Why do some magicians become Woo-woos?

[magicflute]

I have my theories but let's hear some opinions!
One I can think of right off the bat is Dough Henning who went to the dark side of the force. Others like Mark Edwards thinks there is something to what they do, and there is Kreskin, who implies it but I am not sure really believes it. How could it be possible that someone who 'knows all the tricks' can become a believer??

[T'ai Chi]

Originally posted by magicflute
I have my theories but let's hear some opinions!
One I can think of right off the bat is Dough Henning who went to the dark side of the force. Others like Mark Edwards thinks there is something to what they do, and there is Kreskin, who implies it but I am not sure really believes it. How could it be possible that someone who 'knows all the tricks' can become a believer??

Apparently a lot of magicians believe there is truly something to psi stuff. One would wonder why if they really do know the tricks.

[Garrette]

For exactly the same reason(s) as people from other professions and walks of life: The need to believe, the desire to believe, lack of education in other aspects of the paranormal (I don't think Doug Henning did any lotus-position levitations in his act, and TME is what pulled him in), any countless reasons.


Originally posted by T'ai Chi

Apparently a lot of magicians believe there is truly something to psi stuff. One would wonder why if they really do know the tricks.

I recall having seen studies that indicate that a lack of belief in the paranormal and the religious is proportionately smaller among the scientific community than among the populace at large.

It would be interesting to see if the same applies to the magical community.

Regardless, I wager there is no profession that is completely without believers.

If you are going to ascribe significance to paranormal beliefs because some magicians believe in it, then you will need to defend why you don't ascribe significance to the fact that many magicians don't.

[Zep]

We've had business advisors from Denmark who use astrology post here, and we have a world-class magician who fervently exposes silly psychic beliefs as our sponsor. So I would suggest it doesn't even depend on IQ to believe in silly things.

[Lavie Enrose]

Originally posted by magicflute
How could it be possible that someone who 'knows all the tricks' can become a believer??

Having knowledge of how magic tricks are done does not automatically make a person more intelligent, immume to trickery, or give a person good critical thinking skills.

Nobody is too smart to be fooled. Anyone can be fooled.

[magicflute]

No, being easily fooled does not have to do with intelligence at all. Actually I find that more intelligent people are easier to fool.
Sometimes the reason for becoming a believer is an emotional one. Case in point. My ex-son-in-law. Very intelligent. Amateur magician. Could have been considered a skeptic until the time his father died. After that even though he knew about cold reading, even though he could see thru the likes of VanPrague and Sylvia, he 'needed' to believe that maybe communication with the dead was possible. He adored his father, and was not there the day he passed away. This was a relationship that he did not want to let go of. So kept looking for someone genuine to help him restablish the relationship on any level, in spite of all the evidence against it. For a while he thought George Anderson was it, because of some TV programs he saw that were favorable towards GA. He was finally able thru friends to get a hold of a someones recorded reading with GA. After his own analysis, he determined GA was also another cold-reader. Yet he is still looking as far as I know (he and my daughter are divorced now)
His need overrides his intellect, and sad to say; eventually his need will become such that he will 'find' someone to fulfill it.
I have not spoken to him in over two years. I will be in NY in April and I might have a chance to see him. It will be interesting to see where things stand.
P.S. He also developed a problem of not being able to fall asleep with the lights out.

[Undodog]

I had a similar discussion (http://www.randi.org/vbulletin/showthread.php?s=&threadid=35821).
Basically, anyone can be fooled or just badly-educated depending on where you get your 'facts'.
If I only watched ratings-hungry 'documentaries' on conspiracies or was brought up by superstitious parents I would probably end up a woo but it wouldnt make me any less (or more) intelligent.

[Mycroft]

I once played a practical joke on someone by convincing him he was psychic. I'd worked out a trick with a friend of mine where by stacking a deck in a way that wasn't obvious, he could predict with 100% accuracy the colour of the next card drawn from the deck. Then, after "proving" that some people are psychic we invited him to give it a try, and by dealing seconds and off the bottom of the deck, were able to guarantee with near 90-95% accuracy that whatever colour he named would be the next card pulled from the deck. On the few occasions where we couldn't produce a card of the right colour, we would cover by saying something like, "No, it's red, but you knew that didn't you? Why are you fooling around?" and he would always agree that he knew the card was really red.

Of course the success of our fraud depended on him wanting to believe he really was psychic. I'm wondering if something similar couldn't happen with some "psychic" who was adept at cold reading? If a lot of it depends on picking up on subtle clues from the target, playing the odds, and just being vague enough that something could count as a "hit" in a broad variety of circumstances, wouldn't the "psychic" be subject to the same psychological conditions that effect the target? The tendency to forget misses and only count hits plus the ego stroke of being looked up to as someone special?

[carudatta]

every good magician needs to have a good general knowledge of trickery. but no magician ever knows ALL the tricks. and every now and then someone invents a new trick that will fool any magician.


also, there is a marked difference in technique between a magician - whose tricks normally have to work everytime - and a 'true' psychic - who can always say 'just kidding' 'wrong cosmic influences' or 'sceptics in the audience'!


but then, doug henning fell for sai baba - whose tricks are so blatantly obvious that any intelligent schoolboy could see through them! that's where the deep psychological need for something to believe comes in.