I love optical illusions. Seeing things that you know just can't exist really messes with your brain. It's making the impossible possible. Just like magic.

Timmy

Cool! I love optical illusions too. I put them on the back of my business card figuring people will keep the card and show them to other people. I think my favorite one on the card is the black squares that look like circles are appearing in the spaces. What are all of your favorite optical illusions and do you think they are magical?
Steve V

Optical illusions are probably what got me started in magic when I was a kid. I used to search for cool optical illusions in the library, and many books with optical illusions in them, also had some simple magic effects in them too. So, yeah, I love optical illusions too Timmy!

There are all the classics on line if you search. Ya gotta wonder about the minds of some of the talented folks who come up with the illusions.
Steve V

MC Escher is one of my heros. But my favorite optical illusion of all time is the x-ray specs.

I like straight up illusions, no glasses needed. That way you can take them with you if you are shooting a magic show in an area with savage tribes you can show them the optical illusion and not have to worry about getting the glasses on them first.
Steve V

Optical illusions, they can really spook you, like the guys walking up the stairs forever - that's impossible yet I'm looking at it!

Have you guys seen the "mind warp" illusion, where the circles go round and round when you are looking at them. It never stops. Kind of like my ambitious card routine!

Yeah, way cool.
Steve V

One thing I do with kids is get them to draw optical illusions.

I print out a few pages of them - including those mentioned here as favourites. I point out that these are on flat paper, so if they can be printed they can be drawn. Even this one, which they all love:

http://www.optillusions.com/dp/1-25.htm

They get an hour just to replicate any that appeal. They have usually done well enough to get a simple one working and to realise that with practice and care, the others are within their skill. That is usually a shock to realise. Until then, optical illusions were things which other people produced. I am saying that they can, too. So then we go one further. I show them Escher. For half an hour we just immerse in Escher images. Bliss. Then I show them the Escher images which use optical illusions. One matches a simple never ending step illusion some of them will have already of them have reproduced, like this:

http://www.optillusions.com/dp/1-22.htm

When they see that Escher is just a wonderfully brilliant extension of something they have managed to do, and that three dimensional hats are still flat drawings, I have given them something to excite them for life. It's one of my best two hour extension sessions. Some turn up with some wonderful creations of their own weeks later.

Then there's Escher and tesselations. The fun just never stops!


Lynne