Peter Lamont

‘Will change how you see the world’ Derren Brown Radical Thinking is a book about how you view the world. It’s about the things that shape your thoughts, from what you notice and how you interpret it, to what you assume, believe and want. It’s also about how, if you think in a radical way, you can look beyond your limited view of the world to see the bigger picture.

‘Will change how you see the world’ Derren Brown Radical Thinking is a book about how you view the world. It’s about the things that shape your thoughts, from what you notice and how you interpret it, to what you assume, believe and want. It’s also about how, if you think in a radical way, you can look beyond your limited view of the world to see the bigger picture.

Pull back the curtain on the real history of magic - and discover why magic really matters If you read a standard history of magic, you learn that it begins in ancient Egypt, with the resurrection of a goose in front of the Pharaoh. You discover how magicians were tortured and killed during the age of witchcraft. You are told how conjuring tricks were used to quell rebellious colonial natives. The history of magic is full of such stories, which turn out not to be true. Behind the smoke and mirrors, however, lies the real story of magic. It is a history of people from humble roots, who made and lost fortunes, and who deceived kings and queens. In order to survive, they concealed many secrets, yet they revealed some and they stole others. They engaged in deception, exposure, and betrayal, in a quest to make the impossible happen. They managed to survive in a world in which a series of technological wonders appeared, which previous generations would have considered magical. Even today, when we now take the most sophisticated technology for granted, we can still be astonished by tricks that were performed hundreds of years ago. The Secret History of Magic reveals how this was done. It is about why magic matters in a world that no longer seems to have a place for it, but which desperately needs a sense of wonder.

Oscar-winning production designer Peter Lamont worked behind the scenes on 18 lames Bond films, beginning with the 1960s classics starring Sean Connery and George Lazenby. From the 1980s onwards he was the production designer of the films starring Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan and Daniel Craig. Along the way, he worked with director James Cameron and contributed to The Ipcress File and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, some of the other films made by Bond producers Albert R Broccoli and Harry Saltzman. The Man With the Golden Eye is a richly illustrated memoir that provides an unparalleled insight into some of the best-loved films ever made.

Since the early nineteenth century, mesmerists, mediums and psychics have exhibited extraordinary phenomena. These have been demonstrated, reported and disputed by every modern generation. We continue to wonder why people believe in such things, while others wonder why they are dismissed so easily. Extraordinary Beliefs takes a historical approach to an ongoing psychological problem: why do people believe in extraordinary phenomena? It considers the phenomena that have been associated with mesmerism, spiritualism, psychical research and parapsychology. By drawing upon conjuring theory, frame analysis and discourse analysis, it examines how such phenomena have been made convincing in demonstration and report, and then disputed endlessly. It argues that we cannot understand extraordinary beliefs unless we properly consider the events in which people believe, and what people believe about them. And it shows how, in constructing and maintaining particular beliefs about particular phenomena, we have been in the business of constructing ourselves.

Since the early nineteenth century, mesmerists, mediums and psychics have exhibited extraordinary phenomena. These have been demonstrated, reported and disputed by every modern generation. We continue to wonder why people believe in such things, while others wonder why they are dismissed so easily. Extraordinary Beliefs takes a historical approach to an ongoing psychological problem: why do people believe in extraordinary phenomena? It considers the phenomena that have been associated with mesmerism, spiritualism, psychical research and parapsychology. By drawing upon conjuring theory, frame analysis and discourse analysis, it examines how such phenomena have been made convincing in demonstration and report, and then disputed endlessly. It argues that we cannot understand extraordinary beliefs unless we properly consider the events in which people believe, and what people believe about them. And it shows how, in constructing and maintaining particular beliefs about particular phenomena, we have been in the business of constructing ourselves.

He was simply the greatest psychic of all time. He was also the first - before him, the word 'psychic' did not even exist. The feats he performed were so extraordinary that Victorian scientists had to invent the term in order to explain them. The man who became the world's first psychic was Daniel Dunglas Home. Now almost entirely forgotten, Home was a household name in Victorian Britain, a man of inexplicable ability who divided opinion wherever he went. Hated by Dickens and defended by Thackeray, denounced by Faraday yet mysterious to Darwin, insulted by Tolstoy but patronised by the Emperor of France and the Csar of Russia. The astonishing feats he performed, and the bizarre personal life that attracted so much controversy, are little known today outside the esoteric world of psychical research. He rarely appears in the biographies of the many great Victorians who knew him as few could openly admit to such a controversial acquaintance. This book will finally introduce one of the most remarkable and enigmatic figures in history, and the strange and seemingly inexplicable events that occurred in his presence.

A useful manual for any magician, or for anyone who wonders why the tricks seem so real, this guide examines the psychological aspects of a magician''s work. Exploring the ways in which human psychology plays into the methods of conjuring, rather than focusing on the individual tricks themselves, the book explains general principles of magic. Chapters on the use of misdirection, sleight of hand, and reconstruction, provide a better understanding of this ancient art and a section on psychics warns of their deceptive magic skills.