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there is real magic, the world is full of it, you only have to look past all our intoxicating media of words and machines to see it.

There are many ways to look and many to see, witch will you choose.

Real magic or not, what does it matter, have you been told not to believe because it could harm you.
We like and want to believe because underneath everything exists real magic, sometimes we need to make something look fantastical to allow ourselves to feel the magic.
Its all about feelings.

I would love to hear your views on this subject, I will add more later

What you call real magic is a totally different subject, we talk about magic the entertainment form here and not the ritual side of things.

I'll have whatever he's smoking

alledgedly

I like the subliminal "witch willyou choose"

Illusionart wrote:We like and want to believe because underneath everything exists real magic, sometimes we need to make something look fantastical to allow ourselves to feel the magic.
Its all about feelings.

Riiiiiight ???

Illusionart wrote:Its all about feelings

Actually, it's all about entertainment.

Mandrake wrote:

Illusionart wrote:Its all about feelings

Actually, it's all about entertainment.

But perhaps you could say, entertainment is about playing with your feelings and emotions.

Magic is poetry. Magic is a particular spectre of emotions, from awe to passion. Magic is a way to connect with the world of Myth. Tricks, stories, character are accessories, but their alchemy may become a magical moment...
Make your audience feels this emotion, this poetry, let them live an adventure in your realms, they'll call you "magician".
Yep, Magic exists and isn't a different subject from what we are supposed to do.

Ok, now that we've all proven that we're "Magicians" let's actually look at what Illusionart is saying, in that it contains a great deal of truth that most of us miss because we've become so jaded by "what we know" that we no longer recognize what we once knew.

The concept of Magick whether you believe in "IT" or not, is very real as well as natural; it encompasses everything we know and then some that we've yet to learn (or remember, as the case could be). I can assure you, witnessing a birth, be it a child, puppy or chick is the sort of miracle you won't readily forget. Discovering how to savor wine, fine food or the aroma of a burning fire... this too is magick; the way it plays with our senses, luring us to both, our past and the future as we volunteer to succumb to it's wonder.

There are times in life that we -- magicians -- must wake up and smell the roses, so to speak. We must set aside all the analytical B.S. we've been wading in all these years and simplify our lives and how we "see" the world; just letting go and accepting that it is rather than trying to figure it out or break it down to some kind of mathematical explanation, etc. That is not how the real world operates or how normal people think e.g. it may just be a clue that we aren't always as right or superior in our thinking and processing as we delude ourselves into believing.

This is the season of Yule -- magick is very much alive this time of year, whether you're observing the Christian idea of things or it's Druidic parallels or simply the idea that this is a season in which hope, joy, and celebration exist and aid us in feeling alive and perhaps, just a hint grateful. If that's not magick I don't know what is.

As a performer, especially when doing Mentalism or Bizarre stuff, I do strive to make it as real as I can -- an experience rather than another simple trick for the sake of doing a trick. I'm not a trained puppy jumping through hoops, I am a performance artist -- a mystery entertainer and what I offer as a product is something experiential, not "a show" as most of us know such. In order to reach that level, I must make the magick real; invoking the creative side of the public's imagination, their cultural influences and related superstitions, etc. I must be "the mystic" in their eyes but I must likewise create situations that allow them to see, feel and witness the magic... even when "nothing" is there (just set the atmosphere and place them in a dimly lit room with a peculiar smell... the mind will do the rest.)

Traditional magic is rarely presented in this manner but yet, we do our best to allow the public to escape from those mundane anchors of daily life and join us for a few moments of fantasy in which magic is real and through our performance, even when it's not our intention, we somehow give them hope... faith that the miraculous still exists and life isn't just a bunch of numbers, chemicals and other such sundries.

Think about what you do... what you want to achieve through your magic and then look at life, at myth as well as mythconception. Find the magic that really does surround you and see how manipulation of the five elements (earth, air, fire, water & Spirit) transforms our tricks into the sort of miraculous thing people will remember and talk about with great elation for years to come.

Lady of mystery, I am not sure that it is a totally different subject.

Mandrake, please tell me what entertainment is about, what use is entertainment if it is not about emotions and feelings.

(please forgive me, I do not know how to add quotes, can someone tell me how?)

Craig Browning, you put it so well.
I do feel that we need to keep our hearts in this, look at what you do as the spectator, see and feel what they feel and try to remember what it felt like when you we're the spectator.
What did you feel, did you like it when you saw magic that made you tingle and almost lift off the ground, you know that wonderful feeling that fills you up inside.
Or did you like it when someone did a trick and it tricked you, how did you feel when the magic was taken away, did it become worthless.
My feeling is that when magic is from the heart and you utterly know what is happening when you perform, when you know the sort of communication that is going on, then the magic will flow, people will walk away with those wonderful feelings inside.
If however you decide to just show TRICKS, without the heart, without the feeling, then what is it, is it magic, has it not become hollow and cold, it can be this way.

Of course, there are not just these two sides,
MOST of the time, there are two sides to a coin, however if you are a magician, there can be many sides.

We all have the power to make peoples dreams come true and we can indeed help to change the world, if we wanted to take that on.
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Illusionart... well my friend people like us (die-hard romantics) are few and far between when it comes to the more common realms of magic life. You will find far more kindred souls within the auspices of Bizarre Magick and Mentalism in that many within that arena embrace the idea behind realism and creating an experience vs. doing tricks; we invoke the imagination as well as memory so as to generate belief and rapport to what we do... even when it's silly.

There is a very small niche of performers to which I'm loosely connected, who present their magic at a much more "shamanic" level. Kenton Knepper comes very close to this idea and was, in many ways, the ground breaker for this route of course. But it's really been the John Riggs, Enrique Enriquez, Alain Bellon and Jerome Finely types that have cultivated things and made it into a very genuine sense of "real" magick. [The bulk of their materials on this subject being exceptionally guarded; even if one has the money to buy it, don't mean you'll be allowed to purchase it.]

I'd be amiss if I didn't mention my friend Paul Brook's and his wonderful contribution to this mold through the book ALCHEMICAL TOOLS -- an amazing philosophical way of approaching magic (mentalism mainly) that readily transmutes common tricks into miracles. Which, in my mind, is what we are here for.

Feel free to tap me on the shoulder any time; I love meeting kindred souls.