Alleged Miracle captured in Brazil?

[SharpEye]

Source: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4amO5eLdyS8&t=111s&pp=2AFvkAIB

This is a more obscure video, but I thought it was interesting. A pastor attempts to heal a girl who was born with one leg shorter than the other. The leg appears to grow as the pastor "pulls" it out. The girl then walks with here two legs of the same height. I'm confused on how the other leg managed to stretch out, as it seems the knee moves with the leg and there was no sign of bending of the shortened leg before, as well as that I can't see any movement of the hip. What do you guys make of this?

 

[Ann K]

Source: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4amO5eLdyS8&t=111s&pp=2AFvkAIB

This is a more obscure video, but I thought it was interesting. A pastor attempts to heal a girl who was born with one leg shorter than the other. The leg appears to grow as the pastor "pulls" it out. The girl then walks with here two legs of the same height. I'm confused on how the other leg managed to stretch out, as it seems the knee moves with the leg and there was no sign of bending of the shortened leg before, as well as that I can't see any movement of the hip. What do you guys make of this?

When someone says "miracle", I see scam. We have no "before" pictures of the girl standing or walking. We have only a statement that she was born with one leg shorter, with no verification. We see no reaction from the child. We are looking at her at an oblique angle, and cannot really tell if she is sitting at a strange lopsided angle. If something like this is to be believed, it is going to take a lot more evidence than a video.

 

[NorCal Dave]

Nothing definitive here, as there are a number of techniques used by big audience preachers, but there is this. Note that prior to her leg growing, the edge of her skirt on her left leg aligns with the grey part of the seat or table or whatever it is:

As her leg "grows" the line of the skirt moves forward:

I'm not sure what's going on, could just be that the girl starts off sitting in a way that cocks her hips making her left leg look a little shorter.

 

[SharpEye]

When someone says "miracle", I see scam. We have no "before" pictures of the girl standing or walking. We have only a statement that she was born with one leg shorter, with no verification. We see no reaction from the child. We are looking at her at an oblique angle, and cannot really tell if she is sitting at a strange lopsided angle. If something like this is to be believed, it is going to take a lot more evidence than a video.

Nothing definitive here, as there are a number of techniques used by big audience preachers, but there is this. Note that prior to her leg growing, the edge of her skirt on her left leg aligns with the grey part of the seat or table or whatever it is:

View attachment 75335

As her leg "grows" the line of the skirt moves forward:

View attachment 75336

I'm not sure what's going on, could just be that the girl starts off sitting in a way that cocks her hips making her left leg look a little shorter.

It just seems like her torso didn't twist as much as it would if she was just pushing her leg out, which confuses me a bit.

 

[Jack Mallory]

I was wondering if the YouTube comments would shed any light.
Oh, boy. So many believers who seem incapable of asking themselves the most obvious question in the world: So this means you will now be able to empty all the children's hospitals in Brazil, right? RIGHT?!?!?

To the rare skeptic, there was one comment that I loved the most: "How is it fake?"
LOL. That's not the way this works. The only applicable question is: How TF would this be real? The young girl doesn't even express as much as an ounce of surprise, relief, joy or even curiosity over her leg suddenly increasing in length—bones, muscle, arteries, skin...voila! No biggie.

But I am genuinely interested to know the secret to this sleight of hand, for one very specific reason.
When I was 13 or 14 years old, my best friend at the time told me of witnessing the same exact thing at some religious gathering that his parents had brought him to. They were deep into the 700 Club of Jim and Tammy Bakker and everything that went along with that. I never believed the "miracle leg" story at the time, but I also never forgot about it. I think my friend believed it, but was probably too young to make much sense of what he witnessed, so it wasn't exactly a life-altering experience for him.

It's obviously a decades-old tried and true method of convincing some (and raising money!), and yet I've never once heard of anyone walking into a legitimate hospital, anywhere or anytime, and pulling off (no pun intended) such a maneuver on a verified patient. I'm pretty sure that would make the news.

So now I'll see if I can dig up a proper magician's explanation...

 

[jackfrostvc]

Her tan lines on her upper legs don't match up in the pic with her legs being unequally long. But then they are lined up when her legs are shown being equal length. Says everything to me

 

[Jack Mallory]

I'm confused on how the other leg managed to stretch out, as it seems the knee moves with the leg and there was no sign of bending of the shortened leg before, as well as that I can't see any movement of the hip.

It is a curious illusion and it does seem, at first glance, as though the leg is lengthening from the middle. But I believe there are a couple of factors unintentionally playing into that.

There appears to be some slight shadowing occurring from whoever is holding the camera (or someone standing next to them), and that creates some subtle light-to-dark shifting around the girls knee area during the "growth" spurt. Combine that with the low-res video and it's easy to think that the leg is actually "stretching" at its mid-point.

Of the few debunk videos I saw on this type of faith-healing scam, they almost exclusively relied upon the person wearing full-length pants in combination with some manipulation of the person's shoes. But that's not the case here where the girl is wearing a very short skirt and sandals. And most of them don't have the leg "growing" quite as much as what we see in this particular video either. So as far as trickery is concerned, they've definitely upped their game a notch in this case, and are allowing the techniques to be more exposed. Although with better lighting and higher quality video, I seriously doubt the lengthening would appear to be happening in the middle of her leg as it does here. Again, I think they just lucked out with that in terms of how it looks on YouTube years after the fact. Most of the audience at the live event wouldn't have any idea exactly where the lengthening occurred, nor would they likely care one way or the other.

If you pay close attention to the hem line of her skirt @1:40, you'll notice that more of skin is exposed in her upper thigh area as the leg "grows" longer, but I also agree that it's very difficult to make out any deliberate or intentional shifting of the hips, or the favoring of one side over the other. She does appear to get pulled forward on her seat ever so slightly during the maneuver, but not necessarily on just one side. All I can say is that if she's in on it, she is one cool customer. Too cool, perhaps, but cool nonetheless.

 

[Mauro]

The leg-lengthening trick is on of the oldest faith healing scams and has been used by countless self-proclaimed healers around the world from A. A. Allen to Todd White to W. V. Grant. We'll explore 4 different ways the leg scam is pulled and showcase various faith healers in the act.

 

[Mendel]

From the humor thread:
https://www.metabunk.org/threads/debunking-humor.132/post-324988

 

[Ravi]

She just sits on the chair at a angle, making the knees shift. When the [man] pulls her leg(s), she will shift straight again. That's all there is to it.

 

[Matt33]

In this video the magician lengthen legs like on the assembly line.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kc8cl_GA6bc
After being "healed" they jog around in the arena. One could laugh about that crap, but those scam artists fill stadiums and earn millions. The late James Randi once brought one sucker down while worldwide the next 100 arose. On the other hand, the human being seems to have a great craving for miracles and the scammers give them what they want.

 

[FatPhil]

The kid seems to not know what has happened. I suspect that someone growing up with a deformity may have more of a reaction to the curing of that deformity. She does seem to be sitting very uncomfortably before the "miracle" happens too, almost as if that wouldn't be her natural sitting position.

Has the god that performed this miracle also helped regenerate any lost limbs - that seems like the logical next step.

 

[enilc]

Doesn't seem to have any awkwardness or difficulty, after 6-7 years living with different length legs and suddenly same length.
It's just disappointing that the same parlor tricks used in the 18-19th centuries are still being used to hustle people.

 

[FatPhil]

It seems the internet archive has James Randi's /The Faith Healers/ for download. That names and shames several perpetrators of this scam, and explains how it's usually done (pulling off then pushing back on the footwear). It also documents Randi's attempts to get access to any medical confirmation of these cases, which are always met with the same response - nothing, not even an acknowledgement of the inquiry.
PDF/etc. @ https://archive.org/details/TheFaithHealersJamesRandi