Our Impact
What We Do
MagicIsMedicine.org is built on one idea: magic heals. We match volunteer professional magicians with patients who need joy, distraction, and hope. We also train clinicians to use magic as a therapeutic tool.
Our volunteer magicians perform free shows for:
- Children and adults undergoing cancer treatment
- Patients awaiting organ transplants
- Veterans of WWII, Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan
- Families staying at Ronald McDonald Houses and UCSF Family House
- Stressed doctors and nurses who need a moment of wonder
Each show is tailored to the audience. Close-up magic at a child's bedside. Interactive strolling magic through a chemotherapy ward. A stage show for a room full of veterans. A training session for physical therapists learning to use sleight of hand as rehabilitation.
Over nearly two decades, our volunteer magicians have performed at hospitals and care centers from New York to Miami to San Francisco and internationally — reaching countless patients, families, and healthcare workers.
Where We've Performed
Our volunteer magicians have given shows at locations including:
- UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital
- San Francisco VA Medical Center
- Stanford Ronald McDonald House
- UCSF Family House
- USO centers
- Crohn's & Colitis Foundation annual galas (NYC)
- Hospitals and care centers across the country and abroad
- An Emberá native community in Panamá
During COVID-19, when hospital volunteering stopped worldwide, MagicIsMedicine organized an international collaboration with magicians from six countries — from Portugal to Israel, China to Kenya — to create a video magic show distributed to hundreds of hospitals internationally, so patients could still experience the healing power of magic from their rooms.
Therapeutic Magic: The Science
Magic in healthcare is more than entertainment. Medical research shows that learning and performing magic tricks has been studied across many areas of healthcare, with evidence suggesting benefits for children's pain and anxiety during medical procedures, social skills in teens with autism, cognitive function in older adults with memory problems, and physical rehabilitation for children with cerebral palsy. The key finding across studies is that actively learning to perform tricks — not just watching — appears to drive the greatest improvements in both physical and mental well-being.
Therapeutic Magic in Clinical Practice
MagicIsMedicine.org trains physicians and physical therapists to use therapeutic magic with everyday clinical objects.
Techniques include:
- Cotton ball vanishes and productions — used to build rapport with pediatric patients and reduce procedural anxiety
- Tongue depressor tricks — transforming a feared exam tool into a source of wonder, helping children cooperate with oropharyngeal exams
- Otoscope and specula illusions — turning the ear exam into a game, reducing resistance in young patients
- Coin manipulations — adapted for fine motor rehabilitation in stroke and Parkinson's patients, targeting pinch grip, finger isolation, and bilateral coordination
- Rubber band and paper clip tricks — used in occupational therapy to improve dexterity and range of motion
- Reflex hammer and tuning fork illusions — engaging patients during neurological exams while simultaneously assessing function
These techniques — originally developed through David Copperfield's Project Magic program — are designed to help patients with stroke, Parkinson's disease, muscular dystrophy, and ALS regain neuromuscular function, range of motion, and cognitive skills. In clinical practice, patients who struggle to grip a pen have been observed regaining the dexterity to perform a coin vanish within weeks of beginning therapeutic magic training — a functional milestone that translates directly to activities of daily living.
"When a stroke patient who couldn't button a shirt learns to palm a coin, that's not a trick — that's rehabilitation."Neuromagic ResearchMagicIsMedicine.org partners with the SUNY Downstate Medical Center neuromagic research laboratory led by Dr. Susana Martinez-Conde and Dr. Stephen Macknik, the husband-and-wife neuroscience team who founded the field of neuromagic in 2005. Dr. Martinez-Conde specializes in fixational eye movements to study neurological disorders including Parkinson's disease; Dr. Macknik uses eye tracking to investigate attention and cognition in patients with autism. Their lab received a $1 million Empire Innovation Award grant with matching funds from SUNY Downstate.Daniel Rosenthal, M.D., is currently authoring a clinical textbook on the use of magic in clinical settings, in collaboration with medical researchers at SUNY Downstate — the first comprehensive guide for physicians seeking to integrate therapeutic magic into patient care and rehabilitation.Our PartnersWe work alongside established organizations in therapeutic magic:- Project Magic — Founded by David Copperfield, combining magicians and occupational therapists to help people with physical and developmental disabilities improve coordination, visual perception, and cognitive skills.- Healing of Magic — Founded by International Magician of the Year Kevin Spencer, bringing therapeutic magic to more than 2,000 healthcare facilities in 33 countries.- Society of American Magicians (S.A.M.) — The world's oldest professional magic society.- International Brotherhood of Magicians (I.B.M.) — The world's largest organization for magicians, with nearly 12,000 members in 73 countries.Magic knows no borders. Our magicians speak one universal language: magic.