Lewis & Leyser

Lewis & Leyser is the partnership of neuropsychologist Dr David Lewis and digital illusionist Keelan Leyser. For over two decades, they have combined academic psychology with the art of magic to show people how their minds really work, and how easily those minds can be fooled.

David and Keelan first met when Keelan was studying Philosophy and Economics at University College London (UCL). David, already one of the most respected psychologists in the country, spotted something unusual: a performer who could demonstrate cognitive principles live, in real time, in front of an audience. The two began working together and formed Lewis & Leyser in 2001.

Since then, they have delivered lectures, workshops and keynote presentations at conferences around the world for companies including Microsoft, Intel, Google and BP. Their work showed audiences how the techniques behind magic (misdirection, priming, attention manipulation, expectation bias) are the same techniques used in business, marketing and everyday life to influence what we see, what we believe and what we choose.

New Book

Unseen: Blind Spots and Why We Miss What Matters Most

Unseen is the book that Lewis & Leyser spent three years writing. Published by Bloomsbury Sigma, it explores the hidden gaps in human perception: why we fail to see things right in front of us, miss sudden changes, fall for illusions without realising it, and how others use these blind spots to manipulate our thoughts and decisions.

The book covers inattentional blindness, change blindness, choice manipulation, facial recognition, the psychology of shopping and business decision-making, deepfakes, social media manipulation and the art of magical misdirection. It also introduces the concept of illusioneering, the deliberate exploitation of cognitive biases for commercial, political or strategic gain, and practical steps to defend against it.

Featuring over 30 companion video demonstrations, Unseen brings the science of blind spots to life in a way no other book can.

About

Previous Work

Impulse

Before Unseen, Lewis & Leyser collaborated on Impulse: Why We Do What We Do Without Knowing Why We Do It, published by Random House in the UK, US and Japan. The book examined the hidden forces behind impulsive behaviour and the unconscious drivers of everyday decision-making.