The Piddingtons: Possible Today?

[Guest]

I greatly enjoyed this article, but I had to ask myself: could a mindreading team (such as the Falkensteins) pull such a publicity stunt off today? Is digital technology and communication putting a damper on such an act generating interest/national publicity in the present? And if technology is not the barrier, then where IS the mindreading team that would have the guts to pull this type of act off? Hmmm? :confused:

[Eric Rose]

If Jonathan Edwards' Crossing Over is possible today, then most anything is possible if packaged correctly.

[Ross Welford]

I'm just uncertain it would be believed. It's significant that Derren Brown is getting huge attention for a "mental" type act, and also significant that "mental" has to be put in inverted commas: for Derren states quite openly that he's not reading minds.

Of course, on this forum we all know that Derren is a superb performer of heavily-disguised magic tricks. But most lay people accept his cod explanations, in the same way that most people accepted that the Piddingtons were psychic (or for that matter that Uri can bend metal with his mind).

I think we've moved on from those days, and performers have kept up with it.

[Jonathan Townsend]

People in our society believe all sorts of things.

A sizable number have reported being abducted by aliens. Some swear to have seen UFOs. We have people on our media who seem to believe in angels and others who believe in conspiracy theories.

I won't pick on anyone's beliefs or hold them up for ridicule for their sincere and ecological beliefs. If whatever they believe allows them to interact with society in a productive way, all the better for them, and for us if they share their perspective.

Now... on to the mentalist perspective. Surely the Platonic notion of ideals remains with us today, as with CG Jung's notion of a collective unconscious. Today we have an almost tangible zeitgeist present in our film industry. Film may be the common language and mythology in our society. If we share the same mass media and share the same mono-culture, then we are all but connected in our thoughts and only separated by circumstance.

Add a few deliberate, provocative and (for now) unsubstantiated assertions to the above and we are all set to enjoy Mercury in action or to attend events where the zeitgeist can act almost directly.

Identical twin mentalists? A wedding band that sealed more than just a legal marriage?

Sure, why not a couple with a mental link?