What is magic? Magic is as real as gravity. It’s simply an unseen energy—a force that can be the cause of change. That’s all gravity is. It’s an unseen energy—a force that can cause change. (short pause) Think about it. Magic is as real as momentum. Momentum is just the energy of something in motion. We can’t see momentum—just the effects of it. (pause) I would say that magic is just another natural law, but I don’t even like to look at it as a law. More appropriately, it’s just an unseen manner in which cause and effect are worked out in the Universe. (pause) Think about this. In all the Universe, what creates any change—in any way? It’s a cause, right? We say causes have effects and effects must have a cause. I suppose you could call this a universal “law”. But it doesn’t really matter. It’s just cause and effect. (pause) You are already familiar with many causes and effects. You knock over a glass of water, the water spills. You hit the brakes, your car stops. You strike a match, it bursts into a flame. These are simple and obvious. But there are less obvious examples. (pause) Let’s take each of these examples back to the previous cause. You are backing away from a person you don’t want to be near, and you accidentally knock over the glass of water. You know this was the cause of the event. You may even secretly blame the other person. (pause) A car stops suddenly in front of you, so you slam on your brakes. Again, you see the initial cause, and again you might blame the other person. (pause) You are lighting candles on a cake, and so you strike a match. Again, a cause to an effect, which was a cause to another effect. But it goes deeper than that. Let’s go even further back. (pause) The reason you don’t want to be near that person is because of something they did or said to you in the past. Previous cause. A dog wandered into the road in front of the car in front of you. This caused them to stop suddenly. Previous cause. Your child is having a birthday party—hence the cake and the candles. Again, previous cause. (pause) You can trace each cause and effect back further and further and further. In the case of the child’s birthday, there’s the fact that the child was born. The pregnancy. The marriage. That blind date your friend set up when you first met your spouse. Whatever. It goes on and on, as far back as you want to take it. (pause) The point is that everything is cause and effect. That’s how the whole Universe is. You may not understand the cause behind every effect, but you assume that there is one—because you understand the principle. (pause) Think about moving your hand to pick up a glass. The cause here was a thought—something like, ‘I’m reaching out to pick up that glass’. Here, a thought was the direct cause of a physical action. You don’t understand how that works, but it does. (pause) Now there is a cause as well. Perhaps you were thirsty. And maybe you are thirsty because you just went for a jog. It doesn’t matter what the previous causes were. You know that your thought was a cause that created a result. (pause) Your eyes are moving back and forth to read this book right now. You aren’t usually even thinking about this. And you don’t understand what in your brain gives you the ability to just think about moving your eyes somewhere and having them directly follow. But you know it works. (pause) It’s the same thing with magic. Those who practice magic believe in the principle of cause and effect, just like everyone else. Only they understand deeper causes to certain effects. They don’t just believe in deeper unseen causes, they create them—deliberately and directly. (pause) The true magician has learned how to create in their minds a direct cause to a desired effect. And then they don’t worry about it, because they know it works. Just like you don’t worry about whether or not your eyes will follow the words on the page. You know they will follow because you are making them follow. (pause) It’s not important that you understand how this works—just that it works.
