“How did you do that?” This is our first reaction anytime we witness a great magic trick. It is obviously a rhetorical question: not only will the magician hide his secret, but, more importantly, we do not want to know. The power of magic does not survive the revelation of the deception – we know there is a trick, yet being bewildered about the impossibility of the feat is much more rewarding than the cold knowledge of the craft.
Despite the gimmicks and the make-believe, the magician is not pretending to be blessed by supernatural powers. He makes the impossible possible through the genius of his craft – and the manipulation of his audience.
As a magician, James “The Amazing” Randi resents above all those who betray the spirit of magic by pretending to possess supernatural powers, covering their tricks behind the veils of “psychic abilities”, “medium” or “telepathy”. In the past seventy years, James Randi has investigated and successfully busted the claims of charlatans, who often preyed on the weaknesses – and wallets of their audience. Since 1964, he has been offering $1,000, then $1,000,000 to anybody who could objectively prove his or her paranormal abilities under strict supervision. All failed miserably.
It would be easy to label James Randi as a rationalist and atheist crusader, but his work also has a deeper sense. He wants to defend magic, to preserve that dizzying feeling, that certainty of human trickery and talent which however escapes our understanding. It is such a pleasant feeling insofar as we decide to be deceived by the magician, it is a choice we make freely, unlike the anvil of “supernatural science” (notice the oxymoron) that is dropped on our heads by the hucksters of psychic abilities.
And although you might hate James Randi for revealing some tricks that had amazed you, it is for him necessary in the war he has been waging against the mediums, faith healers, telekinetics, astrologists, crystal readers and dowsers of this world.
James Randi is coming to THiNK2012. Nov 2-4, 2012. Goa
- Ayan Meer
(The views expressed in this column are the writer’s own)
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