I still remember a newsletter published by one of my English teachers in High School for his students. It was called, “The Muse.” Really cool title…if only I would have appreciated it then as much as I appreciate that word now.
The definition of the word “muse” is: To think.
Add the letter “a”, creating “amuse,” and you get the opposite: To not think.
So what does it really mean to be “amused“?
We have amusement parks, where you can go “not think” for a day, or two, or three. Not so bad…unless…
Unless you live in what I like to call a “Constant State of Amusement.”
We live in a world filled with deception, constantly selling lies and misdirecting us from the stuff that really matters. And we too often buy those lies, simply because we choose to turn off our minds and let the world do our thinking for us. READ ALL
If you’ve been to one of our live events, you may remember me talking about how our minds take in about 3,000-4,000 messages and advertisements every single day here in America. That’s a lot of messages pointing you in a lot of different directions vying for your attention. The scary thing is, as high as that number is, it’s even HIGHER during the Christmas season!
What is this Christmas about for you? If you’re reading this blog, you’re probably the kind of person that has already heard that “Jesus is the reason for the season.” Like a thousand times. Right? Sounds cliche…but it’s true. But you already know that, don’t you? The problem isn’t that you don’t already know the truth, it’s that for most of us, our actions and lives don’t match up with what we know is true. Alas…it is EASY to be deceived. We get mis-directed every day…especially at Christmas time.
So what’s your mission this Christmas?
Will you focus on and celebrate the truth?
Or will you buy the lies?
Chances are, your family has already developed a focus for this season. Want to know what that focus is? Just ask yourself these two questions… READ ALL
One of the things I love most about what I do is the opportunity that I have to get tons of people out of the audience every night up on stage. That means that every single performance is unique. When you get a volunteer on stage, you just never have any idea what will happen, or how they’ll react to the illusion they’re participating in. This past weekend in Bradenton, FL was no different!
In my show, I often perform an illusion where an old, antique table floats mysteriously around the stage, without anyone touching it. It was inspired by an experience I had over 10 years ago in southeast Asia. While on a tour with another performer in Sri Lanka, we discovered a man in one of the communities we were performing in who was performing one of the same illusions we were. He had invested the same time, resources, and months of practice we had into creating the same illusion of levitation, but with one major difference: He was actually deceiving people. There were no spirits…it was all just an illusion.
This guy had convinced hundreds of people in his country that the levitation of the table was made possible by spirits, and that the spirits were manifesting their presence by making the table move. I learned more than one valuable lesson that day about how easily it is for our senses to be fooled, and how simply we are tricked and cleverly deceived into believing things that totally untrue. All because we “saw something with our own eyes,” and after all, “seeing is believing.”
You’ll have to check out our show to get the full story, as well as experience the illusion live, but for now, enjoy this clip of what was for me, a very unique presentation of my floating table illusion. I’ve never had anyone respond quite like this before, but it’s these kind of unexpected moments with audience volunteers that continue to make my job so much fun. Enjoy…
Harry Houdini, one of the world’s most famous magicians and escape artists was certainly an expert in the art of deception. This expertise gave him very valuable perspective, including the following words: READ ALL
Welcome to my first ever guest post on my blog. My wife, Kate, has been cranking out some pretty incredible blog posts lately over at her blog. We talk regularly about what what kind of posts we’re working on, and the other day, we were both expressing frustration over how deceived people have become regarding detoxes. I mentioned I was working on a post about it, and she responded, “me too!”
I figured she’d offer the best perspective than I would, so I let her run with it. And it just so happens that I happen to run a blog about deception, and I’ve probably said “It’s easy to be deceived,” at least 10,000 times in the past 10-15 years. To date, it’s been my life’s message. So enjoy this guest post, written by her, conveniently located here. Here’s Kate… READ ALL
I’ve been saying for a really long time that it’s easy to be deceived. Every day, my wife looks at herself in the mirror, then changes clothes 16 times. Why? It certainly isn’t because she isn’t beautiful. She’s gorgeous! Seriously!
When I was 9 years old, I got a magic set for Christmas from my grandmother. Not at all what I asked for, but that’s what I got. Turns out, it changed my life. When I was 11, I got paid $25 to do my first “real” show. By 14, I was traveling, performing for schools and churches, and even at all kinds of public and private parties and events. By 16, I got my first cruise ship gig, performing on a big boat back and forth from the Carribean. By 18, I was making almost $200,000 a year. By 25, I had made a million dollars in my lifetime. And I had wasted every penny of it.
I was thinking the other day about Paul, and how he wrote in 1st Corinthians 9 that he is “All things to all men.” Obviously, Paul’s goal was to influence as many people as possible, and therefore believed that being all things to all men gave him a better opportunity to do that. As I thought about that concept, I began to wonder what other agendas could benefit from this. The first agenda that came to mind was Satan’s. READ ALL
I still remember a newsletter published by one of my English teachers in High School for his students. It was called, “The Muse.” Really cool title…if only I would have appreciated it then as much as I appreciate that word now.
