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Brazilian magician, Khronnus, is master of bizarre and magic. Here he tells Huw Collingbourne how he helped to bring a ‘psychic healer’ to justice. Khronnus was born in a small town of Caxias do Sul in the South of Brazil called, in the state of Rio Grande do Sul. He recalls that it was his grandmother who introduced him to magic by making things ‘vanish’ when he was about seven or eight years old. When he was a teenager, Khronnus developed an interest in the more ‘mysterious’ aspects of magic. He thinks this may have been due to his mother’s belief in spirits and mysticism such as tarot and palm-reading.

His investigations into mysticism eventually led him to decide to become a mentalist. Khronnus has been working as a professional magician for about seven years, since the age of 16. In a recent TV programme, which has been broadcast internationally, he helped to expose one of Brazil’s most famous ‘psychics’. Khronnus is currently preparing another TV special to be shown in Brazil later this year. He is also planning to publish a series of three booklets on “Psychic Magic”: Vol1, Metal Bending, and Materialization; Vol2 PK, Moving Objects with your Mind; Vol3 Psychic Masterpieces.

Huw: Many thanks for doing this interview, Khronnus. Can you tell us a bit more about the fake psychic you exposed in your recent TV show? Who exactly is he?

Khronnus: His name is Thomaz Green Morton de Souza Coutinho, He has been working as psychic in Brazil for the last 25 years.

Huw: What was so bad about him?

Khronnus: He is a fake and a criminal. He is being investigated for being responsible for four deaths, three of them as a psychic healer, one of them for driving while drunk. He is being hunted by the Federal Police of Brazil, for money laundering, murder, illegal practice of medicine and illegal enrichment. He also used drugs to cause hallucinations in his "patients". He would take a pack of sugar, transform this into a yellow "healing powder" and then tell his patients to drink it with coffee .

Huw: And how did you come to be involved in the TV show?

Khronnus: Thanks to "psychic hunter", James Randi who recommended me to the TV company as the most
accomplished magician in Brazil to do the job.

Huw: Some magicians and mentalists would argue that it is always bad to expose fake psychics. After all, if you expose the methods they use, aren't you also exposing the methods used by mentalists?

Khronnus: No. All magicians and mentalists have the obligation to expose people who are using misdirection and other magical principles to fool other people with the single objective of making easy money. These kinds of people are parasites of our society. They hurt people, they kill, they rob, and all of them without exception should go to jail. Our art is made for entertainment, not for criminality.

Huw: What sort of magic and mentalist tricks did this psychic perform?

Khronnus: These are a few:

• Photo genesis - He used a photography flash with different colour filters in order to produce "beings of light" which he claimed to be from another planet, from an alternate dimension called "Afron V" . Can anyone with the minimum sense and reason believe in these claims?
• Perfume Production - by hiding a sponge between his fingers he was able to produce different "perfumed oils". This was his worst trick.
• Bending Coin - He shows his victims a stack of eight coins. By adding a ninth bent coin he claimed he could bend currency.
• Cutlery bending - All kinds
• Cold Reading
• Transmutation of various materials - foil into metal, sugar into healing powder
• Resurrection of a dead bird - this is a pretty convincing one if presented properly
• Making healing powder from a plant.
• Turning "Iron Sponge" (I don’t know how to say it in English but it's a kitchen utensil) into a metal chain

Huw: And how did you manage to catch him 'at it'?

Khronnus: For the first time in 25 years he allowed the cameras and a TV crew to spend a week in his farm. After that I watched the tapes and caught him at his tricks.

Huw: You do quite a bit of mentalism yourself. Which mentalist effects or routines do you find the most powerful?

Khronnus: All those that seem like genuine psychic power are very strong. (Telepathy, PK, cold reading, etc.) I also like to predict "big events" (such as soccer finals, etc.). Divination effects are also very good.

Huw: How about fork bending? Do you find that audiences are still interested in that? And do they believe that it is 'for real'?

Khronnus: The thing about metal bending is that even educated, intelligent people believe it's real; this applies to moving objects with "the power of your mind" also. That’s why I think audiences are still interested in it.

Huw: How easy is it to learn to do fork and spoon bending?

Khronnus: I think this is the kind of thing that you learn by doing it. You learn those small, but very important things that change the trick into a "genuine phenomenon" only by presenting it. You get better with experience. It’s not just that: "look, a regular spoon... now it's bent", it's a lot more then that...

Huw: Did you learn from books or videos? Or did you just teach yourself?

Khronnus: I watched Geller as a child and start imitating him; during this I developed my own techniques. After that, as a teenager, I went to the books and videos.

Huw: You also specialize in spooky and bizarre magic. Can you give us an idea of the kind of spooky routines you perform?

Khronnus: My favourite at the time is the Ouija board effect that goes with this interview. I love to perform spirit and mediumistic effects in general. I also like ‘body’ effects as nail-into-nose, knife-into-eye, pencil-throughtongue, this kind of stuff.

Huw: Do you like to scare your audiences?

Khronnus: I love to.

Huw: What's the strangest or funniest reaction you've ever had from an audience?

Khronnus: Once at a business dinner the lady who was hiring me fainted while I did a Voodoo routine. And once at a radio show a priest called the radio claiming that I was Satan.

Huw: How did you start to get interested in that style of magic? Was it through watching other magicians? Or were you more influenced by horror films and books?

Khronnus: Neither one nor the other. I think it comes from my early interest in mysteries of the supernatural, the feats of "circus freaks" and Role Playing Games

Huw: Is there any other magician who scares you...?

Khronnus: I don't think there’s anyone who scares me, but I love to watch and read anything from Tony Andruzzi.

Many thanks to both Khronnus and Huw for providing us with this interview

By Huw Collingbourne