Relevant tangents...

 Another fascination of mine is magic/ close up/ conjuring/ illusion/ prestidigitation... what ever you want to call it. I was fascinated as a child and I have fairly recently revisited this fascination as an adult. 
I have recently been reading the Art of Astonishment books by Paul Harris, (must have books for anybody interested in the art form...)
Harris is a legend in the world magic community and has produce a staggeringly large body of work, (inventing tricks is his game.) 
The reason I'm introducing this into my bog is the idea of astonishment which Harris is so passionate about. He talks about astonishment being the natural state of mind and that through magic you can allow people a 'moment' of astonishment/ of clarity/ of strange... I'm paraphrasing wildly and I should probably look up some quotes but this will have to do for now. 
It reminds me of the ways which people like Aldous Huxley, Timothy Leary, Ken Kesey all talked about LSD.
I think what appeals to me about these ideas is the possibility for change; the potential for new ways of looking and seeing and understanding. If you accept that the way you understand the world and your beliefs are learned then surely you accept the possibility that they could be wrong... or at least that other positions may also be as right as yours. Ok its a bit hippy and idealistic but I'm ok with that, Ideals are important.
Maybe you can't change the world with an art work but if you can change someones way of looking at the world, doesn't that amount to the same thing?

Paul Harris