Missing a trick?
Chris Curtis has been using magic in youth work for years. But aren't 'the dark arts' bad for your spiritual health? Chris explores the arguments for and against using magic with young people, and discovers why illusionists are becoming cool again.
Magic tricks like that have fascinated me ever since, as a kid, I spent Saturday tea times watching Paul Daniels on the telly. I remember being stunned by a teapot that poured whatever drink you named, and seeing amazing tricks with cards and a box that I couldn't ever begin to figure out. But that was a long time ago when I was still a young teenager. Then, just a few years back, I went to party and watched someone borrow a £5 note off someone and float it around in the air. I was completely astonished, hadn't got a clue what was going on, and right there and then, caught the magic 'bug' all over again.
Actually I'm not the only one to catch the bug. Just when it seemed that magic had disappeared from our TV screens in a puff of velvet 1980s dinner suits, it's back with a new 'street' look and primetime ratings. There have been more TV shows about magic in the last two years than the whole of the previous two decades. Magicians are definitely cool again and that's not even counting the phenomenon that is Harry Potter.
So what does that mean for us as Christian youth workers? Is it another cultural trend to capitalise on or should we be advising teenagers to steer clear of something that seems to give ordinary people supernatural powers?
Magic gets cool
It was an American TV special in 1997, introducing us to the then little-known David Blaine, which really sparked the current revival. His version of 'street magic', although using some very old illusions, made a huge impact all around the world and leaving performers like Paul Daniels seeming a little outdated. The big difference was that instead of being watched at a distance on a stage in controlled conditions, Blaine was interacting with their audience on their turf. Their astonished reactions to the trick were as important as the illusion itself.
Over the next few years, we saw more of David Blaine, although it definitely got a little weirder, Dominic Wood won Young Magician of the Year and went on to host numerous children's TV shows and, in the UK, Paul Zenon, Monkey Magic and others mesmerised audiences with impossible antics. Derren Brown also made a huge impact on people with his unique style of mentalism, attracting some considerable publicity and controversy for his Russian Roulette challenge in 2003. Meanwhile, the membership of clubs and societies for teenage magicians has rocketed off the charts. Forget the stereotype of the 'geek' in the corner with a pack of cards, teenage interest in magic is higher than it's been in decades and it's as cool to be a magician as it is to be a musician.
So why has magic caught young people's imaginations? On the one hand there's the human love of mystery that has existed throughout the ages. It's the same part of our brains that is attracted to whodunits on TV, optical illusions and stories with a twist. The human brain is wired to be drawn to things that don't make sense and to try to work out what's going on. In a way, Jesus used the same technique in his story telling and parables: he leaves his listeners with questions or perhaps without explaining the meaning or the story at all. Humans like mystery and challenge: it's a good way to get our attention and help us discover and learn new things. No wonder magicians have been part of the history of different cultures as far back as Ancient Egypt and around the world from China, India and Japan to Europe and Russia.
Magic's popularity is also a sign of our changing postmodern culture. In the West, where science and reason have held all the cards for the past few hundred years, society hasn't been able to get rid of its longing for something more. It's a deep stirring for belief in something supernatural in a world where religion isn't seen as having anything to offer, and where other mystical experiences have taken its place. Postmodernity has brought that to the surface: mystery, spirituality and the supernatural are far more acceptable to today's teens. Magic's current popularity with young people rides on this current wave of fascination with anything from seances to dream analysis.
Magic and the Bible
That's a good place to ask the question of whether Christians should be doing magic at all. Doesn't the Old Testament prohibit it? In both Leviticus and Deuteronomy, for example, there is unequivocal condemnation of practising divination, witchcraft, sorcery and casting spells with the promise of eternal judgement for those who do. That could put a dampener on trying to do a card trick in the morning service!
The problem is that the word 'magic', like many others in the English language, has more than one meaning. On the one hand there is the practise of occult powers, on the other there's a sleight of hand or illusion. It would be hard to put Paul Daniels doing a card trick in the same category as a medium trying to contact the dead! In reality, doing magic tricks has more in common with theatre and showmanship than the devil. In fact it was Robert Hardin, one of the most famous magicians of all time, who said 'A magician is an actor playing the part of a magician.'
That works when a magician is making no serious claim to have supernatural powers of his own. They are entertaining you and there's no sense in which they are claiming any more than that. But what about the new breed of magicians who leave their powers open to a more ambiguous interpretation? David Blaine's strange antics give the impression he wants to pass himself off as a 21st century seer and there are plenty of others who play on the supernatural as the source of their power. Christians have different reactions to these magicians. For some it's too close to the words of the Old Testament to be acceptable; for others, it's just a cover story what what's obviously still just sleight of hand. Nobody is being fooled by their claims, it's a stage personality that adds spice and mystery to the magic.
Magicians have also had to find new tricks to impress their audiences in a modern age that has seen and done more than any other previous generation. Back in Victorian times, watching a magician saw someone in half was scandalous, like witnessing a murder, and caused great shock. These days a magician needs to do something more to achieve the same reaction, so we find Derren Brown pointing a loaded revolver at his head in a life-and-death reworking of Russian Roulette.
Derren Brown, at least, is quite straightforward about the fact that his illusions involve clever use of the psychological rather then any strange powers. He starts each programme by telling his audience that he uses a mixture of showmanship, magic, illusion and psychological technique. In 'Seance', his 2004 TV special, he told the story of the Fox sisters, founders of the spiritualist movement and self-confessed fakers, explaining his belief that most spiritualist encounters are no more than a con. The programme generated extraordinary criticism with some Christians finding his methods unacceptable, even if spiritualism was held up to a severe and damning critique. Whatever your view, it captured the nation's interest in the supernatural and got people questioning things they might have take for granted as true.
Mark Stafford, a London-based schools worker and accomplished magician, believes that magic tricks are closer to spiritual ideas that we might often realise, and that Christian youth workers should see magic as a way of introducing some profound Christian themes. 'When you look at most magic tricks, there are some common ideas underlying them which have great resonance with the gospel. I believe magic had great potential to open up some of these things to young people.'
As different as many tricks might seem to be therefore, the same ideas are being explored. Perhaps the most common is about something being lost and found. A card, a ring or even a person is vanished and then reappears. Other tricks are about being broken and restored (or healed). Sound familiar? These are the same ideas that are at the very heart of the gospel. If youth workers can find a way to connect the message of Jesus with David Blaine disappearing a ring and finding it in a bottle on the pavement, then maybe magic really does have something profound to say to young people. Is it too much to say that there is some link between the wonder of seeing some amazing trick that defies logic, and the sense of awe at discovering the heart of the gospel? It is asking us to take ourselves beyond the science and logic of our world, just as faith does. Magic has the ability to get to a different part of us than say drama, comedy or a talk. Perhaps it has more in common with the way music can reach into you to somewhere deeper. In his influential book The Death and Resurrection Show, Rogan Taylor explores the mystical power of magic and showbusiness, finding it to have religious overtones from the very beginning, often therefore seen as a threat by the church. In another age, it has been said, Harry Houdini could have been burned at the stake.
I hope we don't make the same mistake today. It would be easy to dismiss Blaine and the other magicians who dabble in spiritual overtones, adding them to the list of things and people Christian teenagers must steer clear of. Instead, I wonder if they may be a way to invite people into the gospel, rather than lead them away from it. I had one of my best conversations about spirituality on the way home from a Derren Brown performance... unintentionally his magic had opened up someone to talk about their deepest beliefs and feelings about God. Go figure!
Christians get in on the act
If you want to use magic in your youth work, there are certainly plenty of Christian magicians around who can come and perform. Many are members of the Fellowship of Christian Magicians, an international group whose website is a good starting point for finding someone to come and do something at a youth group event or church service. I decided to ask some of them what they thought magic could offer youth groups.
Ian Vallance, a popular Christian magician when he's not a maths teacher, believes that magic is great entertainment with the potential to get young people thinking deeper too. 'On one level, we shouldn't shy away from simply wanting to entertain through magic. It doesn't have to have a purpose beyond that: God wants us to have fun!' But, in some situations, magic can get young people thinking: 'I use magic tricks to illustrate Bible stories like the raising of Lazarus and I also use it to warn young people about the dangers of the occult.' Ian's Searching the Supernatural sessions show teenagers how easily they can be duped by people promising to predict the future or some other supernatural power. 'When young people see how easy it is to recreate some of these illusions, it makes them think twice about believing them. I can also explain about the real power of the occult and warn them against using things like ouija boards. They're more likely to remember it through a magical presentation than someone preaching about it from the pulpit.'
Steve Price has just left teaching to become a full time Christian magician. His interest in magic started early when he was 9 or 10, and it's been a life long passion since then. 'This is the gift I have, and I want to use it for God. Magic is a great visual aid to help people remember things.' Steve makes a point of reminding people that what they're seeing is a trick and that he doesn't possess any special powers.
