There is a lot of magic around these days. It comes in several forms. Its best-known form is “magic tricks”. These are designed to entertain us, and some of them really do. I am particularly impressed by “Mago Pop” and Justin Willman. Mago Pop’s real name is Antonio Diaz and he is from here in Catalunya. You can see him on YouTube. Justin Willman recently shot to fame with his Netflix series “Magic for Humans”. I recommend them highly because they do many “impossible” things. They do things that have no rational explanation, which leaves one wondering whether they have unusual powers, as well as excellent manipulative skills. I suspect that, in some respects, they are real magicians. They do real magic. But what do I mean by this?

It is not an easy question to answer, partly because the word “magic” conjures up prejudices and misconceptions, but also because we live in very materialist times, dominated by the worldview of science. As far as science is concerned, magic is impossible. End of argument for many people, because science has decided that only it can say what is true and what is possible. But magic is not impossible, as real magicians demonstrate on a daily basis, and as more and more people are discovering for themselves. Many of us experience magic in the form of “paranormal” experiences. I think it is significant that these experiences seem to be becoming more common.

Perhaps the simplest way to define real magic is: “magic is what real magicians do”. These are the people who, down the ages, have gone by a variety of names, such as “magus”, “wizard”, holy man”, “shaman”, and “initiate” – the list of possible names is surprisingly long. In a few cases, they were born with unusual abilities. In most cases, they had to learn. They learned in a “mystery school” or in an “esoteric university” (such as the one founded by Pythagoras). What they learned was three things: the deeper nature of the world; the deeper nature of the human being; and the important relationships between the two. Once they had learned these three things, they were able to begin to practise the abilities that flowed naturally from this knowledge. In other words, they were able to do magic. To give you a sense of it, these abilities include: reading minds; reading the future and the past; altering situations (such as in distant healing); and bringing things into existence (“manifesting”). There is more, but I think this captures the essence of it. To really understand what magic is, it is important to be aware that these abilities are natural human abilities, because they are part of our deeper nature.

What, you may ask, is the relationship between these abilities, on the one hand, and the deeper natures of the world and the human being, on the other?  Just as important, what is the significance of the fact that these abilities and experiences are becoming much more evident in the world today? These are central questions, which I will address in Part Two. In Part Three I will outline how you can begin to unlock these abilities in yourself and start to use them as part of your normal everyday life.

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