Speaker 1: Oriental fascination. At this point, I wish to call your
attention to a feature of the subject that has received
but scant attention at the hands of Western writers. I
allude to the wonderful manifestations of mental fascination displayed by
some of the magicians of the Orient, particularly of India
and Persia. These feats are being performed to day in
those lands and are equal to any of the wonderful
instances related of the ancient Persian and Egyptian magicians mental
fascination in the East. Without going in to an extended
consideration of the subject in question, I will mention a
few of the recorded instances of mental fascination among the
Oriental people, in order to give you an idea of
the degree of power possible to an adept in the
practice of mental influence. One writer describes an exhibition of
this kind in India, witnessed by himself. The writer was
a profound skeptic who believed that it was all hanky
panky along the lines of sleight of hand or similar methods.
That is, he so believed until he actually witnessed the demonstration.
He goes on to relate that the magician was a
native Hindu of dignified and imposing appearance. Surrounded by a
number of assistants of his own race, the serpent feet,
the magician seated himself on the ground with several jars, boxes, implements,
and other paraphernalia before him. He opened the seance by
the production of a number of tiny snakes, which he
lifted from one of the boxes and placed on the
ground before him in full sight of the audience, After
allowing the latter to examine the serpents and thereby satisfy
themselves regarding their reality. An English naturalist present identified the
snakes as belonging to a well known native variety. The
magician then began a slow, low, mournful, droning, monotonous song,
the predominant sound of which was um like the droning
of a bumblebee or a distant sawmill. The snakes reared
themselves up and moved their heads from side to side
at the sound of the chant, the magician touching them
softly with his wand from time to time to the
eyes of the audience, the snakes seemed to gradually grow
from their original tiny proportions, until finally they appeared as
immense boa constrictors, which caused great alarm among the audience,
both Englishmen and native The magician bade the audience remain
quiet and assure them that there was no danger. Then
he reversed the process, and the snakes were seen to
gradually decrease in size until they vanished from sight altogether
the vanishing Hindoo. The next act was equal is Wonderful.
The magician placed one of his assistants in the center
of a circle described on the sand, and with appropriate
gestures and ceremony, went through some magical incantation. The boy
was then seen to spin around faster and faster like
a large top, and then began to gradually ascend in
the air, still spinning around until he vanished from sight.
Then the magician reversed the process and brought him down
from the aerial heights, the boy appearing like a small
speck at first, gradually growing larger as he neared the earth,
until he stood before the audience, bowing and smiling. The
mango feet. The next act was the placing of some
mango seeds in the sand, building a tiny hillock around them.
The magician then began his chant and waved his hands
over the hillock. In a moment, a tiny shoot was
seen to appear, and then a little bush, which gradually
grew up until a mature mango tree was seen bearing leaves.
The blossoms were seen, and the ripe fruit appeared, which
was passed among the audience. Then reversing the process, the
tree disappeared gradually, and at the end the magician dug
up the original seeds and showed them to his audience,
and wonderful to relate. The fruit that had been distributed
among the people also disappeared. The rope feet. The concluding
act was as startling as those preceding it. The magician
produced a coil of real rope, which was passed around
for examination. Then he knotted one end of it and
then tossed the knot into the air. The rope rapidly
uncoiled itself, and the knot was seen away up in
the air and still ascending. When the rope was completely
uncoiled and the end left dangling on the ground as
if supported by some hook holding the knotted in hundreds
of feet in the air, one of the as assistance
approached the rope and took hold of it. At a
shout from the magician. He began climbing rapidly up the
rope and in a short time disappeared from view after
appearing as a tiny speck in the air. Then at
another word from the magician, the rope itself flew up
in the air and vanished from sight. The test and
explanation this concluded the performance. But here is a remarkable sequel.
An Englishman present took a snapshot with a pocket camera
just as the boy began to climb the rope. When
the negative was developed, there was no trace of rope
boy or anything else appertaining to the manifestation. Even the
magician was absent from the center of the scene and
was shown on the plate as sitting down on one
side with an amused smile on his face. This fact
demonstrated that which similar tests have also proven, i e.
That the facts were not really performed at all, but
were simply illusions produced by impressions upon the minds of
the audience. In fact, they were examples of mental magic
along the phase of mental fascination and arising from concentrated
will and visualization of mental images transmitted by mentative currents
and acting by mentative induction. I shall give you another
proof of this in a moment or two after I
have related a few more instances of this wonderful manifestation
of mental influence a wonderful man. Another writer, a correspondent
of an American paper, relates that he was once on
a steamer plying up one of the rivers in India,
when at a stopping place there scrambled up the side
as nimbly as a monkey, a native Hindu, clad only
in a loin cloth and having a tight rolled red
bundle fastened at the back of his neck to keep
it safe from the wall while swimming from shore. There
was nothing about the man to distinguish him from the
ordinary Fukirs, but he soon showed his quality his startling feats.
Passing along the deck, he picked up a ball of
thin rope which was lying there, and unwinding an end,
he knotted it and tossed the knot up in the air,
where it ascended rapidly, unwinding the ball until the whole
of the rope disappeared in the air, just as in
the instance previously related. Then passing a sailor who was
holding in his hand a broken cocoanut shell containing the
liquid or water of the nut. He lifted the shell
from his hand, and holding it high up over a
ship's bucket standing near by, he emptied the liquid until
it filled the bucket, and repeated the process upon another bucket,
and so on until twelve buckets had been filled from
the half cocoanut shell. Then he picked up one of
the buckets filled with the liquid, and holding it in
his hand, he caused it to gradually until it completely disappeared.
Then a moment later he exhibited a tiny speck in
his hand, which gradually grew until it was again the
bucket of water filled to the brim with the liquid,
which he then poured out on the deck a strange occurrence.
Witnessing the strange performance was a young mother with her
babe beside her and a young nurse girl several feet away.
To her horror, the mother then beheld the nurse girl
rising a few feet in the air and moving rapidly
toward the babe, reaching down for the infant as she
glided over it, and then rising high into the air
with the child clasped in her arms, until both were
lost in the clouds. The mother burst into frantic cries
and shrieks, and gazed upward, and as she gazed, she
saw a fleecy cloud appear, which gradually took the shape
of the nurse girl, who grew larger and larger as
she descended, until she finally reached the deck again and
handed the babe to the rejoiced mother. The mother, after
clasping her babe close to her bosom, cried out, how
dare you take my child away? When, to her surprise,
the girl answered, why, ma'am. The baby has been asleep
all the time and I have not touched him. And
then the Fakir smiled and said, mem Saib has been
dreaming strange things. It was merely an instance of mental
impression of a remarkable degree of power produced by the
will and mental imagery of the Fakir, and his previous
feats were also so performed wonders upon wonders, But this
was only the beginning. The Fakir then untied his red bundle,
and extracting therefrom a cocoanut, he exhibited it to the passengers,
passing it around for inspection, then placing the nut on
the end of a bamboo stick and balancing it there,
he commanded it in Hindi to spout as a fountain,
and immediately a great jd of water sprang from it,
falling over the deck in great showers. He then caused
it to stop flowing, and it obeyed. Then he restarted it.
This he repeated several times. Then he materialized a cobra
from the air and caused it to disappear at his command,
after he had terrified the passengers with it. Then he
materialized several human forms in broad sunlight in full view
of the passengers, and afterwards caused them to melt away
gradually until they disappeared like a cloud of steam. Then,
taking up a collection which was quite liberal, he jumped
over the side and swam rapidly to shore. The real secret.
The natives among the ship's passengers smiled at the wonder
of the Europeans present, and laughed at the latter's talk
of jugglery or magic power, informing them that it was
merely an instance of Hindoo mesmerism or mental influence, and
that those among them who resisted the spell saw nothing
of the phenomena except the fakir with glistening eyes and
every evidence of a powerful and concentrated exercise of his will.
These feats are quite common in some parts of India,
but they are known to be but mental illusions. For
all attempts to catch the exhibition on photographic plates have failed,
the plate showing nothing but the magician in a state
of mental concentration. These magicians have developed the power of
causing many persons at the same time to have the
illusion of seeing, hearing, tasting, and smelling things that have
no material existence. It is induced mental imagery in a
developed degree, but differs only in degree from the phenomena
more familiar to the Western world. Testimony of a Hindu sage.
In this connection, I would like to add the testimony
and explanation given to me personally by a greatly esteemed
friend of mine, a Hindu sage traveling in this country, who,
in addition to his Oriental learning, has received the highest
English education, and who is a highly educated man in
both the Eastern and Western meanings of the terms. This
gentleman told me that when a youth, he had witnessed
exhibitions of the kind just related in his native land.
At first he was puzzled and mystified by them, but
his naturally scientific turn of mind caused him to seek
for the solution. He began experimenting, and soon at least
was able to classify the phenomena as pure mental illusion.
He found that the crowd would gather close round the
magician in order to see what was going on, Although
all were required to keep a certain number of yards
away from the wonder worker by the latter's instructions and requirements.
My friend found that if he retreated a few yards
beyond the outer edge of the crowd, he could see
nothing but the magician, all the material doings disappearing. When
he would join the crowd, the mystic appearances were again
plainly seen. He tried the experiment in several ways with
the same result. Then he tried a riskier one and
pushed nearer to the magician than was allowable, and with
the same result. In short, the influence was confined to
a certain area, and the mental influence was doubtless increased
by the contagion of the different minds in the crowd.
My friend tested the well known mango feet and the
rope disappearing feat as related in these pages, in this way,
and was determined that they came well under the rule
of mental illusion, instead of being an occurrence defying the
established laws of nature. The testimony of this gentleman corroborated
the opinion that I had already formed to that effect,
which opinion agrees with that of the best authorities. An
erroneous Western idea. In closing this chapter, I wish to
point out to the students of the work an erroneous
idea that has crept into some of the Western works
along the lines of hypnotism, et cetera, and which I
shall now mention and explain. The Hindoo magicians or mesmerists
frequently sit in a squatting position during their enchantments, droning
a monotonous, soothing chant, as has been described, and at
the same time moving the body from the waist upward
in a circling twisting motion from the hips, at the
same time fixing their gaze firmly upon their audience. This
motion in twisting is merely an accompaniment to the droning chant,
akin to the motions of the Oriental dancers, who twist
their bodies in a similar manner in rhythm to the music.
The motion is merely a custom among these people and
has nothing to do with the production of the phenomena.
As all Hindu occultists know and will tell you. In fact,
the higher magicians among the Hindus do nothing of the sort,
but maintain a dignified, calm standing position, or the firm
yogi seat, in which the body is evenly and firmly
poised in a position of dignified rest, the hands resting
on the lap, the back of one hand in the
palm of the other, a foolish idea. All native Hindus
understand the above matter, but Western visitors jump at the
conclusion that this gyrating circling of the body from the
hips has something to do with the power manifested. And
as I have said, some of the Western works on
the subject have gone into considerable detail regarding this wonderful
Oriental hypnotism, which they assert is accomplished because of this
twisting of the body. They might just as well point
out some physical trick of motion of each leading Western
hypnotists and assert that the motion was the secret of
his power. I do not think that further common is
necessary in this case. The motions and attitudes, et cetera
are merely part of the setting of the piece, or
possibly bits of stage business designed to heighten the impression
of mystery. That's all Oriental methods of developing power. I've
been informed by an authority whose word is entitled to
the greatest respect, and who has spent many years in
India and other Oriental countries, that the following method is
used by these Oriental magicians in developing within themselves the
power to create these strong mental images in the minds
of those witnessing their performances. The magician starts when a
youth and practices mental imagery in his own mind. This
process is akin to visualization, as mentioned by me in
my work on mental magic. The magician at first uses
his will in an endeavor to form a clear and
distinct mental image of some familiar object arose, for instance.
He practices until he is able to actually see the
thing before him in his mind's eye, just as certain
eminent painters have acquired the faculty of visualizing the faces
of persons they meet so that they can reproduce them
on canvas without further sittings. Superlative sense induction attained, then
the magician experiments upon larger objects, and then upon groups
of objects, and so on to more complex pictures. After
years of constant experimentation and practice, a few of those
undertaking the work find themselves able to picture any of
the scenes described in this chapter as feats. That is,
they are able to clearly picture them in their own mind.
And this being accomplished, the magician is able, by his
highly developed concentrated will, to project the mental image into
the mind of those around him. It is the sense
induction described by me in this work, only raised to
a much higher degree of manifestation. Oriental versus occidental, the
people of the West will not devote the time and
attention to the cultivation of such faculties, while the Oriental
will willingly give up half of his life for the attainment.
But on the other hand, the Western man will devote
his time to the acquirement of will, power and concentration
in the direction of becoming a ruler of men and
a general of finance, each to his taste in temperament,
and neither would trade places or power with the other.
They are both dealing with the same force, however, as
little as they realize it,