Page 41 - Lunacy and the Age of Deception

Illusion and Reality

A common adage states that “Seeing is believing.” This expression has never been less true than in
this modern age of television, broadcast media, and the Internet. A disciple of Christ would be very
ill advised to believe what their eyes see and ears hear in the media today. Everything needs to be
tested.

In the image above all that was necessary to create the illusion of a man hanging from a parking lot
stripe with his briefcase falling downward was to rotate the image 90 degrees to the left. There is no
image manipulation, nothing computer generated, only clever framing and the positioning of the
subject in order to create an illusion.

From the very earliest days of “moving pictures,” from which the current term “movies” is derived,
the big screen was used to make that which is false appear as reality. Most people have seen movie
sets where entire towns were constructed that appeared substantive and real, yet every building on
the movie lot was nothing more than a facade. Only the front face and a limited portion of the sides
of each building were constructed. Viewers could not perceive the deception. If a person were to
walk around the back of the buildings they would discover that the majority of the structure was
missing. Yet, by skillful placement of the cameras, the ruse could not be detected by the movie or
television viewer.

Berlin Street Stage Set