Willful Blindness

In specific cases that have been presented to me by colleagues, interested correspondents, and various preachers with whom I have been in correspondence, I have met with repeated disappointments. I will share with readers a few of these inquiries. In September 1986, I was sent a newspaper article from the Ka Leo 0 Hawaii newspaper in which a correspondent, Antonio Rosa, took on skeptics who doubted faith-healing. He citedan example of an authentic psychic healing of a cancer patient: Religion Professor [at the University of Hawaii] Mitsuo Aoki’s wife was healed by psychic healer Greta Woodrew.

I immediately sent a registered letter to Professor Aoki, asking for medical evidence of Greta Woodrew’s ability to heal. I felt that Aoki, as an academic, would feel obliged to offer some support for the claim. Alas, the gentleman apparently did not feel any need to be of assistance, for I never heard from him, even after sending a second registered letter. The reason became apparent when Rosa wrote to me. In part of a three-page letter explaining why no such response could be given, he said: “I do not have any evidence ... of the healing I referred to in my article ... I believe in the account given me.” Rosa went on to tell me that I had “evil purposes” and that I was taking “an evil position.” Not quite so, Mr. Rosa. My investigation has led me right up to a stone wall of ignorance, superstition, denial of truth, and desperation. It is a structure to which you have added a few pieces. One person consulted on the matter was quite willing to offer an opinion. Dr. Stanley Krippner, a prominent parapsychologist, director of the Saybrook Institute in San Francisco and former president of the Parapsychological Association, gave his opinion to the University of Hawaii concerning the “healer” in question, Greta Woodrew:In my opinion, James Randi has more of a standing among serious parapsychologists than does Ms. Woodrew (who has no standing whatsoever). I would suggest that your campus initiate a debate or discussion between people with opposing points of view on this issue. If the parties are somewhat informed, and not just giving polemical speeches, this joining of the issue would be beneficial to students.

This, from a respected academic authority on such matters, reflects the attitude of thinking people in regard to the matter of truth. Truth is not arrived at by sticking one’s head in the sand; clear vision and determination are the minimal requirements.

The Case of Rose Osha

When I let it be known that I was actively seeking examples of genuine faith-healing for this book, I received a large number of references to miraculous healing claims. Most could not be checked out. But from several people I received copies of a booklet written by Rose Osha, of Washington, Indiana. There I found a claim of major healing through prayer. Having carefully read the information it contained, I wrote to her at once:I have been sent a copy of your booklet Rise and Be Healed, in which you report that you have been healed of cancer after 16 years. The account certainly is remarkable, and I intend to report it in my book. In order to substantiate the facts you relate, I would request that you answer the following questions for me: (1) What are the names and addresses of the two doctors mentioned in your account, referred to as “Dr. Jim” and “Dr. Joe”? (2) What is the name of the hospital where you were treated during the time that the major miracles took place? (3) Do you have evidence (X-rays, etc.) that will substantiate the details of the regeneration of the two toes, as referred to in your account? If you do not have this evidence, is it available either through the two doctors or through the hospital? (There are several references in your account to X-rays that were taken to establish your healing, and these films must still exist, either in the records of the physicians or in the hospital files.) (4) Will you please send me a photocopy of the remark by the “Surgeon General of the U.S. ... written across [your] medical records in bold red letters saying, ‘Healed by the Power of God Only’ ”? In attempting to obtain similar information from others claiming miraculous healings, I have been refused. Because your account is quite remarkable and you have stated at the close of the Rise and Be Healed booklet, “I would like to have you see what a great and wonderful thing my Lord has done,” I trust that you will furnish me with the requested information so that I may publish it in my book, which will have major distribution worldwide. I have enclosed a stamped, self-addressed envelope along with the above questions printed out along with space for the requested information, for your convenience. You need merely write in the names of the doctors, the hospital involved, and a short response to question No. 3, and obtain a plain photocopy of the statement written by the Surgeon General of the U.S. So that you will incur no expense in making the photocopy, I have included $1 as well. Thank you for your attention to this request.

I prompted Ms. Osha—after a few weeks—with a second copy of the letter above, and finally I heard from her. She wrote:In regards to your letter I received yesterday about receiving no reply from me about your manuscript you were writing. I would like to say this: I get several letters on this same thing and we figured if we give it to one then we would feel we would have to give it to all who write, so that is why there is no reply. Enclosed, find the $1.00 refund you had sent. It is not that I am unwilling but feel it best this way.

I telephoned Rose Osha on July 4, 1987. She acknowledged that she had received my letters, and said that she was quite willing to talk with me about the matter. Encouraged, I asked her these simple questions:1. Do you actually have the names of “Dr. Jim” and “Dr. Joe”?2. And do you have the name of the hospital where you were treated, and do they have the X-rays to substantiate the details?3. And did the surgeon general of the US write across the document, “Healed by the power of God only”?4. And do you know who the surgeon general of the US was at that time? To the first three of these queries, Osha replied in the affirmative. She said she was not sure of the fourth. Then I asked:(5) And you can’t even give me the name of the hospital? I was told, firmly, no. I replied: “It seems to me relatively simple just to tell me the name of the hospital, which would not mean that you’d have to give it to anyone else.” Osha was adamant. None of the requested information would be given out. Yet she had stated that she wanted so badly to let everyone know about her miracles that she had published, at her own expense, a 14-page booklet testifying to those events. There she had told how “Dr. Joe” had seen a mass of “739 clamps and tubes dissolve.” In fact, she said:One hour after they had taken that first X-ray ... another one was required. In front of eight people the Lord had dissolved all of the remaining clamps and tubes in my body. I was completely free from any plastic tubes and stainless steel metal clamps ...

But Rose Osha will not name any of those eight people who witnessed this wonder. Nor will we ever know whether or not two of her toes—she says “they had completely rotted off”—were actually restored miraculously “sometime during the night.” She told me that she could provide me with “photostatic copies of letter after letter” of testimony supporting her claims, but none of the information I had requested. She repeatedly said that she would not do so because she would “have to do it for everyone.” Another stone wall had gone up. There are two dozen or more other cases that were submitted to me for examination by well-meaning people who believed that they might be true. Most of them could not be examined at all because of the lack of traceable data. Others presented the same kind of problems that have been described above.