Examining Magic’s Significance in Human Culture
Christopher McNamara
Global Studies and World Languages Academy
December 16, 2013
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Abstract
The author’s topic of research is magic; magic, while now mostly just a means of
performance through act of illusion and misdirection has played an important role in shaping
the culture of many civilizations, notably through religion. Even today some cultures still place
great faith in the practice of magic defined through sorcery, potions, and psychic powers.
Because of this, however, many charlatans have utilized the tools of illusion and sleight of hand
in order to swindle people out of their money, claiming to have some sort of supernatural
power with which they can perform miracles. This is only assisted by how real illusions
nowadays can seem due to the abundance of technology. This relates to the author’s topic as
he will be researching how magic has remained such a large part of human culture. While
magic has been a means of celebrating religion in the past, magic now seems to have the
opposite effect and can even have negative effects on religious teachings. The author’s inside
school advisor will be Tallwood’s psychology teacher, David Weiss; he will assist the author in
understanding the psychological implementations of magic. The author’s outside advisor will
be the president of the local Society of American Magicians, Wayne Taylor. Taylor is a long
magician and devout Christian, thus exploring how he balances the two so they do not interfere
with each other, or how one affects the other in his life, could prove to be valuable research.
For the author’s plan of action, he plans to play the part of an ordinary person that can
perform supernatural feats, mimicking a charlatan. He will arrive at the event acting as if what
he does is in fact paranormal. The author will test if the audience will just dismiss the acts or if
they truly believe it to be real magic.
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Introduction and Statement of the Problem
How has magic remained a significant part of human culture? Magic once had a great
influence on religion throughout cultures in the past, thus being very influential on past
civilizations. Nowadays the general idea of magic to the normal person is illusions used for
entertainment and hustling. Despite this, magic in the sense of illusions, and surprisingly even
the paranormal, has a great presence in the mainstream media. Part of it could be due to
subconscious tendency to find relationships between unrelated events which sometime result
in the creation on superstitions. The growing popularity of so-called psychics may have also
caused the spark in magic. With their growing popularity, magicians such as James Randi, or as
he describes himself, a conjurer, go out of their way to debunk them. Perhaps humans simply
experience fascination with the theatrics of illusions.
There is still a great interest in magic within the mainstream media, with names such as
David Copperfield and Darren Brown garnering much popularity. Also, magic also has an
important religious and medicinal role in many cultures today. There are few people to which
magic does not affect or interest. In terms of practical application this research paper could
help explain why some cultures still include magic as a huge part of their civilization. A
drawback of this is that the author has minimum references as to what specifically he should
focus for his scope of research. However, using newer ideas entails him to a more general field
of study with creative freedom with the angle to which he wishes to take his topic of research.
Aside from the specific topic of magic, this project has the possibility of being included in the
subject of psychology in religion or the study of human behavior.
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Limitations of Research
Magic in terms of illusions can prove to be very mysterious, in that the individuals who
practice magic do not commonly divulge their secrets and show reluctance in writing
explanations as to how many of their feats are accomplished. Because of this, the author will
not be able to examine possible use of illusions in historical cultures. Furthermore, available
sources tend to show few in print, making them either difficult to find or too expensive for
purchase. Instead, the author will need to utilize the resources available to him as much as
possible.
Records exist of humans performing supernatural feats such as levitation, astralprojection, and telekinesis all over the world. As the author lacks the time and financial
resources to travel the sites of these indicated activities, he will be unable to verify if the claims
of supernatural feats are legitimate. The author will try to investigate others’ studies and
records of said events to infer whether such accounts are true or bogus.
The focus of this research paper explores the relationship between magic of illusions
and paranormal with human culture without much focus on the specific topics which are
discussed. Due to the limited number of pages the author can write for the main body of the
research paper, the author will only generally explore the topics within the paranormal and
illusions as opposed to specific topics.
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Methodology
Aside from sources found on the internet, the author found one book source at the
Tallwood High School library which they decided to throw away.
The author interviewed Wayne Taylor, a local magician and the president of the Society
of American Magicians in the area.
For a survey, author implemented a systematic random sample on December 10 in
which the author stood by the front door of Tallwood High School in the morning and chose
each fifth person to survey. The author did this until he acquired twenty people for the survey.
To each person the author asked two questions: Do you believe in magic? If not, at what age
did you stop believing in magic? Of those surveyed, six people answered “yes”, four being girls
and two being boys, while the remaining fourteen answered “no”: nine boys and five girls. Of
those who answered “no”, four people stopped believing in magic at the age of five, five people
stopped at the age of seven, five people stopped at the age of 8, and one stopped at the age of
twelve. This survey was subject to survey bias in which those who took the bus and arrived at
the side of the door and those arriving late to school were not considered in the sampling of
this survey.
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Literature Review
Research on the topic of “how magic has sustained a significant role in human culture”
involves sifting through information would usually not fall under the same category of
information, as they cover different topics.
In the lecture “James Randi: Homeopathy, Quackery and Fraud”, James Randi discusses
the popularity of psychics and the importance of stopping them. He mentions how the people
that go to psychics for help and have approach his organization become financially and
emotionally ruined. This source proves vital when writing about magical thinking and
charlatans. In the lecture, Randi swallows an entire bottle of homeopathic sleeping pills. In
normal circumstances, ingesting that many sleeping pills would prove fatal for a human being.
However, Randi is fine, as the idea of homeopathic medicine consists of diluting a medicine to
the point the effects of the medicine nears zero. People believing that homeopathic
medication works experience magical thinking, in which a relationship is thought to exist
between the much diluted medicine and feeling better. For the writing on charlatans, James
Randi discusses the famous psychic Sylvia Browne. One of the more widely known psychic
operators, Sylvia Browne charges seven hundred dollars over the phone for a psychic reading.
Browne so far remains the only well-known psychic who has agreed to take on James Randi’s
one million dollar challenge to psychics. However, Browne’s claim to participate in the
challenge took place in 2001, and as of present-day she has failed to follow up on her promise.
The blog “Magic Is Real in Nigeria” by Teekay Akin the majority of the population still
belief in magic within Nigeria. They actually believe that magicians such as Criss Angel and
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David Blain possess magic powers. Akin holds a negative view of people in Nigeria, calling them
fearful and a disgrace to human intelligence. This source is mainly used for citing the belief in
magic in Nigeria for magical thinking.
The blog “EBay Bans Magic and Potions” by Katy Waldman talks about eBay’s banning of
magical spells or potions as items for sale on their website. The blog includes examples of said
magical items and quote’s eBay’s reasoning behind banning the distribution of such products.
Kay Waldman is an assistant editor for Slate, the website this blog is posted on. Waldman
appears to poke fun at the idea of buying apparently magic spells on the internet. She gives an
impression of sarcasm throughout the blog. This source assists in the writing of magical
thinking within the main body of the paper.
The letter by Uri Geller posted on the newspaper website The Guardian entitled “Geller:
I Can Bend Metal” shows Geller explaining how he is not a magician. He strongly disagrees with
the journalists at The Guardian who address him as such. He then goes on to explain who there
exists a massive amount of evidence that he is in fact a psychic. The world knows Uri Geller as a
mentalist who has on occasion failed with his apparent psychic powers and has even been
debunk on a few occasions by magician and skeptic James Randi. The Guardian possibly chose
to publish this letter to make fun of Geller, showing how defensive he Is about his capability as
a psychic, even giving the letter the somewhat comedic title of “Geller: I Can Bend Metal”.
The YouTube video “What Is Magic?” by YouTube user SenseiStrange gives an insight as
to how professional magicians perceive their own profession as well as the idea of real magic.
Magician Jeff McBride and SenseiStrange even give their philosophical interpretation of magic.
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The producer of this video SenseiStrange studies Buddhist philosophy as well as teaches martial
arts and performs magic. He may have bias towards a positive insight into how magic is
portrayed. This source helps with the fascination of illusion within the research body, as it
shows how magicians still enjoy magic despite knowing many of the secrets which would leave
some people disappointed.
The interview the author has with magician Wayne Taylor discusses topics of magic’s
involvement with human culture. Wayne Taylor considers himself a devout Christian, thus his
answers exhibit bias towards Christianity. He also discusses his interest in magic, describing it
as an entertaining way of conversing with a friend. This source will help with the fascination of
illusions.
The article “Psychic Defective: Sylvia Browne’s History of Failure” by Ryan Shaffer and
Agatha Jadwiszczok lists the many occasions in which the famous psychic Sylvia Brown has
proved unsuccessful with her predictions. This article exists on a website owned by the
Committee of Skeptical Inquiry. As such, the writers on this website will likely have a bias
against anything supernatural such as Browne’s apparent psychic powers. The article makes
note of her failures as a psychic without stating the instances in which her predictions proved
successful. The information in this article will contribute to the research on charlatans in the
main body.
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Christopher McNamara
Gregory Falls
Global Connections
December 16, 2013
Examining Magic’s Significance in Human Culture
Magic has roots in every culture in the world. Magic has remained a large part of
human culture as a result of magical thinking, the promotion of and debunking of supernatural
charlatans, and a human fascination with the philosophy and performance of illusions.
There exists a universal constant within human beings called magical thinking. Magical
thinking includes the idea of a cause-and-effect relationship between an action and an event
where scientifically no correlation between the two exists. ("Magical Thinking") Children
exhibit this form of thought often during their early years of development. Up to the age of six,
children endeavor to distinguish between reality and fantasy. (Church, EdD, Miller, and Poole)
This sort of mentality can be seen in many religions.
Religions partake in many rituals in which a certain action is thought to result in
something unrelated despite there being no actual correlation between the two. In voodoo, a
doll which is used to represent an actual person is stuck with needles in order to inflict
misfortune on the desired person. In Shintoism, individuals
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Even in Christianity, in which magic is considered witchcraft and is forbidden from
practice, magical thinking still plays a role. During the Eucharist, the turning of the bread and
wine into the body and blood of Jesus can be considered magical thinking. There also exists a
religious group in Egypt known as the Copts which practice magic rituals and curses. (Meyer)
However Christians make a distinction between White Magic, which is practiced in Christianity,
and Black Magic, which falls under Witchcraft.
This behavior can be seen as negative, as people who exhibit magical thinking may lack
logical reasoning. Teekay Akin in his blog post views this behavior in people within Nigeria who
practice juju and wage spiritual wars to be unintelligent and describe the people to be fearful.
Magical thinking can even lead to the purchase and consumption of homeopathic drugs, which
are basically just medicine that has been diluted to the point of which it has no effect. (Randi)
Thus magical thinking can be seen as exhibited in the weak minded who cling onto outdated or
useless practices. To an extreme, magical thinking could even lead people to have actual
delusions or hallucinations. (Benedict)
However, possessing a state of mind with magical thinking is not harmful to a degree.
The idea of one action resulting in some event without any scientific correlation between the
two is in part why the placebo effect works. Also, even though as humans people have
developed logical reasoning, individuals will still cling to archaic practices not out of fear, but
rather it is their way of practicing their culture. The online auction website eBay at a time even
had sellers of magic spells and potions, ranging from a love potion to vampire transformation.
(Waldman) Users wrote guides on selling said magic spells as well as on things to know when
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hiring a spell-caster and how to avoid fraud. The website has of last year banned the
distribution of magical items, stating that verifying the transactions of magical items could
prove difficult to resolve. (Waldman)
Even average people still exhibit this behavior of magical thinking following their
childhood. The presence of this mentality is simply less frequent as individuals develop a sense
of logic. People hold on to certain objects believing that they will receive good luck in doing so,
look for obscure signs that give us confidence, and buy into superstitions without thinking.
(Benedict) Gamblers have shown to wear the same articles of clothing for days as they believe
that doing so will allow them to win more. In this way, people can use magical thinking in the
sense of superstitions in order to gain confidence in them.
In recent years people claiming to have supernatural powers have garnered much
notoriety in the mainstream media. Notable psychic figures include Sylvia Browne, Uri Geller,
and James Hydrick. Prior to her death last month, Browne worked on a number of crime cases
for the police as well as doing psychic readings over the phone for people. Uri Geller is well
known for his ability in bending metal and self-described psychic. However, such people have
proved to be charlatans, frauds.
One could assume that allowing these people to keep pretending to be actual psychics
does not cause any actual harm and that it’s just for fun. However that is not the case for
psychics; to let them do as they please can prove to be very harmful. Psychics lead people into
believing that they have some kind of connection with the dead and that they can help contact
loved ones that have passes on for a fee. It gives people false hope and financially ruins them.
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For each psychic reading over the phone, Sylvia Browne would charge seven hundred dollars,
from people who reach her out of desperation. (Randi)
Magicians have the capability of debunking such frauds, as many of the practices in
supposed supernatural powers are commonly incorporated into magic tricks and routines.
Professional escapologist and magician spent much of his life debunking those claiming to
possess supernatural powers. The most famous of these was Medium Mina Crandon. (Love)
Present-day skeptics are present in magicians such as James Randi. James Randi, a selfdescribed conjurer, has been very active in his work as a skeptic. He has wagered a prize of one
million dollars to any psychics who could prove their supernatural powers. To this day only one
well-known psychic, Sylvia Browne, has agreed to take the challenge. (Randi) However, her
claim to do the challenge took place in 2001, and since then she had never made follow up
contact with Randi to take the challenge. When confronted with the issue in 2007, Browne’s
manager answered that she would not take the challenge claiming Browne had nothing to do
with Godless man like Randi. (Cooper)
In such a case, people can use magic in the sense of illusions to become more aware
about the habits that so-called psychics fall into during their demonstrations of the
supernatural.
People are fascinated by the theatrics, mythology, and philosophy of magic. David
Copperfield alone has had one of the highest grossing shows in Las Vegas. Magic in the form of
illusion has become very popular in the mainstream media with figures such as David Blaine
and Criss Angel offering a form of “street magic”. Other magicians such as Derren Brown and
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Dynamo have also garnered attention toward magic with magic specials in the United Kingdom.
Theatrical magic brings people back to the time when they were still kids and they still believed
in magic. In contrast the magicians who perform for audiences enjoy the excitement of their
spectators. Not so recently with the story of Harry Potter and stories similar to it have
introduced people to the world of magic through its books and movies. As opposed to Penn
Jillette’s idea of magic contributing to a more atheistic point of view, Eugene Burger point
towards magic as having more of a connection to a more spiritual mind set. Magician Wayne
Taylor sites magic as a way of conversing with his friends. (Taylor)
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Conclusion
Magic remains a big part of human culture as it serves as a defense mechanism for
people. People use magic as a way of gaining confidence in times of doubt. It helps us feel
better about uncertain situations and things that we cannot explain like in the past with myths.
Magic can be used as a way of avoiding being swindled by frauds that practice principles in
magic in order to assume the identity of someone with supernatural powers. Magic can be
used as a way of communicating with other by way of theatrics and conversation.
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