by Clifford Sawhney

The middle-aged man reportedly suffered from acute abdominal pains caused by a tumor in his stomach. In full view of the crowd, Alex bade him lie down on the operating table and covered him partially with a white bed sheet. Except for a thick wad of absorbent cotton and a plastic, nothing else was seen in the way of surgical tools.

Alex bowed his head and with eyes closed mumbled a short prayer. Then he bared the man's stomach and tentatively ran his hands over it. He began kneading the man's exposed belly… He made as though to cut the man's stomach, and a tearing sound (as though a tough cellophane was rending apart) was heard. Blood began to trickle out, streaming on both sides of the man's tummy. With his right hand, Alex dug his thumb and forefinger into the bloody aperture and after a few seconds triumphantly came up with a large tumor-as gelid as tin foil and looking like a slab of putrefying meat… Alex then massaged the spot where the "incision" had been made, blew on it, then removed his hand. There was no gaping wound, not even a scar, only traces of blood, which Alex forthwith wiped away with cotton.

The "operation" was over. The patient sat up and walked away jauntily…

The above is an eyewitness rendition by Jaime T. Licuaco—author of 11 best-sellers and the Philippines' foremost authority on the paranormal —of a "bare-hands operation" performed by the "world's greatest psychic surgeon", Alex L. Orbito. By treating over a million people from the likes of Shirley MacLaine to Saudi royalty, besides the hoi polloi, Orbito has put the Philippines right alongside Brazil on the psychic surgery map.

Until the Filipino healer made his presence felt, Brazil produced a majority of the psychic surgeons, the most famous being Arigo (Jose Pedro de Freitas) and Edivaldo Silva.

Alex Orbito was born on November 25, 1940 in a hamlet close to Cuyapo, a sleepy town near Manila. Although his parents tilled the land, what would later distinguish the family was their spiritual healing abilities. But this thought would have been farthest from their minds when Alex Orbito, their 14th offspring, was born.

Alex's mother is considered to be one of the founders of the Philippines' spiritualist movement. Some of Alex's siblings are spiritualists too: brothers Marcos and Roger are practising healers, while his eldest sister Felicitas is a medium.

Alex, however, is the most distinguished spiritual healer not only in the family, but in the Philippines.

DIVINE CALL

Until he was 14, the young Alex led an uneventful life. All this changed the day a distant neighbor came looking for him to cure his mother who'd been paralyzed for ten years. The boy's mother had a vivid dream the night before that Alex had healed her paralysis. And Alex "remembered having dreamed of healing a crippled woman the previous night". So Alex went over to the woman's house, prayed, then exhorted her to stand up and walk. Lo and behold! She did… and the news spread like a crackling forest fire.

Alex Orbito the divine healer had arrived!

Soon, he was called upon to heal with alarming frequency. Before long, the boy realized that his new vocation had no remunerative future. He either received plain thanks or was paid with fresh eggs. "Eggs, eggs, eggs; I was given only eggs," recalls Orbito. Eggs-asperated, the boy quietly left home one day.

Moving incognito, he grew a moustache and went by the pseudonym Joseph Viloria to hide his by-then famous identity. Visiting many places, he earned his keep doing odd jobs. While employed in a studio at Cagayan, fate bounced him back into spiritual healing. One night when he was partying 10 km away instead of being asleep in the studio, someone broke into the premises and stole the photographic equipment. Alex was accused of thievery and put behind bars. In jail he heard voices that said he would be helped if he returned home and continued using his healing powers. A few days later, the real culprit confessed and Alex was freed.

Once out of jail, Alex forgot his promise and went to the city of Roxas. Here he contracted a mysterious ailment that sapped his energy over the months. Again, the mysterious voice returned, asking: "My son, why have you abandoned me? Go home and follow my command!"

Realizing the gravity of the divine bidding, Alex complied.

ITINERANT HEALER

Returning home, he then began traveling throughout the Philippines, healing the sick.

Three years later, a strange thing happened. Alex was treating a woman with abdominal problems, praying with his hands over the woman's stomach, gently kneading, trying to transmit the energies that would expel the negativity he felt beneath his fingers. Suddenly, there was a faint sound as his fingertips felt a warm and wet sensation. Opening his eyes, he was horrified to see that his fingers had penetrated the woman's abdomen, creating a small puddle of blood.

Frozen with fear, he wondered if the woman was dead. Breathing normally, she was totally oblivious to his ministrations. Withdrawing his fingers, he closed his hands over the opening and prayed intensely to God that if he were helped now, he'd be more careful in future! He opened his eyes and discovered that the opening had vanished—only a thin red line with a few drops of blood remained. He quickly wiped this with a handkerchief. Amazingly, the woman hadn't noticed a thing.

Since those uncertain beginnings, Alex has become a full-time medium and spiritual healer, traveling worldwide 300 days in a year since 1990. He has visited over 60 countries including the USA, Britain, many European nations and Australia. In a 30-year span he has healed over a million people. His work gained wider recognition when Hollywood actress Shirley MacLaine described his procedures in her book, Going Within.

From the patient's perspective, although there is some physical sensation of the proceedings, there's no pain . And though the surgery is conducted sans sterile conditions, patients do not develop infections.

Besides psychic surgery, Orbito performs magnetic healing. In Man of Light: The Extraordinary Gifts of a Great Healer—Alex L. Orbito by Rinaldo Lampis (a Canadian engineer, trainer and publisher who lives in Italy), the healer outlines the difference: "Magnetic Healing is used to remove negativity from a person: it is much easier to do than Psychic (Spiritual) Healing. In the latter, my hand inside the body becomes like a magnet, and negativity comes to it, materializing as a kind of blood. In Magnetic Healing, through a series of hand passes coordinated by the breathing, there is the removal of negative energy from outside the body, without any materialization."

AN INDIAN'S IMPRESSIONS
Since the Filipino healer has never visited India, there were no first-hand Indian accounts of psychic surgery. Until D.R. Karthikeyan—former CBI director and ex-Director General of the National Human Rights Commission who is actively involved in promoting spirituality in India and abroad—met Alex Orbito and witnessed his bare-hands surgery at close quarters. Karthikeyan first had a chance meeting with Orbito at Grossoto, Italy. Orbito invited him to the Healing Festival in Manila, saying he went by divine guidance and felt that the latter had an exceptionally positive aura and spiritual energy.

Karthikeyan's first impression was that Orbito was "very simple, humble and pious". Initially, he declined the healer's invitation, saying he knew nothing about spiritual healing. However, on receiving many E-mail messages requesting him to attend the festival as a special guest of honor, he visited the Philippines.

At a reception for the delegates in Manila, Fidel V. Ramos—former Chief of Police and ex-President of the Philippines—spoke to Karthikeyan about spiritual healing and the unique abilities of Orbito.

The healing festival and seminar was held at the Pyramid of Asia resort at Manaoag, five-hours' drive from Manila. Karthikeyan was asked to deliver lectures on the need of spirituality for good governance, survival and health. Healers and delegates from all over the world acknowledged India's strong spirituality down the ages.

At the camps, he was witness to magnetic healing, reiki , pranic healing , boiling oil therapy, electromagnetic therapy, aurasoma therapy, aura photography, Zen painting of auras and, finally, bare-hand surgeries which, he says, are performed only in "necessary cases".

Although he had no intention of having the surgery performed on him, when curiosity got the better of him, Karthikeyan volunteered to undergo the experience. The healer made it clear that since Karthikeyan was in good health, the surgery would only be performed to remove negativity from his body.

Reminisces the ex-cop: "Initially I wondered, how can this be? The body is entered with bare hands! So I wanted to experience it to ascertain that it's not an illusion, since I've been a lawyer and police officer all my life. I even had photographs and a video taken. Alex massaged my tummy and within no time I felt his fingers inside my stomach! I felt the blood. Then a pinching sensation. But no pain, no incision, no stitching. This was surgery with bare hands, without hypnosis, anesthesia, pain or infection! Truly a phenomenon of mind over matter…"

Kartikeyan says that psychic surgery is a genuine phenomenon, which is presently beyond the realm of science. "Perhaps what we need is a new science, a meta-science—as the German nuclear physicist Dr Andreas Freund said—to understand this phenomenon," he concludes.