René Lavand is without equal in his chosen field. He has held audiences around the world spellbound with his poetic and emotional style of presentation. Over forty years ago René Lavand, "the one-armed magician from Argentina," created a sensation on The Ed Sullivan Show. Since then he has devoted his life to refining and performing his own brand of close-up magic. Luminaries such as Dai Vernon, Slydini, Juan Tamariz and Ascanio have referred to him as one of magic's great treasures and an artist of the highest degree.

This book is the culmination of that lifetime of work. Now under one cover are René's first two books Slow Motion Magic I and II as well as the never-before published Volume III. Additional routines have been culled from existing sets of Spanish language lecture notes and of course it includes René's trademark routine with three bread crumbs and a tea cup as seen on The World's Greatest Magic television special. All of this great material has been re-translated from the original Spanish manuscripts and with the assistance of videotape and live demonstrations, each routine has been completely rewritten. Finally, 225 line drawings by Homer Liwag were added to further clarify this wealth of material.

You will be astounded by the techniques that René has created which allow him to perform these miracles but as he never fails to point out at his lectures, "... it is possible to perform these effects with two hands as well." His theories on presentation and methodology serve as valuable lessons to all magicians. If you never perform a single trick from this book, Magic From the Soul still stands as an important work for those who are interested in magic as a performing art.

Not to be overlooked is the first chapter of this book; a short biography of René that is illustrated with numerous photographs. Here is a book to inspire any true lover of mystery written by a man who has earned the right to call magic an art.