Overview

What can magic tell us about ourselves and our daily lives? If you subtly change the subject during an uncomfortable conversation, did you know you're using attentional 'misdirection', a core technique of magic? And if you've ever bought an expensive item you'd sworn never to buy, you were probably unaware that the salesperson was, like an accomplished magician, a master at creating the 'illusion of choice'. In Sleights of Mind, leading neuroscientists Stephen Macknik and Susana Martinez-Conde meet with magicians from all over the world to explain how the magician's art sheds light on consciousness, memory, attention, and belief. As the founders of the new discipline of NeuroMagic, they combine cutting-edge scientific research with startling insights into the tricks of the magic trade, showing how the world's greatest masters of deception turn the brain's faculties against itself. By understanding how magic manipulates the processes in our brains, we can better understand how we work - in fields from law and education to marketing, health and psychology - for good and for ill.

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9781846683909

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Reviews

One of the best books I've read on how the brain actually works ... And the back story, of two boffins trying to become magicians - and succeeding! - is great too -- William Leith Evening Standard Sleights of Mind is a terrific read, combining science, neurology, and magic - not an easy trick, but the authors have done a brilliant job of putting a mirror up to ourselves. I loved it. -- Joe Navarro, author of 'What Every Body is Saying' Magic is the place where our senses and beliefs fail us in magnificent ways. In this exciting book the authors explore what magic and illusions can teach us about our fallible human nature -- Dan Ariely, author of Predictability Irrational Sleights of Mind has discovered why magic works - by exploring how magicians test the limits of human senses to create magic effects. It's fantastic -- probably the most important magic book I have ever read. I love it. -- Kevin McMahon, Artistic Director, The Edinburgh International Magic Festival Underlines how our perception of reality - far from being a reliable resource - is at best a series of shortcuts and presumptions shaped by evolution Sunday Business Post Brilliantly simple and wonderfully engaging Sunday Times

One of the best books I've read on how the brain actually works ... And the back story, of two boffins trying to become magicians - and succeeding! - William Leith, Evening Standard

Author Information

Stephen L. Macknik, Ph.D., is Director of the Laboratory of Behavioral Neurophysiology at the Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix, Arizona. Susana Martinez-Conde, Ph.D., is Director of the Laboratory of Visual Neuroscience at BNI. Sandra Blakeslee is a regular contributor to Science Times at The New York Times who specializes in the brain sciences, and the author of several books.

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