Illusion - Just Another Reality? | Lionel Dellberg | TEDxZurich

[Music] you [Music] how on earth are you doing that that's the most common question that every magician gets and I always reply and can you keep a secret yes well so can i anyway today my answer to this question will be very different I'm going to tell you how magic tricks and illusions work and I'm going to tell you that for real because I think the knowledge about it is very helpful it helps a lot to understand the world we live in well let's get oh sorry I almost forgot the famous red red carpet and don't get me wrong but then normally of course I do take my shoes off when standing on the carpet but if it's ok for you I will make an exception today it's it ok it is perfect key to magic is written in this book we think we believe what we see but we rather see what we believe ladies and gentlemen that explains so much about magic why well let's see what just happened you probably believing that this is a book well it is quite difficult to read in it's a box of chocolate welcome to Switzerland there sir have one and speaking about reading you may assume that the voice came out my mouth watch my lips we think we believe what we see but we rather see what we believe last but not least you may assume that I need glasses to see you well jonno lenses that's what magic is all about magic challenges the limits of human perception but um if perception Universal we need to later know a perception is not Universal perception it's very personal so your perception it's very different to your perception also your perception or my perception so I as a magician can just offer something that will make foolish Andy Clark a psychologist from Great Britain came up with an interesting theory perceiving as predicting meaning we predict the world with the patterns we have learned and we adjust this prediction with our sensory system when you came to this place in the morning you predict it they will be quite a few people there will be a stage there will be this letter somewhere nearby there will be vaults there will be somebody on stage but you also adjust it this prediction I guess or did you predict that there will be somebody like with a backpack talking to you don't think so it is very impressive on how fast you can learn and improve the predictive power at least listen to this random beeps and whistles let's listen to it again it's not really random it's a sine wave speech and that's the original it was a sunny day and the children were going to the park now let's go back to these beeps and whistles magic you've just improved your predictive power you've just learned a new pattern speaking about learning when people see a magic trick often think I'm far too stupid for that but it couldn't be more wrong the more you know about the world the better magic works for you you need to have a very good grasp of the limits of what it's possible in order to experience a magic trick and that leads to the next point because magic comes into play when you experience a strong conflict the conflict between what you think it's possible on one hand and what you experience on the other hand so magic is a brain task where you exclude all possibilities and you're left back with one possibility magic let me illustrate my point when filling a glass with water of course there is no magic at all because you have learned that even you can see through a glass liquid stays inside when putting a coaster on and turn it upside down there's no magic either magic starts here for some for others magic starts here [Applause] let's talk about last and most interesting ingredient to accomplish the impossible blindness in attentional blindness inattentional blindness simply means that looking is not seeing you can directly look at something but not see it I'm who all of us have experienced that key is in order to see something you have to pay attention to it now you know about the most important ingredients of aromatic trick it's the limits of human perception the conflict between what you think is possible and what you experience and inattentional blindness now in this you probably agree with what's written in here we think we believe what we see but we rather see what we believe of course I did read the text out loud why shouldn't I and of course here there are lenses inside the glasses have you ever seen glasses without lenses oh the book it's my favorite book it's book is about 3 to 400 pages thank you hold on sorry I forgot something I forgot something I forgot something and you're probably still wondering why the heck am i wearing a backpack let me tell you did I tell you they'd always take my shoes off when standing on a carpet [Applause] [Music] you [Music]

Channel: TEDx Talks

Views: 7,335

Rating: 4.775701 out of 5

Keywords: TEDxTalks, English, Entertainment, Consciousness, Curiosity, Humor, Magic, Senses

Id: xiSreUWCuMk

Length: 8min 52sec (532 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 17 2020