Blaine is His Mentor?Inside MagicMagic News Updated Daily for the Professional Magician

It is official. The
world has turned upside down and inside out.
The
Exmouth Journal (UK)
reports this morning on Tom Gunning's plan to swim the English
Channel at the age of 55.

So far so good.

He trained by swimming in the North Sea
and will be helped by The Exmouth Swimming and Lifesaving Society.

The strange part is not his ambition, his endurance, his
support. It is his choice in reading
material to mentally ready his body for the upcoming ordeal.

Mr. Gunning tells reporters he needs to ready himself for
the potentially fatal effects of hypothermia whilst swimming in the frigid
water.

Sure, he can rely upon his training as a Marine, his
championship boxing career, his months of swimming in the tumultuous North Sea where water temperature is usually 34 to 36
degrees Fahrenheit.

But to help master the mind over body aspects of the
endurance, Mr. Gunning said:

"I have found that reading David Blaine books has
helped me to get into the right mindset."

We are now concerned for his safety.

Mr. Blaine's television specials are careful
to advise viewers "not to try this at home." But that's because some of the things Mr.
Blaine appears to have done cannot be done by anyone, any where.

Not even Mr. Blaine can do what Mr. Blaine
chronicles in his book.

Yogi Berra appropriately noted "Baseball is 90 percent mental. The other half is physical."

We know Mr. Gunning
has the physical stuff necessary to become the third Scot to make the
swim.

But we're concerned about the mental
part.

Relying on Mr. Blaine's mental
techniques for enduring pain or solitude would be similar to learning to
operate by studying Filipino Psychic Surgery, or learning self-defense by
reviewing films of the World Wrestling Federation.

We'd hate to upset Mr. Gunning's preparation but someone
should tell him even though Mr. Blaine doesn't seem like one, he is a Magician
first and foremost.