Rick Beckman

Amazing Close-Up Magic by Teller

I’ve enjoyed mag­ic since I was a kid, and I actu­al­ly regret watch­ing some of those shows on FOX which revealed the tricks behind many pop­u­lar illu­sions. I know there is no super­nat­ur­al mag­ic in the world — and with the splen­did won­der of actu­al ani­mals, plants, plan­ets, and the uni­verse, who needs it? — but the mag­ic of illu­sion and slight of hand?

Not only is such mag­ic tremen­dous­ly enter­tain­ing — and Teller (of Penn & Teller, of course) nails quite the amaz­ing illu­sion in the above video — but it’s also hum­bling, remind­ing us just how eas­i­ly our eyes and our minds can be fooled (an impor­tant fact to keep in mind when reli­gions claim “eye-wit­ness tes­ti­mo­ny” to the def­er­ence of actu­al evidence).

Oh, and please do not use the com­ments here to reveal the tricks behind Teller’s illu­sion. Keep it mag­i­cal; the fun is in not knowing!

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3 responses to “Amazing Close-Up Magic by Teller”

  1. Colin McQueen Avatar
    Colin McQueen

    All evi­dence is ‘eye (or ear or nose or touch) wit­ness’. As is the sec­ond read­ing of that evi­dence writ­ten down. How much of the sci­ence that you ‘believe’ did ‘you’ actu­al­ly do your­self and how much relies on some­one telling you this lit­tle pic­ture or these num­bers or these grains of samd in this rock means this but only of you assume that etc. espe­cial­ly when it comes ‘evi­dence’ of the past or the stars or time or the oth­er 6 dimen­sions we can­not experience.

    Reply
    1. Rick Beckman Avatar
      Rick Beckman

      The thing about that is, sci­ence is ver­i­fi­able. It’s repeat­able. And it invites any & every­one to par­tic­i­pate in that. If, for exam­ple, a the­o­ret­i­cal physi­cist speaks of mul­ti­ple dimen­sions, the same math may be per­formed by anyone.

      Reli­gion does­n’t work that way. Per­son­al expe­ri­ence & anec­dote are not only not sub­ject to rig­or­ous peer-review, but they would be impos­si­ble to repeat or test even if they were sub­ject­ed to peer-review.

      The dif­fer­ence is this:

      Reli­gion is view­ing a magi­cian on a stage from the audi­ence: it’s easy to see the magic.

      Sci­ence is view­ing a magi­cian in a con­trolled envi­ron­ment with record­ing equip­ment on every angle, and then the magi­cian allows the same sort of con­trolled set­tings with many oth­er sci­en­tists: it’s easy to see the reality.

      Reply
  2. Colin McQueen Avatar
    Colin McQueen

    Oh and if God (and Satan) does exist I would sup­pose He may be bet­ter con­jurors than Penn or Teller.

    Reply

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Rick Beckman