A black-and-white photo of a person mid-air in a Superman-style body suspension pose, supported by multiple hooks in their back and legs, smiling joyfully toward the camera. They are suspended horizontally in a large indoor space with high ceilings and visible rigging. A group of onlookers—some seated, some standing—watch with expressions of admiration, amusement, and support. The atmosphere is lively and communal, capturing a moment of shared experience and transformation.

Mirin Dajo

The post about Simon skewering his gut reminded me of Dutch mystic and probably the most extreme Western fakir ever, Mirin Dajo, who could take deep skewers through organs in the core of his body. I saw another video claiming he was a con artist and had a series of healed fistula creating procedures in order to created a healed “piercing” that could fake this. A healed piercing through organs? It’s ridiculous. In any case, here’s the video:

Comments

44 responses to “Mirin Dajo”

  1. Ludövic Avatar
    Ludövic

    The video is in french, and it says that it’s not fake, the doctors made a radiography of his body, and even the hearts was transpierced ! Nobody can survive such a thing, fake or not… I don’t know… Weird ^^

  2. Leroy Avatar

    Thats some heavy play piercing 😛

  3. Leroy Avatar

    Ooorr.. He has mutant healing powers, ala Wolverine.

  4. Spicazi Avatar

    Woooah. Intense!

  5. Spicazi Avatar

    Naw, you have to be sexy to have mutant healing powers. Wolverine is hot.. This guy? Not so..

  6. lilish Avatar
    lilish

    How is it even possible to live after that?

  7. skarekrow Avatar

    the human body is a sturdy and very forgiving construction. we are able to take several shots to the torso, the head and the abdomen and survive. and a bullet creates more physical mayhem than a fencing sword.

    the video is kind of cool, pretty intense if you ask me.

  8. Skip Avatar

    Mental Note: Never get into a sword fight with a fakir.

  9. Tony Avatar

    I just want to know how you figure out you can do that.

  10. Jodie Avatar
    Jodie

    That’s amazing. I’d never heard of him before.

  11. mkb Avatar

    Yikes.

    I remember a previous modblog entry with a guy who had inserted a serious looking needle directly into his navel.

  12. Wilburt Avatar

    mad shit dare i say it…mad

  13. Lise Avatar
    Lise

    Please hook me up with the guy on the main bme page… he’s adorable

  14. warren Avatar
    warren

    of course he’s got healed fistulas, but they don’t go through any organs. they bypass all that. fistulas can have all the dermal layers. The sword was dull, of course, and he probably lubed up the holes beforehand.

    the most incredible piercing I could have imagined, except possibly for Phineas Gage who accidentally shot a 1.25 inch diameter 3 foot long tamping iron through his head and brain and lived (a somewhat altered existance).

  15. J. Tithonus Pednaud Avatar

    I have seen this video before and I have talked to people in the sideshow community about it. While there was an old carney illusion to pull off a similar stunt, I don’t think this is it.

    Besides, this sort of a legitimate fakir stunt isn’t that far from the realm of the plausible. I’ve seen several people pierce their flesh with swords, even today the fakir will run themselves straight through – though most do so only in the fatty tissue of their side, away from serious internal organs.

    Not to mention, people have survived with entire trees and fence posts driven through their abdomen. A little rapier like that seems bearable.

  16. Ghobian Avatar

    Seems like it would take more force? I don’t know. Real or fake, I’m baffled either way.

  17. bypass Avatar
    bypass

    If you read Dutch this website on Mirin Dajo might interest you: http://www.mirindajo.nl/cover.htm
    It appears to have been written by one Jan D. de Groot who was Mirin Dajo’s on stage helper.

  18. cuntcumber Avatar

    What? How?

    He must have had INCREDIBLE pain tolerance.

  19. Giles Wallwork Avatar

    Fantastic footage Shannon. Am looking for Musafar stuff on YouTube as we speak.

  20. cuntcumber Avatar

    Here’s a pretty good article for those who want to learn more about him:

    http://www.philipcoppens.com/mirindajo.html

  21. IG Avatar
    IG

    after reading “cuntcumber”s link, I think this Dajo is one cool chap.
    but to mention Geller? Geller is fake!

  22. J. Tithonus Pednaud Avatar

    I actually have some articles here on Mirin Dajo, it seems he did a human fountain routine, not unlike another extreme piercer Mortado

  23. Esmerelda Avatar

    Hehe, gotta love the Oldie Worldie French voiceover… The voice informs us that on a separate occasion, they went through his heart, not in any of these images… But doctors confirm that for anyone else, the wound would have been deadly.

    Yes, how the hell do you find out that you can do things like this? Did he try commiting suicide in the traditional “Fall on ones sword” way?

  24. hedning Avatar

    yeah i saw this in iam:dreamsofstars diary a while ago. pretty awesome. thank you for translating esmeralda.

  25. Strechearstrong Avatar
    Strechearstrong

    he just new one day he could pierce his body without any harm to his own.

  26. helen Avatar

    i saw on iam:dreamsofstars diary as well.

    i had to laugh when the guy was sitting on the dr’s table.
    ‘so what seems to be the trouble?’ was the first thing that came to mind.

  27. bethiesan Avatar
    bethiesan

    Why is there no blood?

  28. Ant Avatar

    Whoa….I’ve seen pictures of Dajo before, but seeing the video is a whole new kind of weird.

  29. Shannon Larratt Avatar

    Ant – The article that cuntcumber (#20) linked is a pretty good overview.

  30. moddoctor Avatar

    Sorry I’m late. I really reserve judgment on this film. Placement of the blade could make all the difference and correctly placed could allow for a whole lot. Without modern medical imaging to confirm placement, it’s very hard to know where those blades are exactly. I am going to go out on a limb and call shenanigans on the heart piercing, though. That would quite simply be not only fatal but fairly messy.

  31. ~ Avatar

    I agree with Tony. My first question is how the hell do you figure out you can do something like that? How do you even begin to work towards it? Fake or not, the wow factor is still through the roof.

  32. Kevin Avatar
    Kevin

    Damn. And I thought the needle through the foot would be the only thing to make me squirm from ModBlog. Damn you!

  33. wish_I_were_a_dragon... Avatar

    thats impresive to look at 😛

  34. Shannon Larratt Avatar

    I tend to agree with moddoctor that my willingness to believe the story ends at the piercing of the heart. That said, the rest is plausible. There’s modern Iranian/Iraqi footage of fakirs floating around that’s quite similar to Mirin Dajo…

    The photo of Mirin though that BLEW MY MIND was that of him being skewered with 8mm needles, that they then sprayed water through to prove they were real. A dull blade pushes tissue aside, and if it’s nice and smooth, can do surprisingly little damage… but I don’t know if you could pull that off with a tube.

  35. ÈMþRê§§ Avatar
    ÈMþRê§§

    I have seen a simular kinda of thing to this. Dosnt the person heavily meditate before hand to totally relax and stop the blood pumping quite so much.

    Dammit wish I could remember where I saw it before.

  36. Jay.O Avatar
    Jay.O

    oh my GOSH!

  37. J. Tithonus Pednaud Avatar

    The heart was never pierced during this feat. But he did die in ’49 of an aortic rupture. The initial poster likely heard a confused account.

  38. escargobrunch Avatar

    Since you like torture and pain, why don’t you go to Iraq and stand in for young people who don’t want to be there.
    I see no constructive use for you in society otherwise.

  39. Shannon Larratt Avatar

    Are you saying that people are being sent to Iraq for the purpose of dying? I don’t think that’s the goal.

  40. LeavethepoliticstoMadmen Avatar
    LeavethepoliticstoMadmen

    You know, there is such a thing as mirrored organ syndrome… where basically the organs in a person’s body are located as if mirrored by a normal body’s organs. So everything is on the otherside of where is should be… which could make some that video feasible.

    I’m not convinced though..

  41. agatheapower59 Avatar
    agatheapower59

    je voudrais savoir si tu pouvais m’envoyer la vidéo elle cartonne, jte remercie! Toutes les tof sont supers!!

  42. Joey Avatar
    Joey

    Wow! That gives a whole new meaning to body piercing!

  43. n0ir Avatar
    n0ir

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvEH64F6Upk

    Observe that the doctor in the end of the clip talks about healed fistulas that DON´T go through any organs. Really freaky trick, but a real testament to the amazing human body! 😉

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