UDUPI (India), Nov 24: Magicians are using their skills to sell products and lift the morale of employees in a bid to make their art commercially viable, practitioners at an international magic conference in India said Saturday.

In India one magician is helping a state-run bank to market its products.

Fifty-two-year-old Shankar Bhat, one of the delegates at the International Magicians’ Convention being held in the southern Indian town of Udupi, helped the Syndicate Bank extend its customer base by holding magic shows in southern districts of India.

“Everyone is interested in watching a show and once you weave magic around a product it sells better,” Bhat said.

“Even today magic is being displayed all over India. Magic needs good godfathers to survive. When corporations sponsor or call us for special shows it gives us the opportunity to experiment with new items.”

Most of the 200 magicians attending the conference are Indian, but there are also representatives from Australia, the United States and Britain.

Australian Charles Gauci, 64, said he used his hypnotic skills to motivate employees of Australian companies and even cricketers.

“Through hypnotherapy I have been able to increase the confidence level of employees and help their hidden talent blossom,” he said.

Gauci, who learned magic at the age of 13, specialises in modifying the behaviour of his clients through hypnosis by giving “suggestions to the subconscious mind.”

“I have been able to solve cases of agoraphobia, eating disorders and smoking among my patients,” Gauci said.

“Also I have been working with many multinational companies in Australia to help them identify achievers and procrastinators in their company. After that I work on the employees to help them deliver their talent better,” he said.

Gauci said an Australian cricketer called him up a couple of years ago to find out why he was out of form.

“I worked on him over the telephone for a couple of days and was able to solve his problems,” he said.

Gauci has designed customised tapes for his patients and employees.

“One has to understand their inner thoughts and then lift those thoughts,” he said.

Guy Bavli, from Israel, conducts shows for corporations around the world to market their products.

“I build magic around the product. I customise the show,” Bavli said. “One needs to be a very good actor in this but there is good money in it.”

Bavli claims he can move a metal object without touching it and can bend spoons and forks through telepathy.

He said he had predicted the winners of the 1996 Israeli elections and even wrote the names of candidates who would assume particular ministries.

“I have done a show for computer companies, coffee-making machines and kitchen utensils (companies). Magic will have to be commercially viable. It has to survive,” Bavli said.—AFP