In the same way ~~ so

Magicians are honest deceivers. To investigate the secret used by magicians to fool their audiences, Jastrow worked with two great illusionists. He invited these performers to his laboratory and had them participate in a range of tests measuring their speed of movement and accuracy of finger motion. But Jastrow's results revealed little out of the ordinary. He demonstrated magic has little to do with fast movements. Instead, magicians use a range of psychological weapons to fool their audiences. The technique of suggestion, which captures people's minds, plays a key role in the process. In the same way that people can be made to believe that they once went on a non-existent trip in a hot-air balloon, so magicians have to be able to manipulate people's perception of performance.
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Hello...

In the passage above, I don't understand why the "so" is used here.
I feel, without "so", it will be better sentence.
I need some opinions...