Is Magic Real?

What is magic?  Is magic a way of looking at the world before science taught us what “really” happens?  Is it wishful thinking?  Is magic an alternate view practiced by modern day neo-pagans?  Is magic simply entertainment, i.e., illusion?  Or, more baldly, is it simply tricks, and not even that interesting?  Magic means all of that to one person or another.

Of course, the magic I perform is illusion.  There is no claim that it is “real” magic.  And yet, I do believe in “real” magic.  When I first began performing magic many years ago, in my late 20s, I was always disappointed when I learned a secret.  “Is that all it is?”  “People fall for that?”  Of course, I had just read Lord of the Rings and I really wanted to be Gandalf!  But to make magic effective in performance, I had to learn to put the magic back into the effect.  I have realized that that happens almost automatically now.

So does that mean magic does not exist?  Actually, I really do believe in magic.  Oh, I agree that, as far as I know, nothing materializes from or diasppears into thin air.  (It takes some heavy air that I use…. oh, never mind…)  And I am not saying that you have a better chance at a job or relationship if you dance naked in the light of the full moon.  (Might have LESS of a chance if somone with a camera phone sees you and posts it on YouTube!)

For me, there is a real magic.  There is an alchemy of the spirit and soul that is very real.  As when people are touched by the miracle of a new born and love this new little bundle instantly.  Or when people are touched by the suffering and pain of others, and reach out to care and to support.  When people rise above their own self interests to genuinely care about the needs of others.  When two peolple fall in love and their whole perception of the world changes.  When a grandpa or grandma or older friend befriends a younger person and encourages, supports, nutures, mentors them in the wisdom of living.  When people are moved to silence at the beauty of the world around them.  When people are able to let lose of their cares and laugh heartily.  When children (of all ages) are able to imagine something other than our every day reality.

I believe that when the little girl at Elburn admitted that magic was “tricks” but was still convinced that the ghosts helped me, something more was going on than just naivete.  When children (of all ages) watch magic, there is a suspension of reality, just as when listening to a story or watching a movie.  And at that moment, anything becomes possible.  If the magician can make this or that look real, why can’t I really master this subject or learn to be that?  Is that not real magic?  That we can imagine something beyond our immediate everyday reality?

I believe magic is real.  That there is an alchemy of the human spirit that is more than just the sum of neurons firing and brain chemicals mixing.  Certainly, the red silk isn’t really materialized out of thin air – like I said, I use heavy air.  (wink) (wink) But I believe that real magic does happen.  Somewhere in the indefinable wonder that is each of us.