Friday, January 13, 2012

The Real Secret of Magic is that the World is Made of Words

Our friend (who also translated our book Magic Archetypes into Italian) Ferdinando Buscema notes that believing in magic may sound like an outdated superstition, yet it "means believing in the supreme power of the imagination to shape reality. As neuroscience has validated to a great extent, we are and we become what we think. And so, the magic meme is a kind of mind software to conceive and do things which are, as it were, magical." Buscema shares the third secret of magic: "Reality is made of words." He explains that "Magic is the art of the word that enchants and has concrete effects upon the world. The words that we speak shape our reality more deeply that we generally acknowledge. One postmodern philosopher [Terence McKenna] pushes the idea so far as to say that the real secret of magic is that the world is made of words. Those who know the right words can realize virtually everything they want." For concrete proofs, see Buscema's TEDx talk here.

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