History of Magic with Magic Tricks!
Magic has been around for thousands of years and has been passed on and on through the generation to current day magicians. The majority of the principles of magic have been around for hundreds of years and haven’t changed.
Originally magic was used as a source of power as well as entertainment. Descriptions of early magical happening were always exaggerated from person to person. Looking back trying to work out what actually happened is almost impossible, because so many people have added their own stories to what really happened.
Nowadays, most people don’t believe in magic. They appreciate the skill involved and can’t work out how you are making the magic happen but they know that it is not real. Where is previous times, people did not understand how ordinary people could perform such miracles, they thought they must be witches or wizards. They had no idea that magic was just the ability to deceive people, they actually believed the magic being performed was real.
Medicine men, priests and witch doctors used to perform magic in order to demonstrate superhuman powers so normal people would always be in awe of them.
Many years ago Sleight of Hand was linked with science and herbalism to create a convincing blend of mysticism. Hypnotism and auto-suggestion were also a popular part of magic to be performed. The ritual of burning herbs would act as a sedative to the audience and make them more receptive to the magician’s tricks.
The earliest pictures of magic being performed were of magician, Beni Hassan, which were found in a tomb between Cairo and Luxor in Egypt. The pictures depict two people performing the famous cups and balls trick. Some experts, who study Egypt and the Egyptian ways, believe that it is just game and not a magic trick because magic was taken so seriously, that simple conjuring would not have been accepted in those days.
The earliest written account of a magician is the Westcar Papyrus, which is now held in the Berlin State Museum. It was written in about 1700BC. The document tells of three magicians. The first magician – Ubaoner – who disposed of an unfaithful servant by making a wax crocodile come alive and drag the servant to the bottom of the nearest pond. The second is Zazamonkh. The story is that some of the King’s wives were playing in a boat, when one of them dropped a pendant into the water. The King called upon a magician who folded the lake in half, drained the water and retrieved the pendant.
These two stories are good examples of the Chinese Whisper style of story telling which has been around for thousands of years, where the story becomes too unbelievable as people have added their own parts to it that they now can only be treated as myths. At the times, there was sure to be something magical happen, but not to this extent.
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