Thanks for the kind words, Mike!

Mike, I was quite taken by your words above, "There's nothing wrong with pointing a friend to the well you drink from. However it's good to acknowledge it's not your well."

Is it not also "un-good" to tell a person which hand must hold the cup, or that a person must take only three sips before passing the cup to another. We all have perceptions and opinions about how best to interact with others. By sharing these we can learn not only how to quench our thirst but also encourage others to tell us of new wells to explore.

Surely, the most "wrong" words are to say to another,"you are wrong," just because they disagree. If one views that there are two ways to answer an argument: to provide reason and evidence, or to attack the speaker's character. For me, if one's first approach is to attack it is an indication that they do not have any reasonable response. If you go back over all recent posts on the many threads of this Venue with a view that any time a personal attack is made it is a statement of, "I do not have a valid argument" it places things in perspective.

There is an ancient saying, "You may be right, you may be wrong. Why I should care is the issue." Self-respect should be the first step towards respecting others. If one wishes to have their opinion listened to, they should make of themselves a person of value. To continue the analogy -- if you appear sickly or deranged, why should I wish to drink from your well?

We just have to inform Shrub... but affirm his notion that mentalists many times either claim to have psychic powers, or, through omission or vagueness, just let the audience assume that they have special powers. Even my mentor told me to sell it as real, or you're depriving the audience of the full experience.

Sure, if you are trying to convince them that you are a god.

Like Shrub, I'm a little taken back by those who don't completely acknowledge to their audience that these are tricks, magic effects for the entertainment of the audience. Only THEN do I completely demolish their sensibilities with direct, hard hitting, impossible demonstrations of entertaining mentalism.

It's easy to fool ignorant, backwater audiences who are starstruck by your psychic ability. But, this is simply the low-hanging fruit that constitutes a large percentage of America, at this time. Yes, I do think that Americans are, for the most part, ignorant and completely gullible. Watch Mike Judge's movie, Ideocracy. Brilliant, and it's hard to deny where we're going.

I feel that it's wrong to lead people, ignorantly, further down this path to complete idiocy. Getting them to believe in your true powers is just like creating one more ignorant, redneck moron... And, yet, most of you don't even see it. Sure, it's not your responsibility to save him or her, but maybe we really need to try a little harder to educate them about what this really is, and a work a little harder on making our acts entertaining without relying on them believing in the mystical or mysterious forces that you are emulating. The ambiguity that you seem to feel is so clever when you tell an audience what your ideology is on this matter is leaving them with a place to go. Not a good place. A place that is faith driven, belief oriented, and the kind of things that wars are fought over. Why not enlighten these people, instead of making them the butt of your cruel need to be omniscient?

We might even have a responsibility for informing them about psychics and people who would prey on their grieving. THAT should be part of your PEA guidelines!!! To promote the exposure of this type of predatory behavior.

Our main mission should be to enlighten, not imprison people who are too feeble minded to defend themselves. They're already being pummeled with religious doctrine, dogma and other faith based ideologies. Even by their supposedly secular governments. The mixed messages are overwhelming. Why pile on?

Is your personal disclaimer in small print or large, bold print? Well, mine is in large, bold print... these are just tricks, don't go changing churches.

Jimmy
That's not a soapbox, it's a Magellan Levitation!

This is a much better place to stand up for something that we believe in, much preferable to political, governmental issues where people's lives are actually affected.

I prefer to stand up for something that I believe in strongly in my art. This leaves me less likely to try to influence someone about abortion, death penalty, gun control, etc.

If I project enough passion and character, as well as great performance and creative skills, then I might create followers who become my equal and emulate positive traits that we hold dear, to inspire. Not blindly, but with thought.

Jimmy
my legs are getting tired of going up and down