6 Keys To Understanding Magic

And the power of your conscious mind

Key #1: The Essence of Magic Is Influencing Reality With Intent.

Reality has many levels and layers. One of them is physical, material reality, where we have our bodies and actions. The other is immaterial, mental reality, where we have our thoughts and intentions.

The same physical action, such as saying: “please pass me the salt,” can be imbued with different intentions. In one case, you might say it with the earnest goal of getting the salt and making the other person feel respected.

On the other hand, you might fill your voice with venom and increase the volume to almost yelling: “Please pass the salt!” perhaps with the intention to instill pain and fear.

In either case, your intention influences physical reality. Mental phenomena have causative power — and that power can be tremendous, if you take conscious control of the process.

In hermetic philosophy, it is thought that the reason intention is powerful is that the universe exists within the mind of God, and we are fragments of that divine mind, with the same creative power, just on a smaller scale.

How do we become aware of our intentions, and able to influence them? That brings us to the second key to understanding magic:

Key #2: Calm Detached Awareness Is The Foundational Skill In Magic

We see on the physical plane with our eyes, but on the mental plane, we see with a third eye, the mental eye, the focus of our consciousness.

When our minds are clouded by a thousand different thoughts and intentions, all competing for conscious attention, our mind’s eye has a hard time seeing truth through the noise.

When our minds are quiet, there is nothing to distract us from the truth, the actual experience in front of us at the time. Awareness naturally arises in moments of calm engagement with the present.

When we are calm, we are in control. Slow, deliberate consciousness has spread throughout the body. It is in this state that the mental world becomes clearly visible to us — and what you see, you can…