Paranormality: Why we see what isn't there

by Richard Wiseman

  Soon after taping his confession, Hydrick was arrested for breaking and entering. He then escaped from confinement, was re-arrested, escaped again, and was re-re-arrested. Upon his release from jail in late 1988 he moved to California and soon attracted the attention of the police when he started to use his psychic stunts to befriend a group of young boys. When evidence of molestation emerged the police took action and issued a warrant for his arrest.3 Hydrick fled, but then accepted an invitation to appear on a national television show and was subsequently recognized by an off-duty Californian police officer. Hydrick was re-arrested. Still unable to shake off his reputation as a psychic, the security guards driving Hydrick back to California became anxious when they thought he was using his supernatural powers to rock the van, and later warned prison staff not to look him straight in the eye because he might cast a spell on them. A few months after his arrest Hydrick was convicted on several counts of child molestation and sentenced to 17 years in prison.

  In 2002 a British television programme listed the 50 greatest magic tricks in the world. Hydrick’s pencil and page-moving demonstrations came in 34th, beating Uri Geller’s alleged metal-bending by five places.

  THE PINOCCHIO TEST

  Fake psychics possess an innate ability to deceive others. Take this simple test to discover whether you too are a natural-born liar.4

  Imagine sitting across a table from a friend. The following four cards are lying face up on the table in front of the two of you, but there is a barrier in front of one of the cards (in this case the one with the triangle on it) so that your friend can't see it but you can.

  The aim is to speak to your friend and tell them to pick up the card with the star on it (shown by the arrow), but without giving away any information about the hidden symbol. You are not allowed to mention the position of the card so you might say something like 'Please pick up the card with the star on it', and your friend would lean forward and pick up the correct card. Got the idea? OK, turn over the page and try the following five sets of cards.

  Finished? The test revolves around your behaviour on the fourth and fifth sets of cards. Good deceivers naturally think about how any situation looks from another person's point of view. On the fourth trial you were shown a small triangle and were asked to conceal the large triangle. However, from your friend's perspective there was only one triangle - the small one. Therefore, if you said 'Please pick up the card with the small triangle on it', this will give your friend a clue that the hidden card has a large triangle on it. How did you perform? The same applies to the final set of cards. Did you ask your friend to pick up the card with the 'square' or the 'small square'?

  Try the test on your friends, colleagues and family to identify those with naturally deceptive tendencies!

  Fooling all of the People all of the Time

  Magicians and fake psychics consistently deceive one of the most sophisticated, complex, and impressive evolutionary triumphs in the world – the human brain. They face a formidable foe. Brains have put mankind on the moon, helped rid the world of major diseases, and unravelled the origins of the universe. How then do people like Hydrick deceive these finely-honed thinking machines?

  Most magicians believe that the answer lies in their secret knowledge about how to fake the impossible, and so are fiercely secretive about their methods. However, as illusionist Jim Steinmeyer so eloquently put it in his book Art & Artifice and Other Essays on Illusion, they are guarding an empty safe.5 In the same way that Hydrick blew on the objects in front of him, so the methods employed by magicians often amount to little more than sleight of hand, a rubber band or a concealed trapdoor. The real secrets of magic are psychological, not physical. Like most fake psychics, Hydrick employed five different psychological principles to transform the act of blowing into an alleged miracle. Each principle is designed to act like a wall that prevents people from entering the performer’s inner sanctum and finding out what is really going on. Understand the principles and you will understand how Hydrick and others have fooled the world.

  The first all-important issue is selling the duck.

  Selling the Duck

  Imagine that you really like ducks. In fact, you don’t just like them, you adore them. You love the shape of their beaks, the silly ‘quack’ noise they make, you’d love a pet duck and you think it’s cute the way your friends quickly lower their heads whenever you mention them. Now imagine that someone shows you the picture below.

  It would not be at all surprising if you see a duck’s head looking to the left. In fact, you may be so taken with the picture of the duck that you completely fail to spot the cute rabbit looking to the right. Fake psychics work in a similar way. People often want to believe in the reality of psychic powers, perhaps because they inject a sense of mystery into an otherwise dull world, show that science does not have all of the answers, suggest that human consciousness is a force to be reckoned with, or offer the potential of serious problems being solved with the wave of a magic wand.

  In the early 1980s, psychologists Barry Singer and Victor Benassi from the California State University conducted a now classic experiment that demonstrated the power of this principle.6 Singer and Benassi asked a young magician named Craig to don a purple robe, some sandals and a ‘gaudy’ medallion, and then perform magic tricks to groups of students. Some of the time the psychologists introduced Craig as a magician and other times they said that he claimed to possess genuine psychic abilities. Either way, Craig simply performed a series of standard magic tricks that involved him apparently reading people’s minds and bending metal. After his performance all of the students were asked whether they thought Craig possessed psychic abilities. A massive 77 per cent of those in the ‘Craig is a psychic’ group thought that they had seen a display of genuine paranormal phenomena. But more amazingly, 65 per cent of those in the ‘Craig is a magician’ group also thought he was psychic. It seems that when people are making up their minds about how to perceive the impossible, a purple robe, some sandals and a medallion go a long way.

  In the same way that a deep love of ducks can drive people to completely miss the rabbit, so a strong need to believe in psychic powers can cause some people to watch individuals like Hydrick and be totally blind to the possibility of trickery.

  Hydrick did all sorts of things to sell the world a duck. He evoked images of the mysterious East by wearing martial arts gear, occasionally called himself ‘Song Chai’, and made up stories about his encounters with Master Wu. Had he put on a top hat, announced himself as ‘Magic Jimbo’ and spoken about spending time with David Copperfield, it would all have been very different.

  It was also about the type of abilities that he appeared to possess. Early in his career Hydrick experimented with different types of demonstrations. At one point he would apparently cut a piece of string in half, place the ends inside his mouth, claim to be rearranging the atoms and then show that the two pieces had magically joined back together. When he performed the demonstration people (quite correctly) thought that it looked like a magic trick and so it was quickly dropped from Hydrick’s repertoire. Cutting and restoring a piece of string set off mental ‘this is a magic trick’ sirens and encouraged people to go in search of the rabbit. In contrast, moving pencils with mind power matches people’s preconceptions about the paranormal and so encourages them to see the duck.

  Hydrick also acted as if his powers were genuine. Most of the people who believe in the reality of psychokinesis think that such abilities are both energy sapping and elusive. Hydrick exploited these ideas by often acting as if the demonstrations were a drain on his mental resources, taking a long time before making a page turn or a pencil move, and sometimes even failing completely. He could have easily moved the objects without the slightest strain whenever he wanted but that would have looked like a magic trick.

  Finally, he often appeared to bring out people’s latent psychic ability by having them believe that their mental powers were responsible for moving the pencil. T
his is a common ploy used by fake psychics because it has enormous emotional appeal. Many people want to believe that they do indeed have incredible powers and so when they appear to encounter proof of this ego-enhancing concept they become especially reluctant to look behind the curtain and find out what is really going on.

  Hydrick walked like a duck and sounded like a duck. Because of this, lots of people assumed that he was the real deal and didn’t even consider the possibility of quackery.

  Although some of the people watching him didn’t even think about fakery, many others would have been far more sceptical. Perhaps they didn’t believe in psychic ability, or did believe but were sceptical about Hydrick’s particular claim. Whatever their point of view, Hydrick fooled some of these people using a second principle.

  Take the Road Less Travelled

  Time for two quick puzzles. Here is the first one. Can you add just one line to the following statement in order to make it correct?

  I0 I0 II = I0.50

  Now for the second puzzle. The illustration below shows the number nine represented as a Roman numeral. Can you convert this into the number six by just adding a single line?

  IX

  You probably assumed that the answer to the first puzzle required some clever mathematical thinking, and that the solution to the second involved Roman numerals. The puzzles are specifically designed to make you think like that. In fact, the solution to the first puzzle involves time, not mathematics. To make the statement correct, all you have to do is add a short line over the second ‘I’, thus converting the number ‘I0’ into the word ‘TO’:

  I0 TO II = I0.50

  Now the equation reads ‘ten to eleven is the same as ten fifty’. To solve the second puzzle you draw an ‘S’ in front of the IX to transform it into the word ‘SIX’.

  Many people struggle with these types of puzzles because they require lateral thinking. The same principle prevents them from figuring out how Hydrick performed his miracles. Ask people how they would go about making a pencil mysteriously move and they will come up with various ideas. They might, for example, suggest tying a thin thread to it. Or they might think of putting a metal bar inside it and moving a magnet under the table. Or, they might even suggest experimenting with static electricity. However, people just don’t tend to think about secretly blowing on the pencil. In the same way that most people struggle with the puzzles above because they don’t think about the equation being about time, or that a line in the shape of the letter ‘S’ would make the word SIX, so Hydrick fooled some sceptics by using a method that didn’t cross their non-lateral minds.

  Of course, this principle is not going to fool everyone. After all, some people are naturals when it comes to thinking outside the box, while others know a thing or two about trickery, and so would have considered the ‘blowing’ option. To crack these tougher nuts, Hydrick needed to employ the next principle.

  Cover Your Tracks

  Watching film of Hydrick in action is fascinating, and reveals just how skilled he was. He uses two main techniques to discourage the ‘doesn’t he just blow on it?’ brigade. First, Hydrick had spent months learning how to carefully control his breath, allowing him to produce perfectly timed puffs of air that took a few moments to reach the objects. The slight time delay between puff and impact gave him time to turn his head around, thus ensuring that he was looking away from the object when it moved. Second, he didn’t blow directly at the objects, but rather at the surface of the table. The air currents were then travelling along the tabletop, hitting the objects and causing them to move. This technique ensured that there was never a direct path between Hydrick’s mouth and the object. Together, these techniques were extremely deceptive, and allowed him to cover his tracks and encourage those considering the ‘blowing’ hypothesis to jettison the idea.

  When he appeared on That’s Incredible! Hydrick encountered the toughest type of spectator – the informed sceptic. Host John Davidson was suspicious that Hydrick might be cheating, had figured out that he was breathing on the objects, and did not have the wool pulled over his eyes by Hydrick’s head turn and tabletop blowing. To fool Davidson, Hydrick used the fourth and especially deceptive technique.

  Change the Route

  Our brains are very poor at coping with problems in which the correct answer changes from one moment to the next, and instead like to think that there is a ‘one size fits all’ solution. Fake psychics like Hydrick exploit this assumption by switching methods when they repeat a demonstration. If one performance rules out one method, and a second performance rules out a second method, spectators assume that neither method accounts for either performance and so conclude in favour of a miracle.

  Hydrick’s performance on That’s Incredible! is a classic demonstration of changing the route. When Davidson expressed his scepticism, Hydrick invited the host to place his hand over Hydrick’s mouth and yet the pencil still rotated. Why? Because Hydrick made a quick karate chop in the air and the resulting currents caused the pencil to move. He changed the route, and both Davidson and the viewers were completely fooled.

  Hydrick fooled different people for different reasons. Some believed that he was psychic and so the thought of trickery never entered their duck-loving minds. Others considered the possibility that they were watching a trick, but didn’t think of the correct method. Some thought of the correct method but Hydrick’s head-turning and indirect blowing made them think that they were wrong. A minority thought of the correct solution and were not fooled by his skilled performance, but were baffled when he switched methods during repeated performances. Still, although highly effective, all of these principles would have a high chance of failure if it weren’t for the fifth, and most important, factor. But for now, a fun trick . . .

  THE PSYCHOLOGY OF SPOON-BENDING

  It's time to apply some of the principles of deception discussed so far to fool your friends and family. Want to appear to bend a spoon with the power of your mind? Try following this . . .

  1. When you are out in a restaurant or round at a friend's house for dinner, secretly remove one of the spoons from the table, put it in your pocket, and go to the toilet.

  2. Once hidden away, carefully bend the bowl of the spoon towards the stem and then bend it back again. Repeat this process a few times. Two things will begin to happen. First, the metal around the bend will start to become very hot - be careful about burning your fingers. Second, the spoon will eventually develop a very fine fracture line at the point of the bend. As soon as you see the line, stop bending because even the smallest of movements will cause the spoon to break in half. You have now created what fake psychics refer to as a 'pre-stressed' spoon.

  3. Place the pre-stressed spoon back into your pocket and return to the table.

  4. When people are engaged in lively conversation, secretly take the spoon from your pocket and place it on your lap. Then, when the group is engaged in even more lively conversation, pick up the spoon from your lap and secretly place it back on the table.

  5. When the conversation has ceased being lively, bring up the topic of psychokinesis and claim that as a child you could bend metal with the power of your mind. Explain that you haven't tried it for years, but are prepared to give it a go. If no one is interested, get your coat and go hang out with a more interesting group of people.

  6. Assuming there is some interest in your lies, pick up the pre-stressed spoon and place the finger and thumb of your right hand either side of the fracture. By giving the spoon a slight jiggle with your left hand you will find that it easily breaks in half. Hold the two halves together between your thumb and finger as if the spoon were still solid. Then slowly relax your grip and cause the spoon to appear to bend before finally breaking in two.

  7. Allow the two halves of the spoon to drop onto the table with a dramatic clatter. If you are at a friend's house, now is a good time to ask them if the cutlery is especially expensive or has sentimental value. Either way, you now have two options. You ca
n explain how you performed the trick and get your friends to try it with the remaining cutlery. Alternatively, you can claim that it was a miracle, explain that you are thinking of starting a cult, and ask people if they are interested in joining.

  This trick is especially effective because people assume that the performance begins when you announce that you are about to bend a spoon with the power of your mind. In reality, it began when you secretly picked up the spoon and placed the fracture in it. This technique, referred to by magicians as 'time misdirection', accounts for the success of many illusions and demonstrations of alleged psychokinesis.

  People often underestimate the effort that some magicians and fake psychics put in before the start of a performance. For example, British magician David Berglas was once invited to stage a private performance in the third floor apartment of a wealthy London banker. During the performance, Berglas borrowed an empty milk bottle from the banker, attached it to a long piece of string, and carefully lowered it out of the apartment window. Next, Berglas picked up a pear from the fruit bowl, and apparently made it vanish into thin air. The banker was then asked to carefully retrieve the bottle by pulling on the string, and was amazed to discover that the pear was now inside the bottle, even though it was too large to fit through the glass neck of the bottle. This seemingly spontaneous piece of trickery involved a huge amount of planning. Months before, Berglas had found a pear tree with budding fruits, and placed one of the stems into an empty milk bottle. Over time, the pear grew inside the bottle, giving Berglas his impossible looking object. During the trick, he simply had an assistant stand on the street and switch the bottle that was lowered from the apartment for the duplicate containing the pear, and thus fooled his guests, who assumed that the trick had begun just a few moments before.