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CONTENTS
A NIGHT THAT GOES WITH A BUMP!
An Invitation to the Darker Side
PREFACE
Have you ever looked back at a piece of work you completed a long time ago and thought to yourself, “I wish I’d done that differently”? When Mind Magic was originally published in 2003, it caused quite a stir. Some magicians didn’t like it because they felt it exposed too much, others said there wasn’t enough magic in it, and still others misunderstood what I was trying to do.
The reality is the book sold well across the world in several languages and still generates fan mail some 14 years after it was originally published. It went before the council of The Magic Circle (the world’s premier magical society) who honoured me with a promotion to a higher degree as a result. Their reviewer commented that it was one of the ‘best books on the subject of mental magic written for over 20 years’.
I admit to having felt a degree of apprehension when I was asked to review the book in preparation for this second edition. More than a decade had passed and the world has become a very different place. Would all the technological advances, and the four thousand magic performances I have notched up since the original publication, change my view of what I had written?
Magic is a physical art that transcends technology. It appeals to some very basic needs we have as humans to feel part of something bigger than ourselves. Whilst the exterior appearance of magic rightly changes to suit the current environment, the basic underlying principles do not. What I set out to do with this book is still very much relevant.
I felt (and still feel) that although correctly teaching the mechanics is vital, it is the understanding of how to “frame” a performance that was missing from the majority of magic books. The stories or scenarios were designed to show the importance of placing your magic in the right context. They are examples, laid out with