Magic tricks have been tools of entertainment for centuries, awing children and adults alike with pure showmanship and excitement. Sitting in the crowd and witnessing one of these stunts can be an amazing experience. Most of the time, regular folks have no idea how the trick behind the illusion works. But we all know it’s not real magic, right?

Well, these 10 tricks have been unexplainable, so they may as well be real magic.

Of course, plenty of expert magicians are most likely familiar with these tricks, especially with the more famous and simple ones. But that doesn’t in any way mean that the secrets are out. Here are 10 magic tricks and illusions with secrets that are really well-hidden.

10 David Copperfield—Portal

Teleporting is something that’s widely considered impossible. Although scientists have produced many theories on how it could be done, so far it just remains an element of sci-fi and a pure feat of magic.

In the video above, David Copperfield seeks to demonstrate the latter of the two as he goes onstage. He prepares to awe the audience, pulling up a live video from Hawaii and claiming he’ll attempt to teleport himself there. Sounds crazy, right?

The footage shows otherwise. An audience member writes his initials on Copperfield’s arm with a marker. A Polaroid picture is taken of other audience members.

These items of proof go with Copperfield and his assistant as they disappear from a simplistic portal at the magic show. Nothing is near the portal—not on any side or above or below—that could remove the trick’s seeming legitimacy.

Moments later, Copperfield and his assistant appear on a beautiful beach in a seemingly live video from Hawaii. The magician proudly shows his signed arm and the picture of the audience members.

While it’s obviously not real magic, the explanation has yet to be found. Some have attempted to debunk it, but nothing has proven to be quite this perfect and satisfactory.

9 The Indian Rope Trick

The infamous Indian rope trick is an exciting stunt where the magician commands the rope to actually do his bidding!

In the video above, a man is outside in a fenced circle. With a crowd gathered around, he shows a rope so that everyone can see that nothing has been done to alter it.

Afterward, he proceeds to place the rope in a basket and commands it to “come alive.” It rises from the basket by itself like a snake would. This is accompanied by the magician’s funky music, which adds quite a lot to the performance.

If this wasn’t enough, a boy then climbs the rope that seemingly isn’t attached to anything. Shortly after he gets down, the rope collapses on command like nothing ever happened.

So far, no one has debunked this trick with complete success.

8 Penn & Teller—Shadows

Penn & Teller are a wonderful duo of magicians and entertainers who constantly amaze fans with new tricks and a lack of explanations. This time is no different!

This simple, beautiful trick has Teller practically deflowering a shadow—yes, a shadow!

With a simple knife, he attempts to cut the flowers off the shadow as if he was doing the same to the actual flower casting the shadow. Of course, he succeeds.

The flowers begin falling, both from the shadow and the real plant.

After this spectacular display, blood begins dripping heavily from Teller’s hand. It’s only visible on the shadow at first. Then his hand moves closer to the canvas where the real blood appears. He proceeds to actually smear it.

This simple but largely unexplainable trick is surely memorable and should get plenty of folks interested in the world of magic. Such a wonderful world indeed!

7 Berglas Effect

Originally created by David Berglas, the Berglas Effect has attained legendary status among fans of the art. A small number of people can pull it off, and they do so consistently.

The trick is simple on paper. It’s a card trick, something you’ve seen plenty of times. But this one definitely takes the cake.

The cards are visible before the magic begins. Then a random spectator freely names any card from the deck of 52. Another participant chooses a number between 1 and 52. Afterward, a third random spectator, who is holding the deck, counts out cards to the specified number.

And voila, when the third spectator counts out the number of cards specified by the second participant, the last card shown is the same card that the first spectator named—without the performer ever touching the cards at all!

This wonderful trick may never be released, but we definitely think it’s much better that way.

6 Richard Osterlind—Penny Bender

This is the seemingly simplest trick on our list, but it’s still sure to cause plenty of headaches. The performer, Richard Osterlind, asks for a nice, sturdy, regular penny, which is confirmed by the audience to be completely ordinary.

After this is done, Osterlind places the penny in the palm of his hand, lightly pressing it with one finger. Suddenly, the penny magically bends. He releases the bent coin and shows it to the audience. Then, with only a bit more effort, he bends the penny back to its normal state.

Richard may not have the muscles to attempt such a feat, but he surely has the skill. As simple as this trick is, it’s still a mind-boggling magician’s secret to this day.

5 Reza—Switchblade

Another exciting trick involving cards comes from a young illusionist called Reza. As usual, the trick starts out really simple. He asks a girl to pick a card, any card, and to sign it with a marker. So far, so good.

Reza places his hand on the girl’s hand as they’re holding the card together. Once he lets go, the card isn’t there. Fun trick, you might think. But as usual, this is very far from being all of it!

He takes a switchblade from his pocket and proceeds to stick it into a nearby door. As the knife hits the door, the card appears right where the knife entered.

It’s unclear how he does it, but it is fun to watch!

4 Cyril Takayama—Lacoste

Lacoste is a fascinating illusion by Cyril Takayama, a young Japanese magician who certainly has a knack for showmanship. Even at first glance, this trick is far more complicated than the ones before, but it really pays off!

Takayama goes into a clothes shop, picks up a plain orange shirt, and places it on a glass counter. He puts his hand on the shirt. However, once he lifts his hand, a small plastic alligator appears on the shirt.

Then he takes a simple, old-school flip phone and places it on the shirt while using his finger to command the little plastic alligator to enter the phone. As it does, it eats a digital hamburger on the phone screen. But this is definitely not enough for Takayama!

The alligator disappears from the phone, and a larger plastic cutout of the animal appears outside of the phone instead. Takayama places a pamphlet with pictures on top of the plastic alligator (which is sitting on the shirt). Lo and behold, a real alligator scurries out from under the pamphlet.

Even though the audio is in Japanese, we recommend watching this one. It’s absolutely fascinating!

3 David Blaine—Teeth

The amazing magician David Blaine has certainly made a name for himself, but this is his most unexplainable trick—as well as the author’s personal favorite.

Blaine approaches a crowd and asks a random girl if he can pull out two of her teeth. Yes, two of her actual teeth. After he does, the girl stands there with visible, confused annoyance and two of her front teeth clearly missing. But not to worry. David isn’t done yet!

He takes her two teeth and places them in his own mouth. Then he actually spits the teeth back into the girl’s mouth perfectly where they belong as if nothing had changed.

It’s a confusing and very fun trick, although we don’t recommend that you try it out on your friends.

2 Liu Qian—Coins

Liu Qian is a fairly well-known Taiwanese magician who starts his trick out simply. He sits near a plexiglass table and places a black mat on top. Then he drops some ordinary coins through the seemingly solid mat and plexiglass effortlessly.

A woman sitting near him thinks that the trick may have something to do with the mat. Liu is definitely looking for an opportunity to show off a bit, so he removes the mat entirely and does the trick again.

Then he repeats the trick without his hands covering the coins at all. Liu lets the lady choose one coin and the spot where it will go through the table, and he succeeds again.

Still not enough, he decides to take everything one step further. Slowly, he slides his hand through the supposedly solid plexiglass. He grabs some coins from another man’s hand beneath the table. Then Liu slowly slides his hand out of the plexiglass and spills the coins on the table.

1 Penn & Teller—Magic Bullet

Penn starts the show by getting some real bullets out of his pocket and asking for audience members who have experience with firearms. Two men decide to help out. They’re asked to sign the bullets to make sure that there is no funny business going on. Of course, they do.

Then Penn and Teller are suddenly pointing real Colt Pythons at each other with the signed bullets loaded. They aim at each other’s mouths and fire.

With a loud bang, their protective helmets fall off and we see them completely fine with the signed bullets in their mouths. The thin sheet of glass in front of each magician is visibly shattered. They even show the bullet casings to the two previously mentioned audience members who can easily tell, even by smell, that the guns were fired.

How they did it is unclear, and that’s part of what makes it so amazing. But beware: Never attempt to perform this trick with a real firearm. You could easily hurt yourself or someone else.

Just a curious guy who loves writing!

The tongue is an organ most commonly used for talking, tasting, chewing, swallowing, and engaging in lascivious activities. But others have imagined so much more potential in this sensitive extremity.

It’s a remarkable instrument with 2,000 to 4,000 taste buds that constantly regenerate themselves each week. The average adult tongue is about 8.1 centimeters (3.2 in) when measured from its tip to the epiglottis, which is the flap of cartilage that anchors it in the back of the mouth.

The tongue print is as original as a snowflake. Like a fingerprint’s unique stamp, each tongue could theoretically be used as a personal identification tool one day.

Some simply consider the tongue a tool to fulfill its most basic functions, but others have discovered all kinds of unique ways to push its possibilities beyond normalcy. They may have learned a party trick for giggles or a sideshow act to evoke awe. Meanwhile, others have learned techniques passed down through the generations that may be as ancient as language itself.

10 Stopping A Metal Fan

Some people are born daredevil junkies. They crave the heart-pounding adrenaline of seemingly impossible feats. Brad Byers wasn’t satisfied living a normal life within the confines of safety. He joined the circus straight out of high school.

He was accepted for his exceptional juggling skills, but he quickly upped the ante by learning the art of sword swallowing. He’s one of the few people alive who can swallow a curved sword. He outgrew the circus in just a couple years and became an international superstar.

Byers is a master of cringeworthy feats, but his iron tongue is a true oddity. He puts his tongue through all manner of torture chambers of his own creation. For example, he lets tarantulas and scorpions walk around on his tongue without a care.

In 2015, he even snapped 12 rattraps (because mousetraps would be too easy apparently) onto his tongue in a mere 60 seconds to break a world record.^[1] This caused an injury that left him scarred for life. That may seem like a wake-up call for a career change but not for Byers.

Two years later, Byers had the bright idea to stick his tongue inside an industrial fan with sharp metal blades circulating air at high speed. His iron tongue miraculously stopped the fan. One time wasn’t enough, so he did it seven more times in a row. If you are a skeptic, feel free to watch the video above.

9 Concentration Technique

There’s an adorable little trick that’s known by youngsters worldwide. It’s the technique of sticking out the tongue when one is trying to concentrate hard on a challenge. This behavioral instinct may actually work because a lot of brain power is channeled straight to the tongue. It’s a massive muscular organ that’s constantly on the move.

Sensitive receptors are always mentally mapping the mouth’s parameters and working to send this information to the brain, even when the owner’s not aware of it. The tongue is swallowing, staying clear of sharp teeth, and keeping a person from choking.

When a person is thinking in words, he may even mouth the words unwittingly because the tongue is intimately connected with the language center of the brain. Biting the tongue down or lolling it to the side helps to stem this rush of data. Musicians can be seen doing this as well, especially when they’re attempting a solo. The boost of brain power increases one’s ability to concentrate.^[2]

8 Whistling

Kuskoy is a rural mountain town in Turkey that’s largely isolated from the rest of the world, and it’s a linguist’s dream come true. This community stands out because the residents can communicate complex thoughts via a language of tonal whistles. This curious local tradition is called “bird language.”

Languages that are whistled usually appear in treacherous landscapes, like thick jungles or steep highlands. In these precarious locales, communicating across far distances is beneficial. In Kuskoy, the bird language can travel over great distances. Using the tongue, teeth, and fingers, the villagers create specific whistle tones that can be heard far away.

This whistled language sounds more like singing birds. It’s more music than language. This drives neuroscientists bonkers because the left hemisphere of the brain is mainly concerned with language while the right hemisphere oversees musical understanding, like pitch and melody.

However, time may be running out for linguists to study the whistling dialect. The younger generations don’t seem to be picking it up, and the tradition is slowly fading from existence. Only 10,000 people remain who can converse in this beautiful tongue.^[3]

7 Cherry Knots

Tying a cherry stem into a knot using only the tongue continues to be a popular party trick, but Al Gliniecki took it a step further. His first attempt required 20 minutes of perseverance. But a few months later, he was already setting world records. He knotted 679 cherry stems with his tongue in just one hour.

Since then, he’s beaten his own record on multiple occasions. Currently, he’s at 911 stems in one hour. He also holds a record for tying 14 stems in one minute!^[4]

Due to the sexual implications of tying a cherry stem with one’s tongue, Gliniecki is incessantly hounded by random women. He has a fiancee, but this doesn’t stop strangers from calling him up in the middle of the night to challenge his tongue-tying talents.

6 Tongue Twisters

A team of researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology claims to have figured out the world’s most challenging tongue twister, and it’s one you’ve probably never heard of. It goes: “Pad kid poured curd pulled cod.”^[5]

People either failed to repeat the phrase successfully 10 times, or they just stopped talking. Tongue twisters are notoriously fun to say because of their inherent difficulty.

Some people, like psycholinguist Stefanie Shattuck-Hufnagel, dedicate their lives to studying this trick of the tongue. She says the “th” and “sh” sounds are particularly tough to say in a sequence or pattern. An example is the famous tongue twister: “Sally sells seashells down by the seashore.”

Shattuck-Hufnagel equates it to the act of rubbing your belly with one hand while you tap your head simultaneously. The alternating patterns are not intuitive, and they confuse the brain.

5 Putting Out Matches

Fire-eaters have been performing in sideshow acts and on street corners for centuries. There are urban legends as to how one can consume fire and extinguish it in his mouth, like supposedly coating the tongue with fireproofing chemicals.

It all comes down to one simple scientific fact, however. Heat always travels upward. Supposedly, it’s as easy as snuffing out a candle with your fingertips. It just takes more practice.

In Slovakia, Pavol Durdik spends his free time setting bizarre world records. For instance, he can be seen on YouTube setting the world record for the longest time blowing milk bubbles. He also built the tallest tower of CDs stacked on a tennis ball.

It’s clear that Durdik has too much time on his hands, but he did perform a certain form of tongue torture that was fairly impressive. In 2017, he managed to extinguish 58 matches on his tongue in just one minute.

As if he hadn’t put his poor tongue through enough turmoil, he also decided to set the record for most clothespins clipped onto his tongue. He managed to clip on a total of 14 clothespins.^[6]

4 Smoke Rings

The creative exhalation of smoke rings isn’t what it seems. Smoke rings are a result of the laws of fluid dynamics. It’s really the art of displacing the air around the ring to form a circular vortex. You can disturb the air with an O-shaped mouth motion.

One technique to achieve this effect: Sharp coughs from the throat that develop in the diaphragm propel the smoke outward in a short burst of air. A long exhale simply won’t suffice. Otherwise, the smoke won’t hold its hoop position.

The tongue needs to be pulled back with the tip down, and this will actually shape the ring itself. You may not be pulling off Gandalf-style smoke sculptures anytime soon, but blowing a smoke ring is a straightforward trick that just takes practice.^[7]

3 Clicking

A genetic study suggests that the clicking languages of southern and eastern Africa may have been one of the earliest forms of human language. This would have been about 40,000 years ago when humankind first branched out from the African continent, the cradle of civilization. Then, somewhere along the line, most humans lost their clicking skills and developed other languages in its place.

About 30 clicking languages remain in use. By sucking the tongue down from the roof of the mouth, they form a variety of click noises. In each language, there are about five click sounds in total. This extraordinary language may provide clues to our species’ ancestral mother tongue.^[8]

2 Tricking Taste Receptors

Taste buds are clusters of cells that developed to help humans survive. The back of the tongue picks up on bitter flavors, for example, so early humans could speedily spit out poisonous or spoiled foods.

On the other hand, the salty and sweet tastes are so satisfying to our taste buds. This means that the food being consumed is nutrient-rich. There are ways, however, to trick the tongue into experiencing flavors that aren’t there.

Phantom flavors are those that linger on the tongue and cause other foods to taste different than normal—for instance, the foul taste of orange juice after brushing one’s teeth. Linda Bartoshuk is a taste scientist at the University of Florida, and she studies this phantom taste phenomenon. She found that key substances hit the tongue and trick the brain into tasting something that’s not there.^[9]

Bartoshuk performed an experiment that put various fluids on a subject’s tongue followed by a glass of water. When asked to describe the glass of water, they thought it was a sugary drink or a type of flavored beverage.

Bartoshuk says that you can knock out your ability to taste sweetness altogether by taking a pill with the Indian herb, Gymnema sylvestre. Known as the “sugar destroyer,” it will block sweet receptors from functioning for at least 30 minutes.

Another pill with miraculin has the opposite effect and destroys bitterness. It makes a lemon or lime taste like a sweet, sugary dessert.

1 Pulling A Car

Contrary to popular belief, the tongue is not one strong muscle. Eight different muscles interlace to form the tongue, similar to an elephant’s trunk. These interwoven muscles form a muscular hydrostat, and it is strong. The tongue’s stamina is absolutely jaw-dropping.

Gordo Gamsby is an extreme example of the tongue’s strength potential. He can pull an entire car that weighs 1,056 kilograms (2,328 lb) by attaching a hook to his tongue. It earned him a Guinness World Record title, one of nine world records for him. (He also broke the record for having the most concrete blocks smashed on his belly as he lies supine on a bed of sharp nails.)

Before Gamsby approaches the stage to perform these seemingly impossible feats, he slips into a meditative state to calm his body. After this, the pain doesn’t seem to faze him. He says, “I absolutely love what I do and wouldn’t rather be doing anything else.”^[10]

Finally the great sequel to our previous list on tricks for influencing people! As before, nothing here is meant to be negative, or to in any way lower someone’s self esteem, doubt their own reality, or anything of the sort. Such techniques do not give you real influence over anyone, they just harm already vulnerable people. Like the last one, we will discuss in this article how you can influence people in simple, yet subtle ways, while still being kind and making the world a better place overall.

SEE ALSO: Top 10 Ways to Seem Smarter than You Are

10 Food Glorious Food

Fact: Use People’s Hunger To Your Advantage; It Affects Their Decision-Making

At the University of The Negev In Israel back in 2011, researcher Shai Danziger and his team went through well over 1000 parole board cases over a ten month period. Their study was comprehensive as it included 40% of the entire countries parole board requests over that time period, and the judges had an average experience of about 22 years each on the bench. What the researchers found was that the judges made nicer decisions the closer it was to the last time that they had eaten. In the morning, early on, the chance of a parole hearing being successful for the potential parolee was about 65% and went down from there.

After lunchtime though, it went back up to about 65%, and then started to slide down again. The researchers eliminated a lot of other factors, and are convinced that even judges are prone to unconscious factors like that that affect their decision making no matter how experienced they are. They believe that as the judges lose fuel, they run out of as much caloric energy, and make quicker decisions without thinking as much about the details. And since parolees can be particularly dangerous, this means a quick decision usually leads to them erring on the side of caution, and saying no to releasing the prisoner. This doesn’t necessarily mean people are more likely to make nicer decisions when they are full, but rather that they are more likely to pay attention to detail, and take their time, instead of making a snap judgment that is as safe as possible until they can nourish themselves again.^[1]

9 Clever Rhetoric

Fact: Answer People’s Rhetoric Or Unfinished Sentences In Ways That Shape The Conversation

Sometimes people will use a rhetorical device where they leave a thought open ended, but obviously meant and expected a specific answer. Perhaps they are about to say something that particularly annoys them, and if they know the person well, they often get the answer they seek. However, sometimes the rhetorical device is answered by something unexpected, and they are left embarrassingly trying to say “well, that too, but what I was talking about was X”.

This can be awkward for both parties involved, and can make them feel like maybe they should have just been more specific to begin with. However, if you are attempting to influence someone, you can use this as an opportunity when they leave things open ended (you can also jump in if they leave a sentence unfinished as a rhetorical device). You can now drop in something you would like them to think about, or believe, in a way that makes it seem like a logical conclusion to what they said, almost like it came from their mouth. And, as long as you only do it after an incomplete rhetorical device you cannot really be seen as interrupting or rude, and they have no way of knowing you consciously chose a different tack than they expected.^[2]

8 Solicitousness (say that ten times fast!)

Fact: When Someone Uses Strategic Incompetence, Offer To Teach Them; Be Overly Solicitous

In the modern world, although it probably had ancient equivalents, there is a behavior that has been described as “strategic incompetence”. In essence, when it comes time to do something unpleasant that the person doesn’t enjoy, they claim that they are really, really bad at it, and that really, it would be best that someone else do it instead as they would just mess it up—and besides, they really don’t know what they are doing anyway and it would be too hard to learn.

This will often come up with things like dishes, or laundry and such. Instead of trying to force someone, or get in their face about it, act like you understand the problem, and you are trying to fix it. The problem, of course, is that they “don’t know how to do it”, so offer to teach them, and if they act like that is too hard, start telling them how to do it, step by step, and lay it on thick by talking about how hard it was for you at first, but how you eventually got it, and that it isn’t really that hard in the end. One way or the other, they may want to make it stop.^[3]

7 Praise People . . . Kinda

Fact: Praise Them For Who You Want Them To Be, And The Attributes You Want From Them

One of the most important things in influencing people is to be positive, and encourage people to be the best version of themselves. Now, this doesn’t mean you should actually lie. Don’t praise someone for something they haven’t actually done, or good behavior they don’t actually display. And, if you lay things on too thick, you may be too obvious and quickly get nowhere fast. Instead, this is something you have to be in for the long haul. Ignore negative statements and actions whenever they are small enough to let slide. However, acknowledge all behaviors that are consciously positive attributes and actions on the part of the person in question.

Don’t expect them to change super quick, but focus on the positive stuff you want to see. It could start small, over time, but if they continually feel reinforced for being kind, punctual, generous, and all those other good things, they will feel more desire to continue doing so, and less desire to act in a negative way. No matter what, humans are very social creatures and we crave attention. If bad behavior isn’t getting any oxygen, it often doesn’t have the strength to continue. Just work to light a small flame, and keep it lit at first, then work very slowly on growing it over time.^[4]

6 Do Nothing . . . It’s Everything

Fact: Sometimes, Doing Absolutely Nothing Is The Best Way To Influence Someone

This goes along with something we sort of talked about above, and that is how sometimes you need to just ignore things, or do nothing at all. Now, if someone says or does something bad enough to you or others, you often have to just stand up to it. However, if someone is just doing small things that aren’t particularly positive, especially if they aren’t particularly habitual in nature, sometimes just ignoring the bad and not giving them that attention they seek, can make a big difference. Sometimes people who are being negative are really just crying out for attention, and you must not give it to them in this manner, or it reinforces the wrong behavior and teaches the wrong lessons.

Sometimes these people may find little interest in you if you won’t give them the attention they seek for their negative behavior, but that just means all the more that you must not let them learn the wrong thing. If enough people simply stop responding to negative behavior, or seeking to rekindle friendships with those who behave in a negative manner, the person has the best chance of realizing that they are not being right to others, and they need to reconsider their behavior. Giving people chances when you shouldn’t, and getting angry or actively engaging too much with negativity will often just bring you down, and make the person who is being unkind think they can just keep on how they have been. Sometimes, doing nothing is the hardest thing of all, but there are times when it is the best move to make.^[5]

5 Open Up

Fact: If You Want People To Open Up To You, Strategically Open Up About Yourself

Getting someone else to open up to you can be quite hard. Some people can know you for years and never really open up that deeply, then, one day, for some reason some detail comes out and you feel like you hardly even knew them to begin with. This is because people go through a lot of things in life, and many people have had horrible or difficult experiences. These things can make them really vulnerable, and sometimes even thinking about them can reopen traumatic emotional wounds, and upset people of a normally strong mental constitution. For this reason, people can be really closed off, even those you thought were more “open”.

However, this doesn’t mean people are a closed book. While this does require some give and take, and some vulnerability on your part, the best trick to get the deeper details and understanding about a person’s life, is to share more about yourself. If you are willing to make yourself vulnerable, and share your toughest and darkest experiences, you will find that others are more comfortable going ahead and opening their vulnerabilities up to you. Emotional stories and experiences can be something that someone can use against you, so by first showing you trust them, and are willing to take off your armor first, you can make a big difference in getting the most closed people to tell you things about themselves you never thought you would get out of them.^[6]

4 Mimicry Works

Fact: Make Them Think Your Thought Process Is Similar, They Will Trust Your Ideas More

There are two tricks in one here. To start with, the most important way to do this is to be an active listener, and it is one of the best ways to influence people. If you literally listen to what they have to say, and actively respond to what they said with more than just a “mhmm”, or “oh yeah, right!”, then people will really feel like they are connecting to you. Once they do feel like they are actually being paid attention to, you can use this next trick, which helps bridge that gap even further between two humans. Now, we want to be clear we aren’t suggesting you change your thought process for anyone, or pretend it is different just to trick someone. Instead, what we are suggesting is looking for common ground in the way someone else thinks, and see how you can emphasize this.

Obviously, people tend to trust their own thinking, so they are more likely to trust someone who thinks similarly to how they do. So, all you have to do is be an active listener, and look for moments where you can point out how your thought process is similar to theirs by naturally engaging in the conversation in a way that highlights your sameness with them. The more you do this over time, the more they will feel you are someone much more like them, and this means your suggestions to them about life, the universe and everything, will have a lot more weight to them in their mind.^[7]

3 Question, Question, Question

Fact: If You Are Trying To Disprove Something Ask Lots Of Questions; Say It’s For Clarification

One mistake people make constantly when trying to argue anything with anyone, is they actually try to argue. This immediately puts most people on the defensive, and this in turn makes them much less likely to critically listen to what you have to say to them. Instead of being confrontational, and trying to argue back your point, or disagree directly with what they say, become the master of asking “clarifying” questions. Ask them lots of questions about the point they are making, but try to make it sound like you just want to understand better, and not like you are trying to prove them wrong.

If their position is truly not sound, and they are not an entirely stubborn and hopeless person, and they are smart enough to suss it out given enough time, asking clarifying questions may not have an immediate effect (although it might), but it will help them question their position, and honestly go over why it really doesn’t make sense, without them feeling like you were trying to put them down, attack them, or “beat them” in some other way. Especially with men, these techniques can be very useful, as males put even more of an emphasis on pride, and will often get defensive to the point of pigheadedness when challenged, even though when held up to the magnifying glass, they would normally be smart enough to see that their idea or argument simply didn’t hold any water.^[8]

2 Gentle Influence

Fact: Remember That You Cannot Change Anyone, You Can Only Slightly Influence Their Decisions

While we did mention how you can slowly influence someone to be a little bit more positive over time, the truth is that for the most part you are not going to “change” anyone. People are incredibly complicated, and all have their own unique experiences and their own unique worldviews, built up over years of human interactions and learning all kinds of things (sometimes slightly or largely differently than you learned them). And, by the time they are an adult, they are mostly who they are going to be, barring some major life epiphany, or taking a badly needed medication or something of that sort.

And if they have some epiphany, or realize they did need some kind of drug, or come to the conclusion that they need to change, it almost certainly isn’t because you browbeat or tricked them into it. As long as someone isn’t truly toxic, but just has faults like the rest of us, we aren’t saying their faults cannot be slowly improved over time, but don’t expect to cure them of them completely. Instead, just focus on slowly influencing their decisions for the better. The more positive, kind and responsible decisions they make, the better a person they will be over time. They will still fundamentally be them though, and if you want to be friends or romantic partners, the most important thing you can do is accept that person as someone special in your life, and enjoy all the positive things about your friendship and celebrate why you do enjoy being around them.^[9]

1 Be Positive

Fact: Positivity Is Most Important—Those Who Feel You Like Them Will Want To Do Things For You

The most important thing you can do to influence those close to you, or get them to do things for you, is to truly be their friend. And the most important part of being a friend is simply liking the other person, being kind and spending time connecting with them in some way and being there for them when they need it. Don’t be a friend just because it was a friendship of convenience, when there is nothing there. Be friends with people you truly, truly enjoy being around. If you can honestly say that no matter what faults they have, overall you enjoy being around them and think them a good person, show it with your actions, words and every other way you show your love.

We aren’t saying you should ever be a doormat, just be a normal, kind person, respect your friends, and be friends with those you naturally like, and for whom it easily shows. If a person believes you truly like and care about them, that makes you much more important to them, and it makes them like you more too. This makes them more likely than anything to consider you influential in their life, and consider your advice. In the end, it is all give and take. If people feel you are more invested in them, they will feel more invested in you, and you have a spiral of friendship, respect and mutual trust.^[10]

There is some scientific evidence of true psychic abilities. For example, social psychologist Daryl Bem ran experiments with over 1,000 subjects and found that eight of them showed clear-cut evidence of precognition or premonition.

Etzel Cardena, another parapsychology researcher, found that the Ganzfeld procedure provided evidence of true psychic powers as well. With the Ganzfeld procedure, participants sit in soundproof rooms while blindfolded. They are asked to talk about a film clip they’ve never watched. The snippet is either played in another room at the same time or shown to them afterward.

Then another set of people is asked to use the blindfolded partipants’ descriptions to accurately choose the clip from a group of film excerpts. Some people were able to choose the correct film clip based on the psychic’s description.

However, far more evidence shows that many so-called psychics are utter fakes who scheme to make you believe they have unusual powers. Check out these tricks that fake psychics play on you.

Top 10 Psychic Debunkings

10 They Keep You Talking

One of their biggest tricks is to keep you talking. The longer you chatter, the more information you may give to the fake psychic. They can use this to do your reading.

In the end, you will pay more (and not necessarily just financially). This is especially true for phone psychics as their services are often $3.99/minute or more.^[1]

9 They Ask For Personal Information

After most fake psychics talk to you for a while and make you feel comfortable, they will ask for your name, birth date, and address. They claim that this will help them to give you a proper reading.

In reality, fake psychics use this information to spam you with frightening demands like “you’re in danger, call immediately” or “I see that someone has cursed you, you need to call me now!”^[2]

The purpose is to get you to call about the message or physically come to their place of business. Then they try to keep you there for as long as possible. After all, time is money for them. If they were true psychics, they wouldn’t need any information from you at all.

8 Flattery And False Claims

The whole idea with fake psychics is to keep you coming back for more. One way they do this is by using flattery and false claims. The flattery is supposed to make you trust the psychic as a friend.

Once they feel you are comfortable, then they break out the false claims. For example: “You have a very interesting aura. I’d like to do an in-depth advanced reading on you. How does next Tuesday sound?”

If the psychic can keep you coming back and spending more money on “advanced” readings, they’ve successfully scammed you.^[3]

7 Past Lives As Famous People

Fake psychics may also say that you were a famous person—such as Cleopatra, Abraham Lincoln, Alexander the Great, or Helen of Troy—in a past life. Although the idea of having been someone famous in a past life might sound fun and interesting, rarely is such a claim true. Most likely, the psychic in question has told at least 20 other clients the same thing.^[4]

Beware of any psychic claiming that you were an important person in a past life. They are using flattery to keep you on the hook so that they can get more of your money. For the right price, they can help you find out more by regressing you to a past life using hypnosis. They have other ways to exploit this scheme as well.

6 They Make A Claim And Then Wait

A fake psychic will purposely make a generalized claim and then wait. This allows them to read your body language or elicit a response from you that will suggest that they are on the right track. When a psychic says something and then stops speaking while waiting for your response, this should be a red flag to you.^[5]

10 Psychics Who Claim To Communicate With Animals

5 They Give You Information That Might Be True For Anyone

Fake psychics will tell you something that could be true for anyone. For example, they might say, “I see that you’ve suffered a loss recently.”

Most people have experienced some kind of loss, whether it has to do with money, a loved one, a best friend, or a pet. This statement is so vague that it could apply to anyone.^[6]

Fake psychics love to give general and vague information because there’s no way they can lose. This claim could be true for anyone at any time in life, and they are counting on you to take the bait when they use this dirty trick.

4 Positive Claims With Just A Few Negatives

Obviously, it’s in a fake psychic’s best interests to tell you mostly positive information. If it was all bad news, you wouldn’t continue to use their services. However, fake psychics will throw in a few negative claims just to make their reading look genuine.^[7]

For example, they might say, “You recently lost an object that is very important to you.” Again, this could be anything. Maybe a month ago, you lost your car keys or an heirloom diary of an ancestor. The claim is so general that it allows you to mentally plug in anything to make it true. And that’s just what a fake psychic is hoping you will do.

3 They Look You Up Online

Just like everyone else, fake psychics look up people on social media to find out more about them. These days, nearly everyone is online, so finding out personal information about people is not that difficult.^[8]

Many fake psychics look you up online to discover facts that they can use during your reading. So if you’ve been posting on social media about publishing your book, for example, the psychic may say, “I see that you’re going to be a best-selling author.”

The Internet contains a wealth of personal information, and fake psychics use it to do your reading.

2 They Ask You Questions

If someone is a true psychic, they shouldn’t need to quiz you. Instead, they should be able to confidently reveal true information to you.

On the other hand, fake psychics ask a lot of questions. When a new acquaintance does this, you probably don’t think anything about responding with a “yes” or “no” or more information, especially if you’re just getting to know that person.^[9]

Fake psychics use the same technique. They want you to reveal information that they don’t have. If they can get you to give them more information without further thought on your part, they have won. They can then use the information to get more money and time out of you.

1 They Use Props

A real psychic doesn’t need to use “props.” So if you walk into her place of business and she is dressed like a gypsy with lots of bangle bracelets, a scarf on her head, and voluminous skirts, you may have made an appointment with a fake psychic.^[10]

However, these are not the only types of props used by fake psychics. You may see large crystals, books on psychic phenomena and psychic studies, or even natal charts posted on the wall.

Keep in mind, though, that some fake psychics are smart enough to look as normal as possible. After all, they don’t want to scare you away by presenting themselves as stereotypical scam artists. They may just have a table, a couple of chairs, and a deck of tarot cards, for example.

Regardless, props are unnecessary for a true psychic. She should be able to tell you what you need to know without anything other than the power of her mind.

10 Savage Psychic Slayings

About The Author: Regina Paul is an author and artist who lives in Seattle, Washington. Visit her website at https://www.reginapaul.com.

It’s been predicted that the global weight loss industry will be worth over $400 billion by the year 2030. With a world population of 8 billion people, that means it’s worth about $50 for every single person out there.  It’s safe to say that there’s a lot of money to be made thanks to weight loss, and people are constantly trying to find ways to improve their chances of getting healthy.

We all know that watching your caloric intake and exercising are standard and reliable ways to lose weight, but people still like to find an edge when they can. Some unique or unpredictable way of helping to shed the pounds. A lot of methods are not scientifically sound, and some are downright fraudulent, but there are a few weird tricks that can help you burn an extra calorie or two if you’re interested.

10. Ice Cold Water is Technically Negative Calories

One idea that people have found attractive over the years is negative calorie foods. For a long time people suggested that something like celery was a negative calorie food. That means if you eat it you burn more calories in the act of eating and digesting and you get out of the food itself. Unfortunately for the celery lovers out there, that’s not true. There aren’t any foods with any nutritional value at all that are negative calories. It doesn’t mean that there’s nothing negative calorie out there.

Ice water is the only more or less negative calorie food that you can ingest.  Water naturally has no calories, so you’re already at zero calories, but if it’s ice cold your body actually needs to use energy to warm it up to body temperature, which makes it a net negative overall. 

Is drinking ice water a great way to lose weight? Not really. Your body will warm the water up to 98.6°, or whatever your base body temperature is, and to do that you’re going to burn about 8 calories. That’s less than the calories you’d take in from eating a single potato chip.

9. There’s a Way To Prepare Rice That Greatly Reduces its Calories

Nearly half of the population of the world eats rice.  It’s a staple grain and one of the most popular foods in history. It’s also considered fairly healthy, but as a carbohydrate it’s also something that you need to be cautious about eating in large quantities because of the potential calories involved. 

A cup of cooked white rice has just over 200 calories. As a part of a larger meal, it can significantly contribute to the overall calories, especially if it’s eaten several times a day as it may be in some parts of the world. But with all that in mind, you can actually reduce the calories in rice based entirely on how you prepare it. 

A cup of cooked white rice has just over 200 calories.As a part of a larger meal, it can significantly contribute to the overall calories, especially if it’s eaten several times a day as it may be in some parts of the world. But with all that in mind, you can actually reduce the calories in rice based entirely on how you prepare it. 

Research in 2015 suggested that if you cook rice with some coconut oil, then let it cool down, you can reduce calories by as much as 60%. This is due to the oil entering the starch molecules in the rice and making them resistant to digestive enzymes. As the rice cools, the amylose, which is the soluble part of the starch, is stripped away and tough hydrogen bonds are formed between the molecules. All of this means that your body can’t digest those starches anymore, which means you can absorb the carbohydrates and associated calories. 

If you let the rice cool in a fridge for 10 hours, you’re going to get the best results overall in terms, and you can still warm it up again to eat it when ready.

8. Donating Blood Burns 650 Calories

Now keep in mind that no one is suggesting this as a viable, and certainly not sustainable, method of weight loss. This could be pretty dangerous if you push the envelope. However, it’s worth noting that donating blood burns a lot of calories. Compared to most methods of losing weight, it burns a lot.

Donating blood just one time can burn up to 650 calories. That’s the equivalent of walking for 7 miles if you weigh 200 pounds. The reason that donating blood is such an effective way of burning calories is that your body has to synthesize all those proteins and cells again to replace the blood you’ve lost. 

Most places have a fairly strict rule regarding how often you can donate blood, with many settling on at least 56 days between donations, so this isn’t a surefire weight loss cure by any means.

7. Hot Peppers and Capsaicin Increase Metabolism and Lead to Weight Loss

The active ingredient in hot peppers and other spicy foods of that nature is called capsaicin. Over the last decade or two on the internet it’s become a novelty item as people post videos of eating spicier and spicier foods and peppers just for fun.

Not everyone is aware that capsaicin actually has health benefits, however. One of these is that it can cause a significant metabolic increase. In clinical studies, patients given capsaicin have shown a marked increase in weight loss over those taking a placebo. Not only does capsaicin increase your metabolism which helps you burn fat quicker, it also acts as an appetite suppressant so you’re less likely to want to eat more which can also help with weight loss. 

6. Fidgeting Can Burn 350 Calories Per Day 

Would you call yourself a fidgeter? You might want to look into starting if you’re not already. People who fidget are at a natural advantage when it comes to losing weight. And of course it makes perfect sense when you think about it, because they are engaging in physical activity. It may not seem significant, but if you’ve ever watched somebody who is naturally fidgety, you’ll notice they can sustain it for a long time. Kids who have certain attention deficit issues can fidget for an entire class when they’re in school.

Research has shown that people who do fidget a lot are able to burn up to 350 calories per day doing it. This is because they have issues just sitting still and will naturally move around more often. Over the course of a year, this could translate into the loss of 30 to 40 pounds.

5. Laughter Increases Your Heart Rate and Burns Calories

Everyone has heard that laughter is the best medicine, but we probably weren’t laughing when we ended up in the hospital with the flu or a broken arm. While it may not cure a lot of diseases or help heal injuries, that’s not to say that laughter can’t be of use to your overall health. Laughter is able to increase your heart rate and burn calories as a result. Laughing for 15 minutes is the equivalent of walking about a half a mile. That can work out to about 4 pounds a year, just from laughter. 

The laughter doesn’t need to be sustained, so no worries about forcing yourself to become the joke. It’s cumulative, so if you watch a few comedies or laugh with friends you’ll probably be good. 

4. Urine From Pregnant Woman Was Touted as a Weight Loss Method By a Number of Doctors

There are lots of proven ways to lose weight, most of them related to how you eat in the physical activity you do. There are also a million and one quack weight loss methods that probably don’t work at all. And somewhere in between there’s a little gray area where anecdotal evidence suggests something works even though not a lot of science has been involved to prove it one way or the other. And that’s where we are right now with urine as a weight loss tool.

The hormone hCG can be found in the urine of pregnant women and in the early 2010s it became the biggest fad in weight loss, at least for those who could afford the $1,000 doses. This despite the fact that the FDA warned it had not been proven to decrease appetite or aid in weight loss. 

The stuff still had to be prescribed by doctors, so there was at least a sense of legitimacy behind it. The popularity stemmed from the fact that doctors were anecdotally claiming to have observed significant weight loss in many of their patients who were using it.

The flip side of the coin is that patients who were taking the hormone were also on 500 calorie a day diets, which could certainly explain significant weight loss without having to resort to the use of urine. Reports at the time indicated that patients on the diet, and taking the hormone, or able to lose up to 1 lb a day.

Why would this work at all? The idea is that the hormone, because it’s produced during pregnancy, tricks your body into thinking it’s pregnant and increases your metabolism as a result.

3. You Burn Up To Two Times the Calories Walking on Sand Versus Hard Ground

Not all walking is created equal. Just because your legs are moving and your feet are hitting the ground doesn’t mean you’re getting the same workout as somebody else doing the same thing. Where you walk has a lot to do with how effective it is as a method of weight loss.

If you want to make the most of going for a walk, take a page from cheesy personal ads and go for a walk on the beach. Walking on the sand is going to burn about twice as many calories as walking on pavement. 

Because sand is not as hard as pavement, the muscles in your legs need to work harder in order to keep you balanced on it. We’ve all gone for a walk on sand and noticed that you slip, sink, and generally have a harder time moving because of how uneven it is. But that unevenness makes it a much better method of working out, if your goal is to burn calories.

Studies conducted on diabetic patients who walked in sand as a method of exercise showed a significant decrease in body mass index, overall body fat, and an increased quality of life versus those who didn’t. 

2. Hiking Burns More Calories Than Just Walking the Same Distance

In a person’s quest to lose weight there are countless options for activities that you can engage in. Some people want to hit the gym and use machines, some people prefer to go out in nature where you can run, swim, ride a bicycle, and so on.

Obviously some physical activities are going to be more intense and burn more calories than others. But it can be surprising to learn just how much more effective one thing may be compared to something else. For instance, if you want to get out in nature, you’ll burn more calories if you hike for a mile than if you walk for a mile. It’s kind of like the sand walking effect, but for slightly different reasons.

Going for a mile-long walk might burn about 100 calories for you. However, if you choose to hike that same distance then you’ll be burning about double the calories. Also, if you decide to put on a backpack that’s loaded with gear and add some weight to you, you may end up burning close to 500 calories. All of this over the same distance.

The chief reason for the increase in calories burned is that hiking takes place over uneven terrain. You have to engage more muscles and put in more effort because you’ll be walking up and down and over steeper inclines than if you’re just walking on a sidewalk.

1. Improved Posture Can Help In Achieving Weight Loss

It looks like bad posture is one of the greatest health issues to affect people who don’t even realize it’s a problem. As many as 80% of Americans will suffer from back issues and posture is one of the chief causes. But it’s more than just back trouble. Posture affects your weight as well.

Poor posture makes poor use of all of your muscles. When slouched, your muscles aren’t operating at full capacity and you have a tendency to develop more fat deposits to balance you out because you’re not in an ideal position.

Improved posture helps your better function more efficiently and means any other exercises you do will be of greater benefit. If you exercise with proper posture, you’ll receive greater gains as a result.

Getting what you want does not mean you are Veruca Salt from Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory. You don’t have to be a spoiled (rotten) kid; you can be a meticulous workhorse asking for a raise. Or a tired spouse looking for a quiet date night. Thankfully there are plenty of ways to make people do what you want; start by trying psychological tricks to get what you want. Here are 10 psychological tricks to make people do what you want.

Related: 10 Psychology Tricks You Can Use To Influence People

10Use Body Language

Your body language can influence how others perceive you; it can even help change the minds of those on the fence about you.

For example, when you look big (lean back in your chair and push one elbow to the back of the chair top), it will make other people see you as powerful, and they will do anything you want. If you attend an important work meeting, talk directly to others and don’t fidget—be confident in your body and how you can make it move. These simple actions will significantly impact your confidence and overall influence on others.

If you are seen as a leader or powerful, others will wish to emulate you; this is known as the chameleon effect. The chameleon effect will make people unconsciously copy postures, facial expressions, and mannerisms, making them more like you; you can make them do what you want.

9Favors Are Your Friend

After performing a favor for someone, they are likely to return the favor. Favors are powerful when seeking to get people to do what you want. Even if you do a small favor, it can return large dividends.

According to sociologist Alvin Gouldner, no society can escape the reciprocity principle. The reciprocity principle emphasizes the need to help those that help you. It makes people on the receiving end feel that they owe you a debt and will have the urge to repay it.

For example, if you help someone at your workplace when they are thanking you, ensure you use a phrase like “That’s what partners do for each other.” When you label your favor as an act of partnership, the phrase will make your colleague return the favor.

8Go Big!

When getting people to do what you want, offer an outrageous proposal straight out of the gate. When this offer is struck down, come in with a more reasonable offer. They will more than likely accept this because it appears to be the better deal when, in reality, it is the offer you wanted them to agree to. (Think a car salesperson with a crazy price tag on a car, but you settle on a “better” price with some back and forth.)

For example, when negotiating with your teen, say they need to complete five chores before earning their Xbox. Of course, there will be moans and groans, but they may counteroffer with two chores, and you finally offer three. They will agree, and you will still get the work done that you wanted them to do. Score one for parents!

7Maintain Eye Contact

We are often told to maintain eye contact when speaking to others. It is more than just being polite; maintaining eye contact can increase attraction, understanding, and honesty. But make sure you don’t hold someone’s gaze too long, or you may be labeled a creep.

Eye contact can:

• Display honesty
• Create a bond
• Improve understanding
• Build respect
• Increase empathy
• Foster attraction

Eye contact may be difficult for many of us, especially those with social anxiety or other disorders like autism, but even making eye contact for a second or two and then briefly looking away can have the same effect as maintaining consistent—but not creepy—eye contact. This is a skill that you can learn and practice with each interaction you have.

6Scare People into Action

People suffering from anxiety are the best to trick into doing what you want psychologically. The cognitive mentalities of the people suffering from anxiety tend to think about the potential danger they can encounter in case they fail to act.

An example is where salespeople will use the illusions of scarcity to make people buy more of their products. The psychological trick applied here is that people desire to get products when they are scarce. Companies will also make products scarce or sell on discounts to make their customers purchase products before the offer ends.

Other types of scarcity tricks companies use include:

• Seasonal offers; “Outdoor Summer Sale.”
• Shipping, sales price, or purchase countdown; “Free shipping ends in X:XX:XX”
• Low stock notice; “Only 7 in stock.”
• Limited production; “75/1000”
• Leverage real-time activity; “X shoppers have this item in their cart.”

5Like Mother Said, Use Your Words

As a general rule of thumb, it is better to use someone’s name instead of “Hey, you.” This is especially true if you want something from someone. Simply using a person’s name makes the other person listen; they will be drawn into what you have to say. After all, we have been conditioned to respond to our name from birth.

At most places of business, employees wear name tags; it is your job to utilize them. Utilize desk plaques, names on doors, online listings, etc., to make a connection. Even if you don’t have a connection, the person whose name you just used will assume you have one based on the simple fact that you used their name. This is an extremely powerful tool that is most often underutilized.

4Be Excited to Get Others Excited

To get others to do what you want, you need to be excited. Speak highly of the task, pump up the location, or sing the praise of its eventual success. When others see you are excited about something, they will inherently be excited too.

Parents and teachers are the best examples of those who show enthusiasm to achieve enthusiasm:

• No one can pump up a room of drab 7th graders like a goofy teacher talking about the cell’s powerhouse. (It’s the mitochondria, by the way).
• Parents are masterful at getting their kids to brush their teeth to the tune of a made-up song. (My kids like, “Brush, brush, brush your teeth. Brush your stinky teeth,” to the tune of Row, Row, Row Your Boat).

3Time (of Day) Is on Your Side

Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons

Choosing the right time of day to talk to someone is essential to make people do something you want. As a young child, you knew a good time to ask your mom to go to your best friend’s house or when to pick up a broom and sweep the floor. Am I right? Yeah, you know what I’m talking about. The same is true in other situations.

You don’t have to force opportunities; instead, use the ones you have. If you know your coworker is more likely to be relaxed after lunch, schedule a meeting with them following their lunch break. They will be more likely to say yes to a new assignment when their guard is down, and their belly is full.

2Slow It Down

How you say something is more important than what you say. Speak with others, don’t just talk to them or even at them. The cadence, tone, speed, and pitch of how you speak is the most important aspect of persuasion.

For example, in movies and literature, a king is generally depicted as still. Calm. They don’t fidget while members of the court frantically relay issues to the king, fretting about what to do next. The king slowly stands and retains self-control. When they do open their mouth, it is with calculated precision.

People inadvertently listen to these cues and subconsciously react to them. Controlling the level at which you speak controls the conversation. If you speak quickly, it creates urgency, and urgency lowers your status, showing yourself at the mercy of others. But if you speak slowly, methodically, you retain status over the conversation by remaining in control. Calm is king.

1 Don’t Assume They Know What You Want

Each of us goes throughout our day giving and giving, usually in exchange for something in return, whether it’s food, money, or a healthier body. But when you want something from another person, you have to be direct. You have to be explicit. Your wants seem obvious to you, but only because you spend all day in your head. Others don’t; unless some people are mind readers—then kudos to you.

Approach the person you’re trying to get your want out of and make your case. Provide any necessary background details to strengthen why you want what you’re about to ask, and then ask it.

Be specific about what it is you want. Don’t be vague, and don’t drag it on. Keep it short; keep it sweet. For best results, keep each of the tricks listed above in mind as you make your request, like eye contact, time of day, and pace of speech.

Your brain is almost always there when you need it, barring those occasions when you find yourself chemically altered, really tired or far too enamored with an attractive person you’re trying to impress. And while it’s a marvel of biology capable of doing incredible things, the fact is your brain is only human. If you try hard enough, you can play some tricks on it, which is doubly impressive since it’s the one helping you play the tricks in the first place. Let’s check out ten of the most impressive ones. 

10. Hanger Reflex Can Make Your Head Involuntarily Turn

Internet trends, memes, and viral videos come and go. Yesterday’s Ice Bucket Challenge becomes tomorrow’s Yanny/Laurel. And in May 2022 the coolest thing going, for about two weeks, was the Hanger Challenge. 

The premise was as simple as it was unbelievable. Put a wire hanger around your head and it’ll make your head turn whether you want it to or not. No one believed it was real, so everyone had to try for themselves and then post their own videos of the results. Thus, a viral trend was born as the number of videos exploded, fueled by general disbelief that the weird effect could at all be genuine. But it was! If you properly stretch a hanger around your head, it will, in fact, cause your head to involuntarily turn. For most people, anyway. 

Despite becoming trending in 2022, the phenomenon had been realized much earlier and was even written about in scientific papers back in 2015. It was even featured on Japanese TV as far back as 1995. You can safely assume it’s been a thing for as long as both hangers and heads have existed. It just never got this much press before. 

When the unilateral fronto-temporal region of your head is compressed, the movement is involuntary, but the exact reason why this happens isn’t entirely clear. Nonetheless, over 95% of people who were tested in a study felt sensation while just 4.2% seemed immune. 

9. Sunglasses Can Trick You Into Being Happier 

Do people in sunglasses seem happier to you than other people? It’s very possible they might be, and it’s not just because they look super cool. Sunglasses trick your brain into being happier.

The power of sunglasses is tied up in how human emotion works. You may have heard some people referred to as wearing their hearts on their sleeves, and maybe you yourself aren’t so great at hiding your emotions. The way we look and act can have an effect on how we feel, and the simple act of frowning can make you feel sad or even angry and aggressive. And, to be clear, you don’t have to be frowning because you’re sad or angry. Bright sun in your eyes will make you squint and frown and that gesture is enough to actually induce the negative emotions associated with frowning. 

Participants in a study who wore sunglasses reported being less angry and aggressive overall than those who were not wearing them. This seems to mesh with other research that suggests just the act of smiling releases stress-relieving chemicals. So if you find yourself feeling a little wound up on a sunny day, try slipping on the shades and trick your brain into thinking you’re happy. 

8. Placebo Sleep Can Trick You Into Feeling Rested

The CDC says one in three adults doesn’t get enough sleep. For that reason alone, finding a way to get more rest seems like a good idea. So what if you could just trick your brain into thinking you slept, even when you didn’t? Turns out, that’s an option, and it works.

Placebo sleep works like most any other placebo, when your mind constructs the illusion that something has happened, even when it hasn’t. Given the right stimuli, you can be convinced you’re well rested even if you’re not.

Researchers took two groups of people and explained the importance of REM sleep, then did a sleep study. They were told a good amount of REM sleep is between 20% and 25%. After a sleep study, one group was told they spent 28.7% of their time in REM sleep. The other group was told they’d only had 16.2% REM. Those were not true numbers. 

Those who were told they slept better did better on cognitive tests after the fact. Those who were told they slept worse performed worse compared to control groups. How any of them actually felt had no bearing at all. 

7. The Rubber Hand Illusion

You would hope that, above all else, your brain would at least be able to identify where your body parts are and what they feel like. Sadly, you can even trick it to fail at doing that with something called the Rubber Hand Illusion. 

The trick here is as simple as it is perplexing and can be done at home if you want. You need a fake hand of some kind; something as simple as a blown up rubber glove will do. Rest your right forearm on a table with your hand concealed from view in a box or behind cardboard. Put the hand in front of yourself lined up with your shoulder. You can use a towel to cover it below the wrist to help complete the illusion.. Your other hand can be under the table.

Have someone sit opposite you and use two paint brushes to stroke your concealed hand and the rubber hand in unison. Keep focused on the fake hand. If the stimulation is properly coordinated, most people begin to perceive the fake hand as their real hand. When the rubber hand is threatened, such as with a knife or needle, your brain will actually produce a response as though your real hand were about to be stabbed. 

6. The Nocebo Effect Can Make You Feel Pain or Sickness 

We’ve addressed placebos already, so let’s take it up a notch with the nocebo effect. This can actually make you feel pain and sickness for literally no reason at all, just by tricking your brain. In essence, it’s believing something bad will happen and then it does only because you think that way. 

An example of how this can work parallels the placebo effect and, actually, was half of what happened in the placebo sleep example. If you take a useless pill and a doctor tells you, it’ll make you feel great, and it does, that’s placebo. But if the doctor says it has horrible side effects and you start to feel sick, that’s the nocebo effect. It’s all your brain making up symptoms based on what it’s been told is happening, even if it’s not true. 

5. The Stopped Clock Illusion

Ever feel like there aren’t enough hours in the day? Well, you’re in luck, because there’s a way you can freeze time. Or at least trick your brain into thinking you did for a moment.

Quick eye movements can produce visual distortions known as saccadic suppression and it’s what prevents you from noticing your own eyes moving when you look in a mirror. At the same time, they also produce an illusion called chronostasis. Also called the stopped clock illusion, it’s what happens when you flick your eyes quickly to an analog clock on the wall and it seems like the second hand has stopped moving. It’s caused by rapid eye movements leaving a gap in visual input. Moving your eyes from your computer to a clock very quickly, for instance, means you don’t really focus on anything in between. To avoid a blur or a spot of darkness, your brain sort of holds that moment, just for a moment, and it makes it seem like the world has stopped, however briefly, in order to ensure a seamless transition. 

4. The Cutaneous Rabbit

If you’ve never had a rabbit run along your arm, now’s your big chance to experience the illusion of it without having to hunt down an actual rabbit. The Cutaneous Rabbit can trick your brain into thinking you’re being assaulted by rabbits. 

The method is simple. A subject lays out their arm and is subject to five quick, light taps on the wrist. Then five more in the middle of the forearm. Then five more near the elbow. The subject will feel them as a progression of taps from wrist to elbow, mimicking the feeling of a tiny rabbit hopping in 15 hops all the way up the arm. You can see examples of it in YouTube videos with mixed results. 

3. Seeing a Black and White Image in Full Color

Another popular trick that gained some steam on TikTok was finding color where there is none. Specifically, you can fool your brain into seeing a black and white image as full color if you focus on a central spot and the image is switched to a high contrast negative color image.

As you focus on the spot, the color receptors in your eyes begin to grow fatigued. Your cones perceive color with three cones, sensitive to wavelengths of blue, red, and green. Once the reverse color image is swapped back to black and white again, your eyes will perceive the colors that were lacking in the contrasted version. The illusion is quick, but for a moment you should perceive the black and white photo in full, true color. 

2. Out of Body VR 

Virtual reality can be used to trick you into having an out of body experience. It’s a bit like the rubber hand illusion, only this time it’s full body immersion. The VR environment needs to present you with a duplicate of yourself, and then all someone needs to do is poke you with a stick.

As one neuroscientist explained, your sense of self and body is constructed through a lot of sensory data. Sight is a big part of it, but what you can feel physically and also where you feel your body is oriented are relevant as well. When you trick the brain by showing it new information that doesn’t match up, it freaks out a little bit. In experiments, researchers were able to have participants look at virtual bodies being touched and actually feel themselves in that other, virtual body when sensations match up to what they were also feeling. At one point, when the virtual body was smashed with a hammer, the participants registered fear responses, including increased sweating and pulse as though they were experiencing the assault themselves.

In another experiment, participants were asked to enter a virtual body and sort of wear it as their own. Then their perspective was shifted so instead of being in the body they were looking at it. Afterward, all the participants who had left the body and looked at it noted a marked reduction in their fear of death. Researchers suspected in this case that leaving the body allowed participants to separate body from consciousness and lose some of the traditional fear of dying in the process. 

1. Distorted Body Image Can Reduce Pain

We know there’s a strong psychological component to pain, but just how strong may be surprising. Things like phantom limb syndrome or alien hand syndrome show that your brain’s perception of how your body actually is can be vastly different from reality, but still convince you it’s true. A distorted body image can actually affect how your mind perceives pain, even in chronic conditions, and it can be manipulated in some unusual ways.

In one study, patients with chronic arm pain were asked to look at the arm that hurt, perform a few movements, and then gauge the pain they felt after. They did this four times under different conditions. One was just normal, but the other three involved binoculars. They looked at the arm with no magnification, with increased magnification, and then through reversed binoculars so their arms looked tiny. Nothing else was different.

Participants reported that they felt greater pain when their arm was magnified. But when they looked through the backwards binoculars at a tiny arm, they felt less pain. More interesting was that this wasn’t just in their heads. Researchers measured inflammation after the experiment and there was less swelling after viewing the arm made to look tiny. So it wasn’t just perception, it had a real, physical effect on pain.