late comedian Andy Kaufman. Actress Shirley MacLaine and comedian and actor Peter Sellers once counted among psychic surgery's devotees.

Former magician and professional skeptic James Randi demonstrates how psychic surgery is performed in these videos: