KEYNOTE PRESENTATION

Your mind is the magician. I’ll show you its tricks.

What if the limits you think are real… are just illusions your mind hasn’t seen through yet?

This keynote will reveal the hidden mechanisms behind decision-making, perception, belief, and how they shape your choices, your behaviour, and the life you live. Blending rigorous psychological research with the principles of illusion and wonder, to show you how our minds deceive us, and how to use those same mechanisms to transform your reality consciously.

Dr Alice Pailhès is a psychological scientist, magician, author, and speaker exploring how your mind constructs the reality you live in. Dr Pailhès is one of the few researchers worldwide specialising in the psychology of magic, a field that uses magic as a scientific tool to understand how we experience the world.

“​Whether I’m on stage, online, or in the lab, my mission is to help you stop being a passenger of your mind and become its architect.”

Dr Alice Pailhès is a psychological scientist and leading researcher on the psychology of magic, decision-making, and the illusion of free will. Her work bridges scientific inquiry and performance practice, exploring how magicians exploit cognitive shortcuts, attentional blind spots, and belief mechanisms to influence choice and shape perception. She earned her PhD at Goldsmiths, University of London, where she conducted the first empirical studies on forcing techniques in magic — revealing how subtle cues, environmental structures, and narrative framing can guide decisions while preserving the illusion of autonomy. Alice’s research has been featured internationally in leading academic journals, scientific media, and live performances. She consults for companies and cultural institutions, and is the co-author of The Psychology of Magic (a best-seller at Vanishing Inc. written for magicians), as well as the author of The Art of Being Fooled, a forthcoming book on how magicians’ methods reveal the hidden architecture of the mind. Her work offers a captivating lens into how our thoughts are steered — often without our awareness.