Sleights of Mind
What the Neuroscience of Magic Reveals About Our Everyday Deceptions
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Narrated by:
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Lloyd James
About this listen
Have you ever wondered how a magician saws a woman in half? Or makes coins materialize out of thin air? Or reads your mind? Magic tricks work because humans have a hardwired process of attention and awareness that is hackable. A good magician uses your mind's intrinsic properties against you in a form of mental jujitsu, to fool you every time, even when you know full well that you are being tricked. Now Stephen L. Macknik and Susana Martinez-Conde, the founders of the exciting new discipline of neuromagic, have convinced some of the world's greatest magicians to reveal their techniques for tricking the brain. This fascinating book is the result of the authors' worldwide exploration of magic and how its ancient principles can now be explained using the latest discoveries of cognitive neuroscience. The secrets behind magic tricks reveal how your brain works not just when watching a magic show but in everyday situations. For instance, if you've ever found yourself paying for an expensive item you'd sworn you'd never buy, the salesperson was probably a master at creating the "illusion of choice," a core technique of magic. By popping the hood on your brain as you are suckered in by sleights of hand, Macknik and Martinez-Conde unveil the key connections between magic and the mind, and along the way make neuroscience more exciting and accessible than ever before.
©2010 Stephen L. Macknik and Susana Mrtibez-Conde, with Sandra Blakeslee (P)2010 TantorListeners also enjoyed...
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Finally gave up - no real point
- By Thomas on 05-12-14
By: Nicholas Epley
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The Brain Electric
- The Dramatic High-Tech Race to Merge Minds and Machines
- By: Malcolm Gay
- Narrated by: Patrick Lawlor
- Length: 8 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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Leading neuroscience researchers are racing to unlock the secrets of the mind. On the cusp of decoding brain signals that govern motor skills, they are developing miraculous technologies to enable paraplegics and wounded soldiers to move prosthetic limbs, and the rest of us to manipulate computers and other objects through thought alone. These fiercely competitive scientists are vying for Defense Department and venture capital funding, prestige, and great wealth.
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Refreshingly not pop-neuro or pseudoscience
- By Jordon on 06-28-16
By: Malcolm Gay
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On Intelligence
- By: Jeff Hawkins, Sandra Blakeslee
- Narrated by: Jeff Hawkins, Stefan Rudnicki
- Length: 9 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Jeff Hawkins, the man who created the PalmPilot, Treo smart phone, and other handheld devices, has reshaped our relationship to computers. Now he stands ready to revolutionize both neuroscience and computing in one stroke, with a new understanding of intelligence itself.
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Epiphany
- By James on 03-14-05
By: Jeff Hawkins, and others
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You Are Now Less Dumb
- How to Conquer Mob Mentality, How to Buy Happiness, and All the Other Ways to Outsmart Yourself
- By: David McRaney
- Narrated by: Don Hagen
- Length: 8 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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You Are Now Less Dumb is grounded in the idea that we all believe ourselves to be objective observers of reality - except we’re not. But that's okay, because our delusions keep us sane. Expanding on this premise, McRaney provides eye-opening analyses of 15 more ways we fool ourselves every day. This smart and highly entertaining audiobook will be wowing listeners for years to come.
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Not a lot of guidance
- By A. Yoshida on 02-08-14
By: David McRaney
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Louder Than Words
- The New Science of How the Mind Makes Meaning
- By: Benjamin K. Bergen
- Narrated by: Benjamin K. Bergen
- Length: 8 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Whether it’s brusque, convincing, fraught with emotion, or dripping with innuendo, language is fundamentally a tool for conveying meaning - a uniquely human magic trick in which you vibrate your vocal cords to make your innermost thoughts pop up in someone else’s mind. You can use it to talk about all sorts of things - from your new labradoodle puppy to the expansive gardens at Versailles, from Roger Federer’s backhand to things that don’t exist at all, like flying pigs.
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Fun But Technical--Glad I Got It On Sale
- By Gillian on 05-22-17
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Mind in Motion
- How Action Shapes Thought
- By: Barbara Tversky
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 11 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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In Mind in Motion, psychologist Barbara Tversky shows that spatial cognition isn't just a peripheral aspect of thought, but its very foundation, enabling us to draw meaning from our bodies and their actions in the world. Our actions in real space get turned into mental actions on thought, often spouting spontaneously from our bodies as gestures. Spatial thinking underlies creating and using maps, assembling furniture, devising football strategies, designing airports, understanding the flow of people, traffic, water, and ideas.
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Physically difficult to listen to
- By Claire Hay on 11-08-19
By: Barbara Tversky
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The Secret History of Magic
- The True Story of the Deceptive Art
- By: Peter Lamont, Jim Steinmeyer
- Narrated by: Rory Barnett
- Length: 10 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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If you read a standard history of magic, you learn that it begins in ancient Egypt with the resurrection of a goose in front of the Pharaoh. You discover how magicians were tortured and killed during the age of witchcraft. You are told how conjuring tricks were used to quell rebellious colonial natives. The history of magic is full of such stories, which turn out not to be true. Behind the smoke and mirrors, however, lies the real story of magic.
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Snoozefest
- By Eric Myers on 06-22-19
By: Peter Lamont, and others
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How the Body Knows Its Mind
- The Surprising Power of the Physical Environment to Influence How You Think and Feel
- By: Sian Beilock
- Narrated by: Coleen Marlo
- Length: 6 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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An award-winning scientist offers a groundbreaking new understanding of the mind-body connection and its profound impact on everything from advertising to romance. The human body is not just a passive device carrying out messages sent by the brain but rather an integral part of how we think and make decisions.
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The New Science Of The Mind Body Connection!
- By Dianne on 04-06-15
By: Sian Beilock
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The 7 Laws of Magical Thinking
- How Irrational Beliefs Keep Us Happy, Healthy, and Sane
- By: Matthew Hutson
- Narrated by: Matthew Hutson, Don Hagen
- Length: 9 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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In this witty and perceptive debut, a former editor at Psychology Today shows us how magical thinking makes life worth living. Psychologists have documented a litany of cognitive biases and explained their positive functions. Now, Matthew Hutson shows us that even the most hardcore skeptic indulges in magical thinking all the time - and it's crucial to our survival. Drawing on evolution, cognitive science, and neuroscience, Hutson shows us that magical thinking has been so useful to us that it's hardwired into our brains.
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Highly enjoyable
- By David R Pinsof on 05-01-12
By: Matthew Hutson
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Mind Wide Open
- Your Brain and the Neuroscience of Everyday Life
- By: Steven Johnson
- Narrated by: Alan Sklar
- Length: 8 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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Brilliantly exploring today's cutting edge brain research, Mind Wide Open allows readers to understand themselves and the people in their lives as never before. Using a mix of experiential reportage, personal storytelling, and fresh scientific discovery, Steven Johnson describes how the brain works and how its systems connect to the day-to-day realities of individual lives.
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A totally new perspective on life
- By Jonathan on 09-16-04
By: Steven Johnson
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Brain Rules (Updated and Expanded)
- 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School
- By: John Medina
- Narrated by: John Medina
- Length: 8 hrs
- Unabridged
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In the New York Times bestseller Brain Rules, Dr. John Medina, a molecular biologist, shares his lifelong interest in how the brain sciences might influence the way we teach our children and the way we work. In each chapter, he describes a brain rule - what scientists know for sure about how our brains work - and then offers transformative ideas for our daily lives. Medina’s fascinating stories and infectious sense of humor breathe life into brain science.
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Dear Publishers . . .
- By Bekah on 04-06-17
By: John Medina
What listeners say about Sleights of Mind
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Eric
- 06-12-13
Good book, narration was ok.
What did you like best about Sleights of Mind? What did you like least?
All of my praise goes to the writing of the book. It was very Interesting to delve into what neural processes make magic work. Very informative and entertaining. The narrator missed words, and read stuff wrong. For example, there was one section about a bet and it mentioned that if you put $5000 down you could win $100,000. He read this as $10,000. Which severely dampens the point.
Would you be willing to try another one of Lloyd James’s performances?
I don't know. The narrator was not the best.
If this book were a movie would you go see it?
Yes
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- Bradley McDowell
- 02-29-16
solid-ish
solid stuff, few wild assumptions though. All in all well worth the time spent listening.
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- Danny
- 05-07-19
I really did like this book! I think you would li
I really did like this book! I think you would like it also. I did learn a lot!
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Overall
- Mr. Anonymous
- 03-23-11
Should have been a documentary
Moderately interesting book, but magic tricks don't have quite the same impact (to say the least) when they're described in words as when you see them performed. This book should have been a documentary movie. The title and the description seemed very promising to me, but the book didn't really deliver (and I have a background in neuroscience).
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9 people found this helpful
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- Will
- 04-10-13
Not a bad book, If you are into magic
What did you like best about Sleights of Mind? What did you like least?
This book is about magic tricks and illusions. I purchased the book with the assumption it had a deeper theme, but no, this book is about magic tricks. Its a good book and decently written IF you are into magic.
What was most disappointing about the authors’s story?
The theme was about magic tricks and how magicians perform them.
What do you think the narrator could have done better?
Good Narrator. Good author.
Could you see Sleights of Mind being made into a movie or a TV series? Who should the stars be?
NO way
Any additional comments?
I have nothing bad to say about the book or narrator. I just thought it was about more than magic tricks. My fault.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Sean
- 09-20-13
Mundus Wult Decipi, ergo decipiatur.
If you could sum up Sleights of Mind in three words, what would they be?
My favorite things.
What was one of the most memorable moments of Sleights of Mind?
The explanation of how magicians "tricks" are perfect illustrations of cognitive illusions.
Which scene was your favorite?
The description of the spoon bending performance.
If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?
The Science of Magic.
Any additional comments?
As a graduate student in psychology and an accomplished magician I was overjoyed to see this book that combined my hobby and my future career. I have been using my insights as a student of psychology to help my performance as a magician for years and this book concisely explains to magicians exactly how to do so, while explaining to cognitive scientists how studying the art of illusion can test cognitive theory. I couldn't stop smiling as all my secrets were revealed, both as a magician and as a student of cognitive science. Look out authors, I may look you guys up in the future for post-doc work.
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- shirley K. Bigham
- 08-30-12
Started out very interesting
but eventually the author kept repeating and just was boring. I tried to hold out and read the whole thing but it was just too boring.
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4 people found this helpful
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- Randall B.
- 08-02-11
Fascinating Read
Good read, enjoyed. Slight of hand or slight of mind? Each section made we wonder if I could do the tricks. And you can....
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Roy
- 11-19-10
Very Informative
Audible carries a number of books on neuroscience, neuroplasticity and the like. I read everyone I come across and so I joined Macknik, Martinez-Conde, and Blakeslee in "Sleights of Mind". While it reveals some of the cognitive and perceptual aspects of illusions, it makes many applications to everyday life as well. This book opens the listener to the world in unexpected ways. For example, the authors point out that painting is magic on canvass. They make the point that deceptions originating in our own perceptual spheres are always readily at hand – when known and when not known. Using magic as the common thread throughout, the authors inform at every turn. If you are interested in magic this is wonderful. If you are interested in perception, it is very informative. If you have given perception, memory, and cognition dissonance little or no thought, do it now. Well written and wonderfully read by Lloyd James.
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31 people found this helpful
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Overall
- B. Hardy
- 03-06-11
Wow! This stuff is very interesting
If you are interested in either magic and/or how the mind works, this book is for you. I've never been all that interested in magic show but reading this book has given me a greater appreciation of the art and science of it. Now I really want to go back to Las Vegas to see a top-notch magic show.
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5 people found this helpful