The Magician's Assistant

The Magician's Autopoietic Action, or Eros Contained and Uncontained

No need for a social cue! A masked magician can also trick the audience in the vanishing ball illusion.

In the vanishing ball illusion (VBI), a magician throws a ball up in the air twice, after which he pretends to toss it up again, when in fact it remains secretly concealed in his hand. Observers perceive an imaginary ball disappearing into the air. According to Kuhn and Land (2006), the VBI during the fake throw is mediated by the magician's gaze and/or head direction (also called "social cues"...

The magician's forceps phenomenon in exotropia under general anaesthesia.

Prifinium bromide was administered for eight weeks to three patients with exotropia. Under general anaesthesia active discharges from the lateral rectus muscles were demonstrated by electromyography. When a slight adductive force was applied to the straight or the master eye, active discharge from the lateral rectus of the associate eye disappeared in all patients, and this eye moved in the dir...

Misdirection – Past, Present, and the Future

Misdirection refers to the magician's ability to manipulate people's attention, thoughts, and memory. It has been argued that some of the techniques used by magicians to orchestrate people's attention and awareness may provide valuable insights into human cognition. In this paper we review the scientific, as well as some of the magic literature on misdirection. We focus on four main points: (1)...

Human Problem Solving : the State of the Theory in 1970

W HEN the magician pulls the rabbit from the hat, the spectator can respond either with mystification or with curiosity. He can enjoy the surprise and the wonder of the unexplained (and perhaps inexplicable), or he can search for an explanation. Suppose curiosity is his main response—that he adopts a scientist's attitude toward the mystery. What questions should a scientific theory of magic ans...