Why we use magic: 10 reasons

In the early days of Abracademy, we worked a lot with schools, particularly with young children at primary. The fact that we used magic in our workshops as a tool for growth and development didn’t phase the kids at all, older or younger kids. Quite the opposite – they embraced the magic. It made them laugh, it surprised them, it gave them a superpower that no-one else had, it let them into a secret. Workshops were filled with young people sharing their new-found skills with one another.

Adults are much harder to please! Once we were working with organisations, we considered making the magic element of our workshops less centre stage. But, because we know what magic brings to learning and development, we didn’t do that. We went the other way and now we highlight the elephant in the room!

Yes we use magic, actual magic, and here are ten reasons why we do:

It makes people smile

What better way to bring people together and thaw the atmosphere than laughter. Barriers instantly break down, defences drop and PowerPoints are nowhere to be found.

It surprises people

Right in front of your eyes the queen of hearts becomes a different card, a pen disappears, a destroyed note becomes whole again and a magician can read your mind. What? How? Wait… that can’t be! When you’re surprised, you start asking questions – how did that happen, where did it go, how did they do that? Curiosity is ignited.

It democratises groups

We’ve never had a session where someone was already an expert at magic tricks! So participants all start in the same place, the beginning. No-one is better than anyone else. In fact, people start to discover that they’re good at sleight of hand while someone else is good at storytelling. Everyone is good at something.

It's a global language

Magic is for the senses and it transcends cultural boundaries. Everyone can understand it and everyone can make it their own.

It confuses minds (and eyes)

In using magic, we take full advantage of the glitches and gaps of the brain and its processing powers. We know how your brain takes in information and we know how to trick it, distract it, divert it. Magic is much more than party tricks!

It really brings learning to life!

Who gets excited at the prospect of sitting in a 3 hour workshop, looking at endless slides and being talked at… However, start a session with a crowd-pleasing trick that introduces the theme of the workshop, get people involved, get people playing, get people curious and looking at things differently… and learning becomes a pleasure again.

It reveals a lot about the brain

There are more magician-scientists than you’d imagine! They explore how magic works on the brain to understand concepts like forced choice and choice blindness. This reveals ways in which humans process the world that are relevant in a much wider context, at work and life in general.

It's playful

We’ve already touched on this – magic makes people smile and when we get participants involved in figuring a trick out or learning it, the workshops become very playful. People are learning without even realising it! Sneaky.

It boosts confidence

Did you know you could make things disappear?! Before doing one of our workshops, most people don’t realise they can. But they can. And conquering even the simplest of magic tricks feels good! Workshop participants get so much pleasure from seeing the effect magic has on their peers, they can’t wait to show someone their new skill.?

It helps people shift their perspective

Of course the pen didn’t disappear into thin air. Of course the magician didn’t actually read your mind. But how do these things happen?? When we teach participants how to do a trick, they see things differently afterwards. It’s like they’ve stepped through a door into another world, a world where things are familiar, but not quite the same.

The elephant isn’t really an elephant. It’s a changing card, a disappearing pen, a melting coin and a brain opened up to new ways of thinking and seeing… And that is magic!