Thanks to Nielsen Magic for permission to use the above image.
"I conjure you, my brethren, to remain faithful to earth, and do not believe those who speak unto you of superterrestrial hopes! Poisoners they are, whether they know it or not."
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (October 15, 1844 - August 25, 1900)
German philosopher and classical philologist
The art of conjuring is the art of illusion, or to be more precise, the art of creating illusion. Conjurors are basically special effects artists in real life. Rather then creating special effects (illusions) on a television screen or on a large silver screen, conjurors create illusions, quite literally, right under your nose. The art of conjuring is the act of making the impossible seem possible, the unreal seem real, the unimaginable seem imaginable. Anything that the average, normal, rational human being would consider to be impossible a conjuror, utilizing his special knowledge and skills, can make it seem possible. Because of this ability, a conjuror's skills are very well adapted and useful within the skeptic world. Understanding how a conjuror thinks and solves problems is a huge asset when it comes to skeptically analyzing claims that are made of a supernatural, paranormal or pseudoscientific nature. After all, the process of problem solving is what aids a conjuror in creating illusion. A problem is selected (something that would normally be considered impossible; for example, causing a human being to levitate), and then solutions are derived to help to solve that problem (in our example, to create the illusion of a human being levitating).
Although there are literally hundreds of different methods of creating the illusion of a human being levitating, the following video clip displays one of the greatest methods ever created. Invented by illusion designer and builder John Gaughan and performed by David Copperfield, the illusion is called Flying. Enjoy!
Before we delve into the secrets of conjuring we have to first spend some time looking at how we, as human beings, are fooled and why. And we begin this understanding by focusing our attention on our senses; that is, the physiological means by which we are able to perceive the world around us. Among cognitive psychologists and neurologists there is no firm agreement as to the exact number of senses that do exist. This discussion, though, is beyond the scope of this website, so we will stick with the Aristotelean traditional five senses that most of us are familiar with, namely...
The sense of sight
The sense of smell
The sense of sound
The sense of taste
The sense of touch
We will examine each of these senses one at a time and give examples of effects that you can try yourself. These will give you a slight indication as to how your mind works and show you first hand how easy it is to fool your mind, and thus, anyone's mind. But before we do, I would like to set the record straight about a few truisms that are frequently thrown out by the lay public. Let us begin by being skeptical, shall we, about the art of conjuring.
