Joaquín María Argamasilla de la Cerda y Elío (4 April 1905 – 27 May 1987) was a Spanish noble who was the 11th Marquess de Santacara, but he is better known for claiming in the early 1920s a supposed ability to see through opaque objects. Argamasilla convinced important people of the era such as

Gustav Geley Gustav Geley (13 April 1868 – 15 July 1924) was a French physician, psychical researcher and director of the Institute Metapsychique International from 1919 to 1924.Charles Richet Charles Robert Richet (; 25 August 1850 – 4 December 1935) was a French physiologist at the Collège de France and immunology pioneer. In 1913, he won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine "in recognition of his work on anaphylaxis". Riche ...

of his powers, but he was exposed by

Harry Houdini Erik Weisz (March 24, 1874 – October 31, 1926), known professionally as Harry Houdini ( ), was a Hungarian-American escapologist, illusionist, and stunt performer noted for his escape acts. Houdini first attracted notice in vaudeville in ...

as a fraud in 1924.

Biography

Joaquín Argamasilla was encouraged in his

parapsychology Parapsychology is the study of alleged psychic phenomena (extrasensory perception, telepathy, teleportation, precognition, clairvoyance, psychokinesis (also called telekinesis), and psychometry (paranormal), psychometry) and other paranormal cla ...

career by his father, the Marquis de Santa Cara, who was convinced that his son had

psychic A psychic is a person who claims to use powers rooted in parapsychology, such as extrasensory perception (ESP), to identify information hidden from the normal senses, particularly involving telepathy or clairvoyance; or who performs acts that a ...

powers. Argamasilla was promoted as having X-ray vision that could penetrate metal. For example, he was seemingly able to read the time on a watch through a case. Among the audience of these shows was the Spanish writer Valle-Inclan, who was a friend of the father of the psychic and became convinced that Joaquín's powers were real. Argamasilla's fame led him in 1924 to the Pennsylvania Hotel in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

. There he met magician

, who became convinced that he was a fraud who just peeked through his simple blindfold and lifted up the edge of the box so he could look inside it without others noticing. Argamasilla could not replicate his abilities when forced to do the same with a box not owned by him. Houdini regarded Argamasilla to be "a very clever manipulator" who "acts his part in such as manner as to insure misdirection". Argamasilla never did another psychic demonstration. He later was assigned the position of general director of Film and Theatre (1952-1955). Argamasilla died on 27 May 1987 in

Bilbao Bilbao is a city in northern Spain, the largest city in the Provinces of Spain, province of Biscay and in the Basque Country (greater region), Basque Country as a whole. It is also the largest city proper in northern Spain. Bilbao is the List o ...

, Spain at the age of 82.

In fiction

A fictional version of Argamasilla (in which his powers turn out to be real) appears in the 14th episode of the Spanish science-fiction series '' El Ministerio del Tiempo''.

Biography

In fiction

References

Further reading