Touch

He was a charlatan, but an effective one.

He claimed to heal people with his touch and it was true that people felt a warmth or a tingling when he laid his hand upon them. But this effect was caused by the liniment that he applied before the treatments.

And yet… And yet people did seem to get better. Maybe it was a placebo effect?

He also told fortunes. And his predictions did come true. He had started by making generic statements about journeys and changes of circumstances and so it wasn’t perhaps surprising that people were able to convince themselves that he had fortold the events in their lives. But, as his reputation grew, he became careless and made increasingly specific predictions. All of which came true.

He didn’t know whether he was predicting events or dictating them.