For more than 40 years I’ve wanted a grand piano. I wanted it so keenly that I made a illusionary grand piano, like Gepetto made an illusionary boy named Pinnochio … and last week my illusionary piano magically transformed into a real one (see this blog post for more on N.C. for a performance residency at CPCC.   I walked into my hosts, Betsey and Dick Sessler’s house, saw their grand piano, sat down, put my fingers on the keys and didn’t come up for air for another 30 minutes. I was completely subsumed in that piano.

Betsey reminded me it was the piano she’d told me about on the phone.

Then I remembered: we’d discussed the possibility of my performing a private concert at her home – but there was this big piano taking up the performance space in her living room, and she hadn’t found the right loving home for it. I’d forgotten all about that conversation.   And suddenly I knew exactly where that loving home was…

Call it synchronicity. Call it the law of attraction. Call it luck.

I believe it’s the magic of illusion creating reality.  The magic of having your dream so clear that you immediately know it when you see it.  The magic of creating an illusion that’s so strong that it becomes reality.

I believe it's the magic of illusion creating reality Share on X

I could have waffled on this – but I didn’t.

There was no question for me of whether or not I should invest in shipping this piano to my house.  No question whether or not to invest in flying it via crane into my music room versus putting it in the easy-access first floor.

I knew EXACTLY  where the piano lived in my life because it was already living there in illusionary form.  It already existed completely – all it had to do was assume physical form.

And it did.  And within 24 hours it was already taking its place in my life and my work.

How real are you willing to let your dreams become? How willing are you to invest in the illusion?

How real are you willing to let your dreams become? Share on X

When I mentor creative artists in my “Harness Your Muse” program, I give them a set of steps to go through with their creative projects – ways to enhance the illusion that their show or publication already exists.

Each one of these illusions brings the project more and more vivid until the illusion becomes reality.

Each illusion becomes more vivid until the illusion becomes reality Share on X

Actually …  reality becomes what the illusion was.

I call these steps “shape shifters” – and they’re very simple – the natural shapes that a show or a publication takes when it’s being shared: the program, the poster, the script, the cover page, the acknowledgements … but most people wait until they’ve created a show or composition before creating these.

I discovered that when you create the illusion for yourself that something already exists, it creates its own reality.  The more vivid you make that illusion, the more it becomes real.

Do you have a creative dream that’s ready to shift into a vivid illusion – and then to reality?  If that dream is one of creating a performance, a show, a composition, a musical program, learn more about working with me in the “Harness Your Muse” program at HarnessYourMuse.com or email me direct