Law and Magic Blog

Lawyer Magician David Ben

David Ben is a member of the prestigious Magic Circle and holds a B.A. from the University of Toronto and a law degree from the University of Western Ontario, and an LLM from London School of Economics. After practicing tax law for a number of years, he decided to concentrate on magic. Mr. Ben is also a writer; he has recently finished Dai Vernon: A Biography, which is available from Squash Publishing. Here's more about Mr. Ben from the University of Toronto Magazine.

Mary of the Watermelon

Mary Lou Robles, who works at the Calipatria State Prison snack bar, says she cut open a watermelon and saw an image of the Virgin of Guadelupe. So she stopped cutting up the watermelon and took it home, thinking the image was a sign from God. Apparently the melon hasn't deteriorated, although it's been over a week since Mrs. Robles cut it open. Now, I do have a question (well, I have more than one, but here's the one that's bothering me right now). Whose watermelon was this initially? The prison's or Mrs. Robles'? If it belongs to the prison, doesn't it have to go back? Read more about this remarkable watermelon here.

Barry L. Beyerstein Dies

Barry L. Beyerstein, Professor of Psychology, Simon Fraser University, and a noted researcher in the area of perception and consciousness, died on June 26, 2007. Dr. Beyerstein was also a member of the Society of the British Columbia Skeptics and a Fellow and member of the Executive Council of the Committee of Skeptical Inquiry (CSI) formerly CSICOP. He wrote and lectured extensively on many magic-related subjects, including Distinguishing Science From Pseudoscience. His daughter has posted a page devoted to him here.

More on Magic in Roman Law

Another citation on Roman law and magic:

Keith R. Bradley, "Law, Magic, and Culture in the Apologia of Apuleius," at 50 Phoenix 203-223 (1997).

Prosecutions Against Fortune Tellers in the French Courts

David Allen Harvey has written an interesting article on prosecution of French fortune tellers in the ninteenth and twentieth centuries after the Napoleonic Code went into effect. Here's the link to his article, which appeared in the journal French Historical Studies.

Citation: David Allen Harvey, Fortune Tellers in the French Courts: Anti-Divination Prosecutions in France in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, 28(1) French Historical Studies 131 (Winter 2005).

Haunted Courthouse?

Is this video of a ghost hanging around a Santa Fe, New Mexico courthouse? It's described as a "ball of light" by the ABC reporter in the clip. To me, it looks more like a small out-of-focus tumbleweed on a mission, or maybe a frenzied piece of dandelion fluff, depending on how close the object is to the lens, and I thought that even before I read the results of Benjamin Radford's investigation.

Fortune Teller Convicted In Maryland Court; Gets Eighteen Months

A Maryland judge gave Grace Uwanawich eighteen months in jail for violating the law against fortune telling. She has already pled guilty (February 12) to felony theft. Apparently she didn't foresee the arrival of police with an arrest warrant. Read more here (registration required, free) in a Washington Post article about her career, sentencing, and plea deal, which includes restitution of more than a quarter of a million dollars to four individuals she defrauded.

Law and Magic in the Midsomer Murders

I just bought several DVD sets of the British television series "Midsomer Murders", based on the Caroline Graham mysteries featuring DCI Tom Barnaby and his sidekick Gavin Troy. One of the episodes in set 8, "Ghosts of Christmas Past," deals with the suicide of a magician, and the effects on his family nine years later. [Spoiler alert] After being clued in by a boy magician, the nephew of the suicide, Barnaby uses the psychology of magic to solve the mystery. The young boy demonstrates a card trick and then explains to the police officers how he accomplishes it--by misdirection, by suggesting what they expect to see, and by producing not the cards one of them has chosen, but cards that are similar. I'm not sure whether the trick actually works--perhaps the writers are engaging in some misdirection themselves. But it doesn't matter. What matters is that Barnaby realizes that someone in the house is also doing some misdirecting, and some mastering stage managing. Previously, someone had tried to kill an elderly aunt by locking her in the garage and turning on a car engine; the keys were nowhere to be found. Yet when she was rescued, the garage turned to be unlocked and the car engine was easily turned off, the keys in the ignition.

Another episode, "Beyond the Grave", (Midsomer Murders, set 1)requires Barnaby and Troy, to investigate whether a ghost is responsible for weird doings and murders in a local museum and thereabouts. Barnaby is not a believer in the supernatural when the natural will do for an explanation, and he tracks down a living, breathing killer. These shows are well acted and well written, and since I generally like British "cosies" as a form of entertainment, I like this series.

I did have a few misgivings about the ending of "Beyond the Grave." I appreciated the police officers' matter of fact willingness to search for the down to earth explanations, in spite of the superstitious nature of much of the "evidence" offered up by some of the witnesses in this episode. What I thought weakened the script was the ending--showing a rocking chair, moving back and forth by itself in an empty room. Perhaps the writers were attempting to start a dialogue about alternate explanations about what we had just seen, but I didn't think it necessary. In addition, if I were writing such a script, I'd put in enough material to make such a dialogue necessary--offering evidence of both the natural and supernatural for each event. Suggesting the existence of a ghost at the end of an episode, especially when no one in the episode is there to witness it, and when every other appearance of the ghost has been satisfactorily explained is just pointless. All the writers are doing is suggesting it to the audience, and the audience is outside the action of the story. That's breaching the fourth wall for no "earthly" reason.

Other "supernatural episodes" include "The Straw Woman" from set 8, featuring a village woman accused of witchcraft and "The Electric Vendetta", from set 3, in which DCI Barnaby and Sergeant Troy investigate the supposed existence of alien and the creation of crop circles.

Keep Watching the Skies--And Reaching For Them

David Whitehouse, an astronomer and science writer, discusses the recent identification of extra-solar planet Gliese 581c, which might support life, and which has consequently set off a new round of speculation about alien life forms in an article called "Meet the Neighbours: Is the Search for Aliens Such a Good Idea?" Do we want to meet up with them? Mr. Whitehouse surveys the reactions, pro and con, to attempts to contact intelligent beings off-world. He points out, "One thing is clear from our searches for ET - there is nobody transmitting strong interstellar beacons in our local vicinity. If "they" are out there, they are keeping quiet, prompting the question that they might know something we don't." If aliens did contact us, or if they land here, would such an event prompt a new witch hunt? His article ends with a list of novels and films speculating on the result of human-alien contact--generally resulting in human destruction.

Meanwhile, the belief in the possibility or alien invasion, and/or alien abduction--the notion that they are already here--continues unabated. One commentator even suggests that there's a link between aliens and the recent Virginia Tech massacre.

Debate Over Revision of the Fraudulent Mediums Act

Daniel Finkelstein, a Times (UK) commentator and former advisor to John Major, opines here about a proposed revision of the UK's Fraudulent Mediums Act, 1951, which replaced the Witchcraft Act, 1735. Here's the Committee of Advertising Practice document, "Help Note on the Marketing of Spiritual and Psychic Services, Astrologers, and Lucky Charms." (That's actual objects, not cereal).