The title of Loren Pankratz’s latest book reminds me of Breaking the Magician’s Code: Magic’s Biggest Secrets Finally Revealed, a popular and controversial series of network television programs broadcasted beginning in 1997. The series featured the “Masked Magician” performing various feats of conjuring and then revealing the trickery he used, which sometimes differed from what other conjurers have used to produce similar feats more impressively. Short clips of the Masked Magician revealing tricks have received tens of thousands of views on the “Magic Secrets Revealed” channel on YouTube.
I would be delighted to see Pankratz’s Mysteries & Secrets Revealed attract much of the Masked Magician’s audience. I’m afraid that Pankratz’s careful analysis of details of the history of science, the history of religion, the psychology of deception, and various investigative efforts may be too deep of a dive for many readers. But I expect that devoted readers of this magazine will appreciate the book as a tour de force of engaging storytelling, skeptical inquiry about extraordinary claims, and masterful explications of evidence.