This I Believe

My business is investigating supernatural, paranormal, and occult claims; my foundation offers a million-dollar prize to anyone who can establish the existence of any such ability or event. Surely, that is a substantial commitment, and there must be evidence that supports my belief that the prize is safe.

As a professional magician for most of my life, I learned two things rather thoroughly: how to deceive people, and how easily they deceive themselves. I used the first skill to entertain them, and now I use the second to point out their naivety. The disappointing fact is that no matter how definitively I’m able to indicate the reality that lies behind trickery such as summoning the dead, predicting the future, healing with magnets, and finding water with a forked stick, I find that those who suffer from these delusions remain adamant in their beliefs — because they not only want them to be true, they need them to be true. Desperately.

Rather than trying to prove that magical pretensions are not true, I make no claim in that direction; I ask those who do make claims, to prove those claims. The reward would seem to be irresistible — if a claimant genuinely believes that their powers or evidence is strong enough, I might expect a long line of applicants at my door every morning. There is none. The “pros” — those who use their professed abilities to support themselves — never apply. It’s only the amateurs, from every corner of the Earth, who write/phone/email/fax me, or show up at my door expectantly. The message is, I believe, clear.

I do not say that these powers do not exist. I only ask that they be shown to be real. My present belief, based upon literally hundreds of tests done all over the world, is that magical powers are fictional, but I am prepared to be shown wrong in that respect.

Belief does not beget reality, despite wishful thinking and “New Age” mythology. The answers to mysteries still lie within science, not in the absurd notions that we should have outgrown centuries ago. Science is an ongoing process, subject to error and self-correction, unlike dogma. It provides the best answers and explanations we can arrive at, and it has made our lives richer and more satisfactory; magical thinking has only muddied our view of reality.

I believe that — now more than ever — we need to abandon nonsense and embrace reality. It’s beautiful, awesome, unyielding, and fierce. Enjoy it.