Sunday Post #7

I recently picked up a copy of Tricks of the Mind by Derren Brown. The book has been a very fun and enjoyable read thus far. For those interested in the underlying workings of the art of magic and mastery of showmanship, this is a must read to add to your repertoire of trickery and prestidigitation!

Early on in the book Derren writes about ideomotor movement - the inspiration for today's Sunday Post:

photo: Steve Zenone, Creative Commons License

"The principle works like this. If you focus on the idea of making a movement, you will likely end up making a similar tiny movement without realizing it. If, undistracted, you concentrate on the idea of your hand becoming light, you'll eventually find that you make tiny unconscious movements to lift it. While you may be consciously aware that these movements are happening, you are not aware that you are causing them. In the same way that a nerve repeatedly firing can cause a twitch that feels outside your control, so too an ideomotor movement (from idea + movement) will feel that it is happening outside your control."
-- "Tricks of the Mind", Derren Brown

Derren is a genius - he would be such a great dinner guest to have over! Thank you for visiting. -steve