The Power of Belief was an

ABC News ABC News is the news division of the American broadcast network ABC. Its flagship program is the daily evening newscast ''ABC World News Tonight, ABC World News Tonight with David Muir''; other programs include Breakfast television, morning ...

Special aired on October 6, 1998, hosted by John Stossel. Stossel examines popular claims of therapeutic touch,

psychic detective A psychic detective is a person who investigates crimes by using purported paranormal psychic abilities. Examples have included postcognition (the paranormal perception of the past), Psychometry (paranormal), psychometry (information psychicall ...

faith healing Faith healing is the practice of prayer and gestures (such as laying on of hands) that are believed by some to elicit divine intervention in spiritual and physical healing, especially the Christian practice. Believers assert that the healing ...

voodoo Voodoo may refer to: Religions * African or West African Vodun, practiced by Gbe-speaking ethnic groups * African diaspora religions, a list of related religions sometimes called Vodou/Voodoo ** Candomblé Jejé, also known as Brazilian Vodu ...

curses, channelling, and the media's lack of inquiry into

pseudoscience Pseudoscience consists of statements, beliefs, or practices that claim to be both scientific and factual but are incompatible with the scientific method. Pseudoscience is often characterized by contradictory, exaggerated or falsifiability, unfa ...

. The show included appearances from famous skeptics Michael Shermer,

James Randi James Randi (born Randall James Hamilton Zwinge; August 7, 1928 – October 20, 2020) was a Canadian-American stage magician, author and scientific skeptic who extensively challenged paranormal and pseudoscientific claims. Rodrigues 2010p. ...

, and David Willey.

New Age New Age is a range of spiritual or religious practices and beliefs which rapidly grew in Western society during the early 1970s. Its highly eclectic and unsystematic structure makes a precise definition difficult. Although many scholars conside ...

author

JZ Knight Judy Zebra "J. Z." Knight (born Judith Darlene Hampton; March 16, 1946) is an American spiritual teacher and author known for her purported channelling of a spiritual entity named Ramtha. Critics consider her to be a cult leader. Knight has ap ...

, who claimed to channel a spiritual entity named "Ramtha", also appeared on the program, along with Susan Miller, John Monti, Ava Kay Jones, and Elmer Glover. The episode contains video of the "world's longest firewalk" which included Stossel and Willey taking part. Robert Todd Carroll called it "a very good survey of popular culture's fascination" with the paranormal.

wrote "ABC-TV, in my opinion, did a really excellent job" with the show.

References

External links

The Power of Belief (Video clip)
from

The Power of Belief
from

Center for Inquiry The Center for Inquiry (CFI) is a US nonprofit organization that works to mitigate belief in pseudoscience and the paranormal, as well as to fight the influence of religion in government. History The Center for Inquiry was established in 199 ...

The Power of Belief
from ABC News listing

from

(

archive.org The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...

)
The Power of Belief (Unofficial transcript)

The Teaching of Courses in the Science and Pseudoscience of Psychology: Useful Resources
{{DEFAULTSORT:Power of Belief ABC News American Broadcasting Company original programming Scientific skepticism mass media 1990s American television specials 1998 American television series debuts 1998 American television series endings 1998 television specials