Editors Note

Volume 1, Issue 2

David London

 

I always tell people that with everything I do, the goal is not to give people the answers that, at any given moment, I may believe. Instead, I prefer to get them one synapse away.

 

 In other words, I prefer to lead people down a path, so that they are able to make the final connection themselves. In this way, the discovery takes place internally, instead of being presented to them on a platter. It is their realization rather than my lesson.

 

 Science tells us that our synapses are habit forming. They prefer to make connections between points in the brain that already exist. They are comfortable in this way. In a sense, they, and therefore we, are creatures of habit. But these habits can be broken. A so-called short circuit can occur. Electric impulses can be sent to an unexpected place, rather than the one of habit. Today, we know that these misfires in the brain are a reality. They happen. But once, not too long ago, this notion was just another theory- another potential explanation for why we do what we do, and what things in our environment do to us. The Surrealists believed that an outside source could trigger such events in the brain.

 

 It was over 80 years ago, in the Manifestoes of Surrealism, that Andre Breton wrote that “in poetry and in painting, Surrealism has done everything it can and more to increase these short circuits. It believes, and it will never believe in anything more wholeheartedly, in reproducing artificially this ideal moment…(161)”

 

 The ideal moment of a short-circuit. And we must not forget that it is not only painting and poetry that can evoke such an internal response. It could be a movie. A book. A thought. An overheard sentence. Performance Art. Even a magic trick. Perhaps, for you, it could even be a word, a sentence or a paragraph found within these pages.

 

 At the point and time that Breton wrote about short-circuits, the idea of a synapse was still abstract. Yet now, 82 years after these words were written, we know that there is a genuine sense of excitement and discovery that goes hand in hand with short circuiting our synapses- breaking them of their old habits, and allowing new connections to be formed, even if only for an instant.

 

 Perhaps the surrealists, even if in a purely conceptual way, were the first to conceptualize the existence of an actual brain function responsible for the experience of magic, wonder, creation and dreams. A model to explain the peak experiences in life!

 

 Within these pages, it is my hope that something in your brain will short-circuit, and open up new pathways to venture down, that you never knew existed. A new journey within could begin at any moment. Or, maybe it already has. This journey may bring you closer to why it is you do what you do. Both within magic, and beyond.

 

 After all, right now, you could be but one synaptic misfiring away from the start of a mental thunderstorm. Warning: you may emerge transformed. Enjoy!