Delusions and illusions are both a kind of distortion of our shared reality. The difference is that a delusion sprouts from within the brain (such as believing I am Abe Lincoln, or that my shoelaces are worth a million dollars). An illusion is produced outside of us (like a mirage of water in a desert, or a magician sawing his assistant in half).

The goal of a magician's tricks, though, is to delude the audience into believing the illusions are real. That's something movie makers do every day, hoping we will suspend our disbelief if only for a couple of hours. We believe that the facades they build are actually towns, that an asteroid strikes the earth causing bleak destruction and numerous actors to experience an early demise. Sometimes statisticians, politicians and reporters practice the same art.