We’ve all had it. That moment when you are struck with pure astonishment watching a magician make a card disappear before your very eyes, making you question whether seeing truly is believing. However, more often than not, that “I cannot believe my eyes” moment is surpassed with an abundance of questions and theories to help you begin to fathom the mechanics of the magic you just witnessed.
This bitter cynicism that us ‘adults’ succumb to highlights the difference between us and the undefiled minds of children. An amazing trait that children possess is the ability to
believe in anything and everything told to them or shown to them by adults. Children have not developed the profound level of cynicism that adults develop when they “grow up”.
Children can see magic in its purest form without the factors of skepticism acting on them. The joy and astonishment that you may get from watching a trick being performed mirrors that of a child’s perspective of the world around them.
Imagination and the belief in magic is not something that you are meant to grow out of; quite the contrary. It is something that should be embraced and developed into adult life, used to continue to see the good in the world and believe that anything is possible.
Like many things, magic has many definitions and interpretations for us to consider. The Oxford dictionary provides a total of four definitions for magic varying from “a quality of being beautiful” to the “power of apparently influencing events by using mysterious or supernatural forces.”
It is presumed that as grown-ups we don’t believe in magic and yet how is it that WHEN YOU READ WORDS IN CAPITALS you read it as if someone is shouting? This is a simple event that is influenced by using mysterious forces, fitting the definition of magic. Yet, this simple act would be considered as true magic by a very few.
A large argument against magic is provided by the pursuit and existence of scientific study; you may be a man or women of science and yet there are many factors in the field of science that are left unexplained. If there is a lack of scientific explanation can you deny the existence of an event? Can you just dismiss the tooth fairy due to, in your eyes, a lack of scientific evidence?
Could it be that it is your own beliefs about the Easter Bunny and Tooth Fairy that hinders you from seeing the magic in the everyday world around you?
- Saher Ahmed
Comments