Circus Freak': Scientists Say Croatian 'Magnetic Boy' Is a Fake

International Business Times:

A six-year-old boy from Croatia dubbed "magnetic boy," is attracting curiosity from his family and friends because of his - you guessed it right - magnetic attraction.

Reports said that Ivan Stoiljkovic has the ability to stick metallic objects to his body, including spoons, mobile phones, frying pans, or anything that has metallic content.

The boy, who lives with his family in a remote village near Koprivnica, is reportedly able to carry up to 25kg of metal stuck to his torso at a time.

Ivan showcased his unusual ability to a group of local journalists when he took off his shirt and stuck metallic objects, including cutlery, a frying pan and two dumbbells to his body. Surprisingly, all the objects stuck.

Daily Mail:

According to his family, Ivan has also used his 'healing' hands to alleviate stomach pains for his grandfather Ivo and is credited with soothing the pain of a neighbour who hurt his leg in a tractor accident.

Ivo said that when his grandson laid his hands on his stomach, they became extremely hot and the pain simply went away.

Croatian Times:

A group of experts and sceptics have banded together on Facebook to prove that the Croatian boy who has harnessed worldwide fame for his supposed "magnetism" has no supernatural abilities.

The news about 6-year-old Ivan Stoiljkovic’s abilities to attract metal objects brought a lot of publicity to the Koprivnica-based family, prompting objections from some Croatians critical of "unscientific" representation of the phenomenon. The Facebook group "We are all Magneto Boy" shows photographs of various people with metal objects sticking to parts of their bodies, something of which, experts say, each human is capable. All that is necessary is placing a metal object onto smooth, hair-free parts of the body.

Psychologist Igor Miklousic from "Ivo Pilar" Institute in Zagreb is critical of the motives behind Stoiljkovic's sudden popularity.

"We believe that it is inappropriate to use a 6-year-old boy as a "circus freak," he says.