After years of ignoring magic, researchers are starting to realise
that the methods magicians use to manipulate the human mind might hold
important insights into how it works.
Magic is all about
appearing to break the laws of nature - making solid objects appear or
disappear, sawing human beings in half, reading people's minds, and so
on.
The laws of nature, of course, are inviolable, which is
why magicians target the human brain instead, packed as it is with
glitches and weaknesses that can be exploited to create the illusion of
doing the impossible. And they're brilliant at it: magic tricks only
work if you fool all of the people all of the time.
Cognitive neuroscientists also have a long-standing interest in
tricks of the mind, as these are a useful source of insight into how
the brain works. Visual illusions, for example, have taught them a huge
amount about how the brain processes visual information. Now they're
dipping into the treasure chest of cognitive illusions provided by
magic.
Over the past couple of years, neuroscientists and magicians have
been getting together to create a science that might be called
"magicology".
If successful, both sides stand to benefit. By
plundering the magicians' book of tricks, researchers hope to develop
powerful new tools for probing perception and cognition. And if they
find any tricks they can't explain, that could lead to new knowledge
about how the brain works.
Similarly, magicians hope that the
collaboration will lead to new magic tricks by alerting them to
perceptual or cognitive weaknesses that they didn't already know about.
"The real proof that a science of magic has come of age will be when we
can use science to build a better magic trick," says Richard Wiseman, a
psychologist at the University of Hertfordshire in Hatfield, UK.
Learn more about the fascinating tricks of the Magician's trade, such as misdirection, illusion and forcing, by clicking on the Source Link below.