For some time I have been interested in the placebo effect , which might seem like an odd thing for a magician to be interested in , unless you think of it in the terms that I do , which is &quot; something fake is believed in enough by somebody that it becomes something real . &quot;
In other words , sugar pills have a measurable effect in certain kinds of studies , the placebo effect , just because the person thinks that what &apos;s happening to them is a pharmaceutical or some sort of a ...
For pain management , for example , if they believe it enough there is a measurable effect in the body called the placebo effect .
Something fake becomes something real because of someone &apos;s perception of it .
In order for us to understand each other I want to start by showing you a rudimentary , very simple magic trick .
And I &apos;m going to show you how it works .
This is a trick that &apos;s been in every children &apos;s magic book since at least the 1950s .
I learned it myself from Cub Scout Magic in the 1970s .
I &apos;ll do it for you , and then I &apos;ll explain it .
And then I &apos;ll explain why I explained it .
So , here is what happens .
The knife , which you can examine ; my hand , which you could examine .
I &apos;m just going to hold the knife in my fist like this .
I &apos;ll get my sleeve back .
And to make sure nothing goes up or down my sleeve I &apos;m just going to squeeze my wrist right here .
That way you can see that at no time can anything travel .
As long as I &apos;m squeezing there nothing can go up or down my sleeve .
And the object of this is quite simple .
I &apos;m going to open my hand , and hopefully , if all is well , my pure animal magnetism will hold the knife .
In fact it &apos;s held so tightly in place that I can shake it , and the knife does not come off .
Nothing goes up or down my sleeve , no trickery .
And you can examine everything .
Ta-da !
So , this is a trick that I often teach to young children that are interested in magic , because you can learn a great deal about deception by studying this very -- even though it &apos;s a very simple trick methodologically .
Probably many of you in the room know this trick .
What happens is this . I hold the knife in my hand .
I say I &apos;m going to grab hold of my wrist to make sure nothing goes up or down my sleeve , that is a lie .
The reason I &apos;m holding onto my wrist is because that &apos;s actually the secret of the illusion .
In a moment when my hand moves from facing you to being away from you , this finger right here , my index finger is just going to shift from where it is , to a position pointing out like this .
Nice one .
Someone who didn &apos;t have a childhood is out there .
So , it goes like this , from here , right .
And as I move around my finger shifts .
And we could talk about why this is deceptive , why you don &apos;t notice there are only three fingers down here , because the mind , and the way it processes information , it doesn &apos;t count , one , two , three . It groups them .
But that &apos;s not really what this is about . Right ?
And then I open my hand up .
Obviously it &apos;s clinging there , not by animal magnetism , but by chicanery , my index finger being there .
And then when I close my finger , same thing , as I move back , this motion kind of covers the moving back of my finger .
I take this hand away .
You give the knife out .
There is a trick you can do for your friends and neighbors .
Thanks .
Now , what does that have to do with the placebo effect ?
I read a study , a year or so ago that really blew my mind wide open .
I &apos;m not a doctor or a researcher , so this , to me , was an astonishing thing .
It turns out that if you administer a placebo in the form of a white pill , that &apos;s like aspirin shaped , it &apos;s just a round white pill , it has some certain measurable effect .
But if you change the form that you give the placebo in , like you make a smaller pill , and color it blue , and stamp a letter into it , it is actually measurably more effective .
Even though neither one of these things has any pharmaceutical -- they &apos;re sugar pills .
But a white pill is not as good as a blue pill .
What ?
That really flipped me out .
Turns out though , that that &apos;s not even where it stops .
If you have capsules , they are more effective than tablets in any form .
A colored capsule , that &apos;s yellow on one end and red on the other is better than a white capsule .
Dosage has something to do with this .
One pill twice a day is not as good at three pills -- I don &apos;t remember the statistic now .
Sorry .
But the point is ... ... these dosages have something to do with it .
And the form has something to do with it .
And if you want the ultimate in placebo you &apos;ve go to the needle .
Right ?
A syringe with some inert -- a couple CCs of some inert something , and you inject this into a patient ...
Well this is such a powerful image in their mind , It &apos;s so much stronger than the white pill .
It &apos;s a really , this graph , well I &apos;ll show it to you some other time when we have slides .
The point is the white pill is not as good as the blue pill is not as good as the capsule , is not as good as the needle .
And none of it has any real pharmaceutical quality .
It &apos;s only your belief that makes it real in your body and makes a stronger effect .
I wanted to see if I could take that idea and apply it to a magic trick .
And take something that is obviously a fake trick and make it seem real .
And we know from that study that when you want reality you go to the needle .
This is a seven inch hat pin. it &apos;s very very sharp .
And I &apos;m going to just sterilize it a tiny bit .
This is really my flesh .
This is not Damian &apos;s special grown flesh .
That &apos;s my skin right there .
This is not a Hollywood special effect .
I &apos;m going to pierce my skin and run this needle through to the other side .
If you &apos;re queasy -- if you faint easily -- I was doing this for some friends in the hotel room last night , and some people that I didn &apos;t know , and one woman almost passed out .
So , I suggest if you get queasy easy that you look away for about the next 30 -- in fact , you know what , I &apos;ll do the first bad part behind it .
You &apos;ll get to see , you can look away too if you &apos;d like to .
So , here is what happens , right here , the beginning of my flesh at the lower part of my arm I just make a little pierce .
I &apos;m sorry man .
Am I freaking you out ?
And then just through my skin a tiny bit , and then out the other side like this .
Now , essentially we &apos;re in the same position we were in with the knife trick .
Sort of .
But you can &apos;t count my fingers right now can you ?
So , let me show them to you .
That &apos;s one , two three , four , five .
Yes , well ... I know what people think when they see this .
They go , &quot; Well , he &apos;s certainly not dumb enough to stab himself through the skin to entertain us for a few minutes .
So , let me give you a little peek .
How &apos;s that look out there ?
Pretty good .
Yeah , I know .
And the people in the back go , &quot; Okay .
I didn &apos;t really see that . &quot;
People in the satellite room are starting to move in now .
Let me give you good close look at this .
That really is my skin .
That is not a Hollywood special effect .
That &apos;s my flesh , and I can twist that around .
I &apos;m sorry .
If you &apos;re getting queasy , look away , don &apos;t look at the thing .
People in the back or people on video years from now watching this will go , &quot; Well yeah , that looks kind of neat in some sort of effect there , but if it were real he would be -- see there &apos;s a hole there and a hole there , if it were real he would be bleeding .
Well let me work up some blood for you .
Yes , there it is .
Normally now , I would take the needle out .
I would clean off my arm , and I would show you that there are no wounds , But I think in this context and with the idea of taking something fake and making it into something real , I &apos;m just going to leave it there , and walk off the stage .
I will be seeing you several times over the next few days .
I hope you &apos;re looking forward to that .
Thank you very much .
