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Indian Rope Trick Was: OT, UFO's Anyone?
| Scary | | Fraser Johnston | | laszlo_spamhole at freemail.hu | | Fraser Johnston |
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| | From: | Scary | | Subject: | Indian Rope Trick Was: OT, UFO's Anyone? | | Date: | 23 Jan 2005 20:25:01 -0800 |
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 | Chas:Wrote
to even believe that you and your druggy friends weren't > > having a
mass hallucination engendered by your primitive > > superstitious
beliefs in Sky-Pixies or a hollow earth.
> Ask Lowe; he'll tell you.
Okay old fellow! I'll bite! You must know about druggy matters since
beard ownership seems to be a prerequisite of hippie hallucinations !
Why not ask the expert!
Since inducing Mass hallucination is kind of relevant to RMA (Useful
skill to have anyway) I'll cite this case to see what Yall is thinken
aboot IT!
"They collect several hundred people and a fakir put on a show. All
the observers, including the scientists, saw the fakir throw a coil of
rope in the air and saw a small boy climb up the rope and disappear.
Subsequently dismembered parts of this small boy came tumbling down to
the ground; the fakir gathered them up in a basket, ascend the rope,
and both the boy and the fakir came down smiling… Several hundred
people agreed in general on the details as described."
"However, when the motion pictures of this scene were developed
subsequently it was found that the fakir walked into the centre of the
group of people and thrown the rope into the air, but that it had
fallen to the ground. The fakir and his boy assistant had stood
motionless by the rope throughout the rest of the demonstration. The
rope did not stay in the air, the boy did not ascend the rope."
(Andrija Puharich –Beyond Telepathy)
Mass Hypnotism? Little is known about hypnotism for there to be any
established theory. Generally it is rather vaguely referred to as ‘a
state of heightened suggestibility'.
Anyone know how to do this stuff? (I mean to masses!) Or is it just a
matter of buying those Hypno-Glasses they advertise in the comic
books!
http://members.toast.net/saddletrout/hypno.html Scary.
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| | From: | Fraser Johnston | | Subject: | Re: Indian Rope Trick Was: OT, UFO's Anyone? | | Date: | Mon, 24 Jan 2005 14:03:26 +0800 |
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"Scary" wrote in message
news:62fa36f3.0501232025.53ae4b6c@posting.google.com...
> Chas:Wrote
> to even believe that you and your druggy friends weren't > > having a
> mass hallucination engendered by your primitive > > superstitious
> beliefs in Sky-Pixies or a hollow earth.
> > Ask Lowe; he'll tell you.
>
>
> Okay old fellow! I'll bite! You must know about druggy matters since
> beard ownership seems to be a prerequisite of hippie hallucinations !
> Why not ask the expert!
> Since inducing Mass hallucination is kind of relevant to RMA (Useful
> skill to have anyway) I'll cite this case to see what Yall is thinken
> aboot IT!
>
>
> "They collect several hundred people and a fakir put on a show. All
> the observers, including the scientists, saw the fakir throw a coil of
> rope in the air and saw a small boy climb up the rope and disappear.
> Subsequently dismembered parts of this small boy came tumbling down to
> the ground; the fakir gathered them up in a basket, ascend the rope,
> and both the boy and the fakir came down smiling. Several hundred
> people agreed in general on the details as described."
> "However, when the motion pictures of this scene were developed
> subsequently it was found that the fakir walked into the centre of the
> group of people and thrown the rope into the air, but that it had
> fallen to the ground. The fakir and his boy assistant had stood
> motionless by the rope throughout the rest of the demonstration. The
> rope did not stay in the air, the boy did not ascend the rope."
> (Andrija Puharich -Beyond Telepathy)
>
> Mass Hypnotism? Little is known about hypnotism for there to be any
> established theory. Generally it is rather vaguely referred to as 'a
> state of heightened suggestibility'.
>
> Anyone know how to do this stuff? (I mean to masses!) Or is it just a
> matter of buying those Hypno-Glasses they advertise in the comic
> books!
>
> http://members.toast.net/saddletrout/hypno.html Scary.
I think the key is giving the audience drugs, money or both so they'll say
anything you want.
Fraser
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| | From: | laszlo_spamhole at freemail.hu | | Subject: | Re: Indian Rope Trick Was: OT, UFO's Anyone? | | Date: | 23 Jan 2005 22:22:58 -0800 |
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Fraser Johnston wrote:
> "Scary" wrote in message
> news:62fa36f3.0501232025.53ae4b6c@posting.google.com...
> > Chas:Wrote
> > to even believe that you and your druggy friends weren't > > having
a
> > mass hallucination engendered by your primitive > > superstitious
> > beliefs in Sky-Pixies or a hollow earth.
> > > Ask Lowe; he'll tell you.
> >
> >
> > Okay old fellow! I'll bite! You must know about druggy matters
since
> > beard ownership seems to be a prerequisite of hippie hallucinations
!
> > Why not ask the expert!
> > Since inducing Mass hallucination is kind of relevant to RMA
(Useful
> > skill to have anyway) I'll cite this case to see what Yall is
thinken
> > aboot IT!
> >
> >
> > "They collect several hundred people and a fakir put on a show. All
> > the observers, including the scientists, saw the fakir throw a coil
of
> > rope in the air and saw a small boy climb up the rope and
disappear.
> > Subsequently dismembered parts of this small boy came tumbling down
to
> > the ground; the fakir gathered them up in a basket, ascend the
rope,
> > and both the boy and the fakir came down smiling. Several hundred
> > people agreed in general on the details as described."
> > "However, when the motion pictures of this scene were developed
> > subsequently it was found that the fakir walked into the centre of
the
> > group of people and thrown the rope into the air, but that it had
> > fallen to the ground. The fakir and his boy assistant had stood
> > motionless by the rope throughout the rest of the demonstration.
The
> > rope did not stay in the air, the boy did not ascend the rope."
> > (Andrija Puharich -Beyond Telepathy)
> >
> > Mass Hypnotism? Little is known about hypnotism for there to be any
> > established theory. Generally it is rather vaguely referred to as
'a
> > state of heightened suggestibility'.
> >
> > Anyone know how to do this stuff? (I mean to masses!) Or is it just
a
> > matter of buying those Hypno-Glasses they advertise in the comic
> > books!
> >
> > http://members.toast.net/saddletrout/hypno.html Scary.
>
> I think the key is giving the audience drugs, money or both so
they'll say
> anything you want.
>
> Fraser
Sweet mother of crap, people, it's a simple magic trick.
I can explain how it's done, but it's on about a billion sites already.
Google for it.
Laszlo
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| | From: | Fraser Johnston | | Subject: | Re: Indian Rope Trick Was: OT, UFO's Anyone? | | Date: | Mon, 24 Jan 2005 14:52:31 +0800 |
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wrote in message
news:1106547778.415535.34980@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com...
> Sweet mother of crap, people, it's a simple magic trick.
>
> I can explain how it's done, but it's on about a billion sites already.
> Google for it.
Not even a magic trick. It was a hoax:-
the Indian rope trick
This alleged trick, reportedly witnessed by thousands of people, involves an
Indian fakir who throws a rope to the sky, but the rope does not fall back
to the ground. Instead it mysteriously rises until the top of it disappears
into thin air, the darkness, the mist, whatever. Now, that would be trick
enough for most people, but this one allegedly goes on. A young boy climbs
the unsupported rope, which miraculously supports him until he disappears
into thin air, the mist, the darkness, whatever. That, too, would be trick
enough for most of us, but this one continues. The fakir then pulls out a
knife, sword, scimitar, whatever and climbs the rope until he, too,
disappears into thin air, mist, darkness, whatever. Again, this would a
great trick even if it stopped here. But, no. It continues.
Body parts fall from the sky onto the ground, into a basket next to the base
of the rope, whatever. Now, that's quite common in some neighborhoods and
would not count as much of a trick. But the fakir allegedly then slides down
the rope and empties the basket, throws a cloth over the scattered body
parts, whatever, and the boy miraculously reappears with all his parts in
the right places. That would be a great trick, especially since it must be
done in the open without the use of engineers, technicians, electronics,
satellite feeds, television cameras, whatever.
Actually, the only thing needed for this trick is human gullibility.
According to Peter Lamont, a researcher at the University of Edinburgh and a
former president of the Magic Circle in Edinburgh, the Indian rope trick was
a hoax played by the Chicago Tribune in 1890. Lamont claims the newspaper
was trying to increase circulation by publishing this ridiculous story as if
there were eyewitnesses to the event. The Tribune admitted the hoax some
four months later, expressing some astonishment that so many people believed
it was a true story. After all, they reasoned, the byline was "Fred S.
Ellmore." They hadn't reckoned that their audience, many of whom believed in
miracles and phrenology and other weird things, wouldn't find this story
that hard to accept.
Lamont has been researching the Indian rope trick for years. At one point he
and Richard Wiseman wrote in Nature that the results of their investigation
supported the notion that belief in the trick was due to the 'exaggeration
effect': the greater the time between seeing something and telling a story
about it, the more a person tends to exaggerate the impressiveness of the
event.*
Of course, there are other possibilities, most of which have been offered in
an attempt to explain how the trick is done: mass hypnosis, levitation, a
magic trick involving mirrors or an invisible rope hanging above which the
thrown rope hooks onto somehow, shaved monkey limbs for body parts, twins,
whatever. Of the various explanations, the hoax seems most plausible.
The hoax, however, did not appear ex nihilo in the Tribune. It seems likely
that someone at the Tribune had a copy of a little story entitled "Theft of
the Peach," which appears in Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio by P'u
Sung-ling (1640-1715). This book appeared in translation by Herbert Allen
Giles (1845-1935) in 1880 (London, T. De la Rue & Co.). "Theft of a Peach"
tells the story of a man at a Spring festival who says that "he could invert
the order of nature." The man was then asked to produce some peaches, even
though the winter frost hadn't broken up. The man says that he guesses there
are some peaches "in heaven in the royal Mother's garden," which is a
reference to a myth about the peach tree of the gods, whose fruit "confers
immortality on him who eats it." To get to heaven, the man takes "from his
box a cord some tens of feet in length. This he carefully arranged, and then
threw one end of it high up into the air, where it remained as if caught by
something." He then "paid out the rope" until it disappeared in the clouds.
He sends his son up the rope to fetch the peaches. The son climbs "like a
spider" up the rope and "in a few moments he was out of sight in the
clouds." Soon "a peach as large as a basin" falls from the sky. Then down
came the rope. A minute later the boy's head lands on the ground. "After
that, his arms, and legs, and body, all came down in like manner...." The
father gathers up the body parts and puts them in his box. After he collects
money for funeral expenses, the man raps on his box and says "Pa-pa'rh! why
don't you come out and thank the gentlemen?" The boy jumps out of the box
and bows.
P'u tells the story of this "strange trick" as if he were an eyewitness "as
a little boy." He also notes that he had subsequently heard that the trick
could be done "by the White Lily sect," a secret society in China whose
origin dates to the fourteenth century. Giles, in a footnote at the end of
the story in my edition of his translation,* notes that the fourteenth
century Arab, Ibn Batuta (1307-1377), tells a story about Chinese jugglers
who "produced a chain fifty cubits in length, and in my presence threw one
end of it towards the sky, where it remained, as if fastened to something in
the air." The jugglers then had a dog, a hog, a panther, a lion, and a tiger
run up the chain and disappear in the air. The jugglers then took down the
chain and put it into a bag, leaving the crowd wondering what happened to
the animals.
Giles says in a footnote that a Mr. Maskelyne, "the prince of all
black-artists, ancient or modern," thought that the Chinese did this trick
with concave mirrors. (Giles may be referring to John Nevil Maskelyne
(1839-1917), who, in 1865, aided by George A. Cooke, exposed the Davenport
Brothers as fraudulent spiritualists.)
The Chinese may have used mirrors but the story most likely emerged from
what they were smoking.
Fraser
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