Mahdi Becomes The Magician
I was born without hands or feet.
There was no medical reason or explanation for this but I believe there was a purpose. A purpose that would take me many years to discover and unfold. Growing up I felt like everything was impossible for me. There were a lot of dreams I had for my life but whenever I expressed my hopes and dreams they would be rejected. I would receive explanations for why the things I wanted for my life were not for me.
The answer was always the same,
NO,
and that what I wanted could not be done.
Often I was told that I needed to be realistic but instead of following that I would withdraw into myself and dream. Dream of finding a way to make life better for myself and living my dreams. I had no idea how I was going to do it and in a very real sense I still don’t but I still believe. Maybe I’m crazy but I believe that somehow, someway, in the end,
I win.
Being so different made me an easy target to be bullied. I felt alone and I withdrew into myself. Overwhelmed with anxiety I developed a language disorder and I spoke less and less. I expressed myself less and less and cut myself off from the world. It’s a crazy feeling to feel so helpless and out of control of your life. I didn’t know what was going to happen to me and wondered if anything at all was possible for me in my life.
Then, when I was in school I heard some kids talking about David Blaine’s magic. He had just released a TV magic special and everyone was talking about it nonstop. I didn’t have a TV where I could see it so I would just listen to people describing the magic and I would close my eyes and imagine it. The visions that appeared to me when I closed my eyes became a dream and then transformed into a blueprint. If everything I wanted was impossible for me then I would become a magician because a magician can do anything. That’s who magicians are; people who can do the impossible. I was too young to understand how things work, I had the faith of a child, which I now know is all you ever need. You don’t need to know how things work with a big brain, you only need a big heart and to believe.
That is the secret.
This has been my success.
Wisdom I forget too easily as I wander through life foolishly replacing what I know in my heart for what I know in my head. An unintended consequence of experience of which I have become aware and guard myself from. For what good is all the thinking, planning, and scheming in the world if you don’t believe? What good are all the skills, talent, resources, opportunities, and connections if you have no faith and no will?
All of it is worth nothing. Less than nothing. You can have everything in the world and not be able to do anything with it. You can be given everything and not be able to do a single good thing for yourself or others. I have seen it with my own eyes and I know it to be true. The inverse is also true; you can have nothing and do everything if you believe.
Believe.
Believe as if your life counts on it.
Live on your faith.
Depend on it.
Rely on it.
I didn’t know how I was going to become a magician. I had no plan and no idea. I didn’t hope to become one or simply desire it, somehow, someway, I knew I would be one. Even before I knew the first secret or held a deck of cards I knew. I had faith. I had the will.
Where there is a will there is a way and my way was long. I didn’t have any money to buy magic or even a deck of cards and even if I did there was no path for me as every single book in magic is written for magicians with hands. There was no clear way for me so I had to find a way, or make one.
Eventually I would have the opportunity to watch David Blaine on the internet and discover many magicians and their magic. Watching magic initiated me into the art, I would watch performances over and over and think deeply about what I had seen, and slowly I would gain some understanding about the art. As I learnt more about magic I slowly realized how impossible the road ahead of me would be, no matter how I approached it. I had no hands to manipulate objects and even if I somehow got past that, I couldn’t speak properly to present magic.
If faced with an overwhelming obstacle such as this,
what would you do?
WOULD YOU GIVE UP?
OR
WOULD YOU PUSH THROUGH?
One day I stumbled across a video of a psychological illusionist named Derren Brown. Everything, he claimed, was accomplished through suggestion, misdirection, psychology, hypnosis, and memory. Derren suggested books on these subjects where you could study and learn what he did in his shows. Where there had been no way before I suddenly saw a way for me to pursue magic. I read and studied all I could on these subjects and slowly started to create demonstrations of my new abilities. Through studying the mind, autosuggestion and self-hypnosis I was able to reprogram myself, which allowed me to overcome my language disorder.
Where there is a will
there is a way.
Find a way or make one.
Mahdi The Teenage Magician
At school I would perform some of the demonstrations I prepared. Some were presented as memory stunts while others were unexplainable and mysterious. At first I was very shy and would only perform one on one but soon crowds would form. Many wonderful and magical moments and legends were made in those days and those early performances changed my life. Word of my abilities spread and a classmate gave me the title I use today,
Mahdi The Magician.
These experiences changed my life, formed me in my formative years and transformed what I believed was impossible for me. The complete story would fill many volumes and will be revealed for the first time in my upcoming book, Before Magic: Living The Impossible.
The following is an excerpt from Hidden in The Leaves by Mahdi The Magician.
Now Available as a Digital Book.
MAHDI THE MAGICIAN
First Edition
PDF | 194 Pages
Learn how to entertain your family & friends with easy card tricks you can do!
For the first time Mahdi The Magician reveals some of the mysteries of his life and philosophy as he takes you behind the scenes so you can learn the meaning of the cards and how to read them as easily as you are reading these words. You will be able to understand the messages Hidden in The Leaves waiting for you.
