Originally posted by banjoechef
theres also a monestary in itali where the main pillar cries and bleeds and it's highly haunted cuz the monks went nuts n started killing ppl that wer in the village below, luchidio i think it's called and i know that it's spelled wrong lol, just syaing that to state that wierd stuff like taht doesn't just happen to christian things, i think it's more of spiritual manifestation than jesus crying cuz the world's gone #ty, lol he would'a done that quite some time ago i'm sure

Unsuspecting viewers were treated to a litany of provocative claims-bleeding statues, messages from Jesus, stigmata-that were "investigated" by Australian journalist Michael Willesee. Actually, although representing himself as a skeptic, Willesee betrayed an agenda to promote such alleged phenomena as authentic. Going beyond mere mystery mongering, he employed science in only a very limited way, repeatedly avoiding skeptical experts in the specific fields (e.g. people knowledgeable of "weeping" statues) and often bypassing the essential tests necessary to detect fraud. For instance, no doctor examined a stigmatist's wounds and no attempt was made to keep her from inflicting them surreptitiously, but the blood was afterward tested and proved to be her blood - as expected.

Similarly, no scientific protocol was followed in ruling out trickery with a "weeping" and "bleeding" bust of Jesus; however, a dubious CAT scan was afterward employed "to test for the possibility of trickery or fraud," and the blood was forensically examined. When it was found to be female blood, Willesee suggested that that might be due to Jesus' having had only a mother and "no father."

Such stubborness, or perhaps sheer ineptitude - or worse - kept the program from presenting evidence that was contrary to the claims being made. For example, the stigmatist, Katya Rivas from Bolivia, was never shown actually producing a wound, but rather was presented in incremental shots after each appeared: first the supposed crown-of-thorn marks on the forehead, then those of the hands and feet. Her bed covers provided ample opportunity for concealment. Moreover, the wounds on her hands and feet were comprised of multiple slash marks, not single punctures, while the location of the wound on the top of her left foot was far from that on the bottom, suggesting they were indeed made separately.

Many phenomena went totally unexamined, or the examination was not reported, including the appearance of an image of the Virgin on a concrete floor (looking like the work of an unskilled artist) and the multicolored "glitter" that manifested itself on a print of the Image of Guadalupe (a bogus but widely revered "miracle" picture).