* error - from errare, which is the latin term for wandering

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1. People will always believe what they think is the best version of what is possibly believable - 
in other words they are likely to fall for deception, if it makes their view of the world a little better than before.
 Show your mark what they want to see
. Be their favourite witch. 

Magic tricks and confidence games are both targeting the manipulation of belief - however the difference between the two lies in the intentions at the core of their achievement. 
Magic operates at the surface level of our visual perception - affecting how we see/unsee the world and suggesting an alternative, often entirely subjective interpretation of reality. Magic produces a generative outspring of ideas + emotions, and is thus regarded as a process of creative intentions.

Con games, on the other hand, are rather destructive gestures, which aim at taking something from the misfortunate match. The manipulation reaches far deeper, affecting the judgment and value system of the target, and thus opening a window of time in which confusion allows the con-player to perform their trick.

2. Some people are certainly more gullible than others, but truth is, anyone may be drawn into trickery if the con-player is able to hit the right spot at the right time. 

Spotting who is easiest to con requires reliance, empathy, patience, as well as a fair dose of malice.
The trickster will be the director and leading actor in a manufactured play, constructed in accordance to the specific peculiarities of the chosen case

3. Mimicry as the instinctive behaviour observed in the natural world, can be applied here as a deceitful means of hiding in plain sight. 
the con artist must gently “massage” the the victim’s trust muscles, and become familiar to them: intimacy and mutual resonance will drive away any possible suspicion of betrayal from either side. 
Asking the mark for a favour, somewhat manifesting fake vulnerability, will make them feel trusted in the first place, which will eventually lead them to trust the trickster back; the two will become one.


4. The following, crucial step, consists in fabricating a crisis, a sudden emergency, a plot twist, stirring the story-line toward the desired objective .
 The Artist knows their victim well by now, and they know where to hit in order to trigger what is known as a “visceral state”.
 A visceral state is a condition induced by factors such as hunger, thirst, exhaustion, pain, fear - they are intense physical experiences which substantially claim all a person’s focus, thus affecting their judgement, and lowering their defences. 
Driven by threat, the mark will likely run to their trusted ally in search for a solution, or to the rescue: they will, willingly, concede themselves to the trickster.


5. At this point, the most effective way to finalise the trick is to gradually drive the victim to hand the desired ‘object’ over to the leading player. 
This is achieved having them believe that renouncing that ‘object’ is the only possible, and right solution to the crisis, no matter how great a compromise it constitutes. The urgency and magnitude of the crisis must, in fact, exceed the affective value of the loss at stake. And the two allies are fighting the fight together.

The real con-artist will never actively take, ask or demand anything, they will limit themselves to create and curate, the circumstances that will see them receiving the object of their wishes straight from the victims hands. 


6. While the the bond is thorn and the truth revealed, the victim is left in a immobilising haze, a painful confusion which only later, often when too late, turns to the stinging confrontation with the truth of the con.

This time gap between the hand-over, and the moment in which the victim realises they have been tricked, is key, as it allows the grifter to perform the final masterful act in the play: vanishing.