lesson: the power of the mind

I was on stage with a performer. She was a magician of sorts and I was there to assist her in her act. I could not see the audience as the lights bearing down on the stage were so intensely bright, they curtained anything behind from view. I could, however, hear the audience and, because of the vast size of the stage and because they were quite vocal, I guessed that the audience was large. I felt no fear, rather I was intrigued by the woman's act. She threw a balloon in the air, toying with it for a moment, perhaps to establish that it was indeed the weight and buoyancy of a common balloon. She then batted the balloon to me. I went to bat it back, but at her command and just before it reached me, it stopped and floated straight up into the air. I could vaguely hear the crowd respond, although my attention was mostly on the occurrences onstage. I looked at the floor to see if there was something - an air vent, a camouflaged fan - that would have changed the course of the balloon so sharply. There was only an indent of someone's heel in the old wooden floor boards. The balloon descended and I caught it, felt it for a moment, and batted it back to the magician. I noticed that my arms felt very weak and that I was barely able to muster the strength to hit the balloon with enough force to send it to her. She put the balloon aside and produced a ball about the size of a basketball. Again, she toyed with the ball for a moment to communicate to the audience its weight and bouncing capacity. She threw the ball at me and, this time, I caught it. I attempted to throw it back, but, again, my arms felt as though they had no strength. Even raising the ball to prepare to throw it was extremely difficult. I lamely tossed the ball back in her direction. It bounced only a few feet in front of me and more or less rolled along the ground to her feet. She looked at me, scooped up the ball and again threw it to me. I caught it, awkwardly and with much effort, thrice feeling the utter weakness of my arms. I took a deep breath and concentrated. I thought that if I could only think it, if I could draw on my inner resources and use my mind to overcome this state, I would be able to throw the ball. I closed my eyes, focused on my rising strength, visualised it growing and saw my body powerful, and threw the ball. It shot past the magician, across the vast stage and off the other side. The magician spun around to face the ball, stretched her arms out in front of her and, using her mental energy, drew the ball back into her hands. The audience cheered and I was impressed by her ability. I realised that it was a lesson on how to use the power of your mind.