My name is Ken Reedy and I am the Healing of Magic coordinator for the Kansas City, Missouri and Ring 129. I have been in this position for the last 7 years and before that I was the coordinator for Project Magic for 3 years. I would like to share with you what we have been doing using Kevin Spencer's system for bringing a little magic into the lives of people in need in our area.
We have a lot of Ring members that would like to be more involved with the program but they work during the times that we have the sessions. Somehow we find the time because it's the therapist that tell us when to come and when the patients will be available for a therapy. Someone once said that when you are ready to learn - a teacher will appear. Some members have told me that they are not a strong enough performer to do the program. This just is not true. There isn't one member in our Ring or in your Ring that lacks the skills or talent to make a difference. Let me explain how this works.
Kevin Spencer has provided a printed program outline that has a wide variety of tricks in it. The instructions are clear complete with photos and illustrations to guide both you and the patient through the trick. In addition, it gives you the primary goals, performing requirements, therapeutic goals, and adaptations. This helps you to decide if the effect is suited for the patient's needs. They are all very simple and most do not require any slight-of-hand. The Healing of Magic also has a CD that you can you use to show a prospective client. It explains the program and what it is for.
When we have a session we copy the instructions of the trick from the book and give each patient a copy at the end of the session. This is for their use so that they can practice the trick and know that they are doing it correctly. We also make sure that the therapist knows how to do the trick because this way he or she can help them after you leave. Passing along the mystery of magic as a therapeutic measure to assist in recovery is really amazing to both the patient and the therapist and you become the catalyst. What can be more rewarding?
You can start your own program at the nearest hospital or therapy facility or at any home for the elderly. All you need is the CD and book and your own confidence that this program really works. Go in and talk to the therapist in-charge and present the information and get the Program started on your own. You can setup the Program for the times that you are available. This way you can make it as easy on yourself as you want.
For more information regarding what the Healing of Magic Program is, your first step is to go to Kevin's web site and it gives you a lot of information about the Program and how it works. His web address is http://www.magictherapy.com/. I want to share with you one paragraph from Kevin.
"The HEALING OF MAGIC program involves the teaching of simple magic tricks to people who have been the victim of stroke, accident, spinal cord injury, head injury, developmental disabilities, and other diagnoses. By learning to perform magic, individuals achieve new skill levels which enhances their rehabilitation progress as well as develops and improves their self-image. It is a carefully designed, systematic approach that has gained widespread support from therapists as a viable treatment modality. It combines the skills of entertainment professionals (magicians) with those of the medical field (therapists) to provide a quality of therapeutic training that exceeds the limits of traditional rehabilitative techniques and programs".
I hope that this helps everyone to understand what and how the Program works and that this way some of you will step forward and get involved by joining this very fun and rewarding effort.
I will have more to tell you in upcoming articles, but if you have any questions about anything I have written then please contact me and I will answer them for you. So begins my Journal...
Ken Reedy ( magicbyken@kc.rr.com)
March 2008
The story I want to share is about something that happened just recently. I was doing a session with a group of adults that had different kinds of learning disabilities. I was in the room where the session was to be held and in walked one of the people that I was to teach. His name is Dan. When he came in, I said, "Hello, how are you doing today?" I got no response at all. He didn't even look at me as he made his way to a seat next to the wall. I tried to start some kind of a conversation with him but he just looked down to the floor or looked at the wall he was next to. I didn't push too much and waited for the rest of the people to get there.
This session I was to teach all of them two simple rope tricks. The first one was the "Challenge Knot" and the second was "Impossible Knot Challenge", both part of the Healing of Magic instruction book. I handed them all a rope of their own to use for the tricks and I told them that I wanted them all to pick up one end of the rope in each hand and tie a knot in it without letting go of any of the ends. The mystery had begun. As everyone was trying to work this out I looked over to Dan. He was just tying knots in his rope the regular way and all of a sudden he shouted, "I got it!" I went over to him and in a kidding way I asked if he was cheating by letting go of the ends?
He started over along with everyone else. I then showed them how to do it and then helped all of them to do the all of the right moves. Dan had a lot of problems doing the moves but I helped him the best I could. As the session went on Dan kept shouting, "I got it!" And again I would go over and ask if he was cheating. And helped him some more.
Now as the time went on Dan started to look at me when I was talking and then he started to call me over to his seat and pulled up his pants leg and showed me the boots he had on. They weren't anything special but I complimented him and said that he had a fine pair of boots.
Well, the session was over and Dan didn't have much luck in doing the rope trick. He would still tie a knot and yell, "I got it!" As I was saying good-bye to everyone Dan came up to me and tapped me on the shoulder and held his arm up and asked me to feel his muscles. I did and told him that he was stronger than I am. That was no lie. He did look like he was pretty strong. I then went home and tried to see what to teach the group next. As I was thinking, I called the therapist in charge and asked her if she could tell me how all of the people in the session got disabled. She said that they were born that way and then told me that Dan was 65 years old. This surprised me because he looked to me about 50 years old. I told her what all Dan had done in class to just share with her how the session was going and then she asked me if Dan ever look or made eye contact with me. I told her that at first he wouldn't but as the session went on he would make eye contact with me!
through the rest of the session. She was very unusually surprised and said that she had been working with Dan for 4 years and he has never made eye contact with her at all.
I was able to do for Dan in one hour what she had been trying do in 4 years. I was happy then with the results of the session. At first I really didn't know if I had done any good for them. This little talk to me about Dan helped me to understand him and the rest of the people in the session a little bit better and why they were learning disabled. It gave me more of an idea of what to teach them next. It also told me that the Healing of Magic Program does work in areas that I never conceived.
You can do this too. So if you have not thought about getting involved in this program I urge you to give it a lot of thought and get in it. And if you are or have been involved with this program and have become disappointed or have quit then maybe this story will help you out and get you back in and running with a new outlook.
Ken Reedy ( magicbyken@kc.rr.com)
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April 2008
It was set up that I was to only work with this group for 6 weeks and then have a kind of graduation ceremony at the end of the classes. Well I had taught them some rope tricks, card tricks, some coins and handkerchiefs. On the end of the 5th week I told the group that next week was the last week and that I wasn't going to teach them anything. I told them that they were to pick out one trick and come next week to perform for the rest of the group without help. I told them that the group would then pick those that executed their trick correctly to perform it at the graduation ceremony.
When the group started I had fifteen people. On the last week of the sessions I had ten people. Everyone was very excited to get up and perform their trick to everyone else in the group. Out of the ten people that I had, four were able to perform their trick without any assistance. I then asked for a vote for each of them and all of them always voted for each of the 4 performers. So I had to do the voting over a few times before we had a winner. The person that the group finally voted on was a young man who had Down's syndrome. He performed the Challenge Knot. This is the trick where you tie a knot in the middle of the rope without letting go of the ends. He was very happy that he was selected by the group to perform at the graduation.
We had about 5 minutes left in the session so I asked all of them if they had fun with this program and they all yelled YES!!!!! I then told them that they all did a great job and to keep practicing the tricks and that they would get better. I then told them that I had fun working with them all and that I would miss them. Well what happened next was something I didn't ever expect. They all at the same time got up out of their chairs and started to walk towards me. Well, that was scary because I didn't know what they all were doing or what they were going to do to me. They all made a circle around me and then they all extended their arms and then they all gave me a big group hug. WOW!! I had never thought that they would do that at all but how thrilling is that! It made my year.
I found after working the six week class with them that they were all very affectionate and acted more like children that full-grown adults. So I figured that this is why they all gave me the hug. It really doesn't matter though because they all got something out of the sessions... and so did I.
Well it came time for the graduation ceremony and the person from our group got up in front of a big room full of people and then it was time for him to do his trick. I got up in front of the crowd and told them what we had been doing for the last 6 weeks and that the group had elected him to be the magician. I asked him to stand center stage and I introduced him by telling everyone that he was about to do the impossible. He was going to tie a knot in the middle of the rope without letting go of the ends. The crowd moaned at this statement because they all knew that it was impossible to do this. Well, he got up and in a flash he tied the knot and the whole crowd just cheered and applauded for him. He was on cloud nine and beaming with delight... he was the magician and what a reaction.
I am always amazed at some of the things that happen during a session or after working with someone for a long time what they are able to do with what I teach them. So. Who's up for a big group hug?? If you are then get up and get involved with this great program.
Ken Reedy ( magicbyken@kc.rr.com)
