I am not sure I understand your post, but I'm always game for a philosophy discussion about magic.
when you do a magic trick do you pretend to have superpowers ?
or you want to get a close feeling of doing real Miracles ?
These two things seem like basically the same thing.
So, the two breakdowns that most people use are: It's tricks, or it's real.
The folks who say it's tricks are outright saying, "This is all fake, it's all illusions, I'm just fooling you." The people who go with "it's real" are saying whatever their claim is, is what they are really doing. So with, say, Derren Brown, when he says he's reading body signals and using psychology and statistics to figure stuff out, he's performing as if that's really what he's doing (And it's not). Or if someone performs as a psychic and they refuse to admit to any trickery (Like Uri Geller).
Personally, I don't do either. I present what I hope will be a unique experience which will give them something to think about, or a story to tell to others. I leave it up to them to make the decision as to whether it's real or not.
There's a phrase that gets tossed around, "For the true believer no proof is necessary, and for the skeptic no proof will suffice" (paraphrased). This applies in a lot of ways.
Quick example - when I do my energy transfer routine, the believers in the crowd assume I'm being honest about doing energy work with it. The skeptical folks assume I used some kind of trick that they couldn't see. Most people just enjoy the performance. So my preference is not to try to define it for them and just let them decide on their own.
I already stated it above but my motivation for performance is to put something thought provoking in front of the audience to experience. I have a certain message I deliver, generally along the lines of being nice to each other and staying open to new ideas and strange concepts. That's why I get on stage.
