Igor Lipinski

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On the verge of magic, mystery and science.

“Let us first understand what we mean by the word magic. Magic is a mystery and we call a thing a mystery because we do not understand it. There are two magics and many mysteries which are not magical but what I wish to refer to now are those that come under the head of magic! There are two kinds of magics. I say magics in order to simplify what I mean. One kind is created by man, wherein he produces things which are magical or mysterious to everybody but himself because to him they are simple results due to natural causes which are manipulated by him. 

Then there are nature’s magics - called magics because no man understands them. As soon as their causes are known to man they are no longer mysteries, no longer magics. They are natural results of material causes. Radium is one of these - Nature’s magic, because as yet no one understands its being, or causes of being, nor its results of being. If Radium can bring to our vision those things which we cannot see (as it does the atom), its influence cannot be measured on materialists who say, ‘I’ll believe when I see.’

If it can show us the soul as it leaves man by registering it on the photographic plate, if it can be the means of photographing our imagination, so that the eye can see it, what will we not believe, we materialist who thing that only things we realized with our human sense are real. To see, to feel, to smell, to hear, to taste, these are only invisible facts - but which we acknowledge are real - the sensations of horror that kills, of grief that prostrates, joy that uplifts, and faith that cures - what if these things can be registered and seen apart from the body, are they not then material things? And may they not indicate that other invisible materials exist - which are in reality material if we had the human capacity for observing them?… Perhaps Radium and its sister elements may one day help us here. We may not believe, but we do not know that we should not believe!” 

Loie Fuller, “Lecture on Radium”
January 20, 1911, London, England 

(Found in “Radioactive: Marie & Pierre Curie: A Tale of Love and Fallout”)

“The wonders of magic seem to prove that happiness is born of ignorance, but when we study the mysterious art more carefully we learn that knowledge gives birth to more genuine happiness.”

- Karl Germain, American Magician

Several years ago, I read an excellent interview on the neuroscience of magic. In the interview conducted by Jonah Lehrer for WIRED magazine, Teller (of Penn & Teller) reveals the true purpose behind the art of magic:  

“People take reality for granted,” Teller says shortly before stepping onstage. “Reality seems so simple. We just open our eyes and there it is. But that doesn’t mean it is simple.” 

For Teller (…) magic is more than entertainment. He wants his tricks to reveal the everyday fraud of perception so that people become aware of the tension between what is and what seems to be. Our brains don’t see everything—the world is too big, too full of stimuli. So the brain takes shortcuts, constructing a picture of reality with relatively simple algorithms for what things are supposed to look like. Magicians capitalize on those rules. “Every time you perform a magic trick, you’re engaging in experimental psychology,” Teller says. “If the audience asks, ‘How the hell did he do that?’ then the experiment was successful. I’ve exploited the efficiencies of your mind.”

But perhaps the most beautiful definition of magic comes from Teller in the NYTimes article on the same subject. So what is magic? 

“The theatrical linking of a cause with an effect that has no basis in physical reality, but that – in our hearts – ought to.”