HOW DOES MAGIC RELATE TO SCIENCE?
The foundation of all science is to ask questions of the reality around us and of ourselves. Because of the inherent complexity of the nat-ural environment and of the human mind, a wide range of different sciences exist, each asking their own questions and each using their own specific methods to find answers.
The fields of endeavour most often portrayed as being represen-tative of science itself are the physical sciences—most importantly physics, chemistry and earth sciences. Physics and chemistry are, on one hand, in stark contrast with what magicians aim to achieve, while on the other hand magicians thankfully exploit the gaps be-tween the audience’s knowledge and scientific knowledge to create the illusion of magic. The relationship between magic and the dif-ferent fields of science is bidirectional. Magicians use the principles of the natural sciences, linguistics, psychology and formal sciences as methods to create the illusion of supernatural magic and
schol-ars in these fields study theatrical magic as a phenomenon. Many self-working magic tricks are based on principles of chemistry or physics, and, in mentalism, information theory can be used to create the illusion of miracles such as clairvoyance or telepathy. In sleight-of-hand magic, illusions are created by exploiting the psychological peculiarities of how we perceive the world. Because the words a ma-gician uses can subtly alter the perception of the spectator, linguistics is also important, especially in mentalism, which is essentially magic with information. Magicians also use the engineering principles of the applied sciences to construct self-working mechanical tricks and grand illusions performed on the large stage.
Magicians also regularly rely on the formal sciences, such as mathematics and information science, to perform magic tricks. The formal sciences have no subject in themselves and bind all other sciences together as almost all sciences rely on mathematics. The subject of mathematics is not about physical things in reality, but abstract concepts such as numbers, geometric shapes and computer algorithms. It is in this way that mathematics can be considered magical and mysterious. In the early days of mathematics, geomet-rical knowledge was guarded as an esoteric secret and was known only to the initiated. Even today, mathematics and conjuring are still closely intertwined as many magic tricks rely on the principles of mathematics.
What scientific research and magic shows have in common is that the spectator of a magic show is akin to a scientist observing a natural phenomenon. Both scientists and spectators are observing something that they don’t understand. However, a spectator does not have access to a laboratory with the necessary tools to uncover the truth, like a scientist would. The magician presents an alternative version of reality in which the known laws of physics can apparently
be broken at his will, but spectators must observe passively, without being able to investigate everything in detail. Spectators consciously know they are being fooled and will instinctively seek out the true cause of what they experience. Their subconscious mind will cre-ate causes for what the spectator sees, even if those causes appear magical. The magician, as the prime-mover of his own temporary universe, has a home-ground advantage over the spectators and can direct the spectators’ observation, preventing them from extracting the truth from their perceptions. The relationship between a scientist and the phenomena she studies is very different to that between a spectator and a magic trick. Nature cannot deceive scientists in the way a magician deceives audiences. Scientists force the truth from reality by interrogating it with complicated equipment and sophisti-cated techniques, a privilege the spectators of a magic show do not have.
Magic and science are, from a methodological perspective, each other’s opposites. While magic relies on secrets and deception, sci-ence relies on transparency and open communication. Scientists are keen to explain their latest findings to the public to obtain recog-nition, whereas magicians thrive on secrecy and mystery and hide their knowledge from public view. Hiding the real physical causes creates the illusion that supernatural magic is at play because, even though the audience does not rationally believe in the supernatural, the magician has removed all other logical options. For example, there are logically only three ways in which the illusion of levitating somebody can be achieved: either the person is resting on some-thing, is hanging on somesome-thing, or is propelled by an upward force.
It is the task of the magician to make all three possible explana-tions seem implausible to the audience. This is usually achieved by using a hoop or similar prop to emphasise that the suspension
is fully independent of any supports or wires. Given the current state of science, using an upward force is not plausible as a method because technology to cause objects that are heavier than air to fly are extremely noisy. The audiences’ minds are convinced by the theatrical rhetoric of the magician that none of the three possible methods are used, even though these are logically the only solutions available. A fine example of this is the flying illusion as performed by David Copperfield. His illusion is theatrically beautiful because it is as close as possible to our own experiences of flying in our dreams. Copperfield subtly reminds us in different ways that the use of supports or wires cannot be the method used to fly across the stage, leaving the audience in a state of pure astonishment.
Magic and science also have a lot in common: magicians and scientists share both a curiosity about the world around us and a desire to untangle its many secrets. Albert Einstein, the archetypi-cal scientist, is quoted as saying, “the most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious—it is the source of all true art and science”. It is in the reverence of the mysteries of nature that magic and science find each other. Scientists force an answer from nature by using the scientific method and freely share the outcomes of their work with others. Magicians also have an understanding of the physical world and the mind, but rather than using this knowledge to explain how reality works, magicians use it to distort reality and do not share their knowledge with the audience.
I I I I
Before the mid-eighteenth century, the performance of magic was heavily steeped in the occult. Magicians presented themselves as heirs of the ancient traditions of sorcery, alchemy, and divination.
They performed in mystical outfits, mumbled magical invocations and related their performances to a belief in supernatural magic.
After the scientific ideals of the Age of Reason began to take hold and industrialisation spread across Europe, Robert-Houdin reinven-ted the magic show and changed it from a fringe activity that was viewed with suspicion to a middle-class form of entertainment. He based his magic shows on science instead of the occult and ever since Robert-Houdin, the large majority of magicians have distanced themselves from their occult roots. Magicians began to embed their performances in a scientific aura instead of referring to mystical occurrences, which evolved into the abstracted type of magic we know today.
Robert-Houdin was one of the first to abandon the mysterious sorcerer outfit of the past and replaced it with a fashionable gen-tleman’s suit. He portrayed the image of an entrepreneur of the industrial age, and was a magician for a new scientific age. He wrote that in order to be a good magician, it is necessary to have studied the physical sciences, such as chemistry, mechanics and electricity.
Many of his tricks were based on his knowledge of science and technology and he presented these feats as scientific demonstrations.
However, unlike a scientist, Robert-Houdin did not share his knowl-edge with the audience. In 1856, after he had retired as a performer, Robert-Houdin was asked by the French colonial government to perform for some of the leaders of the Arab tribes in Algeria. Magic was one of the problems colonising nations had to face when trying to pacify the exotic cultures. The Marabouts, religious and spiritual leaders of Algeria, were perceived by the locals to possess magic powers. The French, who perceived this as a threat to their authority, invited Robert-Houdin to help them neutralise the Marabouts’ influ-ence by staging a magic competition. For this performance, Robert-Houdin did not portray himself as a man of science as he would do in Paris; instead, he compared himself with the local traditional
magicians. In one of his tricks, he humiliated a strong Arab by invit-ing him to pick up a box that was held down by an electromagnetic charge, and later humiliated the volunteer further by giving him an electric shock. His performance was enough to convince Marabout magicians that the French occupiers were more powerful than them, thereby thwarting colonial unrest.
The event did actually take place, but the details are lost in time.
The political nature of the performance set-aside, the story is deeply symbolic for the self-image of European magicians at that time.
In his writings, Robert-Houdin portrays the Marabouts as primi-tive tricksters who were not able to compete with the science-based magic he and his contemporaries performed in Paris. His story has the structure of a traditional mythological story in which an archety-pal conflict between scientific civilisation and magical beliefs is fought out. This performance can also be interpreted as a symbol of Robert-Houdin reckoning with the past, demonstrating that magic has moved away from the esoteric and into the enlightened age of science.
With the popularity of the shows by Robert-Houdin, embed-ding a magic show in the principles of science became increasingly popular. Robert-Houdin himself presented a trick in which his son seemed to defy the laws of gravity as a demonstration of the pow-ers of ether as he claimed that inhaling these vapours would make somebody as light as a balloon. Magicians in the nineteenth century often adorned themselves with the title of ‘professor’, not only to provide themselves with an aura of respectability but also to indi-cate that their performances were a demonstration of the miracles of the natural world instead of the supernatural. They showcased an ambiguous distinction between magic and science, claiming to use scientific principles while simultaneously performing magic tricks that seemingly contradicted the known laws of nature. Magic and
science were closely intertwined in their performances. Magicians of that age talked of wonderful chemistry, of recreational mathemat-ics, and amusing physics in one instance, and of thought transfer-ence, communication with spirits, and levitation in the next.
In contemporary magic shows, magic and science are still often intertwined. German magician Thomas Fraps performs a show in which regular magic tricks are used to demonstrate the principles of science. For example, Fraps uses a the classical cut-and-restored rope trick to demonstrate the principles of molecular biology: he uses ‘genetic scissors’ to snip out mutated genes and then magi-cally restore the rope. On the reverse, science can also be used to demonstrate magic. Many physics teachers perform scientific experiments that at first instance seem like magic to their students.
Main difference between using magic tricks to demonstrate science on the stage and presenting science as magic in the classroom is that in an educational setting the secret of the magic trick has to be revealed.
I I I I
One controversial branch of science that has a close relationship with magic is parapsychology, which is the scientific study of supernat-ural phenomena. Parapsychology is where the battle lines between science and magic are most sharply drawn. In this specialised branch of psychology, researchers investigate the existence of supernatural occurrences such as mind reading, remote viewing and extrasensory perception. The term parapsychology was coined by Max Dessoir, one of the first psychologists with an interest in magic tricks.
Magicians and mentalists have long been actively involved in exposing fraud psychics who claim to possess supernatural powers.
Magicians play a key role in the many sceptic societies around the world and regularly assist scientists who are investigating
supernatu-ral claims to ensure the scientists are not deceived by the subject. To have magicians in attendance during parapsychology experiments is only a recent phenomenon; in the past, scientists were often deceived into believing that a subject possessed supernatural abilities. Men-talists can be so convincing that they fool even scientists who are trained in critical thinking to believe that they have real supernatural powers.
Feigning psychic abilities is frowned upon by conjurers, and there is a long tradition of magicians (most famously, Harry Houdini in the early twentieth century) exposing fraud mediums. Magicians enjoy playing this role because, as previously mentioned, they tend to have a lower level of belief in supernatural phenomena than the general population does. In contemporary times, American magi-cian James Randi is the driving force behind this movement. In the early 1980s, he orchestrated an elaborate hoax named Project Alpha to show that it is possible to deceive scientists into believ-ing that supernatural powers exist. The project was mimicked a deception perpetrated by Uri Geller some years earlier where he managed to convince a group of distinguished scientists that he pos-sessed real supernatural powers. Geller was so convincing that the deceived scientists even published their results in the 1974 edition of the prestigious scientific journal Nature. In his re-enactment of this earlier episode, James Randi managed to covertly place two young amateur magicians—Steve Shaw (who now has a career as mentalist Banachek) and Michael Edwards—into a parapsychology laboratory. The two successfully performed many spoon bending experiments and were able to convince the attending parapsycholo-gists that they had psychokinetic powers. The magicians found that it was very easy to deceive the scientists because they did not follow strict protocols. Shaw and Edwards employed basic misdirection
techniques used by magicians. They would drop one spoons in their lap and bend it below the table with one hand, while simulating to psychokinetically bend a spoon in their other hand. The two became well known for their believed abilities in parapsychology circles, until Randi decided to reveal the true identity of the purported psy-chics. The revelation of their perpetration sent shock waves through the parapsychology community because the researchers believed by them to be genuine psychics. There was so much publicity about the deception by the magicians that the McDonnell Lab was even-tually closed. Since Project Alpha it is considered good practice for researchers of paranormal phenomena to enlist the help of an experienced magician to be able to rule out the use of deception to fake psychic powers.
I I I I
The art of conjuring is practised by an estimated half a million peo-ple around the world. Most magicians that actively perform are amateurs or semi-professionals that are otherwise also engaged as lawyers, occupational therapists, psychologists, computer scientists, teachers and so on. Most of the works referenced in this book were written by such scientists and professionals from many otherwise unrelated fields of science, who share an interest in theatrical magic.
The word ‘science’ is usually reserved for the natural sciences, but the scientific work on conjuring presented in this book shows that science is a much broader concept that deals with the full spectrum of human experience and the natural world. To fully understand a complex phenomenon such as magic, a range of perspectives be-yond the natural sciences need to be included in the review. The art of conjuring has been studied by scientists and professionals from three different domains: social sciences, the applied sciences and psychology, each providing their own perspective.
The largest field of study with links to theatrical magic are the social sciences. The social sciences, sometimes also called the hu-manities or behavioural sciences, studies everything people do or believe. While the objective of the natural and social sciences is to explain the world around us, the objective of the social sciences is to understand the social world. This understanding is an inherent subjective state of mind and seeks to find the meaning of actions from the actor’s point of view. Scholars in the social sciences are not necessarily seeking for a final answer to their questions, but are en-gaged in an ongoing narrative to improve our understanding. From the perspective of the social sciences, a wide variety of questions can be asked of conjuring: Why are there more male than female magicians? What was the cultural significance of the popularity of magic at the end of the nineteenth century? Is magic entertainment or a performance art? The social sciences cover a wide-ranging field of studies that can help answer these questions. Most important to conjuring are performance studies and cultural history, which re-searches the act of performing magic shows in the present and in the past. Researchers in film theory, linguistics and gender studies have also published their ideas of theatrical magic. The social sciences place the performance of magic in its historical or contemporary context. The answers provided by scholars in humanities can thus help us understand both society itself and the role magicians play within it.
In the applied sciences, such as health care and teaching, the fruits of labour of the natural scientists, formal scientists and social scientists are used to improve people’s lives. Engineers use the theories of physics to build bridges or manufacture computers, and health care professionals implement the latest findings in biology to improve our health, and so on. It is in these fields of human
endeavour that magic fulfils a practical role. The health sciences are a fertile field for magicians to participate in, especially in occupa-tional therapy where magic tricks are used to assist with improving people’s abilities and self-esteem. Magic tricks are also used in psychotherapy and as a means to reduce anxiety in children who must undergo medical treatment. Another applied science where magic can help professionals perform their tasks is teaching. Many magic tricks are based on the principles of physics, chemistry or mathematics, which makes magic a perfect tool for playfully illus-trating the abstract concepts of these sciences.
Research into the psychology of magic is as old as the science of psychology itself. Pioneers in this field, such as Alfred Binet, recognised already in the nineteenth century that studying the tricks performed by magicians could teach us about how the mind works.
Research into the psychology of magic is as old as the science of psychology itself. Pioneers in this field, such as Alfred Binet, recognised already in the nineteenth century that studying the tricks performed by magicians could teach us about how the mind works.