A Careful Observer

In the “mentalist” trade, it is important for the performer to be observant at all times. A quick glance at any printed matter of any kind can provide prime material for the act. On one of Grant’s programs, I spotted a very clever use of this resource. A man wearing a white shirt stood beside the healer. Grant told him that he was “smoking too much.” The man agreed. Grant said that he had an impression of the letters “P” and “M.” The man answered that he smoked Pall Mall cigarettes. Quickly Grant asked: “Where are they? Are they in your car or in your back pocket?” The man reached for his breast pocket and pulled out a pack of Pall Malls, which Grant crushed and threw away, to the cheers of the audience. Close observation of the videotape of that show reveals that the Pall Mall package was visible through the white fabric of the man’s pocket. Grant had spotted this and used the information to his advantage.

The Wheelchair Trick

One of Grant’s most impressive gimmicks is to “heal” someone in a wheelchair and then have him jump out of that chair and push Grant down the aisle in it. It is an attraction that he is very proud of, and one that he advertises prominently. I have heard Grant begin a meeting by telling his audience how many people “jumped out of wheelchairs” at his last meeting, only to give a different number half an hour later when he repeated the claim. Many of these people end up pushing Grant himself up the aisle in the very same wheelchair they’ve just abandoned. That’s a real crowd-pleaser, and never fails to bring cheers. (This stunt appears to have been invented for the trade by Kathryn Kuhlman, a healer/evangelist discussed in Chapter 14.) When I looked into this trick, I was immediately struck by two facts: First, disabled persons who spend much of their lives in a wheelchair naturally equip it for their specific needs, and Grant never summoned from a wheelchair any person who had personalized the device. Second, almost all of those who rose up “healed” did so from one color, model, and make of wheelchair; even Grant’s slick, expensive four-color magazine, Dawn of a New Day, showed those same wheelchairs in the illustrations, every issue. I’d already solved the wheelchair gimmick when Professor Barnhart and I interviewed an elderly man who declared he’d been healed by Grant of cancer earlier that day. He’d been told by the evangelist, “Get up out of that wheelchair and walk!” and he’d done so, vigorously. Questioning revealed that his cancer was no impediment to his walking ability. In fact, we interviewed him at his home, where he lived in a fourth-floor walk-up whose stairs he had to negotiate several times a day! Why had he been in the wheelchair? Because, he said, his pastor had told him to sit in it when he arrived at the auditorium. The chair was supplied by an usher. He’d never been in a wheelchair before in his life. Replying in his periodical to the exposé of his wheelchair trick, W. V. Grant said:[Secular humanists] said we carried 30 empty wheelchairs on our revival trucks and stuck people in them—then later in the service pretended that they were crippled and had them get up and walk.

Yes, that is precisely what was said. For once, Grant has his facts right. And it is 100 percent true. But note that Grant does not deny that this statement is true! By quoting it in this fashion, he allows readers to assume that he is denying the accusation. I will not deal with the rest of the nonsense in that periodical, other than to say that it shows a drawing of a magician with the number “666” on his forehead, pulling a rabbit from a hat. This pathetic attempt to obfuscate the findings of this investigation suggests that Grant was desperate. His audience for such juvenile mud-slinging apparently accepts this sort of material.

Grant’s illustration of the dreaded beast.   And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, wherof ye have heard that it should come: and even now already is it in the world   (I John 4:3)

    When Grant was in Fort Lauderdale for a three-day stay in January 1987, I put his operation under intensive surveillance. I saw his unmarked truck arrive behind the War Memorial Auditorium where the show was to take place, and I saw some 30 of those familiar wheelchairs being unloaded and taken into a staging area in the front lobby. Later, when my team and I attended the show, we saw early arrivals walking in, some using canes. A few were taken to those same wheelchairs and wheeled up front by Grant’s assistants. Asked why they did not think it strange that they were asked to rise and walk when they were already able to do so, they either replied that they thought Grant had misunderstood their malady and they had not wanted to embarrass him, or they refused to discuss it and turned away from us. That last attitude deserves close attention. Many people who attend these services are well aware that they or others around them have been questioned by the evangelist or his assistants in preparation for the “calling out” trick. Some of them have gone to Grant and have volunteered information. They know about the wheelchair fakery. Many are fully conscious of the fact that they are not healed when they stand and declare that they are healed. Perhaps Professor Barnhart is correct in his theory that they are “play-acting.” I prefer to believe this than to believe that they are simply not very bright.