PureInsight | November 19, 2001
David Copperfield, a world-renowned American magician, astonishes millions with his brilliant feats of "magic," which have included making the Statue of Liberty disappear and walking through the Great Wall of China. Our Teacher's books mention David Copperfield's abilities.
Interweaving reality and illusion and combining skills with supernormal abilities, David Copperfield has generated many unexplainable "miracles." I have occasionally watched him in the past and recall his telling audiences after each performance that, "it was just a trick." People believe him and think that all of his performances are just "tricks."
Everything has an exception. On October 17, the Detroit Free Press ran a feature on a recent demonstration by David Copperfield. It reported that on February 17, 2001, Copperfield attempted to predict the winning numbers of a German lottery drawing that would take place eight months later, on October 13, 2001. He secretly wrote down seven numbers, and, after public notarization, sealed them in a box that was guarded day and night. On October 13, one hour after the lottery numbers were made public, a German TV Station opened the box to reveal to a live audience the winning numbers, 2, 4, 9, 10, 15, 25 and 38. This stunt precipitated piles of letters, the majority asking Copperfield to teach the skills needed for such a feat.
In contrast to his usual explanation, Copperfield insisted that the lottery drawing was not a trick, but an experiment for exploring the potential of the human brain, going beyond the normal use of 10% of brain capacity. He said that he never played the lottery for himself. Whenever he had tried to predict lottery numbers for friends, he could never succeed. He drew the conclusion that his success was linked to keeping his abilities secret. In other words, he correctly enlightened to the fact that supernormal capabilities should not be used for money.
The author of the newspaper article was unimpressed with Copperfield's claim of "exploring human brain potential," and concluded that the way to exceed 10% brain capacity was to merely put lottery numbers in a box after the results came out.
From the perspective of cultivation, David Copperfield seems to possess the ability of precognition and retrocognition. In the past, he always claimed himself to be a magician, an entertainer simply performing tricks. He publicized his abilities as worldly matters, mere illusions, and so was allowed to become famous and earn a living. Gradually, people accepted his abilities as hard-to-explain "magic" tricks and nothing more. Now, when he claims that he really has supernormal capabilities, people laugh at him.
As all Dafa practitioners know, supernormal abilities cannot be casually shown to ordinary people. No matter how powerful the capability is, once shown on the human level, it will be considered a deceptive worldly display. In the 1980s, many Qigong masters and people with supernormal capabilities cooperated with the Chinese Academy of Sciences and some universities to prove their abilities in scientific experiments. But people with bad intentions denied all of the test results. Their motives were grounded in one word: unbelief.
My guess is that Copperfield is cultivating his Assistant Primordial Spirit. With good inborn quality, he was allowed to have some minor abilities. But his Main Primordial Spirit does not know where the capabilities come from, and neither does it know the relationship between abilities and xinxing. Thus, he did something like predicting lottery numbers to tease people. Fortunately, he is smart, and knows that he should be restrained when it comes to pursuing fame and money.
"Who claims great wisdom, Wielding cosmos within sentiments" ("Looking Back" in Hongyin). Demonstrating supernormal capabilities cannot enlighten people. To save people, we have to appeal directly to their kind nature based on "Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance" and let people with predestined relationships know Dafa. The story of David Copperfield can serve as an example for us.
Translated on October 27, 2001 from http://www.zhengjian.org/zj/articles/2001/10/26/12210.html
