Was the Office-Worker Psychic Real? A Craze from 30 Years Ago and the Advertising Agency Mystery

About 30 years ago, there was a minor craze for psychic powers in Japan.

At the center of it was an ordinary office worker who was said to possess the mysterious ability to cure illnesses and relieve pain.

In other words, he was a “healer.”

He appeared on television and in magazines, and people suffering from illnesses and pain reportedly flocked to him.

Then, at some point, I stopped hearing his name. Despite all the attention he had received, he disappeared before anyone quite noticed.

Recently, I heard an intriguing behind-the-scenes story about why that happened.

Why Did He Disappear?

According to the story, he had no medical license. Because accepting payment for healing could create problems under Japan’s Medical Practitioners’ Act, he apparently offered his services for free.

But as he became famous, troublesome people began to gather around him.

Some became angry when their illnesses were not cured. Others placed excessive expectations on him and grew dependent. He had started out of a desire to help people, but instead of receiving gratitude, he found himself facing more and more trouble.

Eventually, he became fed up and withdrew from public life.

However, he did not stop healing altogether. The story goes that he later limited his services to a select group of VIPs, such as politicians and senior executives at major corporations.

I see. It certainly sounds plausible.

He helped people for free, only to be criticized when they did not recover. If that kept happening, anyone would eventually have enough.

But as I listened, another possibility occurred to me.

What if he had never possessed psychic powers in the first place?

Perhaps he happened to attract attention, television producers seized on the story, and he became more famous than he had ever imagined.

But there was no way to prove his ability objectively. Expectations kept growing until he could no longer back out.

So he found a convenient excuse and left the public stage.

That version of events is entirely conceivable too.

The claim that “he now treats only VIPs” is also remarkably convenient.

Ordinary people cannot meet him. He does not appear on television. There is no opportunity to test his ability.

And yet the mystique remains: important people supposedly still need him.

It is a very well-constructed story.

He Worked at an Advertising Agency

There is one more detail that caught my attention.

He was not merely an office worker. He reportedly worked at an advertising agency.

When I heard that, I could not help laughing.

After all, advertising agencies are in the business of presenting products and people attractively and capturing public attention.

An ordinary office worker secretly possesses miraculous healing powers.

Television picks up the story, his reputation spreads, and people travel from all over the country to see him.

Then, at the height of his popularity, he suddenly disappears.

If this had been planned from the beginning, it would have been brilliant marketing.

His employment at an advertising agency is not evidence that he engineered the craze. Still, the explanation that he was “good at generating attention” feels far more realistic to me than the explanation that he was a “miracle healer.”

On top of that, the rumor that he continued treating only VIPs survived even after his retirement from public life.

Did he truly have some kind of ability? Was his success accidental? Or did someone deliberately manufacture the craze?

There is no way to find out now.

But one thing is certain.

If he managed to convince people that he had psychic powers, that was an impressive ability in itself.

And he worked at an advertising agency.

I do not know whether he was a psychic, but he may have been one hell of an ad man.