Post by Aj_June on Sept 22, 2017 11:56:42 GMT
Aye, 'twas done. Didn't you know that Gilligan from Gilligan's Island... Oops, I'll save that story for another day.
Seriously, there were rumors that Paganini sold his soul to the devil, which thought I've always found humorous, and then there's the Faust story and "the movies," as you say. In terms of individuals who genuinely believed they were selling the souls to the devil, I've written a bit about the Affair of the Poisons on this forum before, and some (some, I stress, not all) of the participants genuinely believed they were selling their souls to the devil in exchange for black magical powers.
I should also point out the rumors about Aleister Crowley, the Count of St. Germain, Cagliostro (of course), and a slew of magicians throughout history, nearly all of whom played up the rumors.
As to whether any of these individuals actually succeeded in this task... Well, I'll leave that up to your own beliefs about the preternatural realm.