Nothing Freakish About Mind Freaking

Most of us have seen the trick that Chris Angel does where he takes around five large paper or Styrofoam cups and places them upside down on a table. He places a sharp and very real knife under one of the cups with the blade facing upward. While he faces away from the cups, someone scrambles the order of the cups on the table. Then, Chris turns around, smashes the cups one by one with his hand, and leaves only the cup with the knife remaining. Even though we expect that Chris will perform the trick correctly, we may cringe as he smashes each cup with his hand. We may cringe because our brains have a toggle switch that sends signals to either the reasoning frontal lobe ("he will perform the trick safely because he knows what he's doing") or the emotional center of the brain ("I fear that he will pierce his hand with the knife"). The toggle may toggle repeatedly between each of these two portions of the brain while Chris is performing his magic.

Medical science doesn't know, yet, what causes this switch in our brain to toggle between sending signals to and from the frontal lobe or to and from the central portion of the brain. The phenomenon has been observed in a number of recent studies where subjects were given life-threatening scenarios and were asked to choose between two difficult alternatives. While the subjects were making their decisions, their brains were scanned by CT or other scanning technologies. There was clarity in the results from the studies. The alternative chosen depended upon which portion of the brain dominated in the decision making. The dominant portion was clearly visible during the brain scans.

Our emotional side is part of what makes us human. With it, we can be joyful and loving. We want to keep that. However, we can make some very big and tragic mistakes when we use emotion rather than reasoning. Can you imagine Chris Angel choosing which cup to smash based upon how he feels about each cup?

Recently, I showed my girlfriend how Chris Angel performs the trick. I showed her the technique in such a way that I left no doubt in my girlfriend's mind that I had discovered how the trick is done. Even though she knows that I know, were I to perform the trick in front of her again, the possibility of her cringing remains. We have only partial control over the toggle switch. This has big implications for Deists, since it shows why it is so difficult to get people to use reason.

Chris Angel takes masterful and wonderful advantage of this sometimes difficult-for-us-to-control toggle in our minds. Unlike people and groups who use the toggle to gain and keep unwitting victims under their control, Chris Angel shows us that the toggle can be used for some great fun. To the best of our ability, we allow him to control our toggle, repeatedly, because we have reasoned it is harmless to do so and because we have felt the immense enjoyment from his doing so. As a result, we have chosen to love..."Mind Freak!"

CONTACT THE AUTHOR