Dorigami wrote this morning - or was is last night? - time is so relative, you see -

<< I am leaning to believing that many of the early practioners of origami were magicians and used it in performing. >>

This is a subject which has seriously interested me for a long time (another relative term). I hope to write an article about magicians and origami, but frankly, at the moment, I have too much on.

I doubt if paperfolding originated with magicians, but over the history of paperfolding they have certainly played a big part in it. If troublewit can be counted paperfolding, then troublewit was certainly the field of magicians and the earliest instructions for a paper fold that we have found so far is for troublewit..

The Flapping Bird is said to have been intoroduced to the West by Japanese magicians in the 19th Century (or were they really Chinese magicians?)

The early writers of books on paperfolding, William D. Murray, Francis J Rigney, Will Blythe, and Houdini were all magicians. So was Robert Harbin.

Money Folding was the preserve of the magicians before World War II. Martin Gardner was a magician. So were Robert Neale, and Neal Elias. Many a paperfolder carries a magician's wand in his knapsack.

Of course, the reason is simple: Origami is simply Magic!

David Lister