Frederick Marion

Frederick Marion
Born	October 15, 1892 Prague, Czechoslovakia
Occupation	Mentalist, psychic

Frederick Marion (born October 15, 1892) was the stage name of Josef Kraus a mentalist and performer who claimed powers of clairvoyance and telepathy. He was investigated by psychical researchers who attributed his abilities to detecting subtle visual clues from his audience.

Marion was born in Prague, Czechoslovakia. As a young man he had studied the feats of magic and became a talented mentalist performing throughout Europe. He stated that he could perform the same feats as the mentalist Eugene de Rubini such as locating hidden objects. Marion served in the Austrian Army during World War I. In 1920 he became friends with the clairvoyant charlatan Erik Jan Hanussen.

Marion became well known for his ability to locate hidden objects. This was similar to muscle readers such as Washington Irving Bishop, however he did not need physical contact with his audience. Unlike other mentalists of his era such as The Piddingtons, he claimed genuine psychic abilities.

Marion was investigated by members of the Society for Psychical Research in the late 1930-1940s. He was tested by the parapsychologist Samuel Soal at the National Laboratory of Psychical Research in a series of experiments who attributed his success not to paranormal power but to the expert ability of picking up subtle visual clues from his audience. Soal also claimed that members of The Magic Circle were able to duplicate Marion's feat of identifying playing cards. Psychologist Andrew Neher has written that "Marion could identify which of a number of small cans contained an object; he did this by noting the involuntary reactions of observers who knew which can the object was in."

He was investigated by Harry Price who concluded his abilities were the result of hyperesthesia, not the paranormal.

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