Why do some people believe that stage magicians have actual supernatural power?
Some people actually believe that stage magicians have actual magic power.
Some even believe that they are in league with demons.
Like the comments below this video of a stage magician performing some card tricks
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They don’t. ... it’s all perception tricks.
Truly stupid people will never know that they are stupid. – John Cleese
Stupid is as stupid does. Fact: 30% of people believe in God AND ghosts!
Why do some people believe that doing pattents of things told by people claiming to have “supernatural power” can actually help them in life (aka superstition)?
Similar to going to the movies. People submit to the diagetic reality of the situation, believe in fiction, because it’s fun and they want to.
We believe—or sorta believe—in the supernatural because, sadly, we can’t make ourselves believe that the natural world around us isn’t magical enough. Religious belief is another example of that.
Scientific reasoning is unnatural. The pre-Socratic philosophers in Greece were the first to suggest that the world works according to natural laws. There is something in us that wants to see the universe in human terms, filled with spirits and magical forces. In recent times there were postmodernists who claimed that science is just a human construct.
Seeing things as spirits and magic is simply another way of interpreting events we witness in the natural world. If you don’t know any better then of course it’s all believable. It’s not stupidity, just ignorance.
@ARE_you_kidding_me
Even when the performers outright tell you that it is just trickery?
Arthur Conan Doyle for example believed that Houdini had actual magic powers.
So much easier to answer the question, ‘How’d he DO that!’. Same reason we like to believe in things other than reason and science. It is an easier answer. People are stupid and lazy.
People want to believe in magic because they see it is escape from their boring and dreary lives.
@ragingloli
Reminds me of a story I once heard Penn Jillette tell about a woman who seemed offended when he and Teller were explaining one of their tricks to her. She steadfastly insisted that she wasn’t stupid, she knew what she saw and what she saw was magic, all while they’re explaining that what she saw was a trick and showing her exactly how they did it.
He comes across as sort of creepy to me. I can see how someone might think he’s got something supernatural going on.
Haha. My mom used to think David Copperfield sold his soul to the devil. She was a bit on the wacko side.
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