The Faith Healers

by James Randi, Carl Sagan

318 pages

English language

Published April 1, 1989 by Prometheus Books.

ISBN:: 978-0-87975-535-5
OCLC Number:: 19760082

(7 reviews)

The Faith Healers is a 1987 book by magician and skeptic James Randi with a foreword by Carl Sagan, that documents Randi's exploration of the world of faith healing, and his exposing the sleight of hand trickery and deceit by its practitioners. In eighteen chapters Randi explores the origins of faith healing and psychic surgery, and critically analyzes the claims made by A. A. Allen, Ernest Angley, Willard Fuller, WV Grant, Peter Popoff, Oral Roberts, Pat Robertson, and Ralph DiOrio for his claims of miracles at the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes in the town of Lourdes. Randi shows how people are tricked with magician's tricks under the guise of religion. In 1988, Earl Hautala in a review wrote "an eye opener for the naïve, this book provides a crash course in the methods of skeptical inquiry." The New Scientist praised the book in a 1990 review.

2 editions

Marsha Woerner reviewed The Faith Healers by Carl Sagan

Review of 'The Faith Healers' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

Another case of a book that primarily confirms what I already knew/believed! The only thing is that it does highlight the lies, deception, and really THEFT from the believers, the poor, and the desperate! My outstanding question is "have the government or politicians or judges gotten ANY better at recognizing and/or punishing those responsible? This book is from over 30 years ago; has ANYTHING been done?!
I have mixed feelings: on the one hand, I laugh at the ridiculousness of unjustified belief, and on the other hand, I feel so bad for those who have NO HOPE other than the flimsy hope provided by charlatans who really want no more than to bilk them out of everything!
The comparison of a faith healers show with pretty much all other entertainments would be right on except for the promises and broken beliefs caused by them (the theoretically religiously pure) faith healers!