Erik Jan Hanussen: Nazi Nostradamus, Sexual Blackmailer, & Psychic Spy—A Things Observed + PPM Collab

For the 1st time, I'm joined on the show by another livin' breathing, critically paranoid podcaster. Luke Marshall from Things Observed has arrived to help guide a collab investigation into the mental life & times of the Nazi Nostradamus, sexual blackmailer, & psychic spy known as Erik Jan Hanussen. A Crowleyan figure who, as we'll see, may have been a British intel asset (it's not unlikely that he worked directly with the Beast 666 himself in some capacity)... We're talking about the Jewish telepath who attempted to blackmail his way into becoming the Nazi "Minister of the Occult" & who was ultimately assassinated by the orders of SA-Gruppenführer Karl Ernst, a murder likely connected to Hanussen's involvement in the Reichstag Fire (or prior knowledge of it). In Pt. II, we explore interpretations of Hanussen's Reichstag Fire prophecy & claims that he hypnotized the "Communist" patsy Marinus van der Lubbe, who was ultimately pinned w/ the crime. 

Make sure to follow Luke on Twitter (@thingobserver) & check out his podcast "Things Observed"(patreon.com/ThingsObserved). 

We discuss: 

Synchronicities b/w Hanussen & Hitler's lives; Levenda & Lewis's contention that EJH taught Hitler mass hypnosis; his possibly embellished birth in a holding cell in Vienna; his vaudevillian upbringing; Hanussen's possible Sabbatean or Frankist lineage (via a Spence essay); the presence of said sects in the Steinschneider hometown of Prossnitz; his "Orientalist" & esotericist uncle Moritz; EJH's childhood obsession w/ Emperor Nero; his purported capture of a highwayman at 9 years old; EJH running away to join the circus as a preteen; EJH's intro to sexual blackmail as telepathic paparazzo for the Viennese tabloid Der Blitz; his manipulation of a printer's strike; his conscription into the Austro-Hungarian army; his WWI service; his time in a burial squad & his cemetery séance; mentalist routines in the trenches; Hanussen bribing a military censor to feed him letters so he could use them as proof of his clairvoyance; his abortive attempt to fake war neuroses; EJH going AWOL for 2 weeks to perform in Vienna, which led to him winning the hearts of the Austro-Hungarian royal family... leading to his transfer from the front lines to a performing unit at the family's behest; EJH's growing fame as a mentalist & psychic detective post-WWI; his manipulation of the experimental psychologist Joe Labero, who he tricked into teaching him "muscle reading" to expose a fellow magician—a technique that would become central to EJH's routine; history of muscle reading, which brings us to US neurologists & psychologists like Dr. Beard & William James; Hanussen & Freud discussing hypnosis in Vienna; the undeniable connections b/w the two men via Freud's acolyte Schilder, who observed Erik; EJH's work as a hypnotist at the Institute for Breath Therapy; Hanussen's psychic "detection" of the culprit behind the theft of 100ks of kronen bills from an Austrian mint; the possibility EJH conspired crimes only to solve them & boost his legend; his opportunistic attempts to manipulate the "Vampire of Düsseldorf" killings for media coverage; the Vampire's (aka Peter Kurten) disgusting bestiality paraphilia = the sex magickal ritual killings of animals at Crowley's Abbey of Thelema; the Vampire -> to Fritz Lang's noir oeuvre, particularly M & the Dr. Mabuse trilogy; the likelihood Dr. Mabuse was directly inspired by EJH, connecting to the TV series Babylon Berlin, which has a hypno criminal mastermind character who was definitely inspired by Dr. Mabuse & EJH; the show's allusions to EJH's sexual blackmail & the private séance that he performed for the Krupp family; and we set the stage for Hanussen's arms trading, espionage, & Nazi-filled pleasure cruises in the subsequent installment... Plus much more. 

Songs:

| John Lee Hooker - "Graveyard Blues" | 

| The Andrews Sisters - "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy" | 

| Robert Wyatt - "Stalin Wasn't Stallin'" |