'A spectacular treasury of treats. Page after page of utter joy: I can't tear my eyes away' - Derren Brown In The Spectacle of Illusion, professional magician-turned experimental psychologist Dr. Matthew L. Tompkins investigates the arts of deception as practised and popularised by mesmerists, magicians and psychics since the early 18th century. Organised thematically within a broadly chronological trajectory, this compelling book explores how illusions perpetuated by magicians and fraudulent mystics can not only deceive our senses but also teach us about the inner workings of our minds. Indeed, modern scientists are increasingly turning to magic tricks to develop new techniques to examine human perception, memory and belief. Beginning by discussing mesmerism and spiritualism, the book moves on to consider how professional magicians such as John Nevil Maskelyne and Harry Houdini engaged with these movements - particularly how they set out to challenge and debunk paranormal claims. It also relates the interactions between magicians, mystics and scientists over the past 200 years, and reveals how the researchers who attempted to investigate magical and paranormal phenomena were themselves deceived, and what this can teach us about deception. Highly illustrated throughout with entertaining and bizarre drawings, double-exposure spirit photographs and photographs of spoon-bending from hitherto inaccessible and un-mined archives, including the Wellcome Collection, the Harry Price Library, the Society for Physical Research, and last but not least, the Magic Circle's closely guarded collection, the book also features newly commissioned photography of planchettes, rapping boards, tilting tables, ectoplasm, automata and illusion boxes. Concluding with a modern-day analysis of the science of magic and illusion, analysing surprisingly weird phenomena such as ideomotor action, sleep paralysis, choice blindness and the psychology of misdirection, this unnerving volume highlights how unreliable our minds can be, and how complicit they can be in the perpetuation of illusions.

67 sure-fire mental feats to delight and mystify: mind reading with cards, instant ESP, identify the owners of objects given to you in random order, number prediction, magically reproduce drawings on slates, book tests, handwriting tricks, mind-reading done from a room away, much more. 73 illustrations.

Dumbstruck - A Cultural History of Ventriloquism centres on the evolution of ventriloquism from demonic phenomenon to popular entertainment in order to analyse the shifting cultural values attached to the natural and disembodied voice. It moves from late classical accounts of oracles through theological disputes about the nature of magical voices, medieval mysticism, early modern possession cases, philosophical debates about ventriloquism in the Enlightenment, the rise of ventriloquism as popular entertainment and the appearance of the dummy in the nineteenth century to discussions of twentieth-century technology and occult belief. The book is at the intersection of cultural history, literary theory, and aesthetics.

From the author of The Last Chance Hotel comes a brand new fantastical mystery series! Praise for THE LAST CHANCE HOTEL: 'Blending magical adventure with Golden Age crime mystery, this delightfully atmospheric spin-off from the author of The Last Chance Hotel confirms Thornton's place as one of the most original children's writers around.' WATERSTONES 'A jolly, atmospheric mystery.' THE TIMES Magic must never be misused ... When there's a murder in the village and a hag is heard howling at the local inn, secret witch Raven Charming realizes she could have a rival - one who practises the worst kind of magic. With the help of amateur sleuth, Mortimer Scratch, and Nightshade, a talking cat with a feline sense of detection, she sets out to solve what's been going on ... A magical murder mystery perfect for fans of Robin Stevens and Harry Potter Book 1 in a new spin-off series from the author of The Last Chance Hotel, chosen as Waterstones Book of the Month and nominated for the CILIP Carnegie Award Features fan-favourite Nightshade as the star of her very own mystery!

70 of the best rope tricks ever devised using overhand knots, slip knots and square knots. Dissolve knots, cut and restore ropes, make ropes magically shrink or grow longer, rope escape tricks, flourish knots. 423 illustrations and clear, easy-to-follow directions make performing these startling feats foolproof.

Finally, here's how to do all those showy tricks and flourishes that card players are dying to know: how to send a deck cascading from one hand to the other. How to snap open two flawless fans. How to cut a deck with one hand. Choose four aces seemingly at random. Flick a card accurately across the room.
The clearest, easiest-to-follow book of step-by-step directions, "The Amazing Book of Cards" will show anyone how to do 52 amazing things with a deck of cards. Written by Joshua Jay, the award-winning close-up magician and card-obsessed author of "Magic: The Complete Course," "The Amazing Book of Cards" combines friendly, concise text and full-color photos with a full-length DVD that teaches the lessons and shows the subtleties of performance. Here are simple, killer tricks, like "Presto Prediction," which performs the impossible task of knowing someone's choice before she even makes it. Nine different shuffles, including the Faro Shuffle, the one most often used by pros, which helps you perfectly weave a split deck together in seconds. How to perform fans, flips, and flourishes, including Ribbon Spread & Flip and Catch-a-Deck. Tricks you can't lose go ahead, take the bet to throw a card in a hat. How to memorize a deck in less than ten seconds, how to put a deck of cards into a glass bottle, build a card castle, and more. Filling out this labor of love is a whole world of card trivia, including the origins of Kings: King of Spades is modeled after King David, the King of Diamonds is Julius Caesar, Hearts is Charlemagne, and Clubs, Alexander the Great.

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Make an eggshell turn a somersault, spin a coin so that it lands on "heads," teach a bear to climb a string, and perform other acts of scientific wizardry Martin Gardner, the master of mathematical puzzles, shares more than 80 of his finest magic tricks, teaching children and adults the scientific properties behind water, air, fire, heat, motion, gravity, inertia, friction, electricity, magnetism, sound, and light.
Fun and fascinating, the simple maneuvers require only basic everyday props, and those requiring matches, knives, boiling water, and other tricky items are marked with a symbol that lets kids know they'll need assistance from an adult. Helpful drawings illustrate each stunt.

India's association with magicians goes back thousands of years. Conjurors and illusionists dazzled the courts of Hindu maharajas and Mughal emperors. As British dominion spread over the subcontinent, such wonder-workers became synonymous with India. Western magicians appropriated Indian attire, tricks and stage names; switching their turbans for top hats, Indian jugglers fought back and earned their grudging respect. This book tells the extraordinary story of how Indian magic descended from the realm of the gods to become part of daily ritual and popular entertainment across the globe. Recounting tales of levitating Brahmins, resurrections, prophesying monkeys and 'the most famous trick never performed', Empire of Enchantment vividly charts Indian magic's epic journey from street to the stage.

The ultimate book of magic for kids from a world-famous magician, complete with photographs for easy to follow instructions. From one of the world's premier practitioners of classic magic, with years of experience instructing younger readers in the magical arts, comes this new revision of his complete guide to learning and performing fantastic feats of prestidigitation. Acclaimed by the Los Angeles Times as "the text that young magicians swear by," it's full of step-by-step instructions. More than 2,000 illustrations provide the know-how behind 300 techniques, from basic card tricks to advanced levitation, along with advice on planning and staging a professional-quality magic show.

Easy-to-master crowd-pleasing tricks, require a deck of cards and offer beginners experience in handling an audience. Instructions.

In Everyday Magic, magician Justin Flom will teach you all you need to know to perform 10 amazing and how-did-you-do-that magic tricks. This portable set includes a uniquely designed set of cards and an 88-page mini book with step-by-step instructions and illustrations in a gifty magnetic closure box.

The mysterious art of magic has been a source of wonderment since before the time of Christ. Shape shifting between the supernatural practices of 'real' magic and demonstrations of dazzling illusion, magic has been used to conjure the evil eye, burn villages to the ground, slice women in half, and save men from being crushed to death by five tonnes of cement. Robert Ralley's history takes us deep into this magical underworld to reveal the astounding stories of some of the world's greatest magicians. From the astrology of the three wise men to Harry Houdini's escapology, and David Blain's endurance tests, Ralley illustrates the changing perceptions of magic and the dangerous balance between illusion, fraud, and devilry that still exists today.

72 spectacular and entertaining tricks: card locations, coincidence tricks, mental magic with cards, tricks with double endings, tricks with two decks, predictions, tricks with borrowed decks, trick poker deals. Easy-to-learn, clearly illustrated, these tricks produce spectacular effects with a minimum of practice.

"How to Read People's Minds." (Burlingame). -- Explains how Johnstone successfully accomplished the feat of driving blindfolded through the streets of Chicago, from one hotel to another, and found, while still blindfolded, a page in the register thought of by a committee, finishing by writing the name of the person who registered. Explains also in a most lucid manner how to teach dogs to do tricks in magic, lightning calculations, etc., with programs of various performers. 48 pages, illustrated.

Jean Eugene Robert-Houdin (1805-71) is often called the father of modern conjuring. His name was later adopted by magician and escape artist Harry Houdini, whose highly sceptical expose of Victorian spiritualism is also published in this series. The best-known magician of his time, Robert-Houdin toured France, England and Germany, performed for Queen Victoria, and was sent to French Algeria by Napoleon III to demonstrate the perceived superiority of French magic to the local shamans. This book, originally published in 1868, is devoted primarily to coin and card tricks, but Robert-Houdin also describes many other magical tricks and includes a history of conjuring. In 1877 the book appeared in this English translation by Louis Hoffmann (1839-1919). Hoffmann (real name Angelo John Lewis, a barrister) had published his own guide to magic in 1876, and both books caused controversy for revealing the secrets of stage magicians in such unprecedented detail.

Famed puzzle expert explains math behind a multitude of mystifying tricks: card tricks, stage "mind reading," coin and match tricks, counting out games, geometric dissections, etc. Probability, sets, theory of numbers clearly explained. Also, more than 400 tricks, guaranteed to work, that you can do. 135 illustrations.

The team behind Computer Science for Fun (CS4FN), bring you Conjuring with Computation: A Manual of Magic and Computing for Beginners. Develop your skills to be a magician while also learning the basics of computer science by exploring its links to magic. Each chapter explains how to do a simple magic trick, step-by-step, then uses the trick to introduce linked fundamental ideas in computer science in a fun way.By reading the book you will learn to do self-working tricks, be able to hold magic shows, create you own versions of tricks and with creativity even invent your own. We cover:The book includes profiles of computer scientists, and magicians with links to technology, through history.Master conjuring and thinking computationally.