“Armando Lucero, in addition to personally being my favorite magician, is beyond question the foremost sleight of hand performer and magical thinker in our profession. In 80 years, he is the only magician I have ever seen whose effects look like real magic.” — Johnny Thompson
Perceptual Engineering
John Dee
Beginnings
For the past sixteen years, I have had the privilege and honor of sharing what I learned about the mind with people from all walks of life. Magicians of course, but also physicists, artists, doctors, mechanical engineers, psychologists, neuroscientists, teachers, bankers, and businessmen. We discuss theory and composition regarding perceptual engineering as it applies not only to magic but all facets of life. The concepts can seem esoteric, but magic offers a way to immediately experience them. Then you know.
Art & Science
I was six when my older brother introduced me to magic. He vanished a marble from one hand, which then reappeared in his other hand. I was astonished and hungry to learn. More than the sleight of hand it was the sleight of mind which intrigued me the most. The concepts of magic can be shown in politics, advertising, public speaking, war, law, and various tactical designs, from architecture to the essential strategies of social media. In fact, social media is now using experts known as attention engineers; who have more in common with a magician than most people would suspect. They even use the same terms. Except with a magician, you know it's a trick; how ironic.
Magic, by way of perceptual engineering, is an excellent tool for doing live interactive experiments that can reveal much about us. Ponder this; some Generals have won wars with less depth of deception than a magician at a birthday party. Many discoveries about the human mind were known, published, and used by magicians long before scientist put labels on them; Change-Blindness, Information Interference, The Paradox of Choice, Heuristics, Primacy-Recency, Proactive and Retroactive Conditioning, etc. etc. Magic is a way of exploring that elusive conundrum of a black box we call the mind by eliciting triggers that yield predictable responses.
The Workshops Have Moved To The Hungry Imagination Go Here
— an indispensable tool for any academic investigation about the mind. Here below are my credentials. It represents one of many possibilities that can be accomplished using the ideas in these workshops. As you watch, bear in mind that there are only four cards and four coins used.
Essays
and post them here — part art, part science, but for anyone fascinated by the peculiarities of the mind.
If you are a magician, artist, or scientist, then consider joining this humble university to enhance your understanding of deception. Each month, you receive a unique video performance with an essay about the perceptual engineering involved in the artifice.
Join and receive works monthly.
