Hello all,

Good morning.

I read Arigo: Surgeon of the Rusty Knife (written by John G. Fuller) many years ago. It's about a peasant Brazilian farmer whose name was Arigo. In the 1950s, Arigo became the greatest psychic healer of all time. Using only a rusty pen knife, Arigo performed in seconds major surgeries that would conventionally be done in hours.

Majority of Arigo's patients had terminal diseases like cancer. This notwithstanding, he treated them all. It is worthy to note that, Arigo did not use any ANAESTHETIC OR ANTIBIOTIC. He caused absolutely no pain, and received no payment.

The evidences are overwhelming. His procedures were witnessed by doctors, recorded on film and scientifically authenticated.

On this thread, I'd like to share with you all the story of Arigo.

Thanks for joining.

BACKGROUND

Zé Arigó was born on October 18th, 1918 on a farm located 6 kilometers from Congonhas do Campo, in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil. He was originally called José Pedro de Freitas. His boyhood varied little from norm. He was one of eight brothers. His father was a diligent and renowned farmer who was a Chairman of the Town Council at that time.

Although most of Arigo's brothers went on to higher education, Arigo didn't. He wasn't a good student; he dropped out after struggling through the first three years of school. He went on to work on his father's farms and overtime, he became popular.

Arigo was a dedicated Catholic that worshipped in the Church of Bom Jesus do Matosinho. In the early part of 1943, he fell in love with his fourth cousin, Arlete, and they got married later that year. By this time (at the age of 25), Arigo left the confinement of his father's farm in favour of working in a local iron mine where his strength and muscles would serve him well.

Working conditions in the mining industry were brutal as several miners couldn't make ends meet. Some of his colleagues brought empty lunch flasks just to disguise the fact that they couldn't afford a meal.

Aside working as a miner, Arigo ran a restaurant and was active in politics. But he wasn't a good businessman. His extreme generosity worked against him as he could not resist lending money to anyone that demanded. He extended credit liberally and not at all wisely.

Picture 1: Zé Arigó.
Picture 2: Arlete and their children.
Picture 3: The Church of Bom Jesus in Congonhas do Campo.

HOW IT ALL STARTED

As Arigo's children started arriving in quick succession, he began to have persistent and disturbing dreams. In these dreams, a guttural voice kept talking to him in a foreign language that sounded like German. Sometimes, his dreams were associated with blinding headaches which would usually wake him up and from which he could find no relief.

Arigo wanted to keep his anguish to himself but he eventually confided in his wife. Sometimes, he would cry out in pains. In some nights, rather than disturbing his wife, he would walk the streets. Other times, she would wake up to find him crying beside her.

But Arigo's dreams didn't get better. In fact, one night, he had an unusual vivid dream. In this dream, he found himself in an operating room where a group of doctors and nurses, all dressed in operating gowns, was gathered around a patient. They were working on the patient meticulously and endlessly. A stout, bald man was directing the procedure in a voice and tone the same as the one he has been hearing in his earlier dreams. It was also the same voice that plagued him even during the day. It wasn't the scene that disturbed Arigo so much per se, rather, it was its utter reality as he couldn't separate it from the actual.

Night after night, Arigo had the same dream and eventually, he began hallucinating. In his hallucinations, the fat, bald head man identified himself as Dr. Adolpho Fritz. He told Arigo that he had died during the First World War and that his work on earth wasn't completed. He further said that he had observed Arigo for a long time and noted his kindness and generosity which made him choose Arigo as his earthly vessel. He said he wasn't alone, that he had in his team other spirits that were doctors before they died. According to him, the only way Arigo would find peace was to begin serving the sick. He instructed Arigo to take the crucifix he found in his father's farm some time ago and that with it, he would heal the sick.

The doctor standing before him was so real, the instructions so farfetched and the fear so great that Arigo jumped from his bed and ran into the street naked and screaming. In moments, he was gathered by people and was helped back to his house.

His family doctor, Dr. Venceslau de Souza Coimbra, was called. The doctor couldn't find anything wrong with Arigo, he only prescribed a sedative and referred him to a Psychiatrist. Father Penido, a parish priest, was also summoned.

The Catholic church was touchy about the whole idea of spiritism making any inroads among the people. What Arigo told the priest was alarming as it was indicative of what many spiritist healers had claimed was a sign of the development of a medium. The priest warned him against yielding to the voice and promised him he would arrange for immediate medical and psychiatric examinations at Belo Horizonte.

Arigo was willing to submit himself to any test. The next day, he did a complete physical examination including X rays and blood tests. He also had a long psychiatric consultation. No abnormally was detected. Follow-up exams confirmed the original conclusion that Arigo was medically OK.

However, the headaches, dreams and hallucinations continued. Arigo continued consulting with the Catholic Father as well as his doctors. Sometimes, during the day, he would have a brief fainting spell, blacking out and remembering nothing afterwards.

At some point, Father Penido decided that there was a need for an exorcising ritual. It was conducted with all the ancient and elaborate ceremony that had characterized the process back through the history of the Catholic Church: the burning of incense, the chanting of litanies and adjurations, the blessing of the house to free the sufferer of evil spirits.

None of the above relieved Arigo. As a matter of fact, the attitude of Dr. Fritz didn't portray him as an evil spirit. He was rather benevolent.

Arigo soon became tired of resisting the spirit of Dr. Fritz. One day, he wondered what might happen if he gave in to the doctor's demand. He encountered a crippled friend, without thinking, he spoke, "it's about time you got rid of those crutches." He grabbed them and immediately the man started walking.

Arigo became even more scared. If what he was thinking was true, then he had an enormous responsibility which he knew no rational way of carrying out. He was also concerned about what the church would think of him. He however tried this stunt again with some other friends. They reported back that whatever he did had worked. At times, he had to be told what he did as he didn't have any memory of it.

His headaches and hallucinations had stopped.

[img][/img]In 1950, Senator Lucio Bittencourt met Arigo in the course of his reelection campaign. In one of those campaigns, the senator and Arigo lodged at Hotel Financial.

The senator had been diagnosed of lung cancer, he was told his only hope was an immediate operation, this operation could only be done in the USA at that time.

That night in his hotel hotel, the senator couldn't sleep. He couldn't remember how long he lay tossing on his bed but as he was just about sleeping off, the door to his room opened and a figure that looked like Arigo walked in.

Arigo had a razor in his hand. The senator recalled feeling very faint and his vision was blurred but for some reason, he wasn't scared. He recalled hearing Arigo's voice but it was in a very thick German accent, Arigo told him that there was an emergency and he needed to be operated on immediately.

He passed out.

He woke up in the morning. He was alone in his room. He was very weak. He then remembered the events of the previous night as he quickly took off his pajama top and looked at it. There was a fairly large blood stain. He went to the mirror and saw a clean incision on the dorsal part of his rib cage.

The frightened senator managed to dress and shakily walked to Arigo's room. He told Arigó what had happened. Arigo was shocked, he accused the senator of drinking too much but the senator insisted that his story was true. He showed Arigo the blood stain and the incision on his back.

Arigo protested that he wasn't the one that "operated" on the senator.

The senator, worried and distraught, hurried to the airport to catch the first flight to Rio to see his doctor.

Arigo was left in a state of shock. Although he had no memory whatsoever, the event was consistent with what he had been experiencing. He was scared of what might happen if he had harmed the senator.

At Rio, after several tests, it was confirmed that indeed the senator was operated on and the lung tumor had been removed "by an unusual surgical technique that wasn't known in Brazil."

The senator took this news to the media in Congonhas do Campo and elsewhere. Within days, it spread across the press in the country. In Congonhas, Arigo became a hero - to the consternation and distress of both the church and his family.

Senator Carlos Alberto Lúcio Bittencourt.

He died in an air disaster in 1955.

Wow
I am interested

Following

One other time, a woman had a terminal uterine cancer. There was no hope. She lay on her bed, candles were lit in her room as she was surrounded by well wishers. Her family were good friends of Arigo's.

One day, Arigó and Arlete visited this woman to pay their last respects. At the house, they got into a prayer session and in the quietness that followed, Arigó began to experience sensations he had learned to associate with his trance: a tingling that began in his head and slowly moved down his legs. He started trembling and his eyes turned cloudy.

In seconds, he dashed into the kitchen and rushed back with large kitchen knife. With a sharp commanding voice, he ordered everyone to stand back. He then spread the woman's legs and plunged the knife into her vagina. He probed, twisted and sliced flesh to widen the opening. A relative screamed and ran out of the room. The others stood shocked. Then Arigó removed the knife and forced his hand into the opening. As he withdrew his hand, he was holding an enormous bloody tissue the size of a small grapefruit. He walked to the kitchen, dropped the knife and the flesh in a sink, sat down and started crying.

In all of these, the dying woman remained unperturbed.

A relative ran out to call a doctor. The doctor examined the woman looking for features of hemorrhage but there wasn't any. The patient was conscious, she had felt no pain. Her pulse and heart rate were satisfactory. The doctor examined the tumour. He confirmed it was uterine. He wrapped it and took it away for further tests.

A few days later, the woman started recovering.

The news spread throughout the town. Within days, people began lining in front of Arigo's house for treatment. He tried to resist but the impulse sprung by Dr. Fritz gave him no rest. One morning, about a hundred people lined up just outside his house. He could no longer resist.

He opened his doors and let them in.

When he had finished seeing them, he remembered little or nothing about what he had done. He was told he had either written complicated drug prescriptions in proper pharmacological terms or had operated with a kitchen knife or household scissors. Again, the patients did not feel any pain and did not bleed. Also, no sterile precautions were taken.

Following chief...

Complex pharmacological prescriptions written by Arigo, an uneducated peasant farmer.

Arigo writing his prescriptions..

Arigó diagnosing and treating cataract..

Arigó removing a cataract..

Hi all.

Greetings.

So, when I got to this point of the book, I decided to pause and look this Dr. Fritz up on the net.

In my next post, I'd share with you guys what I found out.

My first stop was YouTube.

Sadly, most of the videos there aren't English.

Next, I went to Wikipedia. Here's the link I found https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dr._Fritz

According to the report, Dr. Fritz was (is?) a hypothetical German doctor who claims to have been born in Munich, Germany.

His first medium was Arigó and this was in the 1950s. However, there are several other media have come to claim to be possessed by Dr. Fritz. I've seen some of these videos on YouTube but none of them have been "authenticated" - or researched on - as Arigo. One common factor I've come to find in these mediums is that they end up in a violent death, most being from road traffic accidents.

In one of those episodes when Arigó was under, Dr. Fritz was interviewed. He claimed his family moved from Munich to Poland when he was 4. Like Arigó, he started working at an early age due to the early demise of his parents and he sponsored himself through medical school.

When Fritz could not save a General's daughter a month before he graduated, he was thrown into jail by the General who accused him of killing his daughter. He however was able to escape from jail and flee to Estonia in 1914. He passed on in 1918.

There's no mention of Dr. Fritz in any German record. To explain this, Arigo's followers claim he may have deliberately altered his name to protect his true identity and that of his family.

Dailies with reports of Arigó..

Overtime, Arigo's popularity grew beyond Southern America. News of Arigó and his activities soon got to Europe and the USA.

It was this time that two Americans - Henry Belk and Henry K. Puharich - decided to travel to Congonhas do Campo to see things for themselves.

Henry Belk was from North Carolina. He was a businessman and an intellectual adventurer. Henry Puharich was a medical doctor who had trained in the Northwestern University. He had special interest in Bioengineering. Also, he was interested in finding a link between science and the psychic phenomena.

The American researchers found Arigo's clinic on a corner. It was a modest one-story building. As at the time they arrived, they reported that there were over fifty patients waiting for Arigó though the clinic hadn't opened yet (in the morning). With them was Jorge Rizzini, a journalist and documentary film producer from Sao Paulo.

The Americans needed to work fast as they soon learned that the Brazilian Medical Society and the Catholic church were building cases of illegal practice of medicine and witchcraft against Arigó. Reports had it that consequent to the above, Arigó was being extremely cautious about conducting major surgeries.

They soon met Arigó and speaking in rough Portuguese, he welcomed them and told them they were free to observe and record whatever they saw. He further told them that it wasn't him but Jesus that brought about the numerous cures.

Arigó had a routine. Before he would start the day's job, he would first of all admonish his patients about the dangers of drinking and smoking. As a matter of fact, he turned back patients that had had a drink before consultation. He usually urged them to return the next day without drinking. He would then declare that each man had his own religion and that he wasn't interested in knowing his patients' believes. He believed that all religions are good. Finally, he would denounce the fetishes and incantations of Quimbanda, one of Brazil's primitive ritualistic sects. After joking with his patients briefly, he would then recite the Lord's Prayer at the end of which he would turn quickly and retreat into his cubicle. The Americans noted that in moments, Arigó came out of his cubicle, briskly. He wasn't the same Arigó they had met earlier. Something seemed changed about him. He held his head high, almost arrogantly, his eyes were radiantly piercing but withdrawn at the same time, as if they were out of focus. He now spoke sharply like a Prussian officer with a thick German accent.

Then, he approached Puharich and Belk and beckoned on them to follow him. Suddenly and without any ceremony, he roughly took the first man in line (an elderly man), held him against the wall directly under a sign that read, THINK OF JESUS. He then picked up his penknife and plunged it into the man's left eye. Puharich was shocked to his bones in spite of his years of medical practice. Arigó began to violently maneuvre the knife in the man's eyes. The patient was completely calm, he wasn't bothered at all about the procedure. He was only concerned about "a fly that landed on his cheek" as he calmly brushed it away.

Arigó then abruptly turned and asked Puharich to place his finger on the eyelid of the patient so he could feel the point of the knife under the skin. Though shocked, Puharich obeyed and felt the knife under the skin. He then asked an interpreter to ask the patient if he felt any pain but the patient answered in the negative.

Arigó explained that this technique could be used for diagnosis or for therapy. Of course, this violated everything about medicine.

In a few moments, Arigó withdrew the knife and on it was a smear of pus. He looked at it in satisfaction and then wiped it on his shirt and dismissed the patient. He then called the next patient. It is worthy to note that the whole process didn't last up to a minute.

As Puharich watched Arigó from patient to patient, he noted that there was no anesthesia, no hypnotic suggestion, no antisepsis and practically no haemorrhage beyond a trickle. Also, the patients were asked no questions by Arigó (no history taking), his diagnosis was wordless and immediate.

By 11am, Arigó had treated about 200 patients. He sent away about a dozen patients telling them that an "ordinary doctor" could handle their complaints. At eleven, Arigó closed his clinic, he announced that he would return at 2pm and be open until 6pm. It was time to go to his regular job (he was a receptionist in the IAPETC ).

1. Arigo's clinic.
2. Arigo's patients.
3. Arigó writing a prescription.
4. Dr. Henry Puharich (R) and Henry Belk (L) in Arigo's backyard.

Arigo and some villagers.

Dr. Puharich has had a lipoma for a couple of years. A lipoma is a benign fatty tumour that rolls around freely under the skin when examined. He had had it checked out by his personal doctor, Sidney Krebs, M. D., in New York.

He decided that the only way to confirm Arigo's alleged surgical ability was to allow him operate on him. But there was a risk. His lipoma was directly above the ulnar nerve which controls the movement of the hand. Also, the brachial artery was close to the lesion. Puharich understood the associated risk but he made up his mind that it was the only way he could confirm Arigo's surgical ability.

The next day, he told Arigó to operate on him and he agreed.

Also, Belk had a chronic back pain that had defiled all prescriptions given by his doctors in the USA. He requested and got a prescription from Arigó. To make a diagnosis, Arigó simply looked at Belk casually as his right hand automatically wrote the prescription.

Puharich found this prescription "grossly absurd" for a back condition. The prescribed drugs were simply irrational. The doses were massive. The prescription included vitamin B12 capsules, Novazolon and Livisym. These last two are digestive enzymes. It also included Pankreon, a pancreatic enzyme.

Patients had initially reported that Arigo's prescriptions only worked when the came from him. If prescribed by another, there would be no relief of symptoms. Puharich had copies of several of Arigo's prescriptions. No doubt, Arigo's pharmacology was as strange as his prescriptions.

Within three weeks of taking the drugs prescribed by Arigo, Belk's pain disappeared.

Before Arigó commenced Puharich's operation, he spoke calmly saying, "the American scientist has courage, he deserves an audience. I am going to demonstrate to this materialist what a spirit can produce. But he is right, my brothers. A scientist has to take all kinds of chances. Pasteur - didn't he take a chance with the microbes? That is what a good scientist does. Not the scientist who are afraid to come here to Congonhas. But now we would demostrate something he has never seen in the United States........just roll up your sleeves, doctor.."

And so, he started. He commanded Puharich to look away. Within thirty seconds, he slapped the excised tumour together with his pen knife into Puharich's hand. On his hand where the tumour had been, there was a small slit with only a trickle of blood. The skin area was flat, there was no longer the bulge of the tumour. He had felt no pain, he only felt a slight, vague sensation. Thankfully, Rizzini recorded the session.

1. Most Brazilian newspapers reported Puharich's operation.

2. The excised tumour and the penknife.

3. The scar immediately after the surgery and a few moments later.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4BX6WTL88j4&t=681s

A link to a video on Arigó.

Notable Patients

1. Arigó cured a baby born to the wife of Roberto Carlos who suffered of a strange form of glaucoma that couldn't be treated in Europe.

2. The daughter of President Juscelino Kubitschek (he built Brasilia) was cured of kidney stones by Arigó.

3. The British consul to Brazil, HV Walter, observed Arigo curing liver cancer for the sister-in-law of a dentist friend. He noted that the scissors seemed to move by themselves at times, and the incision closed without stitching.

Notable Observations

By the mid 1950s, some Brazilian doctors were starting to take Arigo seriously. Fuller interviewed several who observed his work on patients they had declared incurable.

Dr Ladeira Margues brought a patient with inoperable ovarian cancer: following treatment by Arigo she recovered completely and eventually bore a healthy child.

A young woman with cancerous growths throughout her abdomen had been given two months to live by her physician Dr Jose Hortencia de Madeiros. Arigo gave her three prescriptions, after which she became tumour-free and recovered completely.

Dr Ary Lex had tested mediumistic healers before, and none had passed his tests. He joined two other medical professors observing Arigo perform four operations, including the removal of a liver tumour, and concluded that more research was warranted.

Source: https://psi-encyclopedia.spr.ac.uk/articles/arigo#Notable_Patients_and_Observers

Members of an American medical team conducting a study of Arigó in 1968..

PROSECUTION

The Catholic Church and national and provincial medical associations were opposed to Arigo’s practice. In 1956, Arigo was charged with witchcraft, charlatanism and practicing medicine without a license, despite the absence of evidence that he had caused harm or charged for his services.

In 1957, he was sentenced to fifteen months in jail and a fine that would have bankrupted him and his wife, who had now borne six children. An appeal court slashed the fine and reduced the term to eight months, with a grace period of a year’s probation prior to serving the sentence. He continued to help the patients who came flocking to the village, while the police turned a blind eye. In 1958 he was pardoned by Kubitschek, after which his practice returned to normal.

In 1964, at the behest of the Brazilian medical association, Arigo was again charged with witchcraft and sentenced to sixteen months imprisonment. Arigo drove himself to the jail, as no policeman could be found to transport him there. Once incarcerated, he was given a key to his cell so that he could continue to treat patients covertly, sometimes being driven by the prison warden to the nearest town. Crowds seeking relief eventually turned the jail into a clinic. Arigo’s sentence was halved, then cancelled, after the region’s chief justice, at the urging of Puharich, watched him perform a cataract removal.

Source: https://psi-encyclopedia.spr.ac.uk/articles/arigo#Notable_Patients_and_Observers

DEATH

Arigo had long dreamed of building a hospital in Congonhas do Campo, which would enable detailed research of his powers as well as providing patient accommodation. By late 1970, architectural designs were about to be started and plans for joint American-Brazilian research well-formed. Arigo, however, was troubled by visions of a black crucifix—a sign of impending death he had seen before, shortly before the death of Senator Bittencourt in a car accident. More than one friend heard Arigo predict he would soon die a violent death.

On January 11, 1971, Arigo drove through heavy rain to a nearby town to buy a car. His vehicle crashed into another, having drifted into the oncoming lane. An autopsy showed that Arigo had died of a coronary, moments before he crashed. He was 52 years old. He was buried in the Congonhas do Campo cemetery, mourned throughout Brazil.

It was reported that Dr Fritz appeared to Arigo’s younger brother Eli asking him to continue Arigo’s work, but Eli, a successful law student, was not interested, and the family also was opposed.

https://psi-encyclopedia.spr.ac.uk/articles/arigo#Notable_Patients_and_Observers

Arigo's son at his graveside..

The news of Arigo's death was all over Brazil....

CRITICISM

In a critical review, sceptic Martin Gardner rejected Fuller’s account, calling it ‘despicable’. Gardner criticized the author for accepting anecdotes as facts and charged that his book would encourage some sick patients to expose themselves to quackery, perhaps dying ‘a needless death’.7

In a published reply, Fuller characterized Gardner’s review as ‘calumny’ and provided detailed rebuttals. He writes:

"In combing the voluminous trial records, I found that they recorded time after time that there was no testimony that Arigo had harmed anyone is his quarter of a century practice. Furthermore, your reviewer ignores the fact that I have and quote the opinions of many doctors and scientists who observed and investigated Arigo."

Parapsychology detractor Joe Nickell attributed the success of Arigo’s pharmaceutical prescriptions to the placebo effect. He noted that Arigo’s healings benefited his brother, who owned the town pharmacy, implying a pecuniary motive.

Stage conjuror James Randi claimed that Arigo’s prescriptions were ‘useless’ and described the operations as ‘ordinary’. He also published a photograph of himself inserting a knife under his own eye-lid without feeling pain.

THE END.

cc: Lalasticlala, Ishilove, Mynd44, Seun, other moderators..

Resources

Arigo: Surgeon of the Rusty Knife by John G. Fuller

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zé_Arigó

https://psi-encyclopedia.spr.ac.uk/articles/arigo#Death

TONYE001:

It was reported that Dr Fritz appeared to Arigo’s younger brother Eli asking him to continue Arigo’s work, but Eli, a successful law student, was not interested, and the family also was opposed.

But how come the younger brother didn't experience headache, dreams and hallucinations?

By the way, we need Dr Fritz to possess someone so that he can end this corona virus.

Elzak:

But how come the younger brother didn't experience headache, dreams and hallucinations?

By the way, we need Dr Fritz to possess someone so that he can end this corona virus.

Yeah, I'm also wondering why he didn't suffer Arigo's plagues. Maybe Fritz later saw some other person...

About the COVID stuff.. Na true o... If only we could just have a miracle and put an end to all these...

TONYE001:


Yeah, I'm also wondering why he didn't suffer Arigo's plagues. Maybe Fritz later saw some other person...

About the COVID stuff.. Na true o... If only we could just have a miracle and put an end to all these...

Corona will soon drift into the past by God's grace.