The Collins Dictionary defines magic as "The feigned art of influencing the course of nature or future events by occult means."

Hanging in the dining room of our home is a print of a painting by Hieronymus Bosch, who lived from 1462 to 1516. It is called "The Conjuror" and shows a group of people watching a conjuror do the ball and cup trick. Humans have always been intrigued by what appears to be magic. We are an inquisitive species who want to find a reason for everything. When our ancient forebears were not able to find a satisfying answer, they invented mythological stories to fill the gaps in their knowledge and magic to placate and manipulate supposed superior forces which they believed to be gods or the spirits of their dead ancestors. Perhaps this is how religious practices first began.

Primitive people did not possess the advantage of modern technology, but they were not stupid. Over time, and the intelligent use of trial and error, they discovered what was likely to bring the best return for their labour. So primitive people came to trust their own science in the manufacture of tools and equipment. But rough weather, currents and reefs are always liable to upset human plans. That is when they are likely to feel the need of something beyond their skill to bring luck; something to help them wrestle with the mysterious forces beyond their control or understanding and perhaps appease those mysterious forces.

Bronislaw Malinowski (1884-1942) was an anthropologist who made an extensive study of magic among the native peoples of the Trobriand Islands and the Aborigines of Australia. He observed the islanders using great skill and care in the manufacture of their sailing craft and fishing equipment. He noted that fishing and trading magic were both very well developed.

Malinowski argued that the people must have possessed knowledge of a scientific character. The very achievement of the mastery of their environment demonstrated that primitive people were capable of exact observation and logical deductive reasoning. But however much scientific knowledge is acquired, it cannot fully eliminate the chance of droughts, floods or accidents occurring. It is in this neutral territory, beyond scientific knowledge, toward uncertainty and danger, that ritualised magic is sought to bring good luck and build confidence.

Malinowski tells us that magic is not associated with the manufacture of sailing craft, but only with the danger associated with their use. Nor is it associated with domestic activities such as the making of fire, weaving of baskets, digging of fields or collecting of shell fish within the reef. But as soon as there is a likelihood of risk associated with the activity, such as in deep sea fishing, magic comes into prominence.

In their creative endeavours, native people relied firstly on their scientific knowledge and experience and secondly on magic. Magic is never used as an alternative to science or a substitute for hard work. As Malinowski says.

"Magic is something which, over and above man's equipment and his force, helps him to master accident and to ensnare luck.... Magic is to be expected and generally to be found whenever man comes to an unbridgeable gap, a hiatus in his knowledge or in his powers of practical control, and yet has to continue in his pursuit."

When there are no further practical measures available to advance their cause, human beings will almost always appeal for some magic. It is a plea for help. With no tangible help at hand, they hope that perhaps some intangible force 'out there' can change their luck. So primitive people call in the witch doctor or shaman and Christians pray for a blessing on their endeavours or the boat they have skilfully built. If life is in danger, even those with a minimum of belief in a god may find themselves praying. In this way, magic fills an unbridgeable gap in the emotional need of modern people. It helps to fill that gap of despair with hope and renewed courage.

Even among Europeans, until recent times, there were charms for all manner of things; to increase the fertility of the land, to prevent blight, to prevent weeds growing, to keep rats away and even to protect against witchcraft. Charms were and are worn for good luck and safety by soldiers, sailors and chil-'dren and even placed on horses and pets. There 'seems to be no end to the devices and superstitious ^cts performed in the hope of protecting persons and their property from harm. For primitive people, science and magic would seem to be complementary to each other, magic taking over where science left off.

At the beginning of the seventeenth century things began to change, for Europeans especially. People of science increasingly began to understand and explain that the universe was subject to immutable laws which could not be manipulated by any amount of magic. Magnetism, once thought to be an occult influence, can now be controlled and explained as the movement of particles. Plagues were not judgments of an angry god spirit but rather the result of poor hygiene. Thunder is the result of electrical storms, and so on. Increasingly scientific explanations have taken the mystery out of what was unknown and filled up the gaps in our knowledge.

Education of the ordinary person made it possible for the populace to understand the advances of knowledge. Improvements in transport and communication through newspapers and books made information and help more easily attainable. Fears of loss of property and the uncertainties of trade were reduced by the introduction of banking facilities and insurances of many kinds. Improvements in agricultural technology and soil fertilisers brought increased food production. Fire-fighting machinery, together with specially trained personnel, helped to reduce the need for protection from supposed supernatural sources. Together with many other improvements, science took the major elements of chance and risk out of the lives of many.

Magic may have declined in the educated world but by no means is it dead. We could list dozens of present-day superstitious beliefs and practices, such as a fear of starting a journey on a Friday the thirteenth. Modern people are still interested in magic although somewhat uncertain of it; perhaps a tongue in the cheek attitude. We saw demonstrations of belief in magic on a national scale after and during the world wars, when national days of prayer were called for. Both sides were appealing to the same god for victory over the other. Does not that parallel, in every respect, the appeal of the primitive person to magic? Perhaps we should ask to what extent religion itself arose as a result of the unbridgeable emotional gap humans face in times of extreme stress?

The Bible is full of dozens of stories, or myths, of magic. A few of them are as follows. The Red Sea was rolled back to allow the Children of Israel to pass over "and the Children of Israel went in the midst of the sea upon the dry ground and the waters were a wall unto them on the right hand and on the left" (Ex.l4:22). Moses witnessed that the bush "burned with fire and behold the bush was not consumed" (Ex.3:2). Joshua commanded the sun to stand still "and the sun stood still in the midst of the heaven and hastened not to go down for about a whole day" (Josh. 10:13). Shadrach and his two friends were cast into a burning fiery furnace, on the command of King Nebuchadnessar. The furnace was so fierce that those who cast them in were killed by the heat, yet even the hair on the heads of Shadrach and his friends was not singed (Dan. 3:19-27).

Likewise the New Testament is full of myths or magic. Perhaps the most supernatural are the several stories of people being raised from the dead. Lazarus, dead four days, was commanded by Jesus to "come forth, and he that was dead, came forth bound hand and foot" (John 11:43-44). Water was turned to wine at a wedding feast (John 2:9). A servant of the high priest had his right ear cut off by Simon Peter, Jesus "touched his ear and healed him" (Luke 22:51). Jesus walks on the sea of Galilee (Matt. 14:29). The New Testament calls these supernatural happenings divine miracles. Others might call them imagined stories to enforce belief.

Modern Christians proclaim that their god is all powerful and can heal the sick but many of them finally end up in hospital for an operation. Some Christians refuse to receive transfusions on religious grounds and die because of that. Is their god heartless or is technical skill more powerful and merciful than their god? It is sometimes surprising how tenaciously normally intelligent people will hold onto a mystical belief in the face of reason. They can sometimes display an intensity of antagonism towards questions about their faith which they would not do in other circumstances. I suppose in that too, they resemble the followers of magic.

There seems today, to be a fashion to return to "spiritual" things: seances, tarot card readings, astrology, numerology, and many other ologies. The reasons are seldom the result of lack of scientific knowledge. On the whole, I do not see people using magic instead of technology any more than early people did. The various practices appear more as a diversion or a hobby or a fun thing, and are heeded with varying degrees of seriousness and even used as a means of livelihood by those who would profit thereby. Just as people spend money on lotteries, they will try magic or anything else, in the hope of getting something extra. Magic is used, as it always has been, as an addition to existing scientific knowledge, or as a last hope in emergency situations. Perhaps this is a characteristic of human beings which is rarely eliminated.

Does magic really help? Perhaps it does. Early people gained courage and confidence, thereby increasing their determination to continue physical effort. Perhaps prayer is just another form of magic, one of the ways of releasing helpful endorphins within the body which can give strength and purpose to the objective. Endorphins are a recent discovery. These biochemicals can flood the body and are responsible, for instance, for the "high" a runner gets during a race. D. and J. Beck, in their interesting book "The Pleasure Connection", have the following to say,

"Endorphins create euphoria and pain relief by acting as biochemical messengers, enhancing or diminishing our cells capability to communicate with one another, storing and sending information within our brains and throughout our bodies."

But these endorphins are internal and natural processes stimulated by a mental attitude and related exclusively to the individual person. The process does not involve an external god or a spirit.

Another way of achieving a similar result is by the use of hypnotism. I have a friend who is a professional hypnotist. He speaks of very many occasions when he has been thrilled to witness physical and emotional healing as a result of his work. Thinking and attitudes of all kinds, whether of religious origin or not, have a great bearing on our determination and tenacity in life. Could both magic and prayer be called self hypnosis by less direct means? They both have the quality of belief and expectation.

Where does a god come into all this? Perhaps not at all, except that genuine faith in mythical spirits, a god or oneself, can equally set in motion positive, helpful and natural forces within the believer's own body. The forces are internal, the result of belief and are not the work of a spirit force 'out there'. Under hypnosis, the subject believes the suggestions of the operator. That 'believed suggestion' is turned by the subject into action. The same process occurs under the influence of either religion or magic. The vehicle used is incidental to the process of genuine belief. Faith stimulates hope and expectation, thereby helping to bridge the unbridgeable gap or hiatus Mali now ski talked about.