 Robert Todd Carroll
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fakirA fakir is an initiate in a mendicant Sufi order. The word derives from the Arab word for poverty. By extension, the word is used to refer to ascetic Indian holy men (sadhus). The term is also used, however, to refer to itinerant Indian conjurers and alleged god-men who travel from village to village and perform "miracles" such as materializing vibhuti (holy ash) or jewelry. They do other conjuring stunts such as walking on hot coals, laying on a bed of nails, eating fire, sticking their hands in boiling 'oil', piercing their faces with long needles, putting large hooks through the flesh of their backs attached to heavy objects which they pull. Some conjurers are even said to levitate or to have performed the famous Indian rope trick. Others are said to have been buried alive for months and lived to tell about it. Some cut off their tongues and restore them. Others can make fire materialize out of nothing. The conjurers sometimes have accomplices and they pretend to do exorcisms or other strange feats. After each performance, they pass the hat, collect what they can, and move on to the next village. Some conjurers become very famous and are considered to be god-men, such as Sai Baba. B Premanand of Indian Skeptics has spent over fifty years exposing the tricks of the god-men. His method is simple. He demonstrates how the "miracles" of the fakirs are done by performing them himself. The Indian Rationalist Association has carried on the work of Premanand in exposing the deception of Sai Baba and those of his ilk, astrologers, psychics and clairvoyants. They were featured in the British documentary "Guru Busters" (Equinox)*, which followed Rationalists around India as they demonstrated how the god-men perform their "miracles" without doing anything supernatural. The Discovery Channel's "Science Mysteries" series included an episode (October 20, 2001) entitled "Physical Feats" which was in part a rehash of "Guru Busters." The cameras followed members of the Indian Rationalist Association (IRA) as they went from village to village pretending to be fakirs. The IRA considers the god-men to be frauds who use trickery, legerdemain, conjuring, deceit, and other unfair means of convincing ignorant villagers that they possess miraculous powers. The IRA firewalk and explain anyone can do it without a need for supernatural intervention. They walk on glass, lay on nails, pull cars with hooks poked through the flesh on their backs, jab long needles through their cheeks and tongues, etc. The goal of the IRA is to debunk the god-men and reduce superstition among their countrymen and women. They obviously have a long way to go, as is evidenced by the monkey-man hysteria that gripped New Delhi in the spring of 2001. Witnesses reported to the mass media that they had seen "a giant ape that could jump 40 feet into the air and fly through windows."* Other claimed they saw a 4-foot monkey that turned into a cat. Mass hysteria led to deserted streets and panic. One pregnant woman fell down a staircase and died as a result of trying to escape from the monkey-man. It was all a hoax that played upon the religious superstitions of the people. One commentator put it bluntly:
further reading
*note: Guru Busters follows the activities of the Indian Science and Rationalist Association in their grass roots campaign to debunk India's "God-men". They hold vast public meetings to expose the fraudulent tricks employed by local medicine men and gurus. The Indian Science and Rationalist Association demonstrates the science behind a wide range of miracles seen everyday in India such as producing holy ashes, producing fire by mental power, inserting needles through the tongue, being buried head-first in sand and walking through hot embers. They even try to go one better, with volunteers pulling a jeep with hooks threaded through the skin on their backs, instead of a wooden chariot. In a disturbing section of the film, they shame a medicine man who has been selling a 'magic anti-cobra potion' to save a dog from a cobra bite. The Indian Science and Rationalist Association hopes to prove that scientific rationalism is a better route to follow to escape from disease and poverty. |
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©copyright 2007 Robert Todd Carroll |
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updated 12/03/07
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