FEATURES in spiritual and metaphysical and mystical ideas.
Paula: And it is such a fun read. I personally, really enjoyed the book but, I did not know that it was based on you. There is a big part of you in that book. How is that?
Jacob: Actually, it was great, just great. I never had a better time writing and I am looking now to write another something like that but, I am also interested in keeping the book on the plane of the spiritual and philosophical ideas.
Paula: That must have been wonderful to go through that with those magicians. Is there a particular story from that time in your life that you would like to share with us?
Jacob: Well, it’s the stories in the book of course but, there were the kids who were practicing magic. We all had an annual show. The club was called the Sorcerers Apprentice Club. It was in Philadelphia and it was a professional magic show [venue]. We gave an annual show and we were all very nervous up on the stage with people [watching us]. The woman teacher [in the book] represented, to me, someone who wished to be well thought of. who wished to be famous and who wished to be special. The other subject in my life was this teacher, this hardnosed teacher, who was gruff, but, who was very deep and wise. In a way, I had to choose between the two of them. In the final magic show we had, all of the family was there and they all bought tickets. This was the big one. It was in the theatre in Philadelphia. The young adult who was the leader of us came on and did his great magic act. One of the tricks was to produce a bowl of fire, which was a well-known trick on stage. He was a very accomplished magician, but, this particular time he made a mistake and the cloth that covered the bowl as he whisked it away caught on fire and all of the curtains started burning and everyone was trying to put out the fire.
Paula: Do you think that the study of magic is useful beyond the fun of it? What can it teach a person par- ticularly a young person about human nature? What are your thoughts on that?
Jacob: Well it is a lot of fun but something behind it is much deeper than just fun. As a teenager, I wanted to be special, I wanted to show off, I wanted to meet girls, but, underneath it these tricks something - this special apparatus- this sleight of hand that I liked very much. But, somewhere inside when I was trying to perform magic there was a feeling inside that I could not name as though I wanted these magic tricks to be really magic to be really inexplicable to touch on something that is an aspect of wonder, the miraculous. And it would actually be magic when I put the pencil through a piece of glass and the glass did not break it came out whole. I would always be imagining that it was actually hap- pening, the magic, the magic was actually happening. So, it echoed to an aspect of myself and I think that many of us, this wish is magical, this wish is something
Oracle 20/20 June 2016
much greater than us that we cannot understand in an ordinary way, but which we are beaconed and called to in a special way – this deep yearning for the miraculous. The thing on the other side of it is how easy it is to fool people with a few smooth moves if you were dexterous and something of an entertainer. This is what people want. They want to be entertained. They don’t want to figure out things so much. They want to be in touch with the miraculous – to get a taste of the wonder, and that taught me a lot too. Later after being a teacher of philosophy, particularly mystical thought – the great spiritual teachings of the world, almost everybody has a side that wishes to touch something higher than them- selves, something mysterious in order to live a more fulfilling life. This touches a theme about how to pro- gram happiness. I don’t think we tend to be fully happy unless we’re in touch with something greater than our ordinary selves. We need to be able to serve, to love – that opening to another person to listen to that other person, more than just doing magic tricks – that is the beginning of love. That we are never going to be happy until we give and we serve, that echoed something of the magician in me.
Paula: Oh, I love that Jacob. So much can be gained by service and by the giving to others. I also love that you mentioned listening. While I believe it’s so important to give and to serve and care, it’s also important to listen to others, and pick up on where they’re at as well.
Jacob: You’re absolutely right – listening is a discovery I made long ago as a teacher. Listening is the first step to love. We may not love our neighbor, that’s a great Christian ideal that most of us can’t conform to very well. We can hardly love our friends sometimes, but lis- tening is something we can all try to do. That’s the first plank in the bridge that leads to love.
Paula: In the book, Elliott is torn between the influence of two powerful magicians. The story of his struggle underlies the struggle of his coming of age - personal growth. What is this story meant to convey more uni- versally?
Jacob: It’s meant to convey that we all have two funda- mental sides to us – one, to get along in the world and do well, make a success, have a family, children that are healthy and normal and get by and get along and cre- ate which is one fundamental side of ourselves. There’s another side of us that is yearning for contact with what is bigger, that is mysterious and that is a deep part of our nature. It’s unique with humans. Psychologists and anthropologists define people in terms of desire for survival, pleasure, winning, achievement, but that is to underestimate human beings. That assumption is fatal. If that’s frustrated, we can never be truly happy – don’t you think? That’s the message of the book. It’s about his coming of age, which was at the end of the book and the power is taken away from him and he’s told to now grow up and be a man. And that is what I think is to serve and to go in search for the truth.
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