UNCANNY POWERS

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 5, 1 October 1935, Page 9

UNCANNY POWERS

“The Man With X-Ray Eyes”

DOCTORS MYSTIFIED

London. September 29,

Kuda. Bux, the Kashmiri Mohammedan who recently walked along a 12ft. trench filled with white-hot charcoal, is now described as “the man with the X-ray eyes.” He cycled through a busy Loudon thoroughfare blindfolded with dough and cotton-wool, and obeyed traffic signals normally as if lie were open- ■ eyed. He also rode between a couple while lighting a cigarette. ' Ho can read, write, and play cards blindfolded. His uncanny powers are mystifying doctors. SIGHT THROUGH NOSTRILS Kuda Bux’s Explanation Kuda Bux, who is professionally known as Professor K. B. Duke, is a Mohammedan from Kashmir, and was born in 1905. He was attracted to magic as a boy. and discovered that he possessed extra-retinal vision at the age of 13. When he was 22 he began to demonstrate this faculty, which was perfected four years later. His feats include blindfold reading and drawing a card. He will eat a bundle of hav if one is placed before him. He will consent to be buried alive in an ordinary grave, with just a board over his face, for three hours. He will apparently stop his heart and pulses nt request. He lias performed the firewalk on many occasions, and he can handle live coals. His versatility is ext'aordinIn July Kula Bux demonstrated his eyeless sight to the University of London Council, many eminent scientists, including Dr. William McDougall and Dr. Cyril Burst, being present. Under their direction he was blindfolded in various ways —with cotton bandages, lumps ot dough and surgical tape, and over all a special black mask, with ouly his nostrils and mouth free. With these restrictions Kuda Bux real aloud with ease from books chosen at random by the scientists present. Why were Kuda Bux’s nostr.ns ami mouth left free? He claims that he sees through or by means of his nostrils. He does not pretend to read books enclosed in boxes or similar feats, because then something opaque would be between his nostrils and the book to be read. His as- • sertion that he sees by means of his nostrils may appear fantastic, but curiously, a French scientist, Jules Romains, in his book, “Vision Extra-retinlonne,” of which there is an English translation, has formed a similar theory.’ Romains states that it Is necessary to leave the nostrils free in order that his blindfolded or blinded subjects shall distinguish colours .He says: “The nasal mucosa is sensitive to light and to different colouied regions of the spectrum. This function is sharply distinct from smell. He continues: “The part played by the nasal mucosa leads us to the following question : Tk an unknown organ of extraretinal vision situated in one part of the body localised in a single one, or i.ifruseu through many?” . . Kuda Bux answers that in his case the unknown organ is situated in his nose. _ When the University of London inserted an advertisement in the personal column of “The Times” last yea-, inviting amateur and professional firewalkers to come forward and perform the feat, they received hundreds of letters from persons who had seen the walk, but none from anyone who was prepared to do it. For this reason, and because or his eyeless sight. Kuda Bux is now intensely interesting British scientists.