I have become a willing captive of my own cocoon, my past and present woven around me. Soon I will sleep and in my sleep I will dream about the future; what will I become? I pray the Dream Lord will visit me. Only then will inspiration make its presence known. Only then will I have the aid of prescient sight.

Salvador Dali proclaimed that if you knew what a painting would look like before you painted it, there was no reason to paint it. Discovery is critical to the creative process, although process may be too organized a term... more like creative panic attack. How often does the proverbial lightbulb go on over your head? Almost never.

It may surprise many to learn that an idea can be kicked around in your subconscious while you sleep. Suddenly, the next day, the idea crystalizes in your mind and you exclaim Eureka! or I have found it!

Archimedes is said to have cried this in a bath tub when he discovered the Archimedes Principle: that a body is buoyed up by a force equal to the weight of the water it displaces. Vitruvius, the guy in the square-circle (the drawing by Da Vinci, not the trick) tells the story that Archimedes was given a crown by Hero II, and told that Hero had supplied the gold for the crown, but was concerned that the goldsmiths had replaced some of the gold with silver, keeping the gold for themselves. Archimedes was to determine if this was true, without melting the crown down. Archimedes considered the problem several days while reclining in a bath (a technique employed regularly by Jonathan Neal), and the method was revealed to him when the water level rose above the top of the bath and spilled over. So the lightbulb went on, but not without the toil of thought and experimentation, such as it was.

This is not a discipline magicians are fond of and why should they be? Grab a magic DVD and a notebook and you are ready to do research. If you are still not sure how you would present the magic, then fire up the PC and check out the graveyard of performance: YouTube. Here hundreds of routines are presented and endlessly revisited. What need is there of discovery? What need is there for a new idea when the gods of pixels can stream an existing presentation directly to your neocortex for consumption?

My wandering in the wilderness (my chosen euphemism for the time spent in jail) revealed to me that, if I wanted to return, I would need to reinvent myself yet again, and to rethink my material in order to match a new persona. So I find myself, once again, in the process. This is not a deterrent to me; with everything I have done (riding big waves, cliff diving, extreme skiing, etc.), the biggest rush I have ever experienced has been the realization of a new idea. I have learned that I cannot escape my past; rather, I must find a way of interweaving Metaphysics with Jonathan Pendragon: Illusionist.

When I began my quest, I never expected this. But I have discovered that, as I rebuild my performance, the bath water keeps running over the tub. Sometimes it is the excitement of a new project with Jim Steinmeyer, and sometimes it is the familiarity of greeting my dog on stage. My future begins to take shape in my conscious. I no longer fear what lies ahead.

I wanted to wall up Jonathan Pendragon: Illusionist, with all the dispassionate resolve of Montresor. But he refuses to stay buried. Listen... do you hear that noise? Tear up the floorboards! It is the beating of his accursed heart! [Poe... sort of]

CATCH UP ON PREVIOUS INSTALLMENTS: Part 1 • Part 2 • Part 3 • Part 4 • Part 5 • Part 6