The Other Side Of Vision

I started the blog last night with the intention of talking about magic, but I was shanghaied by whatever drivel I ended up writing. I will try to keep on track tonight, but it just might be that “magic” doesn’t want anyone talking about it at all. We will see about that.

For the past little while I have been thinking about magic and just what it is exactly. Part of what intrigues me about it is that it seems to be universal. Throughout recorded history man has talked about and actually worshiped those that practiced magic. In very primitive cultures the shaman would not only look after the tribe’s physical needs, but also their meta-physical needs. The Phoenicians, Egyptians, Greeks, Romans and even the early Christians have magic that pushed their societies forwards.

It isn’t what we call magic today, where some very talented sleight of hand artist makes a quarter disappear and then reappear in a different place. Sometimes it is a quarter, sometimes a lion, and I think someone has even made the Eiffel tower disappear. No, that is just misdirection, and although I eat that stuff up it isn’t really magic. Doug Henning was one of Canada’s greatest magicians before he passed away and he spent his life searching for “real” magic. He believed he had found it in Transcendental Meditation which was introduced by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.Doug was a very smart man and not easily fooled, so I am inclined to feel that he saw something there.

It seems odd to me that some of the world’s greatest illusionists become fixated on proving that there is nothing paranormal about the world. Harry Houdini spent a good deal his time debunking psychics and pretenders. I wonder why they would even care. I can see them fighting for the other side of the argument, but they don’t believe what they do is real anyways. Perhaps they have seen a hazy image of another world that they just can’t reach or explain away.

My friend has a form of magic. He can almost always get a parking spot right in front of the store that he is going to. It is really uncanny, and I would stop hanging out with him except that I would then have to walk a lot farther to get my coffee. I myself have some magic hanging about. Whenever I leave a store, no matter where I park there is always someone at one of the cars in front, behind or to the side of my car. Louise gets mad that I waste my luck on this bizarre thing instead of winning the lottery. Oh, and what about those people that have won the lottery multiple times?

So, is that just luck, coincidence or is it magic? Maybe magic is just technology that is far beyond out understanding. There doesn’t appear to be as much magic now as there was a few thousand years ago. I wonder why? I believe that there is magic in the world and we live with it every day. Perhaps if you take the time to slow down your life you just might see the magical world just on the other side of your vision.