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Overview
A psychologist and magician shows how the scientific study of magic reveals intriguing—and often unsettling—insights into the mysteries of the human mind.
What do we see when we watch a magician pull a rabbit out of a hat or read a person’s mind? We are captivated by an illusion; we applaud the fact that we have been fooled. Why do we enjoy experiencing what seems clearly impossible, or at least beyond our powers of explanation? In Experiencing the Impossible, Gustav Kuhn examines the psychological processes that underpin our experience of magic.
Kuhn, a psychologist and a magician, reveals the intriguing—and often unsettling—insights into the human mind that the scientific study of magic provides. Magic, Kuhn explains, creates a cognitive conflict between what we believe to be true (for example, a rabbit could not be in that hat) and what we experience (a rabbit has just come out of that hat!). Drawing on the latest psychological, neurological, and philosophical research, he suggests that misdirection is at the heart of all magic tricks, and he offers a scientific theory of misdirection. He explores, among other topics, our propensity for magical thinking, the malleability of our perceptual experiences, forgetting and misremembering, free will and mind control, and how magic is applied outside entertainment—the use of illusion in human-computer interaction, politics, warfare, and elsewhere.
We may be surprised to learn how little of the world we actually perceive, how little we can trust what we see and remember, and how little we are in charge of our thoughts and actions. Exploring magic, Kuhn illuminates the complex—and almost magical—mechanisms underlying our daily activities.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780262039468 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | MIT Press |
| Publication date: | 03/12/2019 |
| Series: | The MIT Press |
| Pages: | 296 |
| Sales rank: | 649,716 |
| Product dimensions: | 6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.00(d) |
| Age Range: | 18 Years |
About the Author
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments xi
1 What Is Magic? 1
Is Magic about Tricks and Deception? 5
Is Magic about Illusion? 7
Is Magic about Special Effects? 10
Is Magic about the Supernatural? 11
Is Magic about Suspension of Disbelief? 14
Is Magic about Conflict between Belief Systems? 15
Is Magic about Impossibility? 17
Does Magic Have a Neural Basis? 18
Magic as a Kind of Wonder 20
Do We All Experience the Same Magic? 21
2 How to Create Magic 27
Pseudoexplanations 29
Why We Accept Magic Stuff 32
Creating Magic through Misdirection 35
How Does Misdirection Work? 39
A Bayesian Theory of Misdirection 49
3 The Belief in Real Magic 53
Magical Thinking 55
Do You Have to Be Mentally Unwell to Believe in Magic? 56
How Magical Beliefs Influence Our Lives 61
Magical Thinking in Children 66
Why Do We Believe in Magic? 69
4 The Gaps in Our Conscious Experience 75
Shattering the Illusion 78
How Much of the World Can We Encode? 79
How Much Do We Really See? 80
The Scientific Study of Attentional Misdirection 82
What Are You Looking At? 85
What Are You Attending To? 93
Why Does It Matter? 96
What Can Be Done to Alleviate These Problems? 99
5 Seeing Is Believing 101
What Is an Illusion? 103
Making Sense of the World 110
Fooling You into Seeing Nothing 117
Seeing the Future 121
6 Memory Illusions 131
Human Memory 133
Forgetting 135
Misremembering 139
7 Mind Control and the Magician's Force 147
The Magician's Force 151
Mind Control through Drugs and Subliminal Persuasion 154
Is Free Will an Illusion? 160
8 Mind Control through Hypnosis 171
Hypnosis on the Stage 172
Early Ideas about Hypnosis 175
Hypnosis in the Lab 176
9 Applied Magic 189
Magic and Human-Machine Interaction 192
Magic and Real-World Deception 194
Magic and Film 198
Magic and Design 201
Magic and Well-Being 202
A Science of Magic: Attempt #1 207
A Science of Magic: Attempt #2 211
10 How to Advance the Magic Endeavor? 217
Improving Magic Methods through Science 219
Why Do We Enjoy Magic? 225
The Performer: Magic and Gender 230
Summary 233
11 Conclusion 235
Notes 239
Index 273
What People are Saying About This
"Whether you are someone who is captivated by magic tricks or not, if you care about the human mind, you'll like Experiencing the Impossible. Psychologist Gustav Kuhn takes us on a fascinating trip around the mysterious world of deception and illusion. This book is a wonderful journey that teaches us much about the science behind the experience of magic."
—Elisabeth Loftus, Distinguished Professor, University of California, Irvine, and author of Eyewitness Testimony"In Experiencing the Impossible, Gustav Kuhn breaks new ground at the intersection of magic and science. An engrossing read that is engaging and not overly technical, this book will deepen your appreciation for magic and those who perform it."
—Joshua Jay, magician; author of Magic: The Complete Course“The evolution of illusionism in the twenty-first century is transforming the art of magic into a social and cultural element and an object of study used in many environments far beyond show business. The contribution of this book, written with passion and competence by the psychologist-magician Gustav Kuhn, deepens the ability of illusion to reveal how mind works, adding a powerful and important contribution to the development of magic.”
—Domenico Dante, International President, Fédération Internationale des Sociétés Magiques“Previous attempts to scientifically examine the principles of conjuring have all suffered from a shallow understanding of science, magic, or both. But here, for the first time, a researcher with deep knowledge of both science and magic shares his findings with the world. Within twenty pages, I, a professional conjurer, felt that my grasp of my own field became noticeably richer.”
—Tom Stone, magician; author of Vortex and Maelstro