The famous gorilla experiment proved that when attention is focused on a task, people can miss something as obvious as a gorilla walking through the scene. This is not a quirk. This is the scientific foundation for an enormous amount of what magicians do.
Read MoreIn the famous door study, people failed to notice when the person they were talking to was replaced by someone else mid-conversation. Change blindness is more extreme than most performers realize, and its implications for magic go far beyond card switches.
Read MoreThe Princess Card Trick works because people focus on their chosen card and fail to notice that every other card has changed. Science confirms this specific blindness -- and the implications go far beyond one trick.
Read MoreRepetition increases vigilance. The same misdirection technique that works perfectly the first time becomes transparent the second time. Science explains why -- and what this means for show construction, encore requests, and the deadly temptation to repeat.
Read MoreBrain imaging studies show that watching magic activates regions associated with cognitive conflict -- the brain detecting a mismatch between what it predicted and what it perceived. Magic is not entertainment alone. It is a neurological event.
Read More