Alexander J. McIvor-Tyndall explained

Alexander J. McIvor-Tyndall
Birth Date:March 4, 1860
Birth Place:Leicestershire
Death Date:1940
Death Place:California
Occupation:Mentalist, writer

Alexander James McIvor-Tyndall (March 4, 1860 – 1940), also known as Ali Nomad was an English-American hypnotist, mentalist and new thought writer.

Biography

McIvor-Tyndall was born in Leicestershire to Dr. Alexander and Agnes Stuart.[1] In 1890, McIvor-Tyndall gave theosophical lectures in Canada. He was theosophical editor of Denver Sunday Post (1906–1907) and edited The Swastika: A Magazine of Triumph (1906–1911) an occult magazine.[1] [2] He founded the International New Thought Fellowship and in 1907, Swastika headquarters in the United States.[3] He was the founder of the International Swastika Society.

McIvor-Tyndall wrote under the pseudonyms Ali Nomad and Dr. John Lockwood.[4] In 1913, under the pseudonym Ali Nomad he authored the book Cosmic Consciousness: The Man-God Whom We Await. In the book he promotedthe idea that Ramakrishna Paramahamsa was the latest incarnation of God in India.[5]

McIvor-Tyndall married Margaret Logan of Los Angeles on September 3, 1896.[1] He married Laura Hudson Wray on June 13, 1917 in Crown Point, Indiana. In total he married six times.[3] [6]

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.[7] [8] In 1893, McIvor-Tyndall requested the St. Louis Republic 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.[9] [10] [11] However, in 1896 he was arrested in Sacramento, California because he was driving a carriage too fast.[7] He was also known for his "death-trances", it was alleged that he could cheat death and return to life.[12] Skeptics dismissed McIvor-Tyndall as a fakir. His mind-reading demonstrations were similar to the mentalist Washington Irving Bishop.

In the late 1890s, McIvor-Tyndall worked as a palmist, giving lectures and private palm reading sessions.[13] [14] In 1902, he performed successful billet reading tests that impressed Eugene Schmitz the mayor of San Francisco and several city officials.[15] In 1908, McIvor-Tyndall became known as a psychic sleuth in Los Angeles. 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.[16] 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.[17]

In 1909, McIvor-Tyndall gave many public demonstrations and lectures on his alleged clairvoyant powers including automatic writing, precognition, psychometry and telepathy.[18] [19] [20] [21] In 1912, he gave lectures on cosmic consciousness, immortality and psychic phenomena.[22]

Selected publications

Notes and References

  1. Marquis, Albert Nelson. (1917). Who's Who in America, Volume 9. Chicago: A. N. Marquis & Company. p. 1650
  2. Herringshaw, Thomas William. (1914). Herringshaw's National Library of American Biography. Chicago: American Publishers' Association. p. 121
  3. http://iapsop.com/archive/materials/swastika/index.html "The Swastika"
  4. Carty, T. J. (2015). A Dictionary of Literary Pseudonyms in the English Language. Routledge. p. 594.
  5. Stavig, Gopal; Shuddhidananda, Swami. (2010). Western Admirers of Ramakrishna and His Disciples. Advaita Ashrama. p. 128.
  6. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85038411/1917-06-26/ed-1/seq-14/ Cosmic Goat Forgives New Thoughter's New Wife for Taking Him From Her
  7. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn82015104/1896-08-03/ed-1/seq-4/ Tyndall the Mind-Reader
  8. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84036008/1901-02-26/ed-1/seq-7/ Power of McIvor-Tyndall
  9. Atkinson, Hugh C. (1948). Theodore Dreiser: Apostle of Nature. Alfred A. Knopf. p. 50.
  10. Dreiser, Theodore; Nostwich, T. D. (2000). Newspaper Days: An Autobiography. Black Sparrow Press. p. 337.
  11. http://www.alchemyofbones.com/stories/mcivor.htm "The Hypnotist"
  12. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn86066870/1909-03-03/ed-1/seq-4/ Deaths Fails to Seize its Pray
  13. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84036012/1898-10-16/ed-1/seq-5/ "McIvor-Tyndall"
  14. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn86066870/1899-09-25/ed-1/seq-1/ McIvor-Tyndall Has Arrived
  15. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85066387/1902-12-11/ed-1/seq-5/ Will Succeed Himself on the Board of Works
  16. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85042462/1908-06-03/ed-1/seq-1/ McIvor-Tyndall Becomes Sleuth
  17. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn86063034/1893-09-14/ed-1/seq-5/ "A Criminal Spell-Bound"
  18. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn90051265/1909-02-05/ed-1/seq-1/ McIvor-Tyndall Comes to Rocky Ford for a Few Days
  19. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn86066870/1909-03-01/ed-1/seq-5/ Is Prepared to Startle Grand Junction People
  20. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn86066870/1909-03-05/ed-1/seq-4 Tickets Are Now on Sale for McIvor-Tyndall's Big Public Meeting, Sunday Eve
  21. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn86066870/1909-03-09/ed-1/seq-2/ Big Audience Will Greet Dr. MIvor-Tyndall Tomorrow Night at the Opera House
  22. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83016689/1912-11-30/ed-1/seq-2/ Dr. McIvor-Tyndall Proving Big Magnet