The Power of Misdirection, or what Sai Baba has to do with an ESP test
I’ve been reading about Sai Baba, an Indian conjuror who has spent the past 60-some years persuading people that he is God Incarnate. He does this, first of all, by saying he’s God Incarnate, which right there is a startlingly effective technique, as the global history of religion amply demonstrates. But his second trick is to, well, play tricks: he pretends to materialize jewelry out of thin air, which he presents to stunned wealthy onlookers. He also pretends to materialize sacred ash out of thin air, which he presents to stunned non-wealthy onlookers. There’s no big mystery about it all, unless you’re a devotee; these are just standard sleight-of-hand parlor tricks. The ash comes from tiny pellets which Sai Baba conceals at the base of his fingers and then crushes as he swirls his hand around in a “materializing” motion. The jewelry is also hidden in his hand, or in his seat cushion, or in his handkerchief.
(And lots more videos here.)
I’ll have more to say about Sai Baba later, when the Venusian atmospheric conditions here have abated and I’m not feeling so lazy. He’s quite a character — not just a con man but an enthusiastic sexual predator. There are many brilliant and penetrating observations to be made about the will to believe, the psychology of religious devotion, and the whole business of guru worship, which I will get around to as soon as I’m feeling brilliant and penetrating again.
But today I’m just thinking about how magic tricks work in the first place. It’s all misdirection, the magicians tell us, and I think this little online ESP test I found demonstrates that as well as anything. It’s psychological misdirection, telling people what to look for and thus diverting attention from other goings-on. See if you can figure out the trick.
23 Responses to “The Power of Misdirection, or what Sai Baba has to do with an ESP test”
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manxome says:
Love the comments on that ESP page, and the assumption that if their card is missing, the other cards must all be there.
Oh, and the “eye following” software”!
Can’t wait to try it out on the other household humans.
August 1st, 2007 at 10:43 pm EST -
Violet says:
Manxome, this is my favorite from the comments page:
From Doug L.:
The ESP experiment “worked”, i.e. the web site appeared to correctly determine the playing card I selected. Knowing that you have written a book on time travel, I suspect that the original tarot card selection is a ruse, and that I in fact randomly selected a playing card, a selection that you had 5/6 probability of guessing wrong. In other words, you have discovered a limited (but real) mechanism of modifying past events.
My suspicion is that “originally” the experiment failed, but with each subsequent failure you were able to modify my previous experiences until, after a few iterations, you were successful.
Can you modify “physical” past events, or is your method restricted to thoughts and perceptions?
I’m picturing Doug L. in his Barcalounger with that Star Trek: The Next Generation episode on a continuous playback loop in the VCR, having epiphanies.
BTW, delighted to see you. Went over to your blog recently and was disappointed to see the Bugs Bunny salute.
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Pippa says:
he. the funniest comment was the one that said the experiment only worked once and that the second time it was wrong! Makes you wonder about some people. Hurry up and get going on Sai Baba, can’t wait!
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alphabitch says:
hysterical! I was getting all set to leap in and reveal the trick when I decided these people are having way too much fun. Why wreck it?
And yeah, Pippa, what’s up with that? Seemed like there were a couple of folks whose chosen cards didn’t get removed. Did they ID the card wrong in the 1st place or what? Dyscardia?
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Infidel says:
Of the following Gods, pick which one Sai Baba is:
Vishnu, Baal, Jesus, Abba.
Now keep that in mind while and I’ll tell you which God you didn’t pick(this is amazing),
Allah, Johnny Depp, spaghetti, Jim Jones
YOU SEE!!! I’M PSYCHOTIC
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Violet says:
alphabitch and Pippa:
Yes, I think the people saying it didn’t work must have mis-identified the card in the first place, or not even looked at the screen and just thought of a card (as if it really were a test of telepathy).
By the way, this isn’t a question of stupidity at all. Misdirection works. Almost everyone is fooled by this trick the first time they see it; unless you’re a magician or familiar with card tricks, you don’t know what to look for. You follow the instructions and voila! sure enough, your card is gone. Most people have to repeat it to see the trick, which is something that magicians doing card tricks don’t allow. But the fact that this is a computer program and people can click on it over and over and over again and still not see what’s happening is a tribute to the power of misdirection.
My point with all this is not to make fun of people who are fooled, but to show how almost any of us can be fooled by misdirection. Our psyches are built to follow along with whatever frame or narrative is being presented.
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anna says:
How exactly does it work? I’m no good at these things.
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Violet says:
The second set of cards is completely different from the first set. Thus, no matter which card you pick from the first set, it won’t be there on the next screen. None of the cards from the first set are on the next screen! It’s a completely different set of cards entirely, but there is one less of them so it looks like a single card has been ‘removed’.
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manxome says:
My 11 yr old daughter did this just now. The first time she was fooled, the second time she claimed they were cheats. Spousal unit just said kinda yawned “they’re not the same cards”. :)
Violet, yeah, lots of things lead to ending it (but not deleting, as I see what happens when you do that!) No reason important enough to get into but enough reasons to add up to one big “this is not fun or interesting or about connecting or growing for me any more”, so that explains it as well as anything would.
‘That’s all folks’ was just a more concise way to put it. Ah well, I feel more free already.
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Infidel says:
I have no clue how I found you so, Thank you Sai Baba for making known to me “Reclusive Leftist”.
Violet Socks is the greatest blogger in blogdom.
No other blogger compares, oh yeah there are other flashy sites with their aliens and mobius stuff, but much like the mobius path on the single surfaced strip- you just end up going round in circles and come away without having gone anywhere.
The violet is a flower whose fragrance parallels its royal colour. If a smell could be seen, and seen as regal it would be the smell of a violet. I don’t see, hear, taste, smell, or touch Violet Socks and yet her self as posted moves me with the conviction, wisdom, freshness, interest, and sureity of a promise held- I would take Violet Socks as an Oracle one million times before I would once take Sai Baba as a God. Sooner a Monkey at a typewriter should type the Declaration of Indepenance then I would kneel and worship some chunky Indian dude with an afro. Millions of followers? What the fuck? -
Violet says:
Infidel, it’s good to know that if I ever start an ashram I’ll have at least one follower.
You forgot to mention that in addition to being royally fragrant, I also have honey-emanating lotus feet. It’s a bit messy, actually.
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bdaggerlee says:
You know, I had a psychotic girlfriend once, who thought that the computer game Minesweeper was watching her.
I wonder if all of those people who thought their eye movements were being measured even have webcams.
I think my dog was calling Cliff and telling him what card I was choosing.
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Infidel says:
She’s no longer the anti-christ!
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Violet says:
The Rev. B. Dagger Lee!
I wouldn’t rule out the dog possibility if I were you. As my vet said just the other day while examining Molly, “They’re smarter than we realize.”
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Violet says:
Infidel, I’m thinking about changing my name to Mata Socks and changing my blog image to reflect my guru status, which will of course necessitate a halo, garish pink and blue tones, possibly an elephant trunk. In the meantime the bindi will have to suffice.
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2 sheds says:
was going to google this baba guy - when I found this - you GOTTA see this one
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20113475/
what I want to know is how did he kick the officer?
I know this is off topic -
cicely says:
Not sure how this relates but I saw this thing on tv which I thought was quite nifty. First you get this instruction to watch a film and follow an object as it’s passed from person to person in a room - about a dozen people are in there, and you have to count the number of people who handle the object. So the film starts and you’re watching and counting and at the end they don’t ask you the number you’ve come up with - they ask if you noticed the person in the gorilla suit walking around in the room. Nope.
In the context of this post, I invite you to make your own assessment of where god might fit in.
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Violet says:
Cicely, that’s a wonderful example. So true.
But you know, I must say that your very presence here is proof of telepathy. I spent much of yesterday sorting out a problem with my Flash player — it got corrupted, then nothing would play, then efforts to reinstall fail, then efforts to clear out old installations failed, then more efforts to reinstall failed, then Adobe started spinning its head around and spewing green vomit and screeching “I AM SATAN” — at any rate, in the midst of all that I thought of you and your ongoing computer problems. Particularly I remembered your problem playing Flash movies. And obviously your brain picked up my thoughts and prompted you to comment.
Delighted to see you again! I’m sending you special thought waves right now.
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Violet says:
2sheds, I kind of admire the disabled driver. As for the kick, I imagine he kicked from a sitting position.
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simply wondered says:
cicely - so god is like in the gorilla suit then?
see violet? i told you you were fragrant!
hell no, infidel: i picked johnny depp as my personal saviour BECAUSE he wasn’t in the first list. and they say religion is illogical.he dies for us all in pirates of the caribbean. they nailed him to orlando bloom for three days and scourged him with a rubber octopus. now THAT’s what i call the greatest story ever told.
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cicely says:
I’m doing lots of lurking and learning around the feminist bolgosphere (always checking in here : D ) and little posting at present, Violet. Other thingies on my plate. Thanks for the warm hello though - since I appear to have been absent - like the occupant of the gorilla suit…
simply wondered says:
cicely - so god is like in the gorilla suit then?
Or maybe god *is* the gorilla suit…? Some kind of ‘put on’ anyway.
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simply wondered says:
oh please cic, god is an old bloke with a big beard in a white dress, poking his finger at adam. and you think he’s a gorilla??? at least one of those views is just plain weird.
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Violet says:
FYI, the subsequent Sai Baba post is coming. After my computer exploded I got involved in some compelling mystical work involving a Long Island Iced Tea and a really pretty necklace that somehow materialized out of thin air. So the time kind of got away from me. Then there were some serious issues that demanded immediate blogulation (ECT, rape case).
