#1801: Tyler Johnson

The documentary

Apparently Timothy Johnson just passed away, but perhaps he was morally reprehensible more than crazy in any case. Perhaps that applies to Tyler Johnson as well? Tyler Johnson runs a ministry called the Dead Raising Team and claims to have brought 11 people back to life. He even claims to have persuaded the authorities in his state to issue him with an official photocard which lets him through police lines at car accident sites. He also plays a prominent role in the “documentary” Deadraisers, which follows enthusiasts as they trail round hospitals and mortuaries trying to bring people back to life with prayer. It is probably needless to say that they fail.

Nor is Johnson willing to produce much by way of, you know, what most people would consider evidence for his claim. What he does offer in terms of evidence for raising people from the dead has thus far at least failed to convince many beyond a tight group of ragingly lunatic fans (the case of the heart surgeon who brought a heart attack patient back from the dead with prayer apparently also involved a defibrillator, for instance). But of course the target religious extremists don’t apply ungodly standards of evidence in any case.

Diagnosis: If Johnson believes what he says he believes, he’s among the craziest loons we’ve thus far covered. We’re in the end not entirely convinced, though. In any case, his influence is negligible, but that people can walk around life with delusions like this is rather disturbing.