talkmagic.co.uk

A month or two ago I went to a Psychic Museum. The first part was interesting and quite fun. The second part involvedgoing into different rooms with a medium guy. It turned out I was the only skeptic (out of the 6 of us there 3 claimed to have the ability to see ghosts, one was the mother of one of the people who claimed to have the ability and the fith was my mum who is a believer) partly due to magic and partly due to Penn and Tellers Bulls**t.

Anyhoo, in the part with the medium there wasn't a single thing he did which given a few days I couldn't do myself. Obviously it doesn't mean it was fake but a year ago (before I got back into magic) I would have just taken it as real. So magic has made me more skeptic.

I think my study of magic and especially psychology has led me to understand how people will look for evidence and fill in the details of things they fervently long to believe, to the point where they literally become reality for them.

Whether we're complicit in lying to ourselves about things we dearly want to be true is another matter, but I don't think it makes us bad people unless we try t oconvince others to make ourselves feel good.

Tomo wrote:I think my study of magic and especially psychology has led me to understand how people will look for evidence and fill in the details of things they fervently long to believe, to the point where they literally become reality for them.

Whether we're complicit in lying to ourselves about things we dearly want to be true is another matter, but I don't think it makes us bad people unless we try t oconvince others to make ourselves feel good.

Well put, and the fact that so many people read and believe the daily horiscope proves it. I never quite understood how someone can read five sentences in a daily newspaper and believe that it accurately predicted their day, especially when ther are probably another 1000 people with the same sign, reading the same prediction expecting it to predict their day as well.

Kolisar wrote:the fact that so many people read and believe the daily horiscope proves it. I never quite understood how someone can read five sentences in a daily newspaper and believe that it accurately predicted their day

As the font of all knowledge on such matters, Jonathan Creek , once observed it also means that one twelfth of the world's population will have the same kind of day. Unlikely to say the least. Paul Daniels has commented that he once reprinted the day's horoscopes but changed the star signs around so, for example, Capricorn got the Aquarius reading etc. Everyone he showed the edited ones to agreed that it was exactly right for them. I guess it all depends on the reader and how they view themselves and their expectations. It's easy to scoff so Mandrake will now go shut his gob .

Taneous and Cardza you two are gonna kill me