Biography:Paul Heuzé
Paul Heuzé | |
|---|---|
 Heuzé demonstrating a buried alive experiment. | |
| Born | 1878 |
| Died | 1938 |
| Occupation | Journalist, skeptic |
Paul Heuzé (1878–1938) was a French journalist and skeptic. He was also an amateur magician who exposed the tricks of fakirs and psychics.
Biography
Heuzé was a journalist for the weekly newspaper L'Opinion, during 1921–1923 he reported on his investigations into psychical research and spiritualism[1] His writings were published in the two volume Les Morts Vivent Ils?.[2][3]
He became well known as an exposer of fraudulent mediums and psychics. Heuzé and a professional illusionist known as Professor Dicksonn suspected that the Polish medium Jan Guzyk was fraudulent and had duped psychical researchers such as Gustav Geley.[4] In November 1923, Heuzé organized five scientists, including French physicist Paul Langevin to observe Guzyk in a series of séances at Sorbonne. Objects were moved but only in close reach of the medium. The committee concluded that he had freed one of his legs to perform the phenomena. When tighter controls were introduced, nothing happened.[5] Their report published in the L'Année Psychologique, stated that fraud was "complete and without reserve".[6]
Sisley Huddleston has noted that "Heuze was a sceptic who revealed the tricks of the mediums and of the fakirs who for some time made Paris their happy hunting-ground."[7]
Conjuring
Heuzé wrote two books that revealed the tricks of conjurors and fakirs, they were republished in 2005.[8]
On 11 December 1928 Heuzé and a magician known as "Karma" took part in a contest with the Egyptian fakir Tahra Bey. At the Circus de Paris before a large audience, Bey inserted long needles through his cheeks and chest muscles. He also plunged a stiletto into his neck and lay on a bed of nails.[9] Heuzé repeated Bey's needle act and "Karma" replicated all of Bey's feats such as the bed of nails. They contended that no paranormal explanation was needed, the feats were a question of practice and training. A committee of doctors and scientists were also present and supported this conclusion.[9][10]
Heuzé also performed a buried alive stunt. He did this to demonstrate in opposition to fakirs such as Tahra Bey that there was nothing mysterious about the stunt. In a famous experiment, he remained in a buried coffin for an hour and a quarter.[11]
Publications
- Les Morts Vivent Ils?: Enquete Sur L'Etat Present Des Sciences Psychiques (Paris: La Renaissance du livre, 1921)
- Les Morts Vivent Ils?: L'Ectoplasme (Paris: La Renaissance du livre, 1922)
- Do the Dead Live?: An Inquiry Into the Present State of Psychical Research (London: John Murray, 1923)
- Fakirs, Fumistes & Cie (1926, 2005)
- Où En Est La Métapsychique (Paris: Gauthier-Villars, 1926)
- La Plaisanterie Des Animaux Calculateurs (Paris: Éditions de France, 1928)
- Dernières Histoires De Fakirs (1932, 2005)
References
- ↑ Lachapelle, Sofie. (2011). Investigating the Supernatural: From Spiritism and Occultism to Psychical Research and Metapsychics in France, 1853–1931. Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 97. ISBN:978-1-4214-0013-6
- ↑ Dif, Max. (1986). Histoire illustrée de la prestidigitation. Maloine. p. 288
- ↑ Edelman, Nicole. (2006). Histoire de la voyance et du paranormal. Du XVIIIe siècle à nos jours. Seuil. p. 135
- ↑ Brower, M. Brady. (2010). Unruly Spirits: The Science of Psychic Phenomena in Modern France. University of Illinois Press. pp. 134–135. ISBN:978-0-252-03564-7
- ↑ Lachapelle, Sofie. (2011). Investigating the Supernatural: From Spiritism and Occultism to Psychical Research and Metapsychics in France, 1853–1931. Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 131. ISBN:978-1-4214-0013-6
- ↑ Langevin, P; Rabaud, E; Laugier, H; Marcelin, A; Meyerson, I. (1924). Rapport au sujet des phénomènes produits par le Médium J. Guzik. L'année Psychologique 24: 664–672.
- ↑ Huddleston, Sisley. (1928). Paris Salons, Cafés, Studios. J.B. Lippincott Company. p. 95
- ↑ Les Fakirs Indiens. Artefake.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 Rawcliffe, Donovan. (1988). Occult and Supernatural Phenomena. Dover Publications. p. 277. ISBN:0-486-25551-4
- ↑ Zusne, Leonard; Jones, Warren H. (2014 edition). Anomalistic Psychology: A Study of Magical Thinking. Psychology Press. pp. 59–60. ISBN:978-0-805-80508-6
- ↑ Anonymous. (1926). Showing How a "Fakir" Can Be Buried in a Hermetically Sealed "Coffin" for a Considerable Period and Remain Alive: An Experiment by Paul Heuzé. Illustrated London News.
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