The Magicians Awareness

THE MAGICIAN MUST SEE HIMSELF

The Beau Magic Art of Self-Remembering

Most people walk through life asleep.

Not literally.

They’re awake.

They go to work.

They drive cars.

They drink.

They fuck.

They argue.

They scroll.

They gamble.

They make money.

They lose money.

But they’re mostly reacting.

Something happens → they react.

Someone insults them → anger.

Someone attractive walks by → desire.

They lose money → panic.

Someone compliments them → ego gets inflated.

Someone challenges their status → they need to prove something.

They’re not necessarily choosing.

They’re being played by the environment.

G. I. Gurdjieff called one of the practices for breaking out of this mechanical state self-remembering.

And I think there’s a way to translate this ancient idea into something extremely useful for the modern magician.

Because here’s the fundamental rule:

THE MAGICIAN MUST SEE THE GAME — AND SEE HIMSELF PLAYING IT.

WHAT THE HELL IS SELF-REMEMBERING?

The concept is deceptively simple.

You’re simultaneously aware of:

WHAT IS HAPPENING AROUND YOU

and

WHAT IS HAPPENING INSIDE YOU.

Imagine somebody insults you.

The normal reaction is:

“Fuck this guy.”

You’re immediately inside the reaction.

Self-remembering adds another layer:

“This guy just insulted me — and I’m noticing anger rising in my body.”

Now you’re watching your own reaction.

You notice your breathing.

Your posture.

Your thoughts.

Your impulse to respond.

Your desire to establish dominance.

And suddenly there’s a little space between:

EVENT

and

REACTION.

That space is where the magic happens.

THE GAP

This might be one of the most useful concepts in the entire Beau Magic philosophy.

Something happens.

Your brain wants to immediately produce a response.

But instead:

EVENT → AWARENESS → CHOICE → ACTION

rather than:

EVENT → REACTION

That tiny gap can change everything.

A blackjack player who doesn’t recognize his emotions starts chasing losses.

A fighter who gets emotional starts swinging recklessly.

A businessman who becomes desperate makes desperate deals.

A magician who becomes nervous telegraphs the trick.

A man who becomes obsessed with getting a particular woman’s attention starts behaving differently around her.

The problem isn’t necessarily the emotion.

The problem is not knowing that the emotion is driving you.

THE GAMBLER

This is where self-remembering becomes extremely Beau Magic.

Imagine you’re playing blackjack.

You lose $500.

Your brain says:

“Fuck it. Get it back.”

That’s the dangerous moment.

Because now you’re no longer simply playing blackjack.

You’re playing against your own psychology.

The cards haven’t changed.

The mathematics haven’t changed.

But you have changed.

Your emotional state has entered the game.

The disciplined gambler notices:

“I’m angry.”

Not:

“I AM ANGRY.”

There’s a difference.

The first is observation.

The second is identification.

And that distinction is enormous.

You can experience anger without becoming the angry guy making decisions.

THE FIGHTER

Same principle.

Someone hits you.

Your ego screams:

“GET HIM BACK.”

That’s exactly when the fighter can become mechanical.

A better fighter notices:

He’s pressuring me.

My heart rate is rising.

I’m getting emotional.

I’m starting to rush.

My breathing is changing.

Now you’re not merely fighting the opponent.

You’re observing yourself fighting the opponent.

That’s another level of awareness.

The fighter has become the spectator of his own performance.

And that creates the possibility of adjustment.

THE MAGICIAN

But this becomes even more interesting with magic.

A magician is already manipulating attention.

The audience looks at the coin.

You know where their attention is.

They think they’re watching the important thing.

They’re actually watching exactly what you wanted them to watch.

That’s the essence of deception.

But now apply that principle to yourself.

Ask:

Where is MY attention?

Because your mind can misdirect you too.

Fear directs your attention toward danger.

Lust directs your attention toward desire.

Ego directs your attention toward status.

Greed directs your attention toward money.

Anger directs your attention toward revenge.

Fear of rejection directs your attention toward whether somebody likes you.

Your own mind can perform magic tricks on you.

And sometimes you are the audience.

THE ULTIMATE MAGIC TRICK

Here’s the paradox:

The greatest magician isn’t merely somebody who can fool other people.

It’s somebody who can stop being fooled by himself.

Your brain tells you:

“You need this.”

Do you?

Your brain tells you:

“You need to prove yourself.”

Do you?

Your brain tells you:

“You have to respond right now.”

Do you?

Your brain tells you:

“You’re losing.”

Are you?

Or are you simply experiencing an event that your nervous system has labeled as losing?

Self-remembering is essentially turning the camera around.

Instead of only watching the world…

Watch yourself watching the world.

THE BEAU MAGIC TRIANGLE

I’ve been thinking about this as three levels of awareness.

LEVEL 1 — SEE

See what’s happening.

The cards.

The opponent.

The woman.

The business deal.

The opportunity.

The danger.

LEVEL 2 — SEE YOURSELF

Now observe your own state.

Your breathing.

Your ego.

Your fear.

Your greed.

Your attraction.

Your anger.

Your excitement.

LEVEL 3 — CHOOSE

Now decide what you’re actually going to do.

Not what your first impulse demanded.

Not what your ego demanded.

Not what your emotions demanded.

What YOU choose.

That’s the progression:

SEE → REMEMBER → CHOOSE

THE ICEBERG

This is why I like the iceberg metaphor.

What people see is the surface.

The suit.

The shades.

The cards.

The casino.

The performance.

The money.

The confidence.

But beneath the surface is something much bigger:

Attention.

Psychology.

Probability.

Discipline.

Observation.

Self-control.

Strategy.

The average person sees the magician.

The magician sees the mechanism.

And the master eventually learns to see the magician himself.

PRACTICE IT TONIGHT

You don’t need a monastery.

You don’t need incense.

You don’t need to join some secret occult order.

Try it at a bar.

Try it at the casino.

Try it during a conversation.

Try it while you’re lifting.

Try it during MMA/boxing sparring.

Try it when somebody pisses you off.

For ten seconds, become aware of:

Your body.

Your breathing.

Your thoughts.

Your emotions.

The environment.

And then recognize:

I am here.

Don’t analyze it.

Don’t narrate your entire existence.

Just experience yourself experiencing.

Then go back to whatever you were doing.

Do it again.

And again.

Eventually you start catching yourself in the act.

You catch the ego.

You catch the impulse.

You catch the insecurity.

You catch the greed.

You catch the fear.

You catch the bullshit.

And once you can SEE the mechanism…

you have a chance to control it.

THE BEAU MAGIC GAMBLER’S RULE

Never make a major decision while completely possessed by the emotion created by the situation.

Observe first.

Then act.

The casino doesn’t care that you’re angry.

The cards don’t care that you’re angry.

Your opponent doesn’t care that you’re angry.

The world doesn’t care.

Reality simply continues.

So become the guy who can stand inside the storm and watch himself standing there.

That’s power.

Not pretending you don’t have emotions.

Not becoming some emotionless robot.

Seeing the emotion without automatically obeying it.

YOU ARE BOTH THE PLAYER AND THE DEALER

Here’s the final realization.

You spend your entire life playing a game.

But you’re also constantly influencing the way you play it.

Your attention.

Your habits.

Your beliefs.

Your reactions.

Your impulses.

Your decisions.

The world deals you cards.

You don’t control every card.

But you can learn to watch yourself play the hand.

That’s the gambler’s mindset.

That’s the fighter’s mindset.

That’s the magician’s mindset.

And that’s the Beau Magic mindset.

SEE THE GAME.

SEE YOURSELF.

THEN MAKE YOUR MOVE.

— Beau Magic 🎩🃏