I was introduced to the popular
magic show “Penn and Teller: Fool us” by our son Kabir. In this TV show, the
young and the old magicians perform their best tricks in Las Vegas and try to
fool the mighty magic duo Penn and Teller. In case you have not seen already, I
urge you to check out the video clip above in which Shawn Farquhar, a world
champion in card magic, fools Penn and Teller. In this article, I would like to
explore how this magic show can help us understand a seemingly unrelated area –
mindfulness.
Let’s bucket the audience of this
show (including those watching it on TV) into three categories. First,
“This-is-real” category: These guys – perhaps mostly kids – might confuse the
magic act as if it were happening for real. If a man gets cut into two, they
might get frightened. My wife remembers carrying Kabir out of the theatre while
watching Harry Potter and the philosopher’s stone because he started crying. My
parents tell similar stories about me. That’s This-is-real category.
Second, “Fooled-but-aware”
category: These guys are enjoying the show and they have no clue how they are
getting fooled. However, they carry awareness that they are getting fooled
while the drama is unfolding. For example, they don’t cry when Penn acts as
though a knife has entered his chest.
Third, “Not-fooled” category:
Penn and Teller and many other magicians around the world also enjoy the drama
but most of the time they know exactly when the sleight of hand is doing the
trick. If they get fooled, as in this case of Shawn Farquhar, they are more
aware what they don’t know. Just to summarize, the three categories are:
This-is-real, Fooled-but-aware and Not-fooled.
Now let’s imagine another magic
show called “Perception and Thought: Fool us” which is run by two fictional characters
called Perception and Thought (P&T). Between the two Thought is the
real magician. Perception is more of an orator and showman. Thought is working
mostly behind the scene. Sometimes he turns a rope into a snake and adds a
scary music in the background. Sometimes he turns a person from another
religious community into an enemy and plays villain-is-coming type jingle.
While working backstage Thought has access to a vast amount of memory most of
which nobody else can see. There are times when Thought is not doing much
though and Perception is just showing things as they are – the table, the
chair, the mountain, the trees etc. I guess you get the idea.
Now most of us when we are not
mindful we belong to the first category - This-is-real. We treat the drama put
up by the duo Perception and Thought (P&T) as real. For example, when
the boss shouts, we get upset, when kids throw tantrums we get irritated, when
we read about war, corruption and rape we get angry-sad etc. We follow what
Daniel Kahneman calls WYSIATI
rule – What You See Is All
There Is.
When we are mindful, we are more
like the Fooled-but-aware category. When boss looks angry or upset, we consider
the possibility that it could be just our imagination – as Thought might have
fooled us. Or when boss shouts at us, we consider the possibility that he might
have had a bad day and not because he is a bad person or because I am
incompetent. Since a mindful person carries awareness that Thought may be
fooling him, he doesn’t hold onto an opinion too strongly. He carries an
openness to change the opinion if such evidence shows up.
A mindfulness Master is more like
Penn and Teller. He is also entertained by the show like others but differs
from the first two categories in following ways. First, he is extremely alert
while watching the show. Second, he knows exactly when Thought is playing the
tricks most of the time. Third, he carries deep appreciation and marvel at what
is possible in the drama of life. And fourth, he is willing to share his
knowledge of the Thought-tricks with those interested.
Now, how can we use this metaphor
for learning mindfulness? First, we can learn from Fooled-but-aware category of
audience. As most of our attention is consumed by the drama, perhaps we can
keep some attention for the awareness that Thought may be fooling us.
When it comes to defending a belief, perhaps we can consider the fact that part
of the belief may be Thought created. That may help us keep the door a little
open while listening to others.
Second, like how magicians are
learning from Penn and Teller, we can learn from spiritual masters as they
explain the places where Thought plays the tricks. For example, in this skype call,
when Nick asks Eckhart Tolle, “If I don’t worry about things, how will I pay my
bills?” Eckhart suggests him that the question itself might contain an error.
That means Thought has played some trick even before you create the question,
perhaps introduced an
incorrect assumption of necessity i.e. worry is absolutely necessary. The challenge here is to figure out who
is an authentic spiritual master and who is not. And wisdom of crowd is not
always trustworthy.
Third, you can use the technique
that magicians are using in today’s YouTube-world to learn. In the video clip
above, Penn points out that it wasn’t difficult for them to spot the
deck-switch. Well, we can do the same by running the video in slow motion and
see when the card deck gets switched. For example, replay the video between
2:35 and 2:40 and see how Shawn might have brought out a brand new deck from
the pocket. Of course, Penn admits they have no clue how Shawn got Penn’s card
in the new deck.
Similarly, as David Bohm points
out in “Thought
as a system”, we can do the same by pressing the button when we are relatively undisturbed i.e. bringing out
the thought ourselves that creates negative emotions in us. For example, we can
think about boss while he is not in front of us and watch the chain reaction in our body-mind. Watching the Perception & Thought show while a negative emotion
is arising is like watching Shawn between 2:35 and 2:40. We can press the
button again and again and see how the whole process functions especially in slow motion.
In short, we can use “Penn and
Teller: Fool us” metaphor to learn mindfulness by being Fooled-but-aware, by
learning thought-tricks from spiritual masters and by pressing the button that
springs negative emotions and watching the show in slow motion.
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awesome video. I really enjoyed it, will look up more shows.
ReplyDeleteI think I would prefer to stay in the most fun category for me viz. fooled but aware.
I have no desire to know how the trick was performed as I am afraid that will kill the romance.
Ravi, glad you enjoyed the video. I agree. It is great to be in Fooled-but-aware category. But sometimes we don't have much of a choice. Insights aren't pre-planned. Many of us would have loved to stay with the belief that Santa Claus comes every X-Mas and gives prizes. Perhaps it is hard to not learn about some things. But, hey, why not just have fun until an insight ruins it?
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