Magic has a history as old as man himself does. In the olden days, man believed in magic and there were several practices that were believed to enhance the magic powers of a person. Several people also practiced a science of turning anything into gold called Alchemy. The science that tries to discover the philosopher's stone is the story line of one of the Harry Potter books that was later made into a movie. Some of the famous people who believed in the powers of magic were Sir Isaac Newton and Phillip Paracelus.



The history of magic can be traced to the ancient Egypt and Chinese civilizations. In Egypt, a magician entertained the slaves who built the pyramids. Most of the magic tricks were things appearing, disappearing, and making stone gods talk. Many unexplained phenomena of nature were attributed to magic. Performers in the olden days tried to convince their audience that they had magical powers. Magic lost its glory with the advent of Christianity and magicians or persons claiming to have unnatural powers were branded as witches and hunted down. Magicians, wizards and witches were considered evil and outlawed.

Magic died a natural death for a while and re-emerged in a new form in the 16th century. This time, the performers and artists were careful in their re-branding and they called themselves entertainers, performers and artists.With the new age, the magic tricks turned more sophisticated. They used coin and card tricks and rabbits appeared out of hats and disappeared into thin air. They were deemed to have no magic powers and their tricks had more to do with sleight of hand than supernatural powers. Some performers took to the street. Some of the street magic was juggling balls, hoops, chains and links, illusions and levitations.

Some of the famous magicians were Frenchman Chevalier Joseph Pinetti who was known to make an orange tree with blossoms appear on stage. Another great magician was German Alexander Herrmann, known as Hermann the Great used live animals and did both levitation and vanishing as a varied menu in his shows.Howard Thurston was a master card manipulator. One of his tricks the "Perfect Sleep Invention" was a miracle aid essentially consisting of a gold nose-clip guaranteed to banish snoring. He was a magician as well as a shrewd businessman. Thurston was legendary at being able to scale throwing cards into the far reaches.

Thus began the skill of magic as a business rather than just a hobby. His contemporary was Harry Houdini who was the famous escape artists of his time.Magicians like David Blain bought magic to the commercial world with DVDs, books and television shows. Some of his famous tricks include being chained to the bottom of an aquarium, remaining motionless for five minutes that is no mean feat by itself. After the five minutes elapses, he frees himself from the chains to escape 150 pounds of steel chains. His total time for this trick remains 7 minutes and 8 seconds.

Magic, in recent times have evolved into books, DVDs where anyone with an interest in the art can learn how to do magic tricks. Thus, many secrets are easily accessible and used by old and young alike.