Building upon Robert Neale’s idea, I want to suggest that humans perform many of these life magics—spells and rituals, illusions and incantations—and that they play an indispensable part in a happy, healthy, and flourishing life.Nietzsche was the first philosopher to ask the then-scandalous question about whether some falsehoods might have higher life value than truths.3 Over a century later, there is no question: the answer is yes. In Positive Illusions: Creative Self-Deception and the Healthy Mind (1989), psychologist Shelley E. Taylor argues that “normal human thought and perception is marked not by accuracy but by positive self-enhancing illusions about the self, the world, and the future” (7). To support her conclusion, Taylor draws on a wide range of empirical studies to identify a number of different life magics that we use. Taylor argues that there is a set of positive illusions about our self as a sort of hero in our lives. For example, humans think and say, “I did it”—that is, we tend to tell our personal histories in ways that selectively filter out failings and bring our contributions to the fore. Closely related, Taylor argues, is the power of positive thinking: “I can do it!” Well, maybe we can and maybe we can’t, but it is evident from empirical studies that if we really believe we can, it makes it far more likely that we will succeed. Taylor also writes about the health-giving illusions of control over our environment and the illusory notion that tomorrow will be pretty much like today. The reality is that tomorrow need not be like today—as, for example, the shock of 9/11 reminded us—but it is painful and debilitating to centralize the truth that our lives are precari- ous, unpredictable, and in many ways beyond our control. Although Taylor doesn’t make the explicit connection, she demonstrates that we are all engaged in everyday magic-making.