PHYSICS 341, Spring 2012!
Pseudoscience
tv
Video Clips!
evasons

Here, from the websites of various currently-active performers, are video clips of standard feats of mentalism. Careful! In some cases the link is to a page containing the video link; in other cases the link is to the video itself.

A golden oldie, Ninel Kulagina! Here's a really clear clip, so clear you'd have to be pretty retarded to be fooled: but while the performance is laughable, the principle is magnificent! To see David Copperfield exploit the technology pioneered by Ninel, go to his website, click on "media", then on "video clips" and then on "floating paper." A very nice modern application of the Kulagina technique. And here, a modern magician demonstrates the classic Kulagina technique. A modern Chinese incarnation of Kulagina... here, and hilariously inept!

Ted Serios, a collection of slides about him; you can see his secret gimmick just under a minute in; also later some comparisons of his "thoughtographs" with the souvenir slide views he used to create them.

Another golden oldie, Uri Geller--- drawing duplication, stopping watch, bending spoon... basically an entire Uri show from the 1970s.

Geller many years later, still bending them.

Geller recently on a Greek TV show, starting watches, bending a spoon, deflecting a compass, etc. Note the VERY slow pace at which things happen.

What I think is the best spoon/fork-bending routine currently available.

A simple method for bending and breaking a spoon; this is NOT the method used by Uri Geller or demonstrated by Coker in class.

James Randi does impressive Psychic Surgery!

A collection of video clips relevant to various pseudosciences.

The incredible spirit cabinet act of Francis Willard, a direct descendant of the original act by Anna Eva Fay.

Legendary British mentalist Al Koran on TV in the early 1950s.

A fantastic demonstration of multiple-change blindness by British psychologist and magician Richard Wiseman.

Criss Angel does the classic $1 bill serial number divination. And here, does a classic Girolamo Scotto style book test.

The magical illusion that made Houdini's reputation in his early days was "Metamorphosis." The most spectacular modern version of this illusion is that done by the Pendragons, Jonathan and Charlotte. Here is an unedited video clip of one of their performances... incredible!!

A video (embedded in the page you will be taken to) of the most famous living British magician, Paul Daniels, vanishing his wife Debbie.

The Evasons!

Chris Caldwell!

Mentalist Marc Salem does a book test and a drawing duplication.

Brian Gillis and Sisuepahn!

Tim Conover!

Eugene Burger!

Craig Karges!


Christopher Carter!

Criss Angel! See also.

Derren Brown!

British magicians are allowed to operate much closer to "the line" than magicians in the U.S. Derren Brown has a special in which he places the inherent irrationality of religious belief in a stark light! 

Derren Brown's demonstration of cold reading.

Derren Brown reads the minds of a talk show host and a model, here.

Here are a number of YouTube film clips from Derren Brown's British TV specials.

Click on the banner!

Randy Charach!

Gerry McCambridge!

Banachek Effect 1, | Banachek Effect 2

Bryan Quinn does a slow-paced but classic Psychrometry routine. Other Quinn videos here.

Dean's Box, a good demonstration, by the inventor, of a really good "spirit box".

Psychokinetic Bolt, a very lackluster presentation of psychokinesis with a nut and bolt.

Psychokinetic Bic Pen! A demonstration.

Thom Kaz, Las Vegas stage hypnotist.

Tabary, with a beautiful routine that blends many classic effects of rope magic... the incredible 4th Dimension at work?!?

It's possible to treat any bottle so that its bottom behaves like a Prince Rupert Drop, as seen here.

A hilarious clip of British spirit medium Derek Acorah having some really bad days with his "cold reading" demonstrations. And Sylvia Browne really putting her foot in it concerning a 9-11 victim. And here's definitely not the way for a "psychic" to demonstrate automatic writing and drawing!

Szeles! Standard stage hypnosis feats, and mainly with high school kids.

Losander's Floating Table! The most impressive effect of 19th Century spiritualism reinvented for the 21st Century by Losander, who adapts a principle devised by Tommy Wonder. Here is an old-style floating table from David Copperfield's stage show.

An ultra-slow-paced, very standard "book test" performed by elderly mentalist Harvey Berg
.

Brian Brushwood! (performing his famous effect "Simpatico").

An Advertisement for Brian Brushwood's travelling "Exposing Pseudoscience" lecture, an advanced, 21st Century, 90 minute version of Physics 341!

Three different Brian Brushwood film clips are posted here.

C. J. Johnson, local Austin, TX stage hypnotist.

Some great clips of Hollywood magician Cyril Takayama, who has become a great hit in Japan.

Comedy magician Ed Alonzo.

This web page for an anti-pseudoscience course has a good collection of video clips.
strait

Brian Brushwood is today one of the most famous performing magicians who took Physics 341 pseudoscience; another famous magician who is also an alumnus is Andrew Mayne. He falls somewhat under the radar for the general public, because instead of performing, he's a creator and publisher of numerous incredible magical and mental effects. Check out the posted videos of his effects. Getting back to Brian Brushwood, his weekly Internet program Scam School, with more than 160 5 to 15 minute episodes "in the can," has made him world famous. Among other local mentalists, check out Jonny Zavant, and Brad Henderson.



A complete 30-minute BBC documentary on one of the most frightening (and wealthy, and widespread) of all destructive cults, Scientology. For a change of pace, how about a lake monster? This one was seen in Turkey's Lake Van in 1997. If you are a zoologist, you can probably recognize it. Or, how about some video clips of UFOs, or something? UFO video clips collection! Collection 2 | Collection 3. You-Tube UFO clips collection, most of them obvious jokes: here.  A trailer for the first flying-saucer film ever made, The Flying Saucer (1950). Now how about some good, old-fashioned psychic surgery? You can see some video clips of (usually completely unimpressive) "psychokinesis" stunts here. If you want to do some of these stunts yourself, here are some instructions and video clips... of course no psychic powers whatsoever are involved, as the link makes correctly clear. The original Roger Patterson bigfoot movie footage, complete: here.

A discussion between Michael Shermer and an arch-creationist, Kent Hovind: Creationism.


December 2011
PHY 341 Homepage
Dr. Coker's Homepage
Physics Department


Video clips of the week: (1) a truly surrealistic French act involving a hand-puppet, masks and some very subtle magic, here.

(2) Another example of Sylvia Browne mercilessly and ruthlessly taking advantage of human grief and tragedy.