talkmagic.co.uk

I am relatively drunk as i write this but even so i will attempt to discuss my thoughts.

I was out with a friend tonight, we went to the pub and spent most of the eveninig there. He has always been intrigued by what i do magically and this has led him to theorise about my work.

I haven't seen him in nearly a year so i have progressed somewhat since we last spoke. Anyway, he asked to see something tonight, so i showed him an effect i had been working on which embarrisingly went wrong. But i talked around it and made it look like a psychological mishap. But even so, he still sparked off a conversation about how the mind works and how i had tried to predetermine the outcome.

Angered at my fail, i tried something else; divining the surname of someone he knows. The method doesn't matter but having given a nice presentation of how i was picking up signals and getting the impression of humus (don't ask) he soon proceeded to comment on a book he read by Dan Brown (the title i have forgotten) which, in one of the chapters, describes a scientific study of electicity in the brain and how this electric impulse can generate waves from the brain which he now believed i could pick up. In other words he was ready to believe, after my presentation, that some sort of psychic ability could exist. I spent most of the night telling him that i have no psychic abilities and that anything i do is merely psychological and humanely but this fueled him even more to think that i was misunderstood about my own abilities.

I have no desire to make people believe that i am psychic, in fact i shiver at the idea but the simple fact that my friend believes such even though i tell him otheriwse astonishes me.

He now wants to take up a hobby in prooving psychic ability and asked me to join in the research.

I am wondering though if any of you have ever performed to friends or people and found that they take your entertainment as proof of a supernatural power and how you deal with that and/or if it bothers you.

If he is taking that seriously your only option may be to reveal the secret. That should shut him up.
If you don't want to go that far then don't chatter about "psychology" Just tell him it is a TRICK you learned in a magic book.

What's the panic about being regarded as being "psychic"? Shivers? For why? Use "an experiment in human intuition" as your back story rather than "psychology".

To be honest, if one could read a person's mind using psychology then there'd be hordes of psychologists opening up with adverts stating "Your mind read & your fortunes told! £100 per hour. Accredited member of the British Psychology Council". But they aren't. You can't read minds with psychology. But you can with intuition.

themagicwand wrote: You can't read minds with psychology.

Thank you Paul!

Someone ought to put this as a simple sticky somewhere. It might stop some daft questions and theories.

I get the shivers when people regard me as psychic. And I AM psychic!

I quite like to leave the implication that I can see things in people auras, it just suits me better, I'm more comforatable with it and anyone who knows me is more likely to believe that than any psychological babble that I might make up.

I understand that some people don't mind being thought of as psychic, but the very idea makes me feel quite guilty for deceiving them into thinking I have otherworldly powers.

I don't like pretending to be using psychology either, as it is not that different. I give no explanation, apart from that I am not psychic.


You need to be really insistent, that you are NOT psychic, DO NOT want to be called psychic, and that you rely on secrets and psychology" to do your work. Maybe say that it is something everyone can do, just few have the dedication to learn. You still sound impressive and mysterious, just not psychic.

I apologies to people who may be/give the impression of being psychic if this post offended you in any way.

The best explanation for seemingly psychic demonstrations was from Berglas...this was straight after performing an effect and people were in awe and somebody asked how do you do it?
He replied...


"A bit of psychology, some trickery and some things that just can't be explained."

Kroots wrote:I am wondering though if any of you have ever performed to friends or people and found that they take your entertainment as proof of a supernatural power and how you deal with that and/or if it bothers you.

Despite what you say, people will still believe whatever they damned well please regardless of what you say, even spilling the method in some cases.

I can't remember who saw it now (themagicwand?), but when the first of Derren Brown's new series aired a few weeks ago, someone on Facebook apparently claimed that she could tell that Brown was in fact a bit psychic and simply didn't know it. This is despite a decade of him explaining that he's a magician faking it for entertainment value.

There's a substantial proportion of Derren fans who are absolutely convinced he's either psychically endowed or an out-and-out sorcerer. (Or both.) NOTHING he can say or do will ever make them think otherwise.

Stating a disclaimer can sometimes make you sound even more authentic. "Of course he has to say that, it's the law, it's just to cover himself."

If it really badly bothers you that some people might think of you as psychic, then maybe you shouldn't be doing mentalism.

Think about it this way: simply keep saying "I'm not psychic", then if you become famous and someone tries to "out" you as a fraud, you can say that all along you've been saying that you're NOT psychic!

I know that people are always inclined to believe what they want to believe and will further cement their own beliefs seeing such evidence to support i.e my trick but i do always state that i am not psychic and it is only entertainment. Other than that i am quite vague about my methods.

I get asked how i do it all the time and i give silly answers. The only reason this time concerned me was because he was trying to have an actual discussion with me about theories and all sorts. I guess i felt a bit sorry for the guy because he's a good friend and upon asking him what others thought about it like his parents and girlfriend, he exclaimed that they would dismiss it and think he's talking bo**ocks and that the only reason he is interested in talknig about it with me is he knew that i wouldn't just trick him with a simple trick like that because if i had he would feel a fool and it would disprove everything he had been saying.

Even though i had given no indication the whole night i was psychic and that all i did was provide entertainment through many methods. Even though i stated this time and time again he began to think i was deluded about my own abilities and he wanted to help me examine them.

I just think it got abit out of hand by the end of the night so i felt a bit guilty for him. Maybe it was just my slightly drunken state.

I'm psychic, within my own terms and definitions...

but if you confuse the issue by bringing in mediumship - then i will rip you to shreds for being so silly...

I'm black within my own terms and definitions...

Mr_Grue wrote:I'm black within my own terms and definitions...

I'm a jive pimp talking honky within my own terms and definitions