Words of wisdom well spoken Baba! I too have had the pleasure of bringing a sense of wonder and astonishment to those around me. Just the other night at work, a good friend of mine was having a troublesome night. I pulled her aside and asked her if I could show her something to get her mind off of her troubles (everybody get your minds out of the gutter ) I asked her to think of someone close to her. A passed loved one, a sibling, high school sweetheart, anyone that she wished. The person could even be an actor, cartoon character or what have you. I then instructed her to write the name she was thinking of on a small slip of paper and when she was done, to fold it up so that I could not possibly see it.

I casually took the folded slip of paper back from her and proceeded to tear it to tiny shreds right before her eyes. I handed her the torn pieces and asked to place them into the nearest ash try. I handed her my cigarette lighter and told her to burn the pieces so that only the ashes would remain. As the pieces began slowly buring away I had her think of the person in her mind. After the pieces were burned, I asked her to look deeply into my eyes and concentrate. I told her that I was sensing a female (right so far).... then I said this is someone very close to you (again hitting the nail on the head).... I then told her that the person she was thinking of was.... "Elizabeth". She freaked out! It was her sister. She told me that there was no earthly way for me to divine that answer and that I just made her day a little brighter. Those are the moments I live for. If I bring but only one smile to one face, my job is done and I have done it well.

Phil

NICE! Phil....you FINALLY got the CT down pat...hehehehehe...took you forever to make that rubberband jump from one finger to the other!!

Anyhow, I agree, I seemingly live for such moments...intoxicating to say the least... and verily, there is an undeniable air of selfishness in our art...who doesn't love to do stuff no one else can (apparently) do?? When the ego gets too hungry, however, then you have abuse and manipulation far too extreme...

I hate when magi get mad cause a fellow magi goes on TV and does his magic, and fails to disclaim it...sooooooooooooooooooooo what......thats the MAGIC! why try so hard to make it LOGIC...we know the two are married, but I wont separate them for some silly mortal....

again, I quote Mystician....muhahahHhahahahHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHaaa (cough cough, eck)

muhahahHhahahahHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHaaa (cough cough, eck)
----------------------------------------------
Someone rang ?

That kind of intoxication is symptomatic of all performing arts - we all like to get the spotlight for a bit. Even an act of altruism has an ulterior motive, it makes you feel good for helping someone.

Which of course, demons like me find paradoxical if not downright hypocritical, which is why I spread only hate, pain, and misery !! I'm pure !

Here's this again for the younger bizarrists to read...

In the Wizard of Oz there is The Horse Of Many Colors. It is a Horse, it changes colors. Look to one side and there is a Wizard who has few powers (except Wizdom) on the other side there is the camera editing and Makeup artists.

Look to either side and you miss the Horse. Any Explainations (disclaimers) stiffle the magic. A wry smile answers all that needs to be answered.

Concentrate on the donut...not the hole.

YEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!! wonderful wonderful...

OR

concentrate on the ear and not the toe

seriously, thanx for the insight...

Baba

Baba, thank you for reviving this thread. Here are spoken many words of real wisdom, albeit from various perspectives, but collectively pointing toward the
Truth.

Let us not look to the side of the Horse and miss it completely. That Horse is the Horse of Truth that leads to us to Wisdom if we but learn to control him. Unchecked, the Horse can bolt and gallop away, taking us to the Wilderness of Unreason. And the Horse, unseen, may well trample us. (How's that for beating a dead metaphor?)

Naljorpa! STOP! NO MORE POSTING!...

YOU HAVE....DRUMROLL PLEASE....666 POSTS...

HAHAHAHAHAAAAA...

don't ask, Mystican taught me long ago... he even tried to get the mods to "freeze" his posts to 666 muhahahaaa....

anyhow, yes this is one of the best topics ever reasoned upon, not because lil ol, me started it, but because of some of the GREATEST FREAKIN minds in bizarre came out of the shadows to give their wisdom...

now all we are missing is CURATOR and his smart *** remarks, and we're all set

read on my youths!

Baba

So we have committed equine sado-necro-bestiality? Hardly.

A story from my own tartaned past that points up how preconceptions can trip up not only an audience, but the performer as well...

I was hired to perform my mentalism act, many years ago, at the Chicago YMCA, on a late Sunday afternoon for a group of people that I did not know. I did the Book test, some equivoque, a prediction or two, Four-Sided Triangle (thanks to Max Maven's having just published it at the time, I might add - and my thanks to him for it!), some Aikido-based mind-over-matter work and finished off with my blindfold routine.

However, being young and somewhat inexperienced (as well as being, at the time a parapsychology student at a university in Chicago as well), I issued a disclaimer at the conclusion of the performance.

And almost got lynched for my mistake.

It seems that the people who had hired me had hired me thinking that I was the "real deal" and they were one of the local Spiritualist Churches and I had just done everything that their Church Leader did every Sunday!

I barely escaped with my skin intact. Thankfully, they had paid in cash, and before I had gone on stage.

Gentlebeings, there are times when it is simply better to leave the audience to its preconceptions. In fact, on that day, it would have been one heck of a lot safer to have done so!

Lee Darrow, C.H.

LOL, Lee, that's a classic!

Hah hah !! I'd forgotten about that !!

Here's to 666 different colors of horses !

To Baba and all,

Bruce Lee, what a stud . . . I believe he also said, "Becoming is a denial of BEING." How true.

In regards to your conflict, it will always come down to this, IMHO;
are you hurting people or helping, aiding and assisting them with what you do?

If one uses deception as I will call it, to say, convince another to leave their partner, sell their business, invest money into a cause we are behind, or for that matter make any decision they would not normally have made without a display of our "powers", "gifts" or "abilities", then we are doing wrong.

I am a firm believer in the occult and interaction with a Spirit world and the forces inherent within that realm. However I would not use trickery to convince another of these things, it is morally rotten to the core.

On the flip side, say a person is witness to a bit of strange under my control and that LEADS to a serious discussion or legit work in that area, I see no qualms about it. I did not actively pursue NOR solidify a belief or claim, and I would not mix the two in future work and interactions with said party.

The magician is a shaman, period. I constantly check my intentions and my work.
I don't hurt anyone and so do not care (nor need to) what EXACTLY they believe is going on.

EXAMPLE: A person comes to me for a blessing or spiritual healing. I do not care if they are a skeptic, it doesn't matter, I make no claims, the results speak for me and I am not intending to create a believer.

For better or worse, be yourself and as it has been said, "First, do no harm."
End of dillema.
Thokoza,
-J

Lee, "sado-necro-beastiality?" I've gotta remember that one. LOL!

Well said, TT2! We should always strive to help rather than hurt. We should not seek to convince by trickery, to change belief, but we can guide imaginations and thought processes to lead people to discover what lies within themselves, to allow them to see Whom they really are. We can illustrate concepts and show possibilities. We can let people discover the Truth within. Never should we impose our beliefs -- or even our knowledge -- on others. We guide; we do not coerce. We deal in Wonder.


Tat Tvam Asi,
"Thou Art That"