The modern world has a huge number of ideas, concepts and belief systems that offer a person one or another explanation of reality. Conspiracy theories, alternative medicine, spiritual practices, astrology, esotericism, despite the development of science, do not lose popularity. But what can they really explain? And why are so many people so easy to believe in them? In this book, Swedish educator Christer Sturmark and American physicist Douglas Hofstadter explain how scientific knowledge works, explain why our brains so easily abandon rational thinking, and provide simple tools to help resist manipulation and misconceptions.