FACHIRO (French, English, Spanish: Jakir; German: Fakir). — From the Arabic fagir, poor; the name is practically applied in India to the mendicant ascetics of all sects, who seek to acquire holiness through penances and contemplation, generally following the yoga method. Known since the eighteenth century through the accounts of travelers and missionaries, fakirism acquired a certain importance during the last eighty years, especially through the work of the “theological movement”; favorably received in spiritist-occultist circles, it found metapsychics (v.).
According to the reports of eyewitnesses, the phenomena produced by the f. could be classified into four categories. a) Actions upon himself: insensibility and non-burning. The f. is capable of lying on beds of sharp points, or of walking over sharp fragments or fire, without displaying painful sensations or corresponding injuries (P. Joire, p. 66 ff.; H. Price, p. 401 ff.); levitation (O. Leroy, p. 19; P. Joire, p. 76 ff.; C. Godard, p. 41); suspension of life, going so far as to have himself buried for a considerable time in a state of apparent death, with the movements of the heart and respiration stopped (P. Joire, pp. 63, 65; C. Godard, p. 44 ff.). — b) Actions upon other living beings: acceleration of the growth of animals (the experiment with fish eggs) and plants (C. Godard, pp. 41-42). — c) Actions upon matter: telekinesis, that is, motion imparted to an object at a distance (C. Godard, p. 40 ff.; P. Joire, p. 73 ff.); rope-trick, or “rope game,” a feat very frequently described by Anglo-Indian folklorists, in which the spectator sees the f., who has climbed along a rope stretched upward, mysteriously vanish into space, without any point of support or suspension (R. Schmidt, pp. 167-68; L. Massignon, I, p. 82; C. Godard, p. 43; H. Price, p. 362 ff.). — d) Actions within the sphere of the psychic world: clairvoyance (C. Godard, p. 41; P. Joire, pp. 74, 76, 77); phantom apparitions and evocations of the dead (C. Godard, p. 40; P. Joire, p. 74).
These prodigies, besides being attributed to Indian ascetics, would be, at least in part, common to the “Buddhist contemplatives” of China (L. Wieger, pp. 90, 426, 482, 632; O. Leroy, p. 21 ff.); to the “Muslim mystics” (O. Leroy, p. 22; M. Asin Palacios, p. 40; J. P. Brown, pp. 250, 255; L. Massignon, I, p. 263; C. Godard, p. 52); to the “magic” of primitive peoples (E. Bozzano, passim; P. Joire, p. 77 ff.; C. Godard, p. 54 ff.; V. HEBER, pp. 349-50); and to modern “mediumship” (v. METAPSICHICA).
The importance of these phenomena and of the theories devised to clarify their inner cause would be great if the existence of the phenomena themselves, at least of the most remarkable and extraordinary, had been scientifically established. It is not prudent to doubt everything indiscriminately: convictions maintained for a very long time and shared by so many people must have some foundation. But precisely for those facts that would be the most prodigious in fakirism, scientific certainty is lacking today. The documents that might appear the best are of little value, because they are too few, insufficiently described, lacking essential data for the verification of the testimony, and often collected by discredited authors (e.g., Jacolliot). The authenticity of the most extraordinary facts is seriously undermined by the fact that, when subjected to the criticism of modern travelers, they have proved either nonexistent or due to fraud; the simpler phenomena do not appear to exceed natural forces and can be reproduced, as they actually have been, by anyone possessing sangfroid and sufficient practice. In particular, the rope-trick appears to have been established as a trick (L. Roure, op. cit. in bibl., III, cols. 163-64; H. Price, p. 371 ff.); the “fire prodigy,” on the other hand, seems authentic. It certainly occurs among the primitives of Oceania (v. HEBER), but in the present state of science it cannot be explained by natural causes: recourse to the phenomenon of “calefaction” is insufficient, since the impotence of the facts would require such a production of sweat by the body as to exceed by far the possibilities, even exaggerated ones, of human nature; nor does any vapor develop from the bodies of the performers during the phenomena. Rather, the circumstance that the facts occur only during magical rites would incline one to admit the preternatural character of the cause, ascribing the event to the action of the demon. “Apparent death,” with the accompanying burial, is probably a trick: the relevant accounts are, in fact, contradictory (C. Godard, p. 46; J. De Bonniot, pp. 172-74); in any case, if true, the fact could, according to some, be attributed to those same causes, or analogous ones, capable of producing torpor and other forms of latent life in various invertebrate and vertebrate animals. Cases of apparent death seem likewise to have been observed in man (J. B. Ferreres).
In conclusion, the phenomena of fakirism, considered in their generality and substance, remain sub iudice; they can become the object of scientific investigation only when it is finally possible to draw upon sufficiently extensive, trustworthy, and well-described material.
DIBL.: R. Houdin, Confidences et révélation, Paris 1868; L. Jacolliot, Voyage au pays des fohire charmes, there 1883; P. Gibier, Le spiritisme. Fahirisme occidental, there 1884; A. Basian, Ueber psychische Beobachtungen bei Naturvölkern, Leipzig 1890, p. 20 ff.; J. De Bonniot, Le miracle et ses contrefaques, Paris 1895; A. De Roches, Recueil de documents relatifs à la législation du corps humain, there 1897, p. 8 ff.; C. Godard, Le fahirisme, there 1900; R. Schmidt, Fahire und Fahirism, Basino 1908; P. Joire, Les phénomènes psychiques supernormaux, Paris 1909; A. Creazzo, Studio sulla morte apparente e la morte reale, Rome 1913; M. Asín Palacios, La misique d'al-Qazzali, Louvain 1914; H. Oldember, Le Bouddha, sa vie, sa doctrine, sa communauté, Paris 1921; L. Massignon, La passion d'al-Hosayn-Iba Mansour al-Hallaj..., there 1922; L. Wiegler, Histoire des croyances religieuses et des opinions philosophiques en Chine, Hienbien 1922; M. F. Ossendowski, L'homme et le mystère en Asie, Paris 1925; L. Roure, Fahire, in Dictionnaire des connaissances religieuses, III (1926), cols. 162-64; J. P. Brown, The dervisher or oriental spiritualism, Oxford 1927; T. K. Oesterreich, Les possédés. La possession démoniaque chez les primitifs, dans l'antiquité, au moyen âge, et dans la civilisation moderne, French translation by R. Sudre, Paris 1927; O. Leroy, La législation, there 1928; J. B. Ferreres, La morte real y la muerte aparente con relación a los Santos Suenamentos..., Barcelona 1930; H. Price, A caccia degli spiriti, Milan 1937; V. HEBER, L'odisese di un dottore americano, Italian translation by P. Monaci, Florence 1939; E. Bozzano, Popoli primitivi e manifestazioni supernormali, Verona 1946. Alighiero Tondi