Running head: THE NEUROSCIENCE OF MAGIC AND THE HUMAN BRAIN

The Neuroscience of Magic and the Human Brain

Saad Ben Elafdil
Al Akhawayn University
Technical Writing
Dr. Morey
12/16/2014

THE NEUROSCIENCE OF MAGIC AND THE HUMAN BRAIN

Abstract
This research paper aims to explore, categorize and explain the characteristics of the human
brain that are used by magicians to fool their audiences successfully and that are now studied
by neuroscientists with the help of cooperating magicians. These characteristics will be
categorized through the two general types of magic effects that use them: visual illusions and
cognitive illusions. We will also see how magic can be more helpful to science than one
would like to think, and how the intuitive and ancient knowledge kept and preserved by
magicians is sometimes more advanced in the field of neuroscience than researchers, but how
this knowledge is however blunt and partial and needs to be studied employing more
scientific means to raise it to academic standards and create practical uses for it.

THE NEUROSCIENCE OF MAGIC AND THE HUMAN BRAIN

Introduction
Magic is often said to be the second oldest job in the history of humanity as a joke.
However, it is actually considered to be one of the most ancient and most wide-spread forms
of performance art (Christopher, 2006, p. 23). Magicians have had thousands of years to
improve and perfect their craft, and have been studying intensively the human brains
weaknesses to do so.
Long before science even came close to studying this subject, magicians used trialand-error, educated guesses and informal experimenting to unravel the soft spots of the
human brain and use its underlying loopholes to trick it. Sadly, neuroscientists and
cognitive science researchers have been ignoring for too long the incredible resource that
magicians and their effects and illusions constitute when it comes to studying that topic
(Kuhn, 2008, p. 349).
However, progressively, magicians and neuroscientists have finally come together
during the last decade to cooperate on a research effort that is bound to produce great
discoveries about the human brain (Martinez-Conde, 2007). Using the instinctive knowledge
of magicians and allowing science to study its findings more rigorously will help us make a
significant leap forward in the field of neuroscience and, just as this paper aims to, answer the
question : what are the characteristics of the human brain that allow for it to be tricked or
trick itself ?
These loopholes are numerous; thus, in this paper, I will attempt to categorize and
explain them using some examples, using magic effects as examples when possible, based on
previous scholarly research along with personal knowledge and understanding.

THE NEUROSCIENCE OF MAGIC AND THE HUMAN BRAIN

Methodology
This research paper is based on multiple scholarly sources and was inspired by a
scientific documentary (NOVA scienceNOW : How Does the Brain Work? (2011) by T.
Randall), along with personal interest. Copyrighted magic tricks will not be revealed, but
basic methods might be the object of an explained overview to exemplify how they make use
of the human brains characteristics. These flaws will be categorized using the various
types of magic tricks that use different kinds of our brains characteristics. Some examples of
our brains self-trickery without exterior input or influence will also be given.
Some Definitions and Principles in Magic

A magic effect is the act of creating the illusion of a supernatural event using only natural
means: The effect is the supernatural reality perceived by the spectator(s), whereas the
method is the real and natural mean employed by the magician in order to create the
effect (De Rujula, 1991, p. 351).

An action is a motion that has a purpose: A magician must and will justify unnatural
actions with a natural purpose to cover the secret move that might be behind it and
suppress doubts.

Apparent repetition, priming and closing all the doors: A magician must and will use
different methods when performing a trick multiple times, to disprove suspicions about a
specific method, or prime his audience before executing a trick using change blindness
(more details later).

Never do the same trick twice: Except if using different methods, a magician must not
and will not perform a specific trick more than once to the same audience, especially
when using inattentional blindness (more details later).

THE NEUROSCIENCE OF MAGIC AND THE HUMAN BRAIN

Glossary
(Macknik, King, Randi, Robbins, Teller, Thompson, & Martinez-Conde, 2008, p. 876)

After-discharge: Sensory response of a neuron after a stimulus disappears.

Blindsight: Exhibiting good performance in visual tasks while being deprived of it.

Change blindness: Failure in noticing changes in an object or a situation over a period of

time.

Inattentional blindness: Failure to notice the presence of a noticeable object or action in a

scene because of an act of misdirection.

Magic palming technique: Technique used by magicians to conceal object in the palm of
their hands while making it appear to be empty.

Microsaccades: Unintentional small movements of the eye, when it tries to fixate on a

visual target.

Saccade: Fast, sudden eye movement transporting the gaze from one visual target to
another in a straight linear trajectory.

Smooth pursuit: Principle based on the attractiveness of a curved long movement to the
eye compared to a straight, fast and short movement (used by pickpockets to control the
victims attention away from the steal).
The Neuroscience of Magic and the Human Brain
Magic effects that rely on our brains double-edged characteristics (and that means

most of them) are of two types: visual illusions, and cognitive illusions (Macknik et al., 2008,
p. 871).
Each of those categories include a myriad of different effects, each of which is
accomplishable with its different possible methods. We are here interested in the methods
that make use of the brains flaws to guarantee their success.

THE NEUROSCIENCE OF MAGIC AND THE HUMAN BRAIN

Visual Illusions
First, we will start by observing visual illusions, which are easier to understand from a
purely scientific standpoint. Indeed, visual illusions are often used in neuroscience to
discover which part of the brain responds to the different kinds of visual stimulus. The fact
that the brain actively and directly reacts to these illusive stimuli makes it clear that the
trickery is not caused by a subjective perception, but rather by a physically observable neural
phenomenon. On the other hand, magicians use these visual illusions to achieve magic
effects, more often than not on stage.
An example of this kind of illusion would be a basic spoon bending trick. To achieve
the illusion that the spoon is bending, the magician holds the spoon horizontally and shakes it
in a vertical motion, making the neck of the spoon apparently flaccid and flexible. This tricks
mimics the Dancing Bar illusion, whose neural basis is that end-stopped neurons [] in the
primary visual cortex and the middle temporal visual area respond differently from non-endstopped neurons to oscillating stimuli (Macknik et al., 2008, p. 872). This difference in
response results in the illusion of spatial mislocalization between the different parts of the
rigid object.
Another example would be a quick-change trick by The Great Tomsoni. During his
routine, Tomsoni causes his assistant to instantaneously change her dress from a white to a
red one. To accomplish his effect, he uses the vision-retention phenomenon to fool his
audience into thinking the white dress hasnt been changed yet while it has been under the
cover of different lighting colors successively employed (white-red-dark-white) (Macknik et
al., 2008, p. 872). This shows a simple ocular feature of our neural system allows for our eyes
to be tricked. When the trickster is clever and creative enough with his effect, he can employ

THE NEUROSCIENCE OF MAGIC AND THE HUMAN BRAIN

such a broadly known phenomenon without anyone guessing the method, although they
probably heard of it, or at least experienced it at some point in their life.
Finally, a last example of visual illusion used by magicians is Jerry Andruss Trizonal
Space Warp. The illusions consists in asking the audience to stare at a spinning disk with
three zones of expanding and contracting motions. They are then asked to look at a different
object on stage that consequently seems to both expand and contract (Macknik et al., 2008,
p. 872). This illusion is called by neuroscientists The Waterfall Illusion and is the oldest
recorded visual illusion, as it was first studied by Aristotle in his Parva Naturalia. This
indicates how extremely ancient discoveries about the human brain can be used successfully
in magic to trick an audience that remains more often than not clueless as to what method
was employed to trick them. Most of Andruss audience even think they were victims of a
grand-scale hypnosis by the magician without them realizing it.
Visual illusions are the least complicated ones used by magicians, and most
illusionists are nowadays reticent to using them in their routines as most of them have been
exposed by scientific research. However, some creative minds in the field of magic have no
reticence as to using them, as long as they hide them by creating a more complicated effect,
using storylines or misdirection to catch the spectator off-guard and make him ignore the
sometimes obvious method by engaging them totally in the effect itself.
On the other hand, magicians use a more complicated form of neurological loopholes
in their tricks to fool audiences more safely and more effectively. Indeed, cognitive illusions
is most probably the sharpest tool in the shed when it comes to effective and invisible trick
methodology.

THE NEUROSCIENCE OF MAGIC AND THE HUMAN BRAIN

Cognitive Illusions
The main difference between visual illusion and cognitive illusions would be that
cognitive illusions are inherently not sensory, but rather, as their name indicates, highly
cognitive. They involve high-level cognitive functions, such as attention and causal
inference (Macknik et al., 2008, p. 872). Most close-up magic tricks use at least in part this
kind of methodology.
Cognitive illusions utilize the average human brains short and volatile attention span,
our imprinted assumptions about causality and time, and the basic or complex psychological
principles that make us so prone to manipulation. This makes these illusions infinitely more
discreet than visual illusions who can be easier to decipher. But these characteristics also
make these illusions harder to study by neuroscientists as the neurological phenomena they
are based on are less studied and often part of the unknown parameters of the human brain.
However, scientists in the field of neurophysiology and a handful of willing
magicians are coming together to uncover the mechanisms behind this type of illusions and
have managed to categorize them into four different categories that we will now describe and
explain.
The first type of cognitive illusions rest on the principles of inattentional blindness
and change blindness. These two phenomena relate respectively to when an object or an
action happening in full-view is missed or ignored by the spectator who is focusing on
other actions or objects, and to when a spectator misses or ignores a major change in a
situation or an objects state that happens right in front of his yes, but under the cover of a
transient interruption, such as a blink, a saccadic eye movement or a flicker of the scene
(Macknik et al., 2008, p. 873). The most famous example of inattentional blindness is
probably the renowned video in which the viewer is asked to count the passes executed by a

THE NEUROSCIENCE OF MAGIC AND THE HUMAN BRAIN

basketball team, and in which the gorilla passing through the middle of the scene (and
stopping in the middle to beat on his chest) goes most usually unnoticed by the viewer.
In magic, inattentional blindness is used in tricks when the magician keeps the
spectators attention directed at a part of the effect while the secret action constituting the
method happens in full-view, only to be ignored. An example would be a lapping trick, which
consists of an effect during which an object is apparently vanished, whereas it has simply
been dropped by the magician on his lap under the cover of a misdirection.
On the other hand, change blindness can be used in tricks where the spectator gets
used to a situation and takes it for granted, while the magician uses this assumption to
change the situation during an off-beat (moment of distraction or relaxation, during which
the spectators expects nothing magical to happen). An example would be a classic
Vanishing-Ball illusion. In one of the most famous renditions of this trick, the magician
makes the ball disappear mid-air, by throwing it a couple of times in the air and catching,
creating an expectation in the spectators mind for him to truly throw it up, and then only
pretends to throw it, keeping it concealed in his hand. The spectator, based on his
expectations, sees the ball fly up and then vanish mid-flight. Trying to study the spectators
ocular movements proved to be inconclusive, and shows that the illusion in completely
cognitive and not sensory in any way (Macknik et al., 2008, p. 873).
However, to sell the effect more effectively, the magician mimics watching the ball
fly up on the last throw the same exact way he watched it on the previous throws. He uses
social cues like body and head movement, along with what might one of the most powerful
and discreet social cues: gaze control. Using his eyes to follow the imaginary thrown ball, he
indicates implicitly where to look to the spectator, who follows his gaze. Gaze cues are an
extremely powerful tool for magicians, thanks to its very natural and subtle nature. Humans

THE NEUROSCIENCE OF MAGIC AND THE HUMAN BRAIN

look where the people theyre interacting with look without thinking about it (Kuhn, Tatler &
Cole, 2009, p. 926). You can try it during a conversation by looking somewhere in the
vicinity and see for yourself that your interlocutor(s) will probably follow your gaze. Gaze
cues are also used in cinematography (look-space and focus) to indicate to the viewer where
to look without making the indication too overt and obvious.
The second type of cognitive illusion methodology is simply misdirection. It is
probably the most used one, as it is somehow part of almost any magic trick. Indeed,
misdirection is part of the basic definition of a magical effect that was given earlier in this
paper. The magician needs to pull away the attention of the spectator from the method to the
effect to achieve any trick. Misdirection, or attention control, is attained using a plethora of
principles. These principles are used by the magician to control the audiences bottom-up
and/or top-down attentional control mechanics (Macknik et al., 2008, p. 875). Different
methods used to control audience attention include, but are not limited to, using salient
objects (high contrast, new, unusual, moving) to cover discreet actions or the movement of a
less salient object (e.g. producing a dove and letting it fly to ditch the gimmick (prop) that
allowed for its production while audience attention is focused on the dove), using the smooth
pursuit principle (for pickpockets and coin tricks), or introducing two simultaneous actions
(beginning the one to cover right after the misdirecting one, as the first action happening in a
short lapse attracts more attention). It is also important to note that misdirection does not only
happen in space but also in time, as magicians will often shift their audiences attention away
from key-moments of the methodology of a trick by creating off-beats and favoring keymoments of the effect itself.
The third type of cognitive illusions is based on memory illusions and illusory
correlations. This type of methodology consists of creating false memories of a trick in a
spectators mind (this can even lead to memories of events that never even happened) by

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enhancing the memorability of specific favored and salient events and lowering that of a less
salient moment that shouldnt be remembered (Demacheva, Ladouceur, Steinberg,
Pogossova, & Raz, 2012, p. 547), or making the spectator incorrectly link unrelated causes
and effects, by using either chronological causality, subjective weighting of information,
spectators expectancies and stereotypes, and selective attention control (Macknik et al.,
2008, p. 876).
Finally, the last type of cognitive illusions is an additional kind of misdirection: social
misdirection. It is mostly used by pickpockets, but also by magicians, to create an illusion of
trust. It relies on persuasion skills, social engineering, NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming),
body language, eye-contact, haptic science (science of touch), proxemics (science of personal
space), effective misdirection and many other sources of knowledge. This is an inherent and
extremely important part of magic in itself, as what is a good magician but a person who
makes you truly believe the impossible happened before your very eyes (Freudenburg &
Alario, 2007, p. 149). Magicians create a conditional trust between them and their audience
based on acts of apparent honesty and seemingly logical argumentation.
Conclusion
In a cooperative effort of scientific discovery, magicians finally agreed in the last
decade to start helping scientists uncover more of the secrets of the human brain. Whereas
laymen are most usually interested in discovering the method behind the magic, magicians
and neuroscientists interests lie in unraveling the science behind the method itself, as the
method doesnt explain everything, but has the potential to explain a lot more than the trick
itself. The potential advances this combined research might offer arent only leaps in
scientific knowledge about the human brain and its secrets, but also have practical
applications in our world. Apart from the potential inventions and cures that might come

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from learning more about the human brain, the therapy and counseling field of mental health
are also benefiting from this research already, and counselors are starting to use principles
used by magicians to help their patients more effectively (Echterling, Presbury & Cowan,
2012).

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Reference List

Christopher, M. & Christopher, M. (2006). The Illustrated History of Magic. Carroll

& Graf, New York.

De Rujula, A. (1991). The bangs of a magician's brain. Nature, 351(6329), 706.

Demacheva, I., Ladouceur, M., Steinberg, E., Pogossova, G., & Raz, A. (2012). The
Applied Cognitive Psychology of Attention: A Step Closer to Understanding Magic
Tricks. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 26(4), 541-549. doi:10.1002/acp.2825

Echterling, L. G., Presbury, J., & Cowan, E. (2012). Neuroscience, Magic, and
Counseling. Journal of Creativity in Mental Health, 7(4), 330-342.
doi:10.1080/15401383.2012.739947

Freudenburg, W. R., & Alario, M. (2007). Weapons of Mass Distraction:

Magicianship, Misdirection, and the Dark Side of Legitimation. Sociological Forum,
22(2), 146-173. doi:10.1111/j.1573-7861.2007.00011.x

Kuhn, G., Amlani, A. A., & Rensink, R. A. (2008). Towards a science of magic.
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Kuhn, G., Tatler, B. W., & Cole, G. G. (2009). You look where I look! Effect of gaze
cues on overt and covert attention in misdirection. Visual Cognition, 17(6/7), 925944. doi:10.1080/13506280902826775

Macknik, S. L., King, M., Randi, J., Robbins, A., Teller, Thompson, J., & MartinezConde, S. (2008). Attention and awareness in stage magic: turning tricks into
research. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 9(11), 871-879. doi:10.1038/nrn2473

Martinez-Conde, S., & Macknik, S. L. (2007). Science in culture: Mind tricks.

Nature, 448(7152), 414. doi:10.1038/448414a

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Randall, T. (Producer). (2001, September 14). NOVA scienceNOW: How Does the
Brain Work? [Television Series Episode]. Distributed by PBS.

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