“Save Me” by Remy Zero… “I feel my wings have broken in your hands. I feel the words unspoken inside when they pull you under. And I would give you anything you want. You were all I wanted…”

I seriously thought that Blaine would escape somehow from his cage. If he could have emancipated himself whilst emaciated, he would definitely have broken the barriers for magic and human endurance simultaneously. I guess it wasn’t through choice that he decided to not have a stunning climax to the stunt other than emerging, alive and sane. He was released from his box yesterday after 44 days of isolation. He stumbled out and gave a short speech before his emotions got the better of him, reducing him to tears as he exclaimed that this had been one of the most important experiences in his life. I wouldn’t say David Blaine is a particularly great magician, especially upon finding out that his levitation trick was more a camera trick (with a tow rope and clever editing) than a street illusion. From that, I’m slightly sceptical about his latest “Above the Below” stunt. Was it really a stunt, or merely a trick? A stunt implies hazard. A trick implies deception. I’m not 100% convinced it’s the former, but can’t help but give him the benefit of the doubt for the simple reason that cheating yourself on something like this is pointless.

He’s good at what he does, but really it’s his personality that makes him a unique and popular showman. In fact, it’s never about the tricks or illusions, it’s always about the performer. A successful showperson knows what the audience wants and will adapt his/her routine to cater for them. Success is not about skill, it’s about presentation. Sure, some of his close-up street magic is performed well, but nearly all of them are simple tricks. Blaine just pulls it off so well because of who he is. The direction he has taken into the realms of human endurance is what really makes him an enthralling magician (if you’ll discount his latest self-mutilation stunts such as cutting off part of his ear and pulling his heart out through his chest). Undoubtedly Houdini’s work has a strong influence on Blaine and his art and this shows in his last few big stunts. “Above the Below” is something else, because it’s a different concept to what has been carried out in the past and is a wonderful variation of traditional escapology. In traditional escapology, you are physically trapped and have to make an attempt to physically free yourself. In “Above the Below,” Blaine was mentally trapped and had to mentally free himself if he was to survive.

I’ve heard tales of people having to live in isolation. Some are brigands locked away in solitory confinement, some are agoraphobes holed away in their own homes, but let’s not dwell on those who live this way out of fear. Think about those who have to face their fear and live that way. I wonder how I’d survive locked away for 44 days like that. To put things into perspective, it would be hard enough with food and water let alone on water alone, so much kudos to Blaine for going through it. I can’t begin to imagine what it must be like to starve yourself and have your body rebel against you. You have to detach yourself from the things you physically feel to survive. But there is a silver lining to this dark cloud of disconnection. I most likely would have spent a lot of time with my eyes closed, in meditation. Being alone in confinement for that space of time would afford you the opportunity to become deeply introspective. You would begin to question everything you knew, from the existence of God to the existence of hope. Your mind would wonder and wonder and wonder, and eventually it will wander into places you never gave thought to in the past; places you never knew existed. Your mind would become free to walk on its own two feet and explore the recesses of your convoluted mind, to better understand what it is made of.

This mental and spiritual journey is much like the teachings of Buddhism where the true study of it comes from within. In Buddhism, the neutral state of our mind is called Nirvana. Buddha’s teaching encourages his disciples to search for the truth because it exists. He had seen that life itself is no illusion and contains no suffering. The illusion and suffering you may see is not real. It is transient. And a path to finding the truth is attaining total awareness. When Buddhist monks go for a walk outside, they are constantly aware of everything around them; the wind whistling through their ears, the warmth of the sun on their skin. Even when they are eating, they are thinking about how the food tastes and the journey the food is taking in their body. I’ll stop there before I start really sounding like the Matrix’s Morpheus, but the spiritual side to life is a truly fascinating thing. I’m largely agnostic, with a tendency towards Buddhism and Christianity. My own belief is to be open-minded and to be open to discover many new things, which is why I harbour disdain towards the religious fanatics who protest that their faith is the one true faith. People who are closed to only read into a single faith or religion have the tendency to miss the point and miss out on the great knowledge that other faiths teach. We have minds designed to be challenged and have the capacity to become enriched with knowledge. Why limit yourself with the teachings of one book when you can read many?

Only Blaine knows of the journeys he went on whilst inside the box. I hope he found what he was looking for. He had always had a morbid fascination with death and has been quoted on occasions saying he hated life because it was full of suffering. Whilst in the ambulance following his ordeal, he said he takes all that back. He now says that he loves life. I hope none of us have to endure what he went through to realise this about life.

Before now, only the people closest to me knew how enthralled I am by the disciplines of magic, and falling under that category are psychological illusions/mentalism and escapology. I’ve always been this way since an early age. I remember the first magic trick I saw when I was around 5 years old. It was a coin trick, where the coin seemingly melted into thin air after changing positions on a table. I also remember the second trick I saw, performed by my parents’ friend, which you may know as the famous “Cut and Restore Rope Trick.”

I’m really enjoying the magic season being run on Channel 4 and Channel 5 at the moment, with its slew of magicians new to mainstream TV. Yesterday there was a program about a dashing escapologist called Thomas Solomon, who’s pretty nifty with a lockpick. Not too many know that on a good day I’m fairly nifty with a lockpick too, but I’m not at even 1% of his level. I look at Lockpicking very much like an art form. You could read all the reams of text available on it, but you’ll never know how good you are till you actually wrench a lock and twiddle a beam of metal inside it. Some days it’s exactly like Solomon said, “It’s like trying to find matching coloured socks in the dark.”

Escapologists fall into an intriguing class of people who are forced to think outside the box. They are often obsessive types who dislike barriers and restraints, combined with a splash of power-monger personality traits. In fact, most people dislike barriers and restraints. Nobody wants their personal space invaded or taken away from them. So thinking about it, there is nothing wholly unusual about what escapologists do. Escaping is something we could all relate to. Escapology is like a metaphor for our lives, particularly its mundane parts; those aspects of our lives we yearn to escape from. We find ourselves free in the things around us, like video games, movies, gardening, painting and sleeping. We’re all escapologists at heart. Now there’s something provocative to put on your CV/resume.