The Magician conspiracy

Why is it that only Magicians go out of their way to debunk paranormal things and need to prove that the things aren't real wellshowing how its "really" done? These are the same people that will black ball each other for telling their fake tricks. lol

Set a thief to catch a thief... The people being debunked are magicians who pretend they actually have magic powers, but magicians watching can easily see how it's done. A l ayman would be quite convinced by a typcial trick, but not a pro. For example I saw a thread on here where someone went to see a close-up magician who got him to write his name on a dollar bill, then made it look like he'd altered the printing on the bill. To a layman that's amazing - the bloke who posted seemed pretty convinced by the performance - but to a professional magician it's fairly straightforward.

The same goes for spirits and psychics and such. A mentalist like Edwards is pretty convincing to someone with no knowledge of magic tricks, but to anyone who's read even a bit about mentalism it's very obvious.

Why do they seem to be the ones who overtly go after them though? Why do they think their the ones who need to prove them wrong but black ball themselves and others when their tricks get proven wrong? Magicans seem to always be on the front line of the paranormal debunking.

[edit on 12-10-2007 by Shawn B.]

Randi's the only one I can think of at the moment, but I'm sure you've got lots more examples...


I think the reason is simply that they have the skills. What the paranormal frauds are doing is very unpleasant, especially the communicating-with-your-dead-relatives kind. I think any decent human being would *want* to expose these people, but very few of us are actually able to.

Originally posted by Shawn B.
Why do they seem to be the ones who overtly go after them though? Why do they think their the ones who need to prove them wrong but black ball themselves and others when their tricks get proven wrong? Magicans seem to always be on the front line of the paranormal debunking.

[edit on 12-10-2007 by Shawn B.]

OK here goes with a bit of history lesson that may help point out why:

Blame Harry Houdini I'm afraid, his very well publisied crusade against fraudulent mediums in the early part of the last century was the insperation to many magicians who wanted to be as 'big as houdini' to try and emulate that and take it a step or two futher.

Its no different than escape artists who take an old Houdini standard escape he was welll known for, and 'get out faster' or make it 'harder'. Its a thing thats done to try and prove to an audience that they are 'better' than Houdini. Although to be fair more times than enough its put over that way for shomanship reasons.

So there you go. Thats why magicians seem to be at the forefront, along with the fact that if you know how a thing is done usually you can spot it when you see it. The reasons for not letting the secrets of magic out as a rule is simpy because once you know how its done its not as entertaining anymore. It's a case of 'is that it????' Its also the reasons why any 'secrets of magicians' programmes get good viewing figures, people love to see how its done.

Wayne...

Originally posted by jim_w
Randi's the only one I can think of at the moment, but I'm sure you've got lots more examples....

Yeah he's one that I just found out was one, also there's Chris Angel, Penn and Teller are others. I'm pretty sure there's more I just can't think of them right now.

Yeah, it's a popular hobby for magicians alright!

I think it's easy to underestimate just how viscerally disgusting fraudulent mediums (for example) are to most people - they essentially exploit people's suffering and credulity to make cash. Even worse are the "faith healers" who are doing actual harm to the people they tell to get up and walk. All the while making millions out of it... I think any magician with the skills and the public recognition to do the debunking lark well would feel almost morally compelled to do it.



[edit on 12-10-2007 by jim_w]