Among magic hallmarks, ritual is
certainly one of the most common and widespread expressions.
In every culture, both primitive and contemporary, people
follow rituals. Rituals stress either a transition or
a transformation of people as well of the environment.
According to this perspective, every key moment of our
life is stressed by a ritual: from birth and initiation,
to marriage and death. The human struggle to explain natural
events becomes an opportunity of underlining to the whole
community, through specific rites, interpretations of
the causes and the raison d’etre of things. |
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With the term “paranormal”
we mean a whole series of phenomena, which seem to go
beyond the “normal”, which seem to challenge
the physical laws as we know them. To read somebody’s
mind, to see into the future, to see through walls, to
move objects with the power of the mind, to be in touch
with the spirit world, to walk on live coals or to ascend
from the ground are some of the most famous paranormal
phenomena. The international scientific community has
not yet been able to verify the real paranormal nature
of even one these supposed phenomena. What initially seemed
inexplicable turned out to be due to chance, mistakes,
ill-performed experiments, suggestion, the unusual, but
perfectly normal phenomena, and sometimes to fraud. This
does not mean that mysterious phenomena still searching
for an explanation do not exist. Most of the great tricks
of technology, all made through scientific knowledge (electromagnetism,
optic, and chemistry) can be divided in two classes: the
overt tricks, usually made by the illusionists (the tricks
of science – that you will find in the magic of
illusions area), and those used to cheat people, that
is tricks with a technological background (the science
of tricks), that you will find in this area of paranormal,
is not shown. |
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We no longer look at the sky anymore.
The cyclic alternation of the seasons, the periodic motion
of the sun, the changing face of the moon, the wandering
of the planets in the background of the Zodiac, does not
seem to fascinate us anymore. But in the heavenly vault
there is indeed our human history, in the constellations
we do recognize the fears and hopes of people. Moreover,
from heavenly movements come the measure of time and the
calendar. Many magic forms of ancient times are born indeed
from the observation of heavenly motions, a sort of attempt
to give mystery and a supernatural form to what was being
observed moving cyclically (the stars, the sun, the moon,
and the planets) beyond the earth horizon. |
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Illusionism is a wonderful art
that makes optical and sensory illusions appear real.
The terms magic and “prestidigitation” are
synonymous of it, the latter being a term of French origin,
coined in 1815, whose meaning is sleight of hand. A lot
of people think that a conjuring trick works either because
the hand is faster than the eye, or thanks to fixed tools
and games of mirrors. If you think the same, you are on
the wrong track. Eighty percent of the acts of a good
illusionist are based on the use of psychology. |
