I spent a great deal of my life working as a magician, both in performance and as a hobbyist. I am familiar with the classic works, the modern performers and illusion-builders, and much of the current thinking in techno-creation of illusions.
Regarding Geller… Here’s the thing: IT’S A TRICK.
That’s it. It’s a trick. Even if nobody can explain how he does it, IT’S STILL A TRICK.
I’m reminded of a time in my youth when the biggest thing in magic discussion was how the hell Copperfield made the Statue of Liberty disappear. I didn’t join the discussion then, because I didn’t really care how he did it. I didn’t like the illusion because I didn’t like him and his silly showmanship. I would much rather watch a close-up artist do some coin manipulation.
It’s the same with Geller. I know that, with enough research, I could discover 6 or 8 methods of doing whatever he did last night (I didn’t watch), but I don’t care enough to try. I don’t like his performance style, so I don’t watch him.
The key to enjoying magic is the same as it is with all theatre - the willing suspension of disbelief. If you’re not willing to go along for the ride, stay on the street. If you come in and try to expose the secrets, you’re just going to frustrate yourself and the performer as well as upset the 9-year-old who was having a wonderful time until you walked in.
Michael Shermer, Director of the Skeptics Society, sent out an e-mail on this topic. He listed a bunch of ways that Geller could have done this. They varied from, yes, watching secretly, to simply using the same pad and tracing over the indentations left from the guy who drew the picture to using a rigged pad like checkbooks that leave a carbon-paper-like imprint. Without knowing exactly what the situation was, we can’t know how he did it. But if he was using psychic powers, he was doing it the hard way.
BTW, the Skeptics Society tried to contact Leno’s staff to urge them to apply some skepticism. The overall attitude was, “It’s entertainment, so we don’t care.”
Maybe the Skeptic’s Society could ask Johnny Carson to release a statement about Geller being on the Tonight Show. Carson’s rarely made public pronouncements since retiring, so such a statement ought to be newsworthy.
As a matter of fact, there have been some people upset with Kreskin in the past few years because he has made some vague hints that some of his effects are more than just tricks.
There is one thing that Leno said that really annoyed me. Before Geller came out, Leno asked his previous guest, “Are you a skeptic, or do you have an open mind about this?” And that’s an exact quote.
All I can say about this whole situation is that my respect for Leno took a serious tumble. (Ok, not that I ever really “respected” him so much, but I did watch him.)
This particular ploy I find most obnoxious. I especially hate to get it from people I’ve restrained myself from calling morons.
There used to be a webpage for the movie based on the Cottingly Fairies hoax, on which you were supposed to click on different boxes depending on whether or not you believed in fairies. I clicked on `no,’ of course, and the webpage advised me that I should be more open-minded.
Somehow people have got it in their heads that not believing is closed-minded, but believing somehow is open-minded. It doesn’t work that way, but there’s no explaining that to people. My mother refuses to believe that I’m an athiest because I seem too open minded to her. What can you do?
It would be nice to have a response that isn’t basically mean-spirited and which is liable to help people see how stupid an assumption this is, but I don’t know of one.