As magicians, do any of you genuinely think there is something real out there with regards to magic? Do you believe that somewhere in the world, in a place off the map, that real magic honestly exists, that someone somewhere can levitate just by wanting to? Or that someone can actually produce something out of thin air? As magicians, I know the big thing is "real magic doesn't exist," but I've come across a few believers in my day. In all honesty, I do think that there's something real out there, they just are keeping it secret from us

Do post your opinions, note, this is not intended to be some argument or flamewar over how we should treat our magic or any crap like that ... simply, do you think there's something real out there that will never be used for "commercial" purposes?

The more I learn about magic and life the harder it is for me to believe in the supernatural. Have you ever noticed that the people who claim to do real magic demonstrate their skills with effects that have been around for a long long time? Ie. spoon bending, levitating with the aid of a walking stick. The effects that are truly ground breaking, that make people scream "How the (bleep) did you do that!" are produced and performed by people who freely admit they are no more than entertainers.

I'm not talking about entertainers having real magical powers...I'm talking about real magic outside of the "magician" world...if that makes any sense?

I believe I do? I was compairing mediums, sufis, faith healers and the like to people who do magic as entertainment. Well whatever you meant my answers the same...I don't even believe in bigfoot

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dbgCtnFCZg
real magic

Yes
Magic is real
dont you know Jim Callahan
that man is "legit"
He talks to the dead and made a contract with Raymon Hill,a dead man yet to be born again

He has legit physic Powers too
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxQjSHh1PyY

And To all the dead people reading this.
You can get a job from Jim Callahan
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFfDzvvqF-I

and also this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5aWkhJnE7g

I love the idea of something real, I'm a massive fan of fantasy books but I just don't see it sorry. That doesn't bother me to much though.

“Isn't it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too?” Douglass Adams.

I don't think there are any witches or wizards out there.

many ancient cultures, even those existing today, have shamans that do have real power. Their power exists in the mind of their followers and is pure psychosomatic. i.e. Voodoo or Santiara (total misspelling) the shaman can cast a spell on a person and that person will die from the effects. Only because the person believes in the power of the shaman. That same spell would have no effect on you or me.

That's largely a question of definition.

If you define magic as something not explainable by scientific analysis, real magic happens all the time over human history.

That's because scientific theory evolves. If you can't find an explanation in existing science, that means your science sucks and you need a new theory. For anyone unfamiliar with that new theory, everything explained by it is real magic.

For example, with present technology it is possible to give people a light shock just with your fingertips. Electric Touch by Yigal Mesika, sold right on this site. I am looking forward to buying it sometime next year. If you traveled back in time a couple of hundred years with that trick and a large supply of batteries, you would be a real magician (and probably burned at the next stake, rather than becoming rich and famous).

Heck ya there is real magic. Kids are born everyday. Now there is were the real magic lies.

And by the way David Blane has real magic!!!!! LOL

Except for the fact that he himself says that everything he does is just for entertainment...

I like the way David Oliver put it when asked if he thinks there is real magic... "No, it's all crap."

This

Here's a quote from one of my lectures in a science class I'm currently taking. I think the subject of "real magic" can fall under this too. I think this is a nice addition to your statement.

"Science is a method for learning about the physical universe. It can provide very useful and abundant information, but this is its limit. Because it deals only with the physical, science is completely separate from religion, which deals with God and the supernatural. Science can't and doesn't speak to anything relating to God because it's not in its realm. Scientists are like all other people, some are devoutly religious, some are atheists and some are somewhere in between. Their religious convictions don't have to do with science but with other values in their lives. Science doesn't produce information about values, and this is often misunderstood by people who feel that science is amoral. Experimentation can tell us (and does) how to build a bomb, but whether we build it or use it (or even conduct bomb research) is outside of the scope and limits of science and belongs in the realm of ethics, religion and mortality. After scientific activities give people blueprints and information, the science part is over and what is done with the information comes into the other realms of personal accountability and morality. People may behave morally or immorally but science just provides information. In addition, science can tell us the structure of a flower, but can't tell us whether it is beautiful or wonderful. There are many ways of knowing about our selves, the universe and our place in it. Science is just one of these but it is very useful and powerful within its limitations. "

-Dr Steve Goetz.

I bolded some of my favorite lines. I hope this paragraph adds to this thread.