A spectacular treasury of treats. Page after page of utter joy: I can’t tear my eyes away' - Derren Brown

In The Spectacle of Illusion, professional magician-turned experimental psychologist Dr. Matthew L. Tompkins investigates the arts of deception as practised and popularised by mesmerists, magicians and psychics since the early 18th century. Organised thematically within a broadly chronological trajectory, this compelling book explores how illusions perpetuated by magicians and fraudulent mystics can not only deceive our senses but also teach us about the inner workings of our minds. Indeed, modern scientists are increasingly turning to magic tricks to develop new techniques to examine human perception, memory and belief.

Beginning by discussing mesmerism and spiritualism, the book moves on to consider how professional magicians such as John Nevil Maskelyne and Harry Houdini engaged with these movements – particularly how they set out to challenge and debunk paranormal claims. It also relates the interactions between magicians, mystics and scientists over the past 200 years, and reveals how the researchers who attempted to investigate magical and paranormal phenomena were themselves deceived, and what this can teach us about deception.

Highly illustrated throughout with entertaining and bizarre drawings, double-exposure spirit photographs and photographs of spoon-bending from hitherto inaccessible and un-mined archives, including the Wellcome Collection, the Harry Price Library, the Society for Physical Research, and last but not least, the Magic Circle’s closely guarded collection, the book also features newly commissioned photography of planchettes, rapping boards, tilting tables, ectoplasm, automata and illusion boxes. Concluding with a modern-day analysis of the science of magic and illusion, analysing surprisingly weird phenomena such as ideomotor action, sleep paralysis, choice blindness and the psychology of misdirection, this unnerving volume highlights how unreliable our minds can be, and how complicit they can be in the perpetuation of illusions.
“《幻觉的奇观：魔法，超自然和心灵的共谋》——一页接一页的**欢乐，让我不能地移开双眼”——达伦•布朗

《幻觉的奇观》一书中，专业魔术师出身的实验心理学家马修•L•汤普金斯在实践中研究了欺骗的艺术，并自18世纪初开始，由催眠师、魔术师和心灵学者推而广之。本书时间脉络基本与年代发展相符，分主题组织。这本扣人心弦的书籍探索了魔术师和神秘主义骗子是如何通过幻觉，既欺骗了我们的感官，也让我们了解自己内心世界的运作机制。事实上，现代科学家也越来越多地使用魔术技巧研发新方法，用以检查人类的认知、记忆和信仰。

本书以催眠术和心灵主义的讨论开篇，随后考虑约翰•奈维尔•马斯基林和艾瑞其•怀兹等专业魔术师之流是如何参与到这些运动中——尤其是他们如何应对挑战，揭穿超自然主张的真相。本书同时讲述了魔术师、神秘主义者和科学家在过去200年的互动，揭示了那些尝试调查神奇和超自然现象的研究者们如何被自己骗了，说明了欺骗本身能教会我们什么。

全书大量穿插娱乐性较强和另类奇怪的图画，双重曝光的灵异照片，从当代不对外开放的、待研究挖掘的档案馆中发掘而来的隔空折弯勺子的照片，包括英国威尔科姆收藏馆、哈里普赖斯藏书馆、英国心灵研究学会，最后但同样重要的是，来自魔术圈严防死守的收藏馆的照片。本书另一特色是新近拍摄的占卜板、敲击板、倾斜台、灵魂、自动人偶和魔术箱。最后通过对魔术和幻觉进行现代科学分析，解析令人惊奇的奇怪现象，例如念动动作、睡眠瘫痪、选择失明、误导心理学。