Sleights of Mind: What the Neuroscience of Magic Reveals About Our Everyday Deceptions

Sandra Blakeslee · Stephen L. Macknik · Susana Martinez-Conde

Nov 2010 · Tantor Media Inc · Narrated by Lloyd James

About this audiobook

Have you ever wondered how a magician saws a woman in half? Or makes coins materialize out of thin air? Or reads your mind? Magic tricks work because humans have a hardwired process of attention and awareness that is hackable. A good magician uses your mind's intrinsic properties against you in a form of mental jujitsu, to fool you every time, even when you know full well that you are being tricked. Now Stephen L. Macknik and Susana Martinez-Conde, the founders of the exciting new discipline of neuromagic, have convinced some of the world's greatest magicians to reveal their techniques for tricking the brain. This fascinating book is the result of the authors' worldwide exploration of magic and how its ancient principles can now be explained using the latest discoveries of cognitive neuroscience. The secrets behind magic tricks reveal how your brain works not just when watching a magic show but in everyday situations. For instance, if you've ever found yourself paying for an expensive item you'd sworn you'd never buy, the salesperson was probably a master at creating the "illusion of choice," a core technique of magic. By popping the hood on your brain as you are suckered in by sleights of hand, Macknik and Martinez-Conde unveil the key connections between magic and the mind, and along the way make neuroscience more exciting and accessible than ever before.

About the author

Sandra Blakeslee is a science correspondent at the New York Times who specializes in the brain sciences.

Stephen L. Macknik earned his Ph.D. from Harvard University, led his first laboratory at University College London, and is currently a laboratory director at the Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix, Arizona, and a board member of Scientific American.

Susana Martinez-Conde is director of the Laboratory of Visual Neuroscience at the Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix, Arizona.

Lloyd James has been narrating since 1996, has recorded over six hundred books in almost every genre, has earned six AudioFile Earphones Awards, and is a two-time nominee for the prestigious Audie Award.