Beyond Belief

Author Tim Cridland challenges what we "know"

by Jane Pojawa - the Insider

The cabbage is stuck. The pretty blonde girl who dropped it is pulling her hardest, but it won't budge from the spikes. Zamora, the Torture King, lends her a hand and with a certain amount of lugging and wiggling the human head-sized vegetable comes free. The girl looks apprehensive. She had been plucked from the audience to help with the act, but who or what is going to follow that cabbage on the bed of nails?

Quickly, others are pulled from the audience. These three are journalists and they are accustomed to observing the act, not being a part of it. Two of them; Adam Gorightly and Greg Bishop are ordered to stand on a board which is placed on the torso of the Torture King who is lying on the bed of nails; a sandwich arrangement that is not likely to have a happy outcome, given the fate of the cabbage. The third, Nick Redfern, is to act as a spotter should the other two slip. Reluctantly they stand on the board, but Zamora is not perforated into a bloody mass or punctured like an inflatable pool toy - a conclusion that could easily be deduced by observing the cabbage drop. After several long minutes, the Torture King tells them to step off the board and when they do and find that he is unhurt, the relief is palpable. It is beyond belief.

"Zamora the Torture King" is the alter ego of Tim Cridland, a sometimes author, recorder of anomalies and researcher. He appears somewhat shy and bookish, his silver hair is pulled into a long ponytail and his dark eyes are quick and alert. He gives the impression of being very observant and intense. He has deep dimples, but one would have to know his night job to guess that they were caused by wearing a spear through his cheeks. Cridland has had a lifelong fascination with circus sideshows, the "freaks" who were capable of extreme physical acts that would seem impossible, or at least excruciatingly painful to the average person.
 

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