16. Joshua Jay: “Humans Are So, So Easy to Fool.”

This book delves into the neuroscience of magic, explaining how magicians exploit the hardwired processes of attention and awareness in the human brain. The authors, neuroscientists Stephen Macknik and Susana Martinez-Conde, along with science writer Sandra Blakeslee, discuss various classes of illusions, including visual, cognitive, and multi-sensory illusions. They reveal how these illusions work and their implications for everyday life, such as in sales techniques and personal relationships. The book introduces the concept of 'neuromagic,' a discipline that combines brain science and the art of magic to understand perception and cognition better.

This book tells the story of Robert Matthews, a carpenter who became the charismatic Prophet Matthias, leading a controversial religious movement during the Second Great Awakening. The authors explore how Matthias's teachings and actions led to a national scandal, involving themes of sex, salvation, and power struggles within his cult-like community. The narrative delves into the lives of key figures like Elijah Pierson and Isabella Van Wagenen, highlighting the societal tensions and religious fervor of the time.

Magical Mathematics exposes the profound mathematical ideas behind fun-to-perform card tricks, including the mathematics of shuffling cards and the classic scam of three-card Monte. It traces the history of mathematical magic and introduces concepts from combinatorics, graph theory, and more. The book provides step-by-step instructions for each trick, making it accessible to both magicians and mathematicians.