Miracles are thought to be supernatural phenomena or even “magic”. The truth is they are as much part of nature as everything else.

If you ask me, there’s no such thing as magic in the world.

Rather, the world itself is a magical place.

While this might sound absurd, there are many Jewish sources that attest to this fact. More on this later.

Either way, one of the most mysterious things in the world is the capacity some individuals have to produce supernatural phenomena. This includes everything we are not used to like Telekinesis (the ability to move objects with the mind), pyrokinesis (the ability to manipulate fire), clairvoyance (the ability to see invisible things), out-of-body experiences, prophecy, and many other cool stuff.

While these abilities can be real and proven to be genuine, it’s obvious that not everyone can do them.

So what’s their secret? And are miracles good or bad?

Let’s try to find out.

Reality is not so real

Once upon a time, some 2.000 years ago, miracles were the everyday norm. Not only Jews, but also Non-Jews knew how to manipulate nature and its forces. Even to this day, there are also people who can undeniably perform miracles.

I will need to write a long article about how much science is published to deceive us into thinking the world works in a mechanistic, “scientific” way, which is false. I don’t want to get caught in this discussion now, but I’m not denying basic, observable phenomena such as the Doppler Effect, the chemistry for reinforced concrete, gravity, or other obvious things. My point is that a lot of science is misleading and/or limiting in telling the full scope of reality.

Miracles were not called miracles, because such was the way people understood nature. I am not talking about some deep Kabbalistic secret, I am talking about countless stories in the Talmud which give these accounts as “matter of fact”, without much ceremony.

If you study Kabbalah you understand that the physical world is an illusion. Anyone reading a scientific magazine or some Einstein quote can readily point out that our perception and sense of self are illusions. And breaking part of that illusion is part of our Avodat Hashem. Even “mainstream” science is beginning to acknowledge this fact, for example, in saying that 99%+ of what we see is vacuum, and the little “matter” there is, is actually condensed energy that vibrates.

Based on this we can readily understand that reality has high plasticity, so to speak. While up until some time ago, we tended to think causality dictated everything, now even simple logic is starting to be questioned. Simply put, what we perceive often transcends our capacity for rational understanding. We are just sometimes too lazy to probe deeply into it.

Even some psychologists (and your friendly pop-gurus) posit that reality comes from “within”. We see the world as we are, not as it is. But the Baal Shem Tov already taught that the whole system of Sephirot and spiritual worlds are within us. In other words, our psyche follows the same way Hashem created the world and therefore, we are mentally connected to everything.

This means that miracles occur as a person channels from within the change he wishes to see. To the outside observer, this change is called a “miracle”. To the one performing it, it’s just “nature”. In fact, some Rabbis say that one of the conditions to effect a miracle is not to be impressed by it.

That’s just how nature is.

Spiritual beings and other weird things

As I wrote, the reality we experience is essentially a compound of a multitude of consciousness linked together by a Super-Consciousness (which would be Hashem). This means there’s a variety of sentient forces which end up affecting the way events play out for all of us. We just don’t see them.

Obviously, ultimately the Super-Consciousness (“Ein Sof”) dictates the course of events, but that’s a level that we have no access to. In other words, the Creator, so to speak created the world in such a way as to give us freedom of choice and make us believe we are independent, while at the same time restricting our “perception” of Him.

In this theater play, there are actors who are seen physically and others who are only perceived by our inner senses. These “invisible actors” can trigger certain events, direct blessings and play an important part in our interaction as humans within the universe. So they HAVE power and can greatly direct our lives for good or otherwise.

So how are miracles made?

Basically, miracles are part of the channeled energy that someone uses to force his perception in the world. Combining energy, the extant forces in reality, significant words (like prayer), visualization techniques, and of course a great deal of mind power, and you have the recipe for a miracle.

Most people can’t do them because we lost the capacity to properly harness this energy, focus our mind, and, maybe most important of all: we don’t believe in miracles. This is because one of the most important factors of all of these is davka the visceral inner conviction that one can alter reality. Some people say that Rabbi Meir Ba’al Haness, in his famous story in the Talmud where he tells his daughter to light the vinegar, was only able to make this miracle because for him there was no difference between that and nature. Nature is a miracle, as the Ramban teaches. The only difference, in his words, is the “frequency”.

Not only that, but we are nowadays weaker, mentally, emotionally and physically than our ancestors who didn’t eat processed food, sugar, or chemicals (like soon-to-be-popularized printed grub), and didn’t drink poisoned water. They also were not constantly bombarded with poisoning sound, radiation, electricity, the stress of work in modern life, the raving struggle (and desire) for money, and, of course, social media feed that clogs our mind with useless information that destroys our capacity for concentration.

On a more positive note, these can all be purified from our systems, but we will have to leave it to another article. In essence, these skills, which have at a time been deemed like magic are nothing more than a consequence of our universe’s plasticity.

Once a person understands that reality is an illusion, and begins purifying his mind, then miracles can – and dare I say – will, once again, become the norm in the soon-to-come Redemption.

In other words, there’s no magic.

Rather, reality in itself is magical.

Because that’s how Hashem created the world.