Indonesian mystical demonstrations
In 1996 I was in East Java when the father of my host family had a visitor doing tricks. I can't remember the tricks, but at the time I thought they were pretty good. The my host told me the guy could make electricity come out of his hand - did I want to feel it? So the conjurer went out into the dirt street and he chose a place to stand on a section of concrete, and put our hands together at the fingertips. For a moment, nothing, then what felt like a strong electrical pulse through one of my fingers, and I pulled away in shock. I was asked if I wanted to do it again, but once was enough.

I knew that these things could allegedly be done through dark forces (though I'd never seen it myself), so I asked if he did it with tricks or with demons (setan). The guy doing the tricks didn't answer, but my host told me "tricks" (and later told another foreigner setan.) All this time I've wondered how he did it - I couldn't see any devices on his hand, so I was mystified. But I've seen amazing things done by magicians like David Copperfield, so .

Today I chanced across this video, which shows something very similar. There's people reacting like this mystic has given them a serious electric shock, and I believe that, from what I felt - the interesting question is how he does it. Since he's claiming it's mystical powers, rather than just entertainment, he definitely deserves to be tested, and if he's a fraud then publicly exposed and shamed.

If you like you can skip ahead to the testing of his powers (not very rigorous though) starting at 6:55:





This response is the most complete and helpful comment I found, and it refers to a brief comment by James Randi,* where he talks about "a small battery-powered device worn on the body that develops very high voltage at very low amperage, that can be directed from the body of the performer to anything that’s at a lower potential than he is."

Unfortunately the video link Randi gives no longer works, and I can't find anything that shows in detail how this device works. If you know more or have a video, please share!


* If you don't know James Randi, you should - he does great work exposing charlatans and helping people think more critically about supernatural claims.)