> Wouldn't other nation states presume it was a psy-op as well? Serious magic is just mind tricks, optical illusions, misdirection etc applied skillfully. Par

> Wouldn't other nation states presume it was a psy-op as well? Serious magic is just mind tricks, optical illusions, misdirection etc applied skillfully. Part of the effect often comes from the story that the magician tells around them, planting a story and allowing it to take on a life of its own inside the spectators mind. "The biggest mistake people do when trying to understand magic tricks is to underestimate how far a (professional) magician will go to cover up what they are really doing" or something to that effect is a quote I could note find a source for at the moment but that I think I might have heard in a Penn and Teller video or something. I guess this is the same for the military. (FWIW: Here's a 14 minutes talk where magician Jon Ensor about something similar: https://www.ted.com/talks/jon_ensor_who_needs_tricks_charisma_has_magical_powers https://www.ted.com/talks/jon_ensor_who_needs_tricks_charism... )