b 1 7 • "'Begone!' The rustling, tapping, and flittering stopped dead." -- Jonathan Stroud, The Amulet of Samarkand (200 ) Behold And now behold -- arise [from your trance], my princess! -- Robert J. Tiess, Yorick, Fellow of Infinite Jest Mystique: Behold is a command with a primal energy, indeed a supernatural power -- the very caliber of word spoken by angels in the Bible. Behold means far more than simply "look." It calls upon spectators to "witness and be amazed." But it also does more. It calls upon spectators to be, if only for a moment, mystical "seers" endowed with profound spiritual insight and the power to perceive miracles. In other words, it invites everyone to participate in the magic, to suspend their disbelief and be convinced that "seeing is believing." In 188 , the Hindu seer Sri Ramakrishna told the story of a king who once asked a yogi to impart Knowledge to him in one word. "The yogi said, 'All right; you will get Knowledge in one word.' After a while a magician came to the king. The king saw the magician moving two of his fingers rapidly and heard him exclaim, 'Behold, O King! Behold.' The king looked at him amazed when, after a few minutes, he saw the two fingers becoming one. The magician moved that one finger rapidly and said, 'Behold, O King! Behold.' The implication of the story is that Brahman [the world soul, the creative principle of the universe] and the Primal Energy at first appear to be two. But after attaining the knowledge of Brahman one does not see the two. Then there is no differentiation; it is One, without a second -- Advaita -- non duality."1 Facts: Professional magician John Blood uses the magic word behold to help restore wonder in his audience and to re-establish the original role of magicians. 14 "From earliest times people have gathered around magicians for guidance, for learning, and for entertainment. The role of 'the magician' has been a valuable role in societies since the dawn of time. Sadly, the people of today regard magic as trivial entertainment. So many have lost touch 1 The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, translated by Swami Nikhilananda 14 The ancient 'druids' of Ireland, for example, were above all else poets: "While they occasionally carried magic wands and stones, in the far great majority of cases [their] only magic 'tool' was their voices. They were, emphatically, not 'pagan priests' and most of what we think of as priestly functions fell to the local king or tribal chief. They were sages, advisors, 'wizards' -- their closest modern equivalents would be scholars sometimes called upon to be government advisors, although in many cases they were unaffiliated with the rulers and conducted what we nowadays would call 'private practice.'" -- Seán Ó Tuathail, "The Excellence of Ancient Word: Druid Rhetorics from Ancient Irish Tales" (199 )