Backstage, in video, magicians Goldfinger & Dove show the many different elements that come together in our Throne of Enlightenment illusion.

Hidden backstage in the exhibit is a large lever-and-pulley system. When your friends or family move those big levers, they lift the chair (with you on it) into the air.

Levers and pulleys give a mechanical advantage, and let the movers trade distance for effort. Glass supports under the chair are camouflaged and hard for the audience to see.

But in explaining how our custom-made Throne of Enlightenment works, Goldfinger and Dove don't take away all the magic—far from it. They then show video of other magicians performing magical and baffling levitations using other techniques, leaving you wondering how it's done.

Also backstage you can test your strength on two pulley chairs. One has just one pulley, where you can try to lift your weight. The other chair has four pulleys, making it much easier to pull on that rope, though you need to pull the rope four times as far. You can see how objects that you use every day have simple machines to make work easier.