Magic and Illusion

Illusion: something that deceives by producing a false or misleading impression of reality; the state or condition of being deceived. I am a believer in magic and illusion, I think that a little harmless deception is a good thing. As humans we want to be entertained, and we want something that will astound and amaze us; which is exactly what magic does. I remember watching as a kid The World's Greatest Magic and Magic's Biggest Secrets Finally Revealed, I was in love with Penn and Teller and Lance Burton. When I was a teenager I would watch Criss Angel and I have continued to watch his "mind freak" illusions. Magic and illusion are a trick of the mind; the person doing that magic is deceiving you, but you as the viewer are accepting of this deception and find enjoyment from it. I am a rationalist, I believe in finding the truth in everything which is why I think I love magic and illusion so much because on one hand I want to figure out how they did it and on the other hand I struck by the notion that I don't want to know the truth because it would take all of the excitement away from it. From a simple card trick to a death defying stunt we as an audience are astounded by the simple deception, we know we are being deceived and yet we are all to eager to sit back and let them deceive us. There is a sort of wonder in the unknown and a sadness in the knowing. I want to share a video with you that I think helps to express my point, this man in the video is doing card tricks. The entire time you can tell he is using a slight of hand and yet the way he does it keeps you so entertained that you ignore it and are amazed by what he can do. Lennart Green In watching magic we set aside our left brain for a little while, we set aside logic and reason and open ourselves up to our imagination and let ourselves be amazed by this alteration of reality.