Mind Magic - Perception Becoming Reality

As a magician is able to manipulate the realities of the audience, our minds are able to manipulate our own reality, the way we see our own world is often tainted by the way we choose to perceive that world.

Much like Penn and Teller have formulated the 7 basic principles of magic, our minds use similar principles to maintain the illusions we have chosen to guide our own perceptions of life.

When we believe the world is a beautiful place, full of wonder and opportunity for adventure we become geared towards finding proof for that belief. We see beauty all around us, we find adventure wherever we go, we seek out new opportunities.

At the same time if we believe that the world is hostile towards us, when we believe that certain things are bad, when we fear the unknown, our mind fills with negative thoughts and we begin to see the world as a negative place.

If you have ever wondered where such things as deep hatred for a person or group of people comes from you must remember these magic tricks that our mind can play. In the same way extreme loyalties are found on the same principle.

If you believe a person to be bad, you will see their personality and actions within this light.

If you see them at the soup kitchen feeding the poor your mind will automatically seek a way to conform this to your already set idea of that person. You can easily come to the conclusion that they are only there for self-serving or deceitful purposes.

Whereas you can see someone you think of in a positive light do something unthinkable and justify it in your mind just as easily. Ever wonder how the mother of the most horrible child in school can repeatedly insist that her baby is nothing short of an angel?

That is slight of mind at work, a quick bait and switch and it is easy to imagine that little Johnny only struck out at the other child because of something beyond his control.

Our minds will go to great lengths to hold on to our beliefs about certain things no matter how flawed those beliefs may be.

P.S. If you have difficulty with seeing some of the illusions below, you will find cheats at the end of the lens to help you along.

• Inability to see the whole picture


• Discarding unwanted information


• Creating information that is desired


• Rearranging reality to suit desires


• Insisting something has happened when in reality it hasn't


• Redirecting attention to avoid the reality


• Confusing one idea with a completely different idea

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We, as humans, often make a decision about someone or something based on what we see, the trouble is we rarely see the whole picture.

This becomes a problem particularly when our mind picks and chooses what it sees in order to continue to maintain a flawed belief system.

In the illusion above, we would clearly see a ghost on stage but there is more to the picture. The ghost is an illusion produced not by what we see, but by what we don't see.

Our mind creates these types of illusions quite easily.

If we have already determined that a certain person, group of people, or even an idea is bad then our mind must maintain that illusion, even if it means refusing to allow the whole picture to come into view.

Much like trying to determine the overall size of an iceberg only by the visible surface, when we do not take into account the unseen portions of the situation we quite often miss the most important parts of the whole picture.

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In the illusion above the appearance of levitation is created, but deep down we know it is accomplished through artificial means. We must discard any information that contradicts the levitation illusion, in order to experience it fully.

Our minds are capable of great feats of illusion, especially when you add in the ability to discard any information that contradicts what we already believe.

If we see ourselves as perfect then everything that happens must fit into that illusion. We must ignore the fact that we make mistakes, we must ignore the fact that our marriage is shaky, we must ignore the fact that our bills are over due.

This isn't a widespread problem though, is it?

Many people suffer from low self-esteem and our mind must work just as hard to maintain the illusion that we are broken in some way. Our mind will ignore our successes and only see the mistakes, it will throw out what is right about us and only see the flaws.

When we discard facts in order to maintain opinions we are really just ignoring reality in favor of fantasy.

In this famous optical illusion we see a mysterious mans face appear in the most unlikely of places. Most people can clearly see the man's face without problem, but seeing how the illusion happened is far more difficult.

If you look closely, you will see that the white part of the mans face is not a man at all, but a child in a white outfit sitting on a mans knee. In this case the hidden image is the real deal, the most obvious image is the fake.

The human mind actually has the ability to create things that are not really there, in most cases we see exactly what we want to see without regard to what is really there.

Our mind has the ability to fill in blanks, but it can only fill in those blanks with information that we already possess, and more importantly that we already accept as real.

Do you see a woman in the picture above? Is she young or old?

Quite often there is more than one way to view any situation, but most people only choose to see it one way, they way they are most comfortable with.

If two people were to argue over the age of the woman in the image, one could very easily make a case that the woman is clearly an old hag. One could also make a clear argument for a young woman of class as the subject of the drawing.

Young or old, they are both right but only if they are capable of seeing both the young and the old.

In the same way, the human mind is capable of rearranging reality to suit our desires. If we want to see a young woman before us, then we can quite easily do so, if we want to see an old woman then we do.

Is either of them more real than the other?

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I have always loved M.C. Escher, his talent for making the surreal become real is unmatched.

While our mind knows that it is impossible for one hand to be drawing another while at the same time being drawn by that hand, Escher was a master at creating illusions, at convincing our mind that something has happened that clearly has not.

We too are masters of illusion when it comes to creating realities that have not actually happened. If we are hostile towards a person or idea, we can easily paint all interactions in a hostile light, even the most innocent.

What the heck is that?

In a trick of redirection our mind redirects itself to an idea that is easier to deal with than the reality. Sometimes reality really is all in how you choose to perceive it.

Instead of worrying about the mistakes we have made, we seek out those who have made worse mistakes and place the focus on them.

It doesn't get us anywhere, in fact it helps us avoid responsibility for our own actions totally if we can find someone who is somehow less responsible. It is a spiritual consolation prize that we somehow turn into a victory for ourselves.

Can you find the hidden tiger?

I assure you the hidden tiger is there and it is very obvious.

Sometimes there is more than one way to look at a situation, but we are so locked into the first idea as being the only way that we fail to look any further.

This limits our ability to see the possibilities that come with a different viewpoint.

So many go through life content with seeing things in only one light, secure in knowing that their way is the right and indeed the only way to look at things.

Just think for a moment what you are missing with these illusions floating through your head. Once you shed your preconceived ideas, you are free to get to know people on a whole new level, to see things you never expected to see, to embrace reality on a new level.

Those illusions your mind creates are often there to protect you, but they also limit you if you allow them to become a habit. Your mind has many powerful tools at it's disposal, it creates much of what you see in the world around you, but if you aren't in control of your mind it can and will control you!

"I challenge you to use your own brain, if you don't then somebody else will."
~Boshemia

Did you have a bit of difficulty finding the baby in the first picture?



What about the old woman?



The Young Woman?



And the undefined what is this? It's a cow!



Did you ever find the hidden tiger?