(Last update: August 21, 2008)

What happens when a magician performs a trick? Is it truly some event that defies the laws of physics? Or, is it an illusion or misdirection? The science fiction writer, Arthur C. Clark has said, “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” The idea is that, until we understand the physics behind a “trick” we assume it to be magic. Later, we learn that it was not “magic” but something that could be explained by technology.

ABC is reporting (ABC News: Magic Tricks May Reveal Brain Secrets)…

Now some psychologists are considering how they can use magic to advance our understanding of the brain — and perhaps help inoculate us against advertising.

“For most of the past century, [magic tricks have] been ignored, even though the effects are large, replicable, and experienced by just about everyone,” said University of British Columbia psychologist David Rensink.

In a paper published yesterday [July 23, 2008] in Trends in Cognitive Sciences, Rensink and Durham University psychologist David Kuhn argue that the collective wisdom of magicians, honed for millenia by the gazes of suspicious crowds, contains insights for investigators of human perception and cognition.

A science of magic, they write, could take both cognitive science and magic to new heights — and that’s not all. It could help people defend themselves from the tricks of advertisers.

“A magician’s force relies on the spectator being unaware that his or her choice is being manipulated,” they write. “A science of magic could provide us with valuable ammunition in this regard.” [emphasis mine]

Kuhn and Rensink explain the ways that magicians seem to break the laws of physics:

1. Physical misdirection
2. Psychological misdirection
3. Optical illusion
4. Cognitive illusion
5. Physical force and mental force

The particular definitions of these techniques are not so important to my thought. The point is that the same techniques used by magicians are used by others today. According to the ABC article…

“Many of the techniques used in advertising and political propaganda resemble the methods of the magician,” write Kuhn and Rensink. “Because there will always be motives for manipulating our choice, an important challenge for the future will be to understand these techniques sufficiently to ensure our free will.” [again, emphasis mine]

Could it be that (unintentionally or unscrupulously) ministers use such “techniques”? Could such techniques explain how a person who was recently arrested for the murder of his wife & the incestuous rape of his daughter for nearly 10 years could be described as a “bulls-eye prophet.” (See related article here.)

As always, your comments are encouraged….