Parsippany Native Starts Non-Profit to Heal Through 'Magic'

The idea for Magical Healing is one that enflames and impassions Parsippany native Paul Cohen, who is realizing his dream of helping others through illusions.

Magical Healing, which is still in the beginning stages, is to become a non-profit organization in which local students would learn magic tricks and illusions to perform for people in hospitals or shelters.

“Local students can engage in the timeless art of magic to transport children and adults in hospitals, senior centers, and homeless shelters from a place of worry to wonderment,” said Cohen. “For in that moment of wonderment a child does not have cancer, an elder is not wheelchair bound and a mother and young child are not wearing someone else's clothes.”

The promise of Magical Healing is that at every level, those involved will be deeply touched and inspired by the magic of their participation.

“Their experience of themselves will be forever transformed, for they will know themselves as people who make a profound difference in the lives of others,” said Cohen.

Cohen had a passion for magic even in his early childhood, performing tricks and illusions for family and friends.

“When I first saw a magician, I never forgot it,” he said.

Cohen rekindled his passion for magic after his mother was diagnosed with cancer.

“In the last year I spent a lot of time with her in the hospital,” he said. “I began tinkering around with something I liked when I was a kid: magic.”

“I started learning some basic stuff that a kid could do and I realized how much fun it was,” he added. “I started practicing card tricks, coin tricks and illusions.”

After visiting his mother for some time, he got better and better at his tricks and began performing them for other patients, their families and the hospital staff.

He immediately realized he was on to something, he said.

“That moment of wonderment can really transport someone even for a moment from where they are,” said Cohen. “For just that moment they are not in that hospital and I was so moved by this.”

“If you are in a hospital and you shine that light, its a lot brighter for someone when their outlook in life is not at its best,” he said. “That simple trick is much brighter for them.”

Cohen came to the realization that as just one person, he would be limited to how much he could do, but as an organization, the number of people they could help was infinite. That was when Magical Healing was born.

As a non-profit organization, volunteers could visit hospitals, nursing homes, homeless shelters and shelters for abused women to help brighten their day, even for a moment.

“Imagine someone in a homeless situation, feeling alienated, afraid and faceless,” said Cohen. “Then one night a group of smiling students from Parsippany come in and through the simple art of magic start connecting with the people there.”

“That same magic, the student experiences that too,” he said. “That student's life will be forever transformed, just as the people that they are connecting with.”

Cohen, who promised his mother to follow through with the non-profit before she passed, is now on a mission to transform Magical Healing from a vision into a reality.

“My heart is in Parsippany,” he said. “I grew up in Parsippany and my family has lived here for over 60 years. It would be a real honor to launch this in my own birthplace.”

More more information or to get involved with Magical Healing conctact Paul Cohen at magicalhealingorg@gmail.com.