Wow! It seems like you came across a lot of different kinds of people in your journey. I can’t even fathom the amount of learnings it led to. Both in terms of craft as well as human nature. I really am curious to know more about it all. It’s not everyday that you get to read the learnings from a magician about human OS
I made a documentary about magicians in undergrad.
One of them played an illusion on me throughout the entire process of making the documentary. This magician served as a networking agent, referring me to other local magcians. However, he refused to do an interview himself for some reason...
Eventually I looked up the name he gave me and found an article about him having passed away years ago. I couldn't reach him and only could reach one of his colleagues who told me I was actually speaking to his twin brother this whole time.
It was a great trick. At least am pretty sure it was a trick... you can never be certain.😂
First of all, because I went through a magic phase when I was young, and as I’m sure you did, I read with great interest the blend of psychology, history, science (magnetism), and showmanship that went into an act like Robert Houdin’s "Light and Heavy Chest".
Second of all because of your account of the woman who wanted more to believe in your extraordinary ability than to acknowledge she had been deceived.
Finally, I’ll attach a story of my own that reminds me not to close the door on unexplained and seemingly-impossible stories until I find a more likely explanation, (e.g. deception or sleight of hand.) When I was just out of college, I met a woman in a bar and she started cold-reading me.
“You are an only child.” (I nodded agreeably, but she was way off.)
“You are very creative.” I like to think she was right, but I noticed that she had looked at my watch, which was on the other wrist, which might suggest I am left-handed.
She went on for awhile, batting about .400, I think.
Suddenly she got a far-away look, and she knocked the ball up, up, and away, and into an entirely different ballpark. She said something so specific and detailed about an event that had happened in my past. There was NO way she could have inferred it. No f’in way.
I think she had some ability, and she had no control over it—sometimes it just popped up. She had learned to cold-read to buy time until a real zinger came.
I know I’m not the only one who has had astounding experiences like that, or who has seen a trillion-to-one odds possibility turn into the unlikely one. For me, those surprises instilled a sense of wonder. But for some people...
For example, among science’s strict adherents who get the most livid about Sheldrake and morphic resonance, maybe there are some who have had an experience or insight that science cannot explain. An illogical or impossible surprise that shook them to their very core—some irritiating, disheveled ghost of a memory that fits nowhere in all the tidy, organized, rows and columns of facts in their immense knowledge store. Because of this irritant, the columns don’t foot. When anyone touches upon it, out pours a terrifying invasion from within the fortress walls.
There is another reason people might get upset, and it evokes Dr. Zaius, an orangutan character in Planet of the Apes (1968). They know more about the topic than they will admit.
“You are right, I have always known about man.”
...
“The Forbidden Zone was once a paradise. Your breed made a desert of it, ages ago.”
What a powerful scene!
Perhaps the magic trick to survival is an instinct about when to quest for knowledge and ignore a Zaius, and when to heed a Zaius.
Wow! It seems like you came across a lot of different kinds of people in your journey. I can’t even fathom the amount of learnings it led to. Both in terms of craft as well as human nature. I really am curious to know more about it all. It’s not everyday that you get to read the learnings from a magician about human OS
I made a documentary about magicians in undergrad.
One of them played an illusion on me throughout the entire process of making the documentary. This magician served as a networking agent, referring me to other local magcians. However, he refused to do an interview himself for some reason...
Eventually I looked up the name he gave me and found an article about him having passed away years ago. I couldn't reach him and only could reach one of his colleagues who told me I was actually speaking to his twin brother this whole time.
It was a great trick. At least am pretty sure it was a trick... you can never be certain.😂
I loved this story.
First of all, because I went through a magic phase when I was young, and as I’m sure you did, I read with great interest the blend of psychology, history, science (magnetism), and showmanship that went into an act like Robert Houdin’s "Light and Heavy Chest".
Second of all because of your account of the woman who wanted more to believe in your extraordinary ability than to acknowledge she had been deceived.
Finally, I’ll attach a story of my own that reminds me not to close the door on unexplained and seemingly-impossible stories until I find a more likely explanation, (e.g. deception or sleight of hand.) When I was just out of college, I met a woman in a bar and she started cold-reading me.
“You are an only child.” (I nodded agreeably, but she was way off.)
“You are very creative.” I like to think she was right, but I noticed that she had looked at my watch, which was on the other wrist, which might suggest I am left-handed.
She went on for awhile, batting about .400, I think.
Suddenly she got a far-away look, and she knocked the ball up, up, and away, and into an entirely different ballpark. She said something so specific and detailed about an event that had happened in my past. There was NO way she could have inferred it. No f’in way.
I think she had some ability, and she had no control over it—sometimes it just popped up. She had learned to cold-read to buy time until a real zinger came.
I know I’m not the only one who has had astounding experiences like that, or who has seen a trillion-to-one odds possibility turn into the unlikely one. For me, those surprises instilled a sense of wonder. But for some people...
For example, among science’s strict adherents who get the most livid about Sheldrake and morphic resonance, maybe there are some who have had an experience or insight that science cannot explain. An illogical or impossible surprise that shook them to their very core—some irritiating, disheveled ghost of a memory that fits nowhere in all the tidy, organized, rows and columns of facts in their immense knowledge store. Because of this irritant, the columns don’t foot. When anyone touches upon it, out pours a terrifying invasion from within the fortress walls.
There is another reason people might get upset, and it evokes Dr. Zaius, an orangutan character in Planet of the Apes (1968). They know more about the topic than they will admit.
“You are right, I have always known about man.”
...
“The Forbidden Zone was once a paradise. Your breed made a desert of it, ages ago.”
What a powerful scene!
Perhaps the magic trick to survival is an instinct about when to quest for knowledge and ignore a Zaius, and when to heed a Zaius.
dear jim,
this story about the woman who believed you were a psychic is incredible.
thank you for sharing!
love
myq