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How to think like a magician

Elias Caress
Jul 22, 2017
3 min read

A good magician sees something everyday that isn't real!

Naturally this would lead any thinking person to question the nature of reality.

When you hear someone say "pick a card", you know you're about to be fooled. Do you ever wonder... maybe... people are fooling you without warning you first?

Want to safeguard yourself from frauds and con-artists?

These 3 (easy?) steps will help you think like a magician.

Three steps to think like a magician:

Step 1. Pick a fact that you believe in.

You could pick 'the sky is blue' but that is a bit of a cop-out. Make things more interesting by picking something like politics or religion, history, or your family and friends.

But once you pick something you can't change it after you read step 2.

Step 2. Imagine that it's not true.

If it's not true, how could you have been fooled? How does that change things for you personally?

Now keep in mind that I have no idea what fact you picked, so please don't break out the torches and pitchforks. This is all a thought experiment, that means it's in your head!

Here's two examples.

My niece picks 'Santa gave me this tricycle'

My grandpa, who fought in 2 wars and is openly racist, picks ' Columbus discovered America' (because he thinks the viking theory is ridiculous and the native Americans don't matter).*

Niece might think...

"If this is not true then my parents lied to me. If Santa's not true, then Christmas won't be as fun. My beliefs in Santa don't hurt anyone, and they make me happy, so I don't want to play this game anymore."

Grandpa might think...

"How could I be wrong about Columbus? Maybe my high school education in the 1950's isn't as complete as I thought. Maybe other races besides mine do matter? I don't want to play this game anymore, I want to go watch my favorite news channel".

Step 3.

Now repeat steps 1 and 2 for every fact that you believe in, then you'll know what it's like to see through the eyes of a good magician.

As a magician, I see something EVERY DAY that isn't real! After a while you start to wonder... "if I fooled someone with my deck of cards, how do I know someone else isn't fooling me with the local news? I can lie to people, what's stopping this 'non-fiction' book from lying to me?"

We know there's fake news... we know that because the 'real' news tells us so. But the fake news says it's real and the other news is fake.

So how do we chose?

Most people pick the one that looks like it has more money... Does money make it real?

Some of us chose to believe the one that we want to be real.

Does our liking it make it real?

* * *

I'm quite often asked to perform magic at an event by walking around mingling and amazing the guests. I was at an event like this a few years ago, and I met a young college student.

I do this type of thing so often, that I get relativity good at reading people. This particular young man was enjoying my performance, but I could tell that he had something weighing on his mind. He seemed distracted and slightly angry, but not at me.

I politely asked him to tell me about himself. He got quite animated, as he told me that he was a history student at the local university. While I don't remember his exact words, he did express something about how he (and everyone else) has been lied to his whole life. The student talked about how history class had recently made him aware of the myths and propaganda that society lives under and even willfully accepts.

The Student then recommended two books to me, just like I'm recommending them to you. These two books will change your perception about history, and even reality!

Lies my Teacher Told Me

The People's History