Dear Friends:
This month, George Parker takes us on a thought-provoking journey – from a magic shop in Cape Town to canceled shows and earnest fan mail – in search of what “real magic” truly means. Along the way, he challenges us to reflect not only on the nature of magic, but on the very human forces that shape our lives and our art: imagination, intention, transformation, and connection.
Real Magic?
“I want the real vanish box!”
I was giving a lecture at the College of Magic in Cape Town, South Africa. I was in their magic shop, when a man walked in and said he wanted to buy a vanishing box. He had seen one in Johannesburg and had traveled all the way to Cape Town to buy it. The staff demonstrated the well-known vanishing and production box with the double drawer.
“Yes, that’s the one!” he exclaimed.
After paying, he was shown how the trick worked. His reaction?
“This is a trick! I want the real vanish box. I want my money back!”
A Canceled Performance
The desire for—and belief in—real magic, as in supernatural and occult powers, is something I’ve encountered often. And there’s nothing wrong with that…until you start taking it too literally. That’s when you step onto thin ice.
I have experienced the consequences of people believing that illusionists have supernatural power a few times. I paid a price, quite literally. For example, early this year I had a great online meeting with a spirited organizing committee who were excited about hiring me and looked forward to the event. A week later I got a call. “Sorry, we have to cancel your keynote/show. My boss is a devout Christian and doesn’t want anything to do with magicians. He believes they channel dangerous occult powers.”
Where Does David Copperfield Get His Supernatural Powers?
Another example of this was an email I received a few years back. Someone asked me to reveal how David Copperfield had developed his “magical supernatural powers.” I explained that what you see Copperfield do on stage are illusions.
He wrote: “George, you said ‘he’s an illusionist,’ but not for me. Illusionists use tricks. A true Magician assures human control of supernatural agencies or the forces of nature. D.C. has some presentations where it’s impossible to believe it’s a trick. That’s where he’s using real magic powers.”
Even if Copperfield would personally teach this person how it’s done, he still wouldn’t believe they were “just tricks.” The power of mental models: a blessing and a curse. A blessing because we feel secure and stable in our mental models. It’s also a curse because being stuck in our own perspective leads to polarization and all of its ugly sides.
The Real Magic of Creation
Let’s talk about magic as an occult art. Occult means “hidden,” “invisible.” The phrase “occult powers” evoke images of mystery and magic. Films and illusionists love to lean into this romantic notion: Yoda lifting an X-Wing with invisible force…Neo bending reality with his mind…Harry Potter casting spells with a wand…David Copperfield walking through the Great Wall…Ger Copper doing his black art magic.
I believe there are two kinds of ‘hidden’ when we see those images. The first one is that the magician, filmmaker, the black art artist, indeed use methods that are hidden for the audience to conjure up these images.
The second one is that these, symbolic, images resonate with powers that are innately human but are most of the time hidden. They are the invisible forces of imagination, love, energy, will, and thought, that indeed shape the reality around us. Everything we see around us started with these hidden, or occult, forces. On stage and in films we can remove the factors of time and effort between an idea and its realization. The production, vanish, and transformations seem to happen instantaneously.
We Are Born Magicians—Just Not Literal Like in the Movies
That image of instantaneous change with a mere hand gesture is very exciting. It can work wonders as a metaphor much like the action-metaphor of a placebo. It can instill faith, belief in a better world, hope, and a strong motivation to get to work to make things happen.
Personally, I’m glad I don’t have those ‘real’ magical powers. For example, when I make the mistake of taking in too much negative news I get cranky and sometimes my mind ends up in a Hulk-like state. I wouldn’t want my thoughts to turn into reality with a flick of my fingers as you can imagine (but don’t, it might destroy your mood).
The other, more profound, reason why I wouldn’t want to have such magical powers, is the fact that I highly value living through the embodied experience of transformation. It’s not always fun to alternate excitement and frustration, smiles and tears, triumphs and failures. But they are a huge part of the alchemical process of real growth that goes far beyond the production box.
On top of that, the joy of experiencing these ups and downs with family, friends and our tribe can’t be replicated by just a flick of the finger. Ever.
George Parker is faculty at large. He’s a bestselling author of books on the creative process as well as Index-terity and Performing Magic with Impact for magicians. He’s performed in over 5,500 custom keynotes/shows and theater shows in over 35 countries.