Performer uses magic to disprove the existence of the supernatural
Adrian van Vactor is an award-winning illusionist travelling the world to entertain and to educate with his show ‘The Secrets of the Supernatural Exposed’, which he performed at Wits University this week. Photo: Luke Mathews
Adrian van Vactor is an award-winning illusionist travelling the world to entertain and to educate with his show ‘The Secrets of the Supernatural Exposed’, which he performed at Wits University this week.
Van Vactor uses the art of illusion to entertain and to tell the story of how he has travelled the world searching for proof of the existence of magic.
His show looks at the claims made about supernatural phenomena and scrutinizes the claims made by practitioners of these acts. Van Vactor says that his show exposes these acts as fake. “I want students to have the ability to separate superstition from truth,” van Vactor said to the audience attending his lunch time show on the Wits campus.
He explained that the paranormal phenomena people believe to be true, like psychics, are fake. Van Vactor told the crowed he became fascinated with magic when his mother took him to see a psychic.
He explained that psychics do ‘cold reading’ where they guess their predictions. “I saw it was fake, and that’s when I became interested in why people are so fascinated with superstition,” van Vactor said.
Dylan Barry, a first year BSc student, attended the show and was part of an illusion . He said, “I thought it was very nice and got better as it went along.”
Sumayya Mayet, a first year BA student, was part of the same illusion as Barry and said, “It was very interesting and perplexing.”
