Magic & Medicine: A Credo

Wherever the art of medicine is loved, there is also a love of humanity.
— Hippocrates

Dear Friends:

Welcome to the holiday season!  A time of year filled with much magic and special challenges for all of us.  I think of it as “the dark time” of the year – probably because I have an inordinate fondness for sunshine, and there’s just not enough of it to go around for the next couple of months. In magic we must, however, learn to embrace both light and darkness, and to find ways of keeping our lives and our art in balance between the two.

Our guest author for this Museletter is Ricardo Rosencranz, our friend, colleague, and the man responsible for gaining us the ability to offer CME credit for our Magic & Medicine event. As a lover of magic, I find what Dr. Rosencranz has offered below to be a great reaffirmation and inspiration. I hope you will find it the same.

Magic and Medicine: A Credo

Ricardo T. Rosenkranz, M.D.

Sure, I love the magical arts. And I have dedicated a significant portion of my life to medicine. But connecting them together has never been about my interests or me. Magic and Medicine intertwined in my life just as the two snakes encircle the rod of Hermes. But for what purpose?

For as long as I can remember, I have longed for a life of beneficial service. Painting a smile on someone’s face and pouring measures of hope into someone’s cup have been my fantasies, then dreams, then quests. I am no different than many of my colleagues in Medicine who enter the profession for the self-same reasons.

Today, however, the life of a physician seems to drift away from that fundamental, ventral, central goal of mine. Productivity, technology, competence, efficiency, evidence and proficiency are the terms that define our professional lexicon. And yet, we long for the true meaning of what we do. I know this because nearly every physician I meet reflects on the existence of this malaise and senses that our boat has indeed veered away. Is it unexpected? Not really. Today’s winds, forcibly swirling around the ship, are the product of the engine of progress. We hunger for more knowledge, want to have a bigger impact in the health of others, and strive for excellence and precision. It seems that since the 17th Century, when the Scientific Method gave rise to the modern view of Medicine, we have been sailing at vertiginous speeds, eradicating illnesses right and left. But where are we going?

Currents create winds and winds beget storms. Today, I would venture that we are adrift because we believe more in ship than sailor, more in GPS than captain, more in engine than ingenuity. The noise of the motor is so loud that it drowns out the voices of the most important ones, the oft forgotten reluctant passengers of this ship: the patients. Even the great William Osler, father of modern medicine said, “He who studies medicine without books sails an uncharted sea, but he who studies medicine without patients does not go to sea at all.”

That is where I have found the second snake of this caduceus I might call my life’s paradigm. I would like to think that she saw what was missing in my “Aesculapian Staff” and methodically embedded herself into my self-awareness. Her name is Magic, and she is teaching me to better understand the world of healing. Every night she reads to me from the books of Burger, McBride, Maven, Neale, and Hass, among others. She lifts a mirror towards my audience allowing me to see my patients’ hearts while my reflection sheds a painted smile. And it is through her that I have come to understand that which I already knew, yet needed to experience from the other side of the sail.

Today’s Medicine, while breathtaking, needs a course correction. Medicine needs to pay heed to the balance of science and humanities. But this is not the only realm caught up in the storm of reductionism and practicality. It seems today that all educational endeavors are challenged by this concept. Recently, the presidents of Stanford University and Michigan (a computer scientist and a biochemist) published the following in the Washington Post:

“The humanities — history, literature, languages, art, philosophy — and the social sciences focus on the lasting challenges relevant to all of us: creating lives of purpose and meaning, appreciating diversity and complexity, communicating effectively with others and overcoming adversity. Ultimately, our ability to work meaningfully with others will determine the success of our enterprises, and that ability is honed through the humanities and social sciences.”

In the world of the Caduceus, I firmly believe that technology, technique, synthesis, evidence, and method need to embrace with art, grace, empathy, reasoning, understanding, and love. To me, this is the challenge of my generation.

That is why I chose to merge these two realms of mine. That is why I love to teach young medical students who hold neither preconception nor predisposition. Because I believe in transformation and empowerment, I never tire of sharing what Medicine and Magic can say to each other.

And when the Caduceus is planted in terra firma, when complementary snakes dance upon its solid staff allowing the inner eye to really learn and see the truth, the wings shall overtake the sky, embracing all with care and compassion. Now that’s a journey of a lifetime.

Mentors and Masters

“The mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be kindled.”
— Plutarch

EXCUSES, EXCUSES!

I hear lots of them… mostly from folks that are stuck in jobs they hate.

“I’m too old to begin a new career”

“What if I fail?”

“I don’t have the time or resources to do this!”

Many great artists had financial challenges or started late in life!

See http://tinyurl.com/ydckbyt

But, many great artists had a mentor! And a mentor is worth more than gold! A mentor reignites our  creativity and passion, and lights the way for us when we feel lost.

Who is Your Yoda?

This is a question I often ask our students at our classes. Who do you consider your coach, your inspiration?  Just like in STAR WARS… the hero needs a mentor; one to bring out that hidden treasure inside.

Sometimes it takes a very special teacher to “bring out the gold” in you.  Think back over your school years… who was your favorite teacher and why? Many of MY mentors, guides and teachers weren’t “school teachers,” they were people I admired.  I put energy into contacting them and meeting with them… and then a friendship began.

I’ve been with Tobias and Eugene over 20 years!

THE SORCERER’S APPRENTICE

When I perform my “sorcerer’s apprentice” coin routine, I often have a strong impact on my onstage “apprentice,” and also on his family.  After the show, the parents frequently tell me about how shy their kid was, and that they never seen him perform like that!  My message is one of empowerment. The audience feels this and knows that it is more than a trick.  This the REAL MAGIC!

My performance and my teaching is all about “finding the treasures that are hidden inside of you!”  It takes a mentor to help you learn the process. then it is YOUR turn to mentor others!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTyYJInSRWQ

“Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn.”
― Benjamin Franklin

One of Abbi’s early music mentors was her piano teacher, Mr. Charles Rose.  When she started playing, at four years old, Mr. Rose had the right combination of talent, patience and creativity to get her involved and keep her motivated…. Now, Abbi’s music is a big part of what motivates many to become their highest visions.  She recently finished her third solo project, called The Family of Fire.  Take a listen, and let us know what you think:
http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/abigailspinnermcbride2

WHERE IS MY MENTOR?

Some people never find a mentor…why?..they do not look! But, there are steps to consider if you do want to find a mentor… Adam Toren is an entrepreneur, mentor, investor and co-founder of YoungEntrepreneur.com. Adam says, “Although few entrepreneurs are fortunate enough to have a keen mentor in the family, it is possible to find one or two. Here are eight tips to getting the right mentor – or group of mentors – for you:

1. Determine your needs. Keeping in mind that your mentoring needs will shift as you start and build your business, take the time to determine exactly what kind of mentor you want now. Build a wish list for your mentor – laying out what skills and support you need to get to the next step.
2. Take time to network. Networking isn’t just important for finding customers. It’s also vital for finding a mentor. Who do you want helping you? Someone who sits in an office and thinks connecting with the business community means reading a couple of magazines a month? No, you want someone who’s out there, knows the market and can point you in the right direction.
3. Listen more, talk less. Given your youthful enthusiasm for entrepreneurship, it may be hard to stay silent. But to find a mentor, you need to listen – a lot. Pay attention and you‘ll be able to separate the smart potential mentors from those who just use all the right words.
4. Be “mentorable.” If you come off as someone who knows everything – or thinks you do – many people will back away. If you want to learn, be willing to consider ideas that may not match your expectations or opinions. Above all, don’t fall victim to your own hype. Your business may or may not have serious problems, but another viewpoint will help you sort things out.
5. Remain flexible. You may have mentors who stay with you over the long haul, but you will also benefit from people who provide just an afternoon of insightful ideas. If you are fortunate enough to get time with someone who is rarely available, absorb all you can and take notes. Your mentor may be skilled only in one specific area, but that’s okay. All help is good help.
6. Don’t overlook nontraditional mentors. Some mentors may help you without their knowledge through books, seminars, speeches, videos on Ted, TV programs and the internet. My brother and I always looked to Richard Branson as one of our mentors. We don’t have to meet him in person to appreciate all he provides to entrepreneurs and others all over the world.
7. Thank your mentors. When people help you, intentionally or unintentionally, let them know. Mentors are not in it for the money; they just want to help others grow. Think about what you can do to let them know how much you appreciate them and their help.
8. Pay it forward. You may never be able to pay your mentors back, but you can recognize what they’ve done for you by becoming a mentor to others.

Read more from Adam here: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/222694#ixzz2kB6havx1

Abbi and I love to read the poems of Jalaluddin Rumi…his poetry inspires us. Though he died hundreds of years ago., his words still mentor millions!

Hidden gold
“You sit here for days saying,
This is strange business.
You’re the strange business.
You have the energy of the sun in you,
but you keep knotting it up at the base of your spine.
You’re some weird kind of gold
that wants to stay melted in the furnace,
so you won’t have to become coins.”
— Rumi

I’ll be taking one of my favorite collections of Rumi’s poetry, called Open Secret when I leave for Bulgaria in a few days.  I’ll be in touch when I get home!

Keep your furnace blazing my friends!
Jeff and Abbi

PLAYING WITH FIRE!

If you want to be filled with the fire of  inspiration and creativity…we have new classes coming up
www.magicalwisdom.com

THE BIGGEST MAGIC PARTY IS IN LAS VEGAS… and YOU are invited!

WONDERGROUND is coming up Thursday Nov. 21, we have the full line up here!
www.vegaswonderground.com

Three Shades of Gratitude

“Gratefulness is the key to a happy life that we hold in our hands, because if we are not grateful, then no matter how much we have we will not be happy – because we will always want to have something else or something more.”
—Brother David Steindl-Rast

Greetings friends,

Abbi here, in the House of Mystery, feeling particularly grateful today.  Jeff has recently returned home from China, where he was the first magician to receive a standing ovation from the Beijing Magic Convention in their entire history. I am grateful he is home, safe, healthy and well.

As we move toward our official one day of the year to remember gratitude, I was reflecting on the different kinds of gratitude I’ve been aware of recently.

Jeff scares Abbi with one of his many faces

False Gratitude

This form of thankfulness stems from expectation; it’s insincere and inauthentic – (“oh, gee, thanks; you shouldn’t have…”). This false gratitude may arise within us when we feel like someone is expecting our expression of gratitude and will be offended (or worse) if they don’t receive it. I remember once, as a little girl, my father’s mother, Muriel, had sent me a small gift for my sixth birthday, which, for some reason, I didn’t properly acknowledge.  When I saw her, a couple of months later, she came up to me and said, “Abbi, I have a bone to pick with you. I sent you a gift, and you didn’t send me a thank-you note.” I felt terrible, and muttered, “thanks, Grandma.” Gratitude, when demanded, loses its sweetness. Feeling like one must be grateful is an excellent way to lose any real gratitude. For me, if I find myself doing something I don’t want to do, in hopes that someone will give me their gratitude in response, that’s the time for me to stop, breathe, and remember that if I can’t do something with a willing spirit and a glad heart, it’s probably better that I not do it at all.

“It’s a troublesome world. All the people who’re in it are troubled with troubles almost every minute. You ought to be thankful, a whole heaping lot,for the places and people you’re lucky you’re not.”
— Dr. Seuss

Reverse gratitude

This type of appreciation appears when we think about the things that didn’t happen, or that we don’t have, and are honestly thankful for them.  For instance, I’m very deeply grateful that I don’t have to spend eight hours a day under fluorescent lights, on my feet, in a job I hate. I’m grateful that I don’t have a house filled with empty beer cans and a blaring television.  You get the picture – there are lots of things to have reverse gratitude for, but this way of seeing things can easily lead into judgmental thinking, so use sparingly, with caution.

Giving thanks for the gifts we receive

“At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person. Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us.”
—Albert Schweitzer

True gratitude

True gratitude arises when we are aware of the gifts in our lives and allow ourselves to experience a feeling of thankfulness, from the heart. There are so many gifts: the fact that we live on a planet perfectly positioned so that we receive just the right amount of sunlight to make all things grow, with an ideal atmosphere for breathing, and pure water to drink – to our health and well-being of body, mind and spirit, – to our relationships with family and friends. Once we open the door to gratitude, the list expands.

So much gratitude

“We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.”
—Winston Churchill

Jeff and I are deeply grateful for each one of you reading this. Whether you have seen us perform in a show, attended a lecture, participated in our virtual magic school, or have studied with us here in Las Vegas, we are grateful to have you in our magical circle, and thankful that our paths have crossed. It’s been said that gratitude opens the door for grace to come in, and that what we focus on is what increases. As we move closer to the end of the year, let us remember to tune into what we can be grateful for, so that more gifts, more creativity, more blessings may flow to us and through us.

Lies, lies, all lies!

“Lying, the telling of beautiful untrue things, is the proper aim of Art.”
— Oscar Wilde

How do magicians deal with lies, and a life of deception?

Deception is at the core of magic and magical performance. If the magic effect is not deceptive or “fooling,” there is no mystery.

I was raised to be an honest person. My parents told me it was not OK to lie. So how did I grow up to be a magician… an artist who tells truth in the form of lies?

“Yes, I have tricks in my pocket, I have things up my sleeve… but I am the opposite of a stage magician. He gives you illusion that has the appearance of truth. I give you truth in the pleasant disguise of illusion.”
— Tennessee Williams, The Glass Menagerie

There is more to magic than just “tricking people.” Let’s look at the dynamics of lying and social deception.

In a recent article, writer Ulrich Boser said: “Researchers have been studying deception for decades, trying to figure out why we tell lies. It turns out that we spin facts and make up fictions for all sorts of reasons. We might want to gain a raise or a reward, for example, or to protect friends or a lover. Our capacity for deceit appears nearly endless, from embroidering stories to wearing fake eyelashes to asking, “How are you?” when we don’t actually care. We even lie to ourselves about how much food we eat and how often we visit the gym.” You can read the full article here:

http://health.usnews.com/health-news/family-health/brain-and-behavior/articles/2009/05/18/were-all-lying-liars-why-people-tell-lies-and-why-white-lies-can-be-ok

Radical Honesty

I was researching lying on Wikipedia and found out about Dr. Brad Blanton. He says that lying is the primary source of modern human stress and that practitioners of his technique (called “radical honesty”) will become happier by being more honest, even about painful or taboo subjects. Blanton claims that radical honesty can help all human relationships since it “creates an intimacy not possible if you are hiding something for the sake of someone’s feelings.”

How could a magician be radically honest and still create deceptive magic? H’mmmm

“I can fool you because you’re a human. Usually when we’re fooled, the mind hasn’t made a mistake. It’s come to the wrong conclusion for the right reason.”
— Jerry Andrus

More Truth than Trick

Jerry Andrus was a wizard. In 1993, I had the pleasure of visiting him in his “Castle of Chaos” in Albany Oregon. He was also a very deep thinker and a very honest man.

Jerry avoided telling lies while performing his magic!

He was exacting as a script writer. Jerry never said his hands were empty if they contained a hidden object. In his scripts he told the truth. Although perhaps he did eliminate some sentences that might give too much information to his viewers!

“I always tell the truth. Even when I lie.”
— Al Pacino

Techno Magician Marco Tempest gives his thoughts on The Magic of Truth and Lies. Marco’s TED talk is well worth seeing again.

(If you listen closely you can hear Tobias Beckwith doing character voices as part of this story!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGKHVzPOfuc

A Few Questions I Ask Myself When Creating Magical Art

One of the techniques I have used over the years when creating illusions is to make the story that accompanies the magic contain life enhancing content, rather than just deception.

At our yearly Magic & Meaning Conference, we learn how performers can make their magic more appealing by exploring alternative presentation techniques, so that their magic makes a more potent form of theater than “just tricks!”

Here are the questions I like to ask:

1. What is the “take away” from experiencing my magic?
2. Will the audience be MOVED by my performance, or just feel tricked?
3. What can I add to the story or presentation that will give my audience a more satisfying experience?

“One lie has the power to tarnish a thousand truths.”
— Al David

HOW TO SPOT A LIAR:

Here is an excellent talk on how YOU can spot a liar.

http://www.ted.com/talks/pamela_meyer_how_to_spot_a_liar.html

“Things come apart so easily when they have been held together with lies.”
— Dorothy Allison

WHY DO WE LIE?

http://live.huffingtonpost.com/r/segment/a-little-white-lie/51341b182b8c2a536b000254

“You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time.”
— Abraham Lincoln

The truth is…  We enjoy your feedback on these Muse letters and like it when you share them with your friends and other newsgroups.

The truth is…  I am back home from our China shows and enjoying my time with Abbi here in Las Vegas.

“The Shanghai china tour was a blast…Bill Cook, Jeff, Melanie Kramer and Jordan Wright strike an action hero pose!”

The truth is… You can visit us at one of our upcoming events here in Las Vegas or online at www.mcbridemagic.tv.

The truth is… WONDERGROUND will host the faculty of Mystery School this Thursday, October 27th. www.vegaswonderground.com.

As we wind this up, we are preparing for Magic & Meaning, The Wonderground, Witches’ & Wizards’ Ball…and Fall Fest, all during the coming week!

Thanks to those of you who have made Magic & Meaning and the upcoming class on Mentalism both “Sold Out.” Click any of the other events in the calendar on the right at the top of this Museletter to get your spots in our other classes before they are all sold out, too!

Best wishes.

Jeff McBride & all the folks at the McBride Magic & Mystery School