Magic: Fact or Fiction?

Magic. It's something that most of us discard as wand-waving, silly word-saying nonsense. But I ask you, what is magic?

"Magic and sorcery are the influencing of events, objects, people and physical phenomena by mystical, paranormal or supernatural means."

"Pyrokinesis is the paranormal or fictional ability to control, ignite, and/or extinguish fire using only the mind."

"In popular usage the term psychic describes paranormal forces and influences, or abilities such as psychokinesis and extra-sensory perception."

Psychic are very real, yet somehow magic isn't? What is there to suggest that psychics aren't using magic. Magic is described as something done using physical phenomena; what stops Psychokinetics (collective term for any kenesis) from being magic?

"Kinesis, meaning motion; literally 'movement from the mind'."

So with these sources, I ask you this question: Magic; Fact or Fiction.

Fact!
I even have a great book on magic, you do everything from your mind. I haven't finished it yet, but you can like, control your life and things. For example, if you want to have girls swarming around you, there's a little scale in your head called "Attractivness", and you mentally move a bar to the top of the scale. You then check to see if that bar is on the top all the time, and if it isn't, move it up again!
It's really cool, but I stopped reading it because I left it in the car to long and it's book glue got heated.

Since when are psychics real? The actual term "psychic" means anything referring to the mind (which is where the prefix "psycho-" comes from), but other than that, psychic abilities such as psycho- (tele-) or pyrokinesis, mind reading, clairvoyance (or "fortune telling"), telepathy, necromancy (speaking to the dead) and all others are all fiction.

Psychics don't use magic any more than magicians or illusionists.

Psychic are real. This is fact.

I know they don't use magic any more, but the point is; they don't use magic any less.

You're claiming that magic is supported based on psychic power being real, but psychic power isn't real, and there's absolutely no existing proof that it is, all you did was link to wikipedia articles that didn't even talk about it as being "real."

I never realised how many people didn't believe psychics are real. I'll admit, there is no fact about it. I was assuming earlier.

But I know that they are real, because I've seen one before.

But lets put the question of if they are real aside for now. Because Psychics use magic. (are we agreed on )?

That's like saying "I know magic is real, because I saw a magician pull a rabbit out of a hat." Seriously, just because you've seen a "psychic" doesn't mean psychics are real.

It does to me. Though I can understand how you wouldn't believe under my account. But I've seen a psychic, who knew things about me. I doubt it could have been lucky guesses.

It's quite different from watching a regular person do a trick.

The psychic's goal is to misdirect you and make you think that his/her powers are real. What you just mentioned sounds like cold reading.

Originally Posted by Wikipedia

Cold reading is a technique used to convince another person that the reader knows much more about a subject than they actually do. Even without prior knowledge of a person, a practiced cold reader can still quickly obtain a great deal of information about the subject by carefully analyzing the person's body language, clothing or fashion, hairstyle, gender, sexual orientation, religion, race or ethnicity, level of education, manner of speech, place of origin, etc. This technique is also called offender profiling. Cold readers commonly employ high probability guesses about the subject, quickly picking up on signals from their subjects as to whether their guesses are in the right direction or not, and then emphasizing and reinforcing any chance connections the subjects acknowledge while quickly moving on from missed guesses.

They train themselves to look like they know more than they do, and can read your body language to see if they're right or not. It's not magic, it's not psychics, it's misdirection.

So how would one know my name? Or my last name?

Psychics, I think, are real. I am one actually. Well, somewhat... I can read peoples minds on a random basis. (As in a couple times a month) I can't CONTROL what I read. But sometimes I'll be walking past my mom, and I'll hear a faint voice say, for example, "I feel like going on the computer to do bills..." and when she started going up I said, "Going to do bills?" and she said "Yeah... How'd you know?" and I'm like, "O.O Just a hunch O.O"

Also I can use telepathy. (If I strain my brain to a point where I have a headache...) I would sit and stare at my mom for a bit, and think in my head really hard "What's she writing about?" and she would say a few seconds later (After she is done writing) say, "You say something?"

Physic abilities are all too real. We all have them actually, you just have to dig deep enough into your mind.

But this is just my opinion, and what has happened to me...

Also, magic is fact.... In some cases...

If you are going to claim psychics are real, show us the evidence. Show me a single psychic who has demonstrated their abilities in a controlled test, with no room for cheating techniques like cold/hot reading. Simply stating that it is fact is meaningless.

And if you find a psychic you think is real, ask yourself why they can't pass James Randi's Million Dollar Challenge.

Don't let yourself get fooled by these frauds. They prey on vulnerable people, give false hope and false closure, and waste a lot of police time. I recommend this set of articles written by a woman who lost her son. It details her experiences with psychics, and the damage they've caused. Also check out Stopsylviabrowne.com to see just how low they'll go.

I would love to be proven wrong; it would be very reassuring to know that there are genuine, honest psychics out there. But not a single one has been able to demonstrate their abilities in controlled circumstances, so there's nothing I can do but dismiss them as frauds or idiots.

I once tried to bend a spoon...and suceeded.

If that's not psychic, I don't know what is.

Spoon bending has nothing to do with psychics.

Originally Posted by Wikipedia

In most cases, the trick uses misdirection, a basic tool of the stage magician. The performer draws the audience's attention away from the spoon during the brief moment while he is actually bending it with his hands. The typical bend, where the bowl meets the handle, requires relatively little force. The magician then gradually reveals the bend.

The article then goes on to describe various other ways to bend spoons "magically" or "psychically," all involving misdirection.

Originally Posted by Kitsuné

Psychic are very real, yet somehow magic isn't? What is there to suggest that psychics aren't using magic. Magic is described as something done using physical phenomena; what stops Psychokinetics (collective term for any kenesis) from being magic?

The mainstream definition of magic is simply a synonym for "illusion," meaning that it's trickery.

Originally Posted by Venomous-Ninja

Fact!
I even have a great book on magic, you do everything from your mind. I haven't finished it yet, but you can like, control your life and things. For example, if you want to have girls swarming around you, there's a little scale in your head called "Attractivness", and you mentally move a bar to the top of the scale. You then check to see if that bar is on the top all the time, and if it isn't, move it up again!
It's really cool, but I stopped reading it because I left it in the car to long and it's book glue got heated.

That's called confidence.

Originally Posted by Kitsuné

I never realised how many people didn't believe psychics are real. I'll admit, there is no fact about it. I was assuming earlier.

But I know that they are real, because I've seen one before.

But lets put the question of if they are real aside for now. Because Psychics use magic. (are we agreed on )?

If psychics were real, it wouldn't be magic. It would be paranormal, yes, but not mystical.

Originally Posted by Durza

I once tried to bend a spoon...and suceeded.

If that's not psychic, I don't know what is.

I've done this. You basically just close your eyes and imagine the spoon bending. And then you open your eyes and realize you have a bent spoon and very sore hands.

Originally Posted by Aex

The mainstream definition of magic is simply a synonym for "illusion," meaning that it's trickery.


If psychics were real, it wouldn't be magic. It would be paranormal, yes, but not mystical.

So, if magic was real, then it wouldn't be magic? So what your saying is really that magic is a produced thing; something made up and fictional?

This other definition of magic isn't what I was talking about though.

I can offer no proof, and my word will not be enough.

Originally Posted by Kitsuné

So how would one know my name? Or my last name?

I can think of many ways off the top of my head, and I haven't been trained in that.

Of course, did they guess your full name? Or did they just say: "I'm sensing the letter J" (or whatever), and eventually guessed the correct first-letter in your first (or last) name? (Most people are fooled that way, and then claim that the psychic guessed their name, when they did nothing of the kind.)


Anyways, magic isn't real. Or that's the stance I'll take until you can show me some proof.

Derren Brown being "psychic".

He does this with cold readings.

YouTube - Derren Brown - The Dream Machine (Messiah)

YouTube - Derren Brown - Cold Reading

She knew my first name without me saying anything, whereas she knew about my last name.

^ I doubt whatever that woman did was mind reading. I don't think I could have given anything about my name away from my appearance either.

Second video: 1.50 - 2.03.

Something like this?

YouTube - Derren Brown cold reads in 'Seance'

to bad they don't have the whole show.