Nikola Tesla Books
CHAPTER THREE Campo, Brazil, in 1918. As a young man he worked as a labourer, a farmer and later in a small café. At about the age of thirty be began to suffer periods of depression and sleeplessness, which were attributed to spirit possession. Arigo travelled to the state capital, Belo Horizonte, where he stayed in a small hotel. One night he rose from his bed and walked into the room of another guest. What is supposed to have happened next is scarcely credible. Arigo is said to have told the occupant to lie down, then, taking out a small penknife, he plunged it into the man's chest and removed a piece of tissue. According to the Arigo legend, the man, named Bittencourt, had recently been diagnosed as having a malignant tumour in the lung. After Arigo's nocturnal attack the tumour is supposed to have vanished. The healer's legend spread, and more and more sufferers flocked to his 'waiting-cum-operating room' in his native village. By 1963 Puharich had flown down to experience Arigo's medicine first hand and later returned with a team of doctors and medical technicians. The study group confirmed one thousand instant diagnoses, often made by Arigo in the correct technical jargon after looking at the patient for a matter of seconds. According to Arigo he himself took no conscious part in the process but was guided by the spirit of 'Dr' Adolphus Fritz. For some diseases Arigo prescribed drugs, for others it was kitchen table surgery. I had once seen a film of Arigo operating. The 'surgeon' did not bother with any of the modern techniques of antiseptics, sterilization, anaesthetics, blood clamps or even sutures. Picking up the nearest knife and wiping it on his sleeve, he appeared to plunge it into the body and complete the operation within seconds. The wound itself was said to heal without infection or discomfort to the patient. To our sophisticated minds, such cures and diagnoses seem totally absurd and we are inclined to dismiss the 'Surgeon with the Rusty Knife' as a charlatan. But what of Puharich's medical team; would they have been deceived in hundreds upon hundreds of cases? Either Arigo's powers were real or it appeared that Puharich himself was party to a gigantic deception. After this first study, Puharich had flown back to the States to obtain 38
