Over time, the acceptance of and belief in magic has changed drastically. In general, the origins of the so-called craft are a bit murky. There are a few reasons for this. For one, Bailey notes that some of the original texts about it were burned or destroyed to prevent knowledge from getting out. Also, as magic historians Peter Lamont and Jim Steinmeyer point out in their book The Secret History of Magic , there are quite a few myths. For example, for almost a century, historians claimed the first recorded magic trick involved a man named Djedi who decapitated and then resurrected a goose in ancient Egypt for the Pharaoh. Turns out, It was just a made-up story, Lamont and Steinmeyer write.