![]() ![]() ![]() Intuitively we feel that we are aware of most of our surroundings, but this vivid and detailed subjective experience turns out to be another powerful illusion, equally counter-intuitive and therefore equally open to exploitation by magicians. Author provided Ignoring the presentĪ further misconception about visual experience relates to the amount of detail that we think we are aware of. It’s relatively easy to distort your perceptual experience and these distortions become very apparent when we look at visual illusion. But it turns out that our visual experiences are far less reliable than we intuitively think. In fact, vision is so important that we often don’t believe things until we see them with our own eyes. Vision is our most trusted sense, and influences many of our thoughts and behaviours. Many of these limitations are very counter-intuitive which is why we can experience the magical wonder of the impossible. While some magicians would like you to believe that they possess real magical powers, the true secret behind magic lies in clever psychological techniques that exploit limitations in the way our brains work. ![]() It creates a conflict between the things you think can happen and the things that you experience. Magic allows you to experience the impossible. While most of their tricks remain precious secrets, scientists, myself among them, have started studying magic to gain insights into how and why our minds are so easily deceived. Magic is one of the oldest art forms and since written records began, magicians have baffled and amazed their audiences by creating illusions of the impossible. How is this possible, you ask yourself? You have a pretty good understanding of how objects behave and you know from experience that objects cannot simply disappear into thin air, yet this is exactly what you see. The magician snaps his fingers and a ball disappears right in front of your eyes. ![]()
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January 2023
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