Have you ever seen that magic trick where the magician impales their assistant with
a sword?
Like they just shove the sword straight through them until it comes out the other side?
Crazy right?
Well, I hate to break it to you, but magic isn't real; like professional wrestling or
love.
Now before you get mad, actually you can get mad I don't really care; I'm not dismissing
these things - actually I think they're much more impressive knowing there's some trickery
involved.
If you are actually magic you're just magic y'know, it's like being born with different
coloured eyes - I mean congrats I guess, but think of the most amazing magic trick you
ever saw - if that performer were actually magic I mean it's not really a big deal for
them is it?
Really it's a bit of a joke, if they actually have these powers and all they use them for
is to amuse people that's just wasteful and gratuitous - vulgar even.
But if it isn't real, but you can't see how it possibly couldn't be, well that's the real
feat isn't it?
Think of the cunning and ingenuity it took to engineer this trick, this deception.
The impaled magician's assistant wears a special belt under their clothes that features a hollowed
tube that wraps around their body.
The sword is actually very bendy and is fed into a slot at the front of this tube, bends
around the performer's body and out a slot at the back.
Neat huh?
Or does the fact that it's just a trick ruin it for you?
Well, how about this guy, he's not wearing a belt - well, he is I suppose, but not for
the sword.
How does he do it?
Arnold Gerrit Henskes was born in Rotterdam in the Netherlands in 1912.
An artist by trade, Henskes was attracted to mysticism from an early age, claiming to
have paranormal experiences and dreams.
I personally wouldn't have paid too much mind to that, I often have dreams where I'm very
wealthy but I can't stop eating my most prized possessions, which is sad and deeply troubling
for me but y'know it is just a dream.
By his thirties, Henskes decided to leave his job and fully embrace his unusual side
- calling himself Mirin Dajo.
He claimed he was "invulnerable" to injury and proved this by piercing his body with
daggers and generally doing things you might expect to see at a freak show.
Dajo claimed this ability was a gift from some higher being, and he wanted to use this
power to spread a message of peace and love, believing people to be too materialistic.
With this in mind, he began a performance with an assistant.
During the course of these performances the assistant would impale Dajo with things like
swords, passing the object through his naked torso and out the other side.
They sometimes used hollow rods, through which they would pour water.
In these performances, Dajo would not bleed, nor would he show any signs of pain, even
running around while he was impaled.
There's footage of him being impaled too, but it's actually a bit more graphic than
you'd expect.
A photograph of a man sitting nonchalant with an object pierced through him is one thing,
but believe me, seeing the assistant shoving a point into him until the skin on the other
side stretches out like a tent before being punctured is a bit much.
The footage is out there if you're curious, but it's just a little too wince-inducing
for me to put in a video, sorry, ya sick freak.
I was not alone in feeling slightly uncomfortable seeing this, and audiences were often made
feel ill watching the spectacle.
Normally I'd ask what the fuck did you expect going to see a man known as "the human pincushion",
but honestly, I think it is genuinely worse to watch than you'd think it was.
It's really not like someone swallowing a sword or hammering nails up their nose.
So it was a unique act - but there had to be a catch right?
Some clever trick or smoke and mirrors ruse.
Well...
Mirin Dajo had his act examined by medical professionals.
X-rays revealed that the sword was really piercing his skin, and was really going through
his body!
The scientists began to feel the same nausea the crowds had - this guy was a legitimate
freak.
But how the hell was he doing it?
They determined that first of all, the sword had to be clean, of course, or it would lead
to infection.
It also had to have a fine point, allowing it to neatly make its way though the body
with a clean puncture and no tearing.
This had to be done with great care and was the reason Dajo always performed with a single
trusted assistant.
Certain organs, like the liver could withstand a pinpoint puncture if this was done correctly
and the professionals noticed there was no internal bleeding after the sword was removed.
So how was there no bleeding, and no pain?
Well, this is the "trick" of the performance, although even this is real.
Mirin Dajo was not the first to perform this sort of act, it had long been practiced beforehand
in Eastern mysticism.
Someone had first performed the act on Dajo.
He would have been hypnotised and put into a trance, this would have eased the pain of
the puncture.
He would have bled a lot but been treated.
After his recovery, he was left with an insensitive path of scar tissue though his torso, through
which he could repeat the piercing without great difficulty.
Although, I'm sure you still have to be a bit touched in the head to do this stuff,
and sure enough in 1948 Dajo claimed voices told him to ingest a steel needle.
And so he did.
He was under the belief that the voices were from his guardian angels, who would protect
him from the damage wrought by eating a needle, just as they had protected him from all his
other acts.
He died of aortic rupture a few days later.
And there you have it kids - don't eat needles, no matter what the voices tell you.
Wait, what's that?
You're hearing the voices right now?
Listen.
Qxir now has memberships.
You must buy a membership.
Buy a membership.
Well, I don't know what to tell you about the voices in your head but I would prefer
if they didn't interrupt me again.
That's because I was just about to tell you about my new channel memberships!
That's right, you can buy a membership for my channel and receive custom emojis and badges
beside your name when you comment - that shows me and everyone else that your opinion is
a little less worthless than everyone else's.
The higher membership tiers will give you access to my community posts on the status
of the channel - y'know, announcements, or maybe I'll let you know if I'm taking a break
or a video got delayed or whatever.
I would put these public so everyone can see them but well, it's annoying, and probably
only the most dedicated fans want to see these anyways.
So please consider supporting the channel by paying for a membership!
As always, thank you and goodbye!