Magick Without Tears

25 Fascinations, Invisibility, Levitation, Transmutations, Kinks in Time Cara Soror, Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law. Dear me! dear me! The world's indeed gone topsy-tUIVY if you have to ask me for the secrets of Fascination! Altogether tohu-bohu and the Temurah Thash raq! So much for a display of Old-World Courtly Manners; actually rubbish, for you might very well be fascinating without knowing how you worked the trick. In fact, I think that is the case ninety-nine times in a hundred. Besides, I read your letter carelessly; I overlooked the phrase in which you mention that you use the word as Levi did; i.e., to cover all those types of "miracle" which depend on distracting the attention of, or otherwise composing, the miraclee-I invent a rather useful word, yes? So let us see what sort of miracles those are. To start with, I doubt if we can. Many of such thaumaturgic phenomena contain elements of illusion in greater or less degree; if the miraclee's mind is 100 percent responsible, I think the business becomes a mere conjuring trick . My dictionary defines the verb: "to charm, to enchant; to act on by some irresistible influence; to captivate; to excite and allure irresistibly or powerfully. " For the noun it gets even deeper into technical Magic: "the act or power of fascinating or spellbinding, often to one's harm; a mysterious, irresistible, alluring influence." 184