Magick Without Tears

256 MAGICK WITHOUT TEARS have people picking up odds and ends which may be perfectly irrelevant, and insisting that they conceal forecasts. This excludes Great Pyramid lunatics; it would be quite simple to do the same sham calculations with the Empire State Building; when the architects protested, it is simple to reply : why, but of course! God was most careful not to let them know what they were really doing, or they would have died of fright! This argument was actually put forward by the Spiritists when Zancig confessed that his music-hall exploits· were accomplished by means of a code. It is quite useless to get any sense whatever into the heads of these bigoted imbeciles. 2. The date of the prophecy must antecede that of its fulfilment. The very greatest care must be taken to ensure this. When both dates are remote, as in the case of "fulfilled" Biblical prophecies, this is often impossible. 3. The prophecy must be precise. This rules out cases where alternative verifications are possible. 4. The prophecy must be more than a reasonable calculation of probability. This rules out stuff like "The Burden of Nineveh" and the like. Incidentally, "The Burden of Damascus" does not seem to have had much luck so far! By latest accounts, the old burg wasn't feeling too badly. We may also refer to the Second Advent: "Behold! I come quickly." There have been quite a few false alarms to date. (It began with Jesus himself, snapping off a disciple's head: "If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee?" Well, somebody was disappointed.) 1. Mrs. Zancig sat on the stage, blindfolded . Her husband wandered about the audience, taking one object or another from one or another of them, and asking her "Ready?" "What is this?" "And this?" 'This now?" "Right, what 's this?" and so on. They had worked out a list of some hundreds of questions to cover any probable article, or to spell its name, or give a number, as when asked the number of a watch or bus ticket-and so on. One evening at Cambridge, I was explaining this to a group of undergraduates ; being doubted, I offered to do the same trick with the help of one of them-a complete stranger . I only stipulated for ten minutes alone with him "to hypnotize him." Of course I won easily. They cut out one possible way of communication after another; but I always managed to exchange a few words with my "medium" or slip him a note, so as to have a new code not excluded by the latest precaution.