In a 1999 study, participants were shown a video of students passing a basketball among themselves and asked to count the passes made by players wearing white shirts. Midway through the game, a man dressed as a gorilla appeared and walked among the players. Surprisingly, about fifty percent of the people watching the video did not notice the gorilla because they were so intensely focused on counting the passes. This is an example of inattentional blindness, one of the extraordinary phenomena explained in this book. This book takes you on a journey through mental phenomena from brainwashing to behaviorism, from déjà vu to dreams, and from the placebo effect to psychosis; between its covers, readers will find a way to achieve a better understanding of their personalities and how they interact with the world around us.