X-Ray Vision - Kuda Bux

Interesting article from the BBC:

Kuda Bux: The Indian magician who charmed the West with his 'X-ray eyes'

I remember in the 1960s our teacher at school describing this performance (or one very like it). It was just one of those titbits which aroused one's curiosity before we moved onto the more mundane parts of the school day.

There's nothing spectacular about a man riding a bicycle through a crowded street.

But what if his eyes were covered with lumps of dough, thick swabs of cotton and several layers of gauze - and he had multiple layers of bandages wound tightly around his head in such a way that only his nostrils were left exposed?

Kuda Bux, who was born in Kashmir in 1905, was famous for performing this cycling feat on streets of England and Europe in the 1930s and 40s - something he claimed he was able to do because he could "see without eyes".

In July 1935, Harry Price - Britain's famous "ghost hunter" - and a team of doctors tested Bux's X-ray vision claims. "Price came prepared with surgical bandages, adhesive tape, pads of cotton wool and a special tie-on mask composed of two thicknesses of heavy black cotton between which was a layer of cotton wool," Mr Zubrzycki notes in his book.

After Bux successfully read from a book with the bandaging on, a doctor redid his blindfold. Bux was still able to read a handwritten note that was placed on a table behind his back.

In September 1935, Bux was put to another test, again by Price, and this ended up propelling him to fame in England and much of Europe.

Sound quality is rough, but still worth watching
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6x_zO0IIsE

Bux's vision without eyes feats could be interpreted as his having been able to learn somehow to manifest while in body the paranormal faculty demonstrated many times in veridical NDEs, where the NDEr reports separating from the body and brain and experiencing apparently visually observing the resuscitation team working on his body from the physical perspective of the corner of the ceiling of the room. This could be paranormal psychic sensing transformed or translated by some underlying layer of consciousness into the apparent visual perception the person is used to while in body.

Another video, from a cinema newsreel
The Man With The X Ray Eyes! (1938)

Here's an alternate version of the same TV footage I posted previously. I've set the start time to the addition of numbers. What I was curious about was the amount of tilting of the head up and down. Watch both the head of the man writing the numbers and then the head of Kuda Bux as he carries out the addition.
Kuda Bux-The Man With X-Ray Eyes

To add some perspective on my previous post, I was evaluating some statements in a paper, "Dermo-optical Perception: A Peek Down the Nose" by
Martin Gardner, 1966.

A few selected quotes:

Usually the mentalist first has a committee from the audience seal his eyes shut with adhesive tape. Over each eye is taped something opaque, such as a powder puff or a silver dollar. Then a large black cloth is pulled around the eyes to form a tight blindfold.

Kuda Bux, a Mohammedan who comes from Kashmir, is perhaps the best known of today's entertainers who feature such an act. He has both eyes covered with large globs of dough, then many yards of cloth are wound like a turban to cover his entire face from the top of his forehead to the tip of his chin. Yet Kuda Bux is able to read books, solve mathematical problems on a blackboard, and describe objects held in front of him.

If the reader will pause at this point and ask someone to blindfold him, he may be surprised to discover that it is impossible, without injury to his eyes, to prepare a blindfold that does not permit a tiny aperture, on each side of the nose, through which light can enter each eye. By turning the eyes downward one can see, with either eye, a small area beneath the nose and extending forward at an angle of 30 to 40 degrees from the vertical.

Pushing wads of cotton or cloth into the two apertures accomplishes nothing. One can always, while pretending to adjust the blindfold, secretly insert his thumb and form a tiny space under the wadding. The wadding can actually be an asset in maintaining a wider aperture than there would be without it.

Is what Gardner says relevant here or a ludicrous attempt to wave away something more?


One final thought. Kuda Bux was a performing magician. Any time we consider such a performer, we can simply be entertained and amazed. But there is always an awareness that nothing a magician says in their stage patter should be taken seriously, or at least it should be considered in its standard role as a way of distracting the audience so they see what they are supposed to see, what the magician intends us to see, and not what might be actually taking place. It did occur to me that by using such large quantities of wrappings (without suffocation) his head was turned into a formless ball, making it much less apparent if he should have his nose held high in the air, something which a simple blindfold would not achieve.

And one last video, on Kuda Bux as a magician:
How I discovered KUDA BUX

Before I leave this topic, there was an impressive and detailed account of Kuda Bux's demonstration of fire-walking in 1935. I do recommend reading it if you are interested.

Fire-Walking Experiments: Report On Kuda Bux's Demonstration

The British Medical Journal, Vol. 2, No. 3899 (Sep. 28, 1935), p. 586 (1 page)

I can't post a direct link because access is limited, but it is freely available if accessed via the daily.jstor.org page:
https://daily.jstor.org/kuda-bux-fire-wa...d-fortune/