Fredrick Turner

Reflections


  • Yoga of Conjuring – II

    Studying the Eight Limbs of the Yoga Sutras, it became clear that while they are guides for living, they fit with our work as magicians. Magic is one of those words that we all assume we understand. However, all one has to do is review the literature of performance magic to see our struggle and… Continue reading

  • Yoga of Conjuring – I

    I’m not sure when I made meditation and yoga daily practices. It’s been over 20 years. I started earlier with occasional practice using a set of VHS tapes. For those who missed out, VHS was a clunky format with less than optimal control. For a “date night,” we attended a three evening class of yoga… Continue reading

  • Book Notes: Searching for Awe

    Through a recent podcast recommendation, I became aware of the work of Dacher Keltner. According to his Wikipedia page, Keltner is a professor of psychology at the University of California, Berkeley, who directs the Berkeley Social Interaction Lab. He is also the founder and faculty director of the Greater Good Science Center, host of the… Continue reading

  • Some Things Change…

    About a decade ago, I decided that after reaching the status of Order of Merlin: Shield that it was time to stop paying dues and leave the International Brotherhood of Magicians. We had moved to a spot where attending any Ring meetings was a logistical challenge. Most importantly, I felt my involvement had run its… Continue reading

  • Reacting to Stuff

    “Conditions are always neutral. They seem either sad or happy depending on the sad or happy attitudes of the mind.” Paramhansa Yogananda “The cause of my irritation is not in this person but in me.” Anthony de Mello, The Way to Love Events, occurrences, interactions are all just stuff. Stuff is what most of our… Continue reading

  • Revisiting: Shadowland

    In 1980, Peter Straub (1943-2022) published Shadowland. I didn’t read it until it came out in paperback a year or so later. I read other books by Staub before and since however this is the one I return to every few years. Shadowland is the story of Tom and Del, two young teenagers who become… Continue reading

  • Digital Loss

    Recently I found a forgotten disc that I received from Todd Karr’s Miracle Factory for my patience in waiting for one book or another to be delivered. It’s titled Annemann’s Enigma and I believe the contents that became a portion of the book of the same name. I don’t remember if I mentioned it before… Continue reading