The Psychology of Magic
Lewis & Leyser
Dr David Lewis & Keelan 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.
The Book
Unseen: Blind Spots and Why We Miss What Matters Most
Unseen is the culmination of the Lewis & Leyser partnership: three years of writing that distilled two decades of shared lectures into a single book. Published by Bloomsbury Sigma, it turns the tools of the magician's trade into a lens for understanding the mind, and asks a deceptively simple question — how much of what we think we see is really there?
Rather than assume perception is reliable, the book examines the moments it quietly fails us: what slips past our attention, how expectation rewrites what we notice, and why confident experts are often the easiest to deceive. It then shows how those same weaknesses are exploited — in shops, in politics and on our screens — and, more importantly, how to guard against them. Unseen was David Lewis's final published work.
The book is accompanied by more than 30 companion video demonstrations, so readers can experience each effect for themselves rather than simply read about it.
Order Unseen
Out now in hardback, eBook and audiobook · Bloomsbury Sigma · 336 pages.
Order from BloomsburyUK: Waterstones · Amazon UK
US: Barnes & Noble · Amazon US · Target
Critical Reception
What reviewers said
On Air
The ideas, in conversation
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.
