Debunking Faith Healer: Peter Poppoff

Peter Popoff: Remarkable Abilities?

At that time, Peter Popoff was one of the more prominent faith healers. He was well-known for making accurate observations of his patient's personal details.

For example, during a healing session, he would pray loudly, and then shut out the name of one of the members in the congregation. He would then proceed to read aloud the member's name and his or her medical condition, to which the member would agree in unison.

This remarkable ability helped him gained popularity amongst the faithful. To them, it was as if Peter Popoff had a hotline to God.

James Randi Exposes Peter Popoff

It took the actions of one famous, intelligent skeptic to expose the devices behind Peter Popoff's allegedly supernatural powers.

James Randi, a famous skeptic and magician, is the founder of the James Randi Educational Foundation. A brilliant debunker, he had successfully duplicated Uri Geller's spoon bending techniques using simple magic tricks, and had since suffered several lawsuits from Geller after alleging that Geller was a classic fraud.

In 1987, James Randi attended one of Popoff's faith healing sessions. Unknown to Popoff, Randi had secretly brought assembled a team. Armed with a electronic scanner, Randi's team managed to eavesdrop into the secret promptings from Popoff's wife, Elizabeth Popoff.

It seemed that Popoff's penchant for reading out his flock's personal data was more of a spoof than a miracle: Prior to the commencement of the healing services, members were told to fill in their personal particulars, including the ailments they are suffering from, on prayer cards. These prayer cards were then presented to his Elizabeth, who would then transmit the information secretly to his hidden earpiece by radio.

Popoff would then use this information to "cure" the sick through a succession of prayers. In some cases, he would employ a few charlatans in wheelchairs, pretending to heal them. These frauds would then stand up from their wheelchairs, completing the illusion that Popoff had indeed cured them of their disabilities.

Bankruptcy And Resurrection

Randi sent the transmission tapes to the The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. After the tape was disclosed on the show, Popoff's star took a nose dive, as his audience ratings fell dramatically. In the same year, Popoff became officially bankrupt.

However, that has not stopped him from making a comeback. The faithful, it seems, never seems to run short in numbers.

Popoff has begun appearing on late-night in infomercials on Travel Channel, BET, and Comedy Central.

By promoting a new form of prosperity theology, under the slogan "Go into business with God", Popoff claims that God will make "divine transfers" into a viewer's "divine account". One infomercial states, "A divine transfer is a supernatural event. This is not money you're going to make from your job... God is going to supernaturally put money into your account."

The scam works like this: Within four weeks of submitting one's address to Popoff's automated phone service, subscribers receive in the mail from Popoff (now calling himself "Prophet Peter Popoff") a three-page essay filled with elaborate biblical language and red-ink imitation handwriting. Instead of the promised "Miracle Water", included is a tiny plastic "Golden Tablet" and a "Miracle Band" (a cardboard bracelet marked simply with "JIREH", Hebrew for "see" but sometimes translated "provide"[8]).

Popoff purports that the "Golden Tablet" was made by God and intended to create immense wealth for the subscriber. Popoff then insists that the subscriber wear the "Miracle Band" while posting him a check for $28.30 (related to Exodus 28:30 in some way), in order to receive further instructions on how to use the "Golden Tablet".

It would probably take another major expose to finally kill off the fraudster for good, but until such time arises, education and knowledge are possibly the best tools to combat these charlatans.