Sorcerer's apprentice

"Sorcerer's Apprentice is the amazing story of Tahir Shah's apprenticeship to one of India's master conjurors, Hakim Feroze, and his initiation into the brotherhood of Indian godmen. It is also the account of a magical journey across India, told with self-deprecating wit, panache, and an eye for the outlandish.". "Feroze is the kind of person who can seemingly walk through locked doors, dematerialize when your gaze is averted, and resurrect himself from the dead. A student of Houdini and a hard taskmaster, he teaches the author the basics of his craft, such as sleights of hand, swallowing stones, raising his body temperature to 104 degrees, immersing his hands in boiling oil and lead, and - Aaron's old trick from the Bible - turning a rod into a serpent. Shah learns not only to practice illusion but to spot the artifice behind it. To complete his training and prove himself, he is sent on a quest to discover the ways illusion is manifest in every corner of the subcontinent.". "Saddled with a hilarious sidekick and guide he calls the Trickster, Shah travels from Calcutta to Madras, from Bangalore to Bombay in search of the miraculous and bizarre. Encountering myriad incarnations of illusion, deception, and street fraud, he meets a mix of sadhus, sages, sorcerers, avatars, fortune-tellers, healers, hypnotists, and humbugs, among them people who have developed extraordinary talents and abilities. While recounting their feats, he also reveals - and admires - the imagination and resourcefulness ordinary Indians deploy in order to survive. In this book, Tahir Shah lifts the veil on the East's most puzzling miracles and exposes a side of India that most never imagine exists."--BOOK JACKET.