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Definition: When we as people are introduced to something that is new, exciting or a mystery, we get excited and we want to solve that mystery. We want to have everything make sense and fit perfectly in the puzzle.

Connection: The connection to the Reason for Belief of Unexplained is this article about discovering how the magic tricks are performed and the secrets behind the tricks. When something is unexplained we then feel compelled to uncover the truth. This means that we will investigate further until we reach the conclusion of how we ended up with the result. We are fascinated by these magic tricks of illusion.

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BrightSide - Inspiration. Creativity. Wonder.

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Sometimes the explanation of the most dazzling and mysterious magic trick is right there on the surface.

The Bright Side team tried to learn some magicians' secrets, and now we have a simple explanation of the most famous tricks.

10. The Statue of Liberty disappears

In 1983, David Copperfield made the Statue of Liberty disappear completely. The trick can be explained very simply. The Statue was draped with a huge piece of fabric or covered by a big screen put in front of the audience. The whole illumination of the monument was turned off except for the spotlights. This simple preparation created the illusion of hollow space, and the set of lights blinded the audience. After the monument was unveiled, people were not able to see it because their vision was temporarily blurred by the spotlights.

9. A huge truck disappears

How to make a huge truck disappear when it's surrounded by the audience on all sides? Easy! All you need to do is drape a special construction over the truck, create a fake audience with your friends, and ask somebody to drive the truck out of the construction. When you take the drapes off, the truck is not there anymore. Now you understand why this trick may be seen only on TV.

8. Floating man

A man floating in the middle of the street is neither a magician nor a yogi. The illusion is accomplished via the placement of a steel structure under the performer's baggy clothes. Of course, no secret powers are used here.

7. Hand through glass

A magician needs specially cut screens to move a hand through mirror or glass. The back screen covers 2 mirror panels. When the performance begins, the whole construction shifts the real mirror to the back side, moving 2 fake mirror panels forward. Now there is a space to move a hand. At the end of the performance, the assistants shift the real mirror to the front side again.

6. Dollar bill magic

Turning $1 into $100 is so easy when you know the secret. A magician folds a $1 bill in a special way and hides it behind his fingers. Then he carefully substitutes it with a $100 bill so that no one sees. This is when the magic of transformation happens.

5. Walking on water

The trick is usually performed in muddy or unclear rivers or man-made waters like swimming pools. The main goal is to make a glass or clear plastic platform essentially invisible to the audience. Now you can walk on water without being the son of God.

4. Underwater chain escape

Combining physical strength and tricky fake locks makes this magic happen. The assistants need to loosen the latches and hinges, and the magician needs to get rid of the locks, gain a firm grip, and come up for air.

3. The signed card trick

The magician asks someone from the audience to put their signature on a random card. Then he tears it into 4 pieces and magically restores the signed card in front of the amazed audience. The secret is quite simple: the illusionist has a folded card in his pocket, and he substitutes the signed card with it. The hidden card is torn, and the signed one is perfectly safe.

2. Sword swallowing

For some performers, learning to swallow a sword can take years as it is an extremely dangerous practice. However, fakirs from all over the world amaze people with the ability to easily swallow a sword. The trick requires lots of physical and psychological preparation. The illusionist positions his head up so that his throat and stomach make a straight line and will not be hurt by the sword.

1. Split man trick

The cut-in-half illusion only works when you watch the performer from the front. From the side, you can see that from the knee to the waist it's actually a plastic mannequin. Baggy clothes and body posture create the perfect illusion of a man holding his own legs.

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10 Secrets Behind the Most Famous Magic Tricks Revealed

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Sometimes the explanation of the most dazzling and mysterious magic trick is right there on the surface. The Bright Side team tried to learn some magicians' secrets, and now we have a simple explanation of the most famous tricks. 10. The Statue of Liberty disappears In 1983, David Copperfield made the Statue of Liberty disappear completely.

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Definition:
The Ancient Wisdom red flag describes people believing in the idea of a product being successful because of being described as having ancient wisdom to back up it's claims of being a reputable and successful product or idea.

Connection:
The connection to the red flag of Ancient Wisdom would be this book for sale regarding the Ancient Wisdom of Chinese Tonic Herbs. The author is a man from the United States named Ron Teeguarden. Ron claims to be an expert in the field but only has experience and recommendations referenced from other Chinese gurus and other non- accredited sources. He claims he is an educated, knowledgeable source of information regarding Ancient Wisdom Chinese Tonic Herbs. This man is using Ancient Wisdom claims and apparent knowledge to sell copies of his book that claims to: slow aging; gain unlimited energy; improve sex; sharpen mental clarity; reduces stress, look and feel younger. This is a red flag to look out for when purchasing products to ingest or learn about to improve your health. I would not spend one dime on this product as I can clearly see it is not backed up by science.

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Full E-book Ancient Wisdom of the Chinese Tonic Herbs, The For Free

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Definition:
This Proof of Verbosity red flag  occurs when someone uses purposefully hard to understand arguments and unfamiliar words in an attempt to confuse other people. Someone who tries to bombard the listener with massive amounts of information to support their claim. They want to appear knowledgeable and reputable to make more believers and more sales of their product.

Connection:
The connection to the red flag of Proof of Verbosity would be in analyzing this video of Dr Preveti answering questions about the stroke risks in his County. The point of the video is for the doctor to provide information about strokes in an intelligent way. If his video is successful then his practice would gain more patients. He wants to appear like a doctor who is a  fountain of knowledge on the video but although his ideas are great his execution of the video is flawed because some people will consider this a red flag of Proof of Verbosity and will approach the doctor with caution now that they have seen the video.This is because of his verbosity displayed in the video. The doctor even self admittedly said that he was sounding very verbose because he was passionate about the subjects.

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DocTalk - Dr. Previti on Stroke Risks during COVID-19

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Definition:
The Appeal to Authority red flag occurs when an individual has a celebrity name, or looks the professional part in a white lab coat or mentions credadations such as College diplomas and certifications in order to support the validity of their product they are standing behind.

Connection:
The connection to the red flag of Appeal to Authority would be this image of an ad from long ago of Marilyn Monroe saying "yes, I use Lustre Creme Shampoo" as an advertisement to sell the shampoo she is holding in her hand. The consumers admiration for Marilyn Monroe will lead them into believing that this shampoo that she uses must be amazing simply because Marilyn uses it. They have seen no evidence or proof that the shampoo is effective at all. They only have the image of Marilyn Monroe and her beautiful hair. When a celebrity endorses a product they are selling their image over to sell the product with no scientific evidence included. Any product endorsed by celebrities should be viewed with a grain of salt.

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Definition:
Mystical Energy is a red flag that warns people against any claim of a product helping your life physically, mentally or emotionally through purchasing mystical energy products. These products are not supported by true science only confirmation from a mystical energy source.

Connection:
The connection to the red flag Mystical Energy is this article from a women in 2009 who had experience with mystical energy healing one week after being diagnosed with bone cancer. She visited and paid $175.00 to a renowned master healer and the healer told her that her cancer was more aggressive and she needed more sessions and she should eat more fish. This all turned out to be false and a ploy for more money because she is cancer free now. I am very skeptical of this pseudoscience called mystical energy and its healing powers. People who are lonely and want attention may fall victim to these bogus products more easily than the average more skeptical person. The trick is to know whether the mystical energy  products work or not. Use your critical thinking skills and assess if it's just powerful Mystical Energy words being used to make a profit.

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"I don't usually tell people this," whispered Karl, as we were sitting in a pub after work. The sun shone brightly outside, but the room had few windows and was dimly lit. "My hands have healing powers," he said. "I heard you have cancer. I might be able to help."

It was 2009. One week previous, I was diagnosed with bone cancer. I didn't believe (and I'm still skeptical) that anyone has magical healing powers. But promises of new age cures for horrible diseases can rip tight minds and wallets wide open.

I met Karl at his home the next day. By day, he taught high school mathematics, just down the hall from where I taught English. By night, he practiced Reiki. Reiki practitioners believe that they can transfer "universal energy" through their palms. They place their hands on or above their patients in an effort to heal them. Yes, it sounds like voodoo. It also sounds like a good way to take money from the vulnerable. But Karl never asked for money. He just wanted to help.

Week after week, following my surgery, I lay on his table and closed my eyes. "Imagine a white light running down your spine," he said. "The light has the power to heal." Sometimes, Karl put his hands on my back. Other times, his hands just hovered above me.

The sessions were calming, in a meditative way. Karl spoke highly of a master healer from California who would soon be in town. He said I should book a session with her. Not wanting to disappoint him, I did.

I paid her $175 for 30-minutes. Afterward, she contorted her face as if she were in deep physical pain. "Your cancer is aggressive," she said. "You need many more sessions...and you should eat more fish."

She was wrong. My surgery had been successful. My cancer was gone. And if I ate more fish I'd look like a guppy.

So is energy healing a hoax, a delusion or the real deal? Few scientific peer reviewed studies support it. But Dean Radin says it isn't quackery at all. He is a parapsychologist working at the Institute of Noetic Sciences in California. According to The Daily Mail, Radin worked with couples, with which one partner had cancer. Radin asked the healthy partners to send positive energy to their spouses at a time randomly chosen by a computer. He says the vital signs of the sick partner improved precisely when they sent positive thoughts.

Radin writes about such phenomena in his book, The Conscious Universe: The Scientific Truth of Psychic Phenomena.Most of the claims about healing energy, however, are more anecdotal than scientific. Robert L. Park is one of Dean Radin's critics. He's an emeritus professor of physics at the University of Maryland. Park published a review of Radin's book in a 1997 issue of Nature, International Weekly Journal of Science. He says Radin ignored the known hoaxes in the field, made statistical errors and ignored plausible non-paranormal explanations.

I'm writing this column in the town of Ubud, on the island of Bali. It's a Mecca for holistic healers. Just a quick look through a local magazine shows dozens of ads or articles with phrases like 'harmony transformation process' or 'transformative global energy'.

Dan Berbridge has lived in Ubud for the past year. He says the paranormal gets taken far too seriously. "I was sitting at a café yesterday," he explained, "and the people at the table next to mine were talking about a 'spiritual cattery'. When these pet owners go on vacations, they want their cats to board with a spiritual essence."

While Ubud may attract its share of flakes, some of its healers are taken quite seriously. Michele Cempaka is one of them. Nothing about the former Californian journalist appears out of the ordinary. She doesn't wear flowered gowns adorned with charms and crystals. But she makes her living as a Reiki healer.

"Anybody can learn Reiki," says the Reiki master and hypnotherapist, "But some people are more naturally gifted than others."

She has caught the attention of the prestigious Aman Resorts chain. Many guests pay upwards of $5,000 a night for a room, and then pay extra for Michele to perform Reiki. "I see my ability as a gift," she says. "Some say it's from God, some say it's from the universe."

Then again, it could be from Bayonne, Peoria, or Miami. It's not quite clear.

I don't know what effect, if any, my friend Karl's healing sessions had on my health. But it reminds me of a Shakespearean quote from Hamlet. "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy."

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Is Energy Healing, Like Reiki, Bogus Or For Real?

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"I don't usually tell people this," whispered Karl, as we were sitting in a pub after work. The sun shone brightly outside, but the room had few windows and was dimly lit. "My hands have healing powers," he said. "I heard you have cancer. I might be able to help."

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Post #6 Red Flag: Confusion and Causation

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Post #6 Red Flag: Confusion and Causation

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Definition:
Confusion of Causation is a red flag that happens when we credit  the result of something to something that did not cause the result at all.

Connection:
The connection to the red flag of Confusion and Causation is the attached article about crystals and their healing properties. People say the power of these minerals is “in the eye of the beholder.” They are sold as healing properties that will heal your ailments, but this is not necessarily the case as there is no scientific evidence. If people believe that a treatment will make them feel better then many of them tend to feel better as a result after they have had the treatment, even if the treatment is not scientifically proven to work. The power of positive thinking and believing is very strong and can help cure and make the patient feel better. I think as long as the customer is aware of the true facts about the product and how the science is mainly positive thinking then there is no harm in believing in these crystals to help treat physical or mental ailments.

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You Asked: Do Healing Crystals Actually Work?

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For some, they might. But the benefit is in the user’s mind: not the rock.

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Definition: Ideology:
It is the idea that groups of people who are raised together and grow up together have the same ideas and values in common with each other. The people tend not to think for themselves and will follow the community thinking, even if the thinking is going to have things go poorly for them.

Connection:
The connection in this article to Ideologies is this article about a child contracting tetanus from a cut on his forehead. The child never had any vaccinations because his parents did not believe in vaccinating their child. The child suffered painfully and the whole ordeal could of been avoided if he had been vaccinated. The idealogoliges of the boys parents are the reason why they refused to vaccinate their son and the reason why their son suffered.

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A 6-year-old boy from Oregon who had never received a single vaccine got a cut on his forehead while playing on his family's farm in 2017. The wound was cleaned and sutured at home.

Six days later, doctors were treating the child for tetanus, an enormously painful, sometimes fatal infection that is caused by bacterial spores found in the soil and that is completely preventable with vaccine. It was the state's first pediatric tetanus case in more than 30 years.

The boy did survive. But after a weeks-long, gut-wrenching medical marathon - which cost well over $800,000 - his parents refused to allow the hospital to give him a full course of vaccines to protect him against tetanus. Nor would they allow doctors to vaccinate their son against measles, mumps, rubella, chickenpox, polio, and a range of other diseases that are dangerous for and can be lethal to young children, despite the fact the team spent a great deal of time trying to persuade them of their benefits.

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Dr. Judith Guzman-Cottrill, a pediatric infectious diseases specialist at OHSU Doernbecher Children's Hospital in Portland, helped care for the boy, who had to spend weeks sedated in a darkened room, wearing earplugs to block out noise. Even though he'd been given paralytic drugs to stop the racking spasms that tetanus causes, his whole body would tense up if someone near him spoke in even a normal voice, she told STAT.

"He was really sick and it was really difficult to watch," said Guzman-Cottrill. "He was suffering."

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The entire team caring for the boy found his condition agonizing, she said, adding that they also found it extraordinary to be dealing with a tetanus case in 2017.

"I never thought I would see a case of severe tetanus in the United States," she said. "That was an astounding point for me."

CDC

Guzman-Cottrill and several colleagues outlined the boy's case in a report in this week's issue of Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, an online journal published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The cautionary tale of the consequences of not vaccinating children comes at a time when several states are in the grips of measles outbreaks among unvaccinated children.

Tetanus infection is also known as lockjaw, because the powerful toxins created by the Clostridium tetani bacteria do just that. They rack the body with intense spasms, powerful enough sometimes to break bones. The infection was more common before effective vaccines started to be used in the 1930s and 1940s, but is now rare. There were only 197 cases reported in the United States between 2009 and 2015. But 16 of those people died.

In this case, the boy began to display alarming symptoms - jaw clenching, general spasticity and involuntary muscle spasms in his limbs, followed by arching of his neck and back - a few days after suffering the cut.

He began to have trouble breathing, and his parents contacted emergency medical services. An air transport was arranged to the children's hospital.

The child had to be sedated. A tracheostomy was performed so that he could be put on a mechanical ventilator to help him breath. He remained on the ventilator for more than five weeks. Because of the pain caused by the spasms, he required muscle relaxants as well as drugs to stabilize his blood pressure in addition to the medications to counter the tetanus toxins.

The boy spent 54 days in hospital - 47 of them in intensive care.

His recovery was slow. Fifty days after he entered the hospital he could walk 20 feet with help. After leaving hospital, he spent 17 days in a rehabilitation facility. A month after leaving it - and 3 1/2 months after the fateful cut - he was back to normal activity.

The bill for the hospital care came to $811,929, and that didn't include the cost of the air ambulance, the stay in the rehabilitation facility, or follow-up care that was needed.

Children are supposed to receive five doses of a vaccine that contains tetanus protection in the early years of life, and another between the ages of 11 or 12. Adults need a booster dose every 10 years to maintain protection.

Neither vaccination nor infection confers lifelong immunity against tetanus, which means that if this boy remains unvaccinated, he could contract tetanus again.

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The nightmarish tale of what happened to a child who wasn't vaccinated

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A 6-year-old boy from Oregon who had never received a single vaccine got a cut on his forehead while playing on his family's farm in 2017. The wound was cleaned and sutured at home.

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Define Problem: Do healing crystals really work? Do Healing Crystals heal physical ailments or is it just in the "eye of the beholder"
Gather Information:
My source was an article from The Times Website called "Do Healing Crystals Actually Work? written by Markham Heid on October, 5, 2017. This source is not credible because it is just an article written as his own biased opinion.

Evaluate Evidence: The crystal healing community stands behind the use of crystals to heal body, mind, and soul.They claim they do this by placing the crystals near or on your body to positively interact with your body's energy field. There is no scientific evidence from this article that proves crystals heal anything at all. When I analyzed this article, I realized that the crystals will have a healing effect because of the placebo effect. This just means that the crystals will produce positive vibes and that positivity may be the missing ingredient.

Recognize Assumptions, Emotions, and Biases: The author of this article is writing from a skeptical standpoint. He believes that crystals have a positive placebo effect on the outcome of a patient's treatment but he is biased in his opinion that he does not believe that crystals possess any of the healing properties attributed to them by users.

Synthesize Evidence: If you are familiar with alternative medicine then you know about crystals. Crystal minerals (usually quartz) or fossilized resins that are believed to have beneficial healing health properties. Holding crystals or placing them on your body is thought to promote physical, emotional and spiritual healing. Crystals supposedly do this by positively interacting with your body’s energy field, or chakra. While some crystals are said to alleviate stress, others purportedly improve concentration or creativity.

Select Best Alternative: I would say that I agree with the author of this article in being skeptical about this business with the crystals having healing properties which aids in the healing of physical and mental ailments. I think that the crystals have a placebo effect that soothes and comforts the patient, but I don't think they will do anything more than that. The crystals have been proven to make people feel better and that is the main thing.

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Post #9 Reasons for Belief: Emotional Connections

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Post #9 Reasons for Belief: Emotional Connections

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Definition: People saying that when they have an Emotional Connection to what is going on then everything is much more elevated in the situation. If your Emotions are running high then you are at risk for making poor decisions.

Connection: The connection to the reason for belief of Emotional Connections is this article about psychic readings and what red flags to watch out for when you are interested in using a psychic's services. If you have lost a loved one or you are suffering in your life, you may want to seek information and comfort from the other side and you may seek the services of a psychic. In this article a psychic source explains that there are legitimate psychics and then there are not. If the psychic says they want to charge you for getting rid of a spirit then they are a scam. This article has arguments for and against the legitimacy of psychics. The source claims that as for the psychics out there, some are good and some are a scam. If you pay attention and are skeptical then maybe you will not fall into the psychic trap.

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Joyce Senfe was distraught when her husband walked out after 56 years of marriage. She was desperate to know if he'd return.

So she went online and did a search for "Christian psychic." That's how Senfe, who lives in Brooksville, Fla., ended up on the phone recently with Los Angeles-based Psychic Readings by Lauren.

"Lauren was very sympathetic," Senfe, 81, told me. "We talked for quite a bit. She said I shouldn't worry, that he'll come back. But she said he was surrounded by evil spirits and that first he needed to get rid of them."

As luck would have it, that was a service Lauren could provide - for $900. And if things didn't work out, Senfe said she was informed, her money would be returned.

You know where this is going. Senfe wired the money to a Wells Fargo bank account here in the Southland. Her husband hasn't come back. And now Senfe is hitting a brick wall in being reimbursed.

I don't mind saying upfront that I generally regard professional psychics with a heavy dollop of caveat emptor.

If ever there was a gig rife with potential deception, it's charging people money for purported glimpses into the future or afterlife, or offering advice based on the insights of dead loved ones.

The U.S. market for "psychic services" is worth about $2 billion annually, according to market researcher IBISWorld.

I acknowledge that many people take this stuff seriously. So instead of reaching out to a like-minded skeptic, I decided to see what true believers had to say.

I wanted the psychic industry's thoughts on how consumers can protect themselves from being duped.

"Unfortunately, there are a lot of con artists out there," said Shay Parker, founder of Best American Psychics, an online directory of seers who reportedly undergo testing and criminal background checks. "It's actually quite disturbing."

She said bogus psychics specialize in teasing information out of clients and then telling them what they want to hear, typically in the realms of love or money.

"A good psychic will tell you to shut up," Parker said. "If they start asking you a ton of questions, run."

She said a true psychic also will offer highly specific information without any prompting - the name of a deceased family member, say, or a detailed physical description.

"You might be asked if the name Phillip means anything to you," Parker said. "But you shouldn't provide a lot of information. It's their job to know what Phillip died of or what he looked like."

I related Senfe's experience. Parker said she's heard similar stories all too often.

"If a psychic ever says you're cursed or have a negative entity attached to you, it's a con," she said. "If anyone offers to cast a spell, it's a con. No psychic can make someone do something."

There also seems to be a you-get-what-you-pay-for aspect to this business. A storefront psychic might charge as little as $25 for a reading. A higher-profile practitioner's time can run in the hundreds of dollars - if you can book an appointment.

I called the cellphone of Michelle Beltran, who was named 2017 Psychic of the Year by Best American Psychics.

"How did you get this number?" she asked suspiciously.

"Would you believe me if I said I'm psychic?"

"How did you get it?" she repeated.

I admitted I had a researcher at the newspaper scour some of our databases. Beltran, who charges up to $405 for a 45-minute session, said she was too busy to chat.

I had more luck with Jusstine Kenzer, who held the top ranking in a Yelp search of best psychics in Los Angeles. She charges $375 a session.

"Be cautious about walking into any storefront with a neon sign," Kenzer advised. "If anyone asks you for money to remove hexes or spells or negative energy, forget it. No true psychic is going to do anything like that."

Also, don't just settle for a peek into the spirit world. A good psychic will serve as your guide to the supernatural.

"Anyone can give you information." Kenzer said. "What you're looking for is whether that information can help you grow in life. It's about inspiring and healing and comforting you."

Psychics aren't licensed or overseen by any government agency. But they can run afoul of the law when their business practices lean more toward greed than growth.

In 2002, the Miss Cleo psychic hotline paid $5 million to settle charges that it misled customers with promises of free psychic readings. According to the Federal Trade Commission, only the first few minutes were free.

After that, it would cost $4.99 a minute, and company employees were instructed to keep people on the line for as long as possible, often up to an hour.

"You don't need a crystal ball to know that the FTC will continue to stop unfair and deceptive trade practices," an agency official said at the time. "We want consumers to know that when companies make a promise in an ad, they need to deliver."

I found a handful of online reviews for Psychic Readings by Lauren (a.k.a. True Love Psychic Reader), with some clients saying they too felt taken advantage of.

A woman named Cassie complained last year that she was instructed to pay $1,000 to remove a "spiritual block" that was hampering her love life. Cassie said she paid $100, which she was told would be refunded if things didn't improve. Apparently she never saw that money again.

Another client said she was instructed last year to pay $125 to remove "a negative curse" preventing her from meeting Mr. Right. When that didn't work, she was told to withdraw $7,000 from the bank and sleep with it in her bed along with a dozen red roses and a picture of herself.

The client demurred, fearing that her spiritual advisor would "send some guys to rob me."

While I was interviewing Kenzer, I asked her to use her psychic powers to determine what was up with Psychic Readings by Lauren.

After a moment's consideration, she said it "seems to me that it's going to be hard for you to connect with them."

No one at Psychic Readings by Lauren returned my calls or email.

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How to tell if a psychic is more interested in cash than clairvoyance

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Joyce Senfe was distraught when her husband walked out after 56 years of marriage. She was desperate to know if he'd return. So she went online and did a search for "Christian psychic." That's how Senfe, who lives in Brooksville, Fla., ended up on the phone recently with Los Angeles-based Psychic Readings by Lauren.