NONFICTION - March 13, 1994

MAGIC EYE: A New Way of Looking at the World, 3D Illusions by N.E. Thing Enterprises. (Andrews & McMeel: $12.95.) It’s on the bestseller list, between “Embraced by the Light” and “Men Are From Mars.” Clearly, our sights are trained elsewhere these days. “Magic Eye” is a series of 30 computer-generated images composed of “Salitsky Dots,” a “patent-pending, image-rendering system” that allows 3D images to arise from random fields of color. But they don’t just arise. You have to perfect your gift for “deep vision.” You have to stare at the random fields of color, either crossing your eyes, diverging your eyes or simply staring vacantly into space, through the image until the real picture comes clear. This did not happen for me, after two weeks, many headaches and a vague, disappointed feeling that a new generation with deep vision was racing past me on all sides. But don’t let that stop you. “Magic Eye” is now in its tenth printing since late October, with over 775,000 copies sold in the United States alone. Just because I can’t find a single secondary image in the book doesn’t mean you won’t be able to. And the random fields of color are very pretty, anyway.