Taylor Hicks performing "Wherever I Lay My Hat" video (itily224)
There are so many forms magic can take, be thought of and looked at be it within fictional content, real-world connotations, as well as the type of magic your children might read about in fairy tales. Magic is often used, too, as an euphemism to describe qualities that certain artists deliver to their fans.
Magic can be evidenced in a type of spark that certain really gifted salesmen possess, you know the type, they can sell anyone anything. Smooth and slick and ever convincing. I know there are folks out there that possess a very real knack, a type of Magic in their ability to communicate and transform thoughts into prose, to send messages through media in such a manner as to make projected mental visions into reality. It's a gift.
I took up a story once investigating a man in my area that works at one of those hypnosis centers. I visited a few centers to check out technique to formulate comparisons, to educate myself on how such places operate and what a potential customer would encounter. I met with several professed hypnotists and walked out unimpressed. My last encounter changed my perceptions on this art form and the possibility that some folks actually can work that form of magic.
I filled out paperwork, then was ushered into the guy's office. The office was lined with book shelves about hypnosis, about herbal cures and remedies, some books bordering on occult practices. The 'doctor' came in and introduced himself to me, and we sat with me across the dark wood desk from him, like you'd experience in any situation meeting with a medical doctor.
He was dressed much like myself, black head to toe. I wear black almost constantly, it's one of my idiosyncrasies. I could tell, as he began his spiel, he was checking me out, rather like a salesman might. Dr. 'Hypnosis' was gaging my reactions to his most likely perfunctory speech routinely provided prospects. I respectfully nodded at the appropriate times, but as he was wrapping up the speech, I think he noticed I was not really captured into the moment. Dr.'Hypnosis' paused, placed his hands on his desk, leaned forward ever so slightly and made eye contact with me. That's when I felt something different than I had experienced at any of the other hypnosis places I had previously visited. I felt it. The strangest sensation.
I have this 'thing' I do when I meet someone, I like to make eye contact. You can tell a great deal about an individual with just that, the moment you watch their pupils, check out their irises and the movement within that happens when they look into your eyes. It's revealing. Looking into Dr. H's dark eyes, I had the sensation of velvet, a spherical image, a mental image of a cool, hard, shiny surface, colored in blacks, blues and purples. An incredible sensation bordering on euphoria hit me, touched with excitement, with an entire wellness vibe like I had just been out for a long run on a cool and crisp day.
It happened only over a matter of seconds, and then we broke eye contact; the sensation persisted. The feeling remained strong with me for about three days - even now when I think of that moment I remember the sensation. I came away from this experience with a different conception and view of hypnotists in general, an innate feeling that there is magic in that format, it can be real and palpable.
Musicians are in a way like salespeople, and I've read comparisons to fans saying they felt "hypnotized" by an artist. Musicians have to work at selling themselves, their craft and their chosen form of communication to be heard, to achieve success. Taylor Hicks was a brilliant contestant on American Idol due to his ability to tap that gift, give up himself through his music and enter the audiences' minds, bestowing that glowing general feeling of contentment, excitement, goodwill. I have read countless reports from Taylor Hicks concert attendees that say the same things, effuse how wonderful they feel after seeing Taylor live. Taylor Hicks even admits his style of communication musically is not on pressed plastic, he loves to perform live.
Working the Voodoo: GODSMACK "Voodoo" (video by Moss8484)
An entertaining form of magic:
Mirror Magic: (video by kuhris)
