[Music]
I'm a magician and I write about the
principles of illusion I also construct
crossword puzzles for the New York Times
what's the connection well in my
experience all magic tricks are puzzles
designed to fool your brain let me give
you an example and have our cameraman
come onstage here wonderful
watch this
this trick works because of one basic
reality your mind is a liar
you see point a and point B and your
brain tells you a single spoon runs the
length that's called
an illusion as a magician I use
illusions to entertain people but my
goal here right now is to do something a
little bit different I want to show you
how you can see through the illusions
and the deceptions that surround you in
your everyday life but first you need to
understand why are we all susceptible to
illusions there's one simple answer
survival the truth is we're constantly
being bombarded by gazillions of stimuli
from subatomic particles to light beams
from galaxies far far away
not to mention demanding bosses ringing
cell phones Facebook YouTube Twitter and
Instagram and if we had to attend to all
of this at once our gray matter would
fry within nanoseconds we won't be able
to function but fortunately evolution
has presented us with a fairly effective
workaround we register a tiny fraction
of the information that's in front of us
and from there we extrapolate our brains
facilitate this process by narrowing the
frame that's our area of focus to
highlight what we most need and want to
pay attention to but here's the crazy
thing even though we only detect a
sliver of the information that's out
there we totally and completely trust
our powers of perception seeing is
believing
right this equation of course gives us
confidence in our judgment it guides our
choice of friends of leaders of partners
it helps us decide where to live how to
vote and what to buy but this natural
tendency to ignore the many significant
gaps in our awareness also leaves us
vulnerable to illusion consider this
common road accident a car turns left in
front of an oncoming motorcycle often
the car's driver reports that he looks
right at the motorcycle
but then turns in front of it anyway why
because of a gap in the driver's
cognitive frame that frame is focused so
tightly on cars only that it dismisses
anything that doesn't resemble a car so
much for the motorcycle here's another
example in Simon's and Shaw Brees famous
psychology experiment participants
watching a video were asked to count the
number of passes of a basketball most
were so tightly framed on the ball that
they fail to notice the gorillas walk
into the middle beat its chest and then
walk off again because the gorilla
wasn't part of the task the participants
brains treated it as irrelevant and
potentially distracting information they
ignored it this concept of framing is
central to a magician's most important
tool misdirection magicians want you to
believe that we can defy the laws of
physics what we're really doing is
misdirecting you into the frame of
illusion think of the frame as a
director's of view finder it's the area
where we want you to pay attention while
the real work happens outside of the
frame and it helps that the frame is
movable like if I wanted to steal
something from my pocket I might first
reach up here shifting the frame as I
pull a shiny coin out of the air the
great Dutch magician Tommy Wonder
describes misdirection as the technique
of offering your audience something of
greater interest when something new and
novel is introduced it automatically
reframes your attention because the
shiny coin cannot be ignored but the
value of misdirection is not just for
magicians think about politicians who
are under fire for one issue they are
experts at creating new issues to
consume the bandwidth of the media and
in this day and age any politician with
a twitter account can be a master Mis
director
but not all misdirection changes the
frame so obviously with cognitive
misdirection the frame never moves
instead the audience's mental thought
process is shifted inside the frame the
key here is the very human inability to
hold two interpretations of a single
stimulus at the same time take a look at
Rubin's vase as hard as you might try
you simply cannot see both the two faces
and the vase simultaneously and in magic
when I'm performing similarly I might
frame your attention on this box but
misdirect only your conception of that
action that's because I mess with your
hard-wired assumption that each action
only has a single function that I can't
put one object away and at the same time
take out another conceptual reframing is
a favorite tool of marketing executives
and policy makers and the United Kingdom
in the United States for example
opponents of the inheritance tax a tax
that applies to only the very wealthy
described it as a death tax and this
makes voters think that it applies to
everyone that's cognitive misdirection
physical misdirection and cognitive
misdirection are effective principles
but the best magic tricks use them in
combination illusionists call this
mixing methods and if further obfuscates
the solution to the puzzle and if it's
okay with you guys I would like to
demonstrate some of this for you right
here on this stage would you like to see
some magic yes okay in a moment I'll
perform some sleight of hand on the
table our cameraman will kindly come out
again and he will put it up on the
screen so all of you can enjoy the magic
of close wonderful but first I'll need
help from one of you so I have a ball
here and I'm going to throw this into
the audience we're gonna play some music
have some fun batting it around and when
the music stops whoever's holding the
ball will be my random volunteer are you
ready to have some fun Amsterdam
alright alright here we go knock that
ball around let's get it over here
oh he kicks it I wonderful all right oh
wow
[Music]
oh I need you to please think of a
playing card but don't choose one that's
obvious like the ace of spades don't
choose a common one got one you're
thinking of a card would you say your
card out loud it's okay if I hear it
it's not that kind of trick would you
say your card the J of hearts a Jack of
Hearts okay ladies and gentlemen an
experiment involving the Jack of Hearts
okay
ah now if I give the cards a few cuts
and a little bit of a mix watch what
happens as I spread the cards on the
table see how long it takes you to find
the Jack of Hearts you don't see it
right that's because it's underneath the
cup this is a classic exercise and
misdirection and here's how it works
I misdirect you with my voice while
you're listening to me I take the Jack
of Hearts and I slip it underneath the
cup now it's not as obvious as that but
you get the idea let's have some fun if
I take the jack and I cut it into the
middle of the deck and spread the cards
on the table watch as your card returns
underneath the cup again
oh now you're paying attention yes thank
you I know the cup is a little bit
confusing so I'll use just the deck of
cards only I'll take the Jack of Hearts
and I'll slip it into the middle of the
deck and as I snap my fingers the Jack
returns to the top I'll give it some
overhand shuffles a little bit of a mix
like this and some swivel cuts as well
and if I take a card like the seven of
Hearts watch what happens I'm gonna rub
it here on my sleeve the seven changes
into your card the Jack of Hearts thank
you
but I'm gonna give it a very good mix
some riffle shuffle is because I'm an
honest magician that's one and one more
for good measure and watch as I spread
through the cards you can see that the
jack is nowhere to be found no wait I've
found it it's underneath the cup that's
pretty cool right I'm gonna try one more
thing for you and it involves just the
card so watch carefully as I fold the
card a few times that's once you know
fold it down nice and tight like this
and watch what happens because this
exercise in misdirection it raises a new
question and it's not did you see your
card but did you see the gorilla no
really no really did you see the gorilla
my points here tonight is that attention
is one of your most valuable resources
and in many ways were wired to fall for
illusions and those who employ
misdirection have certain advantages
over those who unquestioningly believe
their own lying eyes but forewarned is
forearmed the same principles that make
magic possible can also increase your
perceptiveness and make you less
vulnerable to deception so sharpen your
focus and widen your frame question what
seems obvious and above all pay
attention to your attention thank you
you