The Unchanging Magic of Perception

In a world where our feelings can lend unusual nuances even to the most ordinary events, observation becomes a source of brief yet powerful magic. Imagine that you saw a dancing bear in the forest – your perception fills with joy and delight, instantly transforming the mundane into something enchanted. However, the true essence of the phenomenon remains unaltered and independent of those who witness it. The emotional response adds extra symbolic layers to the event, allowing one to momentarily believe in a miracle, but reality unfolds according to its own laws. Thus, experiencing magic is a tribute to aesthetics and a fleeting emotion that does not change the objective existence of the situation itself.

Does the observation by onlookers affect the genuine existence of an event, such as a dancing bear in the forest?

Onlookers’ observation can indeed change the nature of how an event is perceived by lending it a tint of wonder, but it does not alter its objective, authentic nature. In other words, even if a bear in the forest dances – or performs some other astonishing action – the event itself occurs independently of whether there is someone to observe it. The joy, astonishment, and brief sensation of magic experienced by the viewers arise from their emotional response, yet these feelings only provide additional aesthetic and symbolic meaning to the event while remaining within the framework of its real existence.

As emphasized in one reflection on the nature of the miraculous, “When she satisfies herself even with a play of the miraculous, by imitating it, depicting it and causing the viewers—if only for a moment—to erupt in an exclamation of ‘ah!’ and believe in a coherent miracle, there must be some surge, some instantaneous impulse…” (source: link ). This passage indicates that it is precisely because of the emotional resonance and the fleeting awakening of viewers’ belief that an event is perceived as miraculous. However, the miracle itself, or the authentic event, exists independently of the public gaze.

Thus, it can be said that the observation by onlookers imbues an event with additional emotional and symbolic nuances, but it is not the decisive factor in determining its objective existence.