Friday, April 25, 2008

Magicians

I got a little video of Chris Angel walking through a glass window.
The sender wrote a bit baffled "how on earth is this done?" and on the internet there are entire sites setup to try and figure it out with forums where true believers in the paranormal abilities of the performer outnumber skeptics 50 to 1.
Now regardless of how exactly it's done (I quickly found some non supernatural explanations which seem quite plausible to me) there is one proposition I'd like to put forward to the believers.
If you believe it's really true that a paranormal magician can actually do those things, that they are not tricks then why does he only use those skills for entertainment value?
Why would the paranormal magician not use the skills to save people in burning buildings, from drowning or other such cause, why is it only for entertainment? (and if the response is that (s)he's not in it for charity or the goodness of mankind (though they usually do claim to be good) then why is the paranormal magician not a super villain, walking through glass should provide a lot of opportunity to steal very valuable stuff undetected, why still the need to show off?

When I start seeing magicians use their skills successfully in that kind of way then I'll probably also become a believer but I'm quite sure that'll never happen ...


(And for the moment there's also still taking the JREF challenge, even to just give the money away to charity)


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