“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
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
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 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.
“Lying, the telling of beautiful untrue things, is the proper aim of Art.â€
— Oscar Wilde
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.â€
— 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:
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
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.â€
— 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
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:
“One lie has the power to tarnish a thousand truths.â€
— Al David
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.â€
— Dorothy Allison
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.â€
— 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
Dear Friends, Ladies & Gentlemen:
It is our pleasure this month to present a piece written just for you by our Dean, Eugene Burger:
For the past several years, the task of writing an October Museletter has fallen upon me. I think this is partly because images of Halloween goblins are on the same wavelength as my continuing fascination with things spooky and mysterious. And so it has been with a certain delight that I have accepted the task of writing the October contribution. After all, I do love the Halloween season!
But this year my thoughts are moving in a different direction. I am not thinking so much about things mysterious. Instead, I have been reflecting on much more, shall we say, “practical†matters. These thoughts spring from my work as a teacher and also from my great interest in the teaching process itself.
A thought has been in my mind for some time now. It surfaces at some point almost every day and, when it does, I try to understand it once more. I find that my understanding changes and even grows at times. Here is the thought that has been echoing in my mind:
Sometimes the greatest gift of all is failure.
Among other things, I have been thinking about how much time is spent in the teacher-student relationship with the teacher helping the student deal with failure—and, more specifically, the fear of failure. The fear of failure can be crippling and even paralyzing, whereas failure itself can be an important way to learn and grow. It’s an important difference. Perhaps to see this, to see it clearly and deeply so that the very seeing is action, requires personal courage. For fear can be met only with courage.
Then, another voice in my head rises up and says, “Wait a minute, Eugene, nobody wants to fail! Including you! So, if failure is a gift, it is a pretty weird gift. In fact, if you don’t mind, it’s a gift that I would just as well refuse to accept! Thanks anyway!â€
Yes, I hear that voice, which is also my voice. Yet when I look at this closely, I see that failure can be a gift—perhaps, the greatest gift of all. Here is what I mean: first, when I fail (in the performance of a magic effect, for example), I may be inspired to work harder, to go back and fix the problem, and to move on. Learning from failure might be called “learning by fire.†And it works.
Second, failure may bring me new insights, new ideas that had previously never entered my mind. Some of my most creative thoughts have been generated by having something go terribly wrong during a performance.
Third, failure can be the gift that tells us to stop, to give up on a particular performance piece, to remove it from our show and stop performing it. The end. It’s over. Period.
Over the years, there have been many times when I have worked on a piece of magic for a very long time (sometimes on and off for years) and then finally, after repeated failure, I just gave up.
Sometimes, I think the best thing to do is to give up, to stop and spend my limited time working on a piece of magic that is within my reach. As Alan Watts put it so well, “When you get the message, hang up the phone.â€
So I wonder, isn’t failure the greatest gift of all?
Each time we face a new challenge, we have an opportunity to break old patterns. We can react to challenges in old ways (as seen above), or move beyond our old habits and limitations, and resolve conflict in new and more enlightened ways. One of the best pieces of advice I’ve ever gotten from Max Maven is; “If you get mad…you lose.”
So before the next time you get “mad as hell,” read this short, but potent, Samurai parable.
http://www.onbeing.org/blog/the-little-monk-and-the-samurai-a-zen-parable/5496
“A smooth sea never made a skilled sailor”
— English proverb
When I think of all the times I encounter “trouble” along the road, I remind myself to reframe each experience as a “challenge”, and that facing each of these challenges makes me wiser! Yes, that is right my friends… over the years I’ve stopped using the words “troubles” and “problems”, and I’ve replaced both these words in my vocabulary with “challenges.”
Hint: try this as an exercise! Just stop using the words and they seem to go away! Now all I have are “challenges”…. and I love a good challenge!
Why not take a risk and face your next challenge in a new way? There is NOTHING to lose!
If you win, you will be happy;
if you lose, you will be wise.
— Zen wisdom
Even the top pros face extreme challenges. Many of us encounter bullies, hecklers and haters. What to the pros do? Take a look at this film and find out. Maybe you’ll find it to be as interesting as I did.
This documentary is titled Heckler, and I would consider it essential viewing for anyone who stands on a stage. (Thank you, Ferdinando Buscema for finding this!)
http://documentaryheaven.com/heckler/
I am on tour all over the planet this season! Russia is the next stop on my world tour.
Then our full illusion show Abracadazzle! will open in a huge theater in Shanghai.
I travel a lot! And it takes a great team to keep me on track. Thank you Tobias, Jordan and Abbi for helping with all “the challenges” of this immense tour!
Sometimes I feel like I just want to “just stay home,” but then I reread this poem. Whitman’s words gave me hope, strength and courage to keep going.
“Henceforth I ask not good fortune — I myself am good fortune.
Henceforth I whimper no more, postpone no more, need nothing. S
trong and content, I travel the open road.”
— “Song of the Open Road,” Walt Whitman
Every so often tears come to my eyes when I hear a poem read out loud…This poem is a gift for every one of us who travels. Listen to the full poem read out loud….it is so beautiful! Here is a link to a wonderful reading of this great poem, with inspired images.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOwUBvqiLY0
When I get off the road and come home, I love sharing good times with my magic friends. I throw a party each month so we can gather and share fun, music, magic and community. Look who showed up last month! Wow — what a show, and what a night to remember!
On September 19th you are invited to this month’s version of our community magic celebration!
Directions and all info at: www.vegaswonderground.com
8 pm Early Stage: Master of Ceremonies, Tim Wise, with Daniel Giandoni, Bijan the Magician, Alien Warrior Comic
9pm Parlor Magic: Master of Ceremonies, Christian Diamond, with Daniel Giandoni, Nate Jester, David Gabbay, Adam Flowers
10pm Late Stage: Master of Ceremonies, Tim Wise, with Anthony Rais, Shocker, Marc Love, TanBA,
THE WONDERGROUND PLAYERS:
DJ Leo Diaz, Christian Diamond, The New World Rythmatism Dancers, Tim Wise, Body Painting by Suzanne, Video Wizard Scott Steelfyre, Live art by Areeya, Photography by Sheryl Garrett, Psychic sideshow with “Scott Brown and The Readersâ€, Plus Great Food and Hookah at THE OLIVE!.. and much, much more! www.vegaswonderground.com.
The Magic & Mystery School Locked Room is our place to host custom online learning experiences in real time.
Beginning in September, 2013, our format is changing somewhat. On the first Monday of each month, we will broadcast our usual hour long “Mystery School Monday†show, free to all at McBridemagic.tv. Every other Monday of the month we will have a different host opening the show with a 15 minute discussion, promptly at 7:00pm, which is free and open to all, discussing the subjects to be covered that week. Immediately following that 15 minute free session, we will be hosting weekly Locked Room sessions for Magic & Mystery School Members only. Because these sessions are closed, except to our Members, we will be free to go a bit deeper, discussing techniques and tricks in a way we would not be comfortable doing in sessions open to the public at large.
Become a Member to get access to this exclusive content, starting in September.