Secrets

So what’s the big deal with secrets? It’s an interesting philosophical question . . . I think, and so does Brad “Scarnecky” Gordon. This month you get to peak inside of a pseudo-conversation Brad and I had – more like a Q&A – about secrets. So here it is in all it’s glory:

Brad’s Question

Why do people keep secrets?

Jeff’s Response

Many reasons for keeping secrets are selfish ones. Others are not. We often keep secrets to protect ourselves or others. Sometimes that protection of self is really protection of ego . . . Look what I can do that you can’t do.

Other times, we are trying to protect the audience from losing their childlike ability to experience astonishment. I approach the latter reasoning . . . I haven’t quite arrived. My ego is still a player, but generally, I strive to protect my audience (see: You Don’t Wanna Know)

Brad’s Question

What does the secret mean to you?

Jeff’s Response

It means that mystery is still alive; audiences are protected and my ego is inflated. : The secret gives me power. I have the power to make you (the audience) say “wow” both literally and metaphorically. I have the power to make you question what you know. I have the power to make you life, smile, even cry.

The “secret” (pardon the pun) is to balance that power. As Uncle Ben would say, “With great power, comes great responsibility.” The power we have must be kept in check. We must keep the secret and therefore the power. Keeping the power means we don’t share it, thus we have a bit of a paradox: our art is about sharing (when done properly). It’s about sharing a moment of astonishment and wonder. Yet, paradoxically or maybe even ironically, this means that we must “not share” as well.

As we “not share” the power (aka the secret), we are sharing the power . . . the power to feel a wonderful feeling. Deep baby . . .

Brad’s Question

Why do people decide to share their secrets?

Jeff’s Response

Oddly enough, people share secrets for the same reasons they keep them . . . selfish and non-selfish reasons. Often the secret is shared in an attempt to protect the secret giver. It’s a common phenomenon to discover that many magicians where very shy and even social recluses when they were younger.

I’m no exception. When I knew the secret, it boosted my confidence (and often, thus my ego). However when I shared the secret, it also boosted my confidence. I did it so people would like me. I’ve known several people over the years who bullied me or picked on me frequently. However if I could change the subject to magic, an outside observer would assume that we were best friends talking about a subject (magic) that we both loved.

It was these people that I brought into the club and shared secrets with. It was in hopes that I would gain their friendship and thus be “cooler” in their eyes. I was trying to boost my confidence. This is very true with non-magic secrets too. Often a secret is shared with a loved one to strengthen the bond between the two.

These are all selfish, or at least self-serving reasons. However, we also share secrets to protect others. Here’s a really dark yet very real example: I have a couple of in-laws who are pedophiles. Some have done prison time, and others are still in prison. That’s a dark secret that must be shared with my children to protect them. Details aren’t important, but my children must understand how serious it is that they stay away from these people. A simple, “because I said so” isn’t enough. They need the secret information to protect them.

Brad’s Question

What’s the point of sharing secrets anonymously?

Jeff’s Response

This is a great question. I’ve often pondered a similar question relating to my “other job” as a programmer. Why do people write viruses that wipe out other people’s computers? The virus writer is never there to get the satisfaction of seeing that his work “paid off.” I don’t understand it.

Sure that’s a negative example, but the concept is true. However, in this world of virtual-ness and online living, there may be some relief in sharing a secret with someone who doesn’t know you. If the secret is a dark or a burden, it often “must” be shared to keep sane the secret holder. It can be very therapeutic to share a burden with another, even in anonymity.

Often anonymous relationships (internet) are centered in fantasy not reality. In that fantasy world it might be seductive to share a secret that’s less dark in a mere attempt to build up how “powerful” you are in the fantasy world of your anonymous cyber-friend.

I performed a trick for my local IBM magic club that floored all of the magicians in the room. The secret is one that would only work on a group of magicians, and is one that I will take to my grave. However, there is a slight burden with knowing that the magicians will never know how truly clever I was, because the secret is so clever. Yet on the other hand, I love the ego boost of knowing that they are totally baffled by the effect, and I don’t want to ruin it.

So I’m keeping the secret to protect them and to my ego. Yet I’m wanting to share the secret to boost my ego, thus an anonymous friend might be just what the doctor ordered to give me the best of both worlds.

Brad’s Question

What is the true power of the secret and why?

Jeff’s Response

Power is the power of the secret. Generally speaking, power is control. Thus the secret-keeper’s true power is control . . . control over those he performs for . . . control over those whom the secret is about . . . control over those influenced by the person a secret may be about.

Brad’s Question

What do you think of this idea? The success of a secret does not depend upon it being kept, it depends upon it being observed.

Jeff’s Response

I think that it’s a bit paradoxical. A secret by its very definition is something that others do not know. Thus if it is observed, it is no longer a secret. However, by that strict rule, any given secret can only be known by one person and one person only.
Yet we know, in reality, that secrets are often shared amongst more than one person. For example, just about every magician knows that the secret to a card changing from red to black is a double lift or “insert secret move here.”

So the question is . . . where do you draw the line? Is a secret still a secret if it’s shared with one friend? Two friends? Ten Friends? Where does it end? If there is an unlimited number of people with whom a secret can be shared and still remain a secret, then observing a secret does not change the status of a secret to a non-secret.

The question then is about what can be gained from observing a secret. Is the question about the method of sharing a secret (i.e. observing vs. telling) or is the question about a secret being successful if other people see it/know about it.
I would posit that the observation of a secret may very well increase its value as a secret. For example, let’s say I have a secret that I know there is a million dollars buried in a public park here in Murray, Utah. If I brought you (my close friend Brad) into my confidence and let you observe this secret by uncovering the money to show you the money, after seeing it, you would realize how important it is to keep this a secret. If you didn’t keep it a secret, you would realize that everyone would want a piece, and the treasure would quickly disappear.

However, even that theory falls apart . . . if I shared this secret with thousands of people, and each one, therefore, became acutely aware of how important the secret was, that wouldn’t change the fact that thousands of people know the secret, so it’s all a bit paradoxical.

Brad’s Question

What do you think about these so-called secret societies who run the planet with their secrets handshakes and such?

Jeff’s Response

I want in. : If they exist, it certainly supports my theory that secrets equal power and power equals control. The moment you run into a person in public who offers the secret handshake, there is an instant brotherhood or bond between you and that person. Yet the bond is not the content of the secrets they both share, but rather the existence of the secrets that they share.

The secrets could be as benign as the secret to growing large squash in the summertime or as grand as the fact (?) that 90% of the world’s leaders are actually an invading Alien race that wants to turn us into X-File-Style Hybrids. The secret is irrelevant. It’s the fact that it exists and my handshaking buddy and I share it.

Brad’s Question

Do you think that secrets in general are used more for good than not?

Jeff’s Response

I don’t know . . . it’s a secret. That’s a half-joke, and a half-truth. If secrets are power and control, and that control and power is being exercised over us in a good way or bad way, we wouldn’t know . . . because it’s a secret. If bad is defined as “secrets for selfish reasons” as we’ve discussed earlier, then I would vote “yes” that most secrets are used for bad.

Even well-meaning magicians . . . use secrets (i.e. magic secrets) for bad. They go around shoving in people’s faces how clever they are or how amazing they are or the fact that they know more than the audience.

Go on YouTube and watch magicians perform and you’ll quickly see that magicians are often arrogant and use magic for ill. Even a simple card trick can be presented this way. Forgive my mentioning names, but I remember watching Bruce Cervon perform a version of Card Warp. At the end where the inside out card is torn in half, he basically threw the torn pieces to the table and said something along the lines “try and figure that one out wise guy.” Then I saw Michael Ammar perform it and his final line after the tear was, “and I can’t even figure that out myself.”

Cervon used the secret for bad; Ammar used it for good.

Brad’s Question

What do you think of Pandora’s box?

Jeff’s Response

The Sankey Effect – I love it!

Mythological Greek Artifact – It’s another paradox, at least when looking at it from the secrets angle. This would be one secret that if observed, you would know how bad it is and how valuable it would be to keep the box a secret. However, the catch is that the moment you see it, observe it, etc, you’ve opened it, and of course, you can’t un-open Pandora’s Box. Once it’s opened, that’s it.

So the secret must be kept and hidden so that it will never be opened, yet opening it would beautifully demonstrate how important it is to NOT open it. Thus we have a fun little paradox.

Brad’s Final Thoughts

I thoroughly enjoyed your answers Jeff. You’ve really got my mind pondering this very interesting subject. In conclusion I have one more question for ya:

Do you think that the internet and access to information or “secrets” changes any of these neat paradoxical concepts at all?

Jeff’s Final Thoughts

I’ll leave Brad’s last question for you to answer. Feel free to share with the rest of the class. Stay tuned . . . next month, Jeff will reveal the biggest secret of all . . . Not Even Scarnecky knows this one!

No go study the classics and go discover your true magical self!