Anthony Barnhart, Ph.D. is a teacher-scholar who aims to inspire intellectual curiosity, nurture skeptical inquiry, and promote rigorous science through his teaching, laboratory research, and public speaking.
News from Prof. Barnhart and the MAGI Lab:
After5Society Chicago
After5Chicago presents a lecture by Dr. Anthony Barnhart — Behind the Illusion: The Psychology of Magic & Perception.
I love the ethos of the After5Society:
The After5Society celebrates the best part of college: the evening lecture you didn’t have to attend. You went because it was interesting, and you left talking about it with whoever sat next to you.
Join me at GG’s Piano Bar on November 11th. With beer in hand, I’ll be presenting to After5Chicago on The Psychology of Magic & Perception.
My followers can acquire a 20% discount by using the discount code LEARN20.
Tickets are available at https://www.after5society.com/event/after5chicago-behind-the-illusion-the-psychology-of-magic-and-perception-2003413722374
A Century After Houdini
Next month marks the 100th anniversary of the death of Harry Houdini. Houdini had an over-sized influence on American society! Still today, if you ask someone to name a famous magician, “Houdini” is likely to roll off their lips. Beyond his influence on magic, he was highly influential on the modern skepticism movement. He spent the latter part of his life debunking fraudulent mediums. He even testified before the House of Representatives in support of a bill that would outlaw fraudulent spiritualist practices. James Randi clearly followed in Houdini’s footsteps.
Houdini spent his childhood in Appleton, Wisconsin and was first exposed to magic in Milwaukee. Wisconsin is memorializing the centennial of Houdini’s death in a variety of ways. The Houdini Club of Wisconsin conference will be happening in Milwaukee on the anniversary of his death, for example. Perhaps my favorite event is being hosted by the Milwaukee Rep Theater. Their “New Play Development” program is featuring a work written and performed by Katie Bender entitled “Instructions for a Séance.”
Step into an unforgettable adventure of mystery, mischief, and messy humanity. Katie Bender transforms the theater into an intimate DIY séance, daring to summon the spirit of Houdini—and maybe wrestle with the chaos of her own life along the way. Equal parts hilarious, haunting, and heartbreakingly honest, this one-woman show fuses memoir and live magic to explore ambition, motherhood, and the craving to break free. Expect laughter and glimpses of the extraordinary hidden in everyday life.
To accompany the show, on October 25th, I will be offering a magic workshop at the Milwaukee Rep. Attendees will learn some magic inspired by the effects in “Instructions for a Séance.” However, they’ll also be offered a peek behind the psychological curtain that makes these magic tricks work and will learn more about the rich history of interaction between magicians and scientists in the state of Wisconsin. Register here: https://milwaukeerep.fillout.com/magicworkshop
“Mesmerized” @ The White Lilac
Joe Diamond and Anthony Barnhart will present their “Mesmerized” show in two upcoming performances at Kenosha’s White Lilac.
After a successful Mid-Atlantic tour last year, Joe Diamond and I are performing our Mesmerized show for Midwestern audiences at Kenosha, Wisconsin’s White Lilac in the coming months. We’re excited to bring the show to our hometown community in this unique, intimate venue. The term “immersive” gets thrown around a lot these days, but attendees at this performance will experience what it was like to sit in on a 19th Century demonstration of Mesmerism. No hypnosis involved; just plain old suggestion and psychological nudging. Attendees will also hear the untold story of how psychology emerged as a response to these early pseudosciences.
Tickets and more details are available here.
03/11/2026 Update: We’ve added a second date! We’ll be performing Mesmerized at the White Lilac again on April 26th. Tickets at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/mesmerized-an-experiment-in-science-magic-april-26-tickets-1984909229939.
03/18/2026 Update: Joe and I appeared on the WGTD Morning Show to promote our White Lilac appearances. We had a rich conversation with host, Gregory Berg. You can listen to the playback here: https://www.wgtd.org/playlist/morning-show/ms-magicians-tony-barnhart-and-joe-diamond
Mid-Atlantic Performance & Lecture Tour
It’s official! Joe Diamond and I will be bringing science and magic to the Mid-Atlantic region in mid-November. Between November 10th and 16th, we’ll be performing our two-man show, Mesmerized, at Johns Hopkins University, the University of Richmond, and for a ticketed event hosted by the National Capital Area Skeptics in Washington, D.C. I’ll also be giving colloquium talks on my research program along the way. You can find details about the events that are open to the public on my Speaking Engagements page.
While the schedule for our tour is tight, we’re hoping to find time to meet up with magicians and magic scholars in the region along the way. Please reach out to us! Hope to see you on the East Coast.
11/05/2025 Update: Joe and I participated in a livestream to promote our public show in Washington, D.C. You can watch the playback on the livestream below!
11/25/2025 Update: The tour was a success and a whirlwind! Thanks to all those who were involved with bringing us to the East Coast. Here is a photo album from our exploits.
“Engaging Psychology Students and Promoting Learning through Magic”
In October, the Society for the Teaching of Psychology Annual Conference on Teaching will host a symposium on magic in the classroom. I am pleased to team up with Emily Stark of Minnesota State University Mankato and Jacob Gibson of Washington and Lee University to demonstrate some of the ways that magic can serve as a tool to promote engagement and learning. Here’s what you can expect:
Critical thinking skills are central to the discipline of psychology and are expected of students in a variety of college programs. The APA Guidelines for the Undergraduate Psychology Major (APA, 2013) include critical thinking as a broad goal, with specific skills of demonstrating psychology information literacy, using scientific reasoning, problem-solving, and research design. Numerous activities have been developed and used in psychology courses that give students an opportunity to apply critical thinking to understanding psychological concepts. This symposium will highlight people affiliated with the Science of Magic Association (SoMA) who have incorporated elements of magic and magic tricks to encourage critical thinking or support the teaching of psychology. Magic provides a perfect opportunity for students to examine their own assumptions about a situation and to realize how easily their assumptions, perceptions, and expectations can be manipulated by a skilled magician. Magic tricks exploit automatic assumptions and heuristics that allow for quick decisions in the natural world. As such, they can be a powerful tool for exemplifying the fallibility of cognitive systems and encouraging students to engage in skeptical, critical thought. Symposium participants will discuss the ways they have used magic in their specific courses, including recommendations for other instructors. All presenters have found that magic tricks engage students beyond many other types of course activities and are a unique window into understanding human perception and belief.
Be sure to say hello if you’ll be joining us in the Twin Cities!
UPDATE: I’ll also be lecturing for the Twin Cities Assembly of the Society of American Magicians while I’m in town. Magicians: I hope you’ll join me at Eagle Magic on Friday, October 17th! https://www.sam12.org/civicrm/event/info/?reset=1&id=111