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

Nothing particularly noteworthy happens when a man rides his bicycle through an congested city.

But what if he had several levels of bandages tightly wound around his head so that only his nostrils were visible and his eyes were covered in lumps of pastry, heavy swabs of cloth, and various levels of cloth?

In the 1930s and 1940s, Kuda Bux, who was born in Kashmir in 1905, made headlines for accomplishing this riding effort on the streets of England and Europe. He claimed that he was able to do this because of his” see without eye.”

He referred to himself as” the man with X-ray eyes” in the title of one of his magic shows, and he would seem to do a mind-boggling variety of feats, such as reading lines from books and threading needles while wearing his signature eyewear.

Bux has captivated years with his ostensibly extraordinary talent. The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar, a 1977 little tale by Roald Dahl that Wes Anderson has then adapted into an eponymously named movie, is said to have been inspired by him.

Bux was born into a powerful home; his real name was Khudah Bukhsh. He discussed his fascination with secret following a performance by Professor Moor, an American conjurer, in an interview with Dahl from 1952 for Argosy Magazine.

At the age of 13, he fled his house two days later and followed Moor to Lahore to function as his assistant. He would visit Burma( Myanmar ), Ceylon( Sri Lanka ), and Bombay( Mumbai ) in the years that followed, picking up tricks and skills from traveling magicians, yogis, and theater performers.

In his book Kingdom of Magic: The History of American Magic, author John Zubrzycki notes that he also changed his name to Professor KB Duke and then to Kuda Bux.

He set sail for England in May 1935, where there was a demand for artists from the East.

According to Mr. Zubrzycki, the BBC reports that travelers, preachers, merchants, and scholars who visited India and wrote about their amazing but frequently embellished contacts with street or court magicians gave rise to the idea that India was” the land of charm.”

Bux was one of many American magicians who took advantage of the West’s fascination with foreign beautiful acts. He would associate his wonderful prowess with Southeast mysticism despite dressing as an Englishman.

Bux was referred to as” that strange person from the Indian subcontinent who rode bike blindfolded in Paris” and had the” air of a mystical” by scholar John Booth in the secret publication The Linking Ring.”

With what he called his” X-ray vision act ,” Bux quickly gained notoriety in England, drawing the attention of skeptics who subjected him to” tests” to verify the veracity of his abilities.

Harry Price, the renowned” spirit hunter” of Britain, and a group of medical professionals tested Bux’s X-ray vision claims in July 1935. According to Mr. Zubrzycki’s notes in his book,” Price came prepared with medical bandages, adhesive tape, cotton wool pads, and a special tie-on face composed of two thicknesses of heavy black cloth between which was an additional layer of cotton cotton.”

A physician redid Bux’s blind after he had safely read from a book with the suturing on. A written word that had been set down on a table behind Bux’s up could still be read by him.

Bux was put to yet another evaluation by Price in September 1935, and this ultimately helped him become well-known in England and much of Europe.

Bux performed his fire-walking miracle in front of medical professionals, psychology, and editors in the Surrey land, marking the first time it had ever been done in England. Before and after the move, the watchers were instructed to examine every aspect of the act, including Bux’s feet, in order to identify any potential subterfuge.

Newspapers, coal, paraffin, and logs of wood were placed in a trap that had been dug and set on fire. A few hours later, Bux crossed the glowing fire pit four days instead of just once. In his guide, Confessions of a Ghost-Hunter, Price penned,” There was not the slightest fear of bruise on his feet.”

Nine days later, in front of more onlookers, Bux crossed a fire pit that was hot enough to melt material half. However, Bux’s feet were unharmed this time as well, leading Price to believe that” there was some enigmatic relationship between physical and emotional forces that helps to make him defensive from harm ,” according to Mr. Zubrzycki.

Bux would say in his interview with Dahl that he” concentrated to such a degree that I see nothing but the fire ,” which allowed him to survive fire walks.

He asserted that this” inner sense of sight” also assisted him in performing his” X-ray vision” feats, and that he developed this sense by” concentrating the conscious mind” through yogi exercises taught to him as a teenager.

These involved him fully visualizing the face of the person he loved the most — his brother — while gazing at the candle flame’s black spot until” everything around him disappeared.”

Years of practicing the candle practice every night led Bux to the realization that, at the age of 24, if he closed his eyes and focused intently on something,” I can see vaguely, faintly the format of the item I am looking at.”

He claimed that by the age of 28, he was able to learn books while wearing blindfolds.

Bux’s claims didn’t go unchallenged. Some who studied his so-called X-ray act concluded that he was peeking down the sides of his nose, says Renee Caitlyn Miller, who has written a paper on Bux. But that didn’t interfere with his popularity.

Magician Bill Larsen writes in an article for the magic magazine Genii that thousands of people flocked to see his performances while the media dubbed him” the wonder of the century” and the” eighth wonder in the world.”

Bux also had his own television show, Kuda Bix, Hindu Mystic, in addition to appearing on the first instance of Ripley’s Believe It Or Not on television.

Bux’s behavior was so convincing that it led people to think he was actually” see without look.” Three feminine players who were scheduled to perform at one of Bux’s displays expressed apprehension after hearing several of his statements, which were widely reported in the press. Booth wrote about this.

The people demanded dressing rooms far from Bux because he claimed to have been practicing looking through cement walls.

They grumbled,” There is only one cement walls standing between us and Kuda Bux.”

He finally relocated from London to the US, where he would continue to perform, including at the renowned Magic Castle, a Hollywood team.

In 1981, Bux passed away in Los Angeles, California. He spent his final weeks playing tickets at the Magic Castle with artists who, according to Booth, was only defeat Bux if he didn’t don his mask.

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