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TITLE: Erik Jan Hanussen – Hitler’s Jewish Clairvoyant
AUTHOR: Mel Gordon

SUMMARY: While stuffed with a good deal of “diversion” this biographic look at the life & times of the faux Dane/faux Clairvoyant is most interesting and for many reasons, the most interesting point (for me at least) is how it reveals the Old School mode of presenting Mentalism; not just Hanussen’s antics but that of several major Mentalism “stars” of the early 20th century (few of whom had nearly the legal headaches and near constant scrutiny Hanussen came to know; kind of reminds one of how poor Uri was hounded by the naysayers all those years). But in regards to those same cynics, this book offers a fair sketch as to the lengths they will go in order to stack the proverbial deck as well; several incidents are noted in which “witnesses” and documentation was. . . let’s say, Manipulated. Then too, even with the hundreds of people that screamed “Fraud” and the idea that they were defrauded by Hanussen, most were proved to be contrived scenarios in which the supposed victims were “misremembering” events – Hanussen’s predictions frequently proving true or at minimum, closer to accurate than not.

The irony to all of the legal action and not being able to prove Hanussen a fraud centered on two key things; the fact that the prosecutors NEVER asked anyone that worked with or for the famed Mind Reader; and too, even when a rift existed between Hanussen and his accomplices, a unique loyalty between them proved them both as untouchable.

For a book that was NOT written for the general magic/mentalism market this book is packed with some fairly accurate expose when it comes to Muscle Reading, Code Work and Confederates amongst other things. Then again, Hanussen himself frequently tipped how he did much of the material people saw him do and instead of it hurting his career it helped; his expressed mania and general unpredictability both, on and off stage somehow making it all work – making it all acceptable, as part of the growing Occult movement (comparable to the New Age sensation of the 1980’s) throughout much of mainland Europe and most especially, the German speaking and Slavic lands.

Hanussen, while known to most as a Muscle Reader was actually a Hypnotist; he employed hypnosis and techniques that would later get rolled into NLP as well as FACS methodologies in rather uncanny ways. The irony I found with this is how closely his antics with Hypnosis and even Telepathy, mirror the ideas of sexual conquests so many of today’s hobbyists seem emphatic about.

All in all, I believe this a good read for anyone interested in Mentalism and most especially, early 20th century Mentalism in Eastern Europe.

The book normally retails for $24.95 in the U.S. but can be had via Amazon for as little as $5.00 (which is what I paid for a mint condition copy).

£2.95 from Hero Shopping via Amazon UK - plus P&P which takes it to just under £6.00.

Yep. The Nazis bumped him off for talking too much. Let that be a warning to all mentalists.

In other words, think but don't talk!

I recently saw a good film about him and the Jewish strongman he performed with, it's called 'The Mesmerist' starring Tim Roth.
I even lifted some of the lines from his speech to Goebbels at the circular table. Good stuff.

Ettienne Frost wrote:I recently saw a good film about him and the Jewish strongman he performed with, it's called 'The Mesmerist' starring Tim Roth.
I even lifted some of the lines from his speech to Goebbels at the circular table. Good stuff.

I thought that movie stank and really painted Hanussen in a rather dark light. I know that it didn't fair too well with critics or film viewers and from what I can tell through the bio, it was far from historically accurate.

I thought it was a good movie.

He performed some interesting classics, too. I liked (if that's the right word) the way he performed the blister effect.

My understanding is that he was killed not because of his apparent influence over Hitler, nor for his ethnic background, but because he lent money to members of the Gestapo (who decided it was cheaper to bump him off than to pay).

Ted wrote:I thought it was a good movie.

He performed some interesting classics, too. I liked (if that's the right word) the way he performed the blister effect.

My understanding is that he was killed not because of his apparent influence over Hitler, nor for his ethnic background, but because he lent money to members of the Gestapo (who decided it was cheaper to bump him off than to pay).

It was a combination of things including the fact that several members of the "Party" owed him some big bucks. The deeper truth however stems from previous partners that he'd wronged years previous, even when they'd helped cover his back on several occasions when "element #2" was harassing him -- Element #2 being a handful of civic authorities that had been tracking him and attempting to take him out of the public light via legal recourse. To their chagrin however, they could never "prove" any form of fraud and frequently, their own witnesses would be proved such.

It would be the combination of this past, with Goebbels (I think that's right) growing pile of evidence that proved Erik's Jewish roots, a local periodical that kept printing stories about Jan Hanussen being a Jew and related to a line of Mystic-type priests from with Judaism, etc. Then, we come to the loans and ultimately, the sense of embarrassment felt by party members, that their leader hung on every word uttered by the Jewish mystic -- HORROR OF HORRORS!

What's more interesting to my mind, is how desperate Jan Hanussen was to simply "fit in" with upper-society. So much so that he'd denounce his own Jewish ancestry, convert to Catholicism and become a member of the NAZI Party . . . he even gave tons of money to "the cause" in its infancy so the Brown shirts had boots and uniforms to wear.