Do you believe in magic?

I grew up watching televised specials of Doug Henning’s magic tricks. Mom would make jiffy pop and we’d settle around the tv and see *magic*.

Then came the brooding, dark haired David Copperfield. I was distraught when he made the Statue of Liberty disappear, thinking I’d missed my big chance to visit the famous landmark. I gasped when he tackled the Boeing 747 – one second it was there, the next second *poof*. Gone.

Now here’s David Blaine and I just don’t get it. He’s been buried alive, encased in ice, then stood on a platform in Central Park. How is this magic?

Oh, but he does levitate.

Blaine’s last stunt, hanging out in a suspended glass box for 44 days in London, didn’t go over so well with those Brits. Now doctors are using his case to study the effects of malnutrition and starvation .

Professor Jeremy Powell-Tuck of the London Independent Hospital says, “Blaine said that the trick was in there being no trick. I was cynical but when I saw the phosphate drop, I was pretty convinced. I don’t think any illusionist can fake that.”

Is that stunt really considered *MAGIC*? I think magic, I think of a disappearing act, a miraculous escape, objects flying through the air unaided by string or other visible devices.

What is magic to you?