I'm new here, this is my first post.

When I was younger and performing magic I thought the only thing magic was- was keeping the secret and practice. Through out the 13 years of practicing and performing magic I've learned that it is an extremely deep art. I mean there is so much to it. One reason why I think magic is so deep is because magic is full of so much emotion and beauty.

The methods, the sleights, the gimmicks, the props, practice, practice, performance, patter, personality, creating a character, crowd control, angles, and science. The 10 theories of magic. The beautiful history of magic, and how it has evolved through out the years. What magic is today? All of this and more is part of magic, yet it goes deeper than that.

It’s The psychological part of magic that goes the deepest.
What goes on in the minds of our spectators?
What is the message we are sending to people with magic?
What magic does to our minds as magicians?
Why do you keep doing magic?
Ask your self these questions.


If you look through out the history of magic, it has been used to start religions. The Greeks did this. Jesus performed miracles; he didn’t use sleight of hand though. It was all real, the work of God, but for some reason we still call him a magician. People actually thought that Houdini could materialize. If you think about it magic is in every culture some way or another. Magic is something more powerful than I think we can imagine.

If you take this bit of information and think about how visual and realistic magic looks today, we realize what a powerful thing magic is. Magic is something that can pull at the emotions of people. If you look at how our generations of magicians perform, it’s amazing. Just normal people doing miracles. Instead of people going to see a magician, we go out to the people. No more stages and props that belong to the magician. We are in a natural setting (streets, school, ect.) we use borrowed and what people think is borrowed items, and objects lying around. If we start healing people, the world is going to think it’s the second coming of Jesus ha ha ha I'm kidding of course.

Look what we can do to people on the street. I can get a few people who don’t know each other (strangers), and bring them together to show them magic. They start to react together and talk to each other. If I would not have asked them if they wanted to see something, they would have never even looked at each other. When we do magic, and people are reacting to it, the walls they build up are being shattered. What happens when you shatter the walls with two or more people who are complete strangers? It creates a connection with them that they could never feel or get other wise. The emotions they are feeling are wonder and amazement. When you are a baby you are amazed and wonder about everything. Magic is so strong that it can knock people back that far! I believe this is why people react the way they do to magic. They are feeling the emotions they felt when they First came into this world as babies, which is something people forget.

Let me talk about one of the questions I asked, and that is...
What is the message we are sending people with our magic?

I believe with out even realizing it, we are sending a message to every single person we show magic to. The message we are sending is the reason why people react the amazing way that they do. When someone See's something that they know is impossible...done in front of there eye's- once again it knocks them back to that child like wonder. Children have a gift of believing that anything is possible, this is something that every single child/person is born with- And something Truly Amazing if you think about it.

The message we are sending to people- since magic can send people back to that child like wonder, children believe anything is possible. We are telling people that anything they can imagine is real, anything and everything is possible, People react the way they do because they are seeing what they have always wanted to see! They are seeing the impossible done which brings into view all their current and failed aspirations and says YES, there is No limit. Magic takes people back to a time when we were free to believe anything. The power to do this to someone is amazing. That is real magic.

Magic is extremely powerful, and I would say completely real. We magicians are more important to the world than we might think.

So does magic go deeper than this? When we think of the all the other emotions that we feel, can we inflict those with magic? Has any one really tried?

Try This: Take one effect you love doing and sit down and think about the magic that's happening, I'm not talking about the method, I'm talking about the Magic. Really sit down and think about it.

As it is above, so shall it be below. From the cosmic to the human mind and back home again!

Very well said, Matthew. Creating or re-creating this sense of childhood wonder is something truly profound and sorely needed in our age of hyper-rationalization.

Welcome to The Magic Café Matthew. To all your questions, it depends on the magician.

Just about any topic can go as deep as you want to take it. After all that is what academic research is all about. Doctoral dissertations are on the whole taking some small side idea and writting a 500+ page book about it.

How do you know?

Okay, that was a philosophical monkey wrench, and you don't need to reply to it, but I just couldn't resist.

He might know from being a angel.

That certainly would be a determining factor if verified. LOL!

This only has some partial relevance to the entire post, but does bear some mentioning here: http://www.assistnews.net/Stories/2008/s08100009.htm

The OP almost nailed it.

Between the rational and the sentimental - magic is how the sentimental lives with things which are yet are not understood. And faith may well be how the rational lives with things which are not yet directly experienced. Consider that we believe that the sun will come up tomorrow - and that we also expect (rational) that all things being equal tomorrow will be like today and that it's unlikely that the sun will go nova, etc., but... none the less that abstract argument does not satisfy to let us rest easy and so we add the emotional component of faith to let us sleep at night.

Did you know that till about a century ago they thought the sun might be a fire in the sky and then someone did the math and figured out how many cords of wood or coal it would take and finally gave in and ... good story if you look it up.

I--with all of my heart--still believe that the sun is a fire in the sky.

But what are "the 10 theories of magic," mentioned in the opening post?
That one really has me going.

that was likely a come-on to theory11 from a while back. most here have not managed past "will acting on reality".

I understand you guys, but what if the sun turns inside out? Or, upside down? What would the effect be? What about sharing this magical thing with some people?...

The sun rises because I will it to do so.
It is my effort, and my effort alone.
I have the power to bend the laws of nature.
I shape them to do my bidding.

And to fit my model.

It isn't easy to do.
It requires something that you don't have.
It taxes me a little every time I do it.
But that is the price I must pay.

For my power.

Nice

Impressive first post, MatthewBurr...

How deep does Magic go?

As deep as you want it to, really, IMHO...

To really deal with this question means a real understanding of symbolism. Magic is full of emotional symbols that magicians willingly or unconsciously trigger; these signs are what psychologists, sociologists, ethnologists, philosophers, neurologists, etc., are trying to decipher for ages. Thus, willing to understand what magic triggers is like looking for the Holy Grail, the philosophical stone, etc., and this requires many lives.

This is like when master magicians state "Be yourself"; to be yourself, suppose that you know exactly who you are, but this is the goal to pursue in life, a constant work in progress. How can we follow that advice?

If we accept that the magician is an actor playing the role of a magician, then we can work on a credible character which is much more defined and much less complex than the simplest of us.

Intuitive knowledge -or deep knowledge of symbolism- can help reaching to the question asked but not to understand it or its reply.

Congratulation for the question, but the chances for us to read the reply here is as probable as one of us touching the infinite.

That's exactly what I wanted to say...

But I kept it simple.

Gnagnagna...