:: The BBC and More Magic

How do magicians fool people who know in advanced that they are about to be fooled? What are the mental and psychological factors that the magician uses to 'trick' their audience into believing something happened that didn't actually happen?

At London's Dana Center, located at the Science Museum in South Kensington, events this week celebrate the centenary of the Magic Circle. Two highlights include the performances by Jeff McBride ( see below ) and a very intellectually-driven concourse of magical ideas by various great minds.

One would be a former conjurer-turned-psychologist, Professor Richard Wiseman, from the University of Hertfordshire. The Professor puts forth that there is much more going on during the course of a trick than the general public realizes...

"For example," said Professor Wiseman, "a magician might cut some cards and say 'Right, they're mixed up now'. Then he'll do something else and then say 'Now, remember I shuffled the cards at the start'.

"That word - 'shuffled' - has gone in, and people think 'Yeah, that's right, the cards were shuffled'. But they weren't, he just cut them. It's cut to mix to shuffle. Small steps. If you had gone from cut to shuffle, it's too much and people notice."

And magicians are not the only ones playing tricks; your mind is at it, too.

Read the rest of this very interesting BBC News article HERE ..