It's Just A Little Hocus Pocus!!!!!

How stage magic will make you a better researcher

By: Sam Little

Ever since I was a young child I have been fascinated by stage magic and the people who are gifted enough to do it. I watched every episode of "The World's Greatest Magic" and tuned in to each and every David Coperfield special that was aired and not once did I ever assume that what I had seen then was going to be a tool for what I do now. Paranormal researchers are often confronted with situations were fraud may be the real ghost. Magic can be used to make these frauds look more convincing and thus harder to debunk. That is were the old love of magic came in for me.

I decided that I needed to look at stage magic a little more that way when confronted with that type of situation I could easily tell when I am being fooled by a little hocus pocus. Of course the days of Copperfield and the such have seemingly come to an end, magic is now much more advanced and much more complicated to describe. Guys like David Blain and Chris Angel have redefined what we see as magic. Now as an investigator we really have our work cut out for us.

In this article I want to inform you of some commonly used tricks that people may employ to convince you of the authenticity of their haunting. These are simple magic tricks that are often referred to as parlor tricks. I would like to remind you that this is by far not the first time a paranormal researcher has used magic to debunk a case. Harry Houdini actually used his advanced knowledge of stage magic to debunk several prominate mediums in his day.

The first trick is the palm trick. This is a basic move in magic and really is easy to catch if you know the trick. The home owner may claim that items are turning up missing. First off you need to know what items. While walking through the house the owner may say he thought he saw something or what not to distract you to look another way. while you may have only turned your head for a second that is more than enough time for the owner to palm (hide a small object in hand) an item. They will then swear it disappeared. This is a very easy type of trick to catch. In fact body language will usually give the owner away.

What about bigger illusions? Glad you asked. Some illusions and tricks I have encountered were not as much magic as science. We have all seen the video of the man who is suddenly scratched by an entity while sitting in a chair but few of us bothered to notice the man had rubbed his stomach fairly regularly throughout the recording. Why would that be a concern? Interesting you ask. I remember learning this in the fourth grade. Take a small paper clip and straiten it out. Now lightly scratch the skin on your wrist, just enough to see the letters R I P. Now let the letters disappear. After a few seconds rub the spot on your arm were you made the scratch. Notice that the letters are reappearing and the harder you rub the clearer they become. Now you see why the man rubbed his stomach rather often.

I wish we had time to get into more tricks but that would literally be impossible to get to them all but I hope this will allow you to look out for the two most common ones. I always say any tool we can add to our kit as researchers will make us better in the end. So remember sometimes that ghost may be nothing more than a little hocus pocus. Happy Hunting