He believes in his magic and makes us believers too. Henning was at the height of his career after Merlin , with the show adding five Tony nominations to his already well-lauded career. But in 1987, the magician abruptly changed his direction. He took his love for real magic his term for transcendental meditation and levitation and turned it into a full-time study with his friend, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Illusion magic uses laws of science and nature that are already known, he explained to the Los Angeles Times in 1988.
Real magic uses laws that haven t yet been discovered.
Up until the time of his death, Henning was working on a transcendental meditation theme park called Maharishi Veda Land that would be built in India and Canada. He even promised that one of the buildings would levitate. It was the fulfillment of my career to do this, he told the Times in a phone interview from India. They haven t been touched by cynicism. And that was the way Henning always preferred it.