Transportation

“The destination of the transportation illusion is here and now.”

In a transportation illusion, an item seems to disappear from one location and reappear in another. For example, I can make it look as if a coin dissolves in my hand and appears behind your ear. That’s a pretty basic form of this magic trick. Some stage magicians present the illusion on a larger scale. A magician might disappear from the stage, only to suddenly reappear at the back of the auditorium. In this case, the venue is larger, the object being transported is bigger, but at its essence, it’s the same illusion.

How do transportation illusions manifest themselves in our daily lives? The answer lies within our own minds. The mind is the master “wannabe” illusionist. It is totally fixated on carrying out the transportation illusion and wants us to believe it can make it happen. The mind tries to perform transportation for us all the time, and although it seems real to us, it remains only an illusion. And it is a source of untold stress in our lives.

Let me give you an example: You’re driving to a very important appointment, but you get a late start. You need to arrive in 15 minutes, but you already know it will take 20 minutes to get there. With just a bit of luck, you could catch all the green lights and arrive close to the scheduled time. But this is when the master of transportation illusions begins its performance, and you start to imagine yourself arriving late. You envision hitting every red light, while every slow driver has decided to be out on the road at the same time as you. You see yourself struggling with the traffic. You see problems finding a parking spot and the look of disappointment on the host of your appointment as you walk in late. You’re not in the car more than a couple of minutes before your mind, the master of illusion, transports you into this stressful scenario.Even though such thoughts are only in our heads, they are similar to the coin-behind-the-ear trick. Neither actually occurs in reality. The coin at no time really vanishes, and you don’t necessarily end up late for the appointment. More often than not, everything works out better than you imagined.

The mind performs these transportation illusions with more regularity than you might realize. Our thoughts would like to make transportation a reality, since our bodies cannot actually perform them (although the Catholic Church has documented cases of transportation, such as Saint Rita of Cascia, who was miraculously transported into a locked convent by her patron saints. But for those of us still developing our saintly nature, the ability to transport ourselves seems limited to our automobiles). To vanish from where you are and appear in another place is not possible, but try telling your mind that. Next time you have a
conversation with someone, become aware of how many times you take a trip in your mind. This can take place almost any place and any time. Our mind is generally free to transport us to any place other than where we actually are right now.

Why do we seek to be transported? What makes us so dissatisfied with where we are at any given moment? Our minds are very active, yet we become bored very easily. There are many distractions in this modern world, many of which are designed to entertain. We feel the need to fill any kind of mental void, lest
we become bored. This stems from a basic dissatisfaction with the present moment. Don’t believe me? Sit for just a moment with your eyes closed. How long can you do this before your mind tells you all the better things you could do?