Awesome or Off-Putting is a weekly delve into cryptozoology, ufology, aliens, medical marvels, scientific wonders, secret societies, government conspiracies, cults, ghosts, EVPs, myths, ancient artifacts, religion, strange facts or just the plain unexplainable.
This week: Religion/The Unexplainable
If you're like us, then for the past two decades or so you've been publicly mourning the apparently deceased music career of Chris de Burgh. It appears that we shouldn't though, because with one swift touch he can bring it back from the dead Lazarus-style. He sang the song The Lady In Red back in the day, and now he's a faith healer with the formerly infirm ready to testify as to his remedial touch.
No, for real.
If you were super-sick & someone told you they were a faith healer, would you let them take a crack at fixing you? Let's say, for instance, that a person approached you and said:
"I have found myself able to cure people with my hands. I met someone in the West Indies who was not able to walk. I put my hands on him and he was able to get up."
Well would that convince you? What if the person making the claim said that if you'd order his services now he'd throw in an amazing carrot peeler and a kitchen knife worth more than $10 for free? Would that sweeten the deal? Probably not, and that's why nobody's made that offer.
Chris de Burgh though, the guy who sang The Lady In Red, well he considers himself a bit of a faith healer now. He touches the sick and the cripple and he heals them. According to him that is. And according to a few people who claim to have been somewhat healed by him. Markus Babbel is a football/soccer player with a touch of paralysis. de Burgh visited him and ran his hands over the athlete's legs. According to BBC News Babbel said he:
"….could move his toes more easily after de Burgh's visit."
Whatever that means. More frequent toe wiggles hardly equal a full healing. Does it sound like de Burgh's fame and glory have gone to his head a bit? Would it surprise you to know he's not the only pop star to believe he has these powers? Elvis thought it too. At least one woman claims the big E laid his hands on her and healed her from a diet pill addiction. As Elvis fansite Elvislightedcandle.org describes it:
"He (Elvis) firmly believed he had the powers of psychic healing by the laying on of hands."
Whether or not Elvis and Chris de Burgh actually had/have these powers is pretty much up to the sick to decide. And the fat. Yeah, we're hoping to see if de Burgh can help us work around that pricey gastric bypass surgery. We are ready, and we believe.
Now make us thin.
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Internet Pedant says
If De Burgh scuttled towards me with his grope-y outstretched phalanges, I’d make bloody sure I scarpered quick-sharpish too, legs or no legs.