Sabian

In 1986, magician James Randi caught faith healer Peter Popoff with a radio in his ear. His wife was reading him the names and illnesses he said came from God. His ministry had been taking in $550,000 a month, and a year later he was bankrupt. Years later he returned to TV with "miracle spring water," and in 2005 his ministry took in over $23 million. In the video below, Randi shows how his radio scanner caught the voice in Popoff's ear. "Hello, Petey, can you hear me?" At his "miracle crusades," Popoff named strangers and their illnesses, saying God told him. "God is touching that thyroid condition right now," he told one woman. Randi suspected a trick, and his scanner picked up "a decidedly worldly source." It was Popoff's wife, Elizabeth, reading him prayer cards the audience filled out before the show. Randi played the tapes on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. Popoff first called them a fake, then admitted the earpiece and said "almost everybody" knew. That fall he went off the air, and in 1987 he went bankrupt owing 790 creditors. His lawyer blamed "poor business judgment" more than the exposure. By the 2000s he was back on late-night TV, mailing free "miracle spring water" and asking for donations. His shows still aired in 2025, when a UK regulator fined a channel £150,000 for broadcasting them. Why do people still send Popoff money: they never saw Randi's tapes, or they trust faith more than proof?