Here Comes the Easter Bunny

In a couple of days the Easter Bunny will visit homes of young children across America delivering baskets of treats. According to this source, the origin of the Easter Bunny may be traced to “early pagan celebrations” of “springtime renewal of life and fertility as well as the goddess of dawn and spring, Eastre." Some of these celebrations and myths were adopted and modified by early missionaries to make it easier to win over converts.

Like Santa Claus and the tooth fairy, the Easter Bunny is soon relegated to the dustbin of childhood stories as kids grow up, mature and develop the ability to easily separate fantasy from reality, no matter how appealing and comforting those fantasies might be. Unfortunately, many of their parents persist in beliefs that are equally outlandish long after they have grown up. Somehow the will to believe is so strong that it defies reality.

I am reminded of this when I saw the recent Pew Research report on the number of Americans drawn to “New Age” beliefs, particularly that 41% of adults believe in psychics. Now, I’ve written about psychics before, giving examples of how their annual predictions are consistently wrong, how those who claim to have the psychic power have been discredited again and again, and how they have been convicted for defrauding people. But no matter how often someone explains the techniques of hot and cold readings, no matter how often psychics are embarrassed or proven wrong, the fantasy survives and believers continue to be swindled.

The latest attempt to dissuade believers (February 25) comes from this rather long (21-minute), but quite amusing video from John Oliver. The subtitle on YouTube is “Psychics may seem harmless and fun on TV, but they can make a lot of money by exploiting vulnerable people.” In fact, it’s a $2.2 billion industry. 

This video has had almost 7 million views, and you would think the word would get out. However, when you turn on daytime TV or use a search engine to find out more about psychic powers, people selling the idea that these powers are real overwhelmingly dominate the information posted. As is the case in most social media situations, misinformation overpowers the truth serving up enough credulous customers to keep about 100,000 self-employed psychics in business.

When magicians appear on the stage or on television, they describe what they do as illusions. They are admittedly lying to the audience, trying to fool everyone with misdirection and slight of hand. When the show is over, people go home understanding that it was all a trick but wondering how they did it – what mechanisms, mirrors, technology or fancy moves were involved? What didn’t I see?

When psychics appear, they expect everyone to believe that they can predict the future or can communicate with the dead. When the show is over, people go home, sometimes in shock or with renewed grief, thinking it was real. This is dishonest on the part of the performer and the height of gullibility on the part of the audience. They don’t try to figure out what tricks were involved. They believe!

That’s why magicians are so good at debunking psychics, but how many times will it take? And how will America survive when 4 out of 10 voters are so easily duped into believing in a notion no more real than the Easter Bunny. (Note: Politicians and the news media don’t call it illusion or misdirection either, although it sometimes is.)