The Great Wizardry of Oz
If you are currently on social media platforms at all, such as Facebook, X, or YouTube, surely you have noticed that the algorithms are set to feature video clips of Oz Pearlman. This mentalist-magician is showing up at corporate board meetings, professional sports teams’ gatherings, talk shows, and 60 Minutes. Oz is everywhere. He has found a ubiquitous platform far beyond what his third-place finish on AGT might have predicted.
In some ways, it’s not difficult to see why Oz has become so popular. His ready smile, commanding presence, fast-talking, and the astonishing ability he possesses (as he describes it) to read facial clues and write down what people are thinking on a large pad with his oversized marker make for a good show. Surely you have seen him do such things as write the name down of a random historic person someone had in mind, the secret score of the Super Bowl a football player imagined his team would win by, or even Joe Rogan’s PIN. The people in the room and those watching marvel over his power to predict what people are thinking…except perhaps for Joe Rogan, who was not amused that Oz knew his PIN.
If you want to remain among the marveling crowds, please do not continue to read this article. Enjoy believing Oz Pearlman can read eye movements, tics, eyebrow raises, and facial gestures to expose what someone is actually thinking. I do not want to ruin your fun. Yet I do have a reason, if you want to keep reading, why you may want to be careful.
For like that other Great Wizard who lived in Oz and had everyone amazed at his powers, it’s time for Toto to pull back the curtain. Oz is not who he appears to be. Neither, I might add, is he what he appears to be. He is not just having fun doing party tricks that everyone knows are tricks (even if they don’t understand how it is done). Rather, Oz claims to have an ability that you can also have. All you have to do is buy his book - which he happens to be selling right now! - entitled Read Your Mind: Proven Habits for Success from the World's Greatest Mentalist. Charlatans trying to get rich-quick need to be exposed.
Being so popular on videos has "curtain" drawbacks. Having so many hours of his actions recorded offers viewers the opportunity to rewind and slow down his every step. Thus, several skeptics have caught Oz making mistakes on-air. He touts reading the eye movements of one of his hosts, even though the camera shows he was not even looking at the person’s eyes! Worse yet for the “world’s greatest mentalist,” at least two hosts have slipped and said that they wrote down, earlier in the day, the very answer Oz is supposedly guessing.
You see, that’s how Oz makes his predictions. He uses a simple, ingenious method, so that he knows the answer before the video is turned on. How? One of his staff members speaks with the person who will appear with Oz on camera beforehand. He asks that person to write down the answer to the question on a piece of paper on a pad. He then instructs him to take that paper, put it in an envelope, and seal it. They are told by Oz’s crew that this is to ensure they do not change their answer in an attempt to sabotage the mentalist later on-air. What they do not realize is that they wrote their answer on a piece of paper that had an impression pad (a sensitive, electronic recording device) beneath it. Oz then uses the knowledge he has gained from his assistant, along with his smooth speech, to astound people. Other feats he does use similar trickery.
Why ruin the fun by exposing Oz? As I said, he is claiming a special power that he does not really possess, and he is trying to sell it to others.
More importantly, Oz’s shenanigans serve as a parable for the church.
For many men rise up in the church, claiming knowledge, teaching, power, or abilities that others do not possess. Like Oz, they then seek to influence people so that they will follow their leadership, listen to their ear-tickling teaching, buy their books, purchase their videos, or simply send them money outright. God’s people, the gullible sheep that they are, so often fall for the deceit.
We ignore the extensive warnings in the Scriptures that "many false prophets will arise and lead many astray" ( Matt. 24:11); that "there are many who are insubordinate, empty talkers, and deceivers" (Tit. 1:10); and that "evil people and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived" (2 Tim. 3:13). In the videos where Oz Pearlman realizes that a slip-up has occurred, he uses his slick talk to redirect attention and regain control of the moment. Similarly, as Toto was pulling back the curtain to expose the Wizard of Oz and his machinery, the conman pretending to be the great wizard yelled out, "Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain!"
The modern church is awash with deceitful men putting on a show while onlookers ooh and aah over them. When will professing Christians see past the duplicity and hoodwinking? These citizens of Oz do not realize that so much more is at stake than being gullible or shelling out some money for a book. They are endangering their own eternal souls.
