The Power of Positive Faking

As ever with these stories, more gets uncovered as time goes on.

14-year-old nearly died in exorcism, Dad saw exorcism intensify before daughter's death, and Water forced into makutu victim. (You may not immediately see the difference in these articles as they all use exactly the same photo.) The "ritual" involves putting the cursed person into water, and in this case more water than "usual" had been used. But, at the time, people thought that was fine. Only now, in hindsight, are people going "hang on"...

But when people are caught up in group events (cf. revivals and confidence building courses), thinking isn't generally encouraged. Just listen to the person in charge, and do what they say. (Which is a fine evolutionary tactic when someone's saying "come this way to avoid the tigers now", but...)

One piece of information to come to light: the tohunga (healers) involved in the ceremony might have been frauds! Really? Did they claim to have supernatural abilities? Perhaps they mentioned having done ceremonies before? Did they have a vast array of credentials on show?

HOW CAN YOU TELL??? I've talked before about proving a negative, and people claiming supernatural abilities (which is what healing or priestly powers amount to) are smack in the middle of that territory. Perhaps their power isn't working "right now", or "just ask that guy over there, he brought into it."

Our culture has allowed frauds to flourish, and it'll take more than one "makutu cleansing" gone wrong to get people's attention to change it.

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