Alexander James McIvor-Tyndall (March 4, 1860 – 1940), also known as Ali Nomad was an English-American

hypnotist Hypnosis is a human condition involving focused attention (the selective attention/selective inattention hypothesis, SASI), reduced peripheral awareness, and an enhanced capacity to respond to suggestion.In 2015, the American Psychologica ...

, mentalist and

new thought The New Thought movement (also Higher Thought) is a spiritual movement that coalesced in the United States in the early 19th century. New Thought was seen by its adherents as succeeding "ancient thought", accumulated wisdom and philosophy from ...

writer.

Biography

McIvor-Tyndall was born in

Leicestershire Leicestershire ( ; postal abbreviation Leics.) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East Midlands, England. The county borders Nottinghamshire to the north, Lincolnshire to the north-east, Rutland to the east, Northamptonshire t ...

to Dr. Alexander and Agnes Stuart.Marquis, Albert Nelson. (1917)
''Who's Who in America, Volume 9''
Chicago: A. N. Marquis & Company. p. 1650 In 1890, McIvor-Tyndall gave theosophical lectures in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. He was theosophical editor of ''Denver Sunday Post'' (1906–1907) and edited ''The Swastika: A Magazine of Triumph'' (1906–1911) an occult magazine. He founded the International New Thought Fellowship and in 1907, Swastika headquarters in the United States."The Swastika"
iapsop.com. Retrieved 22 January 2022. He was the founder of the International Swastika Society. McIvor-Tyndall wrote under the pseudonyms Ali Nomad and Dr. John Lockwood. In 1913, under the pseudonym Ali Nomad he authored the book ''Cosmic Consciousness: The Man-God Whom We Await''. In the book he promoted the idea that

Ramakrishna Paramahamsa Ramakrishna Paramahansa ( bn, রামকৃষ্ণ পরমহংস, Ramôkṛṣṇo Pôromohôṅso; , 18 February 1836 – 16 August 1886),——— — also spelled Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, born Gadadhar Chattopadhyaya,, was an In ...

was the latest incarnation of God in India. McIvor-Tyndall married Margaret Logan of

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

on September 3, 1896. He married Laura Hudson Wray on June 13, 1917 in Crown Point, Indiana. In total he married six times.

Career

McIvor-Tyndall was notable for performing the blindfold drive. This involved driving a carriage through crowded streets blindfolded whilst reading the thoughts of the man seated beside him.''Tyndall the Mind-Reader''
''The Record-Union'' (August 3, 1896). p. 4 In 1893, McIvor-Tyndall requested the ''

St. Louis Republic The ''Missouri Republican'' was a newspaper founded in 1808 and headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri. Its predecessor was the ''Morning Gazette''. It later changed its name to ''St. Louis Republic''. After supporting the Whig Party, the paper bec ...

'' to appoint a committee to ride with him in a carriage. Theodore Dreiser was present on the committee and authored several articles about McIvor-Tyndall's successful "mind-reading" demonstrations. However, in 1896 he was arrested in

Sacramento, California ) , image_map = Sacramento County California Incorporated and Unincorporated areas Sacramento Highlighted.svg , mapsize = 250x200px , map_caption = Location within Sacramento C ...

because he was driving a carriage too fast. He was also known for his "death-trances", it was alleged that he could cheat death and return to life. Skeptics dismissed McIvor-Tyndall as a fakir. His mind-reading demonstrations were similar to the mentalist

Washington Irving Bishop Washington Irving Bishop, also known as Wellington (4 March 1855 – 13 May 1889) was an American stage mentalist. He started his career as an assistant under the muscle reader J. Randall Brown, but was most well known for his performance of t ...

. In the late 1890s, McIvor-Tyndall worked as a

palmist Palmistry is the pseudoscientific practice of fortune-telling through the study of the palm. Also known as palm reading, chiromancy, chirology or cheirology, the practice is found all over the world, with numerous cultural variations. Those wh ...

, giving lectures and private palm reading sessions. In 1902, he performed successful

billet reading Billet reading, or the envelope trick, is a mentalist effect in which a performer pretends to use clairvoyance to read messages on folded papers or inside sealed envelopes. It is a widely performed "standard" of the mentalist craft since the middle ...

tests that impressed

Eugene Schmitz Eugene Edward Schmitz (August 22, 1864 – November 20, 1928), often referenced as "Handsome Gene" Schmitz, was an American musician and politician, the 26th mayor of San Francisco (1902-7), who was in office during the 1906 San Francisco earthqu ...

the mayor of

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

and several city officials. In 1908, McIvor-Tyndall became known as a psychic sleuth in

. Whilst blindfolded he aimed to direct a posse assembled by Col. E. J. Bell to a murderer. He stated that he had received a vision of the murderer whilst in a trance in

Denver Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...

. McIvor-Tyndall was involved with other criminal cases, for example years earlier in 1893 he was given permission to hypnotise convicted murderer Jacob Menze. After the hypnotic test, McIvor-Tyndall declared Menze to be innocent. In 1909, McIvor-Tyndall gave many public demonstrations and lectures on his alleged clairvoyant powers including automatic writing, precognition, psychometry and

telepathy Telepathy () is the purported vicarious transmission of information from one person's mind to another's without using any known human sensory channels or physical interaction. The term was first coined in 1882 by the classical scholar Frederic W ...

. In 1912, he gave lectures on cosmic consciousness, immortality and psychic phenomena.''Dr. McIvor-Tyndall Proving Big Magnet''
''The Detroit Times'' (November 30, 1912). p. 2

Selected publications

''Revelations of the Hand''
(1900) *''Ghosts: A Message from the Illuminati'' (1906) *''How to Read Thought'' (1909) *''Cosmic Consciousness: The Man-God Whom We Await'' (1913) *''Sex: The Unknown Quantity: The Spiritual Function of Sex'' (1916)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:McIvor-Tyndall, Alexander J. 1860 births 1940 deaths American hypnotists American occultists American occult writers American psychics American spiritual writers American Theosophists Clairvoyants English emigrants to the United States English occultists English occult writers English psychics English Theosophists Mentalists New Thought mystics New Thought writers Palmists Parapsychologists People from Leicestershire Telepaths