History Main / FakeFaithHealer

* ''VideoGame/HoneyIJoinedACult'' is a nefarious {{Cult}} simulator. While you can eventually get into occult matters, the day-to-day operation of the cult is a ScamReligion that fleeces money and influence out of gullible followers via "therapy". You start with sermons in your temple and mediation but eventually end up "treating" people with SpookySeance, MindControlDevice, "[[ElectroconvulsiveTherapyIsTorture energy spas]]", and...burying people in a pool of ''maggots''.

* One episode of ''Series/FridayThe13thTheSeries'' has a fake faith healer who finds a magical glove that temporarily gives him ''real'' healing powers. Unfortunately, it's one of the artifacts the team has to reclaim, and much like the other artifacts in the series, it carries an ''ugly'' price -- the glove works by transferring the ailment upon its user, which the user can then transfer upon someone else.

* One episode of ''Series/FridayThe13thTheSeries'' has a fake faith healer who finds a magical glove that temporarily gives him ''real'' healing powers. Unfortunately, it's one of the artifacts the team has to reclaim, and much like the other artifacts in the series, it carries an ''ugly'' price.

Usually found traveling and setting up a tent or table to pitch to people, but the most successful will have their own churches and will visit large arenas.

On the other hand, the PlaceboEffect suggests that phony healing treatments can sometimes actually improve people's health, since YourMindMakesItReal--to an extent.

Usually found traveling in a tent, but the most successful will have their own churches and will visit large arenas.

* In ''Wiki/SCPFoundation'', "[[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-1521 SCP-1521]] - The Most Holy Bank of His Holiness Pope Leo the Tenth, Saint in Waiting" some AmbiguouslyHuman entities work in a Roman-style building that's only visible to certain people. They use things like faith, prayers, and a bath in holy water to help people. [[spoiler: It's all a scam and the treatments don't work.]]

Compare SnakeOilSalesman, who offers similar fake healing, but without the religious overtones. If the religious overtones are kicked up a notch, on the other hand, it may result in a FalseProphet or even a ScamReligion.

* ''Film/LeapOfFaith'' is about a cynical fake faith healer who starts to develop sympathy for the people of a small town when he gets stuck there. Creator/SteveMartin is famous for basing his performance of protagonist Jonas Nightengale on debunked faith healer Peter Popoff, as well as controversial Creator/{{TBN}} faith healer Creator/BennyHinn.

* ''Series/TheOuterLimits1995'': In "Revival", Ezra Burnham travels the US with his revival preaching the word of Main/{{God}} to a different congregation each week. He claims to be able to sense people's pain and [[HealingHands heal them]] through the power of God's love. In reality, his daughter Sarah takes down the information of various people in the congregation and feeds it to him through an earpiece. Ezra then calls the relevant people up on stage and puts on a big song and dance about healing them. If they ever do feel better afterwards, it has to do with the power of suggestion rather than any supernatural powers on Ezra's part. Luke, who later joins Ezra's revival, can heal people but that is because he is an alien as opposed to him possessing any God-given powers.

* ''Film/LeapOfFaith'' is about a cynical fake faith healer who starts to develop sympathy for the people of a small town when he gets stuck there. Creator/SteveMartin is famous for basing his performance of protagonist Jonas Nightengale on faith healer Peter Popoff, as well as controversial Creator/{{TBN}} faith healer Creator/BennyHinn.

* ''Film/LeapOfFaith'' is about a cynical fake faith healer who starts to develop sympathy for the people of a small town when he gets stuck there. Creator/SteveMartin is famous for basing his performance of protagonist Jonas Nightengale on faith healer Peter Popoff, as well as on controversial Creator/{{TBN}} faith healer Creator/BennyHinn.

On the other hand, the PlaceboEffect suggests that phony healing treatments can sometimes actually improve people's health, since YourMindMakesItReal-- to an extent.

* ''Film/LeapOfFaith'' is about a cynical fake faith healer who starts to develop sympathy for the people of a small town when he gets stuck there. Creator/SteveMartin is famous for basing his performance of protagonist Jonas Nightengale on faith healer Peter Popoff, as well as controversial TBN faith healer Creator/BennyHinn.

* ''Film/LeapOfFaith'' is about a cynical fake faith healer who starts to develop sympathy for the people of a small town when he gets stuck there.

[[folder:Film -- Live action]]

The Fake Faith Healer, who combines elements of the SinisterMinister and the PhonyPsychic, is one of the vilest types of ConMan. Most con artists [[ViolinScam target the greedy]], but this fellow targets the hopeless and desperate. The Fake Faith Healer will usually claim to heal through [[ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve the power of faith]] and [[HealingHands laying on hands]]. The vilest will offer PsychicSurgery services. At best, they'll take your money. At worst, they'll persuade you to forego conventional treatment--and die.

The Fake Faith Healer, who combines elements of the SinisterMinister and the PhonyPsychic, is one of the vilest types of ConMan. Most con artists [[ViolinScam target the greedy]], but this fellow targets the hopeless and desperate.

The Fake Faith Healer will usually claim to heal through [[ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve the power of faith]] and [[HealingHands laying on hands]]. The vilest will offer PsychicSurgery services. At best, they'll take your money. At worst, they'll persuade you to forego conventional treatment--and die.

The Fake Faith Healer will usually claim to heal through [[ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve the power of faith]] and [[HealingHands laying on hands]]. The vilest will offer PsychicSurgery services. At best, they'll take your money. At worst, they'll persuade you to forgo conventional treatment--and die.

Note that this still counts as a con even if the person believes in their own powers. Fooling yourself doesn't mean that you're not fooling others.

* In ''Film/RedLights'', a fake faith healer named Leonardo is debunked in a scene which closely follows the real-life debunking of faith healer Peter Popoff by stage magician and skeptic James Randi.

* In ''Literature/SunglassesAfterDark'', the primary antagonist, Catherine Wheele, is a rich and powerful evangelist and faith healer. She is [[NotSoPhonyPsychic actually an extremely powerful psychic]] with MindControl powers, but she doesn't have a ''bit'' of healing power -- that part is pure con.

* ''Series/LittleHouseOnThePrairie'', episode "[[Recap/LittleHouseOnThePrairieS6E10TheFaithHealer The Faith Healer]]": A faith healer named Reverend Danforth comes to town, and everyone is very impressed by his claims and his apparent faith until a young boy that he supposedly had healed ends up dying. Even with that, Danforth still maintains his grip on Hero Township until late in the episode, when Charles -- along with several prominent Walnut Grove residents (Dr. Baker, Rev. Alden and Mercantile owners Nels and Harriet Oleson) -- successfully hatch a plan to expose Danforth as a fraud at another of his tent revivals.

* This is essentially the position taken by ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedOdyssey'' with regards to the prayer-based medical treatments of Ancient Greece, and is contrasted with the historical figure of Hippokrates, who is considered the Father of Medicine. It's not entirely malicious, though: the game is set during the Peloponnesian War, before medical science as we know it really existed, and many healers in the world of the game are well-meaning but simply don't know any better. Naturally, it turns out that the Cult of Kosmos (read: the Ancient Greek Templars) are behind the parts of it that really ''are'' malicious, including efforts to stymie Hippokrates' research and teaching under the pretense of impiety.

* ''VideoGame/HoneyIJoinedACult'' is a nefarious {{Cult}} simulator. While you can eventually get into occult matters, the day to day operation of the cult is a ScamReligion that fleeces money and influence out of gullible followers via "therapy". You start with sermons in your temple and mediation but eventually end up "treating" people with SpookySeance, MindControlDevice, "[[ElectroconvulsiveTherapyIsTorture energy spas]]", and . . . burying people in a pool of ''maggots''.

* In ''Wiki/SCPFoundation'', "[[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-1521 SCP-1521]] - The Most Holy Bank of His Holiness Pope Leo the Tenth, Saint in Waiting" some AmbiguouslyHuman entities work in a Roman-style building that's only visible to certain people. They use things like faith, prayers and a bath in holy water to help people. [[spoiler: It's all a scam and the treatments don't work.]]

Compare SnakeOilSalesman, who offers similar fake healing, but without the religious overtones. If the religious overtones are kicked up a notch, on the other hand, it may result in a ScamReligion.

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[[folder:Web Original]]
* In ''Wiki/SCPFoundation'', "[[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-1521 SCP-1521]] - The Most Holy Bank of His Holiness Pope Leo the Tenth, Saint in Waiting" some AmbiguouslyHuman entities work in a Roman-style building that's only visible to certain people. They use things like faith, prayers and a bath in holy water to help people. [[spoiler: It's all a scam and the treatments don't work.]]

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* The film adaptation of ''Literature/TheDayOfTheLocust'' adds a scene where Faye and Homer take Harry to a scammer/fake faith healer called Big Sister, who is purely in it for the money.

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* ''Literature/{{Patternist}}'': One of the titular {{Psychic|Powers}}s is a variant -- the faith is fake but the healing isn't. She's a [[VampiricDraining psychic vampire]] who draws in crowds with a charismatic preacher act, harvests their energy in a way that satiates her without harming anyone individually, and uses the excess to [[HealingHands work genuine miracles of healing]].
* In the ''Literature/DearAmerica'' book ''Color Me Dark'', the protagonist's parents take her sister Erma Jean to a faith healer after Erma Jean becomes mute following her uncle's death. When Erma Jean is still unable to speak after the "treatment" is complete, the healer claims it didn't work because Erma Jean didn't have enough faith, at which point their father calls the healer a charlatan and marches Erma Jean out of there.

[[AC:Live-Action TV]]
* ''Series/LittleHouseOnThePrairie'', episode "[[Recap/LittleHouseOnThePrairieS6E10TheFaithHealer The Faith Healer]]": A faith healer named Reverend Danforth comes to town, and everyone is very impressed by his claims and his apparent faith until a young boy that he supposedly had healed ends up dying. Even with that, Danforth still maintains his grip on Hero Township until late in the episode, when Charles -- along with several prominent Walnut Grove residents (Dr. Baker, Rev. Alden and Mercantile owners Nels and Harriet Oleson) -- successfully hatch a plan to expose Danforth as a fraud at another of his tent revivals.
* In one episode of ''Series/HoudiniAndDoyle'', the pair investigate a faith healer, and eventually establish that the faith was real, but the healing was not.

* The ''Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit'' episode "Careless" has the rare sympathetic version. Not only does he believe in his own powers, but he also believes he's responsible for the death of a child--and he's wrong about that too.
* One episode of ''Series/LawAndOrderCriminalIntent'' involved Logan and Barack investigating a young woman who appeared to be able to cure people with voodoo. They managed to prove that she was a fraud, though not before she nearly convinced Logan that she'd put a curse on him.

* ''Series/MyNameIsEarl'' featured a rather young one after Earl fell into a coma. It turns out that when Earl was bad, he and Joy had gone to him for an injured leg and a facial blemish. After the kid cures those, Earl and Joy pull off a robbery that would have been impossible if they hadn't been cured, leading the boy to quit faith healing. Randy convinces him to come out of retirement to cure Earl's coma. [[spoiler: It's then revealed that the boy doesn't actually have any healing powers and Earl and Joy were hired by his father to pose as clients.]]

* ''Series/{{Carnivale}}'' has the titular carnival setting up one of these to turn a profit in a town where their usual acts would get them thrown out, having one of them act as a minister and "heal" another member of the carnival hiding in the crowd. Ironically enough the guy they pick for the minister actually does have HealingHands abilities, they just require him to [[EquivalentExchange drain the life from something nearby]]. [[spoiler:In the series finale, they set it up again and actually heal people in order to drain life from the villain nearby.]]
* One of these is featured on ''Series/OneThousandWaysToDie''. Before one "show", he grabs an ungrounded mic while standing in water and gets electrocuted.

* ''Series/PerryMason2020'': Sister Alice is accused of this by dissident former church members, as one wheelchair-using man whom she "healed" was only temporarily recovered before relapsing (depending on what his condition is, it might have been a placebo effect, which is known to happen from such "healings"-it's not said he's paralyzed).

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[[AC:Web Original]]

[[AC:Western Animation]]

* One episode of ''Series/LawAndOrderCriminalIntent'' involved Logan and Barack investigating a young woman who appeared to be able to cure people with voodoo. They managed to prove that she was a fraud, though not before she nearly convinced Logan that she'd put a curse on him.