I believe that the arts can stimulate the evolution of human beings in very mysterious and peculiar ways. When art is imbued with intentions and purpose, that’s when it becomes a change agent—psychologically, culturally, and socially.

Among the arts, music has long been considered to be a very magical one. The Latin, as well as the Italian, word for “singing” is “cantare,” which carries the additional meaning of “incantare.” meaning “to cast a magic spell.” So music is a very powerful form of enchantment in its own right.

In this regard, I’m reminded of how Timothy Leary described the Beatles, one of the most important music phenomena of the last century, declaring them “prototypes of evolutionary agents sent by God, endowed with a mysterious power to create a new human species, a young race of laughing freemen.” I believe that the implications of such an idea are pretty far-reaching even today. So I believe it is crucial for artists and musicians to be aware of and responsible for the kind of signals they are capable of broadcasting.

A work of art or a piece of music is a tool to induce an aesthetic experience in an audience, and the effects of such aesthetic experiences can range from the amusing and entertaining to the downright transformative.

To provide you with an analogy, if the telescope is a tool to see distant stars and galaxies, and the microscope is a tool to see in the world of atoms, the arts provide the lenses to see beyond the mundane and the ordinary, to appreciate the complexity and richness of reality and being. Arts take us out of ourselves, to experience beauty. Ultimately, art and music are portals to divine moments of truth.

I’m a magician, and much of my creative life is focused on the creation and performance of magic. I try to use the art of magic as a portal to explore the mysteries of consciousness, the nature of perception, the spells of language, and the cosmic power of astonishment. In other words, I try to use illusions to provoke reflection on how we see and interpret the world, celebrating with my audience the limits of our everyday understanding of reality, in an entertaining and amusing way.

My field of interest forced me to come to terms with the idea of reality. I haven’t reached any definite conclusions, yet! I guess that by now, I would say this, inspired by Robert Anton Wilson, that “reality is what you can get away with.” So ultimately I’d say that my “magic explorations” of reality lead me to appreciate that there is much more than meets the eye.