Skepticism

"I became a person as I thought."

Since we were little, lots of children has been given a false comprehension from their parents and from their environment in their association regarding the myths and folklore.

eventually, many childrens were carried away due to the influence of myths and legends until they become a mature and finally they believe in superstitious things. And this result can't make them distinguish to think with a skeptic way because they never learned to distinguish the meaning of the skeptic is the tendency to accept a belief without evidence and further investigation.

What is Skeptic?

Being a skeptic is not a new thing, Skepticism already started 2500 years ago in ancient Greece. Socrates said "I know one thing for sure, that I don't know anything"

Modern Skepticism has grown into a revolutionary movement based on science. Begins when Martin Gardner wrote in 1952, Fads and Fallacies is the name of Science. Gardner wrote the book in achieving four decades, namely: Science: Good, Bad, and Bogus (1981), The New Age: Notes of a Fringe Watcher (1991), and On The Wild Side (1992), showed a pattern in which a lot of people's tendency to accept a myth and beliefs.

And skepticism became a pop culture at the moment when magician named James "The Amazing" Randy challenging a lot of paranormals through his appearances in the media from years 1970-1980. Since then he made an announcement to anyone who could prove that psychic powers are exist, He will giving a reward of 1 million U.S. Dollars to anyone who can PROVE that psychic powers exist.

Philosopher named Paul Kurtz helped to create a lot of skeptical groups in America and around the world, He also published a magazine called "Skeptic Magazine". Currently, many people who call themselves skeptics who come from many backgrounds such as scientists, engineers, lawyers, profersor, teachers, and other educated people who come from many different backgrounds, as a group they started doing investigation, monthly and annual meetings and provide to the media and general public with a logical explanation and it makes sense to a lot of myths and spiritual phenomenon in society.

Some things like finding a water spring using wood or pendulum to extra sensory perception has been tested and they failed to run through the test and proved that they're a myth.

and finally we continue to do the test and formulate a hypothesis or a possibility until we can find a reasonable explanation that makes sense. The key to skepticism is to continuously distinguish between "knowing" and "believing" and continuously using science methods to investigate the current phenomenon and claims.

Lots of people think that skeptics are close minded people, even most of them said it's a cynic, truth is.. being skeptical is not actually closed, but being skeptical is:

be the one to question the phenomenon and claims, as well as looking for the evidence to prove those claims and the phenomenons are really exist.

In other words, being a skeptic is to be a person who "know" before you're able to "trust".

If I hear those myth or any supernatural claims, I would say:

"Sounds cool, it'll be a lot cooler if you can prove it to me .."

Science is an important part of skepticism, which I interpret as a specifically designed method to explain and interpret a claim or phenomenon with the aim to establish a reasonable explanation that make sense and logical but remain open for further discussions.

In other words, science is a specific way to analyze in order to find a claim or phenomenon. Scientists are agreed to think logically requires these following components:

1.Induction: Forming a hypothesis or possibilities by drawing conclusions from some data that has been collected.

2.Deduction: Creating some possibilities that occur from data collection process.

3.Observation: The process of collecting data that driven by some of the possibilities that can occur so it can tell us what we should look for the next step.

4.Verification: Conducting tests and proof of the possibilities that can occur, to ascertain what conclusions obtained so it can prove that the investigated problem is right or wrong.

Science is certainly not rigid, or flexible and accepting any new opinions. From the scientific method above, we can uncover to 3 of the following:

1.Hypothesis: The statement, obtained from the tests that will be undertaken from several observations.

2.Theory: It's a hypothesis

3.Fact: A conclusion that obtained from logical explanation and approved.

Science teaches us to think rationally. Draw conclusions based on logic and tangible evidence, for example, How do we know if the earth is round?

We know that the earth was rounded after the conclusion drawn from observing the terms of the following:

1. Earth's shadow is visible on the surface of the moon. It's rounded shape

2. The tip of the mast is the last thing we see after the ship sailing in the distance.

3. Earth's photos from outer space. It's rounded shape.

Science helps us to avoid dogmatism and draw conclusions that based on solely reports, not based on real evidence.

For example, How do we know the earth is round?

1. Our teacher said

2. Our parents said

3. Television said

The drawn conclusions are not always right, and they're always can be questioned, Cause what we need to question is how these sources can draw conclusions? Is it based on a scientific technique or there are other ways that we need to question?

These are the following important things that you should ask yourself when you face paranormal claims or supernatural things, you have to answer some simple questions below:

1. Are these claims have quality proof and can be trusted?

2. What is the educational background and title of the person that making these claims?

3. Are these claims has been proved by real?

For example, I often received a lot of questions about astrology, They want to know the theory behind Astrology, They want to know whether the composition of the planets that exists in this universe can affect the fate of mankind. The answer is NOT!

If you're asking does the astrology experts can accurately predict human life based on the composition of planet and stars? Once again, the answer is NO!

Because none of astrologers in this world could predict the disaster of tsunami in Haiti, and the earthquake in Phillipines.

None of astrologers on this world could predict the 1st Bali Bombing and 2nd Bali Bombing in Indonesia, or even when World Trade Center was attacked by terrorists, and many others.

And most importantly, on the theory that astrology is unreasonable and can't be proved in scientific way, and even astrologic expert itself can not prove the claims they provide. If astrologers can accurately predict something based on the arrangement of the planet and stars, then my question is, "Why don't they just simply play in a stock market?".

Basically, at the most basic level, we need to think in order to live, because thinking is an important characteristic as a human being.

More than 3 centuries ago the mathematician and philosopher of France named Rene Descartes concludes that there is one thing for sure:

"Cogito Ergo Sum", which means "I think, therefore I am".

And he thinks that we should think to prove our existence, rather than naively accept all of the things that is given by the paranormal, psychic. Therefore Descartes said "Sum Ergo Cogito", which means "I exist, therefore I should think".

"All our science, measured against reality, is primitive and childlike and yet it is the most precious thing we have." ,- Albert Einstein

But evolution has made us different, humans are evolved into creatures that always follow a certain pattern, and if there's one thing happens, we can easily conclude it with just a little knowledge we have, which has been molded by the social minded so that we can answer about what's happening around us.

In other words,

Sum Ergo Cogito — I Am Therefore I Think.

Maximillian Carl Biography

Maximillian Carl is an general magician, card flourisher, and skeptic. Born in Jakarta, Indonesia, raised in Semarang, Indonesia, and now he stayed in Bali, Indonesia.

He first became interested in Magic at the age of 8 when he's watching David Copperfield's "Flying", and innocently follow the choreo of what David did, while he wish that he can fly too.

He start learning at the age of 18. And became a full-time magician at the age of 19.

2007. His 1st performance on a small christmas party.

2008. He open his own Magic Shop and start performing close-up magic. and at September, 2008 he decided to left Semarang, moved his magic shop and start performing there. He moved to Bali.

2009. His first stage-illusion performance was in front of Mr. Takanobu Ito (the seventh President & Chief Executive Officer of Honda Motor). And his career as "General Magician" starts here.

2010. His New Year's eve stage performance in front of Mr. Aburizal Bakrie's Family (The Indonesian and Asian Richest People).*Globe Asia Magazine

2011. He decided to left from Bali and stayed in Jakarta. He was working for IMS (International Magic Society) Indonesia and Corbuzier School as a Consultant, Teacher, and still performing magic for off-air or on-air event.

2012. After finished his job to teach at Jakarta, he left to Bali again to teach and perform there. His 10 years old student "Rama Belmont" has won many National/International Magic Competitions in a couple of years and got his Silver Award in Malaysia Magic Extravaganza 2012.

2013 - 2014. He works as a senior consultant for several TV’s magic performer on some Indonesian Talent Contests.

2015 - Present. He starts to add some mentalism effects and little bit of prank surprises on his show. Thrilling, Exciting, and FUN with a lot of interactive audience participations.

Magic (The 5th Elements)

"Presentation" A great magic starts from a great presentation. Presentation will affect the strength effect of your performance, and story-telling is one of them. Not only that, highly-acclaimed performers such as Jean Pierre Vallarino, Shoot Ogawa, or Brian Tudor are the three names of the winners for close-up magic award that rarely share or discuss about their performances. This gives us a proof how presentation cannot be measured merely from telling stories.

"Misdirection" or mostly referred by us as “MD” is a concept widely used by performers to maintain and control the attention, focus and direction of thought from our audience that is interacting with us as the performer. It is essentially fundamental to completely understand and master this aspect in the art of conjuring, as this will greatly help our performance to be more convincing, mysterious, and will create an impression with a deeper meaning. “Misdirection” is a concept, not a detailed and accurate explanation of a process. Misdirection has a strong and powerful role for your performance. Of course, as the performers, we have seen the Coin and Glass Routine. Yes, a brilliant routine and has a meaningful method of misdirection. Performer claimed that he will vanish a coin that is laid on the table using only a clear glass and wrapped by a piece of newspaper. Once the audience pays their focus on the coin, the performer covered it, then boom!, eventually the glass has gone from the performer’s hand. Here we can clearly recognize how important the use of misdirection for performers. As a close-up magic performer, I use this method to allow myself to execute complicated or simple sleight of hand that is not supposed to be seen by the audience. Steve Cohen, in one of his books, shared a story that when he was really young; he once tried to hide one of his mother’s coins. What he only did was held it into his fist when he made eye contact with his mom without even once looked at his hand. Yes, eye contact plays a really important part in this method. Audience will always focus onto where the eyes look at and unconsciously follow where your eyes look.

"Time-leap" Time-leap can also be referred by the missing timeline: a process where an audience will purely not be aware of things that had just happened. This method has a close correlation with misdirection. The missing moment or moment that is not captured by the audience’s memory, will act as if something magical has just happened. Have you ever met a lay person who told to their friends that they just saw a conjurer (magician) pushed his cigarette through a coin, their coin that had been clearly signed by them? This is one of the examples where Time-leap works well. The audience will confirm to everybody that listening to them how the performer had been able to push the cigarette to the coin. They will also skip the moment where the performer actually switched their coin with performer’s coin.

"Climax" is the highest effect of your performance. This part is sometimes referred as “kicker” or a suprise effect from a routine and oftenly this part is placed at the end of a routine as an ending. This aspect is not only applied in the art of conjuring, but as well in every movie we watch on TV or at the cinema. They use this aspect as the ending. This element will leave a deep meaning and strong mark in the memory of your audience.

"Way-out” It cannot be denied that human do mistakes. Sometimes shit do happens. Mistakes will take place not only because the performer’s fault but sometimes because of the audience fail to follow the proper instruction from the performer. However, there is an unwritten rule of thumb that “Audience is always right” because they are the one that enjoying our performance. One should really pay a good attention that ”Plan B is not enough”, so when we failed to continue using Plan B, which we had prepared before, we would still have Plan C, D, and so on. There is no exact tutorial to train our way-out. This aspect is purely we gain along with our experiences in performing. The way I do is by practising and keep practising with one to three routines with different audiences so then we will understand more of things that are possible to happen.

Ps. This note is not sacrosanct. It’s opinionated. 

Sincerely.. Maximillian Carl