[1] A very similar illusion is mentioned by Professor Hyslop, v.  Borderland of Psychical Research, Pp. 228-9, in which pellets were apparently placed in a box, really being palmed in the medium’s hand.

Professor Jastrow summed up this portion of the psychology of deception very well when he said:[1]

[1] Fact and Fable in Psychology, pp. 124-5.

“He (the conjurer) must dissociate the natural factors of his habits, actually attending to one thing while seemingly attending to another; at the same time his eyes and his gestures and his ‘patter’ misdirect the attention to what is apparently the essential field of operation, but really only a blind to distract attention away from the true scene of action.  The conjurer directs your attention to what he does not do; he does not do what he pretends to do; and to what he actually does, he is careful neither to appear to direct his own attention nor to arouse yours.”

Prof.  Max Dessoir, in a very fine article on “The Psychology of Conjuring,” writes as follows:  “By awakening interest in some unimportant detail, the conjurer concentrates that attention on some false point, or negatively, diverts it from the main object, and we all know the senses of an inattentive person are pretty dull. . . .  When causing the disappearance of some object, the conjurer counts one, two, three; the object must really disappear before three, not at three, because, the attention of the public being diverted to three, they do not notice what happens at one and two. . . .  A specially successful method of diversion is founded on the human craze for imitation. . . .  The conjurer counts on this in many cases.  He always looks in the direction where he wants the attention of the public, and does everything himself which he wants the public to do. . . .  If the trick is in the left hand, the conjurer turns sharply to the person to his right, presuming correctly that the spectators will make the same movement, and will not notice what is going on in the left hand. . . .  Every sharp, short remark will, for a moment, at least, divert the eyes from the hands and direct them to the mouth, according to the above-mentioned law of imitation.”

The successful conjurer has carefully studied beforehand every movement that is made—­every word that is spoken—­during a conjuring performance, and has seen that these all fit naturally into place, and help conceal the real workings of the trick.  The right and left hands must be trained to operate independently, and without the need of looking at either.  Many conjurers practice doing two separate things at the same time, one with either hand; and the ability to do this is essential.  Above all, the performer must be full of conscious self-possession, and feel himself to be master of the situation, no less than to feel the ability to cope with any emergencies that may arise.