The Spectacle of Illusion: Magic, the paranormal & the complicity of the mind

In "The Spectacle of Illusion," former magician turned experimental psychologist Dr. Matthew L. Tompkins explores the art of deception as practiced and promoted by hypnotists, magicians, and mediums since the early 18th century. Organized thematically and broadly chronologically, the book traces the evolution of illusion, from mesmerism and spiritualism to how magicians like John Nevil Maskelyne and Harry Houdini challenged and debunked supernatural claims. It examines the interactions between magicians, mystics, and scientists over the past two centuries, revealing how scholars researching these phenomena have been deceived and what this implies for our understanding of deception. Richly illustrated, the book includes rare archival images from the Wellcome Collection, Harry Price Library, Society for Physical Research, and the Magic Circle, such as double-exposure spirit photographs and bent spoon images, along with newly photographed images of Ouija boards, rapping boards, tilting tables, ectoplasm, automatons, and illusion boxes. The book concludes with a modern scientific analysis of magic and illusion, exploring phenomena such as ideomotor action, sleep paralysis, choice blindness, and misdirection, revealing the unreliability of the human mind and its complicit role in perpetuating illusions.