Kuda Bux

Kuda Bux (17 February 1905 – 5 February 1981), born Khudah Bukhsh, was a British Raj mystic, magician and firewalker.[1][2][3]

Kuda Bux
Born(1905-02-17)17 February 1905
Died5 February 1981(1981-02-05) (aged 75)
OccupationMagician

Performances

Blindfolds

In one of his best known performances he would cover his eyes with soft dough balls, blindfold himself, swath his entire head in strips of cloth, and yet still be able to see.[4]: 217 

Bux was the star of a 1950 TV series titled Kuda Bux, Hindu Mystic, and his apparent ability to see while blindfolded with dough balls strongly influenced British author Roald Dahl in his short story "The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar", about a man who was taught to develop the same powers.[5] Observers noted that without a blindfold Bux required reading glasses to read fine print. While blindfolded he would read the dates on coins which were held in a spectator's hand, read the fine print of a magazine, thread a needle while covered in a wine barrel, duplicate words he had never seen written, shoot a can on children's heads with a pellet gun and many other tricks, such as those with a blindfold.[6] Bux once cycled along Broadway in New York City while blindfolded.[4]: 217 

Firewalking

According to Robert Ripley, Bux performed a trick in NBC Radio City Studios in Manhattan on 2 August 1938. According to this account, a three-foot-deep (0.91 m) hole was dug in the Radio City parking lot and wooden logs and bags of charcoal were set on fire in it. Bux allegedly walked back and forth through the pit—twice. Ripley said, "Kuda Bux's feet were not even warm." There is newsreel footage of this event in the TV biography The Incredible Life and Times of Robert Ripley: Believe It or Not! (TBS 1993).

In 1935 Bux demonstrated firewalking in front of an audience of scientists from the University of London Council for Psychical Research and news reporters.[7] He walked across a twelve-foot (3.7 m) pit of burning hot coals unscathed. Bux's feet were checked before and after the firewalking demonstration to verify that no protective chemicals, topical creams or herbs were used. It was a very windy day and the surface temperature of the fire was read at 806 degrees Fahrenheit (430 degrees Celsius) The body of the fire was measured at 2,552 degrees Fahrenheit (1,400 degrees Celsius), which is hot enough to melt steel. After Bux walked through the coals, a cameraman who had messed up some photographs of the event asked for a retake. Bux obliged by repeating the firewalk. Again, his feet were checked before and after the firewalking demonstration.

Bux's firewalking ability amazed western audiences in the 1930s. Harry Price suggested that the feat was performed by specific placement of the feet. However, the mentalist Joseph Dunninger gave a more logical explanation. He pointed out that charcoal cooled down rapidly and by walking quickly on it, one could avoid being burned.[8]

Personal life

Khudah Bukhsh was born in Akhnur, Kashmir in 1905, to an ethnic Kashmiri family.[9][10] His father worked as a railway ticket inspector. Bukhsh later became a Pakistani citizen.[2][11][12][3] In the mid-1930s, he arrived in the United States where he pursued his practice of magic.[10] When he was thirteen, he set out to learn magic from Professor Moor, a famous magician at the time. He eventually met Banerjee in Hardwar, a yogi who taught him fire walking and seeing without his eyes. In his later life, he lost his eyesight to glaucoma.[4]: 218  He was also known as DareDevil or The Man Who Can See Without His Eyes. He died in 1981 in his sleep, aged 75.[13]. He was interred at Forest Lawn.

References
  1. "The Man With X-Ray Eyes-Kuda Bux". Retrieved 30 April 2016.
  2. Tom Solomon (1 March 2017). Roald Dahl's Marvellous Medicine. Liverpool University Press. pp. 90–. ISBN 978-1-78138-867-9.
  3. Stefanie Syman (22 June 2010). The Subtle Body: The Story of Yoga in America. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. pp. 140–. ISBN 978-1-4299-3307-0.
  4. Randi, James (1992). Conjuring. New York: St. Martin's Press. ISBN 0-312-08634-2. OCLC 26162991.
  5. "The Amazing Eyes of Kuda Bux". Roald Dahl Fans. 2017. Retrieved 19 October 2017.
  6. ""The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar"". Roald Dahl Fans. 30 November 2015.
  7. Melton, J. Gordon. (2013). The Encyclopedia of Religious Phenomena. Visible Ink. p. 111. ISBN 1-57859-209-7
  8. Samuel, Lawrence R. (2011). Supernatural America: A Cultural History. ABC-CLIO. p. 49. ISBN 978-0-313-39899-5
  9. Mac Freedom Long (1 March 2013). The Secret Science Behind Miracles. Start Publishing LLC. pp. 24–. ISBN 978-1-62558-182-2.
  10. Cheri Revai (14 January 2008). Haunted New York City: Ghosts and Strange Phenomena of the Big Apple. Stackpole Books. pp. 56–. ISBN 978-0-8117-4073-9.
  11. Cosmopolitan. Schlicht & Field. 1959.
  12. The World Almanac Book Of The Strange. 1977.
  13. Kuda Bux at IMDb
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