Quote of the Week

The late Dr. Kurt Koch, a Christian psychologist who has looked into paranormal events, claimed that "psychic powers as strong as those possessed by Uri Geller come from the sins of sorcery committed by one's ancestors. It would be better if he did not use them, but rather, if he would ask God for deliverance." But Koch believed in the reality of psychic powers because he observed a psychic bend spoons and read minds -- that is, he believed in what he saw. Koch had no knowledge of magic tricks, never enlisted any magicians to assist him in his investigations, and has been fooled by Christian magician Danny Korem. The "incredible abilities" Koch wrote about can be found on the shelves of any library in the pages of a children's magic book. As Bob Passantino has stated, "Christian bookstores are full of personal stories, testimonies, and experiences ... characterized by subjective emotionalism, undocumented assertions, and little or no biblical or theological evaluation."

When André Kole was performing in Germany, Kurt Koch and his associates were convinced he was using supernatural powers -- to the point of harassing André on stage during his performances, in hopes of getting him to publicly admit his satanic power. But a magician is nothing more than an actor playing a part. There is no magician on earth who wields any supernatural ability. As André pointed out, "Here is a man who most of the Christian world looked to as being the leading authority on the occult, accusing me, a magician, of having supernatural powers! I was not able to convince him otherwise. That fact alone completely discredits his ability to discern the difference between genuine supernatural power and common trickery."

A similar example was the brilliant scholar Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, author of the Sherlock Holmes novels. Doyle was convinced that the famous magician and escape artist Harry Houdini possessed supernatural powers of "dematerialization." Houdini did everything short of exposing his methods to try to convince Doyle otherwise.

André Kole and Jerry MacGregor
Mind Games: Exposing Today's Psychics, Frauds, and False Spiritual Phenomena