My blog moved

Hey there :)

My blog moved to my website and this is my first post there http://www.tomomagija.lt/blog/?p=43

I am going to post there my thought about magic and magical :)

Hope to see you there :)

Tomas

Tomorrow We Disappear: New Delhi's Last Magicians Colony

Hey there,

One of my favorite magicians, Penn&Teller, talked about this place in one of their TV special. So I decided to share this with you. 

Produced by Jim Goldblum, Adam Weber, and Joshua Cogan, Tomorrow We Disappear explores the untold and remarkable story of New Delhi's last magicians' colony.

photograph by Joshua Cogan

According to the filmmakers, "For hundreds of years roaming artists traveled the Indian countryside, creating the stories, the mythological backbone that would unite a country. Before radio, film, and television, these artists helped form what we now call the Web of India.... In the 1950s the artists ended their itinerant routes and moved into vacant land beside a jungle in West Delhi. They called their new home the Kathputli Colony."

photograph by Joshua Cogan

Since then, New Delhi's magicians, puppeteers, and acrobats have called the slum, the Kathputli Colony, their home.

photograph by Joshua Cogan

But amidst the squalor is a remarkable tale of slum dwellers who have lived lives of the lowest degradation and of the highest luxury. Perplexing as it may sound, the Indian government bandies the community's greatest puppeteers and magicians around the world anytime they needs to showcase the cultural excellence of India.

photograph by Joshua Cogan

As the filmmakers told, "you'll sit in someone's ramshackle home and watch as they flip through photo albums where they are pictured alongside [former Prime Minister] Rajeev Gandhi or Laura Bush."

photograph by Joshua Cogan

In an ironic and tragic twist of fate though, the colony will be dismantled. Last year the government issued relocation permits to the colony residents; the slum is to be bulldozed and cleared for the development of a shopping mall. As the residents are relocated and their lives changed forever, the film ventures to ask if their culture will be lost to the passage of time or will it endure?

photograph by Joshua Cogan

The directors are raising funds for this audacious endeavor through Kickstarter in an effort to continue the project and document the uncertain future of the people of Kathputli.

photograph by Joshua Cogan

Hope you enjoyed :)

See you soon,

Tomas

Lego street painting

Hey guys,

Sorry for not posting for quite a bit - had some problems with my computer. But for now....an army of LEGO!

This amazes me every time :)

Hope you enjoyed :)

See you soon,

Tomas

Vanishing Sliced Steel Sculpture

Using science and art, Julian Voss-Andreae creates incredible sculptures that can vanish right in front of our very eyes. Made up of a series of layered steel sheets, the sculpture forms a human image at a certain angle but then disappears at others. He calls this particular 8-foot high work of art Quantum Man.

"When approached from the front or back, the sculpture seems to consist of solid steel, but when seen from
the side it visually disappears almost completely," he says. "This fascinating effect offers a range of possible interpretations. In the context of quantum physics–inspired art it is natural to see Quantum Man as a metaphor for the wave-particle duality, the phenomenon that all matter exhibits wave-like or particle-like properties depending on the experimental question we ask."

Hope you enjoyed ;)

See you soon,

Tomas

Quantum Levitation

Hey there,

    I have been performing magic for a bit now and seeing some of the "illusion's" stuff done for real is just pure astonishment.

Hope you enjoyed,

See you soon,

Tomas

Can you see a baby?

A very beautiful piece of strange...Can you see a baby?

Hope you enjoyed :)

See you soon, 

Tomas

Plastic bottle giving Light

Giving light for those, who need it

Hope you enjoyed :)

See you soon, 

Tomas

Awesome milk trick!

This is like Windows Media Player :)

Hope you enjoyed :)

See you soon,

Tomas

Spinning woman illusion - see her spinning to both sides

Hey there,

I was not able to make this lady to spin to both sides...but now I can :)

(click on this pic - it is a .gif file)

Hope you enjoyed :)

See you soon,

Tomas

Make everything OK

Everything OK?

(In case picture's link does not work

http://make-everything-ok.com/ )

Hope you enjoyed ;)

See you soon,

Tomas

Snow under microscope

Hey guys,

These are some pictures of snow from really close. Absolutely stunning!

Hope you enjoyed :)

See you soon,

Tomas

Amazing Dragon Illusion

Hey there,

This is kind of cute and creepy at the same time.

These are some templates, if you would like to do make your own illusion.

Hope you enjoyed :)

See you soon,

Tomas

Quebec City Magic Festival

Magic for Marketing 

Hope you enjoyed :)

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Tomas

Create

Do you Create?

Hope you enjoyed :)

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Tomas

Cutting a bullet in air by Isao Machii

Have you ever seen how a bullet is sliced in a mid air while speeding? This looks really beyond real

Hope you enjoyed,

See you soon,

Tomas

Selyna Bogino doing the 5 balls juggling

Have you ever tried do juggling? Including legs? With 5 balls? Upside down?!

Hope you enjoyed :)

See you soon,

Tomas

Large Objects Shot as Miniatures Using a Giant Coin and Tilt-Shift Effects

Norwegian design studio Skrekkøgle has a creative project called “Big Money” in which they made a giant 20:1 replica of a 50 cent Euro coin. They then placed the coin next to large objects and photographed them together, making the objects look like tiny toy replicas.


 

   
 

Finally, here’s a photo showing how big the coin actually is:



Hope you enjoyed :)

See you soon,

Tomas

People working at the top of Empire State Building

Absolutely Crazy!

Hope you enjoyed :)

See you soon,

Tomas

Ring Art

Isn't this amazing?

Hope you enjoyed,

See you soon,

Tomas

Illusions from Bill Nye

These optical illusions just show, how different our perception might be from the reality.

Hope you enjoyed :)

See you soon,

Tomas

10 Interesting Facts About a Standard Deck of Playing Cards

If you enjoy playing Poker, Euchre, Bridge, Hearts or even the kids' game of War, then you're familiar with a standard deck of playing cards. There are 52 paper/plastic cards in a standard deck. Each deck contains four suits of cards- red hearts, black clubs, red diamonds and black spades. Each suit is broken down into four face cards- ace, king, queen and jack. The remainder of the suits are numbered cards from 10 to 2. The ace card is usually the highest card, but it can also serve as the number 1 card. Every card in the deck has a face or a number and a suit symbol on it. Here are 10 interesting facts about a standard deck of playing cards you may not know about!

1. The Largest Producer of Playing Cards

The United States Playing Card Company (USPC), located in Cincinnati, Ohio, is the world's largest producer of playing cards. The company was founded in 1867. USPC vends over 100,000,000 decks of playing cards annually. The company produces Aristocrat, Aviator, Bee, Bicycle and Hoyle brand cards. It also produces playing cards for popular brands and names like Coca-Cola, Mickey Mouse,Harry Potter and Mr. Potato Head.

2. When Were Playing Cards First Used?

Another interesting fact about a deck of playing cards is that the first recorded account of their use was in the Orient, sometime in the 12th century. The Chinese replaced their bone or ivory playing cards (tiles) they used to play the game of Dominos with, with a heavy paper kind of playing cards.

3. Where Did the Four Suits Originate From?

The four suits in a standard deck of playing cards is thought to have originated in the Middle East. The suits started out as being coins, cups, swords and sticks. These suits evolved into today's playing card suits with the coins now being diamonds; the cups, which stood for "love", turning into hearts; the spades replaced the swords, and the sticks are now clubs.

4. How French Playing Cards Got Their Face Card Designs

An interesting fact about a deck of standard playing cards is that it originally was the French version. The face cards in the deck were named after, and designed to look like, actual historical figures. The King of Hearts was Charlemagne; the King of Diamonds was Julius Caesar; the King of Clubs was Alexander the Great, and the King of Spades was King David from the Holy Bible.

5. Why Is the Ace of Spades Different Looking?

Playing cards was a popular form of entertainment in France. The rulers saw a way to make more money by taxing the Ace of Spades, and only that card in the deck. Aces were given the most open space so they could be stamped showing that the tax had been paid.

Today, card manufacturers use the space to print their company information in, including trademark information.

6. They're Not Playing With a Full Deck!

Have you ever heard this phrase, or said it about someone yourself? Nowadays, this phrase is generally used to describe a person who isn't completely in their right mind.

An interesting fact about a deck of playing cards is, it actually generated this phrase. To avoid paying the tax that was tacked onto the Ace of Spades, people wouldn't buy that card when they bought a deck of playing cards. So, they were playing traditional games that required using 52 cards with only 51. It was said they weren't "playing with a full deck" or they were foolish for doing so.

7. What Do the Patterns on Card Backs Mean?

An interesting fact about a deck of playing cards is that usually playing cards have differentiable patterns on the backs of the cards. Unless the cards have advertising or pictures on the backs, that is. Each card manufacturer has their own unique pattern they place on their cards. The normal colors you'll see these patterns printed in are red and blue.

8. Building Houses With Playing Cards Is Also a Favorite Pastime

Besides playing card games, building houses out of playing cards or "Cardstacking" is a favorite pastime for many people. A man named Bryan Berg has turned this pastime into a career. He earned the Guinness World Record for the "world's tallest card tower" in 1992. Since then, Berg has won even more honors for building higher towers. His highest to date measured 25 feet, 3.5 inches. Bryan Berg used 2,400 decks of playing cards to build this huge tower with.

9. Playing Cards Assisted American Prisoners Escape During the War

An interesting fact about playing cards is that specially-constructed decks were sent to American soldiers who were being held in German camps during World War II. The United States Playing Card Company collaborated with the government in the production of these cards. What made these cards so unique was, once they became wet, they peeled apart. Inside, the prisoners found parts of maps that would lead them to freedom.

10. The Ace of Spades Assisted the U.S. Troops in Vietnam Too

In 1966, when the Vietnam War was raging on, two United States lieutenants contacted the United States Playing Card Company. The two officers wanted decks of playing cards that consisted of nothing more than Aces of Spades. The aces were used as part of a psychological warfare against the Viet Cong. You see, when the French used cards to foretell the future, the Aces of Spades forewarned of death. The Viet Cong were superstitious, and just seeing this card made them fearful. Thousands of Aces of Spades were dispersed throughout the jungles to make the enemy leave in fear.

Jackie Chan's Magic Trick

Hey guys,

Today I remembered a video of Jackie Chan doing some magic. Just wanted to share with you :)

Hope you enjoyed ;)

See you soon,

Tomas

Interesting Facts About Magicians

Interesting Facts About Magicians

The word magic is derived from the Persian word "magus" which designated a priestly class.
Magic has many names!
It is also called conjuring, hocus pocus, sorcery and wizardry, to name some of the most common.

The most dangerous trick in magic is the Bullet Catch. This effect, in which a marked bullet is fired at the performer who catches it between his teeth, has killed twelve magicians and wounded many more.

Harry Houdini died on Halloween in 1926.
This brilliant magician and escape artist was the first man to fly an airplane in Australia -March 16, 1919.
The great film director Orson Wells had a lifelong interest in magic. During World War II he had his own magic show that he presented for members of the U.S. armed forces. His assistants at times included such stars as Rita Hayworth and Marlene Dietrich.

Matthew Buchinger, one of the premier Cups and Balls performers of the 18th century, was born without arms or legs and was 29 inches tall.

Charles Dickens was an enthusiastic amateur magician.
In August 1849, in one of his most ambitious performances he introduced himself as "The Unparalleled Necromancer Rhia Rhama Rhoos, educated cabalistic ally in the orange groves of Salamanca and the ocean caves of Alum Bay."

David Copperfield is the first living magician to have a star on the famous Hollywood Walk of Fame. The only other magician so honoured is Harry Houdini, who received a star after his death.

The Levitation Illusion was first performed in Greek dramas as early as 431 B.C.

The ancient Greeks were great admirers of magic, erecting statues of their favourite magicians. Homer even mentions conjurors in his epic poem, The lliad.

The most famous Chinese magician of all time, Chung Ling Soo, was really an American named William E. Robinson. He was mortally wounded in 1918 doing the Bullet Catch trick on the stage of the Wood Green Empire Theatre in London and died the next day. Only then did the world discover that he was not Chinese.

During World War II, the magician Jasper Maskelyne hid the Suez Canal and Alexandria Harbor from the Germans and helped the Allied Forces win the war in Africa. In the book Top Secret, Maskelyne tells of his war experiences and of the time when he performed at the Empire Theater in Cairo, Egypt as "The Royal Command Magician." Few people actually realized that the performance was a front for the British intelligence service.

Magicians were very much involved in the birth of the movie industry. Not only were many magicians exhibitors of films, but many were involved as performers and producers. Harry Houdini made several silent films and was the creator of many special effects; magician George Melies bought the Robert-Houdin Theatre and exhibited the first motion picture seen in Paris.

The author of the 14 most recent James Bond thrillers is a magician. John Gardner, retained by the estate of Ian Fleming, the creator of the Bond character, was a professional magician before he became an author.

David Copperfield is the highest paid magician being named on fortune 500's list.

The worlds fastest magician is Eldon D. Wigton (Dr. Eldoonie).
He performed 255 tricks in 2 minutes
on April, 21 1991

Eliaser Bamberg, the 18th-century Dutch magician, was known as "The Crippled Devil." He had lost one of his legs in an explosion and wore a wooden leg. The story goes that Eliase) had hollowed out his wooden leg and used it as a secret hiding place for his magic props.
The worlds strongest magician is Ken Simmons,
He can bench press over 500lbs

Famous Celebrities who are (were) also Magicians:
Johnny Carson, Don Johnson, Woody Allen, Dick Cavett, Dick Van Dyke, Milton Berle, Cary Grant, Bill Bixby, Jimmy Stewart, Steve Martin, Muhammad Ali, Bob Barker, George Bush, Jerry Lewis, Charles Dickens.

Hope you enjoyed :)

See you soon,

Tomas

Categories of effects

There is discussion among magicians as to how a given effect is to be categorized, and disagreement as to what categories actually exist—for instance, some magicians consider "penetrations" to be a separate category, while others consider penetrations a form of restoration or teleportation. Some magicians today, such as Guy Hollingworth and Tom Stone, have begun to challenge the notion that all magic effects fit into a limited number of categories. Among magicians who believe in a limited number of categories (such as Dariel Fitzkee, Harlan Tarbell, S.H. Sharpe), there has been disagreement as to how many different types of effects there are. Some of these are listed below.

• Production: The magician produces something from nothing—a rabbit from an empty hat, a fan of cards from thin air, a shower of coins from an empty bucket, a dove from a pan, or the magician him or herself, appearing in a puff of smoke on an empty stage—all of these effects are productions.

• Vanish: The magician makes something disappear—a coin, a cage of doves, milk from a newspaper, an assistant from a cabinet, or even the Statue of Liberty. A vanish, being the reverse of a production, may use a similar technique, in reverse.

• Transformation: The magician transforms something from one state into another—a silk handkerchief changes colour, a lady turns into a tiger, an indifferent card changes to the spectator's chosen card. A transformation can be seen as a combination of a vanish and a production.

• Restoration: The magician destroys an object, then restores it back to its original state—a rope is cut, a newspaper is torn, a woman is sawn in half, a borrowed watch is smashed to pieces—then they are all restored to their original state.

• Teleportation: The magician causes something to move from one place to another—a borrowed ring is found inside a ball of wool, a canary inside a light bulb, an assistant from a cabinet to the back of the theatre. When two objects exchange places, it is called a transposition: a simultaneous, double teleportation.

• Escape: The magician (an assistant may participate, but the magician himself is by far the most common) is placed in a restraining device (i.e. handcuffs or a straitjacket) or a death trap, and escapes to safety. Examples include being put in a straitjacket and into an overflowing tank of water, and being tied up and placed in a car being sent through a car crusher.

• Levitation: The magician defies gravity, either by making something float in the air, or with the aid of another object (suspension)—a silver ball floats around a cloth, an assistant floats in mid-air, another is suspended from a broom, a scarf dances in a sealed bottle, the magician hovers a few inches off the floor.

• Penetration: The magician makes a solid object pass through another—a set of steel rings link and unlink, a candle penetrates an arm, swords pass through an assistant in a basket, a saltshaker penetrates the table-top, a man walks through a mirror. Sometimes referred to as "solid-through-solid".

• Prediction: The magician predicts the choice of a spectator, or the outcome of an event under seemingly impossible circumstances—a newspaper headline is predicted, the total amount of loose change in the spectator's pocket, a picture drawn on a slate.

Many magical routines use combinations of effects. For example, in "cups and balls" a magician may use vanishes, productions, penetrations, teleportation and transformations as part of the one presentation.

Hope you enjoyed ;)

See you soon,

Tomas

Source: Wikipedia.org 

A short history of Magic

The term "magic" is etymologically derived from the Latin word magi, a term that was used to refer to Zoroastrians. Performances we would now recognize as conjuring have probably been practiced throughout history. The same level of ingenuity that was used to produce famous ancient deceptions such as the Trojan Horse would also have been used for entertainment, or at least for cheating in money games, since time immemorial. They were also used by the practitioners of various religions and cults from ancient times onwards to frighten uneducated people into obedience or turn them into adherents. However, the profession of the illusionist gained strength only in the eighteenth century, and has enjoyed several popular vogues since.

In 1584, Reginald Scot published The Discoverie of Witchcraft. It was written in an attempt to show that witches did not exist, by exposing how (apparently miraculous) feats of magic were done.The book is often deemed the first textbook about conjuring. All obtainable copies were burned on the accession of James I in 1603 and those remaining are now rare. It began to reappear in print in 1651.

From 1756 to 1781, Jacob Philadelphia performed feats of magic, sometimes under the guise of scientific exhibitions, throughout Europe and in Russia. Modern entertainment magic owes much to Jean Eugène Robert-Houdin (1805–1871), originally a clockmaker, who opened a magic theatre in Paris in the 1840s. His speciality was the construction of mechanical automata which appeared to move and act as if they were alive. The British performer J N Maskelyne and his partner Cooke established their own theatre, the Egyptian Hall in London's Piccadilly, in 1873. They presented stage magic, exploiting the potential of the stage for hidden mechanisms and assistants, and the control it offers over the audience's point of view.

The model for the look of a 'typical' magician—a man with wavy hair, a top hat, a goatee, and a tailcoat—was Alexander Herrmann (February 10, 1844 – December 17, 1896), also known as Herrmann the Great. Herrmann was a French magician and was part of the Herrmann family name that is the "first-family of magic". Those who witnessed Herrmann the Great perform considered him the greatest magician they ever saw.

The escapologist and magician Harry Houdini took his stage name from Robert-Houdin and developed a range of stage magic tricks, many of them based on what became known after his death as escapology. The son of a Hungarian rabbi, Houdini was genuinely skilled in techniques such as lockpicking and escaping straitjackets, but also made full use of the range of conjuring techniques, including fake equipment and collusion with individuals in the audience. Houdini's show business savvy was great as well as his performance skill. There is a Houdini Museumdedicated to him in Scranton, Pennsylvania.

As a form of entertainment, magic easily moved from theatrical venues to television specials, which opened up new opportunities for deceptions, and brought stage magic to huge audiences. Famous magicians of the 20th century included Okito, Alexander, Harry Blackstone Sr., Harry Blackstone Jr., Howard Thurston, Theodore Annemann, Cardini, Joseph Dunninger, Dai Vernon, John Scarne, Tommy Wonder, Siegfried & Roy, and Doug Henning. Popular 20th and 21st century magicians include David Copperfield, Lance Burton, James Randi, Penn and Teller, David Blaine, and Criss Angel. Most TV magicians perform before a live audience, who provide the remote viewer with a reassurance that the illusions are not obtained with post-production visual effects.

Many of the principles of stage magic are old. There is an expression, "it's all done with smoke and mirrors", used to explain something baffling, but effects seldom use mirrors today, due to the amount of installation work and transport difficulties. For example, the famous Pepper's Ghost, a stage illusion first used in 19th-century London, required a specially built theatre. Modern performers have vanished objects as large as the Taj Mahal, the Statue of Liberty, and a space shuttle, using other kinds of optical deceptions.

Hope you enjoyed :)

See you soon,

Tomas

Source: Wikipedia.org

Magic Tricks Reveal Surprising Results About Autism

Magicians rely on misdirection -- drawing attention to one place while they're carrying out their tricky business somewhere else. It seems like people with autism should be less susceptible to such social manipulation. But a new study in the U.K. finds that people with autism spectrum disorder are actually more likely to be taken in by the vanishing ball trick, where a magician pretends to throw a ball in the air but actually hides it in his hand.

In the vanishing-ball illusion, a magician throws a ball in the air a few times. On the last throw, he merely pretends to throw it, making a tossing motion and looking upwards while the ball remains concealed in his hand. But observers claim to "see" the ball leaving the hand. This misdirection depends on social cues; the audience watches the magician's face. People with autism are known for having trouble interpreting social cues, so Gustav Kuhn of Brunel University and his coauthors Anastasia Kourkoulou and Susan R. Leekam of Cardiff University thought they could use magic tricks to understand how people with autism function.

For this experiment, 15 teenagers and young adults with autism spectrum disorder and 16 without autism watched a video of a magician performing the vanishing-ball illusion. Then they were asked to mark where they last saw the ball on a still image of the magician. The last place it appeared was in the magician's hand, but many people mark a position higher up and say that he threw the ball. "We strongly suspected that individuals with autism should be using the social cues less than typically developing individuals," says Kuhn -- that people with autism would watch the ball rather than the magician's face, and thus have a better idea of what happened.

But the exact opposite happened. People with autism were much more likely to think the magician had thrown the ball. Kuhn speculates that this is because the people in the study were all students at a special college for autism, where they would have been taught to use social cues. When he examined where their eyes had looked, he found that, like normally-developing people, they looked first at the magician's face -- but their eyes took longer to fix there. They also had more trouble fixing their eyes on the ball.

The results are published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.

"What we suggest is that individuals with autism have particular problems in allocating attention to the right place at the right time," Kuhn says. This may cause trouble in social situations, when you have to be able to pay attention to the right thing at the right time. Kuhn would like to repeat the experiment in children with autism, who may not yet have been educated in social cues, to see if they are also taken in by the illusion.

Hope you enjoyed ;)

See you soon,

Tomas

Source: sciencedaily.com

How Humor And Misdirection Can Manipulate Levels Of Attention

Two neuroscientists at Barrow Neurological Institute at St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center are turning magic tricks into science. Stephen Macknik, Ph.D., director of the Laboratory of Behavioral Neurophysiology; and Susana Martinez-Conde, Ph.D., director of the Laboratory of Visual Neuroscience; are working with world-famous magicians to discover the brain's mechanisms underlying attention and awareness.

The collaboration between the magicians and scientists in a recent study have led to new insights and may benefit the fields of education and medical rehabilitation by using magical techniques to help treat ADHD, Alzheimer's disease and brain trauma.

"Magicians have developed powerful cognitive principles and intuitions about attention and awareness that are not understood scientifically," says Dr. Martinez-Conde. "We've been able to learn more about cognition from magicians who have developed illusions that trick audiences."

The scientists have studied how magicians mix humor into their performances because a laughing audience is unable to pay attention to the magician's hand. The study also determined that there are various levels of misdirection that magicians use to trick an audience. These insights, which were previously unknown to scientists, suggest that humor and misdirection can help manipulate levels of attention.

The magicians working with Drs. Macknik and Martinez-Conde include James Randi (The Amazing Randi), Teller (of Penn & Teller), Apollo Robbins, Mac King and John Thomson (The Great Tomsoni).

"The collaboration on this project has led to many exciting insights to help us understand the brain's underlying cognition," says Dr. Martinez-Conde.

Drs. Macknick and Martinez-Conde have been featured on the cover of Scientific American and in the Wall Street Journal for their research on fixational eye movements.

Hope you enjoyed :)

See you soon,

Tomas

Source: sciencedaily.com

A Magical Way to Move Kids: Researcher Uses Magic Tricks to Treat Children With Locomotor Disabilities

It's often hard to motivate youngsters with physical disabilities. But a new approach from a Tel Aviv University researcher bridges the worlds of behavior and science to help kids with paralysis and motor dysfunction improve their physical skills and inner confidence -- using a trick up her sleeve called "magic."

Dr. Dido Green of Tel Aviv University's School of Health Professionals developed an innovative yet remarkably simple series of therapeutic exercises for children and young adults based on sleight-of-hand tricks used by professional magicians. Dr. Green and her magicians used sponge balls, elastics and paper clips to teach the children how to perform the challenging, fun and engaging exercises.

She started her foundational research at the Evelina Children's Hospital funded by the Guy's and St. Thomas' Hospital Charity, Performing Arts Programme in London.

Making physical therapy fun

"Children with motor disorders like hemiplegia -- or paralysis on one side of the body -- perform routine exercises with their hands and wrists to be able to carry out basic functions such as opening a door, doing up their zipper, or closing buttons," explains Dr. Green, an occupational therapist with a masters degree in clinical neuroscience and a Ph.D. in psychomotor development of children. "Not only did the kids get a kick out of the magic tricks, they loved doing the exercises every day."

Dr. Green hopes to create summer "magic camps" for disabled children in both the U.K. and Israel, and will further investigate the benefits of magic for improving motor development of children with disabilities.

Her initial research, now in the process of publication in a peer-reviewed journal, looked at a sample of nine children. "We had a hunch that learning magic tricks could do wonders for kids' movement problems, but we wanted to see if the kids would actually practice them," says Dr. Green.

The children practiced ten minutes a day over four to six weeks, resulting in a significant and measurable change in motor skills. "It was a big enough effect to make us want to marry the concept of magic with more specific treatment regimes important for motor learning," says Dr. Green.

In the next part of the study, Dr. Green will bridge the worlds of behavioral therapy with science. She plans not only to give a large group of U.K. and Israeli kids intensive magic training to help improve their motor skills, but also to look into their brains to see if there is a neurological effect.

Dr. Dido Green uses magic to help a young patient regain movement in her left arm. (Credit: Guy's and St. Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust)

Magic meets magnetic resonance imaging

"We'll be using functional MRIs to see how extensive practice -- using the magic tricks as motivators -- affects centers in the brain. Having information from the MRI can help us see what works, and for how long a treatment regime will need to be carried out to have sustained changes," says Dr. Green. One of the things she will measuring is the "plasticity" of the brain to see if activity of different brain areas changes over time as a result of the exercises.

Movement problems can occur in children with autism, spinal cord injuries, diseases affecting the central nervous system, or cerebral palsy. Some of these conditions can lead to hemiplegia. When Dr. Green retired from the stage following a career as a ballerina for the National Ballet of Canada and the Sadlers Wells Royal Ballet in London, she determined to inspire less fortunate children to gain or regain levels of basic functioning.

Source: 

http://www.sciencedaily.com