Bahhh! Don't worry about that. I'm more agnostic but I am definitely Darwinian. As such I fall in to the James Randi, Penn & Tellar camp on magic ethics. You raise a very interesting ethical point. It's true we can use presentation to "ease suffering" or help people marvel at the miracle of life but just how far can we ethically go with that?

I was browsing another magic website and they had this whole section on "Gospel Magic." It kind of gave me the willies to be honest. Not that using magic in a church is a bad thing. If a sermon is about mending relationships in your life and the preacher uses Torn to help illustrate his point, that's okay. However, if he crosses that line and says that God gave him the power to heal the card then he has just crossed that line into Fakir-ism. God didn't give him that power...Daniel Garcia and a thirty dollar check gave him that power.

So my point is that it is fine to use magic to lift spirits and give people a sense of wonderment when they are feeling blue or recovering from an illness but you need to be extra careful not to give out false hopes. In the end of the day the Art of Magic is an entertainment art. We are not the real healers. We can certainly help the Doctors and Psychologists with benefit shows or charity performances but if we enter that realm we must adopt some of their ethics as well. The first of which being, "Do no harm."

You don't have to be a doctor or pyschologist to be a healer.

Sure we can do a little emotional healing...you missed the bigger point. If you follow that rout adopt the same code of ethics as the doctors. Do no harm.

The mind, body and spirit are one and the same. Given that is the case, the art of magic can have a positive effect on the mind and spirit and thus help the body to stay healthy and help it to heal. However, doctors, psychologists and science have a place in the healing process as well.