In his book My Six Convicts, Donald Powell Wilson, an American professor of psychology, tells how, while conducting research in an American prison, he came across a convict who, in addition to being a master hypnotist, could also influence groups of people. with telepathy.
Hadad was part Hindu and part Senegalese and was considered a magician and an escape artist by prison staff and fellow inmates. He came to Wilson’s attention when he was found hanging from a belt in his cell.
The doctor who was called pronounced Hadad dead and he was taken to the prison morgue. Three days later, when he was about to perform an autopsy, Hadad’s muscles began to ripple and he sat down saying ‘Gentlemen, he would prefer not to; if you do not mind’.
Hadad had apparently hypnotized a prison warden, removed his belt, and then gave him a post-hypnotic suggestion that he would not remember or realize that he had removed his belt. When asked about the reasons for his action, Hadad said that he wanted to draw the doctors’ attention to him and that he would give an even more initial demonstration of his strange powers.
In the psychopath ward of the hospital there were a large number of epileptics, some of whom were lost cases and due to severe brain damage suffered frequent convulsions. Hadad asked to be locked in a solitary cell and predicted that there would be no seizures for three days while he performed distant healing telepathy. He was carefully observed and, as predicted, all seizures ceased during his confinement, after which they began again.
Hadad produced other amazing phenomena: he undressed and announced that after entering a trance he would make the twelve signs of the Zodiac appear on his body, with Aries on his forehead, Cancer on his chest, Sagittarius on his thighs, and the rest. in appropriate places.
Shortly after entering the trance, Hadad’s body displayed beehive-shaped patches that were clearly recognizable as the signs of the zodiac in the predicted locations. A doctor, after examining Hadad, said that all the tests showed that he was dead and even when a vein was punctured, there was no blood flow. However, we mentioned that some of the zodiac signs were unclear, Hadad ‘woke up’ and instructed them to bring a magnifying glass to detect them more clearly.
Hadad went back into a trance and remained until a magnifying glass was brought in and the signs verified. When questioned when he woke up, Hadad replied: ‘Animation suspended, doctor; It is simple’.