Washington Irving Bishop

In the late 1800s, audiences gathered in packed theaters to watch a young performer named Washington Irving Bishop do something that looked impossible.

A volunteer would hide an object somewhere in the building. Bishop would take the person lightly by the wrist and begin to walk. Not confidently. He wandered; paused; changed direction. Sometimes he seemed lost entirely. Then, slowly, he would drift toward a desk, a wall, a locked cabinet. His hand would hover .. and there it was.

The hidden thing.

He said he was following tiny signals in the muscles of the person guiding him. Nothing supernatural. Just sensitivity. Training.

Still, people left the theater whispering.

Bishop’s career carried him across the United States and Europe. His demonstrations grew larger, more elaborate. Newspapers followed him closely. So did skeptics, who watched his movements with careful eyes.

But Bishop had a condition that complicated everything. At times he would collapse into a trance so deep he appeared dead. His body would go rigid and still, breath nearly impossible to detect. Because of this, he carried a written warning: if he fell into such a state, his body should not be touched for several hours.

On May 12, 1889, after giving a performance in New York, Bishop suddenly collapsed.

Doctors were called. They examined him briefly and concluded he was gone.

Ignoring the note he carried, they began opening his body to examine his brain; hoping perhaps to discover the secret behind his strange abilities.

Only later did reports surface suggesting that the performer’s famous trances could last much longer than anyone realized.

Which leaves an unsettling possibility hanging over the story of Washington Irving Bishop.