Customer Reviews

Magic Eye, Vol. 2

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Looking through a magic window into a kingdom full of imaginary beings stirs something very deep in the human imagination. If Lewis Carroll had seen stereograms, he would have written a sequel to 'Alice in Wonderland' entitled 'Through the Magic Eye Poster'! Published in 1993 by Andrews and McMeel. The second straight best-seller, at one time both Magic Eye I and Magic Eye II were at the top of the New York Times list. Sequel to the original New York Times best-seller, and the book that kicked off the stereogram craze of the 1990's. Millions of copies of this book have been sold.

This book has been around since 1994 and is still a lot of fun.These 3-D images seem to have reached their peak in the early 90's ;as far as I know anyway.I particularly enjoyed the Forward.Tom Baccei talks about their resident wizard."Some say that although his bulb seems good,his filament is short a few twists." In the words of Wizzy "Life is like a single beautiful butterfly in a gentle swirling snowstorm.When you find your own center,you'll find the butterfly.Then you can hop on and go on a ride forever."
When you've found all the 3-D images,try looking for that butterfly in the snowstorm and enjoy life.

What I love most about these books (I have Magic Eye I as well) is how I can practice 'receiving' an image. In order to see the image, you have to be very focused yet very open. You stare at it with soft eyes and readiness, then when your eyes are in the right position and the 3-D image starts to appear, you can't start 'grabbing' it with your eyes or it disappears. You have to be very still and wait and then it's as if someone turns a nob and this crisp picture shows up with amazing depth. It is a mindset that we don't practice much in our busy lives of doing and accomplishing things. A great lesson to be reminded of, showing how easy it is to let the most precious things come to us, if we can be still and present enough to receive and perceive. I look at the pictures at night before I go to sleep, or when I want to 'download' information from my subconscious mind. I know that practicing this 'receiving' muscle helps my intuition. These books are worth every penny!

I purchased this item for my children, since in reading about this type of viewing exercises-that vewing these 3D stereograms is great to strenthen your eyes-and since the computer is often being used for so many different things. I thought if we had a book of these they could be used in any of our free time when doing them on the computer is not an option. This has worked out well. The kids love the book. The only reason I did not give this rating a five is because the drawings seem so much harder to view than the ones on the computer. My kids have been able to do it alright, but I get too impatient. Perhaps. it is an even better eye exercise done from the book Vs. the computer, but to me they are slighly frustrating.

I love ALL these Magic Eye books! After a while, all you have to do is glance at the picture and you can immediately see the hidden object. You never know what will pop up!

My family and I like the book a lot! Not all people around us are able to see the images and it feels like we know some secret :o)

I love Magic Eye books! Some images are more challenging than others but it's fun watching them develop.

I really love these books. I am fascinated by the technique used to get the 3-d affect. I have everyone out.

This book contains 25 pictures, two of which are three-dimensional patterns. The remaining 23 pictures appear to be just colorful patterns to the untrained eye (as it appears on the cover), but when seen properly, three-dimensional shapes zoom out of the colorful pages.
[Note: The objects are three-dimensional, but only as a paper diorama appears to be 3-D. They are flat subjects in front of a background, not fully fleshed out scenes and characters. The objects also appear with the same color and texture pattern as the background.]
Some of the shapes appearing in this book are The Sphinx, dinosaurs, ballerinas, a unicorn, and The Statue of Liberty. One scene stretches over two pages. There are 3 additional pictures, one appearing on the front cover of the book, and one on the inside front cover and another inside the back cover of the book.

In the beginning of the book, there is a foreword which contains information on how the illusion works for specific pictures within the book. The next page gives instructions and techniques on viewing the 3-D objects. There is a "cheat" section in the back of the book, which shows how each of the pictures should appear.

This book was really popular in the mid-90s, and is therefore pretty dated. It is comparable to the fun of blacklight posters, and lava lamps in the 70s. We will probably look back at this book as a piece of 90s trends or gimmicks.

Magic Eye II holds no real educational value, and is meant purely for fun. It is entertaining for the first couple of times, but most likely it will sit on your shelf after that. It would probably be best suited as a coffee table book.