Marc Salem
Offline I was having a deadly argument battle with a friend the other day, about thought reading. Thought reading is different than mind reading apparently, yet I think it should fall under the category of mind reading, as tomatos do with fruit - or is it really vegetable? I'll just call it bullshit.
You can watch the '60 minutes' video and give me your point of view. Now I don't know if '60 minutes' is a trustworthy show - one way or another, since skepticism crept into my life, I doubt everything.
I can't seem to understand why Mr Salem would hide his tricks if there really was magic behind them. Would it not be better to think that what he hides is not magic? Why don't they ever show how the magic is done? It would revolutionise the way we think. But no, you have to buy his book instead, which probably doesn't explain the tricks he performs on television and live shows.
I can't believe I just spent like half an hour typing this up. My head is on slo-mo mode... so I probably missed 90% of the stuff my friend and I argued about, and I'll have to get back at y'all's.
So, aside from his body language detecting stuff which isn't all that impressive, what do you say?
EDIT typos
I'm not sure how he identified the walking stick, but I have read that we humans have micro-expressions that some people can read.
It has to do with being extremely observant (like they showed in the 60 Minutes video) when people quickly look away, blink, they're eyes dilate, their breathing pattern changes, etc.
There are also quick-as-a-flash clues in facial expressions that most of us miss.
Wikipedia on microexpressions.
Here's a Facial Expressions Test if you feel the urge! I did quite poorly.
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As we all know, if this is real, there's $1,000,000 with his name on it.
He doesn't claim to be doing magic in my opinion. He does claim that he's reading body language.
He also mentioned at one point that, with training, anyone could do it.
Nope. Not magic. Not "thought reading". it's just observation skills.
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There's a new TV show, I think it's called "Psych," and it's based upon exactly that. The main character pretends to be a psychic in order to help solve crimes, but in reality it's merely his superior powers of observation (and a buddy who's in on the ruse and often distracts people, redirecting their focus away from the pseudopsychic) that provide the answers.
It's actually pretty funny; his "style" is comprised of damned near every cliche from most psychics and their "visions" that I've seen... lots of eyes-closed-fingertips-on-forehead as he gets these "revelations."
Invisible friends are for children and psychopaths.
Derren Brown would walk away with Salem's wallet and cellphone. lol.
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I was just going to say something like that. Funny that "mentalist", to me, means crazy person. Watch him convert atheists:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Sq-YUdq1OI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DylNVUN_3I&mode=related&search=
"The World is my country, science my religion" - Christiaan Huygens
Derren Brown is the shit.
Sorry, had to get that off my chest.
You're exactly right, ObnoxiousBroad. I wonder how many people "get" that Psych is actually showing how so-called mind-readers and psychics come up with their answers.
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