Performing Miracles By The Holy
Spirit?
"And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of the truth will be maligned; and in their greed they will exploit you with false words; their judgment from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep." 2 Peter 2:2
God's Frequency is 39.17
MHz. The Investigation Of Peter Popoff
Science and the Paranormal magazine, 1987
Why is this fraud still on TV????
Why do many Pentecostals think he is saved and that the Holy Spirit is performing miracles through him?
The incredible story From Science and the
Paranormal magazine, 1987 ...
For centuries, religious people have claimed
that they have engaged in direct communications with God. Wouldn't it be
interesting just once to tap into those private and personal conversations?
Professional Magician
It happens that a group of researchers, sponsored by the Committee for the Scientific Examination of Religion (CSER), a new offshoot of the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP) lead by special investigator and magician James Randi [Amazing Randi], has managed to actually capture on tape some of those "divine" conversations between God and well-known television evangelist and faith healer Reverend Peter Popoff!
The first words were captured by
a secret team of researchers as the Reverend Peter Popoff of Upland, California,
stepped onto a stage at San Francisco's Civic Auditorium, where he was about to
start a faith healing service that would be videotaped for his weekly national
broadcast. The team heard (and captured on tape) an affectionate feminine voice
from above: Hello, Petey. I love you! I'm talking to you. Can you hear me? If
you can't you're in trouble, 'cause I'm talking as well as I can! (Her voice
suddenly becomes businesslike.) ;I'm looking up names right now. This secret
team of two was located in a hidden section of the auditorium complex. It
consisted of Alec Jason, an electronics expert, and his assistant Bob Steiner.
Jason was giving the thumbs-up sign to Steiner as they began a number of
surreptitious recordings designed to expose how Reverend Peter Popoff was able
to "divinely" recite personal details about audience members and their
afflictions during his popular faith-healing services.
Peter Popoff, like many faith
healers, calls out the names, illnesses, and sometimes addresses of people at
his crusades, then "lays hands" on them and prays for their healing. The
impression given at such services is that the information comes directly from
God; indeed, a magazine distributed by Popoff's organization described an
audience member being "called out by the Spirit for healing". Those in the
audience are so impressed by Popoff's "Gift of Knowledge" that they break into
applause. The subjects picked are so overwhelmed that they often break into
tears. One woman who was "healed" at one of the meetings and later interviewed
by CSER stated: " know he is real from the way he talked. He actually knew my
address and had no notes to look at! he is real, all right!"
Evangelist/healer Peter Popoff
has headquarters in Upland, California, whence he sends out slick fund-raising
literature that is generated and printed by computer to appear as if it were
personally typed and signed. Those on Popoff's mailing list have received
Russian currency, handkerchiefs, and red felt hearts to be carried or worn, then
each to be sent back with a check attached. Special envelopes and endless
appeals for the emergency needs of his ministry arrive every week. Each is
personalized by the computer, which drops the recipient's first name into the
text occasionally after the salutation "Brother". Sometimes the letters start
off typed, and in an ensuing page turn into what appears to be a handwritten
request for money from Reverend Popoff himself. This "handwriting" is printed as
well. A man preparing to enter the Popoff crusade in San Francisco in February
was approached by a TV interviewer, "Why are you coming to see Reverend Popoff?"
he was asked. "Peter wrote to me", replied the man, "and wanted me to come here
today for a special message God has for me." He was blissfully unaware that
thousands of persons in the Bay area received identical letters - identical,
that is, except for the personalized effect generated by Popoff's computer.
These slick mail campaigns have
paid off. Popoff is seen nationwide on 51 television outlets and heard on 40
radio stations, and has an average monthly budget of $550,000, according to his
business manager. Popoff's effect on his followers is so great that on several
occasions he has asked his audience to "break free of the Devil" by throwing
their medications up onto the stage. Dozens of people have come forward and
tossed their medicine bottles onto the platform. Prescriptions for digitalis,
nitroglycerine tablets, oral diabetes medication, and many unidentified pills
were discarded by people who might have needed such substances to stay alive.
When world-famous magician and psychic investigator James Randi and his close magician friend Steve Shaw first attended a Popoff healing, they noticed that Popoff "called out" people from the audience fast and accurately. He gave their ailments, named relatives, and even threw in an occasional street address for good measure. After Randi and Shaw had observed Popoff dealing with twenty or so people, it was obvious to them that Popoff was not using some mnemonic device. Shaw told Randi, "He's got something else going for him, and I think I know what I have to do." Randi agreed and sent Steve to get a closer look at Popoff. Steve noticed that Popoff was wearing a hearing aid in his left ear. (That device is somewhat unusual for someone who claims to be able to perform miraculous healings.) You can see the shiny plastic in there, clear as can be, Shaw told Randi. Since Popoff had a tiny receiver of some sort in his left ear, Randi needed an electronic surveillance expert. He enlisted the help of San Francisco based Alec Jason, who had extensive experience in police, detective, and intelligence work. A few weeks later, Popoff came to San Francisco. The day before his show, Jason visited the Auditorium with a twenty thousand dollar computerized scanning system, which Jason left turned on for a couple of hours.
Jason's electronic scanner is
useful to locate anything new that is being broadcast. It works by going through
all the radio frequencies, and memorizes essentially everything that is on the
air. The scanner would be brought back when Popoff was performing, and it would
automatically compare the different broadcast signals. Everything that it had
heard before, it would ignore - so it would just look for new signals. The idea
was to save time. Alec Jason and his assistant, Bob Steiner, had hardly set up
the tape recorder and turned on the scanner before the scanner zeroed in on
frequency 39.17 Megahertz (MHz). The feminine voice boomed loud and clear over
their private earphones, "Hello, Petey. I love you! I'm talking to you. Can you
hear me? If you can't, you're in trouble, 'cause I'm talking as well as I can!"
(Her voice suddenly becomes business like.) "I'm looking up names right now."
Jason and Steiner knew that they had struck pay dirt! The funny thing about it
was that it turned out that God was a woman; God spoke on frequency 39.17 MHz
(in a band width normally used only by police and fire departments); and God
sounded exactly like Popoff's wife Elizabeth!
With the help of the scanner,
Jason and Steiner were able to hear and record the entire conversation.
Elizabeth: "Way over to the other side on the other balcony is Josephine Parino.
Run all the way over to the right side now. Josephine Parino. Josephine Parino."
Popoff asks the assembled worshipers: "Who's Josephine?" Elizabeth" Parino.
Popoff Parino. Josephine Parino identifies herself. "Elizabeth: She's got cancer
of the stomach." Transcribing the tape later on, Randi, Jason, and Steiner heard
such comments as: "I have a hot one for you. Robert Kaywood. He's got a chest
condition that needs surgery. Robert Kaywood. Kaywood. Kaywood. He needs
surgery. His veins aren't formed. He prays that God will heal him today. Later
on, they heard: "Dear, she...no, she should be there on your right side. Right
side. No, that's not her! No, that's not her! In the blue... Oh! That might be
here. Okay. She lives at 4267 Masterson, and she's praying for her daughter Joy,
who's allergic to food." This was followed by laughter from Elizabeth and Pam,
the wife of Reeford Shirrell (Popoff's number two man). Elizabeth Popoff was out
of the audience's view but apparently able to see her husband via TV monitors.
Elizabeth Popoff speaks: "Reeford's
got a hot one!" (Laughter.) "Reeford's so excited! He came running in back here
and scared us half to death! You ready for a hot one? Okay! Want a hot one? Hot
one! Hot off the press! Ruby Lee Harris. Ruby Lee. She is standing in the far
back where there's no chairs. (Long pause) "...Ruby Lee Harris. She's against
the back wall. She's got lumps in her breast. You might want to whisper it -
have her walk down! Have her run up there. Run! Oh! Look at her run! (Loud
laughter) "she's got knots in her breast." (Laughter and giggles.) A home run! A
home run!" (Then, later on, giggles are heard, and Pam speaks.) "At any rate,
she should kick him in the face!" (giggles) (Elizabeth speaks.) "Pam says to
make her - Pam thinks that you should have her kick him in the face (Giggles.)
The team recorded hours of conversations in which Elizabeth Popoff radioed to
her husband personal details that she and other aides gathered from the audience
in conversations before the service and from prayer request cards filled out
there. Elizabeth Popoff and several aides would scout the audience looking for
"hot" ones. They would ask them, "Is Jesus going to heal you? And what's your
name, and where do you live? Have you had this condition long?" They would write
all this information down on cards, which later on Elizabeth would recite during
the service via her concealed transmitter. She carried the power source in a
large handbag, and the transmitter and microphone were hidden under her blouse.
Randi, however, needed
incontrovertible evidence that this was the way the information was conveyed.
Randi enlisted the help of many volunteers in several cities to adopt false
names and diseases and act like "hot" ones. That plan worked beautifully.
Randi's stooges were approached and questioned by Elizabeth Popoff. During the
show, Popoff called out the false names and diseases in exactly the order that
Elizabeth Popoff had approached them. She didn't even bother to shuffle the
cards! One stooge, Don Henvick, was exceptional. Don dressed in various
disguises, going even so far as to shave his beard and head.He was able to
present a convincing and tempting target for the faith healers by his fine
acting.
In San Francisco, the Reverend
Popoff call him out as a bearded man under the assumed name "Tom Hendry", and
cured him of a broken home and that bondage to alcohol. In Anaheim, Don (this
time bald and clean-shaven scored again when Popoff fell for another of his
aliases, this time calling him out as Vergil Jorgenson, and attempting to heal a
bogus serious arthritic condition.
Subsequently, Popoff, apparently
enthralled by Henvick's powerful performance as a man possessed by the Holy
Spirit, broadcast both of these healings on his shows! Randi next instructed Don
to be cured of a disease that he couldn't possibly have. They settled on uterine
cancer! To have uterine cancer you need a uterus. To have a uterus you need to
be a woman. Don went around to various thrift stores looking for dresses.
Friends helped him with the makeup. The last stop was to obtain a wheelchair so
that Popoff could call him (her?) out as "Bernice Manicoff" Scott Morris, an
editor at Omni, went along as "her son." After they entered the auditorium for
the show, they situated themselves in the aisle close to Elizabeth Popoff. There
were told that the chair was blocking the aisle and so they moved around to a
couple of other places before they were directed to the orchestra pit, where two
empty wheelchairs were parked. Two women with canes walked into the pit and sat
in the empty wheelchairs (the chairs were rented by Popoff). One of the women
remarked, "I guess this is where they want us to sit." Later both women were
called out, and a big deal was made out of the fact that they can walk, which is
how they got into the rented wheelchairs in the first place. Praise the miracles
of Peter Popoff! Don- or should we say -"Bernice" - sent her "son" to speak to
Elizabeth to give her a story that "mom" would sure like to say "Hi!" but can't
walk that far from her wheelchair without getting tired. Elizabeth made a note
of it and sent Brother Reeford over. Aside from pleasantries, he asked two
questions: "How long have you been in that wheelchair?" and "Can you walk at
all?" People who can't walk are given short shrift, but when "Bernice" told him
that she'd been in the wheelchair for a couple of years "off and on,"and "Oh,
yes, I can walk a little," Reeford obtained her name and the fact that her
doctors think that "Beatrice" might have uterine cancer and that she feels much
better whenever she watches Rev. Popoff on TV.
The suspense grew during the
show as the healing progressed until finally Popoff stood five feet in front of
Don and called his alias, "Bernice Manicoff" He promised to burn the cancer out
of her body. He laid hands on "Bernice" and Don gave his his most ladylike
shriek as he was shocked by the power of the Holy Ghost. Popoff then commanded
"Bernice" to rise out of the wheelchair and walk! Don staggered to his feet and
walked back and forth across the stage to the loud cheers of the crowd. Don's
performance was perfect - almost.
It was only later that Don
learned what had been said about him on the secret transmission. Elizabeth:
"Bernice. Bernice Manicoff. Manicoff. The woman with hair on her face. She's in
a wheelchair and can walk..." After Don rose from the wheelchair and started to
walk, Elizabeth started screaming to Popoff via the secret transmitter: "That's
the guy from Anaheim! He's a stooge! It's a man - a man! Get away from him!
That's the guy from Anaheim! Drop him fast!" Upon hearing this, Randi and the
other investigators felt that it was time to wrap things up. They had already
hours and hours of taped conversations and lots of other damning evidence. The
investigation had already lasted six months, involved over sixty volunteers, and
had sent teams of investigators into faith-healing meetings in such far-flung
cities as Rochester, Brooklyn, Houston, Stockton, Anaheim, Sacramento, San
Francisco, Philadelphia, Detroit, St. Louis, and Ft. Lauderdale - teams that
have uncovered a shocking tale of trickery and deceit on the part of several
popular faith healers who have used their religious authority and media coverage
to mislead millions of people.
Randi was scheduled to do an
appearance on Johny Carson's Tonight Show. Randi reasoned that this would be a
wonderful place to break the news. The Tonight Show had an audience in the
millions, and Randi knew that Carson was sympathetic to Randi's work. The show
was a success, and Carson and the audience loved it. Randi received a tremendous
ovation from the studio audience, and in the ensuing weeks Carson received a
tremendous amount of postive mail, including an improving letter from Jerry
Falwell. Randi profited too. Seven thousand orders for his book Flim -Flam came
in during the next few days. It all goes to show that some people want to hear
what's going on. There were a a few people, who, the day after the Carson
broadcast, were not so pleased. The press had latched onto Randi's revelation
and had started deluging the Popoff ministry with phone calls. Popoff issued a
formal, prepared statement from his headquarters: "Everything Amazing Randi has
said is not true. We were already considering legal action because we knew he
was faking miracles at the crusades for his own purposes.
Peter Popoff Evangelistic
Association is being attacked, but we are not alone. This group has also
targeted Jerry Falwell, Oral Roberts, Jimmy Swaggart, and Pat Robertson, in
addition to Reverend Popoff. We would like to ask Christians to pray concerning
this attack on all these Christian organizations. This man is a magician and is
using these tactics to get publicity for a book that he is writing to discredit
God's work. We believe that God will not allow this attack on his ministry to
continue."
When the Popoff ministry was
asked whether Popoff used a secret receiver in his ear, Janice Gleason, a public
relations consultant for the Popoff organization, said that the electronic
receiver in Popoff's ear was used only to keep in touch with the television
crew. (In the hours of taped transmissions, there was not one communication with
the television crew.) Gleason said she believed that the woman's voice heard on
the Tonight Show was faked. But Popoff later admitted that it was his wife who
was communicating with him. Popoff compared his ministry to a TV game show.
"It's just like The Price is Right; they expect to be called down," he said.
"This is a very effective format for television." Popoff, however, perhaps
because of the notoriety, decided to abandon this "game show" format, a least
temporarily: his last few television broadcasts have contained no displays of
his "Gift of Knowledge."
Science and the Paranormal magazine, 1987
