TESTING A FAKIR.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 19141, 6 October 1925, Page 11

TESTING A FAKIR.

I A MAN INSENSIBLE TO PAIN. EXTRAORDINARY POWERS. REMARKABLE DEMONSTRATION. An interesting demonstration of an Egyptian fakir's powers was given in Paris on August 19 before what is left of social and scientific Paris, together with A large contingent of the general public. The fakir, Tahra Bey, subjected himself to every test which a panel • of doctors and a crowd of ICO or so of the public on the stage itself could suggest. ■ The fakir himself, looking, with his sad and reallv beautiful face, his fine silicy beard, and flowing white burnous, exactly like an illustration to a children s Bible, announced that he had come, not to work miracles, but to ask the opinion of the scientific West upon physical peculiarities which he could induce, but not explain. This modest warning was fully necessary and imperfectly appreciated, as subsequent events proved. * Having thrown himself into a cataleptic trance and suffered a stone weighing 2001b. to be shattered on his body by blows from a hammer, the fakir emerged therefrom with a shudder and announced i that he was quite insensible to pain. Five, doctors thereupon transfixed various parts of his body with knives and needles. Four of them announced themselves perfectly satisfied. The fifth medical man, Dr. Barrc, of Strasbourg, declared that he bad detected evidence of pain and a change in the pulse during the operation. As the fakir was moving about and talking cuite happily with an armoury of grisly imtruments still in him it did not seem to matter. * The Experiment Repeated. This was not the opinion, however, of the public, who loudly invited Dr. Barn? to do the same to himself. The fakir then permitted the doctor to reJ peat the experiment and take his pulse before, during, and after. It was found to be slightly slower during, and precisely the same before and after. The most convincing experiments, however, were those which did not quite succeed. The fakir asked that the weapons should be renoved from his person and promised that the wounds should bleed or not at will. None of them bled at all, and | in a few moments there was 110 trace even of a scar. . The second really remarkable incident occurred during a* thought-reading test. The fakir, seizing his examiner by the wrist, led him quickly down into tb* auditorium and darted to and fro among the audience, making stops and points like a setter dog. Finally, he explained. "it is the number of the seat you thought of. but you do not ksiow where it is nor who is in it, so I carnot find it." Yells for and against him rent the air. An excitable man jumped on the back of his chair shrieking, "Tell us the number!" Another, waving his driving licence above his head, demanded to b« told the number of that. The fakir, with great dignity, quietly explained that bo did not pretend to work miracles and that a mere number had no thought form which could be transmitted. Those who perceived that he had indeed correctlv defined his companion's thoughts, and that in this case there could be no possible collusion, were in the vast majorit v. Buried lor 'Twelve Mir.utes. The final test was that of remaining buried alive for 12 minutes. The fakir again threw himself into a cataleptic trance and was tested by the doctors. wh6 found no trace of breathing ~or blood circulation. He was then put in a coffin, his nose and mouth were stuffed with cotton-wool, the remaining space filled with sand, and the lid closed. The coffin was then buried in a heap of sand, and Dr. Barre wiled away the time of waiting by courageously stating how easy it would be to breathe in such circumstances. When the coffin was opened the fakir was discovered ghastly pale, but otherwise none the worse. The seance concluded with a wild scramble for talismans" thrown among the audience. The performance was undeniably impressive from the point of view both ot the actual experiments and the absence of anv extraneous nonsense. lne tuu lights" were blazing the whole time, the doctors were allowed th « of examination at all [ t b fakir himself made no pretence to other than a subject of ,f tU f n Hp claimed to have been buried "L<» for 28 djp. convinced that they were in the presence m of * very raotatkaile man. jgg