The Fushigi magic gravity ball, or “contact ball” as it is most often called, was originally a transparent ball made of a very hard plastic such as acrylic or polycarbonate. While lighter
than crystal balls, they can still break toes, laptops and expensive furniture.
Recently appearing on the American contact juggling scene, the Fushigi brand contact ball has sparked mixed reactions among contact artists who have been developing the various branches of this discipline for over 20 years. This is largely due to the allegedly unethical marketing practices of the Fushigi company, who seemed from the beginning to not only claim that they had invented contact juggling, but also to warn new customers to beware of imitators selling “counterfeit” Fushigi balls.
Since the Fushigi commercial first aired, there have been many questions 
about how these balls work, and how they manage to defy gravity and float in mid-air. It is important to state here and now that there is no gimmick or magic trick involved, as the artists who have dedicated decades of effort to perfecting their skills can readily attest. The word “Fushigi” itself is Japanese for “magic” or “mysterious”, and it is true that magicians have worked to create the illusion of a floating ball since time immemorial. You can easily find more information on such tricks by doing an internet search for “Magic Zombie Ball”.
However, in 1985, performance artist Michael Moschen combined the worlds of illusion and ball manipulation in his “Light” routine, stunning the world with his breathtaking crystal balls that seemed to float between his hands and over his arms. His work reached even greater masses through the character of the Goblin King in the film “Labyrinth”.
The following video goes behind the scenes to expose both the history and illusion that went into the making of contact juggling, and its new little brother Fushigi:
As you can clearly see in this video, many of the tricks proposed by the Fushigi company were actually invented by others under different names. 
For example, the “Enigma” is a shortened form of “Edson’s Enigma”, named after Owen Edson, co-creator of the Contact Juggling: Part I DVD.
Similarly, the “Levitation” hand trick is one variation of the isolations which are one of the most mesmerizing aspects of traditional contact juggling. These tricks include any maneuver in which the ball seems to remain still while the rest of your body moves around it. You can see some of the best isolation work to date in the following extract from the “In Isolation” DVD:
The “Prayer Cross”, as the Fushigi people call their trick, seems to be the “butterfly” move which is the starting place for many contact jugglers. However, they seem to have taken their trick’s name from the “prayer”, which is an entirely different move.
Since Fushigi’s initial release of their ball, they have never once sold a transparent ball like the one shown in the original commercial. Instead, they now only offer balls with either a metallic or a glow-in-the-dark core. This will probably disappoint many new customers, as the floating illusion will be much less striking than what they have seen on TV.
According to John Cammarano, the man in charge of the campaign, the Fushigi staff made this decision for safety reasons: when exposed to direct sunlight, a clear acrylic ball acts like a magnifying glass and can cause fires, burn your hands or damage your eyes. I myself have had to take my acrylic ball away from small children who just wanted to take a closer look, but didn’t understand how they could be burned by simply holding it.
After one member of the contactjuggling.org forum received a Fushigi ball, he noticed that there were two major defects with the metallic design. The first is that the inner chrome ball has a sink line all the way around it and tends to throw off the illusion of isolation. However, this apparently also makes the ball look as though it is made of liquid. The other defect is that there is a bit of ribbing on the acrylic; according to the reviewer, three of these lines are only visible at certain angles, but you have to look closely to see them.
Update October 2010
After many negotiations with John Cammarano, ZoomTV finally agreed to shoot a new commercial that mentioned three important points. First of all, Fushigi is not an art form. It is a copy of an existing art form, whether you call it contact juggling, Sphere Play, or dynamic manipulation (the term preferred by Michael Moschen). Second, they mentioned contact juggling and “CJ”. And third and most importantly, they stripped away the illusion that there was some trick or gimmick that would allow anyone to do amazing things in “just minutes”. ZoomTV did this by removing the words “magic” and “gravity” from the commercial (it is still on the T-shirts and product boxes), as well as the claim that the ball floats.
Although the new commercial was published to YouTube over a month ago, it is still not being broadcast on national television. Thus, many contact jugglers’ hopes that John and his crew will finally reveal the truth to an unwary America, are slowly dying once again.
To compound this problem, there is currently talk about launching a major Fushigi marketing campaign in America’s school system, proposing “Fushigi” as a recreational sport to be taught in a similar fashion to athletics and physical education. Unfortunately, the direction this campaign seems to be taking is one of competition and one-upmanship. Historically, these two things can turn what started as fun and games, into a high-pressure arena where anger and pride are more important than friendship and sharing.
So will the “Fushigi” craze merely be a short-lived fad, reducing the public image of contact jugglers to “users of a magic trick ball”? Or will the contact juggling community gain even more respect after the difficulty of learning this fascinating art form is understood first-hand by a much larger audience?
I suppose that in the end, it is up to the artists themselves to educate the public on this breath-taking sport which, although it looks like magic, has always been so much more.
What do you think? Talk back!
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lol, if the Fushigi Creatore wana make even more money, they should make Dragon Ball Fushigis, now that would get peoples attention even more!
Well, since “fushigi” is just another name for “ball”, I guess they could market them as “Dragon Fushigis”. I actually have a beautiful crystal ball (or glass, not sure) with a Chinese dragon engraved on it. Very nice, and is even impressive when you’re not throwing it around the room! :)
i should share that idea with them, if only i can find their number or something.
You could just follow the puddly trail of children’s Christmas tears…
I have tried the Fushigi ball and it does noty work for me.
That’s just the problem. Fushigi balls aren’t supposed to work, because they’re not designed to. As mentioned above, a Fushigi ball is just a ball. A pretty ball, perhaps, but no more so than an acrylic or chrome ball.
Saying it doesn’t work is like saying a basketball or soccer ball doesn’t work. Because of course, the ball isn’t supposed to do the work. You are.
Anyway, I’m sorry you were disappointed. Unfortunately, a large part of America was disappointed as well, and now the ZoomTV crew are trying to sell to other countries because Americans have smartened up to them..
Hi my name is stevo iv been cjing for a couple months its the best and its really fun and shhould be fun if your not getting mad at the fact you have to put dedication in to this ART and not being mad at the fact it WON’T JUST FLOAT ON IT.S. OWN . What’s really sad about the fushigi is that they got contact jugglers in the vids and they are ok with telling the world the mis leading info and the really funny part is in the vids they show some useing a fushigi but the rest use a clear acrylic hahahaha I think they should stop lieing and tell the truth and how it all started by micheal moschen in the 1980s not in 2010 and honestly if your looking in to cjing or contact juggling then start out with a stage ball or a cilex ball then work up to the acrylics cause beleave me your gonna drop it hundreds of time but the fushigi is of centerd and is way lighter then a real acrylic so Don’t Waist Your Money !!!!!!
Hi Stevo, and thanks for your comment! Yeah, unfortunately what you say is pretty much true, and I do hope that thing blows over once people realize that it’s not a magic ball and that it’s also not called “Fushigi”. I know a lot of kids were disappointed on Christmas, and I imagine a lot of parents will be very angry when they realize how destructive such a little ball can be! I don’t think a “floating magic ball” is a good way to market such a dangerous things to kids. Anyway, we’ll see what happens…
I should digg your article so more people are able to see it, very useful, I had a tough time finding the results searching on the web, thanks.
- Thomas
Thanks Thomas, I appreciate the comment. There’s a lot of misinformation about the ball out there on the web; it’s not surprising that it can be very hard to find the truth.
If you know how to do contact juggling, its easy. I know how to do a little bit of contact juggling. I like this ball, but its really hard though!!!.
I like this ball though, but as other people say its fake, I did realize that when I bought online. The ball suked if you don’t know how to use it!!. It does takes a lot of practice to do contact Juggling(CJ) it may take years!!. but still, I will warn you, from my experiance, If you’re going to buy the arcyllic ball it sucks and will even hurt you if in contact with the sun!!!
Acrylics or Fushigis, beginners shouldn’t be buying such heavy balls to start out with anyway. Neither should anyone who isn’t responsible enough to take care of their equipment. A metal core isn’t the only way to block the sunlight, though. There are also opaque and translucent balls, meaning that only part of the sunlight (or no sunlight at all) gets through. I don’t understand why you say “the acrylic ball sucks”. Can you explain?
Thanks
Visit this site and add info or learn about the fushigi ball. whatisafushigiball.com
I put that site together because children are fooled by the advertisement and the info needs to be learned.
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i really want the fushigi magic ball when does it hit he stores
Hello, hiwan! I’m not a vendor, and I don’t know when and if the Fushigi brand ball is ever going to be available in normal stores. If you want, check out your local juggling store, and if you’re buying for a child, ask for advice. Contact balls are almost always available in many different colors and materials (some of them are even UV reactive!) which are less dangerous than clear acrylics when exposed to direct sunlight.
If you do prefer one of the beautiful clear acrylics, you can no longer buy a Fushigi-brand ball, and your best bet is either a local or on-line juggling store. If you’re in the U.S., Neon Husky and Serious Juggling on-line stores sell real 3″ acrylics at $19-$20 + shipping and handling, which is the same price as the Fushigi ball.
In any case, I’m glad you’re thinking of starting along this path! It’s a lot of fun, and also very good for overall balance and coordination.
Fushigi is being sold at Beds Bath and Beyond stores. I went in one last week and they had a ton.
Ya, just another fad. Anyone remember the Rubiks cube? How many kids still have play with one? None. They use cell phones now. I would love to see a youtube video of a noob pull one straight out of the shipping box and work this magic the first time just because they spent $20…No wait, I mean 19.99. It doesn’t even command a full Jackson! Honestly, those fake “jugglers” (or Fushigi-ers as they will come to be known) in the commercial aren’t even that good. One trick ponies if you ask me.
I see Rubik’s cubes everywhere I go, both 3x3x3′s and 4x4x4′s. Though, one can’t really compare the appeal of clear balls with a good puzzle :)
Haha, good point John.. But some people really love their balls, and even feel physical pain if they fall on hard ground. I suppose I was that way with my first ball (it was expensive and I was broke), but I don’t worry about it so much anymore.
Anyway, I loved Rubik’s Magic Puzzle about 10 years ago, and only recently picked one up at a friend’s.. To my surprise, I was able to remember a lot of stuff. Memory’s in the hands, I guess.
The Rubik’s Cube is a bad example, because they still sell a lot of them, and there is a lot of fairly serious interest, in recreational math, for instance. Since contact juggling is a real thing, it’s not as bad as the Furby or Zhu Zhu Pets, but it’s true that too many Fushigis will probably end up in the closet permanently after Christmas.
it’s amazing to see people open up the box and expect it to float out on it’s own.
8J
My favorite was a little girl who claimed the ball was filled with “space oxygen” that the astronauts brought back from the moon… I bet she was disappointed when she opened her Christmas present and found out the secret ingredient was … dun-dun-dun-dun-duuuuun… metal.
At least if it were made of wood, you could throw it into the pond. And if it floats… a witch! BURN IT!!!
coolest thing ive ever seen
Exactly! This is precisely why I got interested in this art form in the first place! An amazing invention.. Now, if we can just cure cancer…
seriously there are so many geniuses out there, but they (in wishful thinking) we get bored often thus starting the art magic show biz and so many cheesy movies and novels when we (wishful thinking again) could be curing cancer! a lot of smart people are idiots 8D
But fortunately, a lot of idiots are actually very smart. Don’t worry? Be happy? Might as well enjoy it before they invent another exciting new way to push life on Earth to the brink of extinction… Fortunately, if you’re dumb enough you don’t have to worry about that kind of thing.
Or else you spend entirely too much time in the attic, rocking back and forth freneticly, playing and playing and playing with your Fushigi ball…
I’m innocent Your Honour, I swear!!! ;)