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It has been said that after prostitution magic may be the second oldest profession in the world. Although that may be disputed, what is certain is that magicians and their tricks have existed for thousands of years. For the most part however, the ancient purpose of magic was not what it is today. That is, although there was showmanship involved in performing magic in the ancient world, magic wasn't used to entertain. It was used to persuade.
The aim here is to find out how, and in what measure magic really has any power; what was its role through the ages.
The world of magic seems to be so huge, that it is necessary to define clearly the area of our work, the kind of magic we discuss. The word magic itself is linked to such a large amount of very different topics that it can't be a starting point alone. Thus, these aspects will not be dealt with in our argumentation: the magic generally exposed in fantasy books, or fairy tales, with specifics as wizards, fairies, trolls, witches, daemons&ldots; That is to say magic born in some authors' imagination, which has no roots in any reality. Moreover, magic such as voodoos, white and black magic, based on human beliefs won't be treated either. All this because the following will be an analysis of what can be called "realistic magic", which is based on logical performance, manipulation, and sleights of hands: the deceiving magic!
Before going on, everyone must keep in mind that magicians are secrets keepers, and the purpose here is not to spoil the pleasure of magical mystery, thus, no trick will be revealed.
To put things straight, let's say that there are two types of realistic magic: the on-stage, and the close-up illusions. The first one covers all the big shows, with the magician generally standing far from the audience, that's to say from two to ten meters, or even more (the Las Vegas Siegfried and Row's shows, for example). These tricks are specific due to their dimensions, the diversity of ideas and deception techniques involved, the effects (fireworks, music, animals&ldots;), the acting talent of the magician and so forth and so on&ldots; On the opposite, close-up tricks mostly impress by the high technical quality. They consist in manipulating cards, coins, rubber bands, ropes, and generally small objects&ldots; The ability of the illusionist to adapt to the psychology of the audience is primordial since there is always a contact between the two of them.
In order to perform the analysis of the impact of magic on people, it could be interesting to have a glance on the major tricks and the magicians, who seem unforgettable, and who built the history of magic. After that, it might be possible to point out the power of magic on the ordinary world: is it dreams, is it fear, is it political power, is it religious?