context. So this is what I'm saying is, watch out for your social conditioning and how your
 constant commerce in language with other people shapes the way in which you actually sense
 the world. Now, we say seeing is believing, but it is truer to say that believing is seeing.
 There was a very marvelous scientist of optics by the name of Adalbert Ames who devised a
 whole series of experiments where you could go into a big room, say, and there were booths
 all around. And in these booths, there were exhibits that defied the laws of logic, or
 seemed to. There was, for example, the marvelous experiment of the trapezoidal window. You
 make a window frame, one side of which is much longer than the other, see? Then you
 suspend this on wires in such a way that an axis is formed through the perpendicular center
 of the frame. And on this, the frame revolves. What you see is a window frame twitching like
 this. It's actually going around, but it seems to be twitching. Then you put a little cube
 on one upper corner and color it red, see, so it'll stand out. And you see this thing
 twitching, but the cube unaccountably going around. Then another experiment where you're
 in a dark room. There's a group of people. And a little bright light suddenly appears
 in front of them, very small. And the operator says, "Will those who observe any movement
 of this light please account for it and describe it?" So somebody says it's floating upwards.
 Somebody says it's now drifting off to the left. And all this conversation goes on. Then
 the lights are turned up, and it's shown that this point had never moved at all. It was
 a fixed light. So there are all kinds of things. I mean, aims only scratch the surface of what
 we see because we believe in it. We see what we want to see or what we're supposed to see.
 And, uh, are not really very aware of what's going on. Now, all stage magic is based on
 this. And this is why, uh, one can learn a great deal about mysticism from stage magic.
 What the magician does is, uh, he persuades you to see what you expect to see. But in
 the meantime does something completely unexpected. Your attention has been misdirected. He says,
 "Look at this. I want you to look at it very carefully because we don't want any hocus
 pocus around here." See? "So I want you to examine this thing I'm showing you and be
 sure there's no hocus pocus."
 And we take a break for just a second here just to let you know that you're listening
 to Alan Watts on WFMU, Jersey City, New Jersey. Tonight's lecture, "Who is that that knows
 there is no ego?" Stay tuned. We'll be right back with part two in just a second.
 Meanwhile, he's doing something that you don't notice at all and laying a trap. So
 that when you understand the nature of stage magic, you think, "God damn it, how simple


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