Magician, heal thyself
How thinking like a conjuror could keep you sane
In a previous “Now You See It,” I wrote that magic has the power to heal. I truly believe this. By scrambling the brain’s circuitry with demonstrations of the impossible, magicians have the ability to help people access their innate sense of childlike wonder and press their reset buttons.
Lately, though, my theory has been put to the test. The war in Ukraine continues into its second year with no end in sight. Mass shootings in America are still commonplace. Enemy spy satellites fill our skies with impunity. Certain politicians ramp up their assault on transgender folk, Black history, education, gun safety and democracy itself. Boorish behavior at the State of the Union Address goes unpunished, behavior that would have gotten you or me kicked out of kindergarten.
You could be forgiven (if you’re still reading) if you asked, “Hey, magic boy. Got any tricks in your bag for all of this?”
It’s a fair question, and not unlike the one I hear every winter from a neighbor if we both happen to be out shoveling snow: Can’t you just wave your hands and make all this white stuff go away?
For the record, when I get the snow question, I answer yes. Then I wave both arms in a sweeping gesture and bring both hands to my face and cover my eyes so I can’t see. “Snow’s gone,” I say, quickly ducking to avoid the inevitable shovelful of snow being hurled at me from 10 feet away.
But we can’t simply cover our eyes and pretend all the world’s troubles have gone away. No, we need stronger magic than that. Real magic, you might say. Real magic that could keep you from falling into despair and actually help you feel hopeful about these interesting times.
Fortunately, thinking like a magician can get you there. Like to give it a try with my three-step plan? Here we go:
Create your reality. Magicians are an inventive bunch; we create a lot of tricks. As I wrote recently, one magician, Max Maven, invented or contributed to 1,600 tricks in his lifetime. Rule number one? Don’t worry about how to do it. Think first what effect you want to have on your audience. What will happen? What will it look like? What do you want them to remember? What is the picture you want to paint that they will see in their mind’s eye later on when they tell a friend, “You won’t believe what I saw”?
What do you want to see in the world? What should it look like? Don’t fret over how to bring it about. My attitude as a minister is that people shouldn’t walk out of church on Sunday mornings with a to-do list. They should walk out with a to-dream list. Want to end world hunger? What does that look like right in front of your eyes? Climate justice? How do you know it’s happening? Once you know what something looks like, two things happen: You start to recognize it where it is already happening, and the method—how you might get there—starts to reveal itself to you. Because that is how it happens for magicians. Once we know what our trick might look like, we discover what other magicians have done or are doing to achieve the same effect, kind of like when you discover a new musical artist and then start hearing them everywhere.
You might, for example, start to notice others in your area striving to feed the hungry. You become more attuned to news headlines concerning climate justice. Then, as you see how others are making your reality come about, you begin to see how you might give it your own unique spin. Trust me on this.
Learn something new. Magicians learn new magic nearly every day, partly because for the most part we are self-taught and the knowledge base is indescribably vast. I have tried to master card, coin, ball, handkerchief, ring, string, thimble, rope, rubber band, topological (very cool), sponge, paper and money magic, and that’s just the small stuff—I’ve learned and performed larger illusions as well. We may not perform everything we learn, but that’s not the point. We know that every little move, subtlety or theory we add to our knowledge adds something to whatever we do perform. Plus, it’s fun.
But there is something more: Every time you learn something new, you change the world, because you have changed how you see it. You have a firmer grip on reality than you had moments before. It doesn’t matter if you just learned how to bake a soufflé, tie a bow stitch knot or balance your checking account. Everything we learn can be applied to something else. That is the subtle message I try to convey to my magic students with my 10 tips to improve your magic. And, if you’d like to learn something really new, try learning magic itself. Here’s a simple trick you can try. Learn it, spread some joy, change the world and change yourself.
Trust in mystery. In addition to being concerning and even frightening, the current state of affairs in our world and in our country is bewildering. As Rodney King asked so memorably 31 years ago, can we all get along? I’m no historian, but I am pretty certain every generation has thought it would be the last. Have faith, then, that the earth itself continues to spin reliably on its axis despite our best efforts to knock it off course. And follow the magician’s lead and have faith in mystery itself.
In its clever questioning of all that we think is true or impossible, magic is simply a reminder that the mystery of life is a permanent reality, that it is our birthright and it is good. Followers of mystery take a gentler approach to life, seeking truth but never claiming it at the expense of someone else the way evil so often does. So embrace mystery, learn to live with it (we actually have no choice, really), and you will know what magicians know: Believing in magic is a great way to stay sane. (For more on this, see my thoughts on good and evil.)
So there you have it, a trifecta of magical thinking. It won’t clear your driveway. But if you take it to heart, you won’t need to. You won’t have to leave the premises to explore new worlds—and know that the current one is always merely a temporary version of what could be.