As a young boy, Sima Nan had seen his father and grandfather perform different medical “cures” (using a force called qigong) that seemed to have a strong effect on friends and relatives. They showed him how he could do the same thing. In 1977, while attending college, he studied qigong and after graduation, he was assigned to work for the central government in Beijing. This was at the end of 1981, when qigong and the “special ability” (teyi gongneng) cult had reached their peak in the capital city. Sima Nan had an opportunity to witness several prominent masters giving demonstrations, and he was shocked. The power of the mind could twist and bend spoons! People could break bricks with their head and suffer no injury! He had discovered a new world!

Sima immediately began studying books on the subject of qigong including Human Body Science written by China’s leading physicist, Qian Xueshen, which further prompted his interest. He joined a committee that later became known as the Chinese Human Body Science Association. As a follower and pilgrim, he felt that his gongfu (martial arts and psychic ability) was too shallow and that he needed to study hard and humbly devote himself to catching up with the other members. He got to know many masters through this affiliation.

In 1990, after nearly ten years involvement with the committee, Sima became disillusioned. In the beginning, he thought that because this area of study had the support of many famous scientists, it must have been a serious investigation into genuine human ability. But the activities and behavior of the organization had nothing to do with any serious research. It eventually became clear to him that they were interested in only two things. The first was finding famous and influential people to inscribe plaques and awards of endorsement for the organizers to enhance their credibility. The second was money. Every one of the masters he once admired and respected was using deception and trickery in order to manipulate people. Sima Nan decided that, if what they are doing is false, he must then locate the genuine qigong researchers. He believed that there must be some reality to the many stories and unanswered mysteries from the long history of Chinese culture. This haunted him for a long time. He continued to observe qigong masters plying their low-quality magic tricks, but he refused to reject qigong in its entirety. He had been following these masters for quite some time now, waiting on them like a servant. He ran errands such as buying their electrical appliances in department stores, arranging for the transfer of houses and property into their names and other subservient tasks. He had kept a very low profile in the organization and was accepted by them.

Before becoming involved with the qigong movement, Sima Nan admits to having held to the naive notion that scientific research couldn’t possibly allow for gross misrepresentation and deception. When he saw respected and trusted people achieve positions of wealth and power by using methods of deception, he finally had to change his mind. He once witnessed a performance presented for the benefit of high ranking government officials. Deception was clearly employed. Later he asked his masters, “Why must we resort to these measures?” He was told “Today it is very difficult for us to proceed with our work; we need more funding. Now is a good time to convince them to give us a lot of money; it’s necessary and of benefit to our organization.” This is how influence and endorsements from powerful people enabled masters to fill huge stadiums. The credulity of these officials and their willingness to support these activities resulted in unquestioning support from the media, which they control. This fueled the public support and fervor.

From the education he received as a youth and from what he had since learned, Sima Nan could no longer accept the masters’ rationalizations. Deception is wrong. At a 1990 symposium held at the Chinese Technology Convention Center he first acted on his convictions. Posing as a student of a popular qigong master, he told the scientific experts in attendance, “Although I have been learning from the master for only a short time, I nonetheless take issue with many of the criticisms that you scientists level against the science of qigong. In order to prove my point, I will give a performance for the benefit of your expert evaluation. If my demonstration fails, you must agree never to offer this as proof that ‘special ability’ qigong does not exist. But if my demonstration withstands your scrutiny, I demand that you publicly accept the reality of ‘special ability’ qigong.” All of the experts who witnessed his charade agreed to the terms and he began his performance. Sima had his accomplice place seven bricks on his head. Using a big sledgehammer, his friend shattered the bricks, but Sima emerged unharmed. They then placed a huge cement slab on Sima’s stomach and his muscular friend cracked it in two with a mighty blow from the hammer. Sima then showed them how he could “see” characters written on pieces of paper by using his “specially developed” sense of hearing. Next he explained how he could use "external” qi to change the taste of tap water. After tasting the water that had been exposed to Sima Nan’s treatment, all agreed that the water had changed its flavor. They all conceded that he had successfully proven the existence of qigong and special ability. This had been Sima Nan’s first experiment to test how scientific experts could easily be deceived by tricks that are as old as the hills.

When another master performed her “big natural center” qigong, the people of Beijing became instantly enamored of her great skills. This psychic activity became enormously popular and Sima Nan pretended to be one of the masters. He infiltrated the group and imitated their mystic “language.” These people said that they were making contact with the timeless wisdom of the universe. Some of the more experienced speakers flattered the newcomer, insisting that his spoken ability was even better than theirs. Some leaders of the central government even became involved, organizing a convention for these "gifted” people to share and exchange their experiences. Even after Sima Nan revealed this farce to the government leaders in attendance, many still chose to believe that this psychic activity was genuine.

All of this caused Sima Nan to think, “I've been a journalist for many years now. It’s my responsibility to my profession as well as to my conscience to investigate and expose the truth about qigong and the special ability cult.” His pursuit of that goal led to the highest levels of the qigong organization, where he was finally satisfied that he had discovered the whole truth about the qigong industry’s big hoax. At first, he went public very conservatively, only revealing a few of the more common tricks employed by the profession. He was harshly denounced as a traitor and received criticism for his lack of “virtue” (gong de). He was immediately booted out of the Chinese Human Body Science Association, who charged that he was simply a jealous, untalented malcontent, incapable of achieving their high levels of ability. This charge was absurd because not only could he demonstrate the simple tricks of the trade as well or better than they could, but he was also able to show others how to instantly do the same thing.

During the ten years of the “Creating Gods in China” movement, qigong had emerged omniscient, deceiving people of all socioeconomic levels. Governmental departments set up qigong research and development units and invested large sums of money for that purpose. The qigong network even sought to influence the highest level of the country’s leadership. They used every means possible to divert money and gain promotions for their “meritorious support” of the new “science.” Huge amounts of money and resources were squandered, and many promotions were granted-even in the scientific community, where experts of the “Human Body Science” specialty, not yet officially recognized as academically sound, received great attention and support. The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), however, never allowed themselves to be associated with qigong in any way. All qigong research was conducted outside of this agency and did not receive its support or approval. This is the reason that the China University of Science and Technology in Hefei, Anhui province, does not sponsor or support qigong. USTC is the only university in China that operates under the direct authority of the CAS. They maintain the highest requirements of any science university in the country, and American universities eagerly recruit their highly qualified graduates. All other schools answer only to the Chinese Higher Education Commission, which lends its cooperation to some university leaders who benefit by using the schools as platforms for qigong propaganda.

As of this writing, there is a big criminal case currently under investigation involving the Chinese National Athletic Bureau in Beijing. Twenty million Chinese yuan donated by Hong Kong philanthropists for the purpose of establishing health insurance policies for China’s top athletes was diverted to certain special ability qigong masters.

None of the alleged scientific proof of qigong's existence has ever been verified by independent, transparent duplication of the claimed results. Sima Nan believes that an honest scientific evaluation of qigong would be a useful way to settle the debate. How can China allow these qigong masters and people practicing witchcraft to dominate the fields of science and technology? Even street vagabond con artists now claim scientific validation for their craft.

The trouble is that the qigong industry has everything to lose and nothing to gain from real scientific scrutiny. Such was the case with the so-called “special ability” children hoax several years ago. Many believers of this hoax could not fathom how young children would ever be capable of fooling grown adults, claiming that they lacked the means and motives for such deception. The China Psychological Institute, affiliated with the CAS, tested these children and found that none of them could perform under testing conditions set up to prevent cheating. The institute concluded that the explanation for this “phenomenon” is something that most grade school teachers should be familiar with. Some children like to attract attention by pulling pranks. In most cases, the “special ability” children had been encouraged by adults.

Some popular writers claim that because some masters volunteer to treat patients for free, this proves that they are genuine and sincere. Sima Nan said that he would also gladly volunteer to take control of the nation’s gold reserves and money supply, but he would certainly be prevented from doing so. Some might wish to volunteer to protect the nation’s top leaders, or perform surgery. But without proper qualifications, should they be allowed to accept such responsibility? The fact that someone volunteers to do something does not mean that they are qualified for such tasks. In Sima Nan’s view all of the qigong masters that he has observed are exactly alike in one respect-they are all mainly interested in money. Initially they were just a group of ordinary individuals, but later they became an industry. The greater their promotional skills, the more money they generated. One master was discovered to be holding several hundred million yuan in property, obtained from his millions of adoring students. Other “non-profit” masters don’t accept money outright, but their students are required to purchase their books, videotapes, pictures, “tea containing qi,” calendars-every possible gimmick to separate the students from their cash.

Sima Nan is frequently asked to explain why it is that qigong treatment seems to work, at least some of the time. Sima agrees that qigong is very effective as an adjunct method of clinical treatment in certain cases. For example, he said that he has seen very good results when qigong is used to treat patients suffering from hypochondria. Some such patients are unable to stand on their own, and the psychological effect of the master’s presence can enable them to do so. Where before, the patient believed that they couldn’t do it, the master gave them the faith to do otherwise. There is no mystery here. Sima Nan said that faith healing has been carefully studied in the West and that the absolute power and authority of the master, along with unconditional acceptance on the part of the patient, has a powerful psychological effect. Statistics have shown that approximately 5 percent of the population is particularly susceptible to this suggestibility and that age and educational level have no bearing on its effect. Sometimes a patient has already healed naturally and qigong receives credit for this, too.

After the Great Cultural Revolution in China, people were liberated from the old superstition of character worship (Mao). But many Chinese felt empty because they lacked orientation. Mao Zedong had called on the country to eliminate superstitions, cults, etc., but many old ideas still stuck in people’s minds. It was not enough to simply tell people to abandon these outdated notions without also explaining why it was of benefit to do so. There was no education to accompany the doctrine. Those who are used to being tightly controlled, and have become comfortable with it, tend to treat their qigong masters not as people, but as gods.

Sima Nan saw many people sink deeper and deeper into the qigong miasma. Because he never abandoned his principles and trusted his own mind to evaluate and critically examine qigong, he managed to free himself from the clutches of blind acceptance. “All of this has been exhausting at times, but I feel that I've become a better person as a result,” Sima says. The Abstract History of Chinese Atheism, by Wang Sanyou of Nanjing University, showed him that throughout China’s history, there have always been those who refused to bow to superstitious pressure, even in times of great fervor and zeal. A sense of responsibility to society had triggered his decision to stand up to qigong. The freethinker, iconoclast and revolutionary writer Lu Xun once said that Chinese culture should be renamed "Wizardry.” “All over the world ancient superstitions were abandoned in favor of modern science and medicine. Why does China still adhere to outdated concepts that continue to limit our thinking?” Sima asks.

Since 1990, Sima Nan has collaborated with the China Association of Science and Technology (CAST) and is now an investigator and founding member of the Committee of Scientific Thinking, a new branch of CAST. Sima Nan says that these organizations have benefitted from their association with CSICOP in the U.S. and that plans are now underway to establish a branch of CSICOP in Hong Kong. Sima said that although most people in China have never heard of CSICOP, there is one exception: the qigong masters have become acutely aware of the organization ever since their 1988 delegation visit to investigate traditional Chinese medicine and qigong in China. After the CSICOP team exposed all of the tricks presented by the highly respected masters, the qigong underworld now has its own term for CSICOP investigators: ”yang qian dui,” or “foreign gun squad.” This term stems from the time of the Opium War where deep resentment of British and American invaders led to the Boxer Rebellion of 1900. The Boxers prided themselves on their martial arts ability and believed themselves invincible to the bullets of the foreign guns. In adopting the emotionally charged ”yang qian dui” expression, qigong masters generate hatred of foreigners who seek to verify their claims. They want their countrymen to view such investigation as simply another example of the atrocities suffered by the Chinese at the hands of foreigners. In this way, they exploit racism and nationalism so as to shift scrutiny away from themselves.

Today, Sima Nan continues to support the fight against pseudoscience and has set up an agency that will test claims of the paranormal. His office has a standing offer of one million Chinese yuan to anyone who can perform one act of "special ability” without cheating. Anyone wishing to apply for this prize is encouraged to contact his office in Beijing: 010-269-61001, E-mail: simanan@public.bta.net.cn. He also welcomes any legal attacks from qigong masters, or writers who have been damaged by his exposés. He feels that bringing these disputes before the public eye is a highly instructive process. All should feel free to contact him immediately.

For many Chinese people life is difficult-they suffer at work and are now being laid off in a large numbers. In this depressing condition, they are even more vulnerable to the multitudes of diseases that result from crowded conditions, pollution, chain smoking, and lack of modern heating and sanitation. Finding a qualified doctor is extremely difficult. There are many other misfortunes suffered daily by the Chinese people and they need genuine help, rather than being fooled, cheated out of their money and stripped of their dignity by some charlatan who has become their “master.”

An economist and journalist, Sima Nan is the former vice director of the China Central Government Department of Journalism and was former director of the Central Government Editing House, where he evaluated and made assessments on economic issues. He has published in excess of one million words and has received numerous national and professional awards for his works, many of which were published in authoritative economic journals and reports. Recently, his interests have broadened to include philosophy, comparative religions and the qigong phenomenon.

For example in 1995 a London gypsy who called herself “Mrs. Marina” persuaded a man to hand over his life’s savings, some £3,000. The 35-year-old postman, whom police described as “intelligent but unsophisticated,” contacted the woman about his severe depression. She informed him his stomach was harboring evil and instructed him to return with a tomato, a photo of his fiancée, and £350 in cash. As reported the Evening Standard:

In the darkened flat, the tomato was swapped for another without the man’s knowledge.

When she cut it open, a hair was extracted-a sign, the frightened man was told, that the evil was still present. By now in a state of near-panic, he promised to return with his entire savings of £3,000. . . .

This time the credulous postman was shown an egg filled with blood, whereupon he fainted. When he revived, the money he had clutched to his stomach was gone. “The evil has been removed,” the soothsayer claimed. “You can go.” When the man later attempted to get his money back, she told him she had burned it and buried the ashes in a cemetery. She later claimed to police that the money was “payment for services” but did eventually return it to avoid facing charges (Delgado 1995).

Typically the practitioners of the egg/tomato trick are gypsies, the term having derived from “Egyptian” due to a mistaken notion of their ancestry. They were actually exiled from northwestern India in the first millennium a.d., and in the Middle Ages sought asylum in Romania, hence their other designation as Romanies or (as they prefer) Roma ("Gypsies” 1960; Popp 1997). They constitute an ethnic group who “essentially live outside the cultures of the countries in which they choose to reside” and who often treat non-gypsies as “fair game for their fortune-telling, curse-lifting and other superstitious ministrations” (Randi 1995). According to William Lindsay Gresham in his fascinating book on carnivals, Monster Midway (1953):

The gypsies call fortunetelling pen dukkerin. It is the traditional trade of gypsy women the world over and throughout history. But along with it goes another art called hokkani boro - the great trick. A credulous patron (usually a housewife), after having her fortune told, is initiated by the gypsy into the magic of making money double itself when the proper spell is chanted over it. The money is wrapped in a handkerchief and must be “dreamed on"-placed under the pillow at night. Next morning, when the gypsy comes again, lo and behold, the sum is twice that which was tied into the handkerchief. This time the housewife takes all her savings, sometimes even borrows from relatives and neighbors, and has the gypsy tie it up and chant over it. So much money must have more time to double itself-usually three weeks, and the gypsy exacts an oath that the owner will not tamper with the bundle until the spell has had a chance to work.

The gypsy never returns and the bundle, when opened, naturally contains a roll of wrapping paper, cut into the size of dollar bills. This is hokkani boro, old when the pyramids were new, and still good for taking off modest scores, although it has landed more than one Romany chi in the staripen (pokey to you) and in frontier days in Tennessee, got one old gypsy woman burned at the stake for pulling this trick.

Continues Gresham:

Another Romany name for this dodge is hakk'ni panki, from which hanky-panky, as a synonym for trickery of any sort, probably stems.¹

There is a counting rhyme among English children which goes:

Eckery, ackery, ookery an,

Fillisy, follasy, Nicholas John. . . .

which is pure Romany double-talk:

Ekkeri, akai-ri, u kair-an.

Fillissin, follasy. Nakelas ja'n. . . .

It means, literally:

First, here, you begin.

Castle, gloves; go on, you can’t play!

The interesting thing is that this nonsense rhyme in Romany is the traditional spell uttered over the handkerchief containing the money! Children have retentive memories and a great many of them down the centuries, listening at the keyhole while the gypsy crone enchanted the cash, must have heard this time-honored formula.

Increasingly, fortunetelling is practiced by the gorgio (non-gypsies)-a trespass the true Roma may find hard to forgive (Gresham 1953). In any event “the great trick” remains part of their legacy.

Quite often the hokkani boro is facilitated by use of an egg or tomato-or both-and the techniques are extremely varied. For example, a quite sinister tomato was the device used to bilk one woman of over $20,000. She had visited a soothsayer named “Sister Bella” who duly divined that the credulous woman was threatened by an evil force. To counter it, she was instructed to return the following day with a handkerchief and a fresh tomato. Passing the tomato over the woman’s body, Sister Bella then wrapped it in the handkerchief and instructed the woman to crush it with her foot. Out of the bloody pulp stared an ominous black lizard-a sure sign of the predicted evil.

Sister Bella explained that such evil-perhaps cancer or other disaster-resulted from money that had a lingering curse, possibly from ill-gained dollars passed onto her. “Take all your money except a few hundred dollars out of the bank,” instructed Sister Bella. “This money I will convert from evil to good by special magic venerated for over three thousand years.” The gypsy sewed the money in a pillowcase and instructed her client to place the bag in her safe deposit box for three months. When the bundle was finally opened, it contained not the purified $22,000, but a mere $22 and strips of paper (Rachleff 1971).

In 1997 several instances of the scam were reported in New York state alone. In one case a Romanian native and “psychic astrologer” pled guilty to grand larceny for bilking a Massapequa resident of $2,000 out of an intended $20,000. Police secretly videotaped the “exorcism” that involved candles and chanting, followed by the breaking of an egg which the victim, a widow, had kept under her bed. A “chicken embryo” reportedly emerged, whereupon the psychic screamed, “You have to sacrifice the money. All of the evil that is in your body is in there” ("Jail” 1997).

Later that year an Aurora resident was defrauded of $9,600 and an Elgin woman was cheated of cash and jewelry totaling $14,000. Police warned Hispanic residents about the “group of gypsy con artists posing as Spanish-speaking fortunetellers and palm readers,” who had absconded with almost $30,000 the previous year. Renting an apartment for a week to ten days, the scam artists asked clients to bring an egg or tomato. “When the item is broken or cut open,” a newspaper reported, “either a worm, a skeleton or a spider is found inside, symbolizing bad luck” ("Fortuneteller” 1997). This was a prelude to having the clients bring their valuables to be blessed. Later they would return for them only to find instead an empty apartment or, alternately, the victims would open a bag to find only scraps of paper.

Interestingly, somewhat ironically, and perhaps predictably, while I was working on this historical sketch, a Buffalo, New York, Roma woman using the name “Sister Ana” was arrested for allegedly stealing over $3,600 from a 28-year-old single mother. According to her, the mystic performed a ritual to remove “an evil curse” from her, employing lighted candles and incantations, and passing an egg over her body (Michel 1998). She was then directed to step on the egg and saw therein an ugly mass. It was so repulsive she did not examine it closely, but she told the arresting officer it resembled a mixture of chicken parts, hair, and the like (Rinaldo 1998).

The officer, Detective Tom Rinaldo, a friend of CSICOP, is a fraud expert and author, and a member of the Board of Directors of Professionals Against Confidence Crime. He said of the mystic: “She acted in disbelief when we came to her house. I told her, ‘You're a psychic. You should have known we were coming.'”

Given that it is useful for the fortuneteller to demonstrate and dramatize the "evil” that attends the unsuspecting client, why are eggs and tomatoes specifically employed? One reason is the symbolism and lore associated with them. For example, eggs are obvious symbols of fertility and continuing life. The ancient Greeks and Romans exchanged colored eggs at spring festivals, a custom later appropriated by Christians and-eggs being emblems of resurrection-associated with the Easter season. Many popular superstitions are linked to eggs. For example, small, yolkless eggs supposedly bode ill, especially if brought into the house, whereas two yolks in a single egg represent good luck for the one who received it. And dreaming about spoiled eggs supposedly foretells death in the family.

Eggs have also been used in divination, one approach being to read the shapes of the white dripped into water (much like tea-leaf reading), and in other occult practices. Reportedly the Mayan Indians used the yolk of an egg to undo the spell of an “evil eye.” The medicine man repeatedly passed an egg in front of the bewitched person’s face. He then broke the shell and stared at the yolk as though it were the actual Evil Eye, before burying it in a hidden place (DeLys 1989; Hole 1961).

Tomatoes are also the subject of superstitions. “Some Italians,” reports one treatise, “put a large red tomato on the mantel to bring prosperity to the house. When placed on the window-sill, or in any opening, it wards off evil spirits, and protects the occupants of the house” (DeLys 1989, 249).

Eggs and tomatoes are also common objects that can be brought to a session by the client himself, thereby dispelling any suspicion that the object is specially prepared. Of course, that is exactly what happens. As already indicated, the usual method is to prepare an egg or tomato in advance and then switch it for the client’s, using “misdirection” (as magicians say) or an even simpler method, as I demonstrated for a Discovery Channel special.

Titled “The Science of Magic,” the documentary was hosted by Harry Anderson, star of the TV series Night Court and a magician in his own right. The day before the film crew arrived to tape the segment (which aired on November 30, 1997) I prepared an egg in the small laboratory connected to my office. I used an awl to poke a hole in the end of the egg and then, inserting the tool, scrambled the contents. Through the small opening I worked a hairball, added some ink with an eyedropper, and finally squirted in some theatrical “blood.” I then covered the opening with a small piece of tape, and dabbed over it with some white correction fluid.

With the cameras rolling, I had my “victim"-Center for Inquiry Library director Tim Binga-select an egg from a bowl. I passed the egg over his body, as if to draw out any evil influences, then turned him around to repeat the procedure. As he was facing away, I took the opportunity to place the egg in one of my coat pockets, while simultaneously withdrawing the prepared egg from another. When I broke it into a dish, Tim responded to the repulsive mass with a look that may earn him a nomination for “Best Performance of an Eyebrow.”

Skeptics wishing to make such a demonstration can follow a similar procedure. Alternately, depending on the desired effect, an egg may be emptied by making a hole at each end and blowing out the (scrambled) contents; the shell may then be refilled with blood (as in the London postman case) or other material. Or a tomato can be prepared by making a slit in the bottom and inserting objects (like the rubber lizard “Sister Bella” produced). Magicians can produce these and other effects very convincingly, even without using a prepared egg or tomato or making any switch.

Magical entertainment and pretended soothsaying aside, it seems predictable that “the great trick” will be repeated again and again. It is to be hoped that a detective like Tom Rinaldo will, in each instance, also be in the practitioner’s future.

References

• Delgado, Martin. 1995. “Police Powerless as Voodoo Con Girl Makes Thousands,” London Evening Standard, July 6.
• DeLys, Claudia. 1989. What’s So Lucky About a Four-leaf Clover? New York: Bell Publishing Co., 247-50.
• “Fortuneteller Scam Returns. . . .” 1997. Daily Herald (reprinted in CON-fidential Bulletin, October, 15).
• “Gypsies.” 1960. Encyclopaedia Britannica.
• Gresham, William Lindsay. 1953. Monster Midway. New York: Rinehart & Co., 113-115.
• Hole, Christina, ed. 1961. The Encyclopedia of Superstitions. New York: Barnes and Noble, 149-150.
• “Jail May Be in Cards for Psychic.” 1997. New York Newsday (reprinted in CON-fidential Bulletin).
• Michel, Lou. 1998. “Self-proclaimed West Side Psychic Didn't Predict Own Arrest,” Buffalo News, October 11.
• Popp, Christine. 1997. “Rescuing Rich Gypsy Tradition” (article reprinted in CON-fidential Bulletin, December, 13).
• Rachleff, Owen S. 1971. The Occult Conceit. Chicago: Cowles Book Co., 172-176.
• Randi, James. 1995. The Supernatural A-Z. London: Brockhampton Press, 148.
• Rinaldo, Tom. 1998. Interview by author, November 11.
• “Woman, 62, Claims Fortune Teller Swindled Her Out of $9,300.” 1971. Toronto Daily Star, October 20.

Acknowledgments

In addition to individuals mentioned in the text, I am grateful to Mike Hutchinson for supplying the Evening Standard article.

Note

1. Other sources suggest the term may derive from hokey-pokey, an alteration of hocus-pocus.