: . 2

AftEGG:Surgeon of the Rusty Knife

uv John G. FullerAfterword by Henry K. puharich, M.D.

puBLrsHED ev pocxEr,ft BooKS NEwyoRK

6.ARIG0, the greatest healer in the worldot-Henry K. Puharich, M.D., author of Uri

The doctors watched in horror as Arigoshoved three pairs of scissors and two scalpelsinto the opening, each with a single violentmovement.

One doctor recalled the operation as follows:l'Arigo was taking hold of one-half of the

scissors. Therr we began to see the other side ofthe scissors start to move alone. It was as ifanother hand had taken hold of them.

"He reached for a pair of tlveezers, pushedthem into the opening and took out a piece oftissue some thirty-one inches long and fifteeninches in width.

"The patient was relaxed and unruffied duringthe whoie process, which lasted only a fewminutes. She reflected no pain at all."

What is described in AREG0 has been fullyauthenticated by a team of renowned physiciansand by a motion picture of Arigo in action.Stills from this film are amons the illustrationsin this book.

ARIGO: Surgeon of the Rusty Knifewas originally published bythe Thomas Y. Crowell ComPanY.

ARIGO: SURGEON OF THE RUSTY KNIFE

Thomro Y. Crowell edition prltined 1SZ+

POCKET BOOK edition publirhed March, 1975

5th printing, ., .. Septmber, 1975

t

This POCKET BOOK editioa ircludes every word containedin the orig"inal, b.igher-priced edition. It ie printed frombrand-ne* plates made from completely reset, clear, easy-tcread ffpe. POCKET BOOK editions ae publisbed by POCKET

BOOKS, a division of Simon & Schuster, Inc., 630 FifthAveDue, New YorA, N.Y. 10020. Trademarks registered,

in the United States and other countries.

Stmdard Book Number: 671-78823-x.Library of Congress Catalog Card Nmbq; 7,t.3492.

This POCKET BOOK edition is published by mngemenrwith Thomas Y. Crowell Company. Copyright, @, Lg7+, by JohnG. Fuller, All rights reseryed. This book, or yrcrtioas ttrereof, maynot be reproduced by any means without peimission of the originalpublisher: Thomc Y. Crowell Company, 666 Fifth Avenue,

New York, N.Y. 10019.Frcnt cover deign by Terry McKee.

Printed itr the U.S.A.

Aufhor's Nofe

In this story, so strange, so incredible, there are un-disputed facts, facts that cannot be denied, cannot bealtered even by the most obdurate skeptic.

It is an established lact that Ze Arigo, the peasantBrazilian surgeon-healer, could cut through the flesh andviscera with an unclean kitchen- or pocketknife and therewould be no pain, no hemostasis-the tying off of bloodvss5sfs-a1d no need for stitches. It is a fact that he couldstop the flow of blood with a sharp verbal command. Itis a fact that there would be no ensuing infection, eventhough no antisepsis was used.

It is a fact that he could write swiftlv some of themost sophisticated prescriptions in modern pharmacology,yet he never went beyond third grade and never studiedthe subject. It is a fact that he could almost instantlymake clear, accurate, and conflrmable diagnoses or bloodpressure readings with scarcely a glance at the patient.

It is a fact that both Brazilian and American doctorshave verified Arigo's healings and have taken explicit colormotion pictures of his work and operations. It is a factthat Arigo treated over three hundred patients a day fornearly two decades and never charged for his services.

It is a fact that among his patients were leading exec-utives, statesmen, lawyers, scientists, doctors, aristocratsfrom many countries, as well as the poor and desolate.It is a fact that Brazil's former President, JuscelinoKubitschek, the creator of the capital city of Brasilia andhimself a physician, brougbt his daughter to Arigo forsuccessful treatment. It is a fact that Ariso brousht aboutmedically confirmed cures in cases of jatt"er and otherfatal diseases that had been given up as hopeless by lead-

5

6 AurHon's NorE

ing doctors and hospitals in some of the most advancedcountries in the Western world.

But none of these facts, all carefully brought togetherand examined, can add up to an explanation. And it isfor this reason that this story is so difficult to write. Thequestion keeps repeating itself in my mind: How am Igoing to write this story so that the reader will believe it-especially when I had so much trouble believing it my-self until completing the research in Brazil?

Any understanding of the events here must arise froman understanding of the atmosphere and culture of Brazilitself. It is a country of contrasts, a country of vast wilder-ness and of bristling modern cities. 56o Paulo, for in-stance, is a city of nearly eight miliion, approximatelytwice as large as Chicago or Los Angeles. Belo Horizonte,in the plateau region northwest of Rio, is larger thanBaltimore, Washington, or San Francisco. Yet it is a citylittle known to most people in the United States. Itspopulation ranges from highly sophisticated intellectualsand scientists to primitive Amazon Indians.

Most important to understand in this story is the preva-lence in Brazil of a willingress to accept paraphysical hap-penings as basic realities. This willingness cuts across allsocial and economic lines. In fact, it almost seems that themore sophisticated and educated the group, the more like-lihood there is of acceptance of a philosophy known asKardecism, springing from the writings of a nineteenth-century French mystic known as Allan Kardec, a Frenchprofessor whose real name was Denizard Rivail.

The Kardecists flatly believe in the rational reality ofthe spirit world, and in communication with and effectiveuse of it. They believe in reincarnation. The Kardecists areknown as intellectual "spiritists" who do not believe inritual and paganism. They meet quietly, most often inprivate homes, and embrace most of the tenets of Christian-ity. They believe, however, that they can draw on thepower and knowledge of the spirit world through mediumswho are carefully trained for this purpose.

Some Kardec theorists who are knowledgeable aboutevery aspect of Freudian theory believe that "possession"

Autuon's NorB 7

is a phenomenon that has been overlooked in the headlongdevelopment of modern psychotherapy, and that there isrational and viable evidence that many cases of psychosisfrom schizophrenia to dementia praecox could be ascribedto the phenomenon of "possession" by an alleged spiritthat refuses to accept the fact that he or she is dead. Thespirit, whether good or bad, is said to be "incorporated" inthe living body of a receptive person.

This idea is mostly rejected by the modern pragmaticmind, and "possession" has been summarily dismissed bymedical science without either positive or negative evi-dence being examined until recently. Catholicism has longstruggled with the problem, but remains ambivalent aboutit.

"Possession" is a very heady concept for the material-istic mind to accept or cope with. Modern parapsychologyis beginning to reexamine the concept, although gingerly.There are other signs on the horizon that foreshadow a re-awakening of interest in this area, not only in Brazil butalso in the United States. It may or may not have been anaccident that the novel The Exorcist rode the best-sellerlists for so many months. Many people do not realize thatthis story was based on an actual documented case ofpossession in the archives of the Catholic Church, and thatthere are many recorded cases similar to it.

Any serious exploration into this field in the [JnitedStates is bound to raise eyebrows. There are many goodreasons why it should. Charlatans and irresponsible writershave created so much static and high noise level, withoutany reliable docunaentation, that they defeat their owncause. Anyone exploring a stran-qe phenomenon has toassume that the burden of proof lies on his shoulders. Themore strange it is, the greater the documentation needed,and the greater the need for understatement.

No other so-called "psychic surgeon" in Brazil or theworld has been confirmed and documented as thoroughiyas Arigo. Many reports have come from the Philippinesabout feats of surgery by untutored and untrained psychicsthere, but there has been a constant exposure of trickerv in

8 Aurnon's Noretheir work. Further, their lack of cooperation with medicalresearchers has made their base untenable.

-4rigo was unique. He cooperated in every possible waywith medical science in the hope that he couiddiscover for- himself the strange mechanism tlat created his inexplica-ble powers. He defies classification. What he did was.vividly real.,How he did it remains a mystery and a chal-lenge for science.

Jorrm G. Funsnll/ est p or t, C onrrccticut

From TimeMagazine

October L6,1,972:

"Even before he died last year in an auto-mobile accident at the age of 49, the peasantknown as Arigo had become a legend in hisnative BraztT. Claiming to be guided by the wisevoice of a lorig-deceased physician whom he hadnever known personally, the uneducated healersaw as many as 300 patients a day, diagnosingand treating them in minutes . He treatedalmost every known ailment, and most of hispatients not only survived but actually improvedor recovered.

"A few years ago, reports on the explois ofsuch miracle workers would have drawn littlemore than derision from the scientifically-trained.Now, however, many medical researchers areshowing a new open-mindedness toward so-calledpsychic healing and other methods not taught inmedical schools."

1

It was almost dark as the Volkswaeen microbus twistedalong the serpentine road from Rio de Janeiro, fourhundred kilometers to the south. toward the villase ofCongonhas do Campo. The green mountains, rollin!'fikea rumpled billiard table, had turned to a purple-gray asthe hot Brazilian sun deserted them. The Rio highway,known as BR-3, favored the gentlest possible routethrough this mining country, where black gold and ironhad magnetized the attention of European and NorthAmerican exploiters since Brazil's earliest colonial days.At twilight, the bare emerald surface of the treeless moun-tains changes from stunning brilliance to an ominous aurathat historically has engendered myths and legends.

Inside the microbus were four men: two interpreters,university students from the University of Rio de Janeiro,and two Americans of widely divergent backgrounds.Henry Belk, a rangy, congenial, fiftyish Southerner fromNorth Carolina who was both a successful businessmanand an intellectual adventurer. had been at the wheel fornearly ten hours, dodging overexuberant 3razilian drivers

articulate man in his forties. he had been drawn tosetherwith Belk in an exploration of the unusual faculiies ofPeter Hurkos, the medium whose ESP prowess had en-gendered considerable attention among both scientists and

1 1

12 ARIGO: SuncBoN oF TUE Rusrv Klrrre

law enforcement agencies when he located missing personsand solved some knotty cases by clairvoyance.

But it was noi Hurkos they were seeking out in thesesweeping plateau highlands of Brazil. It was a man calledZe Aigo, a dynamic Brazilian of peasant stock whosefame had reached the ears of Belk in his own explorationsof the paranormal. Belk had set up an extensive researchfoundation for just such inquiries. He had persuadedPuharich to join him in an investigation of Arigo, whosemedical cures kept him on the front pages of Braziliannewspapers and whose exploits were rumored to borderon the miraculous.

By the time dark had closed in, the bus still had notreached Congonhas do Campo, and it was after ten beforethey stumbled on the rather shabby little town of Consel-heiro Lafaiete, a railroad-mining village on the plateau,twentv kilometers short of their target. A hotel in the vil-lage looked black and uninviting, and they decided topress on- late as it was, under the peculiarly brilliant starsthat hung like lamps over the mountains, now chilled bythe darkness.

Tired from the long drive, Puharich found himself won-dering iust what he was doing in this offbeat part of theworld. Hc had reached that point in the expedition wherehe wondered whether he should ever have set out on it.Belk was finding his enthusiasm waning, too, althougftneither had yet cast eyes on the object of their inquiry, theman known as Arigo.

Thev had little enough to go on, but the clues wereintriguing. In Rio, Dr. Lauro Naiva, a doctor who hadstudied medicine in the United States, had vouched forthe reality of Ze Arigo's healings, but told them that amajor investigation was necessary to verify the flood ofstories that were emanating from the village of Congonhas.He had insisted that Arigo had to be seen to be believed,that no amount of description could project the power andforce of the man.

They had also encountered John Laurance in Rio, asysterns engineer in RCA's space program, and an execu-tive who had served on the advisorv committee in setting

ARIGO: SunceoN oF rrrE Rustv KNrdB 13

scientific discovery. In the dark, the surpassing peauty 9{the little plateau tbwn was nowhere evident; a]1, thgy couldfind was-a small, scrubby pension on a cobbled street'But at least there was a cubicle and bed for each, and theanticipation of encountering a strange unknown quantityon the following day.

Congonhas do Campo sits in a crease of the plateaumountiins of the statebf Minas Gerais. Except when thetowering thunderheads split open and release a cascade of

,water, when rivers become swollen and angry, the climateis fresh and stimulating. Nearly half of the world's goldcame from Minas Gerais in colonial times; diamonds andsemiprecious stones match the lure of its rich iron oretoday. With the mountains rimming Congonhas, the suncomes up later and goes down earlier, leaving ample roomfor the atmosphere of mysticism that abounds all throughMinas Gerais.

of the Church of Bom Jesus, overlooking the village and

14 ARIGO: SuecroN oF THE Rusrv KNrre

carved from cedar, are housed in small chapels in the hillygarden of the church. Both the wooden and stone statuesare so vivid and lifelike that they have a profound effecton villagers and tourists.

On the bright, newly washed morning that followedtheir long trip, Belk and Puharich and their interpretersrose with the sun and prepared to find the strange peasantthat had brought them so many miles. Reports had beenthat Arigo began work early. They were directed to thenarrow cobblestone street called Rua Marechal Floriano.barely wide enough for a car to squeeze by. The town wasjust beginning to stir. A gaucho passed them on horseback,a riderless mule behind him. The man nodded in a friendlyBrazilian way and continued on with only a casual back-ward glance at the two Americans.

They found Arigo's small "clinic" on a corner, a modest,undistinguished one-story cement building. ,Already overfifty people were waiting expectantly in the street, althoughthe clinic had not opened yet. The town was bisected bya small, muddy river" where swarms of vultures were feast-ing on some undiscernible carrion. Beside it, the visitorsfound an open restaurant, not particularly appetizing, butserviceable in the face of morning hunger.

Having reached their destination after so long andarduous a trip, Belk and Puharich were less than elated;doubts continued to set in. They were to be joined thatafternoon by Jorge Rizzini, a journalist and documentaryfilm producer from S5o Paulo, who had been among thefirst to bring Arigo to the attention of the country. Rizzini,whc was convi.nced of the validity of Arigo's work fromhis former visits to Congonhas, was most eager to establishobjective scientific verification.

He had color motion pictures of several of the majoroperations Arigo had performed. These films were of ex-treme importance to Belk and Puharich's investigation, be-cause they had learned on arrival in Brazil that both theBrazilian medical society and the Catholic Church vrerepressing a lawsuit against Arigo-not only for the illegalpractice of medicine but for witchcraft as well. Reportswere that Arigo was being extremely cautious about major

ARIGOT Sunceox oF THE Rusry KNne 15

_surgery in the face of the legal charges. Rizzini, who washighly recommended to the- AmeriCans as a stable and

man, propping himsslf up with his cane; a slender, aristecratic woman of about forty, in a flowered print dress; apale, thin man with an enonnous goiter; a wan child in awheelchair; a stout, busty black woman, holding her eyeswith a handkerchief. They and the multitude belind themstood mutely in the line that now wound around thecorner and all along the cobblestones of Rua Marechal

men approached the door, they were unceremoniouslywaved ahead of the patients into the clinic by a soft-spoken black man named Altimiro. Inside was a powerful,barrel-chested man in a dark sport shirt and slacks, andmuddy shoes. He had a thick black mustache, a generouscrop of equally black hair, a bronzed face, and striking,penetrating eyes. He appeared unshaven and rustic. Therewas little need to ask who this was; it was Arigo. Hegreeted them warmly, as if he already knew where theywere from and why they were there.

Far from mystical in appearance, he looked like a crossbetween a congenial truck driver and a local politician-which Puharich later learned was one of Arigo's consum-mate ambitions. In this Arigo was hampered, however. Hehad never gone beyond third grade.

They could stay and observe as long as they wished, hetold Belk and Puharich through the interpreters, and werefree to interview any of the patients and to ask any ques-tions. In his early forties, Arigo seemed so burly, normal,

16 ARIGO: SuncBoNoFTHERusryKNrFE

and friendly that the Americans were taken slightly aback.After the initial shock, they leaned against the roughplaster wall and watched the patients move hesitatinglyinto the building, single file.

Inside the door was a large, barnlike room with palelime-green plaster walls and a tile floor of geometric blackand white design. There were rough wooden benchesaround the walls. and several rows in the center of theroom, zuranged like church pews. Lonely and despondent,the group moved silently to the wormy benches, then linedthemselves against the wall when the benches were filled.The room, dark and musty, and now crowded, was framedby several doorways. One led to a room with two or threecots in it; it was unoccupied. Another led to the cubiclewhere Arigo worked. It heid only a chair and a crudewooden table. Behind them was a picture of Christ, with acrucifix on the wall nearby.

On the walls also were several crude, hand-printedsigns. A laree one, stroked with black crayon letters on acrumpled piece of brown paper, read:

THINK AND OBSERVE THE OTHERS'

SILENCE, FAITH, AND DEVOTION

Smaller signs beneath it read:

DON'T LBAN AGAINST THE WALI

THINK OF JESUS

WAIT IN AN ORDERLY MANNBR

To Puharich. there was something strange and unrealabout the atmosphere, almost as if he were watching ascene from Twilight Zone. There seemed to be a mood ofquiet chaos in the rooms, an air of both expectancy anddespair. By now, the interpreters had passed along thenews that the gossip in the line had been all about the"Americano doctor" who was here to watch. Several pa-tients glanced uneasily in Puharich's and Belk's direction.

In a few moments, Arigo stepped to the center of the

ARIGO: SuncBoN oF THE Rusry KNns 17

room. He spoke Portuguese in a rough, peasant accent.Soffly, the interpreters translated what he said.

It was not he, Arigo told the gathering, but Jesus whobrought about the cures. He said that he knew the anguishof the paralytics and the despair of the ill. He pointed outthat each man has his own religion and that he did notwant to know the conviction of any man.

"All religions are good," he said. "Is this not true?"There was a munnur of agreement. Then he went on to

denounce the fetishes and incantations of Quimbanda, oneof Brazil's primitive ritualistic sects. This was not a truereligion, he told them, and could never be considered assuch. Whatever he was, the husky, dark-haired Arigo wasfirm and positive in his convictions, with a unique magne-tism.

In the next moment, he was off on a sustained tiradeagainst smoking and alcohol. There was no ambiguity inhis disdain of these practices. He spoke gruffiy, angrily,revealing several quirks and prejudices as he did so.Drinking and gambling, he was saying, were the curse ofmen, along with lying and cheating. But for women, smok-ing was the heinous crime-sufficient, perhaps, to justify ahusband taking another woman.

Then, in his strange, mercurial way, he joked with thepeople for a moment; abruptly he became serious againas he led them in a recital of the Lord's Prayer.

As he did so, tle conviction that they had come toCongonhas on a wild-goose chase grew in the minds ofboth Belk and Puharich. As movi-ng and poignant as thescene was up to this moment, it was hardly a jump-offpoint for a scientific investigation. Arigo, his hands claspedand head lifted as he said the prayer, seemed more asmall-town preacher at a tent meeting in the Bible beltthan a phenomenon that had excited so much interest inall of Rrazil and most of South America.

The prayer finished, Arigo turned quickly and went intohis ctrbicle, closing the door after him. Some of the pa-tients shifted uneasily on the benches; others went intowhispered conversations. Two assistants, youthful dark-skinned girls, moved about the room quietly checking the

18 ARIGO: SunceoN oF rrrE Rusry Klqrsorder in which the patients would line up along the wall,facing them toward the small barren room where Arigowould begin his consultations at his table.

In a corner of the large outside room, a soft-spokenmale assistant with soft, sad eyes sat at an ancient type-writer, waiting for the morning's activities to start. Hisfunction was not yet clear to the Americans. Nor did theyknow what quite to expect as far as Arigo was concerned.He had entered the small room alone. But in moments, hecame back out of it, briskly.

He seemed to be totaily a difterent person. He held hishead high, almost arrogantly. His eyes, very burning andpenetrating before he entered the room, were now radi-antly piercing, but at the same time withdrawn, almost asif they were out of focus. They glistened in the dim light ofthe room. Now he spoke sharply, like a Prussian officer.The interpreters noted a thick German accent in his Portu-guese, harsh and guttural.

Arigo pointed to another sign on the wall, which read:NO ONE WILL BE TAKEN CARE OF TODAY WHO HAS TAKEN

ANY ALCOHOLIC DRINK. COME BACK TOMORROW WITHOUT

ANYTHING TO DRINK.

Then, imperiously, he walked over to Puharich andBelk. "Come," he said, and led them through the now-open door of his treatment room. The attendants movedthe line of patients up, along the wall of the big room andinto the smaller one, where the first dozen patients tooktheir positions. Arigo summarily ordered the two Ameri-cans to stand by the table. "There is nothing to hide here,"he said. "I am happy to have you watch. I must assure youthat what I do is safe-and that the people who are ill be-come well." He said this with the great confidence of aPrussian general, quite out of character with his formerrural bearing.

Suddenly and without ceremony, he roughly took thefirst man in line-an elderly, well-dressed gentleman in animpeccable gray sharkskin suit, firmly grasped his shoul-ders, and held him against the wall, directly under the signTHINK oF JESUS. Puharich, standing next to the man, wasstartled by the action, wondered what to expect next.

ARIGO: SuncsoN oF THE Rusrv KNrne 19

Then, without a word, Arigo picked up a four-inch stain-Iess steel paring knife with a cocobolo-wood handle, andliteraily plunged it into the man's left eye, under the lidand deep up into the eye socket.

In spite of his years of medical practice and experience,Puharich was shocked and stunned. He was even more sowhen Arigo began violently scraping the knife between theocular globe and the inside of the lid, pressing up into thesinus area with uninhibited force. The man was wideawake, fully conscious, and showed no fear whatever. Hedid not move or flinch. A woman in the background5s1samed. Another fainted. Then Arigo levered the eye sothat it extruded from the socket. The patient, still utterlycalm, seemed bothered by only one thing: a fly that hadlanded on his cheek. At the moment his eye was literallytilted out of its socket, he calmly brushed the fly awayfrom his cheek.

As he made these motions, Arigo hardly looked at hissubject, and at one point turned away to address an assist-ant while his hand continued to scrape and plunge withoutletup. In another moment, he turned away from t}tetient completely, letting the knife dangle half out ofeye.

Then he turned abruptly to Puharich and asked him toplace his finger on the eyelid, so that he could feel thepoint of the knife under the skin. By this time, Puharichwas almost in a state of shock, but he did so, clearly feel-ing the point of the knife through the skin. Quickly, Puhar-ich asked one of the interpreters to ask the patient whathe felt. The patient spoke calmly and without excitement,merely stating that although he was well aware of theknife, he felt no pain or discomfort.

Arigo, still speaking in a harsh German accent, toldthem that he often used this technique as either a dias-nostic tool or for eye operations. To Puharich, this vio-lated every medical technique he had known in his twentyyears of experience since studying medicine at North-western. For Belk, who had studied psychology at Duke,the procedure was simply inconceivable. He felt limp andslightly nauseated.

pa-the

20 ARIGO: SunceoNoFTHERusryKNrrn

Within a few moments, Arigo withdrew the paring knifefrom the eye, bringing out with it a smear of pus on thepoint. He noted it with satisfaction, then unceremoniouslywiped the knife on his sport shirt and dismissed the pa-tient. "You will be well, my friend," he said. Then hecalled the next patient. The entire "examination" hadtaken less than a minute.

The scene began moving so syr-ttly that neitler Puharichnor Belk had time to collect his thoughts. Puharich was atleast able to think fast enough to stop the first patient andmake a quick examination of his eye. There was no lacer-ation, no redness, no sign of irritation. The patient ex-plained through the interpreter that he felt altogethernormal, that he had had no anesthesia beforehand, andthat he had comFlete faith in Arigo. By now the secondpatient had been passed through Arigo and was headedtoward the assistant and his typewriter in the corner ofthe larger room, carrying a slip of paper with some sort ofprescription scrawled on it.

Puharich and Belk watched incredulously as the peoplemoved up in line to the table, rich and poor, of all ages.Arigo would barely glance at them. For most, his handbegan almost automatically scribbling a prescription atincredible speed, as if his pen were slipping across a sheetof ice. Occasionally he would rise, place a patient againstthe wall, wipe the paring knife on his shirt again, drive itbrutally into a tumor or cyst or another eye or ear, andremove whatever the offending tissue was, in a matter ofseconds.

There was no anesthesiq no hypnotic suggestion, noantisepsis-and practically no bleeding beyond a trickle.They did not observe Arigo's reported ability to makeblood stop on verbal command. But they noted that herarely asked a question of a patient; his diagnosis waswordless and immediate. In the speed and confusion ofthe first scores of patients on that moming, Puharich wascontent simply to watch and observe.

Obviously, there was much checking to be done. Theseprescriptions-what were they? How could Arigo writethem so fast, barely looking at the paper, never taking

ARIGO: SvncBoN oF THE RusrY KNrrB 2l

time to analyze either the prescription or the patient?How could he possibly get the alleged miraculous results,when he spent so little time with each patient? Howcould the assistant read the hopeless scrawl on the plainsheet of paper to translate it for the pharmacist? Wherehad Arigo learned his pharmacology? How could heexpect to arrive at a rational therapy without an examina-tion of the patient or witlout even asking questions? Howcould a patient feel no pain when a paring knife wasbrutally pushed into one of the most'sensitive and painfulareas of the body-the eye? These questions would haveto be suspended until full and incisive study could bemade.

It seemed that Arigo averaged less than a minute foreach patient. Arigo, obviously with tongue in cheek,insisted that whatever surgical work he would be doing atthis tirne was merely an examination. He was actuallyunder court injunction not to operate.

Recalling the scene later, Puharich said: "ft was thefirst time in my life when I've seen a scene like this.Where, one minute from the time a patient steps up, untilthe time he leaves, he either receives a prescription or anactual operation, and walks out without any pain ordisablemer.rt. Arigo never said much of anything. It waslike a nightmare. Belk and I were looking at each other,speechless. We really felt we were in a science fictionatmosphere. Belk, who wasn't a medical man, finally hadto walk out of the room. f continued watching. It sort ofpiles in on you. These people step up-they're all sick.One had a big goiter. Arigo just picked up the paringknife, cut it open, popped the goiter out, slapped it in herhand, wiped the opening with a piece of dirty cotton, andoff she went. It hardly bled at all.

"But there was no opportunity to follow up anything atthis time. He was working so fast that it was impossibleto catch a patient before they stepped up. You were afraidto talk to any of them immediately afterward, becauseyou didn't want to miss anything coming up. This firstexposure to this man was almost too much to compre-hend."

22 ARIGO: SunceowoFrHERustYKNrB

By eleven that morning, Arigo had treated some twohundred patients. A dozen or so he sent away, summarily,gruffiy telling them that any ordinary doctor could handletheir complaints. Others he scolded or chided. There hadalready been about ten eye and ear surgery cases. Eachoperation averaged only half a minute.

The surgery routine was almost always the same. Theswift, almost brutal plunge of the paring kniJe. Theviolent and apparently careless maneuvering of the bladeunder the eyelid, or whatever part of the body he wasworking on, the casual wiping of the blade on his shirt.

In no case was there any preoperative procedure-noanesthesia, no sterile precautions, no hypnotic suggestionwhatever. The patients stood by the wall, fully conscious,and walked out of the room without assistance. Puharichwas watching carefully for hypnosis; it could at leastexplain part of the procedure. But there was no evidenceof it. If anything, Arigo himself seemed to be in a trancestate. This, Puharich and Belk later surmised, mightaccount for the strange explanation they had heard intheir earlier inquiries about Arigo, before they left Rio. Itwas alleged that Arigo claimed he incorporated the spiritof a deceased German doctor, whom he identified as Dr.Adolpho Fritz. lt was Dr. Fritz, Arigo claimed, who didthe operating and the prescribing of the complex phar-maceutical agents he wrote so swiftly. It was Dr. Fritz,a German physician who had died in 1918, who provided

the instantaneous diagnoses.Both Belk and Puharich. with their interest and ex-

perience in exploring the paranormal, were at least willingto examine this bizarre explanation with an open mind.On this day, not even the incredible objective evidence ofArigo's prowess could be adequately assessed. The factsthat were piling up in chaotic profusion revealed onecertainty: that Arigo was violating every rational proce-dure of medicine and surgery. And it was becomingevident that only the most extensive, lengthy study andtechnical evaluation could create an intelligent appraisalof that. The exotic and ephemeral concept of some sort

ARIGO: SunceoxoFTHERusrYKwrnB 23

of benign possession by a deceased German physician wastoo incredible to even consider at this time.

Promptly at eleven, Arigo rose from his small chair bythe wooden table and declared the session at an end. FIewould be returning, he explained in his rough Germanaccent, at two until six that afternoon. For those patientshe was unable to see at that time, he would start again ateight in the evening and continue until all patients weretaken care of, regardless of the time.

He invited the two Americans and their interpreters toaccompany him as he strode across the large room,washed his hands in a small basin, and put on a jacket.He would be going to his regular job, he explained, a jobwith the government and social-security office, known bythe acronym IAPETC. If the Americans wished, heindicated, they could go there with him, and he'd be gladto give them further information.

Without ceremony, he led them around the corner anddown the cobblestone street toward the state welfareoffice. It was an omnibus health-and-welfare installation.There were pension tecords, small medical and dentaloffices, a line of people waiting for unemployment com-pensation, and the musty atmosphere of bureaucratic con-fusion. His jacket was unpressed and well-worn. He wasstill rough and unshaven, yet he carried himself with whatseemed to be enormous energy and dignity. But now theGerman accent had left him. He spoke with the hearty,gusty crudeness of a First Avenue bus driver who affec-tionately cajoles, curses, and jokes with his passengerson his daily run.

Arigo was the receptionist. He directed the people tothe various departments of the office, verbally whippingthem at one moment, comforting them in another. Hisparamedical self had left him completely, but he stillremained an imposing man. The people in line, poor andsubdued, seemed to flnd affection and warmth in him, inspite of his gruffness. To the Americans, he was more of ariddle than ever. His personality change, from the mo-ment he .bad left the clinic and gone to his job, wasstartling. His Prussian stiffness had given way to an

24 ARIGO: SuncBoN oF THE Rusry KNrrs

earthy amiability. His eyes had lost some of the strangeIuster that had marked him as he worked with the patientsin his clinic. He invited the Americans and their inter-preters to go through the welfare ofrce, make them-selves at home.

They did so. Puharich was particularly interested ingetting a playback from the dentist and doctor on dutythere- Certainly, these professional men would have tohave some sort of concrete opinions about this strangephenomenon who was in fact invading their professionalfield, and apparently attracting an avalanche of peopleinto the village in direct competition with them.

The government dentist was mbst amiable about Arigo.He commented on how well liked he was around thetown, how well he did his job for the welfare office, howmuch the people who came there enjoyed his kindnessand jokes and good humor. He seemed indifferent toArigo's separate medical activity, shrugging it off with agesture of puzzlement. The pension-department physicianwas not much more eloquent. He also shrugged, andindicated that Arigo did his thing, and he did his own.He did acknowledge that he knew of no one who hadbeen harmed by Arigo, and that the number of peoplefrom all over South America who came to see him wasphenomenal.

His office hours at the welfare omce were strange inNorth American terms. He worked from eleven in themorning until one. Then he began again at four, andcontinued until six. Ariso invited all four of his visitorsto have lunch with hi-s family, an invitation quicklyaccepted. His house, on the Rua Marechal Floriano,reflected a state of near-poverty, but in spite of flakingplaster and shoddy furniture, it was clean and neat.Arlete, his wife, was slim 31d smiling, rustling her flveboys about the house, handsome boys all of them, withthe same striking, deep-brown eyes of their father. Shewas wearing hair rollers, unselfconsciously.

Arigo kissed her afiectionately, and they all sat down ata rough table, Arlete squeezing four extra places amongthe boys. The lunch was simple-beans and rice and

ARIGO: SuncBoNoFTHERusryKNrrB 25

some stringy chicken-but there was plenty of it. Arigoate heartily, laughing, joking with the boys, clearing hisplate in nioments. Almost automatically, Arlete refilled it,and pressed more food on the visitors.

Studying the scene, Puharich could find nothing tosuggest anything extraordinary about the man or his fam-ily. The wife was devoted, the boys lively, intelligent,well-mannered. The atmosphere was confused, but con-genial and affectionate. Arigo had shelved whatevermystical qualities he had demonstrated with his patients.Puharich's thoughts kept going back to the inexplicableevents of the morning: the surgery without anesthesia,bleeding, or pain; the incredible speed with which theman worked; the lack of fear in the patient as a sharpknife went into his eye. Somehow, he was thinking, hewould have to find a way to prove to both himself andhis meclical colleagues back in the States that the wholething was not a hallucination.

When Jorge Rizzini, the journalist, arrived that eve-ning, part of the problem would be solved, because he wasbringing a motion picture camera. Belk was already prepar-ing his own still camera equipment, a step he had post-poned during the morning session until he got more usedto the bizarre events that occurred in such swift succession.

But would film be enough to convince the skeptics?Still pictures could of courss be easily rigged; they wouldnot be able to persuade a hard-core skeptic. Motionpictures are almost impossible to fake convincingly, there-fore they were most important. Puharich would have tocount on Rizzini for that part of the process; he hopedhe would do well.

After lunch Arigo rested, but by two in tle afternoonhe was back in his barren little room at the clinic. wherethe line had formed again. Some of the new patients hadarrived by chartered bus from Argentina. Again, theunbelievable procedure began and continued. Arigo wasback in his trancelike state, with the strange glowing lookin his eyes and the same thick German accent that hadbeen shed during the routine of his regular job and athome. He continued to use his dirtv knife. continued to

26 ARIGO: SuncsoN oF THE Rusrv KNrrB

wipe the wounds with dirty cotton, continued to airilydismiss the patient with no sutures, continued to writehis prescriptions with astounding speed.

The interpreters were interviewing as many patients aspossible. But this procedure was too slap-dash to make anintelligent assessment. The irrationality of the scene con-tinued to be overpowerirg to both Puharich and Belk.

"There was one patient I remember," Puharich recalls,"who was hanging around all day. He was barefoot andhad been in a wheelchair, and it seemed that he had a jobas an auto mechanic. He simply came there and hungaround, although he no longer needed the wheelchair.

"We asked him through the interpreters just why hewas doing this, and he explained that he had been in theBradlian brigade in the Allied army in Italy duringIVorld War II. He had been wounded, and receivedinjuries to both knees. He couidn't describe technicallywhat happened, but his knees had locked up, frozen onhim. He had had something like thirteen operations sincethe war. He said he had heard about Arieo and came tohim.

"Arigo had looked at him, and very roughly said: 'What

the hell are you doing in the wheelchair, you bum?' Arigowas never reluctant to swear at people when the occasionseemed to demand it. The man had said: 'I can't walk.My knees are locked.' Arigo answered: 'You're a rotten,lazy bum. Get up and walk!' The man protested that hecouldn't. Arigo repeated his demand. The guy had nochoice. He got up and started walking across the room.Arigo never touched him. The man couldn't believe it hadhappened. But he was scared to death the condition mightreturn, so he continued hanging around, just to play itsafe.

"I examined the knees, although this is the kind of casethat would need intensive studv to verifu completelv.They were still a little stiff, and you could sel the multipiescars from the many operations he had had. But he wasable to move with considerable freedom. This was thekind of case I would be lookins for when we returnedwith full diagnostic equipment and personnel. But at the

ARIGO: SunceowoFTrrERusryKNnn 27

moment, it was convincing enough to indicate the needfor further study."

By the time Jorge Fi'.zzini, the intense, thirty-five-year-o16 glszilian journalist, arrived from 56o Paulo, Puharichhad plotted the best possible way for shooting both Stillsand motion pictures the next day. Unlikely as if was,there was still the possibility of fakery or of simply anunconventional and indiscernible hypnotic technique thatmight have brought temporary relief to the hundreds ofpatients that were filing by Arigo each day.

Rizzini, however, was not inclined to go alolrg withthis theory. He had experienced two very definitive casesclose to home: his wife, who had suftered hopelessarthritis and had been given up by medical doctors; andhis daughter, who had been medically assessed as havingincurable leukemia. Both had come to Arigo; both hadbeen cured, and the cure confirmed by the same doctorswho had given them up. He'also told about the daughterof past Brazilian President Juscelino Kubitschek, whohad been successfully treated by Arigo for a kidrreydisorder that had defied conventional treatment in bothEurope and the United States.

Rizzini's 8mm Kodak did not have a zoom lens, but itwould be adequate to record some of the operations..Puharich and Belk were still concerned about gettingenough raw evidence to persuade a representative groupof other American doctors to join them in making athorough study of Arigo. Even with motion pictures ofthe unconventional operations, there could be enoughdoubts left to make plrsuasion difficult. It seemed to 6esomething that had to be seen directly on location to bebelieved.

Medical histories would have to be taken in detail, andbefore the patient got in line, a thorough examination by

28 ARIGO: Strnceorq oF THE Rusrv KNrrs

a qualified physician would have to be made. Some pa-tients brought their past medical records. These wouldhave to be examined and recorded. Another doctor wouldhave to observe the treatment of the patient by Arigo,recording this in fulI detail while it was being fllmed.Another doctor would have to follow up the case im-mediately afterward. Then, to be complete, consultationswould have to be made weeks or months later with thepatient's own doctor as to the permanence of any cureand the effectiveness of the prescriptions or operations.

That day, Arigo again stuck to his promise that no onewould leave the treatment center uncared for. For thesecond time in a row, he closed the clinic after one in themorning, but showed little si3n of fatigue. Meanwhile,Rizzini had shot considerable color footage; though hislens equipment was skimpy, the film would be sufficientto establish some of the extraordinary qualities of Arigo'ssur-gical prowess.

After the second long night of observation, the twoAmericans went back to their small, pension more baffledthan ever. Rizzini was more convinced than Puharich orBelk, because he had previous films-made before Arigowas placed under court injunction-of Arigo performingmajor operations, including the removal of a cancerousuterus. Further, he haC his own two cases involving hiswife and daughter, which he swore had been medicallyconfirmed.

From what Belk had learned from his wanderingsabout town, the consensus of the local doctors was, oddlyenough, ihat they generally approved of Arigo eventhough he put a dent in their practices to some extent.The priests of two Catholic seminaries in town seemed tohave mixed reactions. They more or less tolerated Arigo,who had once, at least, been a strong Catholic. But onepriest told Belk that he thought Arigo was in league withthe devii and that he hoped the new trial coning up inthe near future would forever end his heresies.

Beik could find no evidence whatever that Arigo evercharged anycne for his services, and the word rvas that ifhe did charge, he would immediately lose the strange

ARIGO: SuncsoNoFTHBRusrvKxrre 29

powers endowed by "Dr. Fritz." Belk was also unable tocollect any evidence that anyone had been harmed byArigo's unconventional practices. Both the Brazilian Med-ical Association and the Roman Catholic Church werepressing hard against Arigo in the court case, and ap-parently had been scrambling unsuccessfully to fud asingle case where Arigo had injured someone.

On his iton cot that night in the tiny hotel room,Puharich lay awake, trying to come up with the best wayto make a conclusive test of Arigo's ability-one thatwould be irrefutable as far as modern clinical opinion wasconcerned. It was obvious that Arigo, as cooperative andunsecretive as he was, would spend little time doing testsequences for the camera or any sort of pure showman-ship demonstration, although there was much of the show-man in him. Arigo was intent on treating the ill, andseemed to want nothing to interfere.

If Arigo were to be documented properly, there wouldbe a need not only for considerable funding, but forarousing the professional interest of qualified doctors.They would have to be willing to admit the possibilitythat there was something strange going on here in thefield of medicine that was well worth finding ouf about.Naturally, there would be resistance to such an idea.Puharich had felt it himself on arriving in the village. Hestill had doubts, but they were fading in the light ofArigo's indefatigable dedication to his patients, most ofwhom had come miles to see him.

It was during these thoughts that he absentmindedlyscratched his arm-perhaps for a mosquito or flea bite.As he did so, he was reminded of a large and ratherannoying but benign tumor on the inside of his rightelbow, known as a lipoma. It was not dangerous, and hehad had it checked within the last two years bv his owndoctor, Sidney Krebs, M.D., of New Y6rk City.

Medically, a lipoma is a fatty tumor that rolls aroundfreely under the skin when it is examined. While they donot tend to become maligant, lipomas can often berather large and unsightly. What causes them is really notknown. Puharich's tumor had been there for seven vears.

30 ARIGO: SuncBoN oF THE Rusrv Klvrrs

and measured about half an inch high, half an inch wide,and one and a half inches in length. His doctor hadsuggested he might have it surgically removed, which,while seldom risky, is rarely an office procedure. Fullsterilization is necessary in an operating room, and theusual scrubbing, painting, and draping of the tumor areais practiced.

The surgical procedure involves incision over the fattytissue, the spreading of the incision with two retractors,and the use of hemostats and cauterizing the blood vesselsto check the flow of blood for clear visibility" Usually,another clamp is placed over the tumor itself, and thetumor is cut free with a scalpel. The opening is then sewnup with sutures. Antiseptics and antibiotics, of course, areutilized to prevent infection. Without these, septicemia-blood poisoning-could result.

The average surgeon requires about fifteen to twentyminutes to complete the job. In Puharich's case, thetumor was directly over the ulnar nerve, which controlsthe movement of the hand. Also, the brachial artery laynearby" another possible complication. It was for thesereasons that Puharich had been hesitant about having thetumor removed, and since it was not incapacitating, hehad learned to live with it.

But an inept operation could be incapacitating-permanently. The movement in the fingers could berestricted or totally disabled by damage to the ulnarnerve. A slip that would sever the brachial artery wouidbring obvious danger.

In other words, the tumor was nothing to take lightly,in spite of its benignity. Speaking of the experience later,Puharich said: "When I felt the lipoma on my arm, lyingthere in bed, I said to myself : Well, h"re is

-a legiiimatE

thing that ,A.rigo could work on. Because I could see bynow that you couldn't just play games with him. If hewas going to do something, you had to be sick cr havesomethins real. I said to myself: This is a good idea. I'llsee if he wiil operate on this, and I'11 see what happens. Iknow what the cor.rdition is; I'll see if these people arefaking the lack of pain. I'11 find out if he really hurts or

ARIGO: StrncroNorrHERusryKNrnB 31

not. I'll find out firsthand how the process works. If I getinfected, I can always be flown down to Rio. I simplycould not believe what I was seeing and experiencingwith Arigo. Here was one way I could prove to myselfand my colleagues that we were not hallucinating."

The decision did not come easily. But it was the onesure way to put Arigb's skills to the test. Puharich wouldbe able to discover just what the lack of anesthesia,antisepsis, and sutures meant firsthand-and whetherindeed Arigo was capable of preventing the major flow ofblood.

The decision made, he turned over on his side on theshaky iron cot and went to sleep.

In 56o Paulo a group of highly trained physicians andsurgeons from the city's largest hospital-some of themgraduates of the best medical schools in the United States-meets regularly to consult mediums. These mediums,they believe, draw on the skills and knowledge of doctorsno longer living to bring them diagnostic and treatmentinformation they could get nowhere else. The doctorsclaim that the clinical and therapeutic results are amv-ingly efiective, and far beyond what modern medicaltechniques alone could produce.

These sessions aie conducted not in an aura of mysti-cism, but in an atmosphere of pragmatism. The doctorsof Kardecist persuasion do not believe that the use oftrained mediums replaces skilled medical training; theybelieve it supplements it, Their rationale for the use ofthese methods springs from the theory that the swiftadvance of medical science left large pockets of unexplored

32 ARIGO: SuncrowoFTHERusrvKNrre

truths in its wake. More specifically, the feeling is that theprimitive witch doctor or medicine man, in spite of hiswild g,vrations and mysterious herbs, exercised some highlyeffective techniques that were discarded by materialisticscience onlv because they were sunounded by such alarge envelope of superstition and hideous black-magicrituals.

There is much evidence to support this theory. Manygreat modern tranquilizers such as reserpine (sotrd undermany trade names) long lay dormant in modern pharma-colog.v; the Indian snakeroot plant, from which reserpinederives, known as Rauwolfia serpetina, had been usedeffectively in India and Nigeria for centuries. Curare, oneo{ the most efiective adjuncts in modern anesthesia, is aresinous poison derived from several varieties of tropicalplants. The Brazilian Indians used the poison on tht dpsof arrows. Scientists at the University of Ibadan in Ni.seriahave recentlv crystallized an herb concoction from a witchdoctor that seems to have an arnazing capacity tolbringabout remission in maligant tumors. Initial tests now beingconducted at the university have shown it to bring 100percent renission of such tumors in laboratory mice. Forthe first time in history, the ancient techniques of acupunc-ture are being taken seriously by science.

But most interesting are the recent studies at the sameuniversitv regarding the methods that the Nigerian witchdoctors have been using in psychosis. The new studieshave uncovered considerable validity in this primitivetribal psychiatry, some of which seems destined to findits way into modern therapeutic use. A critical aspect ofwitch-doctor psychotherapy lies in the acceptance of theonce-scorned concept of "possession," the taking over ofthe psyche of a living individual by an alleged deceasedpersonality.

In Brazil, the picture is slightly different. The Kardecmovement was brou.qht there from France bv intellectuals.Its first adherents in the mid-1800s rvere attorneys, doctors,army cfficers, scientists, engineers, people from the creativearts, and educators. The movement was paralleled amongthe less educated bulk of the population by the strange

- \

ARIGO: SuncsoN oF THE Rustv Kxrne 33

mixture of African religious culture and enforced Ca-tholicism, which ranged from the primitive rites of Quim-banda in macumba clearings to the less primitive mixtureof Catholicism and Yoruba tribal beliefs called Umbanda.Both grew out of the early days of Brazilian slavery, bothembraced the belief in spirit possession and magical rites.Umbanda, however, more softened by the Christian ethicand embracing both Catholic and tribal saints, rejectedblack magic as part of its creed. Quimbanda did not. Bothforms were "spiritist" in character.

The result of all this has left modern Brazil with threestrata of spiritist belief, from the primitive Quimbandathrough the more refined Umbanda to the intellectuallyelegant Kardecists. And although Catholicism claims anenonnous percentage of all these groups, the reality isthat it has had to compromise and look the other way asfar as their spiritist practices are concerned.

This was the ambience that Puharich and Belk faced intheir expedition to Congonhas do Campo. Neither knewexactly what to expect, but Puharich remained firm thenext morning in his resolve to let Arigo operate on him.

At breakfast Fuharich told the others about his decision.They were surprised, and there was considerable concern.Belk, who had a pinched-nerve condition in the small ofhis back, said he was willing to try some of Arig6'smedication-but surgery, that was a different thing. Puha-rich, however, was determined, and the group made theirway to Arigo's clinic for the third straight day.

The preparations for filming had already been made.Belk had a Polaroid camera with black-and-white film.One of the interpreters had a Minox B camera with thesame t)rpe of film. Rizzini was prepared with his 8mmKodak motion picture camera, loaded with Kodak II colorfilm. The other interpreter would handle the lighting.

Puharich had also decided to ask Arigo to perform onhim the eye "examination" with the kitchen knife, whichseemed to be one of his specialties. With Puharich's twotests recorded on film, the capacities of Arigo would beclearly confirmed-either for better or for worse.

They approached Arigo, and Puharich asked through

34 ARIGO: Suncr,owoFTHERusrvKNrre

the interpreter il he would be willing to undertake thesurgery on the arm and the eye probe. The request, over-heard in the crowded room, brougbt silence to thepatients gathered there, and an air of expectancy. The"Americano" doctor was now about to become one ofthem. Arigo threw back his head and laughed, and said ofcourse he would do so. Then he turned abruptly to thecrowd, and said, "Has anybody here got a good Brazilianpocketknife to use on this Americano?"

This brought Puharich up short, but he could not turnback now. Half a dozen pocketknives were offered almostimmediately from among the patients. The atmospherewas almost carnival-like. Belk found it hard to continuelooking at the scene. He fingered his Polaroid nervously.

Arigo siudied the knives critically. They were a varie-gated collection, some of them looking dull and rusty.He rejected several, then finally selected a Brazilian ver-sion oi a Swiss army knife.

As the interpreter translated, Arigo spoke in his bluffand hearty way. "The American scientist has courage," hesaid good-naturedly. 'oHe deserves an audience. I amgoing to demonstrate to this materialist what a spirit canproduce. But he is right. my brothers. A scientist has totake all kinds of chances. Pasteur-didn't he take a chancewith microbgs? That is what a good scientist does. Notthe scientists who are afraid to come here to Congonhas.But now we'll demonstrate something he has never seen inthe United States."

The preamble was characteristic of Arigo's rough ruralstyle, but was hardly reassuring.

"We'll do the arm first," Arigo said. "Just roll up yoursleeve, Doctor." The action was movrng so fast now thatFuharich turned quickly to check the' camera setup.Rizzini was already lining up his motion picture camera;Belk and the one interpreter seemed to be set with theirstill cameras. All three were now considerably tense andnervous. The operation was a one-shot take. There couldbe no such thing as a retake, and Puharich was as ap-prehensive about this as he was about the operation. I{einstructed the other interpreter to bounce the battery

ARIGO: SuncsoN oF THE RusrY Kxrre 35

light off the ceiling, to prevent burning the image in thelens. Then he turned back and prepared to watch Arigomake thet incision.

But Arigo instructed him to look the other way, and, ithad become obvious, when Arigo commanded, it was use-less to argue with him. Puharich obliged, again checkingand directing the cemeras and lighting.

In considerably less than thirty sesslds-s6me of theothers said it was less than ten-Puharich felt somethingwet slapped in his hand, along with the pocketknife itself.He looked down and saw the bloody form of the lipomaand the knife Arigo had used to extract it. On his arm,where the tumor had been, there was a small slit, witha trickle of blood dripping down from it, but very little,considerably less than two inches. The skin area was flat;there was no longer the bulge of the tumor.

Puharich was stunned. There had been no pain what-ever in the arm. He had felt only a slight, vague sensation.The others had watched with incredulity. Just before theoperation, Rizzini had started his camera rolling. It con-tinued to roll all through the process and afterward. Arigohad taken the knife,.seemed to scrape it over the skin, andwithin seconds, had pulled out the lipoma with his hands.It was totaliy alien to any surgical procedure.

Arigo smiled, and said to Puharich that Dr. Fritz hadtold him to say: "This is a demonstration only-so thatpeople will believe. I think every doctor in Brazil shouldcome here and do what you have done. After the legalprocess against me, you must come back, Dr. Puharich,and I will do major surgery for you."

Puharich, in one sense, felt vaguely unsatisfied. "Iexperienced absolutely zero. I couldn't believe this hadhappened, yet it had, and there was no mistake about it,"he said later. He lmmediately asked for the knife-in-the-eye procedure, but Arigo told him he had enough for theday. "Besides, you have nothing wrong with your eye,"he added.

Belk, in the meantime, was taking the Polaroid film outof the camera, the shot he had made at the moment'of theincision. But it was badly overexposed. The interpreter

35 ARIGO: SuncBoN oF THE Rusry KNrne

with the Minox camera had frozen in fear at that moment,and had forgotten to snap the picture. Only Rizzini'smotion pictures would be able to supply the urgentlyneeded documentation of tle incision-and it would beimpossible to know until these were developed on his-return to Seo Paulo. Both "before and after" still andmotion pictures of the area of the forearm had been takenin profusion, so at least these steps in the procedure wouldbe well documented.

There was another test factor in prospect that would beof major significance. Arigo had not washed or disinfectedeither the skin or the knife. The entire area was dirty andunsanitary. Septicemia was a distinct possibility underthese circumstances unless strong antibiotic treatment wascommenced irnmediately. If, without this, the woundhealed cleanly, a further proof of Arigo's powers wouldbe provided. Puharich determined to avoid any use ofantiseptics on the wound, and to shun any antibioticsuniess the wound became critically infected later. Hepermitted Altimiro, Arigo's soft-spoken assistant whotyped the prescriptions and did sundry dressings ofwounds, to tape an unsterile gauze square over the wound.

Puharich now felt that he had gotten over the bighump. He'could confirm at least ttrat this was no twilightzone, that it was something very real and valid. With onlya pocketknife and a few other instruments, which werekept in what appeared to be a cookie tin, a beat-upfountain pen, and a plain paper tablet, the Brazilianpeasant was treating more patients in a day than a greatuniversity medical center saw in a week. Whatever hewas, Arigo was some kind of undefined medical genius.

Puharich and his interpreter finally cornered Arigo for aserious talk. He asked if any doctors had come to Con-gonhas and made a serious study of his work. Arigo saidthat very few had come, and although some had sup-ported his work, the Brazilian Medical Association wasdead set against him, as well as the Roman CatholicChurch. Arigo deeply regretted the latter, he said. becausehe had considered himself a devout Catholic. and he stillput all his faith in Christ. He took no personal credit

ARIGO: Suncsor.I oF THB Rusry KNrFE 37

whatever for what he did. He added that he wasn'tsupposed to be doing any operations, that in the past hehad done major ones with no reports whatever of death orinjury resulting. These he had done publicly. He con-fessed that if a patient really needed an operation now,he might do it privately, regardless of tle legal risk.

When Puharich asked Arigo if it would bother him ifhe came back with a medical team for some extensiveresearch, Arigo replied that if it were done right, it wouldhelp him immeasurabln since no one had ever reallyvalidated his work scienffically. Some of his patients hadactually been doctors, he said, but they didn't tell anyoneout of fear of professional reprisals. He added that he hadbishops and nuns and priests who had come to CongonhasIor treatment, but that the Church itself remained againsthim. The government was of coruse technically againsthim. It was the pullic prosecutor for the state of MinasGerais who was lslnaliTing the charges against hini. Thelawyers, the judges, the legislators-many of whom cameto him for treatment-all were sympathetic, but,unableto do much if anything about it because of the Penal Code.

He went on to tell Puharich that he needed publicsupport, and that a formal scientific con-firmation of hiswork might help considerably. With Arigo's cooperationassured, Puharich made a firm resolve to come back toCongonhas as soon as practically possible.

Before they left Arigo, Belk requested and received aprescription for his back condition. To make the "diag-nosis," Arigo simply glanced at Belk casually, while hisright hand automatically scribbled out a prescription.Altimfuo typed it out for him, a task he performed atmachine-gun speed.

Puharich found Belk's prescription grossly absurd for aback condition, and completely irrational from a medicalpoint of view. Further, it called for massive doses whichseemed totally out of line. In addition to vitamin Br2capsules, the prescription included Novazolon and Livi-sym, two digestive enzrymes, and Pankreon, a pancreasenzyme. The drugs were trade-name pharrraceutical prep-arations of Brazilian manufacture. and in normal thera-

38 ARIGO: SuncBoN oF THE Rusry KNrre

On reflection, Puharich could recall that the only sensa_

ARIGO: SuncBow oF THE Rusrv KNrrB 39

tion he had felt was equivalent to a slight pinprick. Theincision, he noted, was actually smaller than the lipoma.This was also contrary to surgical routine. Both Belkand Rizzini were able to tell him that it was removed byhand, without any instrument. Belk seemed to think thetumor almost popped out. Beyond the lack of pain andmajor bleeding was Arigo's method in itself. It would bea rare surgeon who could work at that speed and not dodamago to the nerve localized in the area. Arigo seemedto work in blatant defiance of medical precautions-butthen again, Arigo had made it plain that he couldn't takeany credit for anything. It was all in the lap of Dr.Adolpho Fitz-a deceased German doctor who must havelearned a lot of pharmacology and surgical techniquessince he died in 1918. It was all too bizarre. Yet thematerial evidence was there to see; and that fact wasirrefutable: Puharich had preserved the tumor, intact, ina glass bottle.

It was also a clear fact that they had been unable togather any evidence that Arigo received any money orgifts whatever for his services. "He won't even accept acup of cofee," the mayor of Congonhas had told Belkwhen he inquired earlier. The mayor, Josd Theodoria daCunha, confirmed to Belk what he had heard from someof the local doctors: that nearly everyone in town hadnothing but praise for Arigo, including most of the doctorsthemselves. Mayor Cunha's brother was a physician prac-ticing in Belo Horizonte, the nearest large city, some eightykilometers away. He had studied in the United States,completing his training at St. Luke's Hospital in KansasCity in 1952. He was bafied by Arigo, but confirmed hiswork without hesitation.

Musing over the experience with Arigo in his notes,Belk wrote: "Without doubt, he is the busiest and quickest'doctor' I have ever seen. He outdoes Henry Ford'sproduction line in Detroit. All patients are serious. Someare brought in on stretchers. Lourdes in France wouldrun a poor second, if that. Competition is going to betremendous in the healine business if Arieo wins hisl a w s u i t . . . .

40 ARIGO: SunceoNoFTHERusrvKFrIFB

"When Arigo comes to trial for practicing medicinewithout a license, he will no doubt be guilty, because hehas healed thousands. He is permitted to write prescrip.tions for one and all without control, which amazed us.When Arigo pushed the knife blade in the eye of thefirst patient, and plunged it behind the eyeball, I wasafraid it would pop out completely, aside from the risk cfinfection, using a kitchen knife.

"I'm leaving my address with Arigo; and have offeredto send him a ticket to the United States. To me, he hasproved a case. As a taxi driver at the depot told me:'Sure I know Arigo. I drive down from Belo with themsick, and return with tlem well.' I believe this hackdliver.'o

On the way to Belo Horizonte that afternoon, skirtingover the precipitous roads of Minas Gerais, Belk andPuharich agreed that physicians from America and Europeshould come to Congonhas, study the phenomena, andtry to explain the process. Just how was another question.Arigo was apparently beyond the accepted lirnits of para-psychclos.v, to say nothing of medicine. As the tall, whitebuildings of Belo Horizonte suddenly broke into viewover the soft green mountains, both men knew that therewas an enonnous job to be done, and they would needall the help they could get to persuade, caiole, and con-vince other researchers that it was worth doing.

At Belo f{orizonte, Belk got his strange prescriptionfitled. It cost about fifteen dollars in American money. Hefelt a little sheepish in taking the medication, and was notable to muster much confidence tlat it would do anygood. On the other hand, the thousands of reports thathad been recorded about Arigo's patients suggested that theBrazilian's mystique was much more important than thedrugs involved. Was it, then, some rare and undefinedplacebo effect?

In spite of his wonderment concerning Arigo's painlessskill with the pocketknife, Puharich could not help feelingthat he was bound to get biood poisoning. He found him-self feeling his arm constantly for signs of septicemia,looking for the telltale red streaks, or for any signs of

ARIGO: SuncBoN oF THE Rusrv K:{Fs 4l

tetanus. But by the next day, the wound was alreadystarting to heal cleanly, with the complete absence of in-fection. He couldn't pull the wound apart, no pus what-ever appeared. He continued to refrain from using anyantiseptics on the wound, satisfying himsel-t with changingthe bartdage.

Neither Puharich nor Belk had the luxury of much freetime for setting up the major study they wanted to do.Although the Belk Research Foundation had been foundedto unite such fields as biology, medicine, physics, chemis-try, and other disciplines in the study of the paranormal,Henry Belk stiil had his hands full as one of the chiefexecutives of the chain of 350-odd department stores thatbore his name all throughout the South. His merchandis-ing work with the Belk stores was demanding, but his con-suming interest in parapsychology, which had hegun in hisstudie\ at Duke, was reflected in his setting up the founda-tion.

Belk, an alert and outspoken man who speaks with aSouthern drawl, had been restless for some years aboutthe lack of progress made in understanding the depth ofthe human mind and in exploring its fulI potential. Hewas intrigued by the new signs beginning to show up inthe field of experimental psychology, and the scientific at-tention just beginning to turn toward the accomplishmentsof the Eastern mystics who had for centuries demon-strated that they conld control involuntary processes ofthe body, which had previously elicited hardly a glance onthe part of modern science. There were vast unexploredareas here, and Belk was impatient to get on with what hefelt was a long-neglected job.

He was not by any rneans inclined to be taken in bypretenders. In fact, in any research program he had spon-sored or participated in, he went for the jugular vein inlooking for fakery.

He had been looking for trickery in watching Arigo,but had to admit that he could not find it. Puharich haddone likewise. In any study of parapsychology, an ex-perienced researcher will as a matter of course check thor-

42 ARIGO: Suncpov oF rHE Rusrv KNrrg

oughly on the possibility of fraud. There are too manycharlatans in the field to take chances. Any physician whoshows even the slightest interest in parapsychology orpsychic healing is automatically subject to criticism, a factthat Puharich was well aware of. He had already beensubject to his share of it, but was willing to take that forgranted, as long as he was sure in his own mind that hecouldn't be taken in by trickery or charlatanism.

Puharich was confident that his own scientific trainingenabled him to make considered judgments on this score.After earning his medical degree at Northwestern, he haddone research in physiology in the graduate school there,completed his internship and residency in Oakland, Cali-fornia, and had received a General Foods Corporationresearch fellowship for experimental electrobiology. Hewas licensed for the practice of medicine in California,Maine, and New York, with a specialty in internal med-icine.

The object of his current medical research was thedevelopment of what are called transdermal hearing de-vices, designed to.enable a person suffering from totaldeafness to receive electric signals transmitted through theskin. which are in turn translated into "words." This andother research in the field of bioengineering expanded hisinterest in blending this technical work with such fields astelepathy and extrasensory perception. He was frequentiyasked to present papers to various government and scien-tific organizations that were making cautious probes intothe paranormal, covering such subjects as the biochemicalbasis for extrasensory perception and the problems of in-strumentation and control in this field. His audrences in-cluded the Department of Defense, the Medical ResearchLaboratory of the Army Chemical Corps, the Institute ofRadio Engineers, and the Sixth Naval District. To the lastgroup. he had presented a demonstration by Peter Hurkosinvolving telepathy and clairvoyance.

In addition, he was assisting a cardiovascular researchteam at New York University in the bioengineering de-velopment of electronic and mechanical systems for aventricular assist program. Both this and the hearing-

ARIGO: SuncBoN oF THE Rusry KNrre 43

device project were extremely demanding. But, like Belk,he was convinced that the extraordinary recent develop-ments in the exploration of the rrind warranted irnportantstudy and the sacrifice of personal time to try to advance

--- When Belk and Puharich arrived in 56o Paulo, the first

news they received from Rizzini was that the film hadcome through with flying colors. The operation, Rizzinitold them over the phone, showed up clearly in spite ofthe skimpy 8mm camera and the unsophisticated lens. Inaddition, Rizzini had available the previous films he hadtaken of Arigo, before the legal proceedings had begunagainst him. During these times, Arigo had done morecomplex surgery .

The Americans lost no time in going to Rizzini's apart-ment, where his projector was set up and waiting. Theyreran Puharich's operation several times.

Puharich studied it intently. If anything, Rizzini hadoverestimated the length of time from Arigo's incision tothe removal of the tumor: it was closer to five seconds.not ten. Instead of a direct surgical incision, Arigo seemedto scrape the blade across the surface of the arm, movingthe knife so fast that it was almost impossible to discernexactly how he did it. If the tumor had not completelydisappeared from his arm, and if Puharich <Jid not havethe lipoma in a bottle, he would almost think it haC beensleight of hand-a device that some charlatans in the Phil-ippines had used. Within the brief seconds involved, thelipoma was out, and a thin trickle of blood rolled downthe arm.

The film was efiective as proof of the event, and it wasenough to rule out any possibiiity of unconscious hallu-cination, which, of course, had been practically rulcd outearlier. What's more, the wound had continued to healcleanly; no pus formed, no systemic poisoning was evident.Two wildly improbable medical events had taken place:the removal of the tumor and the total absence of infec-tion. There tvas little doubt that Ariso was involved in anunidentified compartment of medic--ine that could have

44 ARIGO: SunceoN oF TrrE Rusry KNrne

profound effects world-wide. The filn sequences tl^at fol-lowed confumed this.

In the sequences involving the eye operations, there wasno question, as they had also noted in person, that theblade of a sharp kniJe was scraped down over the opetr.eye, was plunged deeply up into the sinuses, was lhanip-ulated with force, was used as a lever to extrude the eyc-ball partly out of the socket, and that no injury or damageresulted, after careful examination. Under normal condi-tions, the pain involved would have been literally unbear-able. In the film sequences that Rizzini had taken earlier,a cataract was removed in a matter of seconds from afully conscious, unflinshing patient. A later medical ex-amination by a qualified ophthalmologist confirmed thesuccess. Rizzini told them.

Another full conscious patient was fllmed with a largehydrocele-the painful and alarming condition where atesticle becomes swollen enormously, often doubling, tri-pling, or to an even greater extent surpassing its normalsize. Arigo was seen plunging an enonnous syringe into itand draining the fluid into an empty Orange Crush bottle.The fluid quickly overflowed this container, and a largeCoke bottle was substituted. AII through the .process,which is agonizingly painful normally, the patient stoodcalmly, and even smiled at the camera. When the processwas completed, with quarts of fluid removed, Arigo hadtold the man: "Now you can get married."

Another unusual sequence followed. Arigo operated ona large but relatively uncomplicated.abscess on a patient'sback. As usual, he plunged the knife in brutally, cut deep-ly into the flesh of the small of the back-a sector heavilyserved with blood vessels and therefore inclined to bleedprofusely. Very little blood flowed out, but the abscess wasdrained, and Arigo turned the patient over to Altimiro tocomplete the draining and extract the remaining matter.Although the patient was totally calm and without painduring the time Arigo was operating, he screamed in painas soon as Altimiro touched him. In other words, whateverpower it was that pernitted Arigo to cut painlessly into

ARIGO: SuncBorq oF THE Ruslv KNrne 45

one of the most sensitive areas of the body, it was ap-parently not transferable to his assistant.

In spite of the clear evidence in the films, in spite ofthe preliminary d,ata collected, and in spite of direct ob-servation of literally hundreds of cases by the two Amer-icans, there was still bound to be an uphill battle insoliciiing support for the needed future research. The veryfact that Arigo claimed to be "incorporated" by the spiritof a deceased German physician was enough to turn oftmost of the scientists who might be otherwise interested.This bothered Puharich and Belk too, and strained theirown credulity. It was incredible enough to accept thedocumented empirical evidence, without having to con-sider a concept so foreign to the practical mind that itmight shut oft intelligent inquiry before it started. And yetthis strange claim of spirit "possession" could not be ig-nored or buried, since Arigo insisted it was not only anintegral part of his work, but was the entire essence of hisskills and powers. Far from enhancing an explanation ofwhat Arigo did and how he was able to do it, this was astumbling block. A scientist who stood up before a meet-ing of a professional organization and began with a state-ment about Arigo and "Dr. Fritz" would be likely to belaughed off the podium.

Nor was this all. There were reports that other "spirits"entered into establishing Arigo's prowess as a miraclehealer. These were even more far-fetched than "Dr. Fitz,"and included the spirits of several other deceased surgeonsand doctors of various nationalities, along with a thir-teenth-century monk. Belk had picked up this informationin his research around the town of Consonhas. and hewas not at all happy about it. It clouded ihe main issue:Was Arigo capable of bringing about cures by medicineand surgery that defied the concepts of modern medicalscience? And if so, how and why? Both he and Puharich

46 ARIGO: Suncror.r oF THE Rusry KNrneprevious study of the subject; but both were wary of thepossibility of fakery.

Even more disconcerting had been a discussion withAltimiro concerning apother "explanation" for the phe-nomena. Belk wrote in his notes:

"Now the most interesting point Altimiro said was thatFre Fabiano de Christo (the thirteenth-century monk whowas supposed to be one of Arigo's sources of assistance)had a green ray which was the source of the effectivenessof the operations. This negated pain, the necessity forantisepsis. controlled the flow of blood in the operations,etc. This ray was invisible to Puharich and me. For cer-tain, Arigo and his helpers can't explain it and after fiveyears. thev take the whole thing for granted. Maybe Ineed smoked glasses."

Puharich was inclined to table the whole stranse con-cept of Dr. Fritz and his alleged colleagues in fivor ofconcentrating on the empirical medical facts about Arigo.This was a big enough job in itself, without this imponder-able complication that seemed to grow out of the Brazliantradition entrenched in the Kardec philosophy.

When they left 56o Paulo for Rio, the two American

with less intensity. Adherents of both forms believe thatlegitimate mediums, or "sensitives," can document casesof telepathv. clairvoyance, and precognition, and, in somecases. communication with the deceased. Further, thespiritists point out, studies of mediums by such responsibleresearchers as William James, Sir William Crookes, andother scientists of the era had shown that evidence ofautomatic writing, where the medium becomes an instru-ment of an alleged deceased spirit, pointed inescapably totheir being in communication with what they called thespirit world. The Kardecists of Brazil, including doctorsand scientists, were going beyond this. They felt that thisparanormal power could be harnessed for medical use,

ARIGO: SuncsoN oF THB Rusrv Kftrre 47

and claimed to have enough real evidence of its effective-ness to bring important medical results in patients thatmodern medicine could not help.

In Rio, Belk and Puharich explored this prevalent at-titude in greater depth, both with John Laurance, the RCAand NASA executive engineer, and Luis Rodriguez, aretired pharmaceutical manufacturer who had turned al-most all his time and attention to trying to consolidatemodern psychiatry with the best nuggets of truth andtechnique culled from a careful sifting of primitive psy-chiatry and medicine. He felt fJrat Freud, Jung, Adler, andthe other pioneers had stopped far short of getting at theroots of the real causes of psychosis and neurosis. Hewould only concede that the theories of Freud"s era werevalid up to a point.

Rodriguez agreed with Puharich and Belk that ESP andother aspects of mediumship unquestionably exist, but thatthe vast majority of those calling themselves mediums wereeither outdght frauds or entertaining magicians. The threealso agreed that psychic healing existed in various forms,from the time of Jesus and before to the modern psy-chiatrist in his treatment of psychoscmatic disorders. Theyalso agreed on other, rnore esoteric aspects of parapsy-chology, but Rodriguez's main point was that this sort ofphenomenon was prevalent all throughout Brazil, and thatArigo was only one of many who had displalled similarpowers. The others were not quite as dramatic surgically,but nonetheless showed strong evidence of brinqing aboutalmost impossible cures in patients given up by doctors.

John Laurance concurred in the assessment of Arigo'snear-miraculous surgery. He was also convincecl that therewas no fakery involved, as had been found in the Phil-ippine healers. But he feit that Arigo should be consideredin context .ririth the entire psvchic-healing scene that hadhistorically grown up in the arnbience of Brazil. Aftercareful study, Laurance had found that it was not possibleto deny the reality of results obtained by Kardeeist doc--tors, who, despite their impressive conventional medicaltraining, called on mediums to buttress their diagnoses andtreatment.

48 ARIGO: SuncsoNoFrHERusrvKNrnB

As a cautious student of psychic phenomena, Laurancewas finding that as he learned more about the field, thefanatical, superstitious, and noisy elements became lessimportant, provided that the same cold light of reason heapplied in his scieniific work was used as a tough screento fi.lter out the static. His background and experience washighlv technical and exacting. Working with advancedspace-vehicle systems and the NASA satellite programsallows little room for error, and he brought the same dis-cipline to his investigations of the paranormal.

Laurance was impressed by the fact that the Kardecistsin Brazil had established two large hospitals associatedwith medical schools that enrolled over two thousand stu-dents for a four-year course. They combined the study oftraditional medicine with the practical use of mediums asan adjunct that could supply therapy that simply was notavailable in the channels of orthodox medicine. In thisway, they found cures that cotrld be obtained in no otherway.

One of the techniques employed here was a form ofpsychic surgery considered more sophisticated than that ofArigo. It employed mediums who claimed they were in-struments of a group of deceased doctors and surgeons,just as Arigo claimed. Both, therefore, were following oneof the tenets of Allan Kardec which sud:. The spiritualworld is in constant contact with the material world, eachreacting constantly on the other. Kardec, aware of howdifficult this premise would be for the skeptical world toswallow, added: This is what the spirits themselves havedictated. If your reason says "no," then reject it.

There were obviously many who did reject it, but inBrazil there were many who did not. They included theeducated Kardecists and the untutored masses of Um-bandists and Quimbandists. And it was among these ad-herents, and others willing to experiment when everythingelse in medicine failed, that the Kardec-trained psychicmediums worked.

Their technique involved surgery on what the Karde-cists call the spiritual, or etheric, body. The trained me-diums use actual surgical instruments, and the patient is

ARIGO: Suncsox oF rHE Rusrv KrtrrB 49

placed on an operating table. All the motions of regularsurgical procedure are followed, but no incision is made,because the motions are conducted a few inches from thebody of the patient, The scene becomes an exacting pan-tomime of an operation in a modern hospital. The theoryis that the mediums are operating on the spiritual body,which they consider to be very real, and the results willfollow in the physical body. An enormous number of suc-cessful cases have been verified by responsible doctors,but the concept of psychic surgery is so alien to the aver-age person that the process remains largely unknown inthe Western world.

From the North American point of view, the radicalnature of the concept is so remote and strange that qual-ified scientists would quite naturally have dismissed it outof hand. Evidence that the scope of future research wouldgo far beyond Arigo was indicated by the fact that Bra-zllian Air Force medical doctors were studying anothermedium in northern Brazil who was performing opera-tions very similar to those of Arigo.

Puharich and Belk were intrigued, but the documenta-tion of Arigo was a massive enough job in itself. StudyingArigo would at least be dealing with actual surgery, evenif the underlying cause spun out into the remote un-known. Arigo also provided a clear, single focus forclinical study, as strange as it was. And even here, theproblems were monumental. Simply delimiting the extentof the research would be a demanding job. While it wouldbe tempting to extend the research because of what washappening elsewhere in Brazil, it would be simply im-practical.

Rodriguez propounded some interesting theories thatwent beyond the study of Arigo. He felt that the Kardecistconcepts, which were basically beyond the mystic-religiousbeliefs of the past, could be organized and presented in anobjective, matter-of-fact manner that would solicit scienceto assist in making breakthroughs in the nature and me-chanics of these esoteric phenomena. As a result, equallynew breakthroughs might follow in medicine, electronics,and even economics and politics. As a further result, the

50 ARIGO: SunceowoFTHBRusrvKNrns

basic nature of man might be developed and brought up tothe level of his runaway materialistic progress.

Rodriguez was strong on the theory that modern psy-chiatry had bypassed inany truths by ignoring the primitivemedicine man's inclusion of the so-called spirit world asfar as psychosis and neurosis were concerned. Arigo, bydemonstrating what a simple, uneducated peasant coulddo, symbolized this vacuum in modern research. Rodri-guez encouraged Belk and Puharich to follow up strongly,and offered any help he could give them when they re-turned to Brazil.

The whole complex phenomenon was in the wind al-most everylvhere in Brazil, and some of it filtering toEurope and North America. But harnessing that wind wasanother problem. By the time Belk and Puharich werepreparing to leave Rio, the press had seized on Arigo'soperation on Puharich, and the story was spread acrossthe country in blazing headlines. Arigo, in fact, seemed torival Pele, the great soccer star, as far as Brazilian presscoverage was concerned.

The story of Puharich's operation caused a sensation. Itdisturbed Puharich and Belk because such sensationalismmight turn oft the responsible support they needed. It alsoforeshadowed the problems they might have in returningfor more depth research. trt wasn't the kind of thing thatcould be done in a glass cage. A wide press would also bedamaging if some of the publicity flltered up to the UnitedStates before the facts had been assessed and put in properperspective.

To harness the research properly, Puharich would haveto begin with the concrete and medically recognizable.From there, the exploration would naturally have totravel out of conventional orbit, simply by the nature ofwhat Arigo did. But first things had to come first. One ofthe basic facts at hand was that when Arigo used a knifeon a patient, there was overwhelming evidence, if notproof, that the knife did not hurt; The second basic wasthat when he cut into the patient's body, the wound didnot bleed, or at least stopped bleeding on Arigo's verbalcommand. The third basic was that the wound from the

ARIGO: Suncrow oF THE Rusry KNrrB 51

unsterile knife did not become infected. These were thethings that would have to be examined medically fromevery possible angle. Where the research trail would leadfrom there was impossible to tell.

In reviewing his notes of both his direct observationsand the film sequences, Puharich tried to justify what hesaw in line with'his medical training. He was thinkingspecifically of the cataract operations Arigo had per-formed with such ease and speed, a matter of seconds. Inconventional surgery, the patient is completely immobi-lized under deep anesthesia. Complete scrubbing and ster-ilization is imperative. The operation-to remove theclouded lens of the eye-under these conditions variesfrom ten to thirty minutes. Arigo, whose hands and knifeworked so fast, seemed to carelessly plunge a blade intotle cornea of the eye of a fully conscious patient standingagainst the wall, and the lens seemed to pop out almostmagically. Yet there was no magic or sleight of hand here,because Puharich had examined the patient before, during,and after the process, and verified that the lens of the eythad been removed. The more he reflected on it, the moreincredible it was.

Or the hydrocele draining, which he had seen clearly inthe film. Some hydroceles are classified as elephantiasis.This is a chronic condition where the tissues of thescrotum become enormously enlarged as the lymphaticfluid builds up in the sac and doesn't drain away. In someexaggerated cases a wheeibarrow must be used to supportthe enlarged organ. It is most often cause$ by a nematodeworm called Wuchereria bancrofti.

The usual medical practice is to drain the sac with aneedle for temporary relief, after anesthetizing the areacompletely. This is repeated, along with antibiotic medica-tion, as the condition demands. But it does not get rid ofthe blockageof the lymphatic tubes that caused the condi.tion. In some cases, the testicle must be amputated. ButArigo drained his cases without anesthesia, and was re-ported to have brought about permanent cures.

It was this sort of thing, along with the myriad othertreatments Arigo used, that would have to be examined

52 ARIGO: SuncsoN oF THE Rusry KNrFE

and analyzed. By the time Belk and Puharich returned tothe United States, Puharich was already blocking out theareas they needed to explore. The entire personal historyof Arigo would have to be gathered and studied.

What were the roots of this capacity that enabled Arigoto do what he did? How was his psychological backgroundformed, and what influenced it? What about his early boy-hood? What triggered him into launching this unusualcareer? How could he possibly work so indefatigably,handling hundreds of patients a day? Where did he learnhis pharmacology? The "Dr. Fritz" theory was so in-credible, it was hard to consider. While Arieo's handwrit-ing was crude, the spelling of the most coirpiex modernpharmaceuticals was correct, from antibiotics to corti-sones, from the leading drug manufacturers of the world.And they were written at lightning speed. It was essentialthat answers to all these questions be found in order tounderstand the phenomenon.

Belk had his reflections, too. What was most difficultfor him was to put what he had observed into the dis-ciplines of parapsychology. But one ve(v real piece ofevidence was foremost in his mind: within three weeksafter he had started taking the medically irrational pre-scription Arigo had given him, his backache had disap-peared.

In 1950, thirteen years before Puharich and Belk came toCongonhas do Campo on their research expedition, Brazil-ian Senator Lucio Bittencourt lay on his bed in his roomat the Hotel Financial in Belo Horizonte. There weremany conflicting thoughts going through his mind. The

3

ARIGO: SunaBoN oF THE Rusrv KNtnS 53

campaign for the national and state elections of that yearwas tougb and vigorous. He was not only running forreelection as senator, but had taken on the added chore ofstomping through the mountain expanse of the state ofMinas Gerais on behalf of Getrilio Vargas, the quixoticpresidential candidate who had dominated Brazil's politicallife for many years. Vargas was now in the process ofstaging a comeback, after a five-year hiatus forced on himby a military junta. With two.campaigns to run, one forVargas and one for himself, Senator Bittencourt had hishands full.

But there was another complication, a serious one. Hehad been told by his doctor in Rio de Janeiro that lab-oratory tests showed he was suffering from lung cancer,and that his only hope was an immediate operation. Other-wise, there was little chance he would survive. His doctorhad recommended an operation in the United States,where some of the surgical techniques for this particulartype of operation were more advanced.

Senator Bittencourt fully intended following his physi-cian's advice. But he felt so intensely about the politicalstruggle he was involved in that he postponed the decisionuntil after his campaign sweep through Minas Gerais.Dedicated to the cause of the Partido Trabalhista Brasi-Ieiro-the Brazilian workers' party-he felt that only' Vargas would be able to continue pushing for more benev-olent trealment for labor and more progressive steps inrrri^"rture and education.

fhe senator had recently stopped in Congonhas doCampo. Although it was a small village, it was politicallyimportant because it was deep in the heart of the iron-mining district, and the miners faced an uphill struggleagainst poverty and deplorable working conditions.

He had been impressed with the dynamic, thirty-two-year-old former union president who greeted him on hisarrival in the town. His name was Jos6 Pedro de Freitas,and he was obviously strong as an ox, extremely vital, anda natural leader dedicated to the cause of the workers. Ittook little time to discover that Jos6 was known everv-

54 ARIGO: SuncBoN oF THE Rusrv KNrB

where as Arigo, a word in Brazil that translates roughly as"jovial country bumpkin," but was well loved in spite of it.

The senator was quick to recognize Arigo's consider-able magnetism and crude good nature. Arigo, in turn,rankling under the dismal working conditions of theminers, assured Senator Bittencourt of the support of hisunion. Welcoming the assistance, the senator invited Arigoto bring a group of his miners into Belo Horizonte for arally to be held the next day.

After they arrived in the city, they found that the rallyhad been postponed for a day. The senator invited Arigoto stay overnight at the Hotel Financial, a towering, mod-ern hotel on the Avenida Afonso Pena in the bright, new,growing city. Arigo, aithough he had a great fear ofelevators, agreed to stay and registered in a room downthe hall from the senator. He insisted, however, on walk-ing up three flights to do so. That evenin.g they joinedother campaign workers at a churrasco at the Churras-caria Campones, where barbecued meats were piled highalong with leiiao,black beans seasoned with onions, garlic,and spices, atd arroz de Galinha, rice blended with chick-en, boiled eggs, and olives. It was a festive evening, andthere was a bountiful supply of chopp, the frothll Brazilianbeer. Arigo had a glass or two of wile, although he seldomdrank.

The festivities carried throush until late in the nisht.Although the worries about his- health hung heavily o-verthe senator, he joined in with the others, quaffing a con-siderable number of mugs of his favorite dark beer.

Sometime after midnight, the senator and Arigo re-turned io the Hotel Financial, walking through the wide,deserted avenidas of the city. Senator Bittencourt hadtrouble getting to sleep. The combination of the stress ofthe political campaign and the worry about his physicalcondition did not lead to quietude.

The senator did not recall just how long he lay tossingin his bed. He was awars, though,.that just when he felt hemight doze oft, the door to his room opened. In the half-light frour the hallway spilling through the door, he couldnot clearly tell who it was. The shape of the man was

ARIGO: SuncsoN oF THE Rusrv KNrre 55

similar to the burly contours of Arigo, and as the lightswitch was snapped on, he saw that it was.

Arigo was holding a razor in his hand. His eyes wereglazed, with a far-off look, as il he saw nothing in frontof him. He crossed to Senator Bittencourt's bed, as thesenator gaped in wordless amazement. He recalled feelingvery faint, as his vision blurred and the figure of Arigodissolved into an undiscernible form. But for some reason,he felt no fear whatever. Perhaps he was hallucinating, hethought. He did not cry out, did not try to address Arigo.He remembered hearing Arigo's voice, in a very thickGerman accent. The voice said there was an emergencyand that there would have to be an operation.

At that point, Senator Bittencourt blacked out. Whenhe came to again, the light was still on and his watchshowed that it was five in the mornine. There v/as no onein the room. He felt very weak and laint, but he sat upquickly as the memory of Arigo's entry into the roomflooded back to him. The recollection washazy at first, butit began putting itself together in his mind. He rememberedclearly Arigo coming into the room, razor in hand. Heremembered Arigo approaching his bed and speaking tohim in a thick guttural accent about the need for anemergency- operation. He remembered having no fear. Hismemory could not, however, penetrate beyond the mo-ment at which he blacked out.

Moving slowly, because of his faintness, he dressed. Hewas now shaken and frightened, if not panicked. His calm-ness, so inexplicable at the time Arigo came toward hisbed with the razor, was shattered. Leaving the blood-stained pajamas on his bed, he walked down the hall toArigo's room. His legs were still weak. He knocked on thedoor, and Arigo, half-asleep, opened it.

The senator said that he desperately needed a cup of

56 ARIGO: SuncBoNoFTHERusrvKITIrB

tea, and wanted Arigo to go to a larmacia with him atonce. He would explain everything later. Puzzled andcon{used, Arigo quickly dressed and joined him. In silencethey walked down the Avenida Afonso Pena to a sleepypharmacy.

They entered the establishment, and Bittencourt askedfor a cup of tea, explaining that he did not feel well. Thenhis knees buckled under him and he collapsed on thefloor. Arigo attended to him while the clerk rushed to thestreet to find a policeman. He was back in moments withone. By this time, Bittencourt was beginning to revive.Arigo, by now assuming that the senator had had toomuch to drink, explained the situation in those terms.After Bittencourt gulped down the cup of tea, he said hewas feeling better, and felt strong enough to return to thehotel.

Walking slowly back, he told Arigo that the reason hehad fainted was that Arigo had come into his room andoperated on his back. Arigo was shocked. He acctrsed thesenator gf having drunk too much beer, but tsittencourtheld to his story. He admitted that at first he thought hewas hallucinating. but now the memory was clear in hismind. The bloodstain on his pajamas and the incision onhis back would prove it.

Arigo protested that he had done no such thing, Backin the senator's room, however, he studied the slashedpajamas, the bloodstain, and the incision. There was noquestion that Bittencourt had been operated on. Thewound was fresh, the blood still moist. But he insisted hehad had nothing to do rvith it. Senator Bittencourt, worriedand distraught, said he was leaving immediately for theairport to citch the first plane to Ri6 to see his dtctor.

Arigo was almost in a state of shock. Althou-sh he hadno memory whatever of going to the senator's room, aseries of strange spells had been plaguing him for a longperiod of time. He helped Senator Bittencourt into a taxi,mumbling almost incoherently that if he had done any-thing like this, he had no memory whatever of doing so.

With the senator on his way to the airport, Arigo gotinto his jeep. He was tense and nervous. Whatever had

.frRIGO: SunoroN oF THE Rusry KFrrre 57

happeneC, he knew himself well enough to know that hewould- never do anything out of malice or foolhardiness.Ye:t if he had done this incredible thing, he obviouslystust be bordering on insanity. He prayed that SenatorBittencourt's doctor would find that he had done no harm-if, indeed, he had done anything at all.

The hor-rr and a half it takes to drive from Belo Hori-zonte to Congonhas do Campo allowed Arigo consider-able time for reflection. From what had been happeningto him over tle past several years, he was convinced thatwhat Senator Bittencourt had described might very wellhave taken place-even though Arigo had no memory ofit..

It was hard to define when it all started. Arigo had beenborn on his father's farm on October, 18, 1918, and hiseariy boyhood varied little from the norm. He was one ofeight brothers, all of them healthy and robust, and noneof them suffering from any real deprivation. The father,Antonio de Freitas Sobrinho, owned several parcels ofland and farmed them diligently. He was also one of thetown fathers of Congonhas do Campo. He had. in fact,been chairman of the town council, and continued to siton the board. Some of Arigo's relatives were even con-sidered wealthy, including an aunt who had large ranchholdings and an uncle who was to become mayor of thetown.

Although most of his brothers went on to higher educa-tion, including one who had a law degree and anotherwho was a priest, Arigo was not a g:ood student anddropped out after strugeling through the first three yearsof school. He contented himself with working in the fieldsof his father's farm, living an unstructured bovhood thatallowed him time to spend with the many friends that col-lected around him. He was very popular. He was gar-rulous and congenial, sinewy and strong from his earliestyears. His formal nanae of Jos6 Pedro de Freitas wasdropped early in favor of Arigo, which, in spite of its sug-gestion of hillbilly qualities, was used affectionately by hisfriends. Arigo did not mind it; he actually enjoyed it.

58 ARIGO: SunceoN oF THE Rusrv KNrFP

Even in his brief school years, he was bothered by whalhe described as "a bright, round light, so brilliant that itnearly blinded me." He also experienced moderately per-sistent audio-hallucinations, describing them as "a voiu€that spoke in a strange language." These were infrequentenough to brush off, and he learned to put up with them.He also refrained from discussing them at length with any-one, including his family.

The entire de Freitas family was devoutly Catholic, andArigo grew up in that tradition. The Church of BomJesus do Matosinho, high on the steep hill overlookingthe red tile roofs of the village, and guarded by the almostbreathtaking statues of Aleijadinho, fostered reverenceand devotion, even for non-Catholics. Arigo worshipedand believed in his faith with the intensity that markedeverything he did.

He was outspoken, with little regard for subtleties ornioeties. He often used barnyard language, but he did sowith a certain charm that nullified criticism. He spoke hismind bluntly, spontaneously. He was at times grosslyflamboyant. Yet he was sensitive. He was often moved totears, even as a man. He was afiectionate, embracing hisfriends "with fire," as a friend put it. He was compas-sionate. He loved people, especially children. He wasobstinate and unyielding, often to his own disadvantage.

Congonhas do Campo was a Catholic town. There weretwo monasteries on the nearby mountaintops, at timesrreachable only by jeep. Arigo's family, in their religiousdevotion, were disproportionately lavish in their contribu-tions to both the Church and the monasteries. WhileCatholicism in Brazil is more relaxed and less dominantthan it is in the Spanish-speaking Latin republics, it isstill a powerful force, and 90 percent of the populationprofesses to be part of it. However, as Pedro McGregorpoints out in his illuminating book The Moon and TwoMountains, the spiritist groups, frowned on by the Cath-olics, had 71 orphanages against 73 for the Catholics and25 fot the Protestants. As for social assistance shelters,the spiritists, with their emphasis on charity, had 125,compared to 81 for the Catholics and 25 for the Prot-

ARIGO: Suncrou oF rHE Rusrv KNrre 59

estants. The Catholics in Congonhas do Campo wereespecially uneasy about intrusion by the spiritists, whetherUmbanda, Quimbanda, or Kardecist, and fidgeted un-easily when there were any but minor stirrings alongthese lines.

Arieo began to notice his fourth cousin, Arlete Andre,in the early part of 1943, and fell in love with her. Whenthey were married later that year, there was great re-joicing in his family, because Arlete was also an intenselydevout Catholic, as well as being a graceful and intelligentgirl. By this time Arigo, at the age of twenty-five, had leftthe confinement of his father's farm in favor of working ina local iron mine, where his strength and muscles couldserve him well.

Arigo would rise in the chill of the plateau mornings atthree, for the mines where he worked were a dozenkilometers away-about seven and a half miles. He andmost of his fellow miners would walk this distance eachday, both going to and coming back from work. For theireftorts, they would receive a meager wage and massivecalluses on their hands from swinging a pick all day.

Working conditions were brutal. Most of the minerscould not make encls meet. Some of them, Arigo told afriend, would bring empty lunch pails to work so theycould disguise the fact that they were without money tobuy food. Arigo burned with a strong sense of justice, andhis indignation grew until, as the newly elected presidentof the union local, he sparked the workers into action.The result was a strike, led by Arigo.

Even though Brazil's 1946 Constitution protected theright of workers to strike, both the federal and stategovernments reserved the ri-sht to declare strikes illegal,without the inconvenience of observing due prccess. Thecommon theory behind such action was that anyone whostirred up a strike was likely to be a communist. Whetherhe was a communist or not, he was likely to be declaredso.

Ariqo was not, but the police moved in anyway. Hewas fired, but he resolvecl that he would continue to fightthe iniustice he and his fellow miners had suftered. His

60 ARIGO: SunoBoN oF THB Rusry KNrrs

wife Arlete stood by him firmly and took in work as aseamstress. His father also came to his support, and wasable to set Arigo up in a tavern-restaurant combinationin the village which became known as Bar do Arigo.

fn a way, it flourished. Arigo's popularity drew a brisktrade. But his generosity worked against him. He couldnot resist lending money to a friend, or giving food to astranger. He extended credit liberally, and not at allwisely. All the money he borrowed from his father wentinto the restaurant-bar. Very little was left for living, buthe and Arlete and their gr6wing family managed t6-sur-vive in the little old house on the Rua Marechal Floriano.

Arigo kept afloat, his business buttressed by the con-siderable number of tourists who came to see the dramaticstatues of Aleijadinho. But as his children continued toarrive in quick succession, he began having persistent anddisturbing dreams. In them, the same guttural voice kepttalking to him, in a language that sounded like German,which he had heard spoken at times but could not under-stand. His dreams were sometimes accompanied by blind-ing headaches, which woke him up and from which hecould find no relief. As his fears increased, he came todread the nighttime.

He wanted to keep his anguish to himself, but finallyhad to confide in Arlete that he could not sleep at night.At times he would have to cry out in agony. Rather thandisturb Arlete, he would dress and walk the streets of thetown until the pain subsided. Other nights, Arlete wouldwake to find him cryrng beside her in the bed.

One night an unusually vivid dream came to him, sovivid that he could not get it out of his mind. The scenewas an operating room. There was a group of doctorsand nurses gathered around a patient on the table, alldressed in surgical gowns. They seemed to be workingwith surgical instruments on the patient, meticulously,endlessly. Directing tle procedure was a rather stout,bald man who was speakins to the others in the sameaccent and tone as thi voice-that had been plaguing himfor so long. What disturbed Arigo so much was not thescene itself, but its utter reality. He could not separate it

ARIGO: Suecsor.roFTHERusryKNrre 6l

frqm the actual. And night after night, the same dreamreturned.

In spite of this, he was able to block the dream fromhis thoughts when daylight came. His business was tak-ing a turn for the better. He was able to buy some realestate, and dabbled in the used{ar business with mod-erate success. Whenever the constant$ repeating dreamand the blinding headaches reached a crescendo, he wouldclimb the cobblestone hill to the Church of Bom Jesusand pray.

It wasn't long until a night came when the dreemshifted from a nightrnare to a full-scale hallucination.The fat, bald-headed doctor identified himself as Dr.Adolpho Fritz. In the hallucination, he told Arigo thathe had died during the First World War and that hiswork on earth had never been completed. He had ob-served Arigo for a long time and knew of his generosityand love for his fellow man. He had chosen Arigo asthe living vessel to caffy on his work, with the helpof other spirits who rvere doctors before they died.It Arigo was to find any peace, he would have to beginserving the sick and disturbed people who needed him.Arigo was to take a crucifix he had found on bis father'sfarm some time before and hold it in his hand. In thisway, he would cure the sick.

The doctor standing before him was so real, the in-structions so far-fetched. and the fear so sreat withinArigo that he leaped up from the bed and w-ent $cream-ing, naked, through the streets of the village. Withinmoments a crowd had gathered, and Arlete ran out ofo,he house after him. He was led gently back toward hishouse by several friends who had been brought to thestreet by his cries. He was sobbing and barely.coherent.

The situation was obviously serious. Back in his house,Arigo grew calmer, while Dr. Venceslau de Scuza Coim-bra, the family doctor, was summoned. The doctor couldfind nothing wrong physically and prescribed a seciative.He felt, however, that Arigo should receive immediatepsychiatric attention. Arigo agreed completely. He wasnow convinced that he was havine delusions and that he

62 ARIGO: SuncpowoFTHERusrYKNrre

was utterly unable to combat them by himself. FatherPenido, a parish priest, was also summoned, and prayedwith him.

The priest listened attentively as Arigo described hisstrange dreams and hallucinations. If Father Penido wasmore than attentive to the substance of that night's dreamand to the advice given to Arigo by the strange Germandoctor to go out and heal the sick, there was good reasonfor it. The Catholic Church, in Congonhas as elsewhere,was touchy about the whole idea of spiritism makingany inroads among the people, whether it involved thecrudities of Quimbanda or the intellectualism of the Kar-decists. So far, Congonhas had remained mostly free ofthis disturbing influence, a condition devoutly wished forby the Catholic clergy.

What Arigo was telling Father Penido about thedreams and hallucinations was alarming because it wasindicative of what many spiritist healers had claimedwas a sign of the development of a medium. Arigo wasa solid Catholic. He knew little or nothins about Kardec.With his peculiar, untutored charisma hd could becomedangerous to the Church establishment if he leaned to-ward the work of a healer or a medium. Father Penidowarned Arigo of this danger, and told him that he wouldimmediately arrange for both medical and psychiatricexaminations in Belo Horizonte.

Arigo was more than willing. He went the next dayfor a comnlete physical examination, including X raysand blood tests, in the nearby city. He had a long con-sultation with a psychiatrist. Neither doctor could findanything particularly disturbing. His physical heaithseemed excellent; his psychiatric examination showed nosigns of manifest psychosis, or even neurosis. Follow-upexaminations confirmed the original conclusions.

. But the headaches, dreams, and hallucinations con-tinued. In spite of the anguish and distraction theybrought, Arigo continued building his business and evenstarted to dabble in local politics. He was still smartingfrom the injustices he had found as a miner, and felt theonly way he could combat these was to suppoft the cause

ARIGO: SunceoNoFTrrERusryKNwe 63

of labor both nationally and locally. He continued consult-ing with Father Penido and other members of the clergy,and continued seeing a doctor. No evident physical symp-toms showed up. Occasionally, during the day, he wouldhave a brief fainting spell, blacking out and rememberingnothing afterward. He became convinced he was going in-sane, and pleaded with both the priests and the doctor tohelp him turther.

At length, because the nature of the hallucinations sug-gested &e possibility of possession, Father Penido ddcidedon the need for the exorcising ritual of the Church. It wascarried out with all the ancient and elaborate ceremonythat had characterized the process back through the his-tory of the Catholic Church: the burning of incense, thechanting of litanies and adjurations, the blessing of thehouse to free the sufierer from evil spirits.

Apparently the spirits were not listening, because theritual did not work. On the other hand, the dreams andhallucinations did not seem to involve evil spirits. If any-thing, the attitude of the alleged Dr. Fritz was benevolent.But Arigo was literally erhausted from resisting the Ger-man doctor of the spirit world. Whatever anyone elsethought, the events that were plaguing Arigo were ines-capably real to him.

Almost out of desperation, he wondered what nighthappen if he gave in to the intransigent demands of theso-called Dr. Fritz. He had a chance to try shortly later.He encountered a friend of his who was a cripple, whowalked on crutches and received much sympathv from thecitizens of the town. Hardly thinking before he spoke,Arigo found himself blurting out in his rough-hewn way:"It's about time you got rid of those cn-ltches." Hegrabbed them from the man and told him to walk. Theman did so, and continued to remain able to do so.

Far from relieving his mind, the incident filled Arigowith more fear. If all this were- true. he was beins shoil-dered with an enormous responsibility which he-had norational way of carrying out. In addition, he had beenwarned by Father Penido about spiritisrn and the Kardecistphilosophy, and had no desire to go against the tenets of

64 ARIGO: SunceoN oF THB Rusrv KNrrs

the Church. In spite of his fear, and very tentatively, hetried again with some other friends who were sick withvaried complaints, simply by using verbal commands tothem. They reported back that whatever he had done, ithad worked. But at times, he had to be told that he hadissued these commands. He had no memory of them. Butstrangely enough, his headaches and hallucinations hadstopped altogether during the few weeks he had given in tothe impulse prescribed by Dr. Fritz.

It wasn't long before word spread around the town, andit brought Father Penido on the run. The priest spokesharply. Arigo had placed himself in direct conflict withthe Church. He was already being spoken of as a curan-deiro, the Portuggese word for quack or charlatan. Arigolitsened to the priest intently. He was anything but a rebelas far as the Church was concerned. Further, he was re-pelled by what the priests had told him about spiritism: itwas a heresv of the first order, and should be avoided atall costs. He confessed to his weakness in eiving in to theinstructions of Dr. Fritz. and agreed to stof.

One of the first steps he took was to put up a prominentsign on his door: IN THrs HousE, wE ARE ALL cATHoLrcs.SPIRITISM IS A THING OF THE DEVIL. ArIEtC. WhOSE CON-cern had been growing even more than Arigo's, waspleased with this action. Perhaps now they would havesome peace. But this had no sooner been done whenArigo's dreams, hallucinations, and headaches returnedwith a fury, along with the daytime blackouts, in which hismemory was wiped out for the duration. There were morevisits to Belo Horizonte, this time to several doctors andpsychiatrists, but the image of Dr. Fritz became moreinsistent.

While all this turmoil did not at first afiect the businessat his restaurant, Arigo was very concerned about what itwould mean to his political aspirations. He knew enoughabout his own motives to know that his political hopeswere not slanted for personal gain, but arose from a real

'and almost irresistible impulse to help his fellow man. Thiswas no casual idealistic impulse. In fact, he found it adistinct liability at times. and he worried about it. He had

ARIGO: SunceoN oF THE Rusrv KNrrB 65

many friends who worlied in a local factory that was expe-riencing shakv financial times. lv{any of them were worriedabout thc plant closing, and Arigo offered them almost un-limited credit. He did the same for many others, arrd couldnot resisl lending money to almost anyone who asked forit. lie was not a good businessman, and after a shortperiod of burgeoning prosperity, he was alarmed. to dis-cover thet he was heading for financial disaster. [n spiteof this, he gathered and bought clothing for the poor andtheir children on dozens of occasions.

Now he was faced with this new and unsought thrustfrom "Dr. Fritz," and his conscience was caught in asqueeze between an obsessionai drive of unknown dimen-sions and the Catholic Church, which would look on himas a heretic if he yielded to this undefined impetus. He wasin this state of confusion in 1950, at the age of thirty-two,when Senator Bittencourt had arrived in town to soiicit hispolitical support.

The memory of ail these chaotic scenes was in his mindas he drove his jeep back torvard Congonhas. I{oweverdeep his concern for his feliow man, Arigo ahvavs drovewith utter disregard for life and limb. In Brazil, as innearlv all developing countries, awareness of the deadli-ness of the rnotor vehicle has not yet set in, in spite of thefrequent bloody and harrowins accidents that strew theroads, His tension and worry from the incident in the hotelroom ',vith Senator Bittencourt were terrifying, and he wasagain tormented by the fear that he was on the verge ofrnsanrtv.

As he screecheC around the hairpin turns of the road toCongonhas. he searched his nind trying to remember ifhe actuall-r ' had gone into the senator's room with hisrazor a;rd done what the senator said he l,ad done, Hecould remember none of it. His razor was in its regularplace when he packed to leave. There was no evidence ofblood on it. He had had onlv two glasses of wine to drink,anci had clearlr.' remembered going io bed and sta-iiing togo to sieep. His next memory rvas of the senator pounding

66 ARIGO: SuncBoN oF THE Rusry KNnB

on the door and asking him to go with him to get a cupof tea.

What might happen after Senator Bittencourt's planereached Rio brought Arigo more terror. Suppose thesenator brought charges against him? What if the 'opera-

tion" caused him to die? What would Bittencourt's doctorsay when he saw what had happened? That the .)Derationhad taken place could not be denied. And, with the longhistory of his curandeiro impulses recorded rmong thevillagers and in the files of the Church and rhe BeloHorizonte doctors, it would be logical for them ro assumethat Arigo had done the operation, even thoueh he didn'trecall it at all. The whole problem had reached a new in-tensity, and he did not know how to cope with it.

It was a confused and clisarrayed Arigo who rrrived inCongonhas clo Campo later that morning. His nost press-ing decision was whether he should tell anyone rhout whathad happened. Both Arlete and Father Penido vould betotalll/ distraught if he told rhem, and the town vould bein an uproar. There was already too much talk r()und thetown about the puzzline cures that had resulted 'rom hisprevious actions. He stnrqgled with the decision to tell ornot to tell, but could not bring himself to make it.

In a very short time. the decision was made ror him.Incredible news arrived from Senator Bittencorrrr rle hadgone immediately from the airp<lrt to his doct<,r :,r Rio. Hehad been examined. the wound probed, and X 'rr,s 'aken.

Because of the stranqeness of what had hapn"'red in thehotel room in Belo Horizonte. he had shrunk rr irrr fromtelling his doctor anything until the examination was com-plete. He merely had mentioned that he had been oper-ated on.

The Rio doctor, assuming that the operation had beendone in the United States, as he had instructed, glowedwith satisfaction about the results of the X rays. He ex-plained to the senator that the tumor had been cleanly re-moved by a very unusual surgical technique that did notseem to be known in Brazil. As far as he could tell, theprognosis should be excellent. Yet before the operation, hehad been very pessimistic, and frankly did not think that

ARIGO: SuRceoN oF rHE Rusrv Knrnr 67

Senator Bittencourt had much longer to live. He wouldfollow u, with further tests, but the picture had changedfrom one of complete despair to unqualified optimism.

It was then that the senator told the doctor what hadhappened- The doctor listened, incredulous. He found itimpossible to believe. But Senator Bittencourt insisted,and the doctor was forced to accept the explanation. If thiswas true---and the doctor had confidence in the senator'sveracitr,-.--there would have to be some sort of study toverifr thr medical skills of this rare curandeiro. Either thator the Braziiian Medical Association would have to takeacti6r, asainsi him. In the meantime, the fact remainedthat Scnator L.ucio Bittencourt was a well man, and if thefuture tests turned out to be as favorable as the doctor wasconfidenl thev would be, the senator would remain in goodhealth indefinitely.

The additional tests were favorable, and Bittencourtwas noi one to keep a good thing quiet. After dispatchingthe incrediblc news to Congorrhas do Campo, he told thestor_v to everyone who would listen. Within days, it spreadacross the press in all of Brazil" In Congonhas doCamnrt Arigo became a folk hero overnight-to the con-sternatiru and distress of both the Church and his family.l,1igo protested that he was not at all sure he had donesuch ar operation, that the incident, if it happened, wasbringint him nothing but anxiety and apprehension.

The immoderate exuberance of Senator Bittencourt wasmatched by the towering riisapproval of the Church.Fathet Penido took Ariso in hand and reminded him ofIt is p:c'nise to stop such behavi<-rr. Things had now gonetoo far. Arigo. protested thai it was impossible to stopwhat lrc never remembered doins, or what he was not con-scious of doing. He had not k..olvingly. he assured thepriest. done anything whatever to violate his prornise.The sii:ration presented a bafl ins point of order, andstraineci the compeience of lrather Penido in tri,ing tocon)r' up with a viable answer. 'fhe problem was ahnostimporderable and raiseci the specter bf spirit isrn where itwas least welcome.

Disturbed as she was, Arlete comforted, supporteC, and

68 ARIGO: SuncroNoFTEERusrvKnrrB

ministered to her disquieted husband. His life seemed tobe piling up with a series of crises, involving his business,his political hopes, and his psychological stability.

Meanwhile, the hallucinations featuring Dr. Fritz wouldnot let up, and they gave him no surcease. Because ofArigo's basic honesty and charisma, the villagers for themost part stood behind him as loyally as his wife. SenatorBittencourt returned to the town with lavish praise forArigo's inconceivable surgical prowess, which encouragedthe small spiritist group in town to become more vocal andconspicuous. They felt that spiritism was the onlv possibleexplanation of the seeming miracle that Arigo had per-formed. They claimed that Arigo was a bona fide mediumwho had not yet realized his potential.

The spiritists went even further. They claimed thatduring some of their mediumistic sessions-carried on inthe intellectualized Kardec tradition, and strictlv withoutUmbanda rituals of any kind-Dr. Adolpho Fritz hadmade himself known to them. He told them that he hadspent sixteen years preparing Arigo to carry on the. workof healing. The discarnate German doctor, allegedlyspeaking through the medium, said that he had beenworking'on a medium up north in Bahia, brrt that theman did not have Arigo's selfless qualities and would beIikely to turn his talents to self-aggrandizement, to saynothing of commercial advantage. Since one of the strictrules of the Kardec philosophy iJ that no healer can acceptany money for his work, Dr. Fritz had turned to Arigo,whom he was sure would not violate that principle.

When told of this theory, Arigo dismissed it. The littlehe knew about mediums came from the pungent warningsof Father Penido. and he would have none of il. Srill dis-tressed, he tried to continue his ordinary routine in theface of the fast-moving events, that were overrunning hislife.

He tried to assume a posture of normalcy, difficult as itwas. Not all the Catholic clersv were as severe as theofficial position of the Church itself. Padre Pascoal, whohad taught Arigo his first catechism, was particularly fondof him, and felt that he had spiritual qualities of gieat

ARIGO: Suncron oF THE Rusry Krulne 69

depth and beauty. The pa,.lre had been a chaplain inWorld War II and had observed many strange thinqs onthe b:Lttlcfield that could not be erplained. Ai a result, hehad shrdied hypnotism and pai'apsvchology. He was con-vinced that Arigo was undergoing some kind of para-ps1,-choloqrc experience that was worthy of extensive study.He coi-rrforied Arigo, asked him to have faith and courage."GoC put,.- things in the righi place at the right time," hetold Arieo "He writes straight rhings in curved lines."

The consternation that swep: the streets of the villagewhen Senato' Bittencourt brou,qht his astounding medicalnews r.everberated evervwhere. Jos6 da Cunha, mayor ofCongonhas. had grown up with Arigo in the village. Hetried ta piece together the backeround of his friend toexplzrir, tlre: phenomenon that seemed to be growins into amoder iegenC, But he could find little to explain theroots (rf Arigo's mvsterious powers. Arigo had always heldhis friends spellbound with slories and anecdotes, alwaysseemed to have a fresh vjeq'point on evervthins. He wasahvar, l lrrsting with great good humor, and ionstantlyjoking with his friends. The mayor couldn't resisr thetemptlrtion of wondering whether all the recenr happeningsw€re flo: just one of Arigo's jokes. Whatever it was, themayor was convinced of Arieo's basic goodness and hisunqualifieC aftection for other pcclple. What would follownext ir this strange series of events neither he nor anyoneelse in the' village could know.

Whet iiii happen ne.xt came with such snddenness thatit bror.rehi one of the biggest shock waves that Congonhasdo Crrinl-r ' had ever experie.ced.

Tlre rvonran was very sicL. She suffered from cancer ofthe rrt-r.rus. There was nc hope ai all. and death was ex-pectecl af any minute. She lav on her bed, surrounded byclose relatives and a few frienCs. Candles were l it in thequi;- 't room. antl the priest irrrived to administer exirenteuncl:irrr '. the last rites of the Chr.rrch. The familv vrere goodft' ie't, ls lf Aligo, and he a,ncl A,iete calleC at the house topa! their last respects tc fhe ,-lving woman, It rvas asolemii sccne, and a sad one. The priest completeC theritual, and quietly left.

70 ARIGO: SuncrouoFTHBRusryKwrrs

In the silence that followed, Arigo bowed his head withthe others in silent prayer. Then he began to experience afeeling which had become familiar to him: a tinglin.g thatbegan in his head and slowly moved down through hislegs. He started to tremble and his eyes became clouded.

Then, without warning, he burst into the kitchen andran back into the room in a matter of moments. Therewas a large kitchen knife in his hands. With a sharp, com-manding voice, he ordered everyone to stand back. Thegathering was frozen with terror, and didn't dare move.Pulling down the sheets, he spread the woman's legs andplunged the knife directly into the vagina, probing vio-Iently, twisting the blade, slicing the flesh to widen theopening.

A woman relative screamed and ran out of the room.The others stood transfixed. The dying woman 1ay quietly,unperturbed, as he continued to plunge and jab the blademercilessly. Then he removed the blade, forced his handinto the opening, savagely twisting his wrist as he did so.In a matter of seconds he withdrew his hand, yanking outan enormous bloody uterine tumor, the size of a smallgrapefruit. He crossed to the kitchen, dropped the knifeand the ugly flesh into the sink, and then sank down on achair beside it.

It had all happened so fast that the onlookers simplycould not believe what they were seeing. There was littlebleeding, beyond that on the blood-soaked tumor. Onerelative muttered that he was going for a doctor. and ranout. Others looked mutelv, helplessly toward Arieo, whowas now holding his head in his hand and sobbing. Asister of the dying woman shook herself free from herparalysis, ran to the kirchen, and returned with a basin ofwarm water and a washcloth. Arlete moved almost as if ina dream, and knelt beside her husband. There were tearsin her eyes.

Arigo seemed to be in another world. He cquld harcllyrespond to Arlete's questions. When he seemed to havegained more control of himself, she took him by the armand led him out of the house, stili sobbing.

The doctor arrived shortly afterward, and quickly ex-

ARIGO: Suncnox oF THE Rusry KNrnB 7l

amined the dying woman. lXe looked first for hemorrhag-ing, but there wis none. The pafient was conscious. hidfelt no pain, and was not at all sure what had happenedto her- Hei pulse and heartbeat were satisf4ctory. She feltno discomfoft whatever, either during or after the experi-ence. Shc felt only relief now. The doctor turned fo theothers and asked them to clescribe what had happened.Ther,d;c- so, in meticulous detail.

Thi doctor then examine'l the tumor. There was noquestiori ibat this was a uteri i le tumor. What's more, itwas a erowth that was considered to be inoper able. Hewrapled it to take with hirn for further tests. T'hen herechecked his patient. This was unquestionably the strang-est mcdical case he had ever gnsl;un[s1sd-if not in medi-cal history. Just what the proqnosis would be for hispatieni. hr had no. possible way to determine.

But 'rlie information that finally did ernerqe a few dayslater .was thar the patient r,vas getting better. Cn the heeisof Sc-nator }Jittencourt's case, this news literally rockedthe town. Within days, people began lining up outsideArigo's house. imploring him to treat them. Knowing thenew tui-moil that was nov; seizing the Catholic clergv, heturned to them for help anC lool;ed to the Chrrrch forrefuge fr,rm the clamorine demands of the sick. The Cir',rr:chautharit ies pleaded, cajoled, and demanded that Arigo notgive in to the supplications. FIe tried to resist, but theimprrlst spurred by Dr. Fritz would give him no rest" Andwhen the Cving woman he harl operated on rali ied and wasable to retllrn to normal life. the Dressure to help thosewho weti beeging for treatment became irresiscibie. Orremorning. when neariy a hundred people gathered outsidehis door, Arigo opened it anC let them come in, one by

But when he finished seeing them that day, he remem-bered. l ir l le or nothing about what he had done. He wastokl th..,t he had either writtcn corrtpl)cated prescriptionsin all the proper pharmacological terms or had taken akitchen kniie or household scissors and had operated. Hehad asl'-ed quesiions of norre of ',he patients. His diagnosiswas instant, the minute the patient came up to him. He

72 ARIGO: Suncsor.roFrrrERusryKNrn

either wrote out the prescription or took hold of the knife.Again, there was no pain, no bleeding, no sterile precau-tions. Most punhng to many was that he often spoke in aGerman accent.

Arigo continued letting the sick in, day after day. Hishousehold turned into total chaos. He continued to havelittle or no memory of what took place-an amnesic veildescended on him from the time he met the first patientuntil the last was gone. But out of the chaos came twovery clear results: his hallucinations and headachesstopped, and patient after patient reported complete cures-including some that had an unqualified medical prog-nosis of death.

It was obvious that this could not keep up. Arlete wasthrown into total confusion. The Church had now hard-ened in its posture: Arigo must stop this, or find himselfunwelcome in the faith. The command stopped just shortof the threat of excommunication. Arigo, his headachesand hallucinations gone, toughened in his own way. Hestill accepted the Church wholeheartedly. He was faithfulto it. He went to Mass regularly and received Holy Com-munion. He did not want to give up the Church, but hefelt that he was inexorably compelled to continue his heal-ing work. He was needed-why else did the people jamthe streets in front of his house from daybreak on?

He was soon visited by a man named OrlandinoFerreira, who was the nominal leader of the Kardecistgroup in Congonhas do Campo. By now there was noquestion in this gentleman's mind that the previous com-munication with Dr. Fritz, through their own medium, wasvalid. He talked soberly and at great length to Arigo, ex-plaining what was happening in terms of the Kardec phi-losophy.

Ferreira told Arigo that according to Kardecist belief,the spirit of Dr. Adolpho Fritz was "incorporated" in him-a case of benign possession, as opposed to the black-magic practice of conjuring up evil spirits. When Dr. Fritzentered into Arigo, he literally took him over, supplyingany diagnostic or surgical knowledge necessary for thecase at hand. In other words, it was not Arigo's fingers or

ARIGO: Sr.rnceotl oF THE Rusrv KNrre 73

hands doing the operations, nor was it Arigo's mind pre-scribing the complicated pharmaceuticals which Arigoconsciously knew little or nothing about.

But there was firore involved than Dr. Fritz. Ferreirawent on to say. There was a complete spirit band thatworked together in this cause, which he would explainlater. He wanted Arigo to know some of this backgroundso that he would have more peace of mind to carry outhis important work. And Ferreira assured Arigo that byaccepting this Kardecist phenomenon that had arrived insuch an unwelcome way, he would have no need of for-swearing the Catholic Church. Further, his faith in Christwould be more profound than ever. He knew the terribleconflicts that must be going on in Arigo's mind, and as-sured him they would be eased rathet than aggravated ifhe followed his new calling.

There certainly would be no conflict in basic belief,Ferreira continued. Kardec taught that science and reli-gion were not even remotely in conflict with each other.Science merely was revealing the laws of nature, and indoing so was glorifying God. But science had much more16 lsnln-e5pecially in the areas of the paranormal, whichhad not even been scratched yet. The Kardec spiritists be-lieved that the spirit world is simply less condensed thanthe material world, the world known to science. But it isthe primary world of reality, and the material world issubservient to it. Thoushts and emotions create verv realand traceable electrical energy parterns in the physicalbody, as a polygraph or an EEG will easily record. Somuch more so does the human will, or the soul, accordingto the Kardecists. The biggest job of science is to explorethis relationship between the spirit sphere and the materialworld, he added.

Arigo was in no position to absorb this type of philoso-phy at the moment. But it opened his mind to new vistasand encouraged him to go on with his healing work. Hewas persuaded by Ferreira to recognize the possibility thathe was a medium, and as such, a cliannel to this strangenew world he was not only learning about, but experi-encing.

74 ARIGO: Sunceou oF THE RustY KNrnB

Arigo also recogrrized that he was now in the positionof an acrobat split between two tightropes-the Churchon one side and Kardec spiritism on the other. lt was nota iornfortable position, yet he was unable to fall eitherway. The continuing cornplicarion was that he was ristrallyunable to remember anything he did after he felt thestran-qe tingling sensation that marked the takeover, or"incorporation." by Dr. Fritz.

And thert were the mundane problems that were plagu-ing hiln In addition to the condemnation of his bchaviorby the Chrrrch establishrnent, his family life was sufferingacuielv. His restaurant was faltering now, on the edge ofbankruptc,v .

And in the distance were ominous rumbles signalingthat the Brazilian h,tedical Association, alorre with theCathi-rl ic Church. was preparing legal action throush rhepolicr of the state of Minas Gerais, Division of Robberyand Falsification.

The stress on Arigo was not eased by Senator Bittencourt.The senatol' continued to relate his miraculous surgicalexperience wtih Arigo wherever he spoke, and the morethe senator talked. the more thc Brazilian press pickcd t,tp

the stor,l and repeated it. As a result, people began com-ing from great distances to line up early in the morningoutsjdc Arigo's little house. The crowds became morecosmorolitan. They were no longer confined to the poor

and beseeching. The tailored suils that marke'd the pros-perous businessman, the chic i ines of a Dior dress, mingledoccasionally with the dusty work clothes of the iarrner or

ARIGO: Suncsow oF rHE Rusry KNrFE 75

miner. Cars with out-of-state license plates began to ap-pear in profusion.

Arigo worked with his patients indefatigably, continu-ing to mutter German words, a language he never knewor studied, issuing loud and blustery commands, seizing aknife and lunging at the passive patients, who, for reasonsunknown, never flinched or resisted. The local pharmacistfound himself hard put to stock up on many stranqe newdrugs he had never heard of before. A heavy preponder-ance of the drugs, he discovered from the detail men. wereof German origin. Some were so new that they had barelyarrived in the pharmaceutical warehouses of Rio or 56oPaulo. Others were old and hadn't been generally pre-scribed in years. All, however, were part of the modernpharmacopeia. Arigo's hands wrote the prescriptions in amatter of seconds, his pen moving so fast that the pre-scription was ready almost before the patient could reachfor it.

Tourists who came to see the statues ot Aleiiadinhooften stayed on to see Arigo about a chronic ailment.They returned to their homes with glowing stories aboutwhat they had seen and experienced. Some felt rhere wasa metaphvsical connection between the miraculous stat-uary of the little crippled leper centuries before rnd themiraculous cures thal Arigo seemed to be pernerraiing.The spirit ists in town had already accepted this rheory.

In spite of the growing reverence he inspired. Arigowas no saint and never pretended to be. He rtoutlymaintained that it was not he who was curing, it was theteamwork of Dr. Fritz and Jesus. He denounced "lowspiritism," carefully avoiding, however, any condemnationof the Kardec intellectuals, who were now creating aheavy influence on his outlook. He would announce at thebeginning of each session that no one would be allowedto pay anything, not even the smallest gift. "Jesus nevercharged for what he did," he would tell the gathering."Neither will I. But I am a sinner like you."

Though her household was now a shambles, Arletecontinued to be mutely patient, torn and puzzled bv thisinexorable tide that had gathered. At the end of the long

76 ARIGO: SunceowoFTHERusrvKNrne

day and evening, there would be vomit and some-verylittle--biood to clean up. Arrd Arigo might inexplicablyvomit hinrself, as if he hao absorbed some of the ills of hispatientr.. his eyes watering and clear fluid uncontroilablyfloodint from his mouth.

The sheer foot-traffic problem became onerous. Arigohad no one to help him. Arlete had all she could do tohandle the growing famil.v-' and the sewing she took in tobuttress their diminishi:rg income. Ferreira, watching theincrediblr tide that was growing each day, talked withA-rigo about establishing a spiritist center where theburder, would be eased from his family. Plans rvere madeto shifi the clinic to the enpty church across the streetfrom Arigo's house, no longer in use, and better adaptedto handling the crowds.

It was during this time that a gentie, soft-spoken manin his late forties named Jos€ Nilo de Oiiveiro beganhaving trouble with his left eye. Better known as Aitimirothe Blacl.. because of his dark skin, he worked as a com-positor for the publications of the Catholic Church, havingretired fiom a clerical job wilh the state welfare and pen-sion ofhce Since his livelihood depended on his sight, hisworry increased over the days. His doctor told him he hada cataract. and that it was inoperable at the time. He helCout no hope for corrective surgery in the foreseeablefuture.

Altimiro, along with the entire village and country. infact, had heard of Arigo. He was aware of the growinghostility of the Church against Arigo, and dismissed thebrash iciea of visiting this iiving legend. He was also in-clined to think that the reports coming out aborrt thehealer could not possibly be true. But when he learnedthat several priests and other officials of the Church hadquietll- gone to Arigo and reported cures where conven-tional medicine had failed, he mustered up his courageand slootl in line.

What he saw as he moved up toward the front of theline both frightened and fascinated him. The giant, buli-sized man was explosively speaking his guttural Portu-guese, sprinkled with lvords that must have been German,

ARIGO: SuncBow oF rHE Rusry KnrrB 77

ordering the line to move along, scolding some, puttinghis arm around others, alternately writing prescriptionsand slicing his kitchen knife into a patient without anypreamble. Altimiro found himself transfixed by the man,by his skill and sureness and confidence. By the time hereached the front of the line, his apprehension suddenlyleft him.

Before he knew what was happening, Arigo had pushedhim almost roughly against the wall, asking him no ques-tions. He reached for a knife on the small table in frontof him. For some inexplicable reason, Altimiro felt nofear whatever. He mutely watched Arigo's hand, the knifeblade coming toward his eye. Then he felt a very slightpain, less than a pinprick. In seconds, he felt Arigo pressinto his hand a tiny gelatinous piece of membrane. Thenhe heard Arigo say: "Go with God."

Altimiro moved off numbly, and by the next morninghis eye could see clearly, without the thick-lensed qlassesused for cataract cases. When he sheepishly visited hisdoctor later for an examination, the doctor was at a totalloss for an explanation. If the lens of an eye is removed,it is considered impossible for the eye to accommodateand focus properly. His defective eye now did so. Al-timiro was conient to let the question ride. His brief ex-posure to Arigo made him determine that he wanted towork for this man, regardless of the circumstances.

His resolve was buttressed when he took his uncle toArigo. The uncle was suffering from stomach cancer, andhis doctor held out no hope. But Altimiro watched insuspended disbelief as Arigo took a large kitchen knife,plunged it into the viscera, reached in his hand, andpulled out a tumorous mass. When some bleeding began,he saw Arigo lift his eyes toward the ceiling and say:"Jesus does not want you to bleed." Miraculously, thebleeding stopped. Then Arigo spoke again: "Dr. Fritz,please close the wound." He then ran a piece of cottonover the gaping cut, wiping it lightly. The wound ioinedneatly, without stitches. Altimiro was almost in shock bythe time it was over, but he told Arigo that he wanted towork for him, without pay. Arigo, as if the whole thing

78 ARIGO: SunceoN oF rHE Rusrv KNrne

were preordained, accepted immediately and without com-It

In spite of his twin-ees of conscience about the conflictbetween the Church and Arigo, Altimiro became an in-valuable adjunct to Arigo. It 'wasn't too long before hewas able to type up the illegible scrawl that Arigoscribbled as prescriptions. In addition, Altimiro devised asystem where he would issue numbered cards to ihe peo-ple standing in line, on a first-come, first-served basis.

Arigo had not yet brought the entire Church thunder-ing down on him, but ii seemed to be only a question oftime. A sympathetic pocket of priests, including PadrePascoal, were in charge of the Church radio station thatsat higt on the hill next to the Church of Bom Jesus,under the shadows of the suardian statuarv of Aleiia-dirrho They had become corivinced through quiet inveiti-gation that Arigo was achieving unheard-of results. Intensescientific study was needed, rather than censure, they felt.Thev were inclined to look at the phenomenon as para-psycholosy rather than spiritism. In this way. Arito wouldstand a better chance of being accepted by the Church.

In fact, a young ageressive priest, Bonaventure Klop-penberg. who had been vigorously attacking spiritismthrouqhout the country, had recently written: "The Cath-olic Church does not prohibit the study of parapsychologyor the phenomenon of the medium. The Catholic is per-mitted to study either metaphysics or parapsychology. Infact. Catholic scientists in universities should study thesefields."

It was this sort of loophole that Arigo's friend in theChurch establishment clung to, for they liked Arigo andwanted him to stay with the Church.

But there were others of the hierarchy less charitable.They were already in contact with the medical society ofMinas Gerais to see just how they might go about bringingdown the law on Arigo. In spite of what amounted to anopen piactice of iilegal medicine, they would have to treadvery carefully to push a trial. It would most certainly beheld in Congonhas do Campo, and ihere was no teliing

ARIGO: Sunceox oF THE Rusrv KNIrB 79

what the citizenry would do if their folk hero were thustreated.

Arigo was widely popular, had been so even before hismystique in miracle cures had developed. He was knownas a champion of the downtrodden and for his dedicationto the cause of the miners. F{is sudden blooming into ahealer now made him revered as well as popular. Brazilianauthorities everywhere in the country were always forcedto look the other way when it came to the primitive formsof spiritism in the Quimbanda and Umbanda rraditions.There would not be enough prisons to hold all the fol-lowers of these ritualistic Afro-Brazilian religions. TheKardec spiritists were less conspicuous and more re-spected. Further, Arigo had now attracted as patientssome of the leading statesmen and political Qcures inBtazil, so far had his fame spread. For the time being, itwas more pmdent for the police to look the tlther way-but it couldn't be certain how long that would last.

After finally having to sell his restaurant, Arigo con-centrated on real estate and the used-car business to sup-port his family. f{e also decided to campaign viqorouslyfor the post of mayor of the town. No one qrrits rlnclel'-stood where he got all the energy to add this hrrrden tohis aiready overloaded schedule. He continued, however,to place his healing wor'k ahead of all other commitments.

A portrait of Arigo be-can to be pieced toqerher frommany points of view. Slowly, a tapestry emerqed as hisfame--or notoriety, depe'rding on the observer "spreadacross the country. The tapestry was as confused andvariegated as a Picasso print, but there was truth risingout of the paradoxes. Arigo was in fact many personalities,involving grossly contradictory traits. Adding to the con-fusion were the subjective projections of those who shapedthe portrait.

Some related to his coarseness. Some saw him as saint-ly, and endowed him with this quality above all others.Some saw only his sensuality, because he was a sensualman, and many stories were spread about his real or sup-posed infidelities. Many would not believe he was so self-less that he refused money or gifts, although no real

80 ARIGO: Suncsox oF THE Rusrv KNlrS

evidence was ever presented that would refute this. Be-fore he started each dailv session, he publicly declaredthat no one would be permitted to pay. He would not evenaccept a cup of coftee. He repeated this so often that anyunder-the-table dealings would have sprung into publiccurrenc\ like a brush fire, fanned by his enemies.

The cross section of observers who tried to dissect andanalvzc, Arigo was wideh,' diversified. Aside from theblatantli curious, the people who gathered before his dooreach day were motivated by one essential problem: mod-ern medical science had gone as far as it could go withthem" and had given up. The problem might be minorand chronic. or major and lethal. Wasn't it worth thechance. they thought. to try something else, even if itseemeci patentlv absurd?

One. point of view came from an intelligent, attractivepress oflicen of the United States Information Aqency inBelo Horizonte . She was a devouf Brazilian Catholic, andthereforc was ostensiblv not supposed to have any faithin the Kardbc healing philos;ophy-. She had a nine-year-bld bov who suftered painfully and persistently from acuteasthma. The family doctcr had prescribed allergv medica-tions and injections" but these were almost totally inef-fective The attacks continueci and worsened. As a lastresori. she made a timid decision to take her bov to Arigo.

She arrive<l earlv in the morning, but there were alread!more than a hundred people in line, mostly working peo-ple of modest means She was impressed by rvatchingArigo as she waited her turn, and, though rather fright-ened br his rude" blusrering manner. she sensed a deepkindnesr underneath. His treatment of the boy foilowedwhat was now his usual procedure. In a matter of seconds,Arigo's bee1"- hanc'l had scrawled out a prescription. Hesaid pi-acticallv nothing aslied no questions. She was di-rected to take t[e paper to Altimiro, who quickly typed itout, and the session wa-q over.

She had an impulse to donate some money, but wassharph told this was noi perrnitted, Later. she haci manyseconcl thoughts about filling the prescription, but herdesperation overcame her fear. With considerable trepida-

ARIGO: SuncBoN oF THE Rusrv KNIFE lJl

tion, she took the prescription to the drugstore and had itfilled. She followed the instructions carefully, worriedabouf wheiher the medicines wo,-rld do any harm. She wasvery pessimisiic because the long courses of other drugsthat her regular physician had been administering oversevera! years had been next to useless. How could theprescription from the untutored Arigo possibly be anybetter?.

She watched anxiously over several weeks, relieved tonotice thai at least there were no side effects or adversereactions. But the weeks extended into months, and thefrightening asthma attacks never came back again.

As an intelligent woman arrd a Catholic, she was at aloss to explain the dramatic change. All she could sav wasthat she no longer doubted Arigo and was enormouslygrateful to him. But she remained puzzled and unenlight-ened a,bout what harl really taken place.

Not long after Arigo's fame b.,gan radiating out of hisIittle nainins village, H. V. Walter, the British consul inBelo Horizonte. got wind of his prowess. Being a man ofintense curiosity and eruditiou, Walter was fascinated bythe siories that were filtering down from Congonhas doCampo.

Not the least of these stories came from his close friendCarlos Paranhos <ia Costa Cruz, a dentist whose officewas in the same building as the British consulate. Cruz, agraduate oi the Universitv of llrazil, appeared in the con-sulate office one day visitlly shaken. Walter oflered him astiff pink gin and asked what the story was. Dr. Cruztold him that he had just returned from Congonhas doCampr- with his father-in-law ant1 sister-in-law, and didn'tknow how to describe what had happened.

Sonja. his sister-in-law. and a woman of means andeducation. had been sufferins acrttely for six months frompains in her back. In addition, there was a suspiciouslump growing in her midsection, and she was losing weightrapidlv- The condition was r.liagnosed by her doctors-including her own father, whc rvas a doctor-to be cancerof the liver. There was little hope, because the condition

was considered inoperable. Out of desperation, Cruz wentwith her and her father to Arigo.

Arigo asked no questoins, and didn't even examine thepatient. He abruptly took Cruz and his father-in-law, asideand told them that she had a tumor on the liver. Shewould have to be operated on immediately. Both werereluctant, but Arigo insisted there was no other choice.

Within minutes, Sonja was placed on newspapers onthe floor of Arigo's small room. Arigo brouqht some cot-ton and several instruments, including scissors .lnd knives.He selected a penknife and made an incision. Both Cruzand his father-in-law knew that it was impossible to cutinto the liver without massive hemorrhaging. and neithercould explain why they permitted this to be done. or whythey stood by passively as Arigo cut into the patient withan unsterilized knife and no anesthesia. Perhaps, theythought later, it was because this was the last chance: allelse had been given up.

They watched for the blood to spurt out, but only athin trickle slid from the sides of the wound. Then. Cruzclaimed, an even stranger thing happened. Arieo insertedthe scissors deep into the wound, removed his hand, andthe scissors seemed to move by themselves. Cruz turnedto look at his father-in-law, who nodded and exchangedglances. Later, they were to compare notes and confirm,at least to themselves, what they had seen. In moments,Arigo removgd the scissors, reached into the wound. andpulled out a tumorous growth. With a showmanlike flour-ish, he slapped the tumor into Cruz's hand. Then he tookthe cotton and wiped it along the incision. When he wasfinished, the edges of the wound adhered toqether withoutstitches and Arigo momentarily placed a crucifrx on it.Then he told Sonja to rise, which she was able to do. Shewas weak and shaky, but felt no pain.

The trio left Congonhas stunned and speechless. Cruzand his father-ip-law, both being professional men, foundthemselves faced with believing what was unbelievable andaccepting something that was scientifically impossible toaccept. To them, the experience was more incredible than

ARIGO: Sunceox oF THE Rusrv KwrnB 83

any in Lourdes, if only because this operation was real,tangible, verifiable-and yet it was a miracle.

The British consul listened intentiy to Cruz's story. Hehad been at his post in Brazil fcr over a decade and wasprepared for almost anything. He follorved the case withinterest Although the biopsi' confirmed cancer, the liverregenerated itself-and Sonja gained back ail her lostweigh, and was completely restored to normal health,Carlos Cruz, determined to find iust how such an eventcould hapnen, returned to Congonhas do Campo severaltimes, taking H. V. Walter with him. Although he rvas alayman, the consul had broad interest in medical science,and watched in astonishment as Arigo went through hisdaily routine.

Cruz. finding that his further observations of Arigoconf,rmed the unbelievable capacitv of the man, wasforced to come to the conclusion that there simply was noscientific explanation for it. Even Arigo's use of the Ger-man lanouage was startling enough. Cruz was hoping togather enough data to persuade several different ptofes-sional societies to make a special study, and perhaps eventhe lv{inistry of Health. It was obvious that the law couldnot permit Arigo to continue his practice, and the author-ities rvere certain to clamp down on hirn. This made qoodsense. But if some way could be found to bring Ariqo intoa carefully controlled scientific study, medicine mi_eht beable to make sonne entirely new advances that would carry,it into a new era.

H. V. Walter was astounded and impressed with Arigo'swork, but not at all impressed with the religious aura thatArigo surrounded it with. The consul was a hard-corerealist lvho frankly felt that all religion was poppycock,and was convinced that Arigo's piety was simply windowdressinq Yet his world travels had taught him that prim-itive man's instinct was often more sophisticated thanmodern man's. Carlos Crrz rvas not so sure, but he wasnot concerned about the religi,ous aspect. The scientif,.cstudy under legal conditions was to him the mosi irnpor-tant thing, and he was hoping to get this set up before rhe

84 ARIGO: SunceoN oF THE Rusrv'KNrne

inevitable happened, when Arigo would be clamped downon by thp police.

In spite of the threat hanging over Arigo, the groundswell continued unabated. It was estimated that a thou-sand Argentinians a month were arriving. In one instancea chartered planeload flew into Belo Horizonte, the pas-sengers taking a special bus from there to Congonhas doCampo. Bus transportation from Rio and 56o Paulo wasscheduled around Arigo's workdays, with special sectionsadded at times. The invasion of outsiders into the littletown created a mixed blessing. The economy was ofcourse booming, but the accommodations were inad-equate, and many townsmen claimed that they were beingexposed to diseases that might be contagious.

On one occasion, Arigo rose from his bed after mid-night and drove to a remote clearing several kilometersout of town to meet by prearrangement a truckload oflepers. They had slipped out of their hospital and madethe surreptitious pilgrimage to see him after learning aboutseveral former lepers who claimed to have been cured byArigo. Arigo arrived in the predawn darkness in his jeepto find them hiding behind the truck in the light of camp-fires and flickering candles. There were more than a scoreof them.

They rushed to embrace him. He accepted their em-braces without fear, and began treating them individuallywith an improvised "laying on of hands" method. Daylightwas just beginning to suggest itself over the mountainswhen he had finished with the last leper. Arieo hauled hisheavy, bulky frame into the jeep and started- back to thevillage. He wept openly all the way back. Only Altimiroknew of these clandestine excursions; if they came tolight, the repercussions in the village would be overwhelm-mg.

The varietieS of patients swarming into Congonhas doCampo continued to be a cross section of the entirespectrum of society. An admiral arrived with his wife toseek treatment for her cataracts; the operation was instantand verified, as Dr. Cruz and the tsritish consul watched.The daughter of one of Brazil's leading social families was

ARIGO: Sunceon oF rHE Rusrv KNmB 85

brought to Arigo in a wheelchair. Specialists in Ric hadgiven up on her leg injury, the result of an eqrrestrianaccident Arigo yanked the le.e forcefuily. On her returnto Rit>. she rvas walking norrnaill', and her cure was con-firmed bv the same speciaiisrs who had given her up.

Estimates of the number of patients Arigo was treatingeach dav ransed from the wildlv exaggerated to the timid-ly caulious. Television news proqrams, which freiirrentlvinterrrrptetr regular proglams vrith special news b'-rlletinson Arieo" insistecl that the crcwCs were as high as a thou-sar-rd each day. Whatever the exact number r,va-q. ihecrowds were impressive; the most conservative estimatewas three hundred a day, exciuding the families andfriends who accompanied the patients on the trip.

Some tourists, arriving to see the Aleijadinho st3.tuaqr.were completely caught by surprise on learning atrorr'.Arigo. Armin Bauer, frorn Gernranv, was so takel aL:ackon encountering this utterly increclible phenomenon thathe wrote up his experience f<>r Die Zeit wlren he retrrnledhome I{e was a well-tra.velcd man, his journevs havinetaken him on several safaris in Africa and al! through Asiaand arr-.rrnd the world. Noi kno'.ving Portuguese, he hadsome trouble making hinself as infcrrned as he v,,arrteC tobe aborrt .Brazil, a country which he and other touristsfound cas\ to fall in love with.

He had arrived to visit a friend, an executive rvith theVolkswasen company, in Slo Paulo. Learning about thestaggerinl elegance and artistq,' of ihe Aleiiadinho sculp-tures- he set off for Minas Cerais to see them. ancl thecountrvsidc as well. In the streets cf Congonhas do Cam-po, hr was delighted to fincl another German, accom-panie,'l tr,.' his adult daughter

'llhe1, rvere the only ones hehad encountered on his trip who spoke iris language, al-wavs a welcome event whea oric is traveling ait-in,:. Hewas startled when they hold hirn that the reason they.' hadcome io {longonhas was to seel: a c,;re for the'Jarr,:hier,who rrras suffering from leukemia. Her i l lness hacl beendiag:,--seii by doctors in Cermall,' as terminal. anrl theyhad come here as a last resort.

'Why on earth. Sarer

asked. vrould thev come to this little mountain town? Thcv

86 ARIGO: Suncporq oF rHE Rusry KNrrB

told him about Arigo and asked him if he'd like to comewith them.

Bauer felt embarrassed and uncomfortable, but acceptedtheir invitation. He also felt it was tragic that these fellowGermans were putting their trust in a village faith healerof dubious qualifications at best. Althoueh he felt a littlefoolish, he went with them to the Centro Spirito de BomJesus de Nazarene, the new location, named by the spirit-ists, where Arigo was now practicing.

Bauer was impressed by the cathedral silence of thelarge room and the wide spectrum of social classes waitingto see Arigo. He managed to look over Altimiro's shoul-der as he typed up one of the prescriptions. :Kpecting tofind it nothing more than a list of black-maeic potions andherbs. Instead, he saw pharmaceuticals listed irom Scher-ing, Bayer, Squibb. Upjohn. and other famous houses. Hewas also surprised to notice the nurnber of oeople whowaited for hours in line simply to tell Ariqo thev hadcome back to Conqoirhas to give him their dev,rrrt thanksfor curing them in the past. And as Arigo took r pair ofnail scissors and hacked at a pterygium--a winglikegrowth that fixes itself immovably across the eye from theconjunctiva to the g61ne3-hs noticed several oeople inIine fainting or collapsing, including a foreien iorrrnalist.But the patient stood calmly, unperturbed, and fully con-scious.

On his return to Germany, Bauer wrote for Die Zeit: "Ireally don't think this can be explained by spirit ism, assome of the Brazilians say. Arigo has none of the at-mosphere of mysticism surrounding him. This should beurgently looked into-it needs special study. Scientists aregoing to have their d6u$1s-nqlhing like this has hap-pened before. It has to be seen to be experienced."

Arigo was swamped by requests for appointments fromprominent people, Brazilian and otherwise. fhe Peruvianconsul in Rio telegraphed for an appointment. but like theothers, he had to come on a first-come, first-served basis.

Of the constant stream of journalists that came intoCongonhas do Campo, several were inspired to writebooks about him. Among them were Reinaldo Comenale,

ARIGO: Suncsolr oF THE Rusry KNrpe 87

who flatly called Ari_so the eigirth wonder of the world.Geraldo Serrano woie that Arigo v.ras far fronr a saini,but tha: scientists would be airaid of rhe challenge pre-sented b.,' Arigo, since they rvo,.:id be Quicklli ccnvincedthey rvorrid. lose the battle wiih rationality. Jorg'' Rizzinieventual]v published a bock abcui Arigo, recounr.inq hisown direct experiences with him, arrd backeri up by hisdocrimentarr.; film footage. A highi,l,' regarded professor ofphilosr.ph-rr named J. Herculano Pires produced a crrefuitrvdocuirrrEled book. perhaps the most profound one writtenabout the phenomenon. The problem that altr the aurhorsfaced was one of restraint. After observing Arigo overweeks or months or years, ihey siniply could noi refrainfrom goine overboard in aduiaiion and wondelment.

UnCc" thrr circumstances. thil was undeistandable. AsArig,;'5, iittne grev;, a large serrnreni of the rnedical piotes-sion berrari to get interesrad, botn fa'rorable and unfavor-abls in aititude. The,v would sllon be facinq the sameproblem: rnaintaining ohjecrivity in the fe,ce'of utterl;rincredihre rmpirical facts. The problem would tre in sep-aratirrt {.he subjective frorn the objr:ctive. Obvicuslv theInost imnrrrlant phase for study would be the obiectiveevidence. because it could be measured and grasped.

As ihc public clamor and confusion grew throughoutBrazil. Arigo continued to granpie rvit ir his dorvn-to-earthproble:n:; as well as those oi his heaiin{ powers. He u'assti l l deternrined to run fcr ofl lce i l Congonhas do Cgripoas the onlv rneans of tryin.z ro correct injustice-s he ira.dfound as a miner and as a friend of the underprivilesed.In some quarters. his poiiricai hopes were consiriered ascensrirablr as his heaiing work. Arigo found hirnself run-ning against his own uncle, Lanartine de Freitas, formayor.

Lamariine de Freitas was establishment to the core. Hewas a staunch Catholic" unadulierated by the alleged her-esies Ariso was committing dail.v. He was also a iand-holcier of considerable stature. and a heavy favorite of theconserv-ative voters in torvn. Arigo was of ccurse iusi theopposite {Jnder normal conditioiis, this would have ruadehim the favorite, and carried the tide as far as mass voted

88 ARIGO: SunceoN oF THE Rusrv KNrre

were concerned. However, the official Church had itnoised about the town that Arigo was a man who wasn'tgoing along with the mandates of the Church.

Further, Arigo's political enemies spread the word thatthe only reason Arigo was conducting his bizarre clinicfor the poor and sick was to gather votes for his politicalcareer. Many other stories were circulated about him:Arigo was a brawler (he had had a fi!*rt with an unrulypatron of his bar, and had thrown him out): Arigo col-lected money from his patients surreptitiously; Arigoarranged for kickbacks from the druggists and Dharmaceu-tical companies; Arigo had a mistress and an illeqitimatedaughter in Belo Horizonte or Rio. There was no evidencefor any of these charges, but the opposition made sure thestories were spread.

Arigo lost the election by some two hundred votes, buthis supporters charged that the ballots had been tamperedwith when they were held for the night at the Iocal postoffice instead of being forwarded to the town of Lafaiete,where they were legally required to be sent for a nonpar-tisan count. By the time his uncle assumed the office ofmayor. the cards were down. Lamartine de Freitas calledArigo to his office and summarily demanded that he eithergive up his clinic or leave town.

Arigo bluntly refused. The two forces of the establish-ment and the maverick now moved into more clearlydefined battle positions. The attempt was obviously tomake Arigo an outcast, but the tides of peonle that sweptinto Congonhas to see him increased. Eventually, hisuncle backed down, and Arigo went on with his healingwork with greater uitutity thai ever. This functioo r".-"Ito be an entirely separate compartment of his life. Somespeculated that the reason for his being able to suspendhis mundane functions when treating thE sick was that heliterally was not conscious of what he was doing when heperformed surgical operations or wrote prescriptions. Forthe confirmed spiritist, the answer was easy: he wasn'tArigo when he worked at his clinic. He was Dr. AdolphoFritz, and Arigo's body was only a shell, a functionarythat carried out the beneficent urees of the deceased Ger-

ARIGO: Strncnow oF THE Rusrv Kwrne 89

man doctor, who took on far greater skills in his afterlifethan he had possessed on earth. This was such a far-fetched concept that few others could grasp it. All thatwas really obvious was that Arigo was clearly suspendingthe laws of physics, and even the most caustic skeptic hadto admit this, if he took the time to observe the man inaction. Most critics did not bother to investigate, however.They dismissed the stories they heard about Arigo as im-possibilities-an attitude hardly to be faulted in the faceof such incredible events.

Interesting evidence on Arigo's lack of awareness of hisown work showed up when Jorge Rizzini asked Arigo tolook at some of the color motion picture films he hadtaken of Arigo performing an operation. Rizzini set up hisprojector in the clinic after the last patient had left. Thefilm began rolling, and the first scene depicted Arigostabbing a penknife into a patient's eye, Arigo, no longerin the trance state that seemed to characterize his workinghours in the clinic, watched the scene with growing horror.Within moments, his head dropped down on his chest,and he fainted. When he came to, he rushed from theroom yelling in a loud voice that this was too terrible tolook at.

But it was apparent that Arigo could not stop the workin the clinic even i.f he wanted to. It was a compulsion ofoverwhelming magnitude.

He was able at times to get away from it, and stoutlyrefused to treat anyone on Saturdays and Sundays, whenhe would retreat with his family to a house on hiswealthy aunt's farm. She was the only member of thefamily who was a spiritist, and she encouraged him tokeep on. Here Arigo enjoyed his only hobby: the growingof roses. Like everything else he attacked in life, he wasobsessive about the literally thousands of rosebushes henourished and grew. With the financial help of his aunt,he sent them out by the carton to hospitals all over thestate of Minas Gerais and elsewhere. They came to be atrademark of his. When he was entreated by a patient ona weekend, he would become surly and tough, and say:

90 ARIGO: Suncrow oF THE R.usrv KNrrB

"Do you think I'm made of steel? Don't you know I havea familv?"

As the praises for Arigo grew across the country in boththe press and television. his detractors gathered theirforces The Catholic clergy was of course the spearhead,alon.q with the bulk of the mernbers of the medicai as-sociation of the state of Minas Cierais. But individuals toobore resentment against Arigo. among them his politicaienemies Antonio Maia Seabra- a resident of Congonhas,was one of these. He accused Arigo of being a rank op-portunisi who was looking out after his own interests. Hespread stories that Arigo's operations were all tricks. Healso passed rumors along thai Altimiro, in handing outthe cards that designated the position of the people inline, charged fifteen cruzeiros for each card, which he splitwith Arigo. He also saw to it that stories circulated to theeffecr that. any patient Arigo treated would have to signa card indicating he would vote ior Ariso in any forth-cominq election. He insisted that Arigo swilled one or twobottles of wine with each meal.

Seabra was joined in his attack by two doctors intown, each of whom quite understandably resented theintrusion into their bailiwick. Dr. Coimbra, Arigo's familydoctor for years, could no longer tolerate the fact thatArigo was blatan-Jy practicinq illeeal medicine, and madehis feelinss widely known on the subject. He went be'r'ondthis legitimate criticisrn to ascribe motives that Arigo'sfriends staunchl,'" claimed were untrue. Dr. Coimbra ac-cused Arigo of practicing blacl magic, and said thal thesole reason Arigo continued his illegal practice was simplyto become tamous so he coul,l eain political pcwer.

But most of Arigo's detractor-s admitted that Arigo wasa hard worker, a good father, and a good family 63n-irrspite of rumors of occasional extramarital excursions. A1-timiro, who was now facing the same censorship fromthe Church as Arigo, was also highly thought of in thecourmulitv. Obviously, any defense against the practice ofiliegai medicine was impossible. even by the most pas-sionate advocate of Arigo. The sinister part was the at-

ARIGO: Suncsow oF THE Rusry KNrrB 91

tempt of many, principally for political reasons, to lookfor devious motives that did not exist in the man.

Resentment also followed in the wake of the number ofdistinguished visitors who made the long trip to Con-gonhas for the sole purpose of seeing Arigo-and, in theprocess, ignored the local politicians. Rumors stirred thatJuscelino Kubitschek, freshly elected President of thecountry, had arranged for his daughter to see Arigo to becured of massive inoperable kidney stones that had re-sisted several specialisis' care in Euiope and North Amer-ica. Later, this was to be confirmed. But even the rumorof it at this time intensified the resentment of Arigo'senemies. Kubitschek was overwhelmingly popular through-out the country, and was already embarking on the con-struction of Brasilia, the fantastic new capital that was torise out of the wilderness in the geographic center of thecountry.

Other patients at the time included President Kubi-tschek's personal pilot, the head of the President's securifypolice, a prominent judge, the captain of the Minas Geraisstate police, and several generals of the Brazilian army.These and others amounted to a formidable array facingdown Arigo's critics, and unCoubtedly slowed the impetusof the court proceedings that had not yet struck.

Further, a group of doctors in the neighboring town ofLafaiete, aroused bv the flood of rumors that was swamp-ing the entire country, began an informal investigation ofArigo. They included Dr. Jos6 Demasio, Dr. AntonioCastanheira, and a Dr. Viterino. They were joined by Dr.Jo5.o Ranulf de Melo, of Congonhas. Together, they ob-served two cataract operations and two ovarian-cyst opera-tions, one by way of the abdomen, the other through thevagina. On careful examination before and after the sur-gery, they agreed that the

'operations were completely

valid, that the tissues involved were skillfully removed,and that practically no scar was left. As usual, there wereno anesthesia, no antisepsis, practically no bleeding, nopain, and no stitching. As for the crucifix that Arigo laterplaced over the surgical areas, the doctors had no com-ment. They agreed, however, that there was no natural

92 ARIGO: SuncsoNoFTHERusryKwIne

explanation for what they had observed, that no ordinarydoctor could possibly do this. anc' that an intensive scientif-ic strrdv on Arigo should inimediately be set up, if theycoull qlrt irer the necessary funds.

The initial ignition for all these staggering phenomenahad of coilrse been Senator Lucio Bittencourt, and hiscontinuorrs praise carrie<l the momentum along. His healthwas e;';cellent, and he was a prominent l iving testimonialto Ar^i.r'o's inexplicable powers. Onc day after a pa.rticular-ly lonc l ine of patients, ,Ati.so was joined by his friendGabriei Khater. a newspapeiriran who served in MinasGerais as a stringer for several Braziiian journals. Arigowas dislirrhed and uneasy. Khater probed him about this,and Arigo finaliy told him that he had seen in his mind'seye thai day a black cmcifix that disturbed him greatly.Pmsseil for the reason. Arico said thaf each time ttus hadhapprneci. someone close to hirl hati died. Khater trieci tocheer him. up, to qet his mincl off the somber svmbol. Butit was little use. Arigo went honre as distressed as he wasbefore.

The next morning, Khater was about to go throueh hisusrral rnutine of scanning several newspapirs of thi claywheri hr.: was stopped short b-v the first paper he picl<edup. The leac! headline read: sENAToR Lucro BrrrENCouRTKILI FN TN AIITO CRASH-

Aris,' was crushed by ihe loss of his friend, but he wasfurther upset by the ominous proclivity he had of seeingaheaC when a tragedv was about to happen. It left himdepressed and worried. But he went on with his over-whelming routine in spite of it.

It rvai onh' a few days before he received another jolt.He was qoing about the usual treatment of his patientswhen a sudder sharp reaction went through him. Hestopped his pen in miCair and puf it down.

Sitt ing bv his typewriter. Altimiro noticed the unusr:alaction He watched Arigo leave his table, cross into thebig r^oom, and confront a man irr the line.

"Are vou a policeman?" Arigo asked.The r:ran said that he was."Come with me," Arigo said.

ARIGO: SuncroN oF THE Rusrv KNrre 93

He marched the man into his small office and abruptlysent the waiting patients here out into the big room. Hetotd Altimiro to stay with him, then closed the door.Arigo's eyes were blanng. Altimiro had never seen themthat way before.

"You came down here," Arigo said to the policeman,"to ask me for a prescription because you want to takethat prescription to the judge, is that correct?"

The policeman nodded."In this way you will get evidence to bring a court

proceeding against me, is that not right?"The policeman looked frightened, but he nodded again."First," said Arigo, "you have to take care of your

family. You have not seen them for a long time. You haveneglected them. Is that not true?"

The policeman muttered something, but eventually saidyes.

"It is your duty to take care of them first," Arigo said."And then you can take care of your judge and yourcourts. So I will write you a prescription. Do you agree tofoilow it?"

The policeman said that he would.Arigo took a sheet of paper, and wrote on it swiftly:

READ THE BIBLE. EARLY IN THE MORNING. IN THE AFTER-

NOON. AT NIGHT TIME, 3 TTVTNS A DAY WITHOUT FAIL.

I{e handed it to the man, whose face'was flushed. Thepoliceman studied the sheet of paper, nodded, and left theroom. Arigo went on with his work.

5

In these days of the early and mid-fifties, there weremanv preoccupations throughor-rt the world, not the leastof which was the Korean War, as far as the United Stateswas concerned, and the development of the hydrogenbomh. as far as the world was concerned. While the latterwas thr major fruit of rnidcentury physics, the biologicalexpiosion was just shaping up, to result in reachin.g thethresholci of living nnatter with James Watson's and Fran-cis Crick's discovery of the critical function of RNA andDNA.

Medicine was continuing to make giant strides withthe development of cortisone. of Max Theiler's vaccine tocombai yellow feVer, of streptomycin, of Jonas Salk'spolio vaccine, of other new broad-spectrum miracle clruqs.

Advances in physics were comins so fast that it lookedas if the study of elementary particles might reach a deadend, a point where science began to blend with meta-phvsics Not the least interestins was the discovery of theantiproton at the University of California, suggesting thealmost absurd conceDt of antimatter.

This concept clea;ly brought the pragmatic ph;lsicist tothe threshold of the paranormal. It even suggested thepossibilitv that there were stars or whole galaxies in theuniverse made of antimatter. No science fiction writercould invent a more far-out idea, yet the discovery ofantimatter, identical to normal mattsr except that itsprotons and electrons are charged in opposite dir"ections,was bcins routinely verif ied from MIT to Cal Tech. Oncollidin.e rvith normal protons and electrons, antimattercauses the total destruction of both.

Explaining the new phenomenon, physicist Leon Leder-94

ARIGO: SunceoN oF THE Rusry KNrnn 95

man of the Brookhaven National Laboratorv said bluntly:"A new and deeper world and anti-world svmmetry isnow believed to hold. in which the anti-world tloes not onlyhave anti-particles replace particles, but rlso is a mirrorimage of our worid." He went on to add: "It is not pos-sible now to disprove the grand specularion that theseanti-worlds could be populated by thinkinr creatures."

Such revolutionary concepts were shakinq he conven-tional views of science, and this inspired sonre ,cientists toset up, in the earlv fift ies, organized sttrclieq;'r ields thatscience had neglected or overlooked. The ci,:ntists in-volved knew nothing of what was going on wirh Arigo inthe town of Congonhas at the tirne. Thev tlid rs a group,feel that research on paranormal events an,l .: rerqv-trans-fel phenomena was being grossly neglecrerf

' ' , he l ight of

the major advances in physics and medical ci( 'nce.One of the eroups consisted of a gener,'rrr handful of

physic ians. engineers, s l l rgeons, neurolo, r is ts . ' recut ives,and professors. They were work ing in v : r . i , ' ,1 ie lds, in-cluding r.rniversit ies. hospitals, government. rnd industry,in addition to those in private practice. There were a seniorresearch scientist in strrgery, a manager of ln rstroelec-tronics division of a large corporation. a chief researchpsychiatrist. a professor of surgerv, a prirl, 'rsrrr ,rf philos-ophr'. a neurolosist. and others. They wo'kt,l rr I varietyof hiehly rsspested institttt ions, amons h,'nr StanfordUniversity. ! ' lassachusetts General Hospiral ' lre I Irriversityof Pittsburqh. and Rac{io Corporation of \m,'rir:a. Even-tually they formed themselves into a loosg ,rr, 'nnizationknown as Essentia Research Associates. based in NewYork.

At about the same time that Arigo was hrrrgeoninq withhis heal ing work in Brazi l , some of th is ' ' ' , , 'n hegan atentative exploration of telepathy for l iv; i.f lg of theUnited States qovernment, incluil ing NAS \ r r, l rf ig u.$.Air Force. Buf for the most part, proures. v r. itfrrl andpublic frrnds were hard to come by: thc F., rri R.cscarchgrorrp could make only tenta,tive ptobes ', ,) ht: pafa-normal . inc ludinq nonsensory t ransfer of . , r i nr r rL ion.

Dr. Henry Puharich, who later was to join Henry Belk

96 ARIGO: SunceoN oF THE RusrY KwrB

and o'rhers were invited to fiil many speaking engagements'But interest was still too sluggish 'ro generate the large

amouilr of funds necessary to reach any comprehensiveconclr.rsions.

If. in the mid-fifties, the work that Arigo was doing had

come to serious attention in the UDited States, greater

strldes in enlightenment might have been made. As it was,

any scientific study would havr: to outrace the pressnres

being broughi to bear by those who wanted the courts to

within the grasp of the ordinary surgeon.The resJntmint of doctors against Arigo was certainly

understandable, not only from the point of view of com-

petition" but also of pride. The educational requirements

ior doctors in Brazil are as strenuous as they are in the

Unitecl States, with pre-med, medical school, internship,

and resiCency-all riquiring a beefy investment of time

and money. For a country bur'npkin who never went be-

ARIGO: SuncnoN oF'rHE Rusrv KNrnB 97

yond third grade to command such attention throughoutthe entire country and attract internationally prominentcitizens naturally stung their professional pride. On theother hand. those doctors whose curiosity was greater thantheir resentment found themselves in considerable awe atwhat went on before their eyes.

One of th€se doctors was Dr. Ladeira Margues, of Riode Janeiro, who was growing tired of hearing and readingabout Arigo, and determined to go up to the provincialreaches of Minas Gerais to find out more about this leg-end. He took with him another doctor from Rio whopreferred to remain anonymous, and they prepared them-selves for the worst.

Several months before the two doctors had gatheredtheir courage against what they were sure would be thescathing criticism of their colleagues, a woman by thename of Maria Silveiro went to her own doctor in the cityof Vit6ria. the capital of Espirito Santo state. She hadbeen suffering constant pain in her lower midsection, andher concern was growing.

Her fears were shared by her doctor, who immediatelycalled in a specialist. It wasn't long before the diagnosiswas definitelv confirmed as ovarian cancer, and it wasrecommended that an operation be carried out immediate-ly. With her husband, Ismenio Silveiro, a prominent localofficial in Vit6ria, they made arrangements for the opera-tion to be done in the best hospital in the city.

The surgery was performed, but it was completely un-successful. The prognosis was shattering: she had only afew months to live. All the doctors concerned with thecase had given her up.

Ismenio Silveiro confided in a friend of his, VirgilioMendes Ferraz, about his wife's illness. Ferraz was oneof the wealthiest men in the area, a prosperous landownerwho was known throughout the state. On hearing Silveiro'splight, he told him about his own wife's similar experience.She had been pronounced a hopeless case of cancer byevery specialist she had visited, and there were many. Hehad been told about Arigo, and as a last resort, he tookhis wife to Congonhas do Campo, with little hope or ex-

98 ARIGO: SunceoN oF rHE Rusry KNrrr

pectation. Arigo performed a startling operation on hisfully conscious wife, and within weeks she was restored tofull health.

Ferraz had been so overcome bv the miraculous curethat he sent Arigo a check for $50,b00. tle had been sur-prised when Arigo promptly returned the check to him,stating that he could not accept money oi gitts of anykind.

Ferraz urged Silveiro to take his wife to Arigo, statingthat anything was worth the risk in the face of the prog-nosis the doctors had determined. The Silveiros arrivedin Congonhas do Campo at precisely the same time thatDr. I-adeira Margues and his anonymous colleague arrivedfrom Rio.

Feeling somewhat uncomfortable, the two doctors fromRio were ushered into the small back room of Arigo'sclinic, beyond his own usual working area. This was theplace reserved for the more serious operations. The roomwas sparsely furnished. An old door, stretched betweentwo saw horses, was used as an operating table. Therewas also a shabby wooden bed for the minimal post-operative care that Arigo felt necessary at times-althougbit was rarely used. The Rio doctors were invited to standby the operating area and observe as closely as theywished.

Arigo was his usual self-gruff, abrupt, almost ar-rogant. A largish window let in adequate light. and theRio doctors steeled themselves to wafch Arigo in action.Maria Silveiro was'tshered in by her husband. and thenAri-eo took over. He half pushed, half guidecl the womanonto the ffat door that served as the operatinq table. hav-ing spread some old newspapers cn it beforehand. Hecalled for Altimiro to bring-hii instruments, and es usual,they rested in a battered tin can. There were a pair oftweezers, a couple of scalpels, a paring knife, and somescissors. Arigo was in his trancelike state that character-ized his personalitv change to that of Dr. Fritz, a changeso vivid that reporters and even other doctors came torefer to him by that name instead of Arigo.

Speaking with his guttural German accint, Arigo turned

ARIGO: SuncBoN oF THE Rusrv Kwrre 99

to the husband, ignoring his distress and worry, and askedwhether he preferred the operation to be done by incisionin the abdominal wall or by way of the vagina. The hus-band preferred the latter. Without further ceremony, Arigoasked thr husband to lift the dress of the patient. Then heimmediatelv began the operation with extraordinary rapid-ity. The two doctors from Rio watched in disbelief.

In any operation of this type, a speculum is obligatory.This is a surgical instrument that spreads the tissues oropenings in the body so that full inspection can be madeand the instruments introduced into the area without im-pediment. Arigo's scanty armamentarium included no suchrefinements. They watched as he shoved three pairs ofscissors and two scalpels into the vagina, each one with asingle violent movement. The doctors immediately turnedtheir observation to the patient. Surely, they felt, therewould be agonizing pain from this crude procedure. How-ever, she lay calm and motionless, with no response what-ever. In describing what happened next, Dr. Margues said:

"Arigo was taking hold of one half of the scissors.Then we began to see the other side of the scissors startto move alone. It was as if another hand had taken holdof the free handle and was beginning to make clear mo-tions, causing the scissors to snip and cut. The sound ofmetals and tissues being cut was obvious. In moments,'Dr. Fritz' removed the scissors. When he saw bieedingbegin, he ceased what he was doing, and said: 'Lord, letthere be no more blood.' There was no further hemor-rhage, as the operation went on.

"He reached then for the pair of tweezers. Calling thisto our close attention, he pushed them into the vaginalopening and took out a piece of tissue some thirty-oneinches long and fifteen inches in width. The patient *asrelaxed and unrufled during the whole process, whichlasted only a few minutes. She reflected no pain at all.There was no anesthesia administered, nothing was steril-lr,ed, and no antisepsis was involved."

Later. she was to give birth to a healthy son, and re-gained her full health.

Both doctors found themselves in the position of having

100 ARtrGO: SuRceoN oF THE Rusrv Kulne

to accept what they had clearly seen, to be "a slave to thefacts," as one of them put it. Yet they knew they wouldbe exposing themselves to censure if they publicly ac-knowledged what had happened. Dr. Margues made nobones about it, and reported the experience irr detail to hiscolleagues and others. The problem of course was credibil-ity-and what reporting such an event might do to destroythe credibility of a doctor who had the courage of hisconvictions and spoke out.

It was not an easy decision for a professional man. Theofficial position of the medical societies was clearly de-fined: Arigo was a curandeiro and a charlatan, if not apractitioner of witchcraft. It was an open-anc1--shut case,and the medical society of Minas Gerais was champing atthe bit at the slowness of the police Division of R.obberyand Falsification for not expediting the legal proceedingsand bringing the whole thing to an end. They surmised,probably correctly, that there were high government of-ficials whose lives or those of their relatives had beeninexplicably saved by Arigo, and thus were not at all in-terested in pushing for the incarceration of a man theyowed so much to.

And perhaps these people of influence were responsiblefor the pilgrimage of many more doctors to Congonhas doCampo who were willing to take the risk of professionaicensure.

Whatever day the visiting doctors arrived in the villagewas unimportant as far as representative cases were con-cerned. Each day Arigo faced such a broad spectrum ofdiseases and disorders that any doctor coul.d find sone-thing of specific interest for any medical problem.

But some doctors came to Congonhas do Campo as theresult of specific cases they had followed with interest.These were desperate patients who came to Arigo as a lastresort after all else in medical science had failed. Dr. Jos6Hortencia de lv{adeiros found himself observing Arigo forjust such a reason. Dr. Madeiros, who was an X-ray spe-cialist with the State Institute of Cardiology, was thefriend of a young couple who were deeply concerned be-

ARIGO: SuncBoN oF THE Rusrv KNrrB 101

cause of the illness of the wife. Although Dr. Madeiroshad been practicing medicine for many years, and hadbeen trained in his X-ray specialty in Sweden for twoyears, he could do little for the wife, a young Polish wom-an in her late twenties. The husband was Austrian.

She had been rushed to Pronto Socorro Clinic in 56oPaulo. where she arrived in desperate condition, withsymptoms of an intestinal obstruction. She was examinedand X-rayed. and it was apparent that an immediate opera-tion was necessary. During the surgery, it was found thather transverse colon was blocked by a tumor, and thiswas removed. A colostomy was performed, in which anopening is cut in the abdomen and the colon is joined toit to permit defecation into a colostomy bag.

The tumor was rushed to the laboratory for a pathologi-cal examination, but the surgeons felt sure that the womanhad cancer. and that there was little hope. The ganglia onher peritoneum were grossly enlarged, and a nodule on theliver had been noted during the operation. The laboratorytest clearlv confirmed carcinoma.

With the tests confirming malignan'cy, the case washopeless. All the doctors consulted agreed to that. How-ever, it was decided that one final attempt should bemade, and she entered the Central Cancer Hospital inS5o Paulo for another operation. There was a sense offutility about it, but both the husband and Dr. Madeirosfelt that nothing should be left undone.

The abdomen was opened again, and by now thecondition was even more hopeless. The cancer had metas-tasized throughout the entire abdominal area; a newgrowth the size of a large egg was found in the left sec-tion. Meanwhile, the patient's weight had diopped mer-curiallv She was now slightly over seventy pounds. Shehad previouslv weighed nearly 130. The surgEon's reportat the Central Cancer Hospital was even more pessimisticthan that of the clinic. He reported the case to be torallyincurable. and outside the resources of medical science.

Two independent checks were made on the metasta-sized tissue. one by the chief of anatomic pathology ar theCentral Cancer Hospital. The diagnosis was clearly recon-

102 ARIGO: SuncBoN oF TrrE Rusry KNrrefirmed as mucocellular metastasic carcinoma, and the twoindependent reports concurred without question on this.The patient was overwhelmed by a carcinogenic invasion.The prognosis in the reports stated a potential life ex-pectancy of two months at best. Dr. Madeiros recheckedall the facts of the case, and found there was nothing elseto do but agree.

With his wife little more than a livins skeleton- thehusband. came to Dr. Madeiros with one iast, and prob-ably futile suggestion: he would like to take his wife toCongonhas do Campo to see Arigo. He realized howridiculous this might be, but if Dr. Madeiros thought shecould survive the trip, he would like to do it.

It4adeiros had heard of Arigo, and his interest had beenpiqued by the reports coming down to Sdo Paulo fromCongonhas do Campo. He also knew of the attitude ofthe medical societies toward the healer, but, as a doctorof both curiosity and cornpassion, he saw no harm inmaking one last stab, even if it failed miserably. And be-cause he was a close friend of the couple, he deciCed toacompan)r them. 4.t least, he thought, he could try to keepthe wife out of pain on the long trip.

It would be disastrous, the doctor knew. to attempt thetrip by car cr bus. Instead, a srnall plane was charteied tofly to the airport at Lafaiete, the closest air. facility toCongonhas. The wife had now faded to sixtv-five pounds.

The iratient was carried by her husband to Arigo, ac-companied by Dr. Made',ros. In the stillness of the mustyclinic, Arigo's voice was booming with his German accent,sprinkled with occasionai German phrases. The hirsband,beinE Austrian, gathered the courage to speak to Arigo inGerman, and was answered in that language. Arigo gavethe desperately ill woman no special attention. She wassimply one among the many hundreds who filed by histable on that day or any other day. He looked at her, hiseyes glazed in the usual trance state he expcrienced everytirne he assumed the character of Dr. Fritz. His handswiftly scrawled a prescription. He merely said to thewite: "You take this, and get well."

The trio were abruptly ushered to Altimiro, who in-

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stantly typed up the prescription. Within two hours theywere headed back to 56o Paulo. On the plane, Dr. Ma-deiros studied the prescription. Though the medieinescomprised up-to-date pharmaceuticals at that time, he con-sidered the combination totally irrational. And the dosages'prescribed were far in excess of any ordinary prescription.The drugs included Kanamicine, Olobintin, Neurorubin,and Dexteascine, all trade-marked drugs and available atalmost anv drugstore in Brazil.

Kanamicine was a drug of Japanese origin, manufac-tured under special license in Rio de Janeiro. It was basi-cally an antibiotic, used mainly in intestinal infections. Ithad caused serious side effects at times. Olobintin was anancient German formula manufactured in Rio, designedto increase the defensive forces of the organism, and sup-posedlv had special effectiveness in fetid bronchitis andpulmonarv gangrene. It was an injectable. Dr. Madeiroscould find no real reason for this to be included, but hehad heard from other doctors that Arigo's prescriptionshad a strange way of working, regardless of thei.r ab-surdity. He had also heard that when other doctors tried toimitate Arigo's unconventional combinations, the drugswere ineffective. Neurorubin was also produced in Brazil,and consisted of a vitamin B complex, with a heavy pro-portion of vitamin 812. The rationale for Dexteascine wasobscure.

In spite of his pessimism that the drugs would do anygood, Dr. Madeiros agreed to take a chance, out of frustra-tion and despair. if nothing else. When they arrived backin 56o Paulo. he administered the abnormal dosages andwaited, feeling very nonprofessional in doing so.

Within a week, the fatally ill patient improved to thepoint where she could get out of bed and walk aroundher room. By the end of the second week, she had re-gained over twenty pounds of her lost weight. After sixweeks of the treatment, she weighed nearly five poundsmore than when she had first been stricken with the dis-ease. Dr. Madeiros could hardly contain his surprise. Heagreed to return to Congonhas do Campo with the patientand her husband for a recheck by Arigo.

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He was now very anxious to follow up his observationon the healer, and especially interested in confirming theapparent cure. To the best of his knowledge, the patientappeared to be permanently on the road to recovery. Shewas still walking around with the awkward colostomy bagas a means of getting rid of waste matter. Arigo had saidnothing about having it removed, and, for the time. Mad-eiros saw no sense in challenging Arigo's advice, in theface of the unbelievable success achieved thus far.

Back in Congonhas do Campo, Arigo abruptly pro-nounced the patient out of danger and presented her withtwo more prescriptions, as unconventional as the first. Oneof the new medicines was an antibiotic usecl for urinary-tract infections. Dr. Madeiros found he could at least agreewith this logic, since the colostomy and original intestinalobstmction had had an extremely damaging effect on theurinarv' svstem,

The patient returned to Ari_qo for a third time, with hermoiher. Arigo declared unequivocally that she was com-pletely healed. He instructed her to "undo the operation,"referring to the colostomy. She returned to Slo Paulo rviththe news, and arrangements were immediately made tosurgically reverse the colostomy, closing up the surgicalopenings.

The new operation was performed in a large 56o Paulohospital bv one of Brazil's leading surgeons. Dr. l\4adeiroswaited impatiently to find out just what would be dis-covered when his patient's abdomen was reopened for thefirst time since she had been given up for lost.

The search for the tumor was negative; all that remainedwas a harmless formation of fibrous tissue. The intestinewas rejoined, and began to function norrnally. Elevenmonihs later, the patient was without any sign of her pre-vious devastaLing condition.

Because he had followed this case from start to finishand was lsmiliar with every detail of it, Dr. Madeiros didnot hesitate to publicly anounce his findings. Many of hiscolleagues had had similar experiences with Arigo andtheir: patients, but hesitateci to report the cases in medicaljournals or to the public. In view of the pending lawsuit

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against Arigo, any such announcement was frowned onboth by the Catholic Church and the medical associations.In spite of this, Madeiros returned several more times toCongonhas do Campo. In the operations he observed, hewas startled and impressed by what appeared to be almostinstant scar-forming of incisions, with no stitches beingused at all. It was another inexplicable phenomenon thataccompanied most of Arigo's healing work.

Another doctor of considerable stature who was willingto run against the tide of official opinion was Dr. Ary Lex.He was a lecturer at the Surgical Clinic of S5o Paulo Uni-versity, a specialist in surgery of the stomach tlnd digestivesystern, and practiced at the Hospital das Clinicas, thelargest hospital in South America. What intrigued him wasthat although the Church and the medical societies werescouring the field to try to find someons-atlysne-whshad been harmed by Arigo and who would testify againsthim in the irapending legal action, they had been totallyunsuccessful.

If there were any such cases around, they were notmaking themselves known. By all logic, persons allegedlydamaged by Arigo's crude surgery or prescriptions shouldcertainly have been emerging on the scene by now. Therewere enough doctors and establishment priests out'to get,A.rigo, in fact, destroy him, that it should have been easyfor them to find someone who at least lelt he had beenharmed by Arigo. The fact that none had been uncoveredwas important supportive evidence for Arigo's validity,Dr. Lex felt.

As ; former president of the surgical section of the 56oPaulo Medical Association, Lex was aware that he wastreading on dangerous ground by making a study of Arigo.He was known for his fight against any sort of quackery orunethical practices. In the course of this work he had un-covered a number of frauds and trickery, and was success-lul in exposing them. It became quickly epparent to himthat Arigo was an entirely different kettle of fish.

He went to Congonhas alone, without any colleagues,because he had too many doubts that he would uncoveranything special about Arigo. He was surpriseC and

106 ARIGO: SunceoNoFrHERusrvKNrne

pleased to find two other professors of medicine inCongonhas do Campo who had the same idea in mind.When he watched what happened that day in Arigo'sclinic, he was thankful to have the other professionalsthere.

Together. they watched four operations within the spaceof half an hour. scattered among some thirty nonsurgicalcases. Since Dr. Lex had never found a mediumistic healerwho survived his scrutiny under test conditions, hewatched carefully as Arigo went to work. The only polite-ness Arigt- showed to his three distinguished visitors wasto invite them to come as close as possible to observe. Dr.Lex quickh discerned that while Arigo himself seemed tobe in a tranc€ state, he made no attempt to use any hypnot-ic technigues on his patients, nor did he use any type ofpasses vrith his hands or other means of suggestion. Dr.Lex was particularly interested in this, because he felt itmight explain some part of Arigo's success, but he wasnow convinced that the patients were not even in a partialtrance state,

The first operation was the drainage of a synovial cyst,without anl surgical preparation or anesthesia, as usual.And, of course, no antisepsis. It was successfully com-pleted in a matter of moments. For the second operation,Arigo asked Dr. Lex if he wanted to hold the patient'sarm. He did so, enabling him to get an extremely closeview of the removal of a lipoma. Arigo did this in lessthan half a minute. But what interested Dr. Lex most wasthe technique used. Instead of cutting the skin with thescalpel" Arigo massaged the back of the blade across thearm until it suddenly opened. Then with his hands, hepressed down on the flesh, and the fatty tumor came outas a unit.

In the third operation, Arigo faced the same problemand operated in the same way. For the fourth, Arigo per-mitted Dr Lex to hold the patient's head as he prepared tooperate on a pterygium. This winglike growth across theeye was firmlv locked into the cornea. Arigo picked up apair of unsterilized nail scissors, as Dr. Lex watched indisbelief. No patient, he was sure, could stand the direct

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cutting into the eyeball without full anesthesia. But asusual, the patient was wide awake as Arigo pushed thepoints of the scissors into the eye with unbelievable rough-ness, snipping freely at the eye tissue and talking in hisGerman accent as he did so. The growth was removedcleanly, but the eye began to hemorrhage profuse$, theblood starting to pour down the patient's cheek.

Arigo looked to the ceiling and ordered the blood tostop. Then he took a piece of questionably clean cottonand pressed it into the eye. After a moment or two ofwiping, he removed the cotton. The bleeding had stoppedaltogether.

Questioned later by author J. Herculano Pires, Dr. Lexsaid: "The only possible adjectives I can find to define thisare spectacular and astounding."

Then he went on to say: "Dur-ing all these operations, Italked with the patients, asking them if they felt any pain.The patients were conscious, quiet, did not react and saidthat they did not feel anything. Arigo acted in a naturalfashion, was confident of himself to the point that at onetime he cleaned the scalpel violently on my colleagu.e'shead. He-the doctor-also did not feel anything, despitethe violence of the act."

Dr. Lex observed several of Arigo's "pointe<, knife"examinations of a patient's eye, in which Arigo literallystirred .Jre knife far up inside the orbital cavity, lookingaway from the patient and talking to others as he did so."He sometimes made the eyeball to protrude as if it weregoing to come out of the eye socket," Dr. Lex told Pires."All of this without asepsis or anesthesia and without signsof pain to the patients."

But as admiring as Dr. Lex was about Arigo's form ofsurgery, he was distressed with his prescriptions. "I wasfrightened by them," Dr. Lex said. "I consider them greatabsurdities. They do not seem to make any sense. Olobin-tin and Kanamicine are really obsolete drugs. They havedangerous side eftects and adverse reactions."

Dr, Madeiros of course concurred with this. Yet he hadseen the prescriptions work, and on inquiry had not foundany harm coming from them as far as he could determine.

108 ARIGO: Suncrox oF THB Rusrv KNIFE

This was hardly adequate research, he knew, and theproblem was as puzzling as ever. Both Dr. I,ex--and Dr.Madeiros agreed iompletely on one thing: serious researchshould be done on Arigo-long, intensive, and complete,and under strict medical control.

"In spite of his faults," Dr. Lex said, "he is a remark-able phenomenon. I don't criticize Arigo alone. It seemsto me he should merit greater attention from many scien-tific societies. The fact that there is no scientific control ofthe medium's activities does expose him and his patientsto a series of dangerous situations. There is also the dangerof misuse of his faculties. Scientific proof is lacking at themoment. It should be established, of course. But I can saywithout suestion that I have observed for the first time acase of authentic paranormal phenomenon in my own fieldof medic ine."

Later. Dr. Lex was to return to see Arigo and observe aconfirmed case of cancer of the liver in which Arigo re-moved the tumor with his hands, an unheard-of procedure.The biopsr, reconfirmed a cancerous condition, and thepatierrt's full recovery was likewise confirmed. He was awealthv lawver, a solid, pragmatic materialist. When he re-covered. he became a,spiritist.

There were other doctors, many of them, who came toCongonhas do Campo, either openly or covertly. Somecame to scoff, but most went away completely convincedthat here was one of the strangest cases in medical history.The consensus was that Arigo was unbelievable-yet thecold. empirical evidence of the success of his operationsleft them with no choice other than believing the unbeliev-able.

But there were not enough of them to mount any effec-tive opnosition in the face of the attitude of the medicalsocieties And even those who were convinced completelyof Arigo's valdity felt that he could not go on with hispractice in an open, uncontrol.led situation. IJnscmpulouschdr.latans. inspired by Arigo, would proliferate through--out the country, with utterly disastrous results for thepublic. Medical anarchy could develop. Anyone who ap-pears to suspend the laws of physics is faced with over-

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whelming and totally unique problems. Amon_u Arigo'sproblems was the further complication of his being ablasphemer and heretic in the eyes of the Catholic Church.

Finally, after the long delay, the legal machinery of thecourt process came to a head. On August l, 1956, anofficial named Helvecio Arantes, of the robbery and falsifi-tion division of the state police, sat down at his desk andwrote:

Judicial Directive executins orders from the Secre-tary of Public Security of th6 State of Minas Geraisto verify the facts relating to the practice of iilegalmedicine by the individual known as Jos6 Arigo,whose real name is Jos6 Pedro de Freitas, to inquireconcerning the practice of illegal medicine.

Ze Arigo and all the persons having knowledge ofthese acts will be called. A prescription written byArigo can be found at the drugstore FannaciaCongonhas Limitada.

The first detectives of the policia to arrive in town werethemselves immediately detected by the townspeople.Arigo had already smoked out one of their advance scouts.The villagers were no less observant. The detectives metwith nothing but resistance from most of them. Even withthe threat that the withholding of information was againstthe law, few would talk against Arigo. Most refused togive out names of those who had been treated by Arigo.But of course there were Arigo's enemies, and these cameforward willingly to testify. But since none of them hadvisited Arigo's clinic as patients, there was little concretethey could say.

When, word was noised about that Arigo's opponentswere talking to the police, ground swell began among hissupporters to testify in his favor: they would state public$that no one had been harmed bv Ariso's healins workand that thousands had been cuied bi him. Whit theydidn't realize was that even if they praised Arigo to theskies in their testimony, they were digging his grave. Everytestimonial that showed Arieo as an effective healer was

110 ARIGO: SUncpor.r oF THE Rusrv KNrrB

condemnatory in the eyes of the law. The police were notinterested in whether he healed or not. All that needed tobe proved was that Arigo was practicing medicine.

Even with the police fiitering into the town, Arigo con-tinued his daily work. The long line in front of his clinicformed every morning with its cargo of sickness anddespair. streaming in from Belo Horizonte, 56o Paulo,Rio, across the border in Argentina, and elsewhere.

One night, after a long day's work, Arigo climbed intobed next to Arlete, who was half asleep. Arigo did notspeak to her, but in a few moments she heard him beginto talk.

He was praying for his enemies.

By sheer coincidence, it was in Congonhas do Campo thatthe iCea for the extraordinary capital city of Brasilia wasborn. The village was also the place where the paths ofArigo and President Juscelino Kubitschek crossed for thefirst time. It was an eyent that was to afiect the lives ofboth.

Kubitschek, a tall, powerful, striking man with a thickshock of black hair and a charisma all his own, cam-paigned vigorously throughout Brazil in his bid for thepresidencv in the 1955 elections. He was immensely popu-lar wherever he went. He had been a strong supporter ofPresident Vargas' policies, and he eloquently pledged tothe electorate that he would bring them fifty years of prog-ress in five. More frequently than not, his enemies wouldgive him credit that he meant what he said. But evenbefore he was elected, there was a stockpile of complaintsabout the extravasance of his ideas.

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Kubitschek's background was as impressive as his ap-pearance. A qualified physician, he had specialized in sw-gery both in Paris and the Middle East, and for manyyears afterward had served as a medical officer in variousgovernment agencies in Brazil. But the lure of politics grewin him. He went successively from the post of a federaldeputy, to mayor of Belo Horizonte, to governor of thestate of Minas Gerais. A cosmopolite, he spoke Frenchand English as well as Portugrrese, and was at ease inmany'foreign capitals.

His pre-election campaign visit to Congonhas do Campowas marked by a speech in which he promised the crowdgathered in the Rua Marechal Floriano that if elected hewould meticulously respect the Constitution. Only if thiswere done would there be peace in Brazil. "I will obey allthe concepts of the Constitution," he told the crowd,"article, by article, by article."

One of the crowd called up to the platform to ask: "Ifyou are of this disposition to obey the Constitution articleby article, are you ready to obey the article that requiresthat a new capital be built in the middle of the country?"

The question took Kubitschek aback. He was silent fornearly half a minute. For years, Brazilian statesmen hadbeen groping for a way to open up the vast interior of thecountry. Since it was founded,Brazl had been like a giantflywheel, without a hub in its vacant center. The weight ofthe population was clumped along *re coast, like a heavy,unbalanced burden that left the rich interior resources in-accessible. Kubitschek felt that he could not now backdown on the pledge of strict constitutional observance hehad iust made. But frankly he had overlooked the articleihat calied for the building of an interior capital. Helooked direcfly at the man who had asked the question,and said: "You are right. I had not thougbt about thissubject. But you are ight, and I will build Brasilia!"Later, of course, the city was to rise up from the wilder-ness to the astonishnaent of the rest of the world. And inspite of the heavy accusations of waste and corrupiionleveled at Kubitschek, even the critics now agree that ithas opened up Brazil.

tt2 ARIGO: Suncsox oF THE Rusrv KNrrs

Kubitschek had of course heard about Arigo before-hardly anyone in Brazil had not heard about him. But thatday in Congonhas do Campo when he observed Arigo inaction, he was dumbfounded.

"I don't understand," Kubitschek later said. "I knewabout his fantastic prestige from many of the prominentpeople who told me what Arigo had done for them. Butbeing a physician and surgeon myself, I found him soextraordinary that I cannot find words to express it. Thepeople had faith in him. No one could fail to do so. Hewas a god."

Kubitschek was so impressed that he and his wife ac-cepted Arigo's invitation to have lunch with him. Arlete,with her hair in curlers as it constantly seemed to be,served a modest meal, and Kubitschek and Arigo began afriendship that was to last for years. The friendship be-came critical to Kubitschek when one of his daughters hadto be taken to the United States for a spinal operation be-cause of a critical and massive deformation of the spine.The operation was so delicate that she had to remain com-pletelir immobilized for many months.

"Because of this," Kubitschek described the situation,"she developed two enormous kidney stones after she re-turned to Rio de Janeiro. My wife was very, very nervous,because this complication could lead to a serious andperhaps lethal condition. My wife said to me: Could weask Arigo to come down to Rio and see what he could do'for our daughter? I agreed. I reached Arigo by phone. Itold him our daughter was critically ill, but did not tellhim what her problem was.

"Congonhas do Campo is a six-hour drive, but he washere in Rio the next afternoon. He came in our home, andbefore I had a chance to tell him anything about mydaughter's condition, he handed me a prescription writtenon a plain piece of paper. As a doctor, I recognized thatit was a specific for eliminating kidney stones. But howcould Arigo know her condition? Since I had not beenpracticing in recent times, I checked it with my owndoctor. He indicated that he didn't feel it would do muchgood, but felt there would be no harm in trying it. Arigo's

ARIGO: SuncroN oF THE Rusrv Kwrne 113

prescriptions were said to have an effect entirely beyondthe bounds of the prescription itself. I gave her the medi-cine, and she became completely cured."

From that time on, President Kubitschek and his wifewould often go out of their way to stop in Congonhas doCampo for an informal visit with Arigo. They presentedhim with a solid-gold wristwatch, but Arigo bluntly re-fused it, explaining that he could not accept any gift ormoney.

Conditions in Congonhas do Campo had now becomeso jammed from the sick and the dying who clustered inthe streets that Walter de Freitas, Arigo's brother. built amodest hotel next to the Spirit Center where Arigoworked. It was not a work of art, but something had to bedone to increase the accommodations in the village, whichhad been strained to the limit. The hotel of course drewmore attention to Arigo, who had now taken on his job asreceptionist in the state welfare and pension offflce as ameans of supporting his family. This, added to his work inthe clinic, brought him to the brink of a sixteen-hour day,every day, with the exception of weekends, when he oftenworked at selling real estate or in his beloved rose garden.

Reporters continued to grind out miracle stories, whichhad proliferated to the point where they became common-place. Roberto Freire, a journalist fuom Realidad, whowas also a doctor, pressed Arigo hard on the reports thathe must be making money from kickbacks on the prescrip-tions that he was writing, although no evidence could befound.

Arigo insisted this was not true. He admitted that hisfame as a healer might help in some of the real estatesales, but that was the extent of it. He said that he wasdetermined to give his children a good education in con-trast to his own meager one, and that he welcomed theoccasional financial help he received from the wealthymembers of his family.

The reporter asked him: "Does your brother own thehotel, Arigo? They say you are partners and that you willnot take care of anyone who doesn't stay there."

Arigo stood up angrily. "I used to treat my patients in

lI4 ARIGO: Suncso\r oF THE Rusrv KNrre

my own home," he said. "One of the complaints againstme was that I was contaminating all the boardinghousesand hotels of the city. My brother Walter alone built thehotel. I made no suggestions whatsoever. Jeil saw-du1-ing the consultations I ask only that the patients havefaith, pray, and take the medication. Let my enemies provethat my brother and I are partners. Let them examine mybank account. God would not heip me to cure if I weredishonest."

As the reporter left, Arigo's anger had faded, and heasked: "You are a Catholic?"

"Yes," said the reporter."Good," Arigo answered. "Our Christ is the same. The

rest doesn't mattef."

At the office of the state police in Congonhas doCampo, Regional Inspector Heivecio Arantes was prepar-ing for the interrogation of witnesses in the Arigo case. Hewas a little disturbed about the reports coming across hisdesk that the citizens of Congonhas do Campo were notparticularly interested in talking to his interrogators. Inspite of this, he had complete confidence that he wouldhave a cut-and-dried case. Some of Arigo's enemies wouldbe bound to talk. Ali that was needed was a handful ofthem, and the case would be as good as sewn up.

Stren Antonio lV1aia Seabra arrived in the police officeon August L, 1956, Inspector Arantes lost no tirne gettingdown to the questioning. After a few preliminary qriestionsio determine that Seabra was a forty-two-year-old residentof the town and a citizen of good standing, he said: "Tellrne what .76u knol about Arigo."

Seabra said: "I knew him when he had his restaurantand bar. Several years ago. Now he's working for thepension office."

"What kind of person is he?""Well," said Seabra, "he's a very smart man. Always

looking out for himself. Trying to get ahead in politics'He takes advantage of anything he can to do this."

"What about his tryitrg to heal people. What do youknow about that?"

ARIGO: SunoBoN oF rHE Rusry KNrnB 1 1 5

"Well, I suddenly noticed he began this practice ofillegal medicine some time ago. People began coming tohis house all the time. He'd give them some kind of pieceof paper with a prescription on it, then he'd promise themthey'd get well."

"Did you notice anything else?" the inspector asked."Yes," Seabra said. "He started operating on people.

People who were very, very sick. The ones that the doc-tors couldn't help."

"Did they get well?""I couldn't say that. I don't know.""Did you actually see any of these operations?""No," Seabra answered. "I never really saw any.""Just heard about them?""Yes. I just heard about them. There was all kinds of

talk about them. All over the town.""What did you hear about them?" the inspector asked."They all say they were just tricks. Tricks done with

the guts of a chicken or a pig. That's what they say.""But vou've never seen this yourself?""No. But I heard that Altimiro charges everybody fif-

teen cruzeiros for every card he gives out in line. That'swhat evervbody says."

"Are you sure of that?""That's what everybody says," Seabra answered. "And

I also heard that they have to sign a card saying that theywill vote for Arigo or he won't treat them."

"Whai else do you know about Arigo?""He's got a big appetite, and drinks a bottle of wine

with every meal.""But you haven't seen any of this yourself?""No," said Seabra. "But a lot of other people have.""I guess that's all," the inspector said. "If you'll just

sign this statement, you can go."Seabra signed the paper and left. Inspector Arantes

knew that this wasn't much of a statement, but it indicatedthat he would be bound to get stronger direct evidence astime went on.

But the next few witnesses were all strangely vague,even though they included some of Arigo's enemies. One

116 ARIGO: Sunceow oF THB Rusry KNrre

of the ticket agents at the railroad station brought wordthat someone had come into the station and announcedthat Arigo had charged him one hundred cruzeiros for atreatment. It turned out that the man was actually insane,and had paid nothing.

It wasn't until Dr. Carlos Cn:2, the dentist from BeloHorizonte whose sister-in-law had been successfully oper-ated on by Arigo for cancer of the liver, testified stronglyin Arigo's favor that the obvious strategy to follow was re-vealed to the inspector. Many who had been saved from afatal medical prognosis by Arigo were more than anxiousto testify on Arigo's behalf. Parodoxically, it was in thesedefense testimonies that the real evidence against Arigocould be shaped.

Since Article 284 of the Penal Code provided that thesimple act of prescribing, operating, or making hypnoticpasses was illegal, all the success stories about Arigowould do nothing more than lead to his conviction.

Under the illusion that they would be helping Arigo, hissympathetic witnesses came forward in droves to give theirbuoyant testimonies, until the files were bulging. Still, itwas somewhat rankling to the prosecution that no onecould prove that Arigo had ever accepted money or thatanvone had been harmed, and further exasperating thatpractically everyone had to admit that Arigo was a goodfather, a good family man, and of the highest character.Even the rumors of his alleged assignations failed to comeforth.

A series of mysterious incidents began happening atabout this time that were never fully explained. On oneoccasion, late at night after a particularly long sessionwith his patients at the Spirit Center, Arigo was walkinghome alone down the dark, narrow streets of the townwhen from out of the shadows of a doorway a manjumped at him without warning. Eventually, the massivestrength of Arigo vras successful in beating him off.

Word immediately went around the town that the hood-lum had been hired by Arigo's political enemies, but theincident remained unsolved. Lafer, government marshalsraided his house several times. They were unable to find

ARIGO: Sunceox oF rHE Rusrv KxnB ll7

anything incriminating. In spite of this, Arlete reported toher friends that Arigo did nothing but continue to pray forthose who were against him, insisting that they were mis-guided and should be forgiven. His supporters in the townfelt no such magnanimity. They were up in arms, and In-spector Arantes could see that he might have his hands fullif he moved too swiftly. Sitting down to make out his sum-mary report on September 11,"1.956, Arantes wrote:

"I tried to get witnesses who could give very completeinformation in the prosecution of the case, those thatwould bacl up our charges. We have many witnesses whodiscussed operations they have seen, including the use ofcotton, and the removal of 'meat' from the patients'bodies. Some claimed that no scar was left. I think wehave an ample number of these witnesses.

"I think it's possible that we are confronted with a caseof the use of hypnosis and psychotherapy. In manv hyp-notized persons, hallucinations are built up so that theyhave no concept of the reality of the situation. Manylicensed doctors use these methods for some of their pa-tients. It's not at all surprising to scientists. Many peoplehave been cured by the power of suggestion.

"But regardless of this, there is no question that Arigohas been practicing illegal medicine, without a license. Heis clearly. bv the penal law, practicing a profession withouthaving a license for it. It must be said, however, that Arigodoes not accept any remuneration for what he does."

There were, however, some delicate questions of lawinvolved. While Article 284 made spiritual healing acrime, it was only because Arigo stood head and shouldersabove all the hundreds of other healers throughout Brazilthat he was singled out. The others were not importantenough for the courts to bother with.

Another complication lay in the fact that Article 141 of.the Penal Code guaranteed the free practice of religion toevery citizen, and further assured him that he would notbe refused the protection of the law because of his reli-gion. Also. the illegal practice of medicine brought a muchlighter sentence than the practice of charlatanism or witch-

118 ARIGO: Suncrow oF THE Rusrv KwrrB

craft. This would have an important bearing on Arigo'sfuture.

The actual law against witchcraft made a great deal ofsense. "Witchcraft," it specifies, "is made punishable inorder to protect both the individual and the public. If aperson who does not hold a medical degree diagnoses adisease by its symptoms; if, without being licensed, heoperates on patients; if he claims to be in a trance, in thecontrol of a 'spirit'; if he writes prescriptions or performsoperations or administers herbs to the patient; if he uses'passes,' or certain postures or phrases or prayers to fa-cilitate childbirth, bring relief to the symptoms of a cold,snake bites, cancer, high fever, bleeding, cataracts, deaf-ness, and other conditions-such a person creates a vastdanger to the health and safety of many citizens whodepend on the state for protection." If the law made goodsense for the protection of the common citizen, the prob-lem was that it failed to make any provision for a strangeanomaly like Arigo.

Newsman Gabriel Khater, who lived in Congonhas,found that after several years of close observation, he hadswung almost completely around, changing from a totalskeptic to a fum believer. While he looked at spiritismwith a jaundiced eye, the rationale for his new beliefrested on what he felt was the validity of parapsychology.Khater found himself returning again and again to theSpirit Center to watch Arigo in action. He was finallyforced to acknowledge from his many interviews withvisiting naedical men that Arigo could do things thatmodern science could uot do.

Khater was co-nvinced that instead of being prosecuted,Arigo shouid be supported by funds for a special scientificstudy. In this way, Arigo would be placed under the con-trol of licensed dqstsls-s necessary step to prevent un-controlled charlatanism from proliferating-but he wouldstill be able to do rhe manifest good for society it hadbee.i all but proved he was doing.

Reporter Khater's articles on this track produced agrowing ground swell among medical men throu-qhoutBrazil. But this was not enouch to stem the tide headed

ARIGO: SuncBoN oF THE Rusry Kwrre l 19by Inspector Arantes and his state police. They had bull-dozed. their way_ through the resistince, and were happyenough to get the case out of their hands and into tlhecourts.

By October 5, 7956, the case was in the lap of pro_moter Afonso Infante Netto, roughly equivalenf to a dis-trict attorner. In his report to the

-cou.t, he announced

that Arigo was condemnea Uy the penal law, charged withthe crimes of charlatanism, wit"hcrift, and the illeial prac-tice of medicine. Arigo rvas or.dered to come to the iourtfor a preliminary hearing. He would be faced with hand_picked witnesses who would testify most severely againstnlm.

Sitting in front of a table in the sparsely furnished court-room of Congonhas do Campo, Arigo, in a dark, short-sleeved spor shirt. made a sid and pathetic figure as hefaced Judgt Eleito Soares and the clelk of the Iourt. Thefight seemed to have'gone out of him; he was unusuallypassive lt was an informal session, but the tiny room waijammed with spectators who leaned over the rail andwatched anxiously as their local hero and internationallegend was questioned by the judge. Arigo, his cleep, moisteyes gl'siening sadness, answered as if he were haif in theroom and halt out of it.

."Do you confirm your previous testimony?" the judgeasked.

"Yes." Arigo said. ',I confirm it.,'The judg^ showed him a list of the witnesses who were

to testi$ against him. "Do you know these vgitnesses?" heasked.

"Yes," said Arigo, as he looked over the list. ,,All ex-cept one. Bur I want to say that the accusations againstme are not true."

"In thar case," said Judge Soares, who was an im_patient man with little regird for the subtleties of thecase,."f mu-st ask you to give proof of why you say this.',

"Thesc charges are made agiinst me, and have all beenwritten on vour ofrcial police papers, but I must say thatI don't even know myself whelher I practice illegal med-icine or not. All I know is that wheniver anybodlr comes

120 ARIGO: SuncroN oF THE Rusry KNrre

to me for material or spiritual help, I must try to helpthem. I will not turn t"hem away. I tell them to ask Godfor good health."

"And just how do you go about this?""I start to say a prayer. It is the Lord's Prayer. And

from that moment on, I don't see or know about anythingelse. I don't remember what I do. There is no memory ofit at all. The others tell me I write out prescriptions forpeople, but I do not remember that. I don't know whatkind of drugs they are, and I do not understand why thishappens. I do not see them as I write them."

"What about the operations that are alleged?" the judgeasked.

"It is the same with them. I cannot give you any in-formaiion about them. I am in a state that I do not under-stand. They tell me I have done these things. I would behappy if I knew how to explain this."

"Do you have witnesses in your defense?""Yes," Arigo said. "I have a lawyer who is going to

present them to you." He named several: a well-knownindustrialist from Belo Hcrizonte, a group of doctors, anda few prominent public officials.

"I{ave you any crirninal record?""I have been br:ought before the police only once,"

Arigo said. "I took a knife away from one of the custom-ers in my bar. He would have killed somebody if I hadnot done ii. I was innocent, and I was immediately setfree."

"About the witnesses who will speak against you. Arethere any friends or enemies of yours among them?"

"There is one who is an enemyr" Arigo said. "But I donot hold anger against him."

"V/ho is that?"Arigo named Jo6o Hilariro da Cunha. "He is against

me politically. He is a doctor who is the brother of theman who ran against-me for mayor. We do not talk witheach other."

"Haye you seen this before?" the judge asked, showinghim a copv of the only prescription of Arigo that the statepolice had been able to round up. It was unsigned.

ARIGOI SuncsowoFTHBRusryKNrre l2l

"Yes," Arigo said. "It is one of the prescriptions that Ihave been told that I write for people."

"You are a Catholic. aren't vou?""Yes," said Arigo."You are aware of the attitude of the Church toward

what you are doing? That you are doing the work of asuva/tjsiy6-a charlatan?"

"But I am not a charlatan," Arigo said quietly. "I didwhat the priests wanted me to do. I went to doctors andpsychiatrists. They said I was in perfect health. I just wantto help the poor people, and I must do this."

"But you are doing what you are charged with, are younot?"

"I am not the one who is doing this," Arigo insisted. "Iam just an intermediary between a spirit dncl the people. Itis the spirit of Dr. Fritz. He insists that I help people, andI am just doing what God wants me to do."

"You are a spiritist, then?""I did not know anything about spiritism or about

mediums. Somo tell me I am a medium. I do not receiveany payments or gifts for this work. I cannot do so, evenif I wanted to, because it would not then be possible tohelp heal the sick. I would be very rich bv now if I didthia. I do not do this for any politicil tearonr. I have triedto get away from this, and I thought I was going insane."

"You have been told by the police, have you not, thatyou must close up the Spirit Center where you work?"

"f can only do this if the spirit of Dr. Fritz tells me Imust do this," Arigo replied.

"You realize what you are asking us to believe, do younot?"

"I reahze only what I must do, and how I must helppeople."

The judge was reaching the end of his patience. "If thisis so, why don't you just make this Dr. Fritz of yours ap-pear right here in this couftroom?" he snapped.

Arigo did not answer. A transparent cloud seemed toslide across his eyes. He sat in utter silence as the judgeglared at him. Several moments went by.

122 ARIGO: SuncnoN oF rHE Rusrv KNrpn

Then the judge slapped his papers together and said:"The case will continue on a schedule to be announced."

The case dragged along as Arigo's lawyer, Dr. AlfredoFigueiredo, of Belo Horizonte, began to gather favorablewitnesses for his sui generis client. This part was not dif-ficult; there were more impressive and prominent volun-teers than he could handle. What he did face was theproblem of shaping a defense for a client who was acriminal in the eyes of the law and a'saint in the eyes ofthe people. Judge Soares was obviously a total pragmatist,who would see none of the nuances. Further, there was noreal defense in the conventional sense of the law.

Just how to size up this unprecedented case was ariddle. The passionate defense testimonies of medical ex-perts as to Arigo's prowess with a knife would be ofdubious value. They might even bury him. Yet there wasa remote chance that the testimony might help slighfly, ifonly to soften the jail sentence.

The lawyer realaed the probable futility of gatheringsuch witnesses as Dr. Carlos Cruz, Dr. Ary Lex, and allthe other doctors who were convinced of Arigo's legiti-macy. Their testimony could only suggest the setting up ofa scientific study to get at the bottom of this phenomenon.But the law was rigid, and such a suggestion would meannothing The law might be rational in clamping down oncharlatanism. but it was also irrational if it would sendArigo to a miserable louse-ridden jail cell, where he wouldrot.

The penalties under Article 284 of the Penal Code wererough. Ariso was facing well over a year in jail and aheavy fine that would leave Arlete and his young boyspractical.lv destitute. The jail sentence would be utterlycruel on a man as sensitive as Arigo, who, in spite of hiscrudities. was easily moved to tears.

That the iudge and the prosecuting attorney were emo-tionally on the side of the Church and of Arigo's politicaladversaries seemed obvious. The only thing that appearedto be slowing them down was the fear of public outrage.

As the fall (spring in Brazil) of 1956 slid by, the pros-

ARIGO: SuncBoN oF TEE Rusry KNrne 123ecution gathered more nails for Arigo's coffin as defenseattorney Figueiredo pondered and worked on his strategy.He brought ia an influential retired judge from Belo Hori-zonte who would be an excellent character witness: he wasa fervent supporter of Arigo, and would not only testifythat Arigo never actepted money, but that his work wouldhave had to come from some higher power outside himselfto accomplish the incredible results he had demonstrated.

Figueiredo also got the support of Dr. JoSo Ranulf deMelo, the doctor from Congonhas do Campo, who wouldtestify about tle unbelievable ovarian-cyst and cataractoperatious he had watched and followed up on. He wouldstate that the operations were something that simply couldnot be done by an ordinary human being, and that thecourt was dealing with events tlat were plainly super-natural.

Dr. de Melo was joined in this by the group of doctorsfrom Lafaiete. who agreed that they would not hesitate torisk their professional standing by testifying in Arigo'sdefense. Their testimony would support that of the otherdoctors to the effect that a formal scientific study shouldbe made, and that in any country other than Brazil, thiswould be done. They would also testify that when Arigowas performing his operations he was not himself, butpossessed by a guiding power outside himself. Further,the doctors would confirm that Arigo had brought aboutmany documented cures of terminally ill patients withcancer or leukemia whom medical science had given up.

All would testify that no evidence of any harm, infec-tion, hemorrhagrng, or critical adverse drug reactions hadbeen demonstrated by any of the thousands of patientsArigo had treated. This figure was now conservativelyestimated at far over half a million in the past li,ve years.If there were any contestiilg of this figure, it wculd be thatit was too low. They would add to this their convictionthat pa.rapsychology was involved, that this was a sciencethat ',vas only beginning to be properly explored, and thatthe study of Arigo would advance this science.

Technically, all this was tissue-thin legaliy, and Figuei-redo knew it. The prosecutor had temporarily quit his

124 ARIGO: SunaBoN oF THE Rusrv KNlnS

job, which was the source of some comfort for the defense,but very little. The defense could do little but wait untilthe case came to trial months later in March 1957.

On March 17, Figueiredo had his chance to test hisshaky theories. The defense witnesses testified well, andhe pleaded simply and eloquently, in spite of the weak-nesses of his case. In addition to Article 284, Arigo wascharged with several other chapters of the labyrinthianBrazilian Penal Code. The laws in Brazil are patterned al-most entirely on ancient Roman law, and they containmany amhieuities.

Facing the liverish Judge Soares, Figueiredo immediate-ly demanded that the case be dismissed on the groundsthat charlatanism had not been proved and that on severaloccasions. he. as the defense lawyer, had not been notifiedwhen hostile witnesses had been heard. In these instances,neither he nor Arigo had been able to present a defense.In addition. he insisted that the prosecutor's leaving hisjob at the time made the trial automatically invalid.

_ "Further," Figueiredo continued, "definite harm anddanger to other people must result from the acts of thedefendant. No harm whatever has resulted from Arigo'sacts, and therefore it is quite plain that a crime does notexist."

He was aware that Article 284 did, not include such aprovision. but there were other chapters in the law thatdid give this protection. He went on: "It is impossible tocall Arigo a criminal. Aside from the fact that there is nocrime-and even the adversary witnesses have agreed tothis-Arigo has been shown to be an honest and hard-working citizen, a responsible member of the community,who is respe.cted by all. Only one person has ried to callhim a criminal, and that is the prosecutor of this court.He has failed to piovide proof of such a charge, becauseno such procf exists."

Figueiredo then began moving onto less firm ground.He did so with great convolutional indirection and master-fully engineered eloquence. The only direct evidence thatthe court had been able to come upon was the one smail

ARIGO: SuncsoN oF TrrE Rusry KNrrB 125

slip of paper with Arigo's prescription written on it. It wasunsigned.

"How can tle prosecutor say that Arigo gave out pre-scriptions, when all he has is one small piece of paperthat is unsigned, and totally lacks proof that this comesfrom Arigo?" he asked.

In spite of this flimsy physical evidence, there washardly a newspaperman in Brazil who didn't know thatArigo gave out literally hundreds of prescriptions a day. Itwas not exactly a worthy defense, but the attorney wasgrasping at straws. He had one more important point,however. In order to prove witchcraft, it was necessary toprove that a defendant had personally distributed concoc-tions of roots and herbs. This was clearly a thing Arigonever did. Arigo had prescribed only bona fide drugs fromstandard pharmaceutical houses, most of which wereknown throughout the world. The mystery was why theseprescriptions worked when Arigo issued them, when theyfaiied to work for the ordinary doctor. One drug wasknown only in New York. It was in an experimental stage,and was hardly known there. Arigo himself did not knowhow he knew about it.

In pointing all this out, Figueiredo continued by sayingthat drugstores all over Brazil often administered shots ofpenicillin and other dru-es, a technically illegal act that wasnever brought before the courts. Why was Arigo singledout?

Reminding the judge that Article 284 prohibited theuse of qestures or passes with the hands, Figueiredo said:"We want to ask the court to take into consideration thisfact: that if gestures and passes can be judged as crimes inBrazil, then throughout the entire great Catholic Church,all ihe members of the clergy are committing crimes everyday. The priests constantly make gestures every time theypray.

"What's more," the defense attorney went on, warmingup now to new emotional heights, "we like to call every-one a brother because we are all sons of God. If anyone-anyone 6f all-sams to Arigo to ask for help becausehe was suffering, Arigo would pick up a little cross, look

126 ARIGO: S\IRCEON OF THE RUSTY ISNIFB

high in the sky, hold his hand, and he would ask the goodGod to have compassion on his brother. This is whatArigo wants to do. He wbnts only to help people."

True as this was, Figueiredo neglected to add that moreoften than not, Arigo would also pick up a battered pen-knife and slice it expertly into the body of a patient. Therewas no need to remind the judge of this. He knew it well.

"We want to ask the judge: Is praying for our brothersand wishing for their health a crime? Can it be soconstrued? If the judge says that this is a crime, we candraw the conclusion that all the innocent oeople are injail, and all the guilty are out of jail. For do we not prayfor the health and good of people? If this is a crime, weare all criminals."

By now, Figuetedo was piling it on a bit thick. He hadlittle choice, in one sense. In strict legal terms, the caseagainst Arigo was cut-and-dried. If the obdurate judgecould not see beyond the law, and into the unique andtotally unprecedented values of the case, there was little adefense plea could do. The only possible track to takewould be to ask for a suspended sentence, with a courtorder placing Arigo in the custody of a group of com-petent medical doctors who would work with him in try-ing to unveil the mystery of his powers. No such defensewas presented. With the judge's hostile attitude alreadymaniJested. such a plea would likely be given short shrift.

R'mlidng the weakness of his position, Figueiredo con-cluded: "If Your Honor does ndt accept these arguments,I ask one other request. Arigo is a gentle man, from agood family, a fine father, and a loving husband. If thesearguments fail to move you, may I ask that your decisionbe weighed by these considerations, and that the lightestpossible penalties be imposed?"

The plea finished, the case rested. Headlines all overBrazil brought a harsh spotlight on the case. It did notplease the dour Judge Soares to have this happen. Read-ers flooded the newspapers with well-meaning letters inArigo's defense. One housewife wrote to the Diario deMinas: "My husband was given up by the doctors. He hada perforated ulcer. He went to Arigo, who operated on

ARIGO: Suncsox oF THE Rusry Kwmr 127

him. Today, he is completely well. Arigo said he didn't doanything for him, it was God. But my husband wants tothank Arigo publicly in this newspaper, because Arigo wasthe only person who gave him back his health. Arigo gavehim back his dreams, after the doctors and science toldhim that they could do nothing whatever more for him."

It was a splendid testimonial. But it amounted to onemore witness for the prosecution. Without insight on thepart of the court, Arigo was trapped.

J. Herculanb Pires,.the prominent professor of philos-ophy, wrote his opinion vigorously in the press. "It issimply ridiculous," he wrote, "to deny that the phenom-enon of Arigo exists. It is also completely unscientific tostate ihat Arigo is a paranoid or a psychotic of any kind.Medical specialists, famous journalists, intellectuals, pro-minent statesmen, and those who have been cured fromhopeless conditions, have all had ample chance to witnessthe phenomena at Congonhas do Campo. These simplycannot be denied or misrepresented. If no formal scientificcommittees have been organized to verify the many cases,there have been many verifications by many reliable scien-tists individually. Among these are the medical testimoniesgiven at court. To deny the paranormal capacities ofArigo is simply an act of utter stubbornness.

"We may want to eramine Arigo critically. We maydesire to severely iimit his activities, as severai <ioctors onthe witness stand have testified. What we cannot possiblydeny is the total reality of his feats, and his completesincerity."

When defense attorney Figueiredo filed an addendumto his plea on March 17, 1,957 , his arguments far exceededthe scope of his first brief. The problem with ihe entirecase was that both sides were trying to deal rationallywith the irrational. The court held the upper hand, be-cause it was already set in a harness that kept the pro-ceedings on a tighr legalistic bridle path. Any literalinterpretation automatically spelled Arigo's cloom. Theonly question was whether some spark might disturbJudge Soares' clod to the point where he would allow

128 ARIGO: SuncsoNoFTHERusrvKNrrB

special consideration. Arigo could, for instance, be given aminimal sentence, which could then be suspended in favorof putting him in the care of medical scientists.

Figueiredo did everything but handsprings and a tum-bling act to push the judge in this direction. The ability ofa healer, even if illegal, has to be taken into account,Figueiredo pleaded in his new brief. The wealthy and theprominent would never stampede to Arigo's humble clinic,as they were doing, unless he had ability. Arigo was ob-viously more than able, he was super-able. Arigo accom-plishes what he does without even knowing he is doing it.He ii not responsible for these acts, as benevolent as theyare. The Catholic Church acknowledges the validity ofparapsychology. The only possible solution to the problemis to set up a scientific study at the court's direction.Arigo helps only those that the medical world cannot help.He acts through an invisible element that is possessinghim, helping other people for God. The Catholic Churchrecognizes the reality of possession. In Arigo's case, thisis benign possession.

Arigo does his work without incantation or screaming.He practices none of the ritual of low spiritism, of theUmbanda and Quimbanda ilk. Arigo believes .that thespirit of Dr. Fritz is the spirit of Christ. He believes thathe must act to do everything through the light that Godhas given him. He \pants us to become less materialistic,more spiritual, and to be parascientific.

Arigo doesn't want or ask for this spirit that possesseshim, tho defense attorney went on. In fact, he willinglyfought it with the help of doctors and psychiatrists, whopronounced him normal otherwise. His gradual trend to-ward spiritism is protected by the Brazilian Constitution.It is a legitimate religion, protected against attack bypublic authorities. '

The only thing he has done is to give people who havetheir days numbered, their lives back. People whom mod-ern science-has given up. He helps them without chargeor harm, and is tle exact opposite of a criminal.

Figueiredo continued with quotations from the Latinpoets, from William James, from Conan Doyle, from Pope

Church of the Bom Jesus in Congonhas do Campo withthe statues bv Alei iadinho.

View from the church: : l l i : ;.:

Street scene in Congonhas. Arigo's "cl inic" is in the center,the Hotel Freitas is next to it, and in the foreground, acrossthe street, is the farmacia 56o Jos6 where many of hisprescriptions were filled.

Henry Puharich, M.D. (right)backyard during their first visit

and Henry Belk in Arigo'sin 1963.

Views of the inside of Arigo's "clinic" during Puharich'sand Belk's first visit.

Arigo is writ ing prescriptions with the same pen he usedfor twenty years.

(opposite page and above) Arigo operating with a kitchenknife. Dr. Puharich observed in his notebook: "I t wasthought the patient 's eye would be gouged out. But nopain was felt ."

(below) Arigo and vi l lagers in front of Hotel Freitas.

Operation by Arigo on right forearm of Dr. Puharich to

remove a lipoma. (above, left) The arm immediately after

surgery. (above, right) The arm two days after the opera-

tion. (below) The knife used and the excised lipoma.

W\

A magazine art ic)e by Jolgc Rizzini about the Pr-rharichoperation. The story was also carr ied by nearly cvery news-paper in Brazi l .

P d a k d a & A

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(top) The highly unconventional prescription Arigo gaveHenry Belk for his back condition. The writing on top isArigo's.

(above) Altimiro, Arigo's long-time assistant.

Members of the Amer-ican Medical team in1968 conducted a com-plete physical examina-tion of Arigo, includingbrain wave tests with anEEG instrument.

The fol lowing pictureswere made from the16mm motion picturetaken by the Americanmedical team.

Arigo cuttingscalp tumor.

out a

A close-up of Arigo'shands writing a Pre-scription.

(top) Patients waitingto see Arigo in his"c l in ic . "

(middle and bottom)Arigo performing eyesurgery.

Arigo removing a cata-ract. In the last picture

he is comforting thepatient.

illmil m m-t

Page 1 of a Rio de Janeiro paper, January 12, 1971, theday after Arigo was killed. His death was front page newsall over Brazi l .

% Ang6 nor.eu om€n nnnrdeeilre dc aulon'6rcl, Frrodt cotrgolha6 do (5uPo, raErliga Bn+ tlerhlE de lna

faand., no n'uDiciPiodc Jo,.

Sin Murrinlo! Sabdo Dsku

con' r.n On!|. rb,a .an,io-

O des.strr loi ns Dlfinfi!

!o kn :t?4 r Arig6 Do.ren

n a l o r a ! t { m l r a r u r s d e

c.i. io Segundo anigo6, ir i

g 6 I i r L ! v i a g € m ! n a r . 2 d s

Iaru 6 Eshdos Unidos r

eil8rd prcvendo rua Dorre

ChrFotr s dizEr para atf.

de anloh6r€l atrl€a dr le

Congonhas, ap6s a norida

str. rnrlq grande Drimero

tss6mrfoi pars asruas

AFHi da horre dc {rig6, o

ft F.lz v3i conlitruar ope

..ndo hro toi o q€ €rpti.ouM':zio. uh laDco n,adinm dcBelo Eorizor!€ drizio, que loi

pa.a eongorlas v€r o anigo,

disic qnc o D. frnzrai.onti

Nar.FrEndo com oD Pic..

r€ Sr€ laz h,6F .rras ahaviF

Tarcesio, Arigo's son, at his father's grave two years alter

his death.

W

Arlete de Freitas, Arigo's widow, in centergroup, including three of his sons.

of family

ARIGO: Sunceow oF TrrE Rusry KNns lZ9Leo XIII. He concluded with words from St. Paul, to theeffect that he who judges his brother is judging himself.

It is doubtful that in all the history of jurisprudencethere has been such a strange and twisted brief. Actually,though, it matched the inuicacies of the trial itself.Throughout the plea, Judge Soares sat like a sphinx,fuozen in time and space, and faced with almost arcaneimponderables-just as everyone else was.

The plea faiied to make a dent in the faEade of eitherJudge Soares or District Attorney Netto, now back inharness again to complete the case. Nor did the last-minute appearance of the Secretary of the Treasury forthe state of Minas Gerais, who voluntarily appeared inArigo's defense. He told the judge that he had witnessedArigo remove a cancerous growth from a friend who hadbeen given up as hopeless, and that a group of the finestdoctors in the state had confirmed the condition, theoperation, and the full recovery.

On March 26, 1957,less than ten days after Figuei-redo's last-ditch stand, Arigo was summoned before thecourt. With him was Arlete, this time her hair neatly inplace, his father and mother, and friends lnd well-wisherswho packed the small courtroom to its minuscule capacity.Newsmen and photographers scrambied as best thay couldfor a vantage point, to record the final decision.

Arigo was ushered to a wooden chair in front of thejudge. He was wearing a black suit and a necktie. In theheat of the courtroom, he opened his collar and loosened

The judge, his bearing stern and unyielding, briefly re-viewed the case. The defendant had admitted his wrong-doing before the court. The witnesses, both of the defenie

130 ARIGO: Suncrou oF THE Rusrv KNrnn

and the prosecution, had substantiated the charges. Infact, the strongest witness for the defense, Dr. JoSo Ranulfde Melo, had offered the most damaging evidence againstthe defendant. He had admitted to watching several opera-tions.

Arigo would still be guilty, even if he were not awareof what he was doing, even if he were possessed by thisstrange spirit. Nothing in philosophy or religion can defendArigo. The law is not interested in this in the slightest.The only issue at hand is to appll'the Penal Code, whichis very specific. Arigo has been committing crimes, andhe is guilty. He is not excluded because he is a mystic or amedium or an idealist or a charitable person of goodstanding. In the eyes of the law, Arigo is a criminal.

The courtroom was hushed and siient. Arigo, still in histrance, did not respond at all. He stared vacantly intospace, his bulky form hunched in the chair. The sobbing,beginning with Arlete, spread throughout the gallery. Thejudge rapped for order. Then he said:

"I hereby sentence you to one year and three months injail, effective immediately as of this day. I further levy onyou a fine of five thousand cruzeiros, plus all the courtexpenses. the same to be paid within three days, by March29 , 1957 ; ' ,

The decision was unbelievably harsh. No one had ex-pected anything like this. Arlete broke down and had tobe ushered from the room. Some of the sobs elsewherebroke into open crying. This was augmented by hostilemurmuring among the men.

Arigo continued in his trance; he failed to respond atall. His lawyer leaped to his feet, protesting that the termswere incredible, that he was asking for an immediate ap-peal, that the sentence must be stayed, and that the fineand costs were totally out of reason- Arigo had a wife andfamily to support, and the amount levied came to almostan enti-re year's earnings for Arigo at the pension andwelfare omce.

With obvicus reluctance, the judge said that he wouldgrant a stay untii April 1. Regardless of any. appeal, theflne would have to be paid by that date.

ARIGO: Suncsow oF rHE Rusry KNrre 131Figueiredo, furious, faced the judge and said: "I re-

member a prayer I learned when I was studying law. Itsaid, 'Dear God of Grace, is this a dream or is it the truththat so many horrible things can happen in foont of God'seyes?' "

The judge turned and left the room. Figueiredo tookArigo by the arm and led him out of the court. Among thespectators, many of whom had not moved from their seats,there was still the sound of crying.

There were two places in the village where news traveledmost swiftly: the barber shop of Ferando do Santos andthe railroad station. But that day every street corner, store,and bar was abuzz as the news of Arigo's sentence sweptthrough Congonhas do Campo. Judge Soares remained asinconspicuous as possible; he was the enemy of the people.The town's mood was like that of a mutinous vessel atsea. Even those who felt that Arigo should be curbed roseup against the utter harshness of the decision. Dissidencewithin the Catholic Church rose to a hish level. The statemedical society was splitting at the seais.

Both the Church and the medical society had stayed inthe background during the trial. This fooled hardly any- .one. Most knew that both organizations were lustily be^hind the prosecution, if not the cruelness of the sentence.The spiritists in town immediately rallied behind Arigo.With fresh suppoft from unexpected quarters, they raisedthe inordinate fine that had been levied on Arigo by thecourt.

Arigo, calm in his hour of despair, urged his fellowtownsmen to keep cool heads; he stubbornly insisted thai

132 ARIGO: Suncpox oF THE Rusry Kxrre

the court must be forgiven. Figueiredo and his staff law-yers rushed swiftly to appeal, reiterating their arguments,as technically weak as they were. Attorney Figueiredo ap-pealed directly to the Minister of Justice of the state withan impassioned plea to spare Arigo from total ruin.

The prosecutor countered this by declaring Arigo guiltyto the teeth, and accusing him of base politicai motives.He was relentless in his charges, to the point where manysuspected a personal vendetta.

It took two months for the decision to come down fromthe Court of Appeals. Arigo and his supporters waitedanxiously for the results. When the decision came through,it was not good. The higher court upheld the conviction,but ruled that the sentence was too harsh under the cir-cumstances. The jail term was reduced from fifteen monthsto eight, and the fine considerably cut back. Most im-portant, there would be a little more than a year's gracebefore beginning the jail terrn, provided Arigo remainedon probation in the custody of the court.

In spite of the breathing spell, the specter of going tojail and leaving his family hung over Arigo's head. Theterms of the custody were almost as confining as prison.

He wculd immediately have to stop treating patients.He could not move anywhere or ieave town without theauthorization of the judge. He had an early curfew. Hecould not go into any hotel, caf6, or restaurant, or sit atany outside tables in any of these locales. He could notconsult with any strange perqpn from .rut of town in hisor any other house. gJ wbuttPtrave to get the permissionof the judge to attend any spiritist meeting. He wouldhave to report to the judge at the end of each month. Hewas further warned that the police were going to keeptheir eyes on him, wherever he weni and whatever he did.He literally became a chattel of the court.

Arigo seemed like a lost man. He went to his job at thepension clTice, continued with his reai estaie work, tendedhis roses, played with his young sons. And he still went toMass witii Arlete, but unlike her, he did not take com-munion. He would have unti l the middie of August 1958before he would be sent off to jail, like any ordinary crim-

ARIGO: SuncBoxoFTHERusryKwIrr 133

inal. Arlete tried her best to comfort him, again took insewing to buttress their income, in preparation for the timewhen she would be left without support.

The year went by slowly. By the following May, 1958,it was obvious that the little savings they had put asidefrom Arlete's sewing work would be totally inadequate totide them over the long months Arigo would be spendingin jail. The children had now increased to six, all of themboys and under the working age, all of them needing food,shelter, and education.

In addition to the worries about What would happen tohis family, Arigo's compulsion to serve the sick was al-most too much for him to bear. The entire compl-exion ofthe town had changed. No longer did the buses full ofpatients rumble into the narrow streets from B.elo Hori-zonte, Rio, 56o Paulo, or far-away Argentina-the last anevent that had become almost a weeklv routine.

Arigo rantled under the terms imposed on him by thecourt, but he had nothing to say against his enemies. Hisheadaches returned again, as they always had when hetried to stop before. While he forswore his operations, hegradually began seeing those who sought him out for help,keeping this as inconspicuous as possible. The police knewimmediately that he was beginning to resume nonsurgicaltreatments, but they looked the other way. Nearly all werefriendly to him. They were awaie, too, that he had littlefreedom left, as the starting date of the jail term ap-proached.

The last two months before the jail term were thehardest for Arigo and Arlete. There was nothing to lookforward to but despair.

In Rio, President Juscelino Kubitschek had his handsfull, with a plethora of problems. The critics of the build-ing of Brasflia, in the remote state of Goias, were vocifer-ous in their condemnation of it. But the new capital wasalready rising in sparkling majesty in the middle of no-where, some six hundred miles from Rio, 56o Paulo, orSalvador--the three nearest metropolitan centers. It wasa concept of planned urban creation that had no parallel

134 ARIGO: SunceoN oF rHE Rusrv KNrrB

anywhere in the world. Kubitschek knew it, reveled in it.Its striking modern architecture was dramatic, breathtak-ing-and expensive. Determined to have the city finishecibefore his five-year, nonrepeatable term was up, Kubi-tschek poured money, sweat, and dreams into it, even tothe extent of air-freighting heavy construction materials.The new city was sprouting like a mirage out of the red-dish scrubland waste of the country's empty center. It wasa glorious obsession for Kubitschek and architect OscarNiemeyer; to their opponents, it was an impossible drainon the economy.

Kubitschek had other troubles and preoccupations: thethreat of a coup by the mili1zry, an unprecedented pro-gram for economic growth, and a new highway system thatwas to outdisiance all the progress made since the countrybegan. With inflation on the rarupage, the military restlessand hostile, and the treasury groaning under the newburdens,-Kubitschek had little time to put his mind onanything but the affairs of state.

But in May 1958 President Kubitschek learned thatArigo was waiting for the ax of the jail sentence to fall onhis neck. Kubitschek lbst no time going into action. Withinminutes, a presidential pardon was dispatched to theCongonhas do Campo authorities. It stated that as Pres-ident of the Republic, Article 87, Number 19 of theConstitution gave him the power to pardon Jos6 Pedrode Freitas, more commonly known as Arigo, and that thedefendant was to imms4isleit be relieved of his jail sen-tence by presidential order.

The official pardon was received by the dour prosecutorAfonso Netto on May 22, 1958. For reasons that werenever explained, the pardon lay fallow in the office of theprose,cutor, without any action being taken on it. It con-tinued lying there, as the time for the jailing grew closer.It wasn't until July 29 fhat Prosecutor Netro saw fit topass the news of the pardon along io Judge Soares. Itwasn't until August 6 that the judge saw fit to pass thenews along to Arigo.

With the sword of Damocles removed, there was greatrejoicing through most. of Congonhas do Campo. The

ARIGO: Sunceow oF TrrE Rusry KNrrB 135jubilance was not confined to the town; it spread throughBrazil and into Argentina. Arigo, who had been con-tinuing to experience his strange symptoms and headachessince he had stopped or reduced his healing work to al-most nothing, began to pick up the threads. fhe busesbegan to roll into the town again, and the patients beganto line up at the center. Arigo, who never could refuseanyone who came to him for help, fell back into theroutine. Within a month, the volume of patients had re-turned to an almost-normal figure of over three hundreda day.

But with one eye on the police, Arigo did not performany major operations. He was content for the most part tooffer his unorthodox prescriptions, to bless his patients,and to sternly advise them to go with God. It is said thathe actually did operate at times, but never openly as hehad before. He seemed to consider as nonoperations:cataracts, abscesses, lipomas, hydroceles, skin cancer, andothers where the viscera were not involved. These he did,along with his unconventional "eye checkup," where hestirred the knifs within the socket to remove pus or evena malignant tumor.

Kutitschek, as a surgeon as well as President, alongwith a growing number of other statesmen, intellectuals,scientists, and medical men, spoke openly on the line thatArigo was not a police case.

Commenting on Arigo in later years, President Kubi-tschek said: "It was impossible in Brazil for him to bealone. The people went where he went. If he had gone tothe wildest reaches of the Amazon. thev would have fol-lowed him there. I just don't undeistani his strength andhis extraordinary powers. The most important people inBrazil sought him out."

As the months flowed into a year and more, Arigo'sreturn to his old pattern bothered none of the moreenlightened, except that they wanted control and observa-tion of Arigo. But the smoldering resentment of theChurch and the medical societies still burned with aglow. These flres had been banked by Kubitschek's par-

136 ARIGO: SuncnoN oF THE Rusry Kxrnn

don and the public elation at Arigo's reiease from thethreat of jail.

But Juscelino Kubitschek's term was finished. Althoughhe was an inordinately popular man, he could not suc-ceed himself in office. If he could have, it is said, hewould still be President, without uttering a single cam-paign speech. He had completed Brasilia, a lyrical andextravagant monument to his courage and imagination,and even his adversaries came to acknowledge the city asa needed catalyst to the full development of Brazil's in-terior.

But he was no longer President. JAnio Quadros wasswept in, in 1960, sweeping himself out again after onlyseven months in office, by resignation. Vice-PresidentJoio Goulart took his place, and was to last until 1964,when a military regime took over. Arigo's top-ievel sup-port was gone. Again, the opposition went into action.Again, the press stories were beginning to flow out ofCongonhas do Campo with monotonous regularity. Again,Arigo was beginning to slip back into doing a few majoroperations. Again, the stories of their success could notbe held in check.

Not the least of Arigo's new successes came from anincident with the infant son of singer Roberto Carlos.Carlos was the toast of Brazilian entertainers, rivaling, i{not exceeding, the popularity of the Beatles in that coun-try. If there had been a popularity poll taken in Brazil, itis likely that the first three figures to be named wouldhave been Pele, the world-renowned soccer player; Jus-celino Kubitschek; and Roberto Carlos-with Arigo him-self running a close fourth.

The new son of Roberto Carlos was born with a seriousfulminant glaucoma condition, an intensely acute form ofinflammation with total loss of sight and light perception.

Roberto Carlos and his wife rushed the baby to spe-cialists in Europe, where the child's condition was diag-nosed as incurable. On his return to Brazil, Carloschartered a plane and flew to Lafaiete, and took a car toCongonhas. The details have not been revealed about the

138 ARIGO: SuncBoN oF rHB Rusrv KNrre

but after two years of almost daily observation and study,he ruled this out fully. Arigo himself obviously went intoa trance state, but the patients were diagnosed and op-erated on almost instantly, without any eye or wordcontact, without any suggestion, without preparation-psychological, surgical, or otherwise.

Dr. Godoy was also intrigued by the personality profileof the man. He was aware that when he was near \rigo athis place of work, he felt a completely differer.t rmbiencein the room. It was charged with inexplicable emotion.When the knife cut and the blood did not pour ()ut, it wasa scene that was impossible to believe. Ihe rimplisticanswer was that it was a question of mind over matter-but what did that mean? And there was no way whateverof explaining why, of the thousands of cases of surgeryArigo had performed, there was not one instance of sep-ticemia--blood poisoning. Dr. Godoy knew from his ownpractice that any lapse in surgical procedure inevitablybrought about this condition.

Arigo was anything but a simple character. His on-stageand off-stage personalities were widely split. Yet therewere no conventional signs of psychosis, whether schizo-phrenia or paranoia. He was in control of both person-alities, depending on which one he became. His ,rrdinaryfoibles were many and varied. But they Jid not departmeasurably from the norm of acceptable neurosis. t-{is fearof elevators and airplanes was not crippling ()r devastatingto his capacity to work and love. His family life was rea-sonably normal when he had time for it; his devotion toArlete was as genuine as hers to him.

The entire syndrome about Dr. Frjtz and his allegedspirit colleagues was a great imponderable. I'here werefew yardsticks to measure it by. Arigo's personality changewhen he assumed this cloak of his psyche was marked andreal. Yet when he did, his personality was level lnd con-5i5fsn1-and totally rational within those bounds. Theconcept of a band of discarnate spirits, all with greatmedical prowess, all with a capacity of helping Arigowith their specialized skills, was of course totally ulraccept-able in the light of modern science. To the Kardec spir-

ARIGO: Suncsox oF THE Rusrv KNrnB 137

surgery that Arigo performed, but within days the infant'ssight was restored.

Carlos became a close friend of Arigo's from that timeon, and the incident thrust Arigo's new activity into moreblazing public attention across the country.

When pressed about what he was doing after his closebrush with jail, Arigo would explain: "I believe in loveand charity. tr cannot deny anyone who comes to me forhelp. The Bible tells us that when someone knocks, wemust opcn the door to him."

Distressed and frustrated about the persecution Arigohad faced-and might continue to face-was the assistantmayor of Congonhas do Campo, Dr. Mauro Godoy. Hehad studied both internal medicine and psychiatry ai theUniversity of Brazil in Rio, and continued to practice bothspecialties. He had had a much better chance to observeArigo in action than all the scores of Brazilian doctorswho had investigated him. Godoy's office was -within shout-ing distance of Arigo's clinic, anC he often dropped by inhis efTort to find a scientific rationalization for what hesaw.

He knew the dangers of drawing attention to Arigo'snew, post-trial activities, yet he was determined to per-suade his colleagues in the rnedical society to shift theiremphasis from persecution to study. He had recorded caseafter case of Arigo's surgery-many of them on operationsthat were successfully completed in one-fortieth or one-fiftieth of the time required by conventionai surgical pro-ceoures.

As a psychiatrist, he believeC 'chat the modern schoolcould beneflt greatly by studying primitive techniques.While Arigo was anything but a primitive, and stood com-pletely in a class by himself, beyond any known discipline,Godoy was convinced that only an extended, well-fundedstudy could possibly make a dent in solving the puzzle. Hereasoned that Arigo could do little or no harm to thepublic because most of his cases had been given up bymedical doctors.

Godoy had come about his acceptance of Arigo's workslowly. At first, he ascribed it to some sort of hypnotism,

ARIGO: SunceomoFrHERusryKNrre 139

itists, however, this was old hat. At times, Dr. Godoy wastempted to assume momentarily, on a provisional

-basis,

that this could be the explanation. But if this assumptionwere made, where could he go from there? He agreedheartily with a statement Dr. Pires had recently made: "InArigo's case, the prevaiJing aspects are the objectivephenomena. It is much easier to biithely label Arigo as aparanoid than to look seriously into what he is doing."

These questions were begging for answers. But the in-formation Dr. Godoy was gatherin,e from his less inter-ested colleagues would not heip answer the questions.Again, the medical association headquarters in Belo Hori-zonte was stirring restlessly. Dr. Godoy began to regardthe situation as a race between possible enlightenmentabout a rare, incredible phenomenon and the iron-heavyforces of ciosed minds.

The new thrust from the medical association was notlong in coming. On August 29, 1.961, some three yearsafter Judge Soares had reluctantly notilied Arigo of Pres-ident Kubitschek's official pardon, Dr. Fernando MegreVeiloso sat down at his desk in Belo Horizonte to dictatea letter to the Secretary af. Public Security of the state ofMinas Gerais.

Dr. Velloso was president of the Conselho Regional deMedicina of the state, equivaient to a regional office of theAmerican Medical Association. He stated:

Senhor Secretario:In iine with my responsibilities with the medical

associatiou, over which I have the honor of presiding,let me bring to the attention of Your Excellency theactivities of the well-known citizen Jos6 Arigo, rel-ative to the practice of curandeirismo-witchqaft..

Since this citizen is being widely and publicly ac-cused of such practices that, truly, can threaten anddemoralize the rights of the public, I beg Your Ex-cellency to institute the necessary inquiry to determinethe facts in the case. If true, the case against Jos6Arigo sho'.rld be reopened, and a new process begun.

I am sure that you will immediately give your atten-

140 ARIGO: Suncsol.r oF THE Rusry KNrrS

tion to this matter. Allow me to extend to YourExcellency my greatest esteem.

Within days, the snooping began again. Police investi-gators began fanning out. The talk from the barber shopand the railroad station had preceded them. They wereexpected. The detectives received a chilly response fromnearly everyone they interrogated. The new probe sprungout of Lafaiete, twenty miles away, a safer distance forthe authorities to be, at least. The investigators, as before,had a puzzLing time trying to get any copies ()f prescrip-tions out of the drugstores in either Congonhas do Campoor Belo Horizonte. "The druggfst informed me,

' wrote one

detective, "that the prescription that one patient of Arigo'ssaid he would give us could simply not be tound any-where, and must have been lost. If he found it. he wouldsend it."

Another had trouble getting any kind of informationout of the druggist on the plaza in Congonhas. The drug-gist swore he had never seen. Arigo's name on any pre-scription (Arigo of course never signed them). He neverasked a customer about this. He knew nothing whateverabout Arigo, even though he was only a block rway.

Nearly every witness who could have offered lnythingof importance dodged and evaded the questions. Buteventually the prosecution won the war of attrition andwas able to gather ample evidence of Arigo's havingreestablished his practice. "We first noticed," wrote afield detective, "that everyone was expecting us to arrive.We found several good witnesses, but they didn't want totalk and refused to give us any help. But with our carefuland expert techniques, we finally broke down the resis-tance. We conclude that Arigo is practicing right now, inspite of his denials. Our results will show clearly that heis engaging in illegal medicine, even though he was onceprosecuted and pardoned." If the results of the investiga-tion failed to prove the case, it would have been a miracle:the crowds formed every day under the eyes of the police.

The prosecution now was aiming hard and straight toprove that Arigo was practicing witchcraft, not merely

ARIGO: SuncsoN oF THE Rusry KNrre l4t

illegal medicine. Earlier stung by the rebuff of PresidentKubitschek's pardon, the authorities were determined toget the much larger penalty that the witchcraft chargewould provide. All the new testimony that was elicitedwas shaped in this direction. If a witness said that Arigoraised hrs hand above his head, this was more than thepractice of meciicine, this was witchcraft, Whether it rvasmeant to be or not. If he read the Bible or blessed apatient, that was to be interpreted as witchcraft.

Beyond that aspect, the second prosecution was almosta carbon copy of the first. But it took time, and the legalmachinery was slow, especially in view of the resistanceof the witnesses. The process continued all through 1961,1,962, and far into 1963.

As the two full years went by, Arigo continued prac-ticing almost as if nothing were happening. His denialsthat he was practicing were based on his firm convictionthat it was Dr. Fritz, and not he, who was doing themedical work. This was his iustification-this. and hisbelief that he couid not turn down those who needed him.

"They might say I am lwong," Aligo told reporterReilalcio Comenale, "but I am not wrong in the eyes ofGod. A lot of friends have come to tell me that they wantto help me. I have a special place in my heart for them.But I still pray for my enemies. They are the ones thatneed more prayer and more love. If they want me to go tojail, they can put me there. trf the court wants to chargeme with helping the sick, and judge me for that, I will goany time. But I am sure that God will give me freedom.I'm not pure, but I try to be. If I carry 6ut charity and ifI'm accused of the crime of charity, yes, they can take meto jail, and I will stay there."

Meanwhile, Arigo's supporters were not inactive. Overthree hundred of them signed a petition and presented itto the implacable Judge Soares. It said jrat the petitionerscame from all social classes, and pleaded with the judgeto forgive and forget. It did not fall on fertile ground, andthe prcsecution continued.

By August 1963, the legal process was still creakingalong and Arigo was still practicing, though somewhat

142 ARIGO: SunceoNoFTHE RusryKNrremutedly. And'it was then that Dr. Henry puharich andHenry Belk arrived in Congontras i, in.ir;*robus, to beamong the first North Amiricans to encounter the phe-nomenon of Arigo face to face.

After returning to the United states, puharich and Belklf of Arigo. In their talks withtors before they left Rio, they, s capacttles were in imminent

. impending new prosecution,

cover the source of his strafscience in aiding him to dis-

medical men pleaded with Ian outside study by Ameticrtherr own efforts in the factthe medical societies. But it

Puharich was somewhatdefying the sacred tenets ofto tackle unknown phenomenarautted on was his scjentific.proficiency. He had provedhimself enough,in ttre trara_fiie *fr""i'rt'pragmatic lab_oratory research and advanced biomedicai instrumenta_tion to feel secure and. confide"i i" li"pping into theunknown waters that la.y beyond the

""r-.'Wir" puharich

was {o find here affected hii tite to ,,r"h uo extent that helrecipitously into further ex_, that some of his supportersrever, could not negate theling up in regard to Arigo's

Neither Puharich nor Belk had any_interest in pursuingl:*y "!"1

il. Aligg's case, where-did reality teave oftano rne tantastic besin? This was the key question, onethat was both difficult to answer and impoi.sible to ignore.If it .were_ ignored, the entire

"tirl"Sy, ;; root cause.;

:"u,t]d. go begging.. Yet any attempt to-answer ir in termrsor Arlgo s own theories about Dr; Fritz and his con_federates rvould cause the entire i"u.rt1!udo" to go rrp ina cloud of clerision.

- Ih" problem boiled down to proving the otjvious. .{knife can be painful even when sticing aliy-at a hangnail

ARIGO: Sunoeox oF THE Rusry KNrre 143

or wart, to say nothing of scraping a naked eyeball orscooping the eyeball out of its socket in a totally con-scious, unalesthetized patient. Yet there was no disputewhatever that Arigo was doing this daily-along withmuch more comptcated surgery.

Puharich knew he had to present his findings as con-vincingly as possible, or his recommendations for theexpensive and painstaking research could be laughed offby his associates. Second- or third-hand reporting byPuharich on something as astounding as Arigo was notthe ideal method of scientiic presentation. The scientistmust be prepared to challenge, and challenge hard, whichis of course healthy.

Puharich himself had already challenged Arigo with hisown lipoma operation. On the surface, this would bereasonably good evidence, if not proof, of the worthinessof further study of Arigo. So were the films. But thesestill would not be enough for the exacting requirementsof scientific-journal publication, which demands, in addi-tion to prolific footnote references of past practices andobservations, some pragmatic frame of reference on whicha theory could be built and accepted. It had taken cen-turies for acupuncture to be even considered worthy ofscientific study. Arigo's practices went so far beyond acu-puncture that they almost soared out of sight.

Arigo dealt with rlw anguish, desperation, and hope-lessness. Pain and disease are the basic reality of thosewho suffer from them. Here were such people-literallyhundreds of them a day-who knew and lived with thisintensely horrible reatrity. They had no other choice.

The great majority of those who made the pilgrimageto Arigo did not come to him out of curiosity, religiousfaith, or fetishism. They came because they were literally,practically, objectively, totaliy hopeless. Modern medicinehad given them up; in some cases, the best specialists inthe world. rfr'here else could they turn?

Although Arigo prayed briefly with his patients eachday and continually told them to "go with God," therewas none of the faith-healing aspect or mysticism that ac-companied the activity at Lourdes. In most respects, his

144 ARIGO: Suncpou oF THE Rusry KNrrstreatment was as perfunctory and clinical as a residentphysician in an emergency room.

In their desperation, many would not let themselvesaccept the death sentence that their doctors had flatlypredicted for them. Within their scope, the doctors wer-eright. There was no other objective course for them._ Arigo oftered hope in the face of seeming lack of it.They came to Congonhas do Campo. The overwhelmingmajority of them were miraculously cured. A small per-centage were not, and Arigo would not hesitate to tellthem he could do nothing for them. Nearly ail figured itwas worth the risk.

ness in as short a time.Arigo's pocketknife or paring knife "eye examination"

puzzled Dr. Puharich when he had returned to the UnitedStates almost more than anything else. Arigo did thisoften, even when the eye looked perfectly norrnal. It wassomething never seen in conventional medicine, totallybizarre. He would often scrape out a glob of pus frombehind the eyeball, even when there didn't seem to be anycondition that would warrant it being behind the eye.Puharich suspected that Arigo did this maneuver in theeye, stirring the blade so roughly in the eye socket, todramatize that he could do things for the patient far be-yond the normal, and thus build up the confidence of boththe patient being treated and those watching and waitingtheir turn.

As part of his experimental work in cardiology, Puharich

ARIGO: SuncsoN oF THE Rusrv KNrrs 145

worked often with Dr. Luis Cortes, a research scientist inthe Department of Surgery of the New York UniversitySchool of Medicine. Before he had drawn up his firstreport on Arigo for Essentia Research Associates, Puharichhad shown Cortes the fllms of Arigo's operations and filledhim in on some of the background. Cortes was fascinatedwith the surgical work depicted in the film. As a surgeonhimself, he simply could not believe that a knife coirld beinserted into the eye of a conscious person without literallystrapping him down and practically raping the eye. It wasan assault on the nerves of the patient that positively couldnot be done.

Both he and Puharich decided to make a tentative checkof this with some of the laboratory rats they were usingwith their cardiological research. They each had long ex-perience in handling laboratory animals under the mostdifficult conditions, and could accurately predict whateverfear or reflex reactions the animal would have under al-most any condition. In a normal pattern, if they tried thesame technique that Arigo had used with his eye probes,the rat would use every muscle in its body to avoid theassault of the knife blade in its eye.

Using painstaking care, Cortes held a rat firmly whilePuharich tried to insert a small knife under the lid and uptoward the sinus cavities. They found that it was literallyimpossible to do on a conscious, unanestletized rat unlessits head was held in a viselike grip. And then it was prac-tically impossible to hold the rat still to do any maneuver-ing whatever, to say nothing of stirring the blade inside theeyelid. Even in an anesthetized rat, it was impossible toemulate the rough crude plunges that Arigo executed with-out seriously damaging the eye tissues. Whatever Arigo didwas beyond the province of either doctor.

But Puharich and Cortes were faced with one morechallenge. A young laboratory assistant who had seen thefilms insisted that she wanted to volunteer to let eitherCortes or Puharich attedpt to repeat the experiment onotle of her own eyes. Neither doctor wanted to accept thechallUnge. But she kept on insisting, saying that if theywere eie"r to get to the bottom of this mystery they would

146 ARIGO: SuncnoN oF THE Rusry KNrne

have to take some chances. Puharich had taken hischances with the lipoma operation. She was willing to takehers, because she was absolutely absorbed by what Arigowas doing, and convinced that it must be solved.

Since Cortes was a practicing surgeon, he was at leastconfident that he could try the experiment without harm,by using extreme care. But the girl must promise to givehim a signal at the very first moment of pain or dis-comfort. She promised that she would.

Choosing a small, smooth table knife, and avoiding theiris and cornea of the eye, Cortes very gent$ began toslide the knife under the lid. She remained stoic and quiet,but only for a fraction of a moment. His first, slow upwardmovement brought a quick sign from the girl that the painhad become unbearable. The knife was only a fraction ofan inch under the lid. Itre removed it as carefully as he hadinserted it, and no harm was done. The knife had gone lessthan one-tenth the distance Arigo's blade penetrated, andCortes had made no lateral or circular movement. Theexperience convinced all three that they were dealing withan extraordinary case in Arigo that would be a mammothchallenge to science.

On reviewing Dr. Puharich's preliminary report, as wellas the separate one filed by Henry Belk, the interest in afull-scale research expedition to study Arigo was highamong the members of the Essentia Research group. Com-ing as they did from difierent disciplines and varied orga-nizations, from StanJord University on the West Coast toMassachusetts General Hospital on the East, there weremany logistic and time-schedule problems.

All agreed that further preliminary investigation had tobe done to avoid confusion and wasting of time when afulI commission of half a dozen or so members took offon the trip. There would be a considerable amount ofpreliminary reading and study to be done on the subjectsof parapsychology, Brazilian customs, and the Portugueselanguage.

Puharich agreed to make another trip to Congonhas lora detailed feasibility suryey, and to try to gather sta4isticsthat could be used for shaping a well-planned tean effort.

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Just when he could get away from his own research work,now suflering from temporary neglect, was another prob-lem. Yet with the legal action against Arigo threateningthe potential success of the research expedition, speed wasessential. The arrangements were cumbersome, the dis-tances between the members great, and the necessity forfunding of paramount necessity. Several foundations wereapproached, a slow and difficult job. The race to try touncover the mystery of Arigo continued.

In Brazil, the legal proceedings were still bogged downin delays. The prosecution that was to lead to a.secondtrial had begun in September 1961, on the urging of themedical society of Minas Gerais. When Belk and Puharichhad left Congonhas do Campo in August 1963, the legalpreparation for the trial was still foundering, chiefly dueto inertia, to the resistance of the witnesses, and to thedifficulty of documenting new evidence in spite of the factthat Arigo was continuing his work under the noses of thepolice. The people who were benefi.ting were the last oneswho wanted to assist the prosecutor.

The news in August 1963 of Arigo's operation on Dr.Puharich, which had been spread across the front page ofnearly every paper in Brazil, provided a fresh impetus tothe sluggish prosecution. It was again a case of a successstory that would be damaging to Arigo. And it was astinging rebuke to Judge Soares and the prosecutor thatthe nationally famous operation had happened under thevery noses of the police investigators.

Although the case had been lying rather dormant at thetime, there, was action within weeks after the prosecutorread the Puharich headlines. Arigo was called up beforehim. A Dutch Roman Catholic priest by the name ofAnselmo Nteindres had also seen the headlines, along withthe officers of the medical society. All were up in armsabout this flagrant operation on the American doctor'sfumor.

A new judgg, Marcio de Barros, of apparently the samedour disposition as Judge Soares, had joined forces, andhandled the fresh interrogation of Arigo. The prosecutor

148 ARIGO: SunceoN oF THE Rusrv KAUFB

was now Marcelo da Paula, another who seemed to be ofthe same stiipe.

Arigo reiterated that he bore no malice against thosewho had testified against him. He freely admitted that hehad operate<i on the American doctor. He also confirmedthe other nationwide headline report that he had saved theeyesight of Roberto Carlos' infant son. Since Arigoclaimed these were done on the intervention of Dr. Fritz,and since he had no conscious memory at the time ofdoing them, Arigo did not feel they were against the law.If the court felt they were crimes, that was up to thecourt. His conscience was clear.

Such a bland admission was of course explosively irritat-ing to the court. The defense of shifting the blame to aGerman doctor who died in 1918 was probably one of themost ridiculous in the history of jurisprudence, but neitherthe judge nor the prosecutor saw any humor in it. Theywere stiil feeling the stinging indignity of having, in effect,been made fools of in the oress.

The dawdling went on-through the rest of 1953 andthrough most of 1954. Arigo continued to practice under

tions but nonetheless continuing to do them. By the middleof October 7964, the court lelt it had enough evidence tonail Arigo on the witchcraft charge, with its more stringentpenaities, than the simpler charge of iilegal practice ofmedicine.

Prosecutor da Paula pulled out all the stops in his sum-mary of the charges. He argued that Arigo was a criticaldanger to society. He was guilty of practicing witchcraftand black magic with all the enthusiasm oI the candombldrites in a macumba clearing. Arigo was, to put it bluutly,a criminal. It didn't matter if he was successful in hiscures, or that he benefited any who came to him. It furtherwas imriraterial that no harm had come to any of the hun-dreds of thousands of patients Arigo had treated, or thathe never accepted any money or gifts. A crirne was acrime. For some reason, the prosecutor was touched off byevidence that dozens of women from high society came tosee Ariso with veils over their faces. to hide their identitv.

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The prosecutor saw in this a most sinister omen. And, tosum it ali up, Arigo admitted himself that he was com-mitting this crime against the people.

The second trial was really a charade for both sides asthey strained to conduct the proceedings on the ievel oflegal reality though the phenomenon actually was unclassi-fiable, undefendable, and unassailable, all at the sametime. Neither the prosecution nor the defense knew how tohandle it, nor would anyone else. Judge Barros was unableto fathom the overtones and undertones, saw none of theparadoxes and subtleties. On November 20, 1964, he sen-tenced Arigo to sixteen months in jail for the practice ofwitchcraft, effective at once.

Arigo was permitted to go home from the courthouse inLafaiete wit}l Arlete to say good-bye to his sons. He didnot try to explain to them what was happening, becausehe did not know how to explain it. His own feelings toldhim that he was trying to do right, in the way that he sawit. How could he explain that to his boys in the face ofthe long jail sentence? Arigo loved children-all children.He was known for his expansive love of his own boys.

That evening he held each one in his arms, promisedthat he would see them again soon, comforted thembecause they sensed, with the awesome intuition even theyoungest have, that a tragic happening was in the air.

Ariete, for the sake of the children, was holdins backher tears. They prayed before dinner, and ate in s]lence.Arigo tucked the boys in bed, and said the Lord's Prayerwith them.

Then he went downstairs. where Arlete was waitins forhim. She did not cry, but her eyes were moist. Thei didnot speak to each other. Arigo dropped his forehead onhis hand, and both of them waited in silence for the policecar to arrive.

I

Arigo and Arlete were barely aware of the crowd that hadgathered outside their house that evening. It was quiet andorderly-so quiet that it seemed :lnrost ominous. Only themumbling of subdued prayers among the crowd of severalhundred signaled to Arigo that they were there. He wentto the window and looked out. When they saw him, thecrowd cheered. There was still no sign of a police car.

At the local police station, there was conste^nation.None of the men on the force wanted to take Arigo to thejail in Lafaiete. Neither did the po"lice chief want to givethe order. Nor did the state poiice-of Minas Gerais wantto drive up through the crowd. Both the local anC stateofficials tried to find an answer. No one, in fact, wantedArigo in jail, aside from the authorities who had orderedit. The time wore on into the evening.

Arigo was becoming impatient. Finally, he crossed theroom and embraced Arlete, then went out the front door.An enormous cheer went up from the crowd. He askedthem to keep quiet and orderly, and to pray. Then he gotin his jeep, nuu,led it slowly through the packed street,and drove to the police station. Sheepishly, the police chieftold him of the dilemma they were facing. Arigo repliedthat there was no probiem. He would drive to the jail atLafaiete himself. The chief agreed that, in the light of thelarge crowd, it might be a good idea.

On the road to Lafaiete, Arigo's jeep was followed by acaravan of well-wishers. Behind the caravan, a lcne policecar followed, gingerly, uncertainly, its occttpants halfafraid of the crowd. It was a strange sight, the long drag-on's trail of a motley assortment of cars and trucks, sand-wiched between Arigo's jeep in the lead and the poiice car

150

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at the rear. Almost a carnival atmosphere prevailed, as thecars in the parade began blowing their horns. The ca-cophony became deafening, but the police were powerless.

At the jail Arigo was met by the warden, almost as if hewere a visiting dignitary. The police pushed their way upfrom the re4r of the caravan, to deliver to the warden thenecessary official papers. But in the confusion, the papershad been left in Congonhas. The crowd broke out intolaughter as the police car sped back to retrieve the docu-ments. Arigo laughed with them.

The warden insisted that it would be better for Arigo toserve his term in the local hotel, in the custody of thepolice. Arigo would have none of it. If he were being sen-tenced to jail, he would go there. The warden almostpleaded with him to reconsider, but Arigo still refused.

It was a dank, ugly, crumbling jailhouse. Some of thecells opened directly on to a musty alley that ran alongsidethe building. Arigo was assigned one of these. The wardentook a large, old brass key and opened the creaky iron-barred door. The crowd pressed into the alley, until thereseemed no room to breathe. Someone began raying theLord's Prayer. The rest followed. The warden and tleguard bowed their heads and joined them. When it wasfinished, Arigo spoke. He said to the gathering that theywere not to feel resentment against either the iailkeepers orthe police. They were only doing the work they were as-signed to do. He promised that he would be relbased soon,because his lawyers were immediately appealing. Slowlythe crowd dispersed and drove back to Congonhas doCampo. The warden, almost on the point of tears, toldArigo how distasteful a job this was for him to carry out.The night jailer said the same. Arigo blessed them both,and they left. Arigo lay down on the rough wooden bunk,and prayed again.

Arigo's case had attracted the attention of some of thebest lawyers i1 Blazil. Dr. Jair Leonardo Lopes took thelead in bringing the appeal to the higher courts. He hadspent considerable t:me reviewing the case, analyzingArigo, and studying parapsychology. Interviewed the day

152 ARIGO: Suncsow oF THE Rusrv KNrne

after Arigo's incarceration, he told reporters: "Arigo neverharmed anvbody. He has a true gift which does not de-pend on legal authorization to cure strange ills of the richand the poor. He often cures people doctors have given upon.

"Arigo has extrasensory perception. He is a clairvoyantand has other exceptional faculties 'we can neither definenor understand.

"He diagnoses by clairvoyance. He 'sees' the affectedorgans inside the patient's body. Through telepathy, heknows what other doctors prescribe for the illness or heknows what has worked in similar cases.

"He has prescribed medicines for some patients whichhave long passed out of use, and he also has prescribedmedicines which were so new that they had not yet arrivedin Brazil.

"Only clairvoyance and other undefined powers can ex-plain these things."

Arigo had tried to explain his own powers to reporterspreviousll', when he said: "When a case is simple, I candiagnose and prescribe without going into a trance, sinceDr. Fritz guides me. But for complex cases, I must entera trance and call on Dr. Fritz directly."

As Dr. Lopes began pressing the appeal, Arigo's celldoor on the little alley next to the jail was swarming withreporters the next day. Arigo said he was glad to be in jailin one way, because he was badly in need of rest. Hewould be able to revierv his past and future. He said hewas still praving for his enemies, and he hoped the jour-nalists would do so, too.

Then he said a strange thing: "Perhaps being sent tojail is a gift of God. You know I drive very fast on theroad. It is something I do without thinking about it. If Iwere not in jail now, I would be driving along the road,and I would be killed."

The remark was puzzling, and was generally passed overin the press. To the reporter who knew Arigo best and hadstudied him most, Gabriel Khater, the comment had some-thing ominous about it. Arigo, he felt, did not make state-

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ments like this without good reason. He included it in hisstory, but then forgot about it.

Attorney Lopes was determined to bring the case to theFederal Supreme Court, if necessary. The appeal, labeledNo. 2334, went anything but swiftly. Aside from pleadingthat there was not one iota of evidence that Arigo had everharmed anyone, and that he was anything blut a curan-deiro, Attorney Lopes struck out for a writ of habeasco{pus,-on the grounds that Arigo had been tried twicefor the same crime. But this process was burdensome andinvolved, having to pass through various panels of judgeswho would ponder the merits and demerits of the caseendlessly before voting a decision.

Not the least damaging to Arigo was the aggressive at-tack of prosecutor Marcelo da Paula. Although some saidthey detected a softening in his attitude toward Arigo out-side the courtroom, the brief he filed against the appealfailed to show it. He fouglrt against even the temporaryand provisional release the writ of habeas corpus wouldbring. He hit the Court of Appeals hard with a review ofthe case, emphasizing that Arigo did not even try to de-fend himself. He was unrelenting in his condemnation.

But Arigo did not exactly languish in jail. Action beganalmost as soon as he arrived. The other prisoners" longdisgruntled by the appalling conditions in the jail, seizedon Arigo's presence, with its attendant publicity, to stagean open revolt. They began burning everything in sightmade of wood. They demanded less work and more food.They terrorized the guards with knives that had beensmuggled in, and held them as hostages. Finally, theguards broke away and ran from the jail, leaving Arigoalone with the rebelling prisoners.

He lost no time in quelling the riot. In his most com-manding voice, he told them that they must not only stopwhat they were doing, but clean up all the damage theyhad done. He said if the food was good enough for him, itwas good enough for them, and they had damned wellbetter settle down, repent their sins, and start a new lifefor themselves. He faced the ringleaders directly with thedemands. Strangely enough, they acquiesced. By the next

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day, most of the debris had been cleared, the guards hadreturned, and lumber and materials were supplied for theprisoners to rebuild what they had damaged.

But Arigo went beyond that. He asked the warden forpaint, and began painting the dingy walls himself. Beforelong, the other prisoners joined in. The buildings beganto take on a new life.

In gratitude, the warden offered Arigo complete free-dom to leave the jail any time he wished. He actually leftthe key in his cell. Arigo used it on rare occasions, butonly to visit the sick outside the prison, while the wardenand guards looked the other way. They did everythingpossible to be kind to him. He took advantage of this inone respect: he began treating the prisoners in the jail.When word of this got around, crowds began lining upagain outside his barred gate in the little alley. He evenperformed minor operations. Suddenly, the jail in Lafaietebegan turning into another Congonhas. It seemed impos-sible to keep people from flooding into the town. Thepolice and warden knew it; they did nothing to stop it.

Jorge Rizzini, who had tried futilely to support Arigoduring the trial-anything he said about Arigo's medicalsuccess only helped seal his doom-came to see Arigo.He took motion pictures of the crowds as they flled bythe cell in the little alley. Rizzini found Arigo alone inthe cell when he arriveo, reading the Bible. He lookedwell, and kept insisting this was the rest he needed. Heagain defended the people who had judged him, askingRizzini not to condemn them in his press reports.

H. V. Walter, the British consul, made his way fromBelo Horizonte to the jail, where he found Arigo restingon his bunk. He brought him two cheese sandwiches.Arigo ate one ravenously and passed the other to a prison-er across the hall. Arigo tacked the consul's calling cardon the wall of his cell, referring to him as "Mr. Ambas-sador." He took great pride in his diplomatic visitor,whom he introduced to his fellow prisoners.

Esko Murto, Finnish-born reporter-photographer forManchete magazine, the Brazilian equivalent of Life, atrived to do a picture story on Arigo's languishing in jail.

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Instead, he found Arigo in his cell performing a cataractoperation on an old man who was almost compietelyblind. He photographed the surgery in a fast series of stiilson his Leica, but Arigo quietly asked him not to printthem, because of the impending appeal. Murto agreed notto, and later came to visit Arigo several times on the basisof friendship alone. Like so many reporters who inter-viewed Arigo, he became more interested in the man thanin the story. Arigo told Murto he tried never to operatewhen repofters were present.

On December lt, 1964, not long after he had beenjailed, Arigo received one of his most unusual visitors. Hewas an aged Catholic priest, Francisco Alves Correa, rvhohad been ordained back in 1913. He had come to Lafaietefrom Belo Horizonte, arriving early in the eveni:rg. Heclaimed that Arigo had removed his cataract, saving himfrom almost total blindness, but Arigo had no recollectionof it. "If I did," Arigo said, "it is not I who did so, butJesus."

The priest went on to explain that he had alwaysmocked Arigo, but that after his treatment his own doctorwas amazed at the results. The doctor had asked -,vherethe operation was dong. "f explained," said the priest"that it was done in Brasilia. He wouid not have acceptedthe truth if I had told it to him."

Then he added: "This is why tr came here to thank you.I hope God will give you the strength to bear this trial.You will leave here to perform still greater things. Bestrong, for sufiering is part of the law of evolution."

Arigo did remain strong, but the weeks in jail had nowturned into months, and still no progt'ess had been madein obtaining even the temporary habeas corpus release.He yearned to be home with his family again. The separa-tion frorn Arlete and his boys was most painful. He iongedto take care of the roses in his aunt's sarden. Cnlv thefact that the warden and police permittei'him to treit thesick kept his sanity. In fact, the warden would often pickhim up in the prison jeep to visit many of the sick andailing in l-afaiete, returning him to the cell afterward.

As the appeal dragged on, the patience of Arigo's sup-

156 ARIGO: Sunceow oF THE Rusrv KNrrB

porters grew thin. Pressures mounted in mauy spiritistcenters throughout Minas Gerais until finally several hun-dred people, if not a thousand or more, literally tried tostorm the prison and remove him bodily from it. Theywere not aware that Arigo could have left any time hewanted to. The police had no control over the protestors,but Arigo silenced them and told them that he was con-fident the process of the law would soon rectify the situa-tion. The crowd left grudgingly.

There were other vigorous protests. One woman wroteto a Rio newspaper that unless the appeal was settled inArigo's favor and he was released from jail, she wouldkill herself. What Arigo's burning advocates did not realizewas that even if he were freed temporarily under thehabeas colpus, there would be no real certainty that hewould remain ftee. The legal review under Brazilian lawwould be in two long-drawn-out stages: the decision tofree him, if at all; and the decision as to whether he shouldbe resentenced if he were freed.

The irony and tragedy would be il he were freed andthen sent back again to the jail. This was a distinct pos-sibility, especially with the type of narrow-spectrum think-ing of such judges as Soares and Barros. There wereplenty like that in the wings.

News of Arigo's plight had traveled slowly to theUnited States. Belk and Puharich, each working on thelong-range plans of organizing the research expedition, didnot hear about Arigo's being jailed until he had beenthere for several months. Belk immediately wrote theBrazilian consul in New York and offered to pay all ex-penses to fly Arigo to the United States, where a studywould be made. His request was of course refused.

Dr. Puharich and his associates, intent on preservingthe possibility of studying one of the most convincingmedical phenomena yet encountered, were concerned. Thegroup sent their attorney to Brazil to double-check onArigo's availabiiity for research under the new conditions.Sidney Krystal, the attorney, found the outlook dismal.Arigo told him that any attention from American doctorsat this point might aggravate the situation and create

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strenuous protests on the part of the Brazilian MedicalSociety. Arigo still felt confident that he would be released,however. Thousands of letters and telegrems were beingsent on his behalf to President Castelo Branco, many ofthem from prominent government officials. If he werefreed, Arigo assured the American lawyer, he would morethan cooperate in the research.

Puharich sat down and wrote a long letter to the chiefjustice of the region that included Congonhas do Campoand Lafaiete. Judge Filippe Immesi had just entered thecase, and would be the chief factor in determining Arigo'sultimate fate. In sharp contrast to the judges of the lowercourt, Immesi was an inteiligent man of wide perspectiveand considerable warmth. Puharich wrote him:

March 14, 1965Your Honor:

I aru taking the liberty of addressing an appeal toyou on behaU of Jos6 de Freitas, more popularlyknown as Arigo. Let me introduce myself. I am anAmerican physician, and a long-time student of pa.ra-psychologicai phenomena. ln my own country, I amequally known for my espousal of genuine psychics,as well as for the exposure of charlatans and frauds.With these credentials, I now address myself on be-half of Arigo.

During August of 1963, I spent several weeksstudying the heaiing work of Arigo. I observed hun-drsds of patients being treated by him, and inter-viewed about a hundred of these patients.

In the first p1ace, I could not find any case in whichhe did any harm to any individual. I also spent sometime traveling around Brazil trying to find cases inwhich he had been a failure, or could be accused ofmalpractice. I could find no such case. I also wit-nessed many positive results of his treatment, bothwith drugs and with surgery. Needless to say I wasmost impressed by the therapeutic benefit that Arigobrought to people he treated. I was also impressed bythe fact that Arigo does not charge any patient for

158 ARIGO: SunceoN oF THE Rusrv KNrnB

treatment, nor will he accept any gratuity or con-tribution from anyone he treats.

In order to convince myself of the genuineness ofArigo's treatment, I had him operate on a tumor onmy right forearm. I can affirm that his cutting of myflesh was painless, that he excised the tumor skillfullyin five seconds, and that in spite of not using any

, antiseptics or antibiotics, my wound healed withoutany sign of pus or infection. This operation wasreported in the Brazilian press, and shown on motionpictures on Brazilian. television. My personal expe-rience with Arigo, and my observations of manypatignts, convinces me that not only is Arigo's healingintervention safe, but also shows positive therapeuticbenefits.

Brazil should be proud that it has an extraordinaryman like Arigo at work among its people. I ieel thathis work is so unusual that it deserves intensive scientific study in the years to come. I shall do evervthingin my power to bring Arigo to the attention of scien-tists. I beg your honor to consider his case with com-passion and justice in the interests of humanity.

Sincerely,Henry K. Puharich, M.D.

Judge Felippe Immesi was impressed that a NorthAmerican doctor would make the effort to write onArigo's behalf, and especially that he had risked an opera-tian on his own body. But he knew little about Arigo asidefrom what he had read in the newspapers, and still lessabout the intricacies of the legal case at this point. As anewcomer, he was intrigued with the unusualness andsubtleties of tle process. But it did not take him long torealize that Arigo sat on very thin ice as far as the law wasconcerned.

A panel of flve judges was already reviewing the ques-tion as to whether Arigo should be provisionally releasedfrom jail, while Judge Immssi studied the case to deter-mine if he should be resentenced. From his preliminarystudy, Immesi knew that he was in for an agonizing and

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complex decision. On June 24, 1.955, seven full monthsafter Arigo had entered the jail in Lafaiete, the five-judgepanel agreed that the Congonhas judges were correct indeclaring Arigo guilty, but ruled that he should be tem-porarily freed while Judge Immesi carried out his extensivereview.

The news of his temporary release came almost as ananticlima-x to Arigo. It was not an occasion for rejoicing,because the ax could fall any time in the near future.There was no assurance, no security, in a precariousrelease that left this possibility wide open. The respitewould be welcome, of course.- He would be able to behome with Arlete and the children, and to breathe thearomatic air of his rose garden on his aunt's farm. Beyondthat, the suspense would be alnost as painful as the pos-sible reality of retunring to the sweltering jail cell.

His first <iays at home were quiet, but both he andArlete knew that the tranquility could not last. As Pres-ident Kubitschek had said, Arigo could never be alonein Brazii, even if he went to the Amazon jungles. Con-vinced that he was doing right, Arigo returned to theSpirit Center, where the crowds collected again, just asthey always had. Everyone knew it; it was no secret. Thepolice ignored him as he worked with the new crop ofpatients; the court concentrated on trying to come upwith a definitive decision that would settle the matter onceand for all.

It wasn't long before Judge Immesi realized that he wassitting on top of a case that he dreaded to make a deci-sion on. The more he learned about Arigo, the more herealized that he was dealing with something beyond theken of normaL jurisprudence. His reading of the facts con-vinced him that this was not a police case. But the law

being, a sad and perplexed man, confused by his strange

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powers, and consciously unable to cope with them andthe people who sought him out.

When he fust came to the case, Judge Immesi had nobelief whatever in the scattered reports about Arigo hehad read in the papers. As a good Catholic, he simplycould not comprehend the stories that came out of Con-gonhas. do Campo. As he got more and more into thecase, he rcalized that he would have to observe Arigo atfirsthand. Like everybody else, the judge knew that Arigowas back at his medical work shortly after he had hisreprieve ftom jail. Arigo never tried to sneak his workwith the ill. Except for the operations, he did it openly.And even with his surgical work, he was never that muted.He often explained that he didn't carry on his work inopposition to the authorities; he did it because he had noother choice. Whatever practices he engaged in now, in theinterim period between his stay in jail and the ultimatedecision by Judge Immesi, would make little difference.The evidence was already in. Further practice, evon sur-gery, would simply be more of the same thing.

Arigo knew that the two men who came into the clinicthat day were authorities from the law. He did not knowexactly who they were, but he invited them to come for-ward and observe as he went to work. If they were goingto be there, they should at least have a chance to see thathe could bring about cures without harm to the patient.

One of the men was Judge Immesi. The other was adistrict attorney from. another part of the region who wasnot involved in Arigo's case. One of the first patients toreach Arigo's table was a woman who was nearly blind inboth eyes from cataracts, a frequent condition that Arigofaced because of his reputed expertise in the ophthalmicfield. He asked the judge to stand by and hold the patient'shead. The judge felt queasy and awed, but he did so.

"I saw him pick up what looked like a pair of nailscissors," Judge Immesi described the scene later. "Hewiped them on his sport shirt, and used no disinfectantof any kind. Then I saw him cut straight into the corneaof the patient's eye. She did not blench, although she wasfullv conscious. The cataract was out in a matter of sec-

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onds. The district attorney and I we.re speechless, amazed.Then Arigo said some kind of prayer, as he held a pieceof cotton in his hand. A ferv drops of a liquid suddenlyappeared on the cotton, and he wiped the u'oman's eyewith it. We saw this at close range. She was cured."

A-fter the operation, Arigo smiled at the judge. "It is notI who db this, you understand. It is Dr. Fitz."

The judge and the district attorney from Belo Horizontereturned to Arigo's clinic several times. "I went there toconvince myself that what I was seeing was true," JudgeImmesi said. "I have great difficulty in believing anythinglike this. In spite of his bizarre explanation of Dr. Fritz,Arigo was a tough, hard realist, which he combined witha paradoxical sensitivity. From what I learned in studyingthe case, he was far from being a saint, and at times un-believably crude. For anyone brought up in a puritantradition, this was hard to justify in a man who had specialpowers, as Arigo did. I watched him treat two hundredpeople in less than two hours. He would take seconds toprescribe, and the diagnoses were immediate, without ask-ing questions. I had to check all this personaliy. I had tostudy this man whom I would have to decide the fateof."

The results of his close observations over a period oftime made Judge Immesi realize that the case sirnply couldnot be judged in conventional terms. He made it a pointto keep his personal feelings from dominating his role as ajudge, although he admitted to himself that this was hardto do. If it was within his power, he would have orderedArigo to undergo an intensive scientific study by a univer-sity, because he was now convinced that Arigo was per-haps the wonder of the century. But this step was notwithin his realm under the Brazilian law. He would haveto find other ways.

Judge Immesi pored over the testimony day and night,in the hope that he could combine technical justice withjustice of a higher order. He gave particular attention tothe medical testimony of the doctors who certified, withbefore-and-after documentation, cures that Arigo hadachieved in the face of ominous prognoses from the con-

162 ARIGO: SunceoN oF THE Rusrv KNrB

ventional medical point of view. The judge took into ac-count the advances made by parapsychology, as falteringas those steps were, in spite of recent recognition by theAmerican Association for the Advancement of Science.He analyzed the attitude of the Catholic Church, notingthat paraps-vchology was becoming acceptable to theChurch's tenets. He studied the works of Padre OscarGonsalez Quededo, a priest who was considered amongthe best parapsychologists in Latin America. The padrehad stated openly that Arigo held the highest rank amongall the healers on the continent. He reviewed the tolerantand interested attitude of William James, Gardner Murphy(of the Menninger Foundation in Kansas), and others to-ward the unexplored potential of the human mind in theparanormal area.

His thinking boiled down to this: Arigo was doing ajob that he was not entitled to do. He was practicingmedicine, and he was not a doctor. But at the same time,he was definitely not a criminal, as the harsh charge ofwitchcraft suggested. Arigo's crime, if that was the wordfor it, was not against the public, but against the structureof legal medicine. The public had not been harmed. Therehad been no witnesses to testify to that, even among thehundreds of thousands whom Arigo had treated. Nor werethere any among his most intense adversaries who claimedthat he had harmed anyone. The public had not even beenbilked; no one could testify Arigo had charged a penny.

There was no question that he would have to condemnArigo, to send him back to jail, much as he hated to do it.'If

Judge Immesi did not condemn him, he would be alegai heretic, a position that no responsible judge couldafiord to hold.

The law was brutally cut-and-dried, exacting and spe-cific. Judge lmmesi would have to follow it, regardless ofhis leanings. Yet being the first judge who had done com-prehensive field research on Arigo (Judge Barros was saidto have read the testimony in one day and then made hisdecision), Immesi felt that in the broadest possible sense,Arigo was innocent.

As a result, Judge Immesi went through what he called

ARIGO: SunceoN oF rrrB Rusrv KNtrS 163

"procedural calisthenics'? to try to reach the fairest pos-sible answer to an unanswerable problem. Since there wasno choice but to condemn Arigo again, the judge soughtways to reduce the sentence and make it as light as pos-sible. The first thing to consider was the public prosecu-tor's charge of curandeirismo.

Immesi was convinced that this was unfair in the lightof both Arigo's character and practice. Arigo never usedany rituai whatever, never practiced any of the mumbo-jumbo of primitive rites, said only simple prayers of theconventional Christian category, and these he said half tohimself. The judge's brief but intensive study of Arigo atwork had affected him strongly. "It gave me anothervision of life," he said. "Very subtly, it seemed to validatethe very essence of the Christian belief-the belief in lifeafier death. If the existence of Dr. Fritz-whether real orillusory-1y"te postulated as the root cause of Arigo's ob-jective and verifiabls miracles, I felt it did not conflict withthe Christian ideal. In fact, it supported it. Arigo was notworking against the Christian ethic."

Judge Immesi recalled watching Arigo perform an eyeoperation in which he extruded the eye visibly out of itssocket with his kitchen-knife leverage. Medically, this wasimpossible without pain. How could Arigo do this? Herecalled another operation during which he stood directlynext to the patient. The incision started to bleed profusely.Arigo put his finger directly on the wound and said:"Jesus does not want this to bleed." The bleeding stopped.It was so unbelievable that the judge and the district at-torney had to confirm it with each other.

Immesi searched the archives of Brazilian law on thesubject of witchcraft. He turned to a favorite iurist of his,a former judge named Neison Hungria, who was knownas the "prince of penal jurists" in Brazil. It was Hungriawho, in a famous decision, had determined that to reach aflrTding of witchcraft, the defendant must be found guiltyof not only prescribing herbs and roots, but of personallyconcocting and dispensing them to the patient.

Arigo of course was not doing this, with his use ofmodern pharmaceuticals. This might be malpractice, but

t64 ARIGO: Sunceow oF THE Rusry Krtrs

it certainly wasn't witchcraft. Because of this, Immesifound that he could, with full legal justification, shift thecharge from a crime against the public to a crime againstthe public administration, bearing a far lighter sentence.

Further, the evidence showed clearly that Arigo hadnever harmed anyone, and the Brazilian Penal Codestated that thers cannot be a crime without harm, injury,or damage. The only party, therefore, who could claim tobe injured was again the public administration, speciflcallythe office that grants licenses to doctors for the practiceof medicine. This too would shift the case from a crimeagainst the public to a charge of contravention, with anappropriate reduction in the severity of the sentence. Themain thrust of the judge's thinking was that the only thingharmed was the medical profession.

When Judge Immesi sat down to write his opinion, hefelt deep sorrow that he would have to return Arigo tojail. "I have to admit," he said, "that I felt just a little likea judge who handled a case about two thousand yearsago, and I didn't like it at all. I had spent hours, days,and weeks trying to $nd a way I could free this enigmaticman, who should have been placed in a university forserious study. I was doing the best I could for Arigo, Iknew that. It was tragic to separate him from his familyagain, to see him go back in that jail."

The only bright spot was that Immesi was able toreduce the sentence to only two months nore of incarcera-tion, whereas Arigo would have been facing nine moremonths under the witchcraft charee.

The jucige signed the papers with great reluctance. OnAugust 20, 1965, Arigo drove himself to Lafaiete, enteredhis waiting cell, and began more months of prison life.

Meanwhile, the Federal Supreme Court continued toreview the case, on Judge Immesi's urging. There had beenmany irregularities in the prosecution, many oversights. Ina strange about-face, Prosecutor da Paula recommendedthat the sentence be canceled. The court finally votedunanimously that the charges against Arigo should bedropped. He was freed from prison on November 8, 1965.

The rejoicing was again overwhelming. The warden and

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the guards embraced him. Many of hir fellow prisonerscried. Several thousand sathered outside his cell to sreethim on his release. ArletJ was waiting for him, with ail theboys. Arigo was crying openly. He waved to ths caravanof cars that had come to greet him on the Rio-BeloHorizonte road. Newsmen's f,ashbulbs were popping likefireworks.

He arrived home, went to the refrigerator, took out apiece of meat, and called his dog Tostao over to hisfavorite chair. He was home again, this time without theimmediate threat of a new jailing

Where the future would lead was uncertain. By the nextmorning, they were lining up outside the Spirit Centeragain, as if nothing had happened over the past year.Rising early, Arigo went out the door, walked down thecobblestones in his muddy shoes, and into the clinic. Hewent into his small inner room for meditation, then cameout again, his deep eyes glazed and his voice thick with aGerman accent.

Ai'igo was back, anctr the hopes of thousands of sickwere risi:rg. How long it would last was anybody's guess.

With Arigo released, Dr. Puharich and his group of Arner-ican scientists renewed their efforts for the research ex-pedition to BraztT. They would still have to movecautiousiy to avoid drawing inordinate attention to Arigo'sfresh start at his practice. Several preliminary probes weremade by Puharich, inciuding continual contacr with manyBrazrhan physicians who were sympathetic to Arigo andwanted the extra support of North American research.

On learning that former President Jusceiino Kubi-

166 ARIGO: SunceoN oF rHE Rusrv KNrre

tschek was living in New York, out of favor with Brazil'snew regime of President Castelo Branco, Dr. Puharich andMaria Treen, an interpreter, visited him at his office onEast 57th Street, in Manhattan. They were interested inany authoritative information he could give thern. Kubi-tschek greeted them cordially, and conflrmed his friend-ship and experiences with Arigo. He told them that hewould never have pardoned Arigo if he had not hadfirsthand knowledge of his healing powers or if he had hadany information that Arigo had ever harmed anyone. Hefelt that a full-scale medical research program on Arigowas not only desirable, but urgent.

Encouraged by this verification from a Brazilian whowas both a doptor and a statesman, the Medical Commis-sion on Arigo, as the group within Essentia Research As-sociates was named, contacted several Brazilian doctors asto the best method of approach and the timing of the ex-pedition. The Brazilian doctors suggested holding off untilthey had explored the conditions of Arigo's work, nowthat he had been freed from his legal troubles.

By July 1966, some eight months after Arigo had beenreleased from jail, the doctors in Brezil advised that Arigowas back at his usual routine and that he would do every-thing possibie to cooperate with the American researchers.Arigo had suggested, however, that Puharich come alonefor a preliminary survey, as inconspicuously as possible, toavoid arousing the hostility of the medical society.

Puharich arrived in Congonhas do Campo during thefirst week in August, 1966. With him was his research as-sistant, Solveig Clark, a fair, tall, slender, and effcientAmerican woman of Norweeian extraction. The immediatejob at hand was to quietl-y explore just one factor ofArigo's skill: his ability to diagnose disease. This studywould attract the least attention on the part of the anti-Arigo faction of the medical society, and provide essentialgroundwork for the fully equipped scientific team that wasto arrive iater.

It was the first visit to Brazil for Solveig Clark, and shewas captivated by the charm of Congonhas. She sat withPuharich in the small caf6 at lunchtime, waiting for

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Arigo's inevitable appearance on the Rua Marechal Flori-ano, on his way to the clinic.

"You can sit here," Puharich told her, "and let thetown come to you."

But from her view of the street outside Arigo's clinic, itlooked as if the world were coming to Congonhas. Severalchartered buses were parked down the street from theclinic; the people were waiting patiently on the sidewalk,ignoring the hot sun, wearing a motley variety of clothes,from elegant to tattered,, and at times looking anxiouslyaround the corner for Arigo to appear.

ft wasn't long before a battered truck swung around theconier and into the carport of the Hotel Freitas. It nar-rowly missed a post as it screeched to a halt. A powerful,thick-set figure jumped out, who Solveig knew immediate-ly was Arigo. Buoyantly, he bounced across the street to-ward the caf6. He was wearing his usual sport shirt, collaropen, and a dusty pair of slacks. He looked as if he wereon the opposite end of the spectrum from a mystic. Sol-veig was most impressed with his eyes, however. Theywere warm and deep, and seemed to have great command.

He shouted a loud hello to Puharich, then embracedhim warmiy. Together, Arigo and the two visitors crossedthe street and went into the clinic. Within moments, Arigowas at work.

By the next morning, Solveig and Puharich were readyto begin their study on A,rigo's method of diagnosis. Theyfound a young Peace Corps girl who was willing to in-tetpret for them, although she later became so awed bywatching Arigo at work that she would often forget totransiate.

Solveign's organizational ability was legend, and sheimmediately put it to work. The plan that was worked outwas simple. Arigo agreed to give an immediate verbalciiagnosis for ea-cir patient, as he stepped up. He wouldask no questions of the patent at all. Arigo's rliagnosiswould be tape-recorded. Solveig would then interryiew thepatieff to find out if he had brought medical records froinhis own physician. This diagnosis would be matched

168 ARIGO: SunceoN oF rHE Rusry KNrne

against Arigo's. If there was a di-fference of opinion be-tween the two, the diagnosis of the physician would beaccepted over Arigo's. This admitted bias was used onlybecause it was impossible to reexamine the patient.

Puharich and Solveig worked three full days besideArigo. They took the first thousand patients as a samplebase for the preliminary study.

It was recogni2sd that this would not be a definitivestudy, but the result would be invaluable in assessingthe potential for success of the full research team. Afterthe third day, Puharich and Solveig went over the recordsand summarized the results. They were impressive:

Preliminary StudyDiagnostic Capacity of Jos6 ArigoCongonhas do Campo, BrazilAugust 2,3,4, 1,966

Cases diagnosed by ArigoCases rejected by Arigo:

ordered back to own physicianFinal sample base, cases

1,000

35965

Number of patients with medicairecords out of above

Cases rejected due to lack ofmedical records

Sample total

545

420965

Correct match between Arigo'sdiagnosis and physician's

Disagreement between Arigo'sdiagnosis and physician's

Valid sample

5 1 8

27545

Percentage of diagnoses made byArigo that matched diagnosesof physicians 96Vo

ARIGO: Suncsohl oF THE Rusrv Knre 169

Beyond the diagnoses, the unorthodox pharmacologycontinued to defy rational analysis, yet a follow-up onseveral cases showed measurable success. One examplewas a forty-two-year-old American" woinan, the wife of asuccessful lawyer, who had been plagued for most of herlife with various allergies that were believed to triggersevere migraine-like headaches. After consulting special-ists in both the United States and Europq the couple flewto Brazil in desperation to see Arigo. The course of drugsprescribed was, as usual, medically irrational. It includedan obsolete form of streptomycin known as Garomicina;the rarely used German drug Olobintine, supposed to in-crease biological defense mechanisms; a Brazilian anti-allergy drug known as Piro-vac; an enzyme preparationcalled Pankreon; an antacid, Alcalitrat; and massive dosesof vitamin Bp.

Puharic] was later able to follow up on the case backin the United States. There were no advcrse reactions fromthe drugs although this would seem highly likely in thequantities prescribed, which were large. The course wascontinued for over two months, during which time them.igraine headaches subsided for the first time irl overtwenty years. Mild attacks would occur at rare instancesafter that, but were insignificant compared to the formerintensity of the attacks. Within six months, the attackshad completely disappeared.

Puharich summarized in his report: "It is reasonable toconclude that Arigo has paranormal medical diagnostictalent." Admittedly, over 95 percent was an outstandingaccomplishment, but it still failed to explain how or whyArigo was able to do all this. Further, it was obvious thatwhen the American team arrived, they would want to addtheir own diagnoses to this record where possible, inorder to establish further verification.

In the course of his routine, Arigo treated severalophthalmic cases. Puharich, along with everyone who sawit, could never get used to this part of Arigo's technique.Regardless of how many times he watched Arigo plungethe knife up into.the sinus cavity or behind the eyeball,he could not conceive how a conscious patient could stand

l7O AR.IGO: SunceoN oF THE Rusry KNrrB

the pain or overcome the fear. The cases where Arigowould leave the knife sticking out of the eye while heturned to pick up some cotton or another instrument wereparticularly graphic. The patient Puharich had seen on hisprevious trip, who had brushed away a fly from his cheekwhile his eye was extruded from the socket, had remainedin his mind all during the time he was back in the States.

When Puharich was least expecting it, Arigo turned tohim while he was stirring a knife blade in a patient's eyeand said: "Every good American doctor should be able todo the same thing." He was continuing to manipulate theblade mercilessly. "Here," he said to Puharich, "take holdof the knife yourself."

Before Puharich was hardly aware of it, Arigo hadgrabbed his hand roughly and squeezed it around theknife handle. Puharich felt weak and faint. He took hishand away. Arigo pressed it back on the knife handleagain, this time forcing Puharich to shove the knife in tothe limit. Puharich was horrifled. But he noticed onething: there seemed to be some kind of repellent forcethat inexplicably worked for Arigo but for no one elsewhen it came to this maneuver-except when Arigo guidedhis hand.

At dinner at Arigo's house, they found him relaxed andvoluble. The change from the stern and brusque mannerat the clinic was marked. Arigo joked with Arlete, playedwith his cats, rough-housed with his sons. It was hard tobelieve he was the same person they had been studyingciinically all day.

Puharich was determined to find out how Arigo wasabie to give his diagnoses in modern medical ierminology.Even though Arigo had stated the condition of the patientsin Portuguese, the tapes were easily translatable intoarticulate medical terrns. Dr. Mauro GodoSr had been onhand to help in this regard, and continued to help atdinner.

"How are you able to know modern medical terminol-ogy in such detail if you haven't studied it?" Puharichasked.

Through Dr. Godoy as interpreter, Arigo laughed and

ARIGO: SuncBoNoFrHERusryKNlre l7l

replied: "'Ihat's the easiest thing to do. I just listen towhat the voice tells me, and I repeat it."

"What voice are you talking about?" Puharich assumedthat the answer would be the alleged Dr. Fritz. But hewanted to hear Arigo's own response.

"It's the voice of Dr. Fritz," Arigo confirmed. "I alwayshear it in my left ear. If the people in the room are makingtoo much noise, I can't hear the voice. So I shut themup."

"Does the voice speak to you in German or Portu-guese?" Puharich asked.

"I always hear it at Portuguese," Arigo said. "I don'tknow German. If someone who is curious wants to talk inGerman to Dr. Fritz, I simply mimic what Dr. Fritz issaying to me. But I don't understand what I am saying."

"Do you understand the medical words?" Puharichasked.

"No," Arigo said. "I just repeat what I hear."At the end of the conversation, an easily grasped ex-

planation was as far away as ever. There was only onepragmatic thing to go on. That was to analyze the massivestatistical evidence of accurate medical diagnoses. Thismuch could be checked, although it still left many tantalizing questions.

On the long, eleven-hour flight back to New York fromRio-one of Pan Am's longest legs-Puharich had plentyof time to mull over the visit. He had studied German forsix years in high school and at Northwestern, and althoughhe was extremely rusty in the language, he was not tooimpressed with the few phrases that Arigo threw out fromtime to tine during his work. Others, however, who hadmade it a point to check Arigo's capacity in the language,found that his use of it was more than acceptable.

Arigo had seemed bored wher: Puharich pressed himabout the ianguage syndrome. Puharich didn't follow upat the time. because the main basic questions were: CouldArigo diagnose accurately without even examining thepatient? Could he actually heal? Everything else wasperipheral.

172 ARIGO: Suncrox oF TrrB Rusry KNrnsThe whole question of the possibility of a deceased

persoaality possessing the motor-sensory equipment of aliving being was almost totally unexplored in modern psy-chology. Parapsychologists had done intensive study onmediums, with some evidence-but not proof-thatpointed to the legitimacy of certain mediums as channels -for communication with discarnate personalities. But theresearch was spotty and difficult to carry out in the lab.oratory. It could not, however, be totally ignored, especial-ly in a case such as Arigo's, which defied any conventionalexplanation.

Whether new explorations into the area, attemoting toforge some of the instinctual prowess of primitive med-icine men with the discipline of modern science, woulci shedmore light on the matter was unpredictable. On theother hand, before Freud there had been no such conceptsas the id and superego-except in ancient mythology. WasArigo a symbolic expression of bypassed ancient lore?

In Brazil, the possibility of possession-for better orf61 vvslse-is taken almost as a matter of course in alllevels of society. The Brazilians have a tendency to acceptsuch a potential phenomenon as part of the culture, andtherefore it becomes in their eyes either a literal ormetaphoric truth.

Puharich reasoned that the human mind is built like afilter. It is constantly focusing on certain subjects, con-stantly filtering out others. It has to do this or, like acomputer, it would be overcome with random informationbits of no cohesive value. In Braztl, where many mindspernit the concept of possession to filter through, it istherefore culturally acceptable at least to consider such aphenomenon as a viable postulate.

A reflection of the easy acceptance of this idea is shownin a routine Brazilian school English examination labeled"Proficiency One Comprehension and Composition,"which reprints an article by John Francis-Phipps that ap-peared in the British publication The New Statesman.The article concerns a healer inBrazil and a festival in hishonor. It begins: "Sometimes bizarre things happen to betrue, and are therefore worth investigating . . ."

ARIGO: SuncBoN oF THE Rusry Kr.nne 173

The questions at the end of the examination reflect theatmosphere in which the student is brought up. Theyinclude:

"Do you believe these cures took place?" -"What is your explanation for them?""Are modern medicine and this kind of healing neces-

sarily in conflict?""What is this 'metaphysical cocktail' ihe writer men-

tions?""Describe experiences you know about Umbanda.""The writer mentions that socially antl racially, the

human friendliness and equality were taken for granted. Isthis typical of Brazil?"

Young Brazilian minds, like those of their elders, aremore conditioned to accept'this sort of possibility thanan American or a European would. But in Arigo's case,this cultural difference mattered little. His material accom-plishments were fully obvious and observable to eitherforeign or domestic minds.

Anyone studying him could only go so far in rationaljudgment. When the fulI medical expedition came downto Brazil. it would be important to focus only on thoseverifiable facets of Arigo: the diagnostic ability; the suc-cessful treatment of incurable diseases bv unconventionalpharmacology; the ability to perform surgery withoutanesthesia, antisepsis, or hemostasis-the tying off ofblood vessels. These objectives alone created a formidabl6challenge.

Back in New York, the elaborate plans for the expedi-tion finally began to jell. There would be six medical mem-bers of the commission heading up the research. Thesewould include William Brewster, M.D., senior researchscientist at the New York University School of Medicine;Luis Cortes, assistant research scientist at the same school;Waiter Pahnke, M.D., chief research psychiatrist at theMaryland Psychiatric Research Center; Robert S. Shaw,M.D., associate visiting surgeon, Massachusetts GeneralHospital; and Henry Puharich, M.D., who currently washeading up medical research for the Intelectron Corpora-tion of New York City, the medical-ilstrumeut developer

174 ARIGO: SuncEoN oF THE RusrvKNrns

and manufacturer. None of the commission memberswould be making the journey in an official capacity for theorganization he worked with.

The immediate goal would be the scientific rationaliza-tion of the phenomena of Arigo as they were directly ob-served by the group. Since the preliminary investigationshad firrnly indicated that there was validity to the claimsmade for Arigo's work, it would be up :o the team to tryto confirm this objectively by instrument and examination.

If the biophysical investigation accomplished this, animportant vacuum in modern medical knowledge could befilled. Paramount in the plans was the study of thoseaspects of Arigo's work which could be explained and re-lated to accepted modern medical theory and practice.These aspects wouid be clearly separated from those ofArigo's work which could not be explained by any knowntheory or practice in modern medicine.

The obscure and more occult phase would have to havespecial attention, but since it was in unknown waters, itwould not have priority. The "voice" that told Arigo hisamazingly correct diagnoses would be considered, but the.siatistics on the actual diagnoses and treatment wouldcome first.

The research problem to be considered eventually wouldbe trying to identify the nature of the "Dr. Fritz" intelli-gence. Was it a creative process, similar to a composerhearing fhe music he is about to create and score? Was itsimply a form of articulating Arigo's unconscious thoughts?Or was it a paranormal manifestation of a source of intelli-gence outside Arigo's personal memory and experience,which he called Dr. Fritz?

Arigo's knowledgeable utilization of a broad spectrumof pharmaceutical drugs was another tough nut io crack.How was he able to achieve successes with irrational com-binations of drugs for diseases that were not clinically re-sponsive to these drugs? Arigo had, for instance, broughtabout medically confirmed, five-year cures of leukemiawith readily available commercial drugs. Why couldn'tother doctors do the same thing? Even when they dupli-cated Arigo's prescriptions, the drugs failed to work. What

ARIGO: SuncBon oF rHE Rusrv KNrrB 175

was tlte boundary line between the known and the un-known elements of Arigo's practice? Was the prescriptionitself only part of the picture, with Arigo's own proclivitiesa vitally necessary adjunct to the total effect?

Even though Arigo's surgery could be easily studied andphotographed at close quarters, and the patients objec-tively examined and tested before and afterward, howcould these unusual procedures and end results be ac-counted for?

Further, how could Arigo locate unseen, deep-seatedlesions without diagncsis, X rays, or examination before-hand? Even though his surgical procedure was readily ob-servable, and pathological tests could confirm the condi-tion, how could he get away with neglecting to tie offblood vessels or use sutures? Why wasn't there post-operative bleeding? Why was there no apparent surgicalshock? How could a patient walk out of a room, un----. assisted, immediately after major surgery?

And how could Arigo himself physically withstand theardors of treating some 1,500 patients a week, without fullassistance and without periodic rest periods?

The American doctors would have their hands full evenattempting to answer these and other questions. To backup the staff, other specialists joined the team. They in-cluded Cesar Yazigi, a professor of Portuguese on the siaffat NYU, and his wife; Edward Hall, of New York, anexperienced fllm-maker; and Paul Jones, a still-cameraspecialist. Medical records would be handled by Mrs.Edward Hall, and audio recording by John Laurance, whowould combine his advanced engineering and scientificbackground in the NASA space program with his widestudies of parapsychology throughout all of Brazil.

The equipment to be brought to Brazil was complex andextensive. It would include a Nagra tape recorder, with arecharger and mike, along with five Ncrelco cassette re-corders. Other audio-visual equipment included a black-and-whit. film processing kit; two Sunguns for battery-operated camera lighting; a 16rnm Eclair camera withthree 400-foot magazines; five Instamatics; a Spectra ei-

176 ARIGO: SunoBoN oF TrrE Rusrv KmrB

posuro meter; an Auto Micro-Nikkor 55mm f 3.5 close-up lens; a 200mm f 5.6 medical Auto-Nikkor lens; and X-ray copy attachments.

Other cameras included a Nikon F, 55mm f 1.2 pho-tomic; a Honeywell Super-8 movie camera; a 35mmPentax; a 35mm Canon; a Hasselblad 500; a Polaroid; aL6rnm Bolex; a Nizo Super-8; and a Fairchild cinephonic8 .

The medical equipment of course was far from slighted.The team would be bringing a portable X-ray machine, aportable EKG, a portable EEG, bacteriological slides,stains, and cultures, an X-ray viewing box, blood-typingequipment, Formalin jars for specimens, blood-staining andwhite-cell-count equipment, and a microscope. Added tothis were five thousand printed medical-history an4 exam-ination forms for the patients, and an equal number offorms for Arigo. A special Minox microfrlm camera andaccessories were added to photograph the medical records.Everything was included to make the survey as compre-hensive as possible.

Iv{ost of the coordination for the expedition fell onSolveig Clark's shoulders. Nearly all the members of thegroup took night courses in Portuguese at New York Uni-versity, cramming in as much inf61p31isn on and practicein the language as they could in a limited time. Much at-tention was given to contingencies and exacting minutiae.One concern was what the reaction of the Brazilian legaland law-enforcement agencies would be.

Confirmation had already been obtained that Arigowould fully cooperate with the scientific investigation. Hehad again assured the group that he would demonstratehis surgical technique in selected cases in his own clinic,and that he would guide the scientific team to formerpatients and doctors who had worked with him. He wouldalso grant interviews about his ideas and the modusoperandi of his healing art. trn addition he would assist inthe inquiry as to the sources of his information. Further,he would reluctantly consider the idea of coming to theUnited States for a full investigation of his healing practicethere. All the practical arrangements had been made.

ARIGO: SuncBoN oF rrrB Rusrv KNrne 177

There were of course imponderables. The chief threatwas the resenrment of the official Brazilian MedicalSociety, still stung and sullen about what it felt was theIaxity of the courts. This problem would somehow haveto be met and solved as best as possible. There was animplicit slur in the very fact that foreign doctors weretaking over a job that many felt the society itself shouldbe doing. Some of its most prominent members felt thatway.

The most irnportant factor was obvious: the UnitedStates team should try to make itself inconspicuous. The6s1s msstrenics and logistics of the research made it im-perative that conditions in the clinic remain as normal aspossible. This was going to be a difficult job with over adozen North Americans descending on the small town ofCongonhas do Campo. The presence of so many research-ers and their equipment in the crowded clinic would bebound to present problems.. One difficulty with any research work is that often the

observer and his instruments disturb the observed, whetherthe subject is electrons or people. This would have to becircumvented. Another difficult condition arose fron thefact that Arigo was enjoined from doing major surgeryas a condition of his release from jail.

There was also the cultural shock for those of the re-searchers who had never been to Brazil before, who hadnot been exposed to the Kardecist philosophy or the wide-spread belief in spiritism throughout the country. Exceptfor Puharich and John Laurance, who had studied thesubject, only a few of the group knew any details aboutpsychic healing.

Two reputable psychic healers, Dr.'and Mrs. AmbroseWorrall, came up from Baltimore to address the research-ers several times on their well-documented, cautiouslypracticed healing work that had accomplished much inthe lield. Worrall, a highly successful engineer in industry,devoted ail his spare time to the art of healing, either byabsent healing or touch, but not with surgery. Both ire andhis wiie were a far cry from the spook-and-kook depart-

178 ARIGO: Suncpow oF TFrE Rusry Kumn

ment that throws up so much static in this field that ra-tional minds hesitate to explore it.

By May 1968, the expedition was ready. A strategic de-cision was made to split the team up, to stagger both thedates and places of arrival so that the ubiquitous Brazilianpress could be avoided. This strategy was of the utmostimportance. Brazilian journalists can be so overebullientthat thejr enthusiasm wipes out reason. Blazing headlineswere the last thing the American group wanted. Nor didArigo. His interest was in scientifically redeemins himselfaftei the brutal punishment he had been throuih at thehands of the prosecutor and the state medical society. Asound and solid research program would help wipe awaythe stigma thad haa been-foiied on him. In spite of hislack of formal schooling, Arigo was an intelligent andrational man. He was also a good politician.

Some of the research group booked flights to Rio onPan Am. Others came in on Varig Airlines to 56o Paulo.Still others came down on the flight to Brasilia, andchanged airlines. Up to this point, the strategy workedwell. No press was on hand, and the group quietly reas-sembled at Congonhas do Campo in the middle of May.To further avoid drawing attention, they rented a ranchoutside Congonhas in an attempt to reduce the inevitable

.gossip in the town, which would attract journalists likethe vultures in the river.

In spite of attempts to keep things simple, the arrange-ments turned out to be elaborate. It was necessary to tap

. the outside poles for power, both for the X-ray machineand the floodlights that were needed for filming. There wasno good vantage point for the camera to photograph Arigoat work, and it was necessary to break through a hole inthe wall that divided Arigo's work room from anothersmall, unused one. It took two full days to prepare andtest the equipment, but it was a necessary step.

The appearance of so many strangsls in fewn-thosswho were not patients of Arigo-drew a great deal of at-tention. Crowds gathered simply to watch the process oftapping into the power lines. It was not a good omen.Sooner or later the press would be bound to be attracted,

ARIGO: SunaBoNoFTHERusryKNrrB L79

and the glare of publicity would measurably reduce the ef-fectiveness of the survey.

Solveig Clark, as the coordinator of the project, re-mained cool and unruffed. She arranged the medical-report forms, set up the routine of the process that wouldbe followed, planned the flow of patients, and saw thateach participant was supplied with exactly what he neededto do his job.

Patients were to be divided into three groups. For thefirst group, they would screen out a small number of pa-tients who had classical and clearly identffiable symptoms.These would be determined by a thorough examination ofArigo's diagnosis and therapy.

The second group would consist of those who had seenArigo prior to the arrival of the scientists. The efteotive-ness of Arigo's treatment of them would be measured inline with the diagnoses provided by the registered physi-cians who had referred these cases to Arigo.

The remaining patients would be taken from the othergroups, where cooperation could be obtained from the re-ferring physician for a long-term follow-up of Arigo'Ssuccess or failure. In this way, it was hoped to determinewhether Arigo's treatments were transient, palliative, orpermanent.

The surgical studies would be most intense, to deter-mine the response of patients in the total absence of anes-thesia. Patients would be examined before, during, andafter surgery. They would be checked by electroencephalo-graph, electrocardiograph, and an instrument known as afinger plethysmograph, which measures changes in the vol-ume of b'ood flowing through a single dnger. Blood pres-sure and respiration rate would be charted. Iq this way,the presence or absence of the appropriate autonomicnervous system response to the surgery could be deter-mined.

Other tests would be applied to the surgical patientssimultaneously. Their psychomotor performance and capa-bility would be continuously analyzed during the operationwith spebific tests, such as recent and long-term memorytests, audio-visual response, and deep and superficial reflex

180 ARIGO: SuR.ceoN oF THE Rusrv KNrne

changes. Immediately after an operation, the patient wouldbe observed for possible amnesia. This observation couldcheck whether or not some fype of hypnosis had been un-knowingly utiiized by Arigo. Films would be made of thesurgery procedure, with oscillograph monitoring in realtime during the operation.

There were many other considerations. Every specimenof tissue removed from a patient would be subjected togross and microscopic pathology studies. Arigo's unsterileinstruments would be cultured before use to determine thebacteria counts on the surfaces before he used them. Thesurface area of the patient's body where the operationwould be made would also be cultured, since Arigo neverused any preoperative precautions to sterilize. Carefulstudy would be made of incisions, and how they were ableto remain closed without sutures. Follow-up plans of thesurgical patients were included.

As the research procedure began, attention was firstturned to the study of Arigo himself. Was there anythingabout his physiological makeup that enabled him to ac-complish what he did? Arigo, with the body of a sumowrestler, was an active man whose brute strength andearthiness belied his inner sensitivity. He was as puzzledabout his powers as the doctors who examined him. Therewas little evidence of his spiritual and lofty qualities mostof the time.

He cooperatod completely as the American medicalstaff wired him irrith the awkward and intricate EEG elec-trodes. He seemed eager for any practical test of his abil-ity. After a compiete physical, the doctors could find nounusual powers or anomalies. He could'not control hisbrain waves, his blood pressure, or his body temperature-or any other physiological vbriables that have been de-scribed in some autogenic processes, including the practiceof Yoga. The only thing discovered was that he had aslight heart condition that did not seem serious or threat-ening. Aside from that, he was normal and healthy.'

One interesting aspect came out of the questioningduring Arigo's examination. He revealed that he was never

ARIGO: Sunceow o:r rHE Rusrv KNrnB 181

able to treat successfully any organic illness of his rela-tives. Nor could he treat himsel-f.

For the beginning of the broad-scale research, a routinewas set up where Dr. Puharich sat by Arigo, an interpreterbeside him. All the key staff had walkie-talkies for quickcommunication within the center itself. Solveig Clark satwith Altimiro, along with photographer Paul Jones, whomade a microfilm record of both written and typed pre-scriptions. Later, package inserts of the pharmaceuticalswould be gathered and filmed.

Cameraman Ed Hall was posted in the newly made wallopening, opposite Arigo's table in his little room. AnnoHall would write up a medical-history card for each pa-tient. The other doctors were assigned to pre-treatmentexamination, post-treatment examination, and analysis ofthe medical records that many patients brought with themfrom their own doctors. John Laurance handled the taperecording, stationed close to Ari$o, where he could try toanalyze just what made Arigo tick as far as the mysteriousDr. Fritz was concerned. Laurance's extensive studies inparapsychology excited in him an interest in how this par-ticular "voice" worked to motivate Arigo. The others wereconcentrating on the observable, objective surgery, diag-nosis. and treatment.

Although Laurance was a hard, tough, material scientistand researcher in his work with RCA, NASA, and thearmed forces, he was one of the few scientists who felt thatmaterial science was approaching a closed frontier, andthat sooner or later it would have to cross over the thresh-old of metaphysics. In his successful career of manyyears, he had dealt with some of the leading scientists ofthe world.

Much of his work with the space and military programshad involved advanced development of electronic sensorsand photoelectric cells. His accomplishments in this fieldwere many, varied, and widely recognized. John Laurancehad given Arigo a great deal of thought, puzzling over thepossible mechanics that might be involved in his healingsuccess. Laurance had been experimenting with the use of

L82 ARIGO: SunceonoFTHE RusryKNrnB

photoelectric cells to measure human auras beyond that ofinfrared, a field that the Russians were quite advanced in.

Laurance felt that to understand Arigo, it would benecessary to join in the phenomenon as much as possible,just as some psychiatrists were doing with their schizo-phrenic patients. By participating in the fantasies and de-lusions of their patients, these psychiatrists had broughtabout marked improvement in some cases.

Laurance also felt that, with the human mind generallyoperating at less than 10 percent of its capacity, it waspossible for anyone to extend his sensory perception be-yond the normal limits, to a greater or lesser degree. Hisconviction was that it was possible to work in the non-material field in the same way as in the material field.

As he observed Arigo at work from his close vantagepoint, he tried as much as possible to become part of theexperiment. He studied Arigo as he would an instrumentthat had a broad spectrum of sensors. Arigo's sensors wereobviouslr- hooked in deeper than normal to an unknownreservoir. When Arigo found something wrong with a pa-tient, he sometimes seemed to absorb the ill radiationsfrom him. This was evidenced, and had been seen in thepast, by several cases when Arigo appeared about tovoruit, or actually did so.

One man of about forty-flve approached Arigo in histurn in line. Arigo started to speak to him, then suddenlyturned to his left and began to vomit. An enormousamount of bile gushed to the floor. An assistant camequickly over to clean it up.

Arigo immediately explained to the interpreter that thispatient was not physically sick at all, but was possessedby evil spirits. Arigo insisted that he had taken over thespirits, and in doing so, relieved them from the patient.Whatever the story was, the patient perked up immediately, thanked Arigo fervently, and left the clinic. It wasa startling, dramatic scene-but one that could not beanalyzed in any rational way.

But perhaps this was part of the picture, whether thecase was physical or psychosomatic. Could Arigo absorbthe pathological radiations of a patient, and then create an

ARIGO: SunceoN oF THE Rusrv KNrpB 183

input of additional energy that the patient was lacking?When the problem was beyond Arigo's own energy field,was he able to tap a computer-like energy iield beyondhimself, and impute it to the patient? Since all people areanalogous to a complex series of sensors, the problem wasto get them to function properly. Whether Dr. Fritz was amyth or a paranonnal phenomenon, did he act as a com-puter feedback to make Arigo's work eftective? With aproblem as wildly speculative as Arigo, the questionsposed would have to be speculative, too.

Arigo seemed to transcend the normal, but Laurance'sanalysis was that he was merely an extension of normalcy.Arigo's work was, in efiect, analogous to acupuncture, inthat it worked in mysterious, uncharted ways. But it wentfar beyond acupuncture. Because his surveys in parapsy-chology convinced him of the legitimacy of reputablemediums, Laurance was willing to accept Arigo as anextraordinary medium who acted as a middleman to forcesbeyond himself. Since "spirit guides" were a commonfactor among all mediums, where the medium became avessel for a personality of unknown dimensions, couldArigo's Dr. Fritz fit into this pattern?

The medical team was of course concentrating on thetechnical, material side of the picture. Arigo's capacity formaking accurate diagnoses without previous knowledge ofthe patient's illness and without a physical examinationwas confirmed again as case after case was recorded andexamined by the American doctors, before and after treat-ment by Arigo. A paraplegic arrived in a wheelchair.Arigo stated that at the age of tifteen, he had fractured hiscervicai spine, the result of a diving injury. This was con-firmed in full detail.

A woman stepped up to Arigo. After a quick glance ather, Arigo told the Americano that they would find herblood pressure to be 230 systolic and 140 diastoiic- Thecuff and Tycos instrument readings showed sr.actiy that.

A man was next in line. He showed symptoms of con-gestive heart failure with dyspnea, and a clisten,jed externaljugular vein. Arigo immediately said to the researchers:"This man has renal hypertension with a systolic pressure

184 ARIGO: SunceoN oF THE Rusry Kwrre

of 280." The post-Arigo examination by the Americandoctors and the history supplied by the man's own physi-cian confirmed that reading and condition.

The next man spilled out his story to Arigo. He said hehad Chaga s disease, a common parasitic disease in Brazil.Arigo glared at him, then turned to the Americans. "No!"he said. "This man has a four-plus Wassermann, and thediagnosis is syphilis, not Chaga's disease." This was con-firmed both by the patient's medical records and a laterWassermann test. It seemed difficult to mislead Arigo.

What was noteworthy was the exactitude of Arigo'sdiagnoses. A patient would step up to the table whereArigo sat. To the American doctors, and even to the lay-man, it might be obvious that there was something wrongwith the patient's eyes. But Arigo would not merely saythat the patient had eye trouble. He would say that thepatient had retinoblastoma, or retinitis pigmentosa, or useother modern medical terminology. He would invariablybe proved correct by the technical follow-up by the Ameri-can doctors.

.The checking of Arigo's diagnostic ability continued.The statistics matched Dr. Puharich's preliminary survey,and continued to hold up as the assembly line pumped byArigo at the rate of one patient a minute. Paul Jones, thestill photoprapher, came over to the table to ask Dr.Puharich a question. Arigo stopped him by the arm andsaid: "You are taking entirely too much m dicine!" TheAmericans laughed, because they knew Jones carried anoverabundance of medicine with him.

Like nearly everyone who saw Arigo, Dr. Pahnke, thepsychiatrist from Maryland, was interested in the thesholdof pain when Arigo performed his seemingly brutal eyeexaminations. Hardly anyone seemed to be bothered bythem, no one reported any pain. Out of dozens of theseknife-in-the-eye examinations, two of the patients did showsome sign of fear. It was on a day that Arigo himselfseemed out of sorts. He had scolded the crowd waiting forhim when he entered, saying that he would not tolerateanyone in the center who made noise or disturbed hiswork. He said he wanted to help all those who needed it,

ARIGO: SunceoNoFTHERusryKwrrn 185

but that those who came merely to watch were not wel-come. He said he knew that some of the people there hadbeen drinking, and that they ought to return to their bars.He added: "I am not a saint. I am unclean and unedu-cated. I never called anybody here, and I won't put upwith this drinking. Anybody who has been doing this, getout! "

Then he told the people to get in line and Dr. Fritzwould take care of them. As they filed by, he often cuppedhis ear with his hand, explaining that he was havingtrouble hearing what Dr. Fritz had to say that day. Severaltimes, he was heard to mutter: "f am very neryous today.Very nervous. And so is heaven."

In spite of Arigo's occasional mercurial moods, the film-ing went well. Making sure there .were no reporters orpolice around, Arigo performed several operations for themotion picture camera. One difficulty was that the lightsbothered the patients, and had to be reduced in order tomake them feel more comfortable. This brought a cor-responding reduction in the quality of the film. He did notperform any major operations for the camera, but didoperate on a fulI spectrum of cataracts, lipomas, sebaceouscysts, a gtgantic hydrocele, eye probes, and others" Thelegal situation was still hanging fire, and Arigo was obvi-ously worried about it. Fortunately, up to this point, thepress was not in the picture.

When the press did arrive, it hit like a tidal wave. It hadbeen impossible to keep the survey confidential, of course,but none of the American team quite expected what wasto happen when the flood of reporters stormed nto thetown, including radio, television, and print media.

All the meticulous, expensive planning of the researchgroup was threatened disastrously. If there was one thingthe American doctors didn't want, it was publicity. Noidid Arigo; nor did the patients. As the reporters and TVcrews grew to over forty, the entire research project begansliding precariously to a halt.

'!0

The moment the press arrived, conditions for a sciqntificstudy became almost untenable. Everywhere anyone turned,a reporter or cameraman was on hand to squeeze out in-formation on this flrst major medical study of Arigo.Headlines about Arigo and the North Americans ,blazed

all over Brazil. The American doctors, interested only inserious medical iesearch, simply could not and rvould notcontinue the project under such carnival conditions. Arigopleaded with the journalists to refrain from the coverage,but to no avail.

Puharich called a hurried press conference with the re-porters. He explained how publicity at this point wouldbe ruinous not only to the expedition, but to Arigo. Manypatients wanted to remain anonymous, but their pictureswere being plastered on front pages across the country.Because none of the American doctors wanted anythingbut medical-journal exposure later, Puharich would notsupply the press with any information on the identity ofthe group or on the methods employed.

AII the conference resulted in was the resentment of thereporters, who iabeled the expedition "the mysteriousNorth Americans," and continued to badger the patientsfor any information they could get from them.

Arigo refused, of course, to do any further operationswith the media men around. The patients, not knowingwhether an interviewer was a reporter or a doctor, balkedat talking to either. In a strange turnabout, the meclicalsociety of Minas Gerais issued a statement that the NorthAmerican doctors were engaging in a purely parapsycho-logical iirvestigation; that this was praiseworthy; and thatits own doctors should continue the work after tle Ameri-

186

ARIGO: SunceoN oF THE Rusrv KxrrB 187

cans had left. This radical chalge in the outlook of theorganization brought protests from some of its members,but it seemed as if the tide had at last changed. Two Bra-ziiian members of the society, in fact, arrived to observethe American researchers, along with H. V. Walter, theBritish consul, whose interest in gaining a rational ex-planation of Arigo never fla.gged

The newspaper story that brought events to a crisis wasone appearrng on May 27, 1968, in O Dia, a widely circu-lated paper in Brazil. The headline to the story was:AMERICANS PLANNING TO TAKE THE MEDIUM TO UNITEDsTArES. PUBLTC UPROAR AGATNST lr. The story went on tosay that the town of Congonhas do Campo was in anuproar with the news that Arigo might accept the invita-tion of the Norfh Americans to go to the States for spe-cialized research.

A large crowd gathered at the Spirit Center, and Arigowas forced to come out and address them. He assured thegathering that he had no intention of leaving Congonhas,that he would stay with his people and continue his work.

This seemed to relieve the pressure on Arigo, but apetition was actually introduced in the State Assemblythat would set up a special commission to "defenC Arigofrom the foreigners" and prevent him from leaving thecountrJ{.

There was no let-up from the pressure of the media group.Although considerable data had already been gathered, itwas still inadequate for a complete study. Yet it was im-possible to continue. At a meeting to deal with the prob-lem, the consensus was that the only practical thing to dowas to make a thorough analysis of the material .alreadyin hand, and to help a team of Brazilian doctors set up asimilar study that could be done quietly, out of the glaringfloodlights of publicity. Now that the Minas Gerais Med-ical Society seemed to be shifting its position, this planmight turn out to be a viable alternative. With doctors inresidence in Brazil, the privacy of the research would bemore l ikeiy.

Further, plans were already taking shape under theaegis of several Brazilian doctors to build a hospital in

188 ARIGO: SuncnoN oF THE Rusry KNrre

Congonhas, where permission would be obtained to haveArigo continue his work under the direct supervision ofthe tsrazilian medical men. If there had been some way tofoster this type of project at the time of the first courtprocess, perhaps some real clue to Arigo's rare effective-ness would have already been available.

It was with a great deal of frustration and regtet thatthe North American research group closed down theirproject at Congonhas. But there seemed to be no otheranswer. The reporters had even tried to storm Arigo'shouse. The work could have perhaps continued if thesituation had not aftected Arigo himself so acutely. Hefound it almost impossible to concentrate under the condi-tions, and became seriously concerned for the welfare ofhis patients.

Even with incomplete data, however, considerable in-formation could emerge from the analysis of the material.There was for instance, the case of a six-year-old girl,Maria Cristina Faleiro, of Rua Januaria 304-4, 13, in56o Paulo. Her medical history showed that a diagnosisof leukemia was first made by her physician in S5o Pauloin March 1968. At this time, her white cell count hadsoared to 75,000, about ten times the count consideredas normal. The prognosis given by her physician wasgrave.

The girl had been brought by her parents to Arigo onMay 20, 1968. She had been given a prescription by himat that time, and began taking it on May 22.

She was ridded with the fatal disease. with the leuk-ocytes-the white blood cells-running out of control,and the lymphoid tissue of the glands and bone marrowenlarged and proliferated. Returning to 56o Paulo fromCongonhas, the parents of the girl had found their owndoctor willing to cooperate in administering Arigo's pre-scription, since he could find no rational way to retard thecase in conventional therapy. He had held out little hope,however.

He administered the drugs, and watched the girl care-fully, The key to any progress would lie in the telltalewhite cell count. This he took at regular intervals.

ARIGO: SuncBoN oF THE Rusrv KNrrn 189

By June 18, the count had dropped from 75,000 to20,000-about 12,000 above normal. It was a startling,unbelievable drop. By July 5, iess than a month later, thewhite cell count had plunged to 10,000. By August 7, itwas down to a normal 7,500, and the glandular system ofthe girl had returned to normal. A follow-up by the doctorhalf a year later showed that the white cell count remainedwithin normal limils, and the glands were also normal, acondition which the Americans verified.

Another leukemia case studied by the North Americanresearchers was equally dramatic. The patient was two-year-old Rosanna Canargos Ribeira, Rua Valdir Cunha52, Congonhas.

The medical history showed that the baby girl had'deveioped acute fulrninating leukemia in April

'L967, abott

a year belore the American researchers arrived. Withinthree weeks after the onset of the symptoms, the chiid'sglands, both external and internal, swelled massively. Amonth after her condition had been diagnosed, the glandsin the abdominal cavity swelied to such an extent that theycaused gan€fene of the intestines, peritonitis. They furtheriuptured the abdominal wall with exudation of pus.

R.osanna was rushed to the hospital in Belo Horizonte.Her white ceil count had risen to 110,000. Her fever sky-rocketed, and she went into a coma. The doctors at thehospital conferred with the mother, and told her thatRosanna s case was terminal. She had at best a day or twoof survival time left. They indicated that in the presenceof leukemia, nothing whatever could be done to controlthe runaway peritonitis.

The distraught mother refused to accept the verdict. Asa last resort, she rushed Rosanna back to Congonhas onMay 19, 7967, to Arigo.

Because of the severity of the crisis, Arigo took im-mediate charge. He personally administered the chemo-therapy-a practice he very rarely followed. He prepareda mixture of cortisone, potassium chloride, ind Puri-Nethol, an experimental Burroughs-Wellcome drug for therepression of cancer that had never been found to Lelp inleukemia. He mixed an enormous dose-2O cc.-of the

190 ARIGO: SunceoN oF THE Rusry KNme

drugs in a syringe, and injected the medication directlyinto the peritoneal cavity-a procedure that would neverbe considered proper in conventional medicine. He toldthe mother to stay close by the child, and to give herwater by mouth for the next twenty-four hours. She wasto bring her daughter back the next day.

She did so. Arigo examined the child, and said that shehad passed the crisis stage. There were still gaping woundsin the abdomen, draining pus. But Arigo did nothing tointervene. He told the mother that the wounds should beallowed to drain, and to close naturally.

Then he showed the mother how to grind up a mixtureof 20 mg. of Meticorten (conventionally used for rheu-matoid arthritis), 500 mg. of potassium chloridc, and50 mg. of 6-Mercaptopurina (a rather dangerous experi-mental drug for leukemia), and mix it with milk, ad-ministering it every eisht hours for a month. To thephysician, this is a startling, massive, and irrational com-bination. Under ordinary circumstances, it might even kilIa child of two. The amount of Meticorten was a dosagethat wouid be used for an adult twentv times the weishtof Rosanna.

But the mother religiously followed the directions. Thechild began showing dramatic improvement. By the sec-ond week, the abdominal wounds had stopped ,irainingpus and were beginning to heal. Within a month, Rosannawas afebrile-without fsvsl-and the glanciular swellinghad disappeared. She was able to follow a normal liquiddiet.

Arigo again examined the child, and said the same treat-ment should be continued for another month, at halfstrength. He asked the mother to get another blood count.She did so. The white cells had fallen from the originalcount of 110,000 to 12,000. By the end of the secondmonth, the count had dropped to 7,000.

On May 20, 1968, almost a year to the day afterRosanna had first been brought to Arigo, the Americandoctors examined the girl and her medical history care-fully. The white cell count was 6,700. Her abciomen stillbore massive scars. Aside from that. she was normal.

L92 ARIGO: SunceoNoFTHBRusryKNrrs

Pires' theory was that it was impossible to label Arigo asa paranoid case, as some tried to do, when he was able toperform verifiable physicai operations successfully.

Arigo's detractors did everything they could to deny thereality of what they saw. But this was impossible to do inthe face of facts, and Arigo remained above their barbs,except on legal technicalities. Pires also felt that it wasn'tnecessary either to accept or reject the bizane concept ofDr. Fritz. Fritz could be explained in any number of ways,depending on the attitude of the observer. Fritz could bean eiement of mythology, of Arigo's unconscious, or of aclearly defined spirit personaiity, as the Kardecist spiritistsbelieved. Whatever the truth, the fact is that it worked. Itwas that simple.

Dr. Pires was an intellectual Kardec spiritist. and hebelieved in the reality of mediumship undbr ceriain con-ditions that were as disciplined as any in formal psy-chology. Pires interviewed Arigo in a trance state, soostensibly it was Dr. Fritz who was speaking throughArigo as a channel. In the session, the German-accentedvoice of Dr. Fritz indicated that he had been born inMunich, moved to Poland when he was four years old,studied medicine, became a fairly good doctor and sur-geon, but made several bad mistakes. The voice claimedthat he went to Estonia, where he lived from 191-4 untilhis death in 1918. According to the voice, Dr. Fritz vowedbefore he died that he would continue his rnedical devel-opment after death, and return to cure as many peopie onearth as he could, to make up for his earthly inadequacies.

Attempts have been made by several students of Arigoto check out these facts, but have been unsuccessful.

In any event, the voice of Dr. Fritz speaking throughthe mediumship of Arigo claimed that he had becomepart of a group of other deceased doctors who decided tohelp people as best they could in the name of Christ. Dr.Fritz's voice claimed that he had studied Arigo for over adecade before he felt that Arigo was the ideal vehicle tocarry out this work. At this point, Fritz continued, he wasable to obtain perfect control of the medium Arigo, sothat he could perform surgical operations through him.

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ARIGO: SunceoN oF THE Rusrv KNrnB 191

There were many more leukemia cases with similardetailed documentation. In all of them, Arigo stated thathe simph did what "the voice" told him to do. He nev6rtook blood counts, but they were often available from thedoctors for verification.

Although the research project was abortive, there werescores of cases that had been recorded, and were to befollowed up by the cooperating Brazilian doctors. Therewas also much work to be done on return to New York:assigning tapes to be transcribed and edited; making up alist of tht Brazilian doctors for the follow-up; analyzingwhat went wrong on this trip, and how to avoid it in thefuture; analyzing Arigo's prescriptions; and, above all,planning a new expedition so that there would be min-imum interference from the press.

The ideal situation would be to bring Arigo to theStates, but this he finally would not consider. He felt hecould not desert those who were depending on him, eventemporarily. Because of this, the coordination of theresearch effort with the Brazilian medical men became offoremost importance. The key man in this regard was Dr.Ary Lex. the 56o Paulo physician who had first observedArigo six years before. With his cooperation, a meetingwas set up in S5o Paulo between the American group andthe interested tsrazilian doctors. It was onlv throush themthat the plans for the dream Arigo had ai*ays niO-tnebuilding of a hospital in Congonhas, where he couldwork with them clear of any legal harassment-could befulfilied. In fact, it became a major obsession with Arigo;it filled his mind night and day. He knew he could notstop his work, in spite of the liw or the Church. But healso knew he could not survive another assault bv thecourts, or another term in prison.

The meeting with the 56o Paulo medical group washeld on May 28, 1968, at the art museum in that city. Itallowed ample room for discussion and speculation aboutArigo. From the point of view of most Brazilians at themeeting. the observations of Herculano Pires were amongthe most astute in trying to bridge the gap between themetaphysics and the material reality of Arigo's work. Dr.

ARIGO: SunoeoN oF THE Rusry Kxrre 193Further, Dr. Fritz's voice claimed,.he served as a go-be-tween for the other discarnate doctors in his group, eachof whom had his own specialty. I

Dr. Pires asked no one to believe all this; the phenom-enon of Arigo stood alone without it. It is simply one waythe Kardec spiritist night try to set up a theory, and it re-mained only a theory. But even the solid, hardcore ra-tionalists were hard put to explain Arigo without somekind of postulate that seemed to go off the paranormalRichter scale.

An ophthalmologist of high standing, Dr. Sergio Valle,was fascinated by what Arigo could do in his fleld. Hisobservations were important as the negative point of viewof a specialist. His statement was emphatic: "No ophthal-mologist could do what Arigo did in front of us. It is sim-ply not possible to do an operation on the eye withoutprevious'study, preoperative preparation, full sterilizationand antiseptic conditions, the quiet atmosphere of anoperating room, and above all, complete anesthesia. It isliterally impossible to understand how Arigo does what hedoes, so swiftly and under the conditions he works in. Hemoves with no thought whatever. No one can explain this,and no one ever will."

Dr. Valle had also spent considerable time studyinghypnosis, and ruled that out as a factor.

Dr. Edoardo Basevi, a nuclear physicist, offered histheory. Like John Laurance, his feeling was that there wasan analogy between Arjgo's work and pure physics. Heused the spectrum as an example, where the visual sensoryequipment peeks in its confined way at the universetirough a tiny slit in the spectrum between 356 millimicrons on the ultraviolet end and some 2.400 millimicronson the infrared end. Light waves, or energy waves, moveout to the infinitely small and the infinitely large in eachdirection, and our eyes do not perceive the rays on eitherside of the minuscule visual slit. Neither does our hearingextend beyond a tiny portion of the audio spectrum, withits own ultra waves. Dr. Basevi's concept was that Arigowas pure ultra in all of his work, but it was something theordinary mind just could not perceive.

t94 ARIGO: SuncnoN oF THE Rustv KNrre

New studies exploring the human aura are just nowbeginning to be taken seriously with what is called Kirlianphotography. Both Russian and American films show thatmore easily detectable and more brilliant auras emanatefrom the fingers of those who are considered to be psychichealers than from others, Since human cells, in the lastanaiysis, are electromagpetic force fields, Dr. Carlos Cruzand Dr. Mauro Godoy felt ttris could be at the bottom ofArigo's prowess. "You could almost figure that this mighthave something to do with the soul of an atom," Dr.Godoy said.

There seemed to be as many theories as there werepeople. One medium, who was also the technical adminis-trator of a large corporation in Brazii, tried to analyzethe situation for journaiist Reinaldo Comenale. He said:"The phenomenon I see is not just a simple one by Dr.Fritz, but a group of spirits under his direction. Thediaguosis is already made by this group by the time thepatient steps up to Arigo,.

"Dr. Fritz passes the consensus of the group along tohim before Arigo has a chance to look at the patient. Themedical group around Dr. Fritz did not stop developingafter they ciied. They only touched the surface of medicalpractice when they were alive. Their knowledgeability nowhas no limits.

"Not all mediums are possessed by their spirit guides.But when Arigo is practicing, he is completely possessedby Dr. Fritz. He remembers little if anything afterward.His whole body is possessed. He is unconscious. His per-son becomes that of Dr. Fritz.

"Spiriiisn on the intellectual Kardecist plane is a sci-ence, a philosophy, and a religion. Many people do notunderstand that. It is a religion when thought of as trustand beiiel. It is a philosophy when it gives to man thepower of kindness, love, and the practice of religion. It isa science when the other two eiements combine to brilgabout the observable surgery and cures Arigo causes.

"Both matter and spirit are energy forces. They aresimply of different frequencies. They are not as far apartas might be thought. The spirit Ioses the shell of the body,

ARIGO: SuncsoN oF TUE Rusry KNrB 195

as a caterpillar loses his cocoon. But the personality re-mains conscious and aware.

"To talk about the results of Arigo is like talking aboutrain in a wet place. There's no question of the facts. No-body who has studied or observed the man has anydoubts. But Arigo doesn't create miracles. He is merely avessel for a higher form of energy, which you could sayis ultimately God-given."

These concepts were interesting, but utterly useless forthe medical researchers, who needed more statistical in-formation on the hard, observable facts. It is one thing tobe convinced by direct observation. It is another to ar-ticulato the facts in a form acceptable to the editors of ascientific journal, who must have precedents and previous-ly documented material to fall back on.

With Arigo being unprecedented, the job remained asdifficult as ever. Dr. Pires, who unquestionably had probeddeepelinto the mystique of Arigo than any other Brazil-ian, had searched long and hard among the medical andpsychiatric professions to try to bridge the gap betweenthe rational and the inexplicable.

His travels brought him in contact with Dr. MariaPedroso, a psychiatric physician at the Municipal Hobpitalin 56o Paulo, and formerly assistant professor of legalmedicine at the Medical School of the University of Bra-zil. She was internationally known, and had representedBrazll at the International World Convention of Univer-sity Women.

Dr. Pedroso had participated in a study of universitywomen in the United States, and been a forerunner inBrazil for women's rights. Her long list of credits includedthe vice-presidency of the Pan American Alliance ofWomen Doctors. She had practiced psychiatry for overtwenty years in both 56o Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. Shewas most interested in the correlation between the para-normal and psychic abnormality.

The moment She arrived at Arigo2s clinic, she noticedthat Arigo turned and stared at her. Still looking straightat her, he said: "Anyone who is a doctor here, come for-ward." Dr. Pedroso, starfled at the uncanny perception

t96 ARIGO: SunoeoN oF THE Rusrv KNrre

of Arigo, stayed in her place. Then he pointed his fingerdirectly at her, and asked her to cone close and observefoom where she could see in detail.

She did so. The operation was another pterygium, atwhich he excelled. She was shocked at the violent move-ments made in the eye of a conscious patient, and at thelack of autisepsis. She was further shocked when thescissors seemed too dull to cut. She was thinking to herselfthat the crnde strokes of the scissors would tear the tissuesof the eye beyond repair. She also thcught that if only hehad a sharper instrument, there might be some hope.

At that mornent, Arigo asked for a scalpel. He cutthrough the webbed structure, and the eye began to bieedprofusely. She saw it flood down the cheek, and waited forit to drench the patient's shirt. The blood stopped exactlyat the point of his lower jaw. There was no physical rea-son why it didn't flood over the jaw and down to hischest. The operation a success, Arigo swabbed the eyewith dirtl/ cotion, and calied for the next patient. To Dr.Pedroso's utter surprise, he wiped the bloody scalpel onthe blouse of the next patient-but the blouse did notshow any stain.

"I was satisfied, and it was clear," Dr. Pedroso said,"that my trip was not wasted."

After watching several other operations at close range,plus the prescription procedure, she pondered long andhard about her experience. She found herself forced toconclude that Arigo showed evidence of paranormal nan-ifestations, without any doubt. She agreed with Richet,Janet, Freud, and others that there is no organic sub-stratum in a living individual that could be looked on as acenter for paranormal functions. Yet she had to acceptthe theory that there is an element beyond the normal inan undetermined location. In some individuals this wouldcome out either spontaneously or under stimulation.

Her technicai rationalization was complex. She told Dr.Pires: "There are great silent zones in the brain whichcould possibly be the center of paranormal activities. Thenerve cells are not inherent but adherent to the fibrillae.These act as batteries and distributors of potential energy.

ARIGO: SuncBoNoFrHERusrrKNrrB 197

There are also magnetic and electrical forces at workwithin the atom. There are many forces that work on thecentral nervous system, either for good or for bad, thataffect its protoplasm, by cohesion, electricity, or pressure,These can cause mechanical changes of the structure ofthe nervous system, which in turn a.ffe.cts the physiolog-ical basis of intrinsical associations. In doing so, eitherconscious or unconscious psychic phenomena would beincluded."

It seemed that anywhere anyone-tur$ed to try to ex-plain Arigo, the attempt at an answer was hard to followor Qelieve, whether the eftort came from a religious; spir-itis{legal, or scientific source. The only thing all points ofview''agreed on was that Arigo's work was a cold, real-istic fact.

Perhaps Dr. Oswaldo Conrado, the cardiology specialistfrom 56o Paulo, summed up the most interesting attitudefrom the point of view of the medical profession when hesaid: "If doctors were able to open up new hope forpatients, it woUld be a wonderful experience. When,I findthat I 'bm directly con-fronted with a hopeless.. caSe, andwhen every possible medical ayenue is closed, I see noreason not to look for otler means. We wouldn't be hu-man if we didn't.

"The facts about Arigo exist. They have happened,simply and naturally. A commission of scientists, free frompreconceived ideas must study him, and study him thor-oughly. We might be on the edge of discovering entire$new and extremely beneficial therapeutic resources."

As frustrated as they were, the North American re-searchers agreed substantially with this premise. Theyformulated plans with the Brazilian doctors to follow upon their incomplete data, but with the conviction that itwould be necessary to come back to Congonhas do Campoas soon as possible for a concerted eftort.

The best hope for this lay in the establishing of Arigo'sdream: a fully equipped hospital run by competent physi-cians and surgeons under whose observation he would beable to work free from the iatrusions of either the pressor the courts. It was a glorious dream because it would

198 ARIGO: SurcroN oF rHE Rusrv KNrre

combine the best possible combinations: scientific andmetaphysicai; psychological and physical; religious andseculart practical and idealistic; shadow and substance;sickness and health-all amounting to a fusion of com-patible paradoxes. And, as some thought, that is what liteconsists of.

As the Americans prepared to leave 56o Paulo for NewYork, there were sips in the air that the dream might befulfilled. The medical society of Minas Gerais was soften-ing, and markedly so. The Cathoiic Church had takencognizance of the North American team's invasion ofCongonhas. and was giving the potential of psychic heaiinga new look. It was even rumored that there were trainingcourses in healing established in the monastery high in themountains surrounding Congontras that would competewith Arigo. Gabriel Khater, the journalist, was pushinghard to raise funds for the hospital. Puharich and hisgroup madc plans to try to raise money in the States forthe same cause.

The last thing Arigo wanted was to be alienated fromthe Church. He believed in the Christian ethic. and sharedArlete's almost obsessive devotion to the Catholic rites. Inthe courts, his lawyers had emphasized .-hat he was bring-ing his children up in the best Catholic tradition, that heput Christ above everything else. Only his almost demoniccompulsion to heal the sullering and help the poor kepthim from giving up his healing work.

This compulsion had been described as an obsessionalneurosis, total psychosis, inspired evangelicalism, saintli-ness, profiteering, egocentricity, political machination, ve-nality, naivet6, braggadocio, divine love, stupidity, chaity,consummate skill, deviltry, unqualified cittzen concern,black magic, sacrilege, pathological compulsion, human-ism, and celestial skill. But there was no one who couldsay what Arigo really was. It is doubtful if he knew him-self.

Arigo went back to his routine; the Anericans returnedto their more worldly jobs. There would be nearly a yeatof sorting even the incomplete statistics they had as-sembled.

ARIGO: SunceoNoFrHERusrvKwrre 199

Reviewing the color fllms of Arigo's surgery taken bythe medical team, Dr. Robert Laidlaw, director of psy-chiatry at New York's Roosevelt Hospital, screened thefootage several times. It was thought his expertise mightbring a fresh viewpoint to the research. He was a metic-ulous man, and he wrote a careful report of his observa-tions:

1. Arigo's facial expression when he operates dif-fers completely from that of his normal demeanor.During an operation, there is a trance-like serenityseen in both his eyes and face.

2. It is important to notice tlte precision withwhich his fingers work, especially in a delicate eyeoperation. They keep working in this extremely sen-sitive area, even when his head and eyes are turnedaway in another direction.

3. The movement of his fingers is extraordinarilyfast. He uses a knife ylft extreme confidence andprecision.

4. None of the patients have submitted to any pre-operative preparation. It is very odd that the con-scious patients are completely calm, relaxed, andindicate no fear whatever, yet they have receivedneither tranquilizers nor anesthesia. There is no ex-pression of tension; no muscular tension; the patientsdon't even move. They Jemain impassive.

5. There is very little blood coming out of thebody. Almosf 16thing. There are no stitches. Theedges of the incision seem to glue together. In thetwo lipoma operations, the incisions bind togetherimmediately, with practically no bleeding.

6. It is documented that the knifs ussd by Arigowas unsterile. There should be massive post-operationinfection, but I understand this has never been re-ported. Many of the surgical routines observed d-dfrfidtbe done by highly trained surgeons. \

7. The evidence shown in these films defies anyexplanation in terms of orthodox science.

200 ARIGO: SuaoeoNoFrHE RusrvKxtre

Dr. Laicilaw's observations were echoed bv manv mem-bers oT various medical associations that br. puiradch

showed the fllms to on his return to the United States.With the problems now anticipated and correctable, hewas seeking support for another expedition to Brazil, con-vinced that Arigo needed a lifetime of organized researchand study.

Back in Brazl, they continued to come to Congonhasdo Campo for the pilgrimage to Arigo: statesmen, in-dustrialists. actors, singers, peasants, miners, scientists, the_whole broad spectrr m of humanity. Roberto Carlos, thetoast of the Brazilian entertainment world, chartered aplane to fly to Minas Gerais, just for the ceremony ofthanking Arigo for saving the sight of his infant boy. Ex-President Kubitschek, now back in Brazil, would bring hiswife and daughter to see Arigo, to thank him again forhis help. Arigo, in turn, unabashedly kissed Kubitschek'shand for his pardon during his first pending sentence.

On his twenty-fifth wedding anniversary, Arigo went toMass with Arlete and the boys. Here the couple had theirwedding rings blessed. Asked why he went to Mass in theface of the censure of the Church against his work, Arigosaid; "All my family are Catholic. I alone am a spiritist.But I believe that all religions take the people to God" Sowhy not go to a Catholic Mass?"

What he didn't know as he entered the church was thatalmost the entire town of Congonhas had prepared a sur-prise anniversary party for him. Two bands were playing,and dignitaries from Rio, 56o Paulo, and Belo greeted himand Arlete as they c.ame down the steps of the churchafter the service.

It was a festive anniversary. Uncountable telegrams ar-dvsd-ssme estirnated as manv as ten thousand. Somefrom Europe, Argentina, and the United States. One wasfrom the Kubitschek family, in France. On facing theprofuse enthusiasm of the crowd, Arigo surveyed the scenein disbelief. His eyes filled with tears. Then he broke downand cried openly.

After the gloomy oppression of prosecution and jail,Arigo's life was taking a new turn. The newspapers and

ARIGO: SunceoN oF THE Rusry KNrra 2Ol

broadcasting stations gave absolute assurance of noninter-ference in any scientific studies that would be made onArigo. Word came that Arigo would be permitted tooperate under the controlled medical guidance of researchsurgeons. The new president of Brazil, Arthur da Costa eSilva, promised support to Arigo. Funds were mounting inthe program to build a modern hospital where Arigowould be studied and would practice. The North Amer-ican medical group's new plans for research were pro-gressing swiftly, under foundation funding.

It seemed all Arigo's hopes were coming to fruition.But it was during this time that Arigo went to bed onenight and again had trouble getting to sleep. He wokeArlete and said to her: "I see that terrible black crucifixagain."

1tr

Whatever meaning Arigo ascribed to the image of theblack cruciflx, there were no sinister forebodings in thedays that followed. Arigo was able to continue with hiswork free from interference, in a relaxed, fruitful at-mosphere. There seemed to be a tacit truce betweenArigo and those who opposed him. New support broughtthe hospital in Congonhas do Campo to the actual plan-ning stage. "This is the dream bf my lite," Arigo toldhis friends.

Exhilarated by what now seened to be a certainty,Arigo worked with fresh vigor, never leaving his clinicuntil the last patient had been taken care of-often wellafter midnight. If the mild heart condition uncovered bythe American doctors ever bothered him. he never men-tioned it, not even to Dr. Godoy, who waj working closeiy

2O2 ARIGO: SuncBoN oF THE Rusrv KxrrB

with him in coordinating the medical plans for the hos-pital.

In the States, the Essentia Research group's plans wereshaping up for the joint study.with the Brazilian doctors.In September 1969, Dr. Cortes went down as an advancescout, to coordinate the arrangements. Being alone, hehad no interference from the press, and he was able togather more data. One case seemed particularly dramatic.

It involved Comtesse Pamela de Maigret, an energeticand adventurous geologist from Philadelphia, who wasengaged in alluvial mining for diamonds on the Jequi-tinhonha River in the mountains of Minas Gerais. It was afull-scale project, with heavy equipment and suctiondredges. It was moderately profitable. Frequently shewould be driven from Rio or Belo to her remote camp inthe mountains by Jacques Riffaud, who headed up thevast Belgian and French iron-ore interests in the region,known as the Schneider Group.

Riffaud's chauffeur, Juvenal, was a dark-skinned Bra-zilian of middle age, a sturdy, squat man with a deeplylined, powerful face. He had been quite stout, but sud-denly began losing weight at an appalling rate. On eachtrip, he looked sicker. Finally he was persuaded by Pamela-and

Riffaud to go to a hospital in Rio for an examination.The X rays showed an ddvanced case of stomach

cancer. As an employee of the Schneider Company, hewas offered complete hospital and surgical care, but herefused flatly. He had a wife and six children, and he wassure the operation would kill him. The doctors at the hos-pital were irritated at his stubbornness, but their prognosiswas that it was a terminal case, even with the operation.Further X rays and tests showed he was completely be-yond medical help.

Shortiy after this, in Belo Horizonte, Juvenal askedRiffaud if he could have a few days oft. He would like togo and see a "healer" iir Congonhas do Campo. Juvenalwas a pragmatic man, but when he had learned that hewas going to die, he simply felt obligated to try everyavenue of escape. Neither Riffaud nor Pamela knew much

ARIGO: Suncsol.r oF THE Rusry Krrrrrs 203

about Arigo at the time beyond newspaper headlines. Butthey urged Juvenal to try anything that would help.

Juvenal later told them what had happened. He hadarrived at Arigo's clinic, but the line was impossibly long.He gave up any'thought of getting to Arigo that day, butsat down on the street with the others and waited rvithlittle hope. A few hours later, Arigo came out of theclinic and walked directly up to him. "You are very i11,"Arigo told him bluntly. "Come with me immediately."

Without any examin4tion, Arigo gave him a prescrip-tion and told him to take the medicine, and come backthe next day. Juvenal followed instructions, and reportedback pronnptly the next morning.

Arigo took him into the srirall, almost-vacant room be-hind his general working area. He laid him down on thecrude wooden door stretched between two sawhorses.Then .Arigo began pressing down on his stomach withboth hands. Juvenal experienced no pain, just a feeling ofheavy pressure and considerable discomfort. Arigo pressedwith all his beefy weight, until it seemed as if the stomachwall would be pushed against the spinal coiumn. Sud-denly the stomach popped, with a clearly audible sound,like the cork of a champagne bottie. There was blood, butthere was no hemorrhage. Arigo reached into the upperabdomen with his hands and literaliy pulled out a largequantity of what Juvenal described as "bloody things."Arigo used no instrument. Juvenal felt apprehensive, butstill no pain.

When Arigo removed his hands, the wound closed im-mediately, with no stitches. Juvenal felt weak and shaken,but was able to get up and walk out of the room,

He drove back to 1fos mining camp alone, over thegrueling roads, on the next day. Riffaud and pamela were

Several months went by. Juvenal recovered from his

204 ARIGO: SunceoNorrns'RusrvKNrre

shakiness, and his health obviously seemed to be return-ing. He was gaining weight rapidly. Riffaud, his curiositynow aroused, finally persuaded Juvenal to have another Xray taken, at the company's expense. It showed no tracewhatever of anything abnormal. The man regained hisfull health.

Another case developed after the fudtial North Amer-ican research expedition. It involved a nine-year-old boyfrom Hartsdale, New York. He had suffered from majorJacksonian epilepsy since birth, which creates massive in-voluntary, uncontrollable spasms, although the subjectremains conscious. He had received the best possiblemedical attention in the United States, but he continuedto have twenty to thirty epileptic seizures a day.

The parents were distraught and desperate. Learningabout the American medical expedition to Brazil, andhavilg been to that country several times in the past, theparents obtained Arigo's address, and decided to take theboy there.

He was treated by Arigo on May 20, L969, and given aprescription immediately. It read:

First TreatmentRevulsun: 1 tablet each nightAntisacer: 1 tablet each morninsNeo-Comb6: L ampule, intramuscu-lar every

other dayTreat for 1.00 davs

Second TreatmentTryvigenex: 1 tablespoon with each mealMetioscil: DittoTestoforan: 1 tablet after each mealMemoriase: I capsule daily

Treat for two months

Third TreatmentGamibetal: Inject 2.0 cc. daily, intramuscular

Treat for one month

ARIGO: SuncBor.I oF THE Rusrv Krrrrre 205

Again, the course of drugs was p:uzziing, though notentirely without logic. Revulsun is an anti-spastic sedative;Antisacer is a specific for epilepsy; Neo-Comb6 is a high-potency vitamin B-compiex compound; Tryvigenex isused in cases of anemia; Metioscil is a fortified liver ex-tract; Testoforan has a sedative action; Gamibetal is ananti-ccnvulsant. It is Coubtful that any conventional doc-tor would combine these drugs in these quantities, in factalmost ce.rtain that he would not.

The first treatment was begun on the same day Arigowrote the prescription. The drugstore in Congonhas keptenormous stocks of Arigo's unconventional drugs onhand. All previous medication the boy had been taking,such as Dilantin and phenobarbitol, was discontinued atonce.

Within two months, the boy was able to leave home forthe first time in his life and go to a summer camp. BySeptember L969, he was radically improved. By a yearafter that, he was free of ail epileptic convulsions andliving a complete$ normal life.

Major successes of this sort continued, but Arigo would'.. at rare times tell his close friends and family about the

\tlack crucifix that still kept appearing in his dreams. Itseemed to plague him, unnerve him.

At other times, though, he was unrufled and confident,still a front-page figure in BraztJ, still the subject of spe-cial news bulletins on television featuring some dignitaryor celebrity who told about his personal experience withArigo.

As Arigo's work became tacitly legitimatized, the morepromineni people flocked to him; and the more his reputa-tion grew. He received constant long-distance calls frommany major figures in the country, not merely for meciicaladvice, but for philosophical or spiritual sustenance. Whenhe would go to Belo Horizonte on occasion, there werefew persons, if any, who did not recognize him on thestreet, few who did not try to stop him and shake hishand. Passing the Hotel Normandie one afternoon, Arigonoticed a huge crowd gathered. He learned that President

206 ARIGO: SunceoN oF THE Rusry KNrre

Arthur da Costa e Silva, with his wife, Dona Iolanda,were about to leave the hotel.

Arigo waited a few moments, and the President andhis wife appeared, waved to the crowd, and started towardtheir waiting motorcade. Spotting Arigo in the crowd, thePresident went directly to him, drew him out from behindthe police barrier, and embraced him "with fire," as thepress put it. Dona Iolanda took Arigo's hand, and said:"So you are Arigo. I am happy that you can continueyour work. We'll do everything possible to help." Arigokissed the First Lady's hand, and the entourage drove off.

Support like this bolstered Arigo's hopes for the newhospital, and he waited anxiously for the day that con-struction would begin. Ex-President Kubitschek con-tinued his support when he returned to live in Brazil.Anticipating his return, he had written Arigo from NewYork to say that he looked forward eagerly to seeing himagain in Congonhas, and to be "in condition to pass thedays with you I want." Like the others, Kubitschekseemed to draw spiritual as well as medical strength fromArigo.

Along with the analysis of the statistics and the time-consuming preparation for the follow-up survey, severalof the Americans who had visited Arigo continued toprobe the reasons why Arigo was able to do what he did.He was constantly being compared to Edgar Cayce, thewidely known American mystic. But Cayce had neverplunged a knife into the viscera as Arigo did. He was alsocompared to many "healers," but none of them had doneso, either. Acupuncture was another comparison, butArigo's surgery was far beyond it. The Philippine psychichealers, who continued to receive sporadic attention inthe press, could not be equated with Arigo. There was toomuch evidence of pure fakery in their work.

Luis Rodriguez, the retired industrialist and author wholived in Rio, kept up a running correspondence with theEssentia Research group, including Belk, Puharich, andJohn Laurance, on his own extensive studies of Arigo.

Rodriguez was an intellectual Kardecist who had comearound slowly to accepting the concept that Dr. Fritz's

ARIGO: SuncBoN oF THE Rusry Kr.rrne 207

possession of Arigo was an outright reality. Many felt thatRodriguez had gone overbqard in buying this, althoughhis reasoning was quite brilliant and persuasive. His prosewas ponderous, but his thoughts were extremely cogent.His studies of psychiatry were probably as extensive asthose of many of the advanced specialists in the field, andhis knowledgeability was unquestioned. What lyas ques-tioned was his tendency to extrapolate too much from theevidence at hand. In a lengthy letter forwarding his the-ories about Arigo to the North American medical group,he wrote:

In all serjous psychic research, we are basicallydirected to evaluate innate or native capabilities ofevery individual. This is because we do not findpsychic manifestations in things, but in persons.

Every person is a naturally endowed inciividualwith his peculiar psychic qualities. Arigo, for instance,is a man like any ottrer man, physiologically speaking.Yet psychically, he is different from many others.

A great number of people, the immense majority,do not have the slightest idea as to what psychicvirtnes distinguish Arigo from many others. But a fewdo know the how-and-why of Arigo. To these, Arigois not a mystery; to the others, he is an enigma.Arigo is only a vivid example of what others coulddo, if interest is taken in the adequate development ofthe specific psychic faculties required to repeat whathe is doing. Research work does not admit of theexistence of personal monopolies. Knowing this, ourefiort is directed toward the scientific study of me-diurnship; its onset, maintenance, expansion, andvarieties.

This embraces the study of the spiritual nature ofman as a psychic phenomenon, beyond the iimitationsand contradictions of religion and mysticism.

This study, however, is not possible employing thepresent-Cay limited or superficial concepts of ESpresearch. Arigo is not an ESP phenomenon. I{e sim-ply represents a link in a close and intimate teamwork

208 ARIGO: StrnceoNoFTHERusrvKNmB

device manifesting itself in the mediumistic capabil-ities of a man, and the medical knowledge andexperience of discarnate entities working i the re-spective specialties and spheres. It is a method inwhich diagrrosis, treatment, and prognosis performtheir unifying routine.

This close collaboration between Arigo and hisdiscarnate friends cannot be understood and cannotpossibly be repeated by others unless these basichard facts of life are taken into account:

L. That man is an incarnate soul.2. That this soul was not created at the time of

birth.3. That it has had many other lives on earth and

that others will consequently follow.4. That contact between the incarnate and dis-

carnate persons has been taking place sinceman appeared on earth for the first time.

5. That the psychic faculty known as mediurnshipis the method devised by nature to ertablish thisnecessary and enlightening contact.

6. That primitive peoples all over the world arewell acquainted with these simple facts of liJe.

What I have learned is that it behooves us to im-prove the nature of this contact by enhancing its re-liability, and separating it from the superstitionsinvolved in religious creeds, doctrines, or dogmas,from rites and rituals. Likewise, not to waste timewith obdurate skepticism that retards progress bypostulating pseudo-scientific explanations that explainnothing.

Rodriguez went on to explain that he had developed aform of hypnotism that he referred to as the "hypnometrictrance" to bridge the gap. He was conducting extensiveexperiments with it, and was plan-ning to organize theresults in another book. His theme was that psychiatryunder Freud, Adler, Jung, or any of the other pioneers in

ARIGO: SuncsoN oF THE Rusry KNrne 209

the field simply did not go far enough. He continued inhis letter:

I have been preoccupied for many years with thefailure of psychiatry to identify the etiology, or origin,of functional neuroses and psychoses, which in morethan 80 percent of the cases is nothing else but symp-toms and syndromes revealing the flourishing of me-diumship. [Author's note: In other words, posses-sion.l

Faiiure to identifv these svndromes for what thevare has converted, and is converting, hundreds ofthousands of individuals in the civilized world whoare not sick, into schizophrenics. Mental hospitalsare filled with them. This happens when electricshock, insulin, or chemical shocks are induced inthem, blocking the natural manifestations of medium-ship, destroying the mechanism through which thefaculty manifests itself. The same occurs with thervholesale use of tranquilizers.

He then referred to a Canadian study by Dr. RaymondPrince, of McGill University in Montreal, who had spentseventeen months with native healers in Nigeria. Dr.Prince had discovered that their recognition of the realityof mediumship made psychosis s min6J problem. Ro-driguez continued in his ietter:

The so-called witch doctors and spiritists of thereincarnation school all over the world quickly recog-nize these symptoms for what they are. As a con:sequence of this natural knowledge, mediumship isdeveloped instead of psychosis. The developmenteradicates the psychoneurotic or psychotic conditionthat heralded the flowering of the mediumship faculty.This is the reason why mental diseases do not existamong these people, who may be counted in the mil-lions.

Mental diseases are, therefore, the fruit harvestedby over-civilized man due exclusively to a condition

2L0 ARIGO: SuncBoN oF THE Rusrv KNre

of ignorance maintained by an exaggerated sense ofsophistication and hailowed cultural superiority.

Whether anyone agreed or disagreed with Rodriguez'spremises, he was putting an intense and deeply thought-out spotlight on the workings behind Arigo, and was ar-ticulate in presenting his argument. Where he lost somepeople was in his six categorical postuiates, which de-manded a gymnastic leap into the outright acceptance ofreincarnation, to say nothing of the existence of a soul.Neither concept could be accepted scientifically; as least,not without hard evidence.

His arguments were provocative, however. He continuedcoming up from Rio to Congonhas to observe Arigo, tosee if he could throw more light on the matter. He notedthat Arigo himseif was oblivious to any theories behindhis own capacities. Arigo simply carried out what he wascompelled to do. He wasn't really a Kardec spiritist. Hehad been pulled into this strange scene without asking forit. The question provoked by Rodriguez's theories was:Wouid Arigo have become psychotic if he had not gyenin to his mediumship?

Many signs-the blinding headaches, the hallucinations,and the gross insomnia-indicated that h_e might have. Asstrange as he was in his clinical working hours, Arigo wasa normal, functioning human being, with all of his clusterof sons growing up as healthy and emotionatrly matureyoung men. And in spite of his lack of education, he had ashrewd, inborn intelligence that attacted some of the bestminds in Brazil.

Kubitschek, back in Brazil, kept his promise. He cameto Congonhas and spent long hours with Arigo. It wasnow late in 1970. The hospital project was almost readyto go on the drawing board. The North American medicalteam's plans for the follow-up research were at last jelling.This time, the group was determined to complete thework they had been unable to do on the first attempt.Kubitschek promised his renewed support-he still hadwide influence in Brazil.

When Kubitschek went to Arigo's heuse to say he was

&:r

ARIGO: SunceoN oF THE Rusrv KNrrs 2lL

on his way back to Rio, Arigo seemed disturbed. He wasnot his usual, extrovert self. Kubitschek pressed him forwhat was wrong.

Arigo did not speak for some time, then he said: "I donot like to say this, Mr. President, but I will soon die aviolent death."

Kubitschek was shocked and disturbed. "You don'tmean that." he said.

Arigo nodded, and repeated in a sad, soft tone: "I amsure I will die violently very soon. So I say good-bye toyou with sadness. This is the last time we will meet."

Kubitschek reassured Arigo that he merely was tiredfrom overwork, but Arigo smiled and shook his head.

It was the image of the black crucifix again. Arigo be-came almost obsessed by it. The day after his talk withKubitschek, Arigo met Gabriel Khater in front of theclinic door. Khater had come to tell him the good newsthat fresh funds had arrived for the medical center. Khaternoted the same look that Kubitschek had noticed.

"You are tired, Arigo," Khater said,"I am afraid, Gabriel," Arigo answered, "that my mis-

sion on earth is finished."Khater pretended to laugh,.then asked about'his moth-

er, who was critically ill at the time. "You are right to askabout this now," Arigo told him. Khater was about to goout of town for several days on a story. 'oAsk me every-thing now, because I think you will not see me again.

Arigo wrote a prescription for Khater's mother, thenembraced him warmly. Khater said: "You will be all right.I..know it." Arigo didn't answer, and went back to hiscllnlc.

Others heard strange things from Arigo. Paulos Soares,a brother-in-law of Arigo, overheard him saying that hisdeath was near. A month before, Arigo had lent his car toa friend. It had turned over and been demolished, but thefriend was not hurt. Arigo told his brother Walter: "Thisis the sign of the end."

No one quite knew how to respond to these omens. Forthe most part, they tried to ignore the remarks, or at-tributed them to the fact that Arigo's schedule would ex-

2t2 ARIGO: Sunceow oF THE Rusrv KNmB

haust a supeflnan, to say nothing of a man with a heartcondition, however mild. The heavy routine could quitenaturally ieave him in a state of depression. He continuedwith his long hours, at both the clinic and the pension of-fice, taking time off only on weekends to prune his roses.

Every January, Arigo would take on another gargan-tuan, time-consuming job for himself. He would coliectclothing from those who could afford to give it away, andgive packages to the poor of both Congonhas do Campoand the surrounding plateau. It had become a traditional,festive event.

Arigo was always in the best of all possible moods forthese occasions. This year, 197L, was no exception. Hegathered what clothes he could, and being an enormouslypersuasive man, he collected a bounty quota, on this, thetenth year of his special event. On the morning of January10, over five hundred poor townspeople gathered by theclinic in a festive spirit. Arigo dispensed both the cloth-ing and crude jokes, in equal proportion. Those whoknew hirn well were elated to see him back in goodspirits. He didn't seem to show the despondency that hadbeen plaguing him over the past few months. The oldArigo had returned. He even took the day ofi from hispatients, an almost unheard-of event.

On the next morning-January 11,l97t-he rose earlyas usual and walked briskly to the clinic, where alreadythe crowd was waitiag. He would have to be going toLafaiete that day, to arange for payments and licensingof a car that he was buying from a retired police lieutenantin the town to replace his own. It was an old, blue Opalasedan-a car made in Brazil by General Motors.

He explained to the patients who had gathered at thecenter that he would not be opening the clinic that after-noon until three, but that he would take care of as manyas possible in the morning, and the rest at the later tirne.Then he went about his work. He finished well beforenoon, and broke for an early lunch.

The sky was black and ominous that day, and alreadythe cobblestones were glistening with rain. At his house,Arlete had prepared a hot lunch for him, and two of his

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good friends were there to join him. One was Bejou, awarm and earnest man who did odd jobs at the HotelFreitas. He had been a close friend of the de Freitas familyfor years. He worshiped Arigo, and made no secret of it.He was bright and witty, and constantly cheered Arigo upwhen he was in his dimmer moods. The other friend wasAntonio Ribeiro, who had learned that Arigo planned todrive to Lafaiete that day and wanted to hitch a ride.

Arigo was delighted to have company, and the groupsat down with Arlete and Tarcesio, Arigo's oldest son, inhis twenties. . The lunch was brief, and afterward Arigohad a.few moments to play cards with the men beforeleaving. Playing cards was one of the few ways Arigocould relax.

By now the skies had burst, and the mountain. rainswere drenching the village. Arigo said he would wait fora let-up before going to the car. There was light banter,and occasionally Arigo would rise from the table to lookout the window to see if the downpour had eased.

Earlier that morning, Jos6 Timoteo, a driver for thenational highway department, had picked up JoSo Felici-do, who was treasurer of the department, to drive himfrom Rio to Belo Horizonte on a routine trip. They hadleft Rio at first light. The drive had gone smoothlyenough, until they reached the town of Lafaiete. There,the rainstorm hit with a fury, blocking visibility and turn-ing the twisting roads into a wet-slick glaze, It was aboutnoon when they arrived at Lafaiete, and they decided topush on. Timoteo knew the roads well; it was his job.

By noon a crowd of about fifty, huddled under news-papers and umbrellas, had already gathered at the SpiritCenter for Arigo's afternoon session. Even though theywould have to wait until three for Arigo's return, theywanted to be sure they got a place in line. Some werepinning their entire hopes on him, and had come a longdistance. Two were foreign: one from Spain, another fromChile. They were both girls.

At just about noon, Arigo decided that the storm had

2t4 ARIGO: SuncBoN oF THE Rusrv KNrre

let up enough for them to set out on the trip. Arigo'smood had lifted since the distribution of the gifts on theprevious day. He gave Arlete a cheerful kiss, roughed upTarcesio's thick black hair, and went out to the Opalawith Ribeiro.

Waiting for the train at the railroad station was a well-known BrazrTian doctor, who was leaving for Rio after atrip to observe and query Arigo in a search for an ex-planation of the man and his work. He saw the blueOpala as it swung around the curve from Arigo's house.Arigo, at the wheel, saw the doctor, and pulled the carover to the side of the station to talk with him a moment.

Ailer a jocular greeting, Arigo said: "Have you goteverything explained now?"

The doctor smiled. "If I ever explain you, I'11 be agenius. I enjoyed your party yesterday, though." He wasreferring to the gathering in which Arigo had handed outthe many boxes of clothing. No child had gone awaywithout a gift.

"I'm very huppy about it. Very happy," Arigo saiC. "flove the faces of the children. It went well."

"I thought so, too," the doctor said. "I'11 be back to ,seeyou soon."

"I hope we'll see you," Arigo said. He put tfie car ingear, waved again, and spun off.

The rain was picking up again, and the wipers werestraining against it. A short distance out of town, Arigostopped at a gas station, filled up with gas, and tried toadjust the wipers a little better.

Coming out of Lafaiete, the pickup truck of the na-tional highway department was having some difficultynegotiating the turns in the heavy rain. The roads in Brazilare marked off with small kilometer signs. Near K.370 onRoute tsR-135, Timoteo eased up on his speed a little tosquint at the road, with its unrelenting curyes. By thetime he reached K.373, the rain had again eased off, andhe pushed the acceierator down to highway speed.

Highway marker K.314 was just about three kilometers

ARIGO: SuncBoN oF rHE RusrY KNtnS 215

from the gas station that Arigo had stopped in. There is aparticularly treacherous blind curve at the marker. Anx-ious to get the annoying red tape over with in Lafaiete,Arigo left the station and started down the road. Hepassed his rose garden, glancing at it fondly, although itwas hardly visible through the rain and mist.

The pickup truck was nearing marker K.374, soon toappear around the curve. It had just come into sight whenTimoteo saw a blue car stdrt to move across the road to-ward him. It was not skidding, just coming directly acrossthe road. Beside the road was a precipice four hundredfeet deep. There was no possible way he could drive oftthe road to avoid the blue car coming at him. The roadwas too slick to stop suddenly. He applied the brakes any-way, and at that moment the two cars crashed. There wasa terrifying metallic thud that was heard more than a ,kilometer away. There was silence in both cars.

Back at Arigo's house, Bejou had been invited to havesome cake and a cup of coffee before returning to hiswork at the hotel. Arlete had gone oft with her umbrellato shop. Tarcesio had taken his VW to check the rose-bushes for Arigo. Bejou was finishing the last mouthfulof cake when a neighbor opened the door and called: "Goto the highway quickly! Something terrible has happenedto Arigo!"

Bejou dropped his fork and rushed out of the house.He ran like a wild man to a taxi by the railroad station.He told the driver to drive quickly out on BR-135. Withinminutes, they saw the blue Opala up ahead, in the centerof the slick highway. The smashed pickup truck of thehighway department was fused to the Opala. At the wreck-age, all was silent; there was not even a groan. The dooron Arigo's side was open, his legs still in the car, his bodyhalf out of it. His legs were mangled. A steel rod of somekind had plunged through his massive chest like a spear.

Bejou froze for a moment, then ran to Arigo and rippedthe steel rod out of the body. It was covered with blood.

216 ARIGO: SunceoN oF THE Rusry KNrrs

There was a huge gap in the head and in the chest. Forsome reason, he noticed Arigo's watch. It was stopped atexact ly l2 : I5.

Then a scream suddenly came from the pickup truck. Itwas the treasurer of the highway deparlment. Bejou,knowing that Arigo was dead, ran to help him. He felt hewas going mad. There were no'sounds from Timoteo.

Seconds later, Tarcesio arrived. He looked at his father,and dropped beside the body, heaving with enormous sobs.Then the police arrived. And an ambulance. There wasconfusion and shouting.

Felicido, the highway department treasurer, died at'thehospital" Arigo and Ribeiro were pronounced dead on ar-rival. Only the .unconscious Timoteo survived.

Bejou walked all the way back to the hotel in a daze."I will carry ttris terrible weight all my life," he told afriend.

Congonhas do Campo came to a stop. "The townhas been orphaned," someone said. Another said: "WithArigo dead, Congonhas has been assassinated." The may-or declared two days of mourning, with the flag at halfmast. The shops and the bars were closed until after theburial.

Dr. Mauro Godoy was not a man to cry, but he did. Hewent to the scene with the police and the men from thehighrvay department, and studied the wreckage. Therewere no signs of skidding, aithough the wetness mighthave obliterated them. Arigo's car had crossed to thewrong side of the road. It appeared as if it had simplygone out of control.

Later, Dr. Godoy assisted at the autopsy. Signs that hesaw in the brain and cardiac resion convinced him thatArigo had died from a coroniry moments before hecrashed. With a dead man at the wheel, the car had goneout of control.. The rest was inevitable.

They came from all over. A parade of special planesflew into Lafaiete. The press was everywhere. Special busesarrived; this fime with mourners instead of patients.Arigo's shattered body lay in its coffin in his home. Arletestood by it, tearless and numb, just staring at it.

ARIGO: SuncroN oF rHE Rusrv KNrrB 217

Roberto Carlos, his long hair flowing, arrived with hiswife. He was dressed in blue jeans and black boots, witha medallion of Christ pinned to his belt. With the help ofpolice, he made his way through the dense crowd to thecoffin. He embraced Arlete and kissed her hand. "Mychild can see because of Arigo," he said. Then he turnedto the casket and said: "f am here, Arigo."

There was no Mass, no music, no service. No onecounted the people who filed by the casket, and flowedsilently along the packed streets, like a giant moving car-pet behi.rrd the bier. Some said fifteen thousand; some saidtwenty. "The air was full of silence," one observer said.

The pall bearers drew the casket on a smail cart toArigo's beloved union hall. Then they tugged it by handup the steep cobblestone hill to the cemetery. High onthe hill, with the mountains rimming the horizon, the bodywas interred. Far across on another hill, the twelvebaroque statues of A-leijadinho stood like guardians, somewith hands outstretched, pointing across the valley to thecemetery. A lone Franciscan priest murmured a prayerthat rvas barely audible.

The crowd, sprawled across the green hillside, movedlike a great herd of sheep slowly back to the village.Whatever was said in words, the thought was the same:"Arigo is no more."

Another thou_eht, a phrase from Arigo, was unspokenbut implicit, for his body could not be taken to thechurch:

"Our Christ is the same. The rest doesn't matter."

Epilogue

I.

I have found that I cannot resist a story that is slightlyfar-out, as long as there is a rich fund of solid, down-to-earth, material documentation to go with it. Without thelattgr, the story is utterly useless. With it, it is intriguing.

I had a relaxed lunch at The Players in New Yorkseveral years ago with Arthur Twitchell; an astute anderudite gentleman Who had been co-producer of one ofmy plays that came into Broadway at the Helen HayesTheater, faltered, and died unmourned. Twitchell was amember of the board of the American Society for psy-chical Research, founded by William James in the latenineteenth century. He was also an avid student of whatmight be called the rational occult.

He told me briefly about the story of Arigo. If I hadnot known Twitchell to be a man of discernment, I wouldhave attributed it to fantasy and forgotten about it.

I did tell him that a story of this sort would be utterlyunbelievable, and that even if it were true, it would be analmost impossible job for a writer to convey.

Twitchell said:. "You ought at least to look at thefilms."

"There are films taken of these operations?" I asked."They were taken by the team of American doctors who

went down to Brazil to study Arigo," he said. "All youneed is a strong stomach."

My curiosity was aroused;'I was looking for a goodstory. Twitchell put me in touch with Dr. Henry Puharich,who was kind enough to show me the films at his homein Westchester County.

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Twitchell was right about the strong stomach. V/henyou see a paring knife go up under the eyelid, and prythe eyeball hall out of its socket, and scrape the socketmercilessly, it's a bit of a shock. I looked at the filmstwice, complete with hydroceles, tumors, cataracts, seba-ceous cysts, retinoblastomas, and all the rest. At times Ihad to look away. But their dramatic power was over-whelming.

I thought about the story for a long time. It was obviousthat, in spite of the considerable amount of medical re-cords available, I would have to go to Brazil and checkthe story in detail. Nothing could be secondhand in astory like this. It was a chronicle that would have to beveri-fi.ed in every aspect.

But there was another problem. If the story did checkout, and the book drew wide readership, what would it doto Arigo and his work? Would peopie who were desper-ately ill in the United States spend large sums of moneyto go to Brazil-only to find Ari_eo so ffooded and ex-hausted with additional patients that he could not handiethem all?

When I decided to go ahead with the story after Arigo'sdeath, I toid Puharich that I wouid be unable to dependon his word or the records of the medical group alone. Hequickly agreed with me. "You will want to check every-body in Brazil and here you can get your hands on," hesaid. "His enemies, as well as his friends. You mlrst nevertake the word of a single source. On any aspect of thestory."

I was still skeptical. But there would be very clear andimportant checkpoints for challenging the story when I gotto Brazil. Most important would be the judges, the at-torneys, and the court records of Arigo's long-drawn-outtrial proceedings. Here the harshest rpottigt t iossible hadbeen turned on Arigo. There would be both characterwitnesses and expert testimony to draw on, all of it underoath.

Another important checkpoint would be former presi-dent Juscelino Kubitschek. Here was a tou.qh realist. theman who had built Brasilia, the most outstinding capital

22O ARIGO: SunaeoHoFrHERusrvKNIrS

in the world. The problem was-would I be able to findhim, and to question him in depth? Others to check wouldbe the Brazilian doctors, as many as I could get hold of;government officials; the clergy; the local townspeople; thepolice officials; foreign service officers, who could supplyan outsider's view on this incredible legend; former pa-tients; Arigo's family; and any other leads that would bebound to spring up.

I was satisfied from my prelininary probing that thestory at least could either be confirmed or challenged tothe point where it would fall apart. I was intrigued enoughto take the risk, and so'were the publishers.

In the case of the Arigo research, there were oftenslightly csnflisting reports. I had to weigh these carefully,and choose those from the source that appeared the mostsubstantial. Whatever choice I made, it would not be madelightly.

uI had one other problem, but it turned out to be an asset

rather than a drawback. I had already contracted to writea book on the new, deadly Lassa virus that had suddenlysprung up from nowhere, deep in tle Cameroon High-lands of northern Nigeria. In contrast to Arigo, this wasa hard, tough, scientific, medical mystery story, with themost pragmatic and materialistic sort of documentation"inciuding everything from electron microscopy to the en-tire staff of virologists at Yale and the government's Cen-ter for Disease Control in Atlanta.

Some interesting.things happened in Nigeria which ac-cidentally had a great deal of bearing on my attitudetoward the Arigo research later. The tracking down ofthe Lassa virus story took me on a three-thousand-miletrip through Nigeria in a Land Rover, on what literallycould be called a small-game safari, the virus being justabout the smallest possible to pursue.

The trip took me to lonely medical-missionary stationsfrorr. near Lake Chad-in the verv center of the widest

ARIGO: SunoBoN on ins Rusry Kr.rFs ZZI

But not from fear alone. Some of the witch doctors'

The attitude of reasonable and intelligent men in Nige-ria created an atmosphere that opened- my mind sode_what for the trip to Brazil.

When I arrived in Rio, I was filled with the cold, cruelrealities of the Lassa virus, and the burned and dryfamine-stricken savannas of the sub-Sahara. The contrastwas a welcome change. The shift to the portugueseIanguage wasn't welcome, however. It made the reslarch

222 ARIGO: SuncroN oF THE Rustv KNrrB

twenty-year period. This was a good foundation to worlCfrom, because I had planned to go directly back to theStates if Arigo's life and work appeared even slightly am-biguous.

Kubitschek was most gracious when I called on him.He spoke in a deep, powerful, but labored English. Hetold me he was delighted that someone from the Stateswas doing a book on Arigo, because he was utterly con-vinced that there had never been anyone in the history ofmedicine like him. He freely offered any information Iwanted about his personal experiences with Arigo, andsaid that as a doctor and surgeon him5slf, he was dumb-founded by what Arigo could do.

It was a stirnulating and fruitful interview. When Iasked him about Brasilia, his eyes lit up and he laughed."Even my enemies admit that it has opened up Brazil to-day. I am proud of it." He chuckled over the story of howhe had been trapped into building the city by the spec-tator in the crowd at Congonhas. "I had forgotten com-pletely about that article in the Constitution that requiredthe capital to be built. I could not go back on my word.So I built it."

III

From that point on, confirmation of the Arigo phenom-enon came thick and fast. Jorge Rizzini's color films werestartling, vivid, and unchallengeable. Dr. Ary Lex and theauthor Her:rani Andrade welcomed me to their homes andprovided me with full information and documents on theirstudies of Arigo over two decades.

I had lunch at the Sdo Paulo Hilton with Dr. AntonioFerrario Filho, an energetic, salt-and-pepper-haired ra-diologist, who not only confirmed Arigors Prowess in greatdetail, but introduced me to the background of the Karde-cist intellectuals in Brazil.

It seemed there was no one who didn't have a friend orrelative who had been successfully treated by Arigo.These included George and Susan Brown from the Amer-

. ARIGO: SutcBoN oF THE Rusrv KNrFE 223

ican Embassy; Joe and Kathleen Caltagironi, an Amer-ican investment banker and his wife; Elaine Handler, fromTime magazine; Fred Perkins, the McGraw-Hill repre-sentative in Brazil. and his wife; Dr. Raimundo Veras, ofthe Centro de Rehabilitacao with branches in several Bra-zilian cities, and his son, Dr. Jos€ Carlos Veras; Dr. ClarkKuebler, a former professor at Northwestern University;and Guy Playfair, a British journalist. They and dozens ofothers went out of their way to provide leads and dig upin-formation that would have been impossible to find other-wise.

Particularly helpful was Mrs. Irene Granchi, of Rio,who supplied me with material from the exhaustive f,les onArigo that she had kept since the beginning of his career.She introduced me to publishers and editors who, in turn,had their own stories about the healer. What I had thoughtwould be a long, slow job of digging up scattered scraps ofinformation turned out to be a problem of handling a tidalwave of material that was becoming almost unmanageable.

I was met at the Belo Horizonte airport by Lauro Costaand his wife, and Maria Lucia, a volunteer worker in Dr.

\Veras' Belo rehabilitation clinic. Whenever I needed anyhelp in language or information, one or the other of themwas always on hand. It is impossible to describe the pre-dominating attitude of the Brazilian people and nof soundas if you are overpraising them to the skies. They will doanything for a visitor, to the point where it is almost un-believable. At first, it creates suspicion in you, until youfind that their hospitality is utterly genuine and inbred. Al-though there must be exceptions, I never ran into any.

IV

Lauro and his wife drove me to Congonhas do Campo,transiated interviews endlessly for three days and evenings,and never showed a sign of the exhaustion I felt. We werereceived so warmly by Arigo's widow, Arlete, and severalof his grown sons that I felt like a prodigal son cominghome. In addition to hospitality, they offered all Arigo's

224 ARIGO: SunceoN oF THE Rusry KNrne

clippings, diaries, and correspondence, and hours of anec-dotes they recalled regarding Arigo's life and work.

Arlete, her haid definitely in curlers, was a shy and diffi-dent woman, with a quiet, infectious charm. She was pre-paring to move to Belo to live near one of her sons whohad recently moved there. Tarcesio, who was a strapping,bronzed young man in his twenties, handsome as a moviestar, arranged for photocopying of any of the material Irequested.

He also drove me out to Arigo's grave, high on the hilloverlooking Congonhas in a small walled cemetery. It waslate in the afternoon, and an ominous mountain thunder-storm was gathering. The scene turned into a black andgray El Greco painting as Tarcesio, who obviously wor-shiped his father, placed several roses on the grave andtold me about the tragic accident on BR-135. On the wayback to the village, he stopped and pointed out the placewhere the accident had happened two years before, as ifthis ritual might ease the pain that showed clearly in hisface . '

Congonhas do Campo was as lovely as the tourist bro-chures said it was, although there were the poor and un-derprivileged that Arigo worked so hard in the serviceof. Even the awe-inspidng statuary of Aleijadinho couldqot erase that scar. At the little, open-front caf6 near theRua Marechal Floriano, I met Dr. Mauro Godoy, now themayor of the town, who claimed that neither he nor any-one else could explain how Arigo did what he did, but thatthere was no question in his mind that Arigo had literallybeen the eighth wonder of the world.

He said that the more medical knowledge a person had,the more Arigo was appreciated. In fact, anyone who hadnot perforned surgery would not be able to understandfully what it meant to cut into the deep organs of the bodywithout tying off blood vessels and without anesthesia. Asthe one medical doctor who had had a .chance to observeArigo intensively over a long period of time, he was ratherconvincing.

I wasn't quite prepared for what happened the next day.The front-page headlines broke all over Brazil to reveal

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that Arigo's youngest brother, Eli, had suddenly declaredthat he had been visited by the same sort of hallucinationsthat had plagued Arigo in his early days, and that bothArigo and Dr. Fritz had appeared to him in the middle ofthe night to urge him to carry on the work of his de-parted brother.

By noon, the town of Congonhas was beleaguered withreporters from the press, radio, and television, and nearlyall the members of the Arigo family went into hiding. Eliwas a successful law student at the universitv in Belo. andhad been highly regarcled ia his work. I was abie to cornerhim in the dining room of the Hotel Freitas, out of theway of the rest of the press that was looking for him. Helooked something iike a slighter version of Arigo, withbright, penetrating brown eyes, and seemed very disturbedand con-fused about the recent visitation, which he claimedhe did not seek or want.

Nearly all the rest of the family, including Arigo'sbrothers and his sons, were dead set against the idea. Theysimpiy would not discuss it. By the time I left Brazil, thesituation was still unresolved.

One benefit that came out of the incident was that itbrought Manchete photo-journalist Esko Murto to town,who was as widely informed as anyone about Arigo, hav-ing covered the healer in depth in several stories over tlelast nine or ten years of Arigo's life.

Esko, a native of Finiand, was an intense, vital, intelligent reporter. Like so many others, he had found that hisjournalistic coverage of Arigo had changed his entire out-look. After having photographed Arigo in action manytimes, he was extravagant in his wonderment at the man.But this was true of nearly everyone who volunteered in-formation. I was a little disturbed by this, because I wasconvinced no man could have such a clean record. Eventhe padre at the Church of Bom Jesus was mild in hisprotest against Arigo, simply saying that the Church didnot believe in what he had done. Most of the medical ad-versaries who had been against Arigo had softened.

About the only thing I could dig up were rumors thatArigo had taken kickbacks on the prescriptions sold. But

226 ARIGO: SuncBoN oF THE Rusrv KNrrB

I could not verify this, nor could anyone else. I could findno one who claimed he had suffered harm or injury fromhis treatments, nor anyone who even suggested that heused fakery of any sort. There had been psychics in thePhilippines who claimed to do surgery similar to Arigo's,but they had been easily exposed as fakes, and had refuseddirect observation in full daylight.

On returning to Belo Horizonte, I was convinced thatJudge Felippe Immssi would be able to give me a cold, flatappraisal of Arigo, including whatever drawbacks (beyondArigo's barnyard crudrties, which everybody admitted andlaughed off) the court proceedings had revealed. I wasable to arrange 2 dinner with the judge at the Hotel DelRay through a bright young Brazilian lawyer, Dr. PauloZaniri, who had taken his law degree on a Fulbright fel-lowship at the University of Michigan and who couldspeak fluent English. He was also responsible for gettingme Xerox copies of the haystack pile of court records ofArigo's trial.

I was more than surprised when Judge Immesi re-counted his own story, in full detail. He described his vol-untary observations of Arigo at work with revealing con-viction, told of his conferences with doctors who supportedArigo's position, as well as those against, and of his ago-nizing decision. He admitted that there was simply no wayto describe the impact of watching Arigo operate, and thatthe man had to be accepted as a paranonnal phenomenonthat could not be defined.

V

Ouro Pr0to, which translates as "black gold," is theWilliamsburg of Brazil. It was once the richest miningtown in the country, and its charming eighteenth-centuryarchitecture, so infinitely well preserved, reflects the intel-lectual and art center that it became. Some statuary worksof Aleijadinho are here, in the baroque churches thatguard the hillsides. From these heights, the dull-red tile

ARIGO: SunceoN oF THE Rusry KNrre 227

roofs create a tapestry like that of a French village on theRhone.

Along one of the steep cobblestone streets, I found therestaurant Calabouco, literally mganing "dungeon" or"jail." But its subterranean rooms, lit by bewitchingcandlelight, were a feast of colonial antiques that blendedinto a pastiche of charm. It was Esko Murto Who had toldme to introduce myself to'the owner, a White Russian,formerly Canadian and now a Brazilian citizen, GerryKanigan. She had been a professor of Slavic history inCanada, had taken her h4aster's degree at the Sorbonne,had come to visit BrazTl, fell in love with it, bought a farm,fostered an art center at Ouro Pr6to, and now managedher thriving bistro with the hand of a master.

Esko had told me I could learn much from her aboutthe whole ambience out of which Arigo grevr. He wasright. In her living room on the floor above the dungeontestaurant, she taiked unstintingiy about what had hap-pened tc her own outlook in the decade she had lived inBraz1l.

"The whole exotic side of Arigo and his work is go\ngto make you very confused," she said, "unless you under-Sgnd the basic belief under it all: that reincarnation is afact; that the law of life is eternal evolution from onecellular creature to the salaxies."

She had been a specialist in the dualistic heresies of theMiddle East, in which good and evil are viewed as equaladversaries. "It took a long time for me to understand thatthis clualistic conception was a heresy, in fact," she said."I am now convinced, from arduous study and long reflec-tion, tliat a human being is a creature who continues toevolve indefinitely, that he sheds lives as he sheds clothes,and that the essential part of him continues.

"Once you are able to believe that, the whole thing be-comes clear-especially in trying to understand BraztT.When a person dies, it is simply the shedding cf a fewatoms. We know from Lord Rutherford that atoms areprincipally empty space, an)'!vay. You see, the phenome-non of reincarnation was turned into a coherent philoso-phy by Allan Kardec. I spent eight years in Brazil before

228 ARIGO: SuncsoN oF rHE Rusrv KrlnB

I had any interest in this whatever. And although Brazilis mostly Catholic, you'll find that eighty percent of them,when they are really in a pinch, off they go to consult amedium of some sort."

She went on: "You can look at a medium in two ways.Either he or she is a super-multiple schizo, or you beginto accept possession. You have an absolutely tumultuousinterchange with what we call reality-what our eyes cansee-and with what the Kardecists regard as spirits. Ac-tually, this doctrine is superlatively Christian when youthink about it. The followers of Kardec regard God asan immensely powerful accountant or computer. Its mem-ory banks are infinite. You simply cannot get away withanything, so that whatever you do that is malicious orharmful in this life, you'll pay the bill sooner or later,today or tomorrow."

When I tried to steer her more on course. to relate thisto Arigo, she said: "We'll get to that. But to understandArigo, it's good to understand some of this. The differentlevels of spiritist belief in Brazrl are simply manifestationsof the same thing, depending on the scope and mind of theperson involved. People who are more intelligent, whodon't need the ritual of Umbanda and Quimbanda, becomeKardecists.

"Arigo was amazing because he cut right across theentire spectrum. He was a god of the most importantpeople in Brazill as well as the poor and needy. I knewpersonally the wile of the director of the largest Germanmining combine, with enormous interests in Brazil. Shewas miraculously cured, after being given up as hopelessby the best doctors in Europe and America. But Arigowas only one-perhaps the greatest, because he could beso clearly con-firmed-the only one of hundreds of othershere in Brazil who work in spiritist hospitals, and achieveat least part of the success Arigo reached."

I went with Gerry Kanigan to an Umbanda meetingthat night. It was far out in the country, in a little tile-roofed house that was totally dark as we approached itover bumpy ruts, far off the main road. We stumbled alonga twisting path, tapped on tle door, and entered.

ARIGO: SuncsoN oF THE Rusrv KNrrn 229

It was hard to see in the large room, in spite of thecandles flickering on a wide tabte at the opposite end.There must have been about fifty Brazilians, apparentlyfarmers and their wives, and children, sitting on woodenbenches along the plaster walls. In the center of the room,a tall, handsome black man in a white robe was pacingback and forth, alternately chanting and speaking in Por-tuguese, which I could not understand. On the table thatserved as an altar were figurines of many Catholic saints,but, surprisingly, mixed in among them were an Old BlackSambo type of thing, and what seemed to be some Africantotems. The men and women sat separateiy. On chairs inthe center of the room were two wcmen, dressed in white,their heads slumped on their chests, arms drooped to theirsides, obviously in a ttance.

After more chanting, the congregation spontaneouslyburst into a hymn in Portuguese, which sounded for allthe world like those sung in any Presbyterian or Methodistchurch in the States. The leader led the group, his eyestightiy closed, interspersing sermon-like phrases betweenthe stanzas. Then he moved to the altar and took down alantern sort of device, similar to the ilcense carrier usedin Catholic and Greek Orthodox services.

He lit a biack powdgry incense in the lantern, andswung it precariously around the room. There was noventilation, and the snnoke filled the room like a suddenfog rising on a mountain road. The leader moved along thebenches, waving the lantern and continuing to chant. Ashe approached, each person stood up and received a gen-erous bath of the smoke, turning around in a circle toreceive it. Following suit, I stood up too, turned a circle,fought back from coughing, and sat down again.

After the ritual was finished, the two women seated inthe center of the room came to life, although their eyeswere still closed, their heads still drooped. They began bysnapping their fingers, then shuddering, then chanting,beating their feet on the stone floor all the while. Womenand children came up to them, and as they filed by, thewomen ran their hands down the sides of their bodies, as

23O ARIGO: SuncgoNoFrHE RusryKNtnr

if to sweep off any evil spirits that might be lingering.When the women were finished, the men came up to theleader, now seated in the center in a third chair, and theritual was repeated.

On the way back to Ouro Pr6to, Gerry Kanigan said tome: "You see, this is what Arigo was not. He used noritual whatever, except for his preliminary prayers. Yet hewas very close to these people in his artless, unaffectedway. They have not shut themselves off from the springsof primeval origin. They are not encased in the cementovercoats we who are civilized surround ourselves with. Ithink we have much to learn from them."

VI

I met with Gerry Kanigan once more, this time in BeloHorizonte. She had urged me to go with her to see aspiritual prophet of wide renown, who lived on the out-skirts of the city, and whose fame had spread throughoutBraztT. He was blind, and he must have been well into hiseighties. When we arrived at his modest house, he wassitting on the porch, his large, veined hands folded on thetop of his cane.

His name was Henrique Franco. He claimed to be adistant relative of the Spanish dictator, but held no love forhim. Gerry had never met him before. She explained thatI was an American journalist interested in Brazil and ex-ploring the background surrounding Arigo.

He said there were dozens of Arigos in Brazil, but nonehad Arigo's capacity for demonstrating the truth of thespiritual world so graphically and so incontestably. Heinsisted that we all had spirit guides, but that we do notlisten and do not believe. Not all are good, however, andwe must feel them out with discernment. He said that thereason cioctors are amazed at some of the cures Arigobrought about is that they fail to recognize that there areno iihresses, there are only the ill.

"We come from mud on the way to God," he said,

ARIGO: SuncsoN oF TnE Rusry KNrrB 23remphasizing that we constantly evolve through many rein-carnations. "Our suffering is the lapidation of the spirit.Life after death is the same as it is on earth. You have thesame structure on a different molecular plane."

fn contrast to Henrique Franco, the attitude of H. V.Walter was of a di,fferent sort. I found him in his Britishconsulate office in Belo Horizonte, relaxed and jolly asusual. He had been in the foreign service in Brazil for overa quarter of a century, and seemed to thrive on it. In hislate sixties, he was dressed in a suit that must have comefrom one of &e better London tailors, yet he loosened histie and leaned back in his chair, and welcomed the chanceto talk about Arigo.

"He was absolutely the most wonderful phenomenon ofmod'ern times," Walter said. "You seg hardly anyonethought of going to him until every doctor he knew hadgiven him up. That's where Arigo's value came in, andwhy his cures were'so dramatic. I followed the case ofDr. Cruz's sister. An absolute miracle. I'm going to takeyou downstairs to his office, and let him tell you about itfirsthand. Both her father and her brother were fine doc-tors, very fine. Carlos Cruz himsell is a dentist, and agraduate of the University of Bran7. They knew their pro-fessions, and they knew that Arigo had done what theycould never do. I knew about Kubitschek's daughter, andmany other leading diplomats and statesmen who haveconfided in me about their own cures.

"I don't go in for any of the mystical stuft. I'm apragmatist, a realist. What happened in Arigo's case, hap-pened. It's not to be believed-but it has to be."

Walter took me downstairs to Dr. Cruz's office. It wasjarnmed with people waiting, and a woman was in thechair. As soon as the consul explained to him that I wasin Brazil from the States to do a story on Arigo, Dr. Cruzleft his patient open-mouthed in the chair and took us outto the corriior. He talked for fifteen minutes about Arigo,contrrming everything that Walter had said, and ciaimingthat the time wasted in the legal proceedings against Arigohad been an international tragedy. If Arigo had beenplaced in a university for scienti-fic study instead of being

232 ARIGO: SunceoxoFTHERusrvKNrre

prosecuted, Cruz said, we might have made major ad-vances in medicine and surgery.

To get a North American point of view, I dropped bythe United States Information Service office in Belo, firstto touch base with compatriots after such a long absence,and second to see what the attitude toward Arigo was inthese purlieus". There was the same confirmation, attestedto either directly or indirectly by many of the staff, bothAmerican and Brazilian.

Back in the States, I reviewed my research and fattenedit with additional furterviews with Belk, Puharich, Lau-rance, Cortes, and other members of the medical team ofthe Congonhas expedition. They were most helpful espe-cially because my mind was so full of what I had absorbedin Brazil that it needed better focus.

There were many new facets opening up in the studyof the paranormal that they were all interested in explor-ing. As for me, it was all I could do to catch up on Arigo.Puharich had discovered Uri Geller,-the Israeli phenome-non who pronised to go far beyond Arigo in the realm ofclairvoyance, psychokinesis, and other aspects of extra-sensory perception. I had all I could handle in trying toreconstruct the Arigo story. Whatever else there was be-yond that. would be too mind-blowing for a journalist tocontemplate.

Without ever having seen the man, Arigo became realto me from the meticulous research and in writing thesepages. I hope the reader will be able to sense some of thisin the book.

Afterword

by Henry K. Puharich, M.D.

I want to present a personal interpretation of what Arigomeans to me. To understand that, one has to have a feel-ing for what it must have been like to be "inside" ofArigo. Let's begin at an elementary level, namely, the feelof Arigo's hand while doing surgery. If you take an or-dinary butter knife and gently run the edge across yourskin, you get an idea how this knife feels in the hand thatmoves it. You will notice that th-ere is a gradation of pres-sure that can be applied, and that applying this presquregives you a feeling of frictional forces, resistance of thetissues to being cut, control of the movement of the knife,and so on. You could learn all these nuances of the feel ofa sharp knife by maneuvering it over other materials, suchas foods used in your kitchen. fn short, you would learnwhat every surgeon learns-the feel in one's hand of aknife against tissue.

Now I thoroughly knew this feel of a knife in my handwhen it was used in surgery-human or animal. One.daywhen I was standing beside Arigo in his Congonhas clinic,he asked a patient to stand against the wall-a man cjfforty-five years. Altimiro, Arigo's assistant, handed asharp, stainless-steel kitchen knife with a four-inch.bladeto Arigo. Arigo grabbed my right hand, thrust the knifeinto it, and closed his hand around my hand, so that theknife was doubly enclosed. Then he led my right hand to-ward the eyeball of the patient and ordered m.e to put theknife in the eye socket. I followed his orders and plungedthe knife between the eyeball and the upper lid. As I didso, my right hand went limp-I could not proceed. f

234 ARIGO: SunceoN oF THE Rusrv Kxrre

feared that I would slash the eyeball and do permanentdamage. Arigo again grabbed my right hand and said, "Goahead. Do it like a nran!"

This order gave me the courage I needed. My fearsvanished, as I plunged the knife deeply into the eye socket.Now I was in complete control of myself. As I moved theknife into the depths of the eye socket, I was amazed todiscover that the tip of the knife had none of the familiarfeel thal a knife has against tissue. To give you the com-plete feeling of what my hand felt, do the following exer-cise: Take a pair of magnets and find the like poles ofeach. Then hold one magnet in each hand and bring thelike poles toward each other. You will now experiencerepulsive forces between the two like magnetic poles, andthese will be felt in your hands. This is a totally difierentsensation from that which you experienced with the butterknife against your skin.

Now when I moved the knife into the tissues of the eye-ball and the eye socket, I felt a repulsive force betweenthe tissues and the knife. No matter how hard I pressedin, there was an equal and opposite force acting on myknife to prevent it from touching the tissues. This repulsiveforce was the secret of why no one felt pain when Arigodid his famous "eye checkup." My patient did not feel anypain from my knife manipulations, either.

It is obvious to me that Arigo could control that re-pulsive force, so that he could go ahead and cut tissue.And this, of course, should cause pain. But it is knownthat Arigo did not cause pain. I have observed, and sohave others, that Arigo could cut tissues without using thesharp edge of a knife. Often he would cut using the dulledge of the knife. He has been known, when in a hurry,to cut tissues without a knife. In these rare instances hewould use his hands and fingers to go through tissue. It ismy opinion that the actual cutting agency was the repul-sive force, and not the knife or his fingers.

I have no idea as to the nature of this repulsive force.But from electrical fi.eld measurements I carried out onArigo (EEG, EKG, and GSR), I do not believe that this

ARIGO: SunceoN oF THE Rusry Kxrnr 235repulsive force is in the electromagnetic spectrum. I be-lieve it is an unknown form of life inersv.

In September of L967 I went to Brali to continue mvstudies of Arigo. I had seen him many times since thailipoma operation ln 7963, and it had never occurred tome. to ask for help myself. One day as I was working withArigo, he suddenly turned to me and said, ..you haveotosclerosis." I replied, "f don't know about that but Ihave a chronic infection and drainage in my left ear froma cholesteatoma."

. Arigo said, "Yes, you have had that for a long time, butthe otosclerosis is new. Check it when you get home. i willgive you a prescription that will cure both of your prob-lems." In thirty seconds he had finished the fotlowingprescription:

Para Dr. Puharich

1o Tratamento

3 vidros de micotirvide a bula

3 vidros de hepadesicoltome 2 drageas apos cada refeicao

15 frascos de gabromicinaapl. no musculo 1 frasco de24 en24 dias

2" Tratamento

40 ampolas de olobintinapl. no muscolo 1 ampola de 2 en 2 dias

20 ampolas de Biruelue fi ae t.OOOapl. no rnuscola I ampola de 3en 3 dias

There is not much need to explain the items in the firsttreatment except to state that the first drug was an eardropsolution, the second was bile salts, and ihe third, gabro_

236 ARIGO: SuneBoN oF rHE Rusry KNrns

micina, was a primitive form of streptomycin that hadlargely been dropped from use by physicians.

When I returned to the United States, I had the audi-ologist in my own laboratory run a hearing test on mewith an audiometer. When the test was done, she volun-teered the diagnosis: "You have otosclerosis." I checkedthe audiograms; Arigo was right. I did have efqsslelssls-a hardening of the tissue over the small bones of the ear. Idecided then and there to start Arigo's prescription.

Because of my odd working hours, it was easiest forme to give myself the injections just before I went to bedeach night. I started the first treatment series on Octoberl, 1967. This meant that I gave myself the injection of thegabromicina once a day. By the fourteenth of October Ihad developed a reaction to this form of streptomycin. Ihad a swelling and tenderness in my hands and palms andin my feet and toes. Therefore I had to stop the injectionsand wait for the allergic reaction to disappear. By thetwenty-fifth of October I was in good enough shape tobegin the second treatment. I finished the second treatmenton January lI, 1.968.I was free of the ear-drainage prob-lem that had plagued me all my life, and have continuedto be so this day. Over the next six months my audiogransshowed that my otosclerosis had disappeared, and myhearing improved.

On January 1,I, 197I, I was working in my office atIntelectron Corporation in New York City when the tele-phone rang. I answered it, and a young woman whosenarne I don't now recall blurted out the foilowins: "I amlooking for Dr. Puharich,"

I repiied, "This is he speaking.""Dr. Puharich, I just got a telephone call from a TV

station in Rio de Janeiro, Brazi, asking for you to com-ment on the death of Arigo."

"Would you please repeat that? I don't think I clearlyheard what you said," I st';ttered.

She repeated her statement. I said, "Are you sure ofwhat you are saying-that Arigo is dead?"

She replied to the efiect that all she knew was what had

ARIGO: Suncpor.r oF THE Rusry KNrnS 237

been relayed to her. I told her'that I could not reply be-cause of my shocked state.

I sat back in my chair. It was not possible for Arigo,the greatest healer in the world, to be dead! He was tooyoug, too vital. Besides, he was the hope of tlousands,perhaps millions of people who looked to him as the wit-ness to higher powers. There must be a mistake, I thought.I had to check this out myself. I called friends in Brazil,who confirmed the dread news that Arigo had been killedin an auto accident.

I was personally despondent. The loss of Arigo to mewas as though the sun had gone out; the planet earth andhumanity had lost their great luminary. I had suddenlybecome impoverished. The shock was so deep to me thatI decided to go on a fourteen-day fast and reexamine allmy life, to weigh the meaning of Apigo, in life and indeath.

Near the end of my fast, I came to some strong per-sonal conclusions. The first was that I had failed bothArigo and humanity by not completing my studies ofArigo's healing work. I 1s',y lsalizsd that I should havedropped my other work in 1963 and concentrated all myefforts on him. I was sure there would never be anotherArigo in my lifetime. But if there was, I would not fail thenext time.

I looked back over the ten vears since I had moved toNew York from California. I had become a slave to mycompany, to my inventions, and to a complex, costly wayof life. While it was true that I had been issued some fiftypatents for my inventions which promised to help people

- with deafness, I could not really make any more creativecontributions in this area. Others would carry or, what Ihad started. But most of all I wanted to get into the full-time study of the mysterious powers of the human mind.One day I made my decision: I would resign from all myduties and jobs with foundations, companies, and labora-tories, and give myself two years to find a place in fuIl-:me psychical research.

When I informed my family and colleagues of my deci-sion, they groaned and tried to talk me out of it. By April

238 ARIGO: SuncBoN oF THE Rusry KNrre

l, l97l,I had freed myself of all my professional ties andbegun my new way of life. I had two goals: one was todevelop a theoretical base for my research; the other wasto find human beings with great talents who would co-operate as research subjects. With respect to the first, Ispent two months pulling together all my ideas into the"Theory of Protocommunication," which I was to presentat an International Parapsychology Conference in Francein August 1971.

I had made contact with the startling psychic capacitiesof al Israeli, Uri Geiler, by letter, and he agreed to seeme in Israel the week before the conference ind sive me

them to bend and split; he could repair complex deviceslike watches and computers; he could make o6jects disap-pear and reappear, and even translocate them over dii-tances of thousands of miles. The probe for the source and33t"i9 of these powers has been fully covered in my bookUri (Doubleday, 1974). There are also other detaili aboutAri-so given in that book, details which John Fuller wouldhave no -way of documenting firsthand as he has carefullydone in this one.

Today there is a Uri Geller. I am sure there will beother Arigos. It is up to mankind to cease and desist frompersecuting these messengers from the higher powers ofthe universe and to learn the truth from them.

November 2, 1973

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BreLrocRApHY 241

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BrsrrocRApHY 243

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