The Conjurer's Conundrum
In this lively, personal book, Jamy Ian Swiss, an activist for scientific skepticism for more than 35 years, takes readers on a magical mystery tour of the longstanding connection between magic and skepticism.
The most fundamental lesson that all magicians learn is that seeing is not believing. For many budding conjurors, this realization often comes to embrace rational inquiry, critical thinking, and a scientific worldview. It may seem odd that some magicians—who, after all, are professional deceivers—become activists who care passionately about trying to protect people from being deceived. But they do, and the result is what Jamy Ian Swiss calls The Conjuror’s Conundrum.
In this lively, personal book, Jamy Ian Swiss, an activist for scientific skepticism for more than 35 years, takes readers on a magical mystery tour of the longstanding connection between magic and skepticism. Magicians and civilians alike will enjoy Swiss’s revelatory accounts of the science of magic—and the magic in science. And along the way you will learn what it means to commit to living one’s life as an “honest liar.”