Perception And The Art of Magic

Luke Dancy is a well-known magician who has been practicing magic for almost 30 years! In the video I attached, he talks about perception and says how the art of magic is making people perceive things in a way that will fool their minds. Luke says “The same thing can be said about life: Things are based on the way you look at it; there are two sides to every reality.” Living in Las Vegas, he says he sees it all the time - people tend to get fooled by the “friendly” environment there, but in reality, it’s usually just one big illusion. After a short talk, he goes right into a simple card trick (which you can watch on the video.) When the “act” is over, he shows the people watching how he did it and explains that it was just testing their perception. We all enjoy watching magic shows because they’re entertaining and exciting; however, what I find interesting is that the whole thrill we get from the performance is just somebody manipulating our brains to perceive things the way he or she wants us to. I always knew that magicians learned to do certain tricks, practiced them, and then performed, but I never thought about it in depth until now. What amazes me is how all it takes is one (experienced) human-being to stand up in front of a crowd, and literally fool every person’s mind and perception! Does that scare you at all? To me it seems just a little “creepy”, what do you think?