Explores one of the most successful hoaxes of all time from the mystical East, and why people were so easily fooled.

We assume that the Indian rope trick is a piece of ancient Hindu magic. But think again: it is actually the product of a hoax which appeared in the Chicago Tribune in 1890. This wonderfully researched, playfully written book takes us on a journey through Victorian society where we discover the interest in magic of Charles Dickens; Alfred Russell Wallace; Edward, Prince of Wales; Lord Northbrook and Charles Darwin. We learn how in an age of reason the British came to love all things Oriental and how the legend of the rope trick came to be perpetuated throughout the 20th century as fanatical public figures and aristocrats went to India in search of it and returned claiming to have seen it being performed. This is a charming history book filled with colourful characters, known and unknown, all of whom pursued an obsession. Some were respected members of society, some were incredibly eccentric and utterly deluded. It is set against the background of Victorian society and shows how the writing of history itself can perpetuate myths and legends.

Pull back the curtain on the real history of magic – and discover why magic really matters If you read a standard history of magic, you learn that it begins in ancient Egypt, with the resurrection of a goose in front of the Pharaoh. You discover how magicians were tortured and killed during the age of witchcraft. You are told how conjuring tricks were used to quell rebellious colonial natives. The history of magic is full of such stories, which turn out not to be true. Behind the smoke and mirrors, however, lies the real story of magic. It is a history of people from humble roots, who made and lost fortunes, and who deceived kings and queens. In order to survive, they concealed many secrets, yet they revealed some and they stole others. They engaged in deception, exposure, and betrayal, in a quest to make the impossible happen. They managed to survive in a world in which a series of technological wonders appeared, which previous generations would have considered magical. Even today, when we now take the most sophisticated technology for granted, we can still be astonished by tricks that were performed hundreds of years ago. The Secret History of Magic reveals how this was done. It is about why magic matters in a world that no longer seems to have a place for it, but which desperately needs a sense of wonder.

It is the greatest legend of the Orient. A rope is thrown into the air and rises into the sky until it is completely vertical. A boy then climbs the rope, higher and higher. There, in broad daylight and surrounded by spectators, the boy disappears. In this book th3e author reveals the truth behind this remarkable legend. The Indian rope trick isn't Indian, it doesn't involve a rope, and it isn't a trick. The author describes how a simple hoax grew into the world's most famous mystery, assisted on its way by those in search of fame and fortune, and by others whose aim was to destroy it in defence of the West.

A useful manual for any magician or curious spectator who wonders why the tricks seem so real, this guide examines the psychological aspects of a magician’s work. Exploring the ways in which human psychology plays into the methods of conjuring rather than focusing on the individual tricks alone, this explanation of the general principles of magic includes chapters on the use of misdirection, sleight of hand, and reconstruction, provides a better understanding of this ancient art, and offers a section on psychics that warns of their deceptive magic skills.

Colette Bryce's The Heel of Bernadette was one of the most highly praised new collections of recent years, winning both the Aldeburgh Prize for best first collection, and the Strong Award for best new Irish poet. Her second, The Full Indian Rope Trick – the title poem already the winner of the 2003 National Poetry Competition – sees a leap forward in confidence and range, with Bryce's dark lyric and darker wit finding many different voices. Whatever subject the poet takes – an Ulster childhood and the child's growing awareness of her divided community, the surreal life of the natural world, or the more disturbing shadows thrown by our love and desire – it is always addressed with both a compelling emotional candour and an astonishingly musical intelligence. Pillar Talk That magician/who stationed himself on a pillar/over Manhattan/for thirty-five hours/knows nothing whatever/of loneliness/or how it is/for people like us/who have no soft acre/of cardboard boxes/not even the eggshell/flashbulbs of the press/or the well-meant antics/of neighbours with a mattress/to temper the thought/of the hard, hard earth,/to break the fall./Nothing at all.

India’s association with magic goes back thousands of years – from the seals of Mohenjodaro that depicted sorcerers and yogis, to the jugglers and acrobats that dazzled spectators at the courts of Hindu maharajas and Mughal emperors. Tales were told of ropes being thrown up in the air, strong enough for a boy to climb; of fakirs being buried alive for months and brought back to life; and of sanperas charming deadly cobras with their flutes. In the early nineteenth century, touring Indian magicians mesmerized audiences abroad, prompting generations of Western illusionists to emulate them. Jadoowallahs, Jugglers and Jinns: A Magical History of India tells the story of how Indian magic descended from the domain of the gods to become part of daily ritual and popular entertainment, and its transformation from the street to the stage culminating with the rise of the great P. C. Sorcar Sr. Drawing on ancient religious texts, colonial records, newspaper reports, journals and memoirs of Western and Indian magicians, John Zubrzycki offers us a vibrant narrative on Indian magic from ancient times to the present day.

‘In the mythical Indian rope trick, the rope stands straight up. Onlookers know, however, that the rope is staying up because the fakir wills it to stay up. India’s democracy is much the same. Some observers have found it hard to see how it could support itself, and many have expected it to fall. But it will stand if Indians want it to, and use their collective will to give it strength.’ When India shook off the chains of colonial rule in 1947, predictions abounded on how long it would take for the world’s largest democracy to fall apart. The new nation appeared to be too large and too diverse to be held together by a powerful centre, and some argued that it was an artificial creation that would soon break apart at the seams. Yet, more than 60 years and 16 general elections later, and through conflict, poverty, wars, famines, natural disasters, communal riots and separatist movements, nothing has stopped the Indian juggernaut from rolling on. Amid the chaos of 800 million voters and more than 8,000 candidates, the 2014 mandate marked yet another turn in India’s continuing tryst with democracy. What has kept the Indian system of governance ticking even as its neighbours have either become autocratic states or descended into dysfunctionality? How has India proved to the world that democracy may find its best home in the seemingly infinite mass that is the Indian population? In this testament to the resilience and indomitability of the Indian state, Roderick Matthews, bestselling author of Jinnah vs Gandhi, peels back layers to unveil a story that goes to the heart of this success. In exploring what it has taken for the country to overcome challenges, both external and internal, and drawing comparisons with the recent histories of India’s neighbours, Matthews argues that India’s constitutional foundations have allowed the nation to become the bedrock of democracy in the modern world.'

The modern materialist approach to life has conspicuously failed to explain such central mind-related features of our world as consciousness, intentionality, meaning, and value. This failure to account for something so integral to nature as mind, argues philosopher Thomas Nagel, is a major problem, threatening to unravel the entire naturalistic world picture, extending to biology, evolutionary theory, and cosmology. Since minds are features of biological systems that have developed through evolution, the standard materialist version of evolutionary biology is fundamentally incomplete. And the cosmological history that led to the origin of life and the coming into existence of the conditions for evolution cannot be a merely materialist history, either. An adequate conception of nature would have to explain the appearance in the universe of materially irreducible conscious minds, as such. Nagel's skepticism is not based on religious belief or on a belief in any definite alternative. In Mind and Cosmos, he does suggest that if the materialist account is wrong, then principles of a different kind may also be at work in the history of nature, principles of the growth of order that are in their logical form teleological rather than mechanistic. In spite of the great achievements of the physical sciences, reductive materialism is a world view ripe for displacement. Nagel shows that to recognize its limits is the first step in looking for alternatives, or at least in being open to their possibility.