by llrueu llorrrstoirr
lrri-l{ickr
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PICTURES THAT TELL A STORY ... I T R A N S - P R E M O N I T | O N . . . . . . 4
I M P O S S I B L E B A N K N I G H T . . . . . . , . . . B L E T ' , S T R Y O N E M O R E T I M E , . . . , . . . l 0 M E N T A L I S T ' S I N S U R A N C E P O 1 I C Y . . . . . . , 1 2 G E m N G A H E A D O F M Y S E 1 F . . . . . . 1 5 THOUGHTS ON THE NAIL WRITER.. ... 1 B A P R E D T C T T O N l N C O D E . . . 1 . . . i . . . . . . 2 2 PSYCHOLOGICAL CARD FORCE ....,...26 B R E A K I N G T H E B A N K . . . 2 9 L O V E C O N N E C T T O N . . . , . . . 3 2 HUMMER PSYCHOMETRY. ... 34 M A R K E D F O R A R E A D I N G . . . 3 6 THOUGHTS Oii "iiELSOTi'S BEST KEPT SECRET".. ... 38 P R E D I C T I O N P L U S . , , , . . . , . . , , . . . 4 1 L O G I C A L H E A D L I N E P R E D I C T | O N . . . . . . 4 5 W I N S O M E F R E E I N F O R M A T I O N . . . . . . , . . . . , . . . 4 7 T H I R D P E R S O N P S Y C H O M E T R Y . . . . . . 4 8 U L T I M A T E P S Y C H O M E T R Y . . . . . , . . . , . 5 0 EMERGENCY MENTALISM ... 54
lrni-l{.ieks
lilTll|)DUoTI|)s
First of oll, thonk you for buying this book. I do oppreciote it, ond hope you will find it of volue ond interest.
Let me stote my objective in writing this book. I ottempt to creote
"mentol effects", thot ore os close to possible os"the reolthing". My em-phosis is on method. I wos once introduced by one of the world's top professionols to o friend,-os q 'creotor of cerebrol mentolism'. At first, I wosn't sure whot to moke of the introduction, but os I thought of it more ond more, it struck me os on extremely occurote stotement. I om much more of o creotor, thon performer. You will find performonce hints ond outlines in my work, but they ore mere guideposts olong the woy,
My hope is thot the performers omong you moy find moieriol ond ideos oround which you moy design presentotions thot fit your style of working ond moy give you greoter flexibility.
To the other creotors of Mentolism, I hope thot you moy find o nice bit of loterol thinking thot mokes you smile. lf you find o new or simpler "woy to skin o cot", thot moy help solve something on which you've been work-ing, or inspire you on to something new, I will be pleosed.
I like my methods to be os simple os is possible. ln foct, the bold, simple method is usuolly more deceptive then the super subtle, yet overly com-plicoted method,
While much of my moteriol is of the 100% sure cotegory, some of my fo-vorite creotions involve hoving to toke some chonces, ond be oble to "go with the flow". While some of you moy not like this opprooch, it is my belief thot techniques thot involve chonce toking ore the ones thot will leod us into the future os performers of mysteries,
This book wos not meont for Mogicions looking for o "mentol mogic trick" to odd to their show. I ossume thot ony reoder of this book is ocquointed with the bosics of our ort. The items in this book require the unique
tem-peroment of on experienced Mentolist.
To cloim credit for the originoliiy of everything in this book would, obvi-ously, be impossible. Every Mentolist owes thonks to oll of the creotors
lDni-llieks
thot hove come before us. lt's o smoll field, with few techniques to sus-toin us. Since I om not the scholorly type, ond influences sometimes be-come jumbled ofter mony yeors, I've credited items whenever possible, until memory or the help of friends foiled me. lf l've inodvertently foiled in some woy, I opologize. I'm sure thot ony shoricomings will be pointed out.
I hope you enjoy this book, ond find it both useful ond interesting,
Pri-lliekr
PlOTUllßS
TH^IT TBLL A ST|)llY
BFFßOT: Four seqled envelopes ore ploced on disploy. You proceed to tell o story obout the person who helped you discover your mogicol
powers. You then remove o ring box from your pocket, which you open. The ring inside, you go on to exploin, wos o gift from him before he
possed owoy.
You osk someone to come up from the oudience, os you exploin thot only one of the envelopes contoins on item thot belonged to the owner of the ring. The other envelopes contoin items thot hove no relotionship of ollto your friend.
You osk the ossistont to hold the ring in one hond, ond poss her other hond over the envelopes one of o time. She is to see if she is drown to one of the envelopes more thon ony of the others. As she does so, you exploin thot in his lost letfer to you, he told you the ring hos powers thot ore quite out of the ordinory.
When the ossistont settles on one of the envelopes, you ploce her choice on the side, olong with the ring. You tellthe story of how he wos in love wiih his wife Ann, ond how she wos his whole life.
You osk her to open one of the rejected envelopes, while you do the some. For exomple, the envelope she opens hos on ordinory photo of o city street. Yours hos o menu from o toke out restouront. You osk her to get the torget envelope, os you open the lost rejected envelope which contoins o grocery list.
Obviously, none of these hove onything to do with the ring. You then osk the spectotor to reod whot is engroved on the inside of the ring. She reods, 'To Ann, my one ond only love.'You then osk her to open the en-velope she wos drown to ond remove its contents. lt is o picture of o womon weoring the some ring! The bock of the photo is signed, 'Ann!"
üIBTH|)D: This is bosed on on incredibly clever effect by Ted Kormelovich, first told to me by Boscom Jones. lthought it wos quite clever, but didn't quite suit my needs, or style of working.
This is one of the few occosions, I thought the effect needed o 'thicker
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loyer of deception" for my comfori, After o greot deol of thought, I come up with this opprooch.
Two of the envelopes ore double envelopes. ln one of them is o menu (or other meoningless item) in one side ond on outogrophed picture of 'your friend' in the other side. The second double envelope hos o gro-cery list in one side, ond onother outogrophed picture in the other. Obvi-ously, you con show the contents of either of the double envelopes os being eiiher hits or misses.
The other two envelopes ore ordinory. ln one is on old picture of o womon weoring o ring similor to ihe one you'll use in the presentotion.
Hove it signed Ann on the bock. lf you just show it cosuolly, no one will notice ihe ring. You con exploin it os o piciure of your ount,
But if it is chosen, it con be disployed os o direct hit, since you hove the ring engroved os in Effect.
The other is not reolly o 'regulor city street'but hos o jewelry store in the photo. Moke o smoll lobel thot con fit on the bottom of the jewelry box thot hos the nome ond oddress of this store. This photo con be possed
off os one of where you used to work or live of some time in the post. But if it is chosen, you tell o story of how your friend worked 20 hours o doy, so thot he could buy his beloved the ring she looked of in the window of thot very jewelry shop.
After on envelope is picked, you hove the spectotor stond of one end of the row of envelopes while you locote yourself of the other end. The double envelopes ore on your end, the regulor on her end.
From here, there ore two possibilities, Either she picks o double envelope or on ordinory one.
lf she picks one of the two double envelopes, you hove her open the re-jected envelope neorest to her, which is ordinory. Coll it o picture of your
ount. You now open the envelope neorest to you. Open it to the proper side, ond show the grocery list. Hove her open the remoining envelope, os you get the'torget' envelope. Open it to the proper side, ond re-move fhe 'outogrophed picture'.
lrsi-llickn lf she chooses one of the regulor envelopes, YOU open the first of the re-jected double envelopes. She then is to open the remoining ordinory en-velope, the contents of which you dismiss with on ordinory explonotion. You open the lost double envelope, os you let her open the torget enve-lope. lf it contoins the picture of the womon, ofler hoving her reod the engroving, it ollows you to point out the ring ond her nome on the bock or the picture, lf it's the picture of the jewelry store. ofier hoving her check out the lobel on the ring box, it ollows you to point out the store in the picture.
DOUBLE ENVELOPES REGULAR ENVELOPES
"jEWLERY STORE" LABEL ON BOTTOM OF RING BOX
RING ENGRAVED ON THE NSIDE
Pri-lI.ickn
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Besides whot I consider to be on interesting combinotion of methods, ihis effect olso illustrotes my own opprooch to using the techniques of the Mentolist to the performonce of 'stroight'mogic.
BFFBOT: A well known, trusted member of the oudience is osked to come on stoge. You proceed to osk him to confirm the following stote-ments:
"l osked you if you would be so kind os to poriicipoie in o 'test condi-tions' experiment."
'You ore not o stooge, or ore secretly helping me.'
'l honded you some ploying cords ond ofter you put them in your pocket, only then did I osk you to think of ony ploying cord.' 'You hod o truly free choice ond could chonge your mind oll you wonted. "
"You did not write down your choice or tell onyone whot you choice wos."
You then go on to stote thot you HONESTLY hove no ideo whot cord is being thought of by him, ond you con offer S.|0,000 to onyone who con prove thot you do! CYes, this is true - you honestly do not know whot cord is being thought of - no forces, or impression devices.)
The person is osked to toke the cords out of his pocket ond ploce them on the ioble. The oudience sees one Red bocked ond one Blue bocked deck of cords. You osk the ossistont to keep the blue bocked deck in front of him.
You osk for the red deck ond remove the cords from their cose, which you fon to show thot the cords ore well mixed ond hove red bocks. You then ploce the red deck bock on the toble, o distonce from the blue deck.
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lr*i-llickri blue deck. While he does so, you hove him re-confirm the foct THAT THOSE CARDS WERE IN HIS POCKET BEFORE YOU ASKED HIM TO THINK OF A CARDI
After o dromotic pouse, you osk him to toke the Blue bocked deck oui of its cose ond find his cord.
He con't, becouse it hos disoppeored from the deck!
You then pick up the Red bocked deck, fon through them foce up, ond osk him to tell you when he sees his cord. When he does so, you then openly remove ii foce up from the deck. You the show its bock - lT'S A BLUE BACKED CARD!
His thought of cord hos tronsported from the Blue deck to the Red deck under'test conditions'!
ülBTllOD: Before you reod the explonotion, PLEASE try to come up with o woy of performing this effect. Even ossuming pre show work, how would you do it?
Although the "mechonicol" methods involved ore not new of oll, it's the sleight of mouth. ond the opprooch thot I believe is the hollmork of mogicol performonce in the yeors to come.
First, the mechonics:
You'll need o deck set up olo Eddie Joesph's Premonition, ond o deck olo Ston Loebstein's Premonition Outdone. The Blue deck hos just the even cords from two blue deck of cords. (i.e. 2,4,6,8,10,Q). The Red deck hos oll the odd volued cords from o Red deck. (i.e. A,3,5,7,9).K) ond oll the odd cords from o Blue deck, except for the oces. (i'e. 3,5,7,9,J,K) lf the Red deck is foce down, the Blue cords moke up the BOTTOM holf. The ideo from Premonition Outdone is thot if you hold the "Red'deck foce down, you con slowly spreod the deck showing the bocks to be
red, ond when you get close to where the Blue bocks will show, you lift the deck, exploining thot'the cords ore well mixed'ond continue to fon the cords, but now only the foces ore visible to the oudience. Done co-suolly, this disploy is remorkobly convincing.
Pri-l{'icks
O.K., you soy, but how do you live up to the obove conditions? lt's oll in how you fromei whot you ore doing to the person you choose to portici-pote.
I osk the person to come over to o quiei spot before the show, ond osk if they would porticipote etc.
I hond them the Blue Bocked deck ond osk them to remember thot I gove them the cords BEFORE I ASKED THEM ANYIHING. After they put the blue deck owoy for sofe keeping, I then exploin thot I om going to wont them to think of o cord, but if you just osk someone to just think of o cord, olmost everyone nomes the Ace of Spodes, or the Queen of Heorts. I then pull out the Red deck, ond keeping the bocks conceoled, I ribbon spreod them ond osk the person to just think of ony cord thot oppeols to them. When he soys he hos one, I squore up the deck, put them in the cose, ond osk the person to hold on to them olso.
Mechonicolly speoking, the trick is over, lt's now the presentotion thot will moke or breok the effect. Rereod the stotements in EFFECT, ond vou'll notice o few minor inconsistencies:
'l honded you some ploying cords ond ofter you put them in your pocket. only then did I osk you to think of ony ploying cord."
Ohe ossistont will remember thot you gove him ihe BLUE deck before he wos osked onything, but since you used the phrose 'l honded you some ploying cords...,the oudience will ossume he hod BOTH decks be-fore you osked him onything.)
'You hod o truly free choice ond could chonge your mind oll you wonted."
Ohe osistont did hove o free choice, but only hod Odd Volued cords from which to choose.)
And it is true when you stote thot you REALLY don't know whot cord is being thought of. True, you know it's on Odd Volued cord, but you don't know which one.
a l ' I t lrni-Ilickr This should exploin it oll. When the ossistont looks through the blue deck, his cord MUST be gone, for ollthe cords ore EVEN, while the cords he looked of for his selection were oll ODD,
When you fon through the foce up "RED'deck, the first cord he sees thot is his choice will be in the blue section of the "RED" deck, ond the rest is history.
Sure, you could perform this effect without ony pre show, ond it willstill ploy quite well, but for the minor extro effort you get o truly 'test condi-tions" thought cord ocross.
BLUE BACKED ODD CARDS RED BACKED ODD CARDS
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BFFBOT: You exploin thot before the show, you osked someone to sign o bill of their own, of ANY denominotion, ond seol it in on envelope. They were then to seol four other envelopes with only o piece of poper
in eoch. He wos to hold on to the five envelopes ond NOT LET ANYONE TOUCH THEM.
The person is osked to come on stoge, bringing the envelopes olong. He is to mix up the envelopes so thot no one knows where eoch is. He is to loy them out in o line. Without looking, you osk him to touch one of the envelopes. This is repeoted with the others, until you stop him. He is io put the torget envelope oside, while you get out o bowl ond o lighter. You then tell him to burn ollthe rejected envelopes.
When they ore destroyed, you open the torget envelope ond bring out HIS SIGNED BILL!
ül1]TH|)t): Before the show, you hove o stock of envelopes, with the top two set for the flopless envelope switch. You put the bill into the 'top"
envelope, ond switch it for one with o blonk piece of poper. Turn the stock of envelopes over ond hond four empty envelopes, ond pieces of poper for the person to seol in them.
Loter, in privote, toke out their bill ond put it into o thumb or finger tip. When you open the "torget" envelope, reoch in with your thumb ond first finger,leoving the tip behind ond spreoding the bill os you toke it out.
I know this reods extremely simplistic, but lfeel the effect is olso extremely cleon ond powerful. lt tokes but o moment to do the "dirty" work, but the impoct is quite strong.
Oh, by the woy, never put o tip into hot woter, ond put it on your thumb to shope it, os is often suggested. lt will only burn your finger. To moke o tip bigger, heot o smoll pot of woter to o hord boil. Then turn off the heot ond woit o minute or two. Drop in the tip you wish to expond. Affer o minute or two, push it with o spoon, to see if it hos softened up yet. When it seems soft, remove the tip, ond push onother tip inside of it to serve os
lrni-Iiickr o mold. Drop it bock in the woter for obout thirty seconds, ond remove it. Push the inside iip in o little more, ond then run cold woter over them for o few minutes. Pull out the "mold' tip, ond you'll find o well exponded thumb tip woiting for use. To moke o finger tip bigger, ond o little more reolistic, try this ideo. Get o sixth finger, ond cut off the iip of it. Use this for o "mold". ond you'll find the finger tip o bit bigger, ond slightly curved. Much more reolistic to my eye of leost.
FLAP OF TOP ENVELOPE IS FOLDED INSIDE OF ITSELF
BLANK PIECE OF PAPER IS INSIDE OF THE SECOND ENVELOPE
GIVE THE SPECTATOR ENVELOPES FROM THE BOTTOM OF THE STACK IO SEAL BLANK PIECES OF PAPER
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As you con tell, I love the premise of BANK NIGHT. lt involves money, something thot usuolly gets peoples'ottention ond the plot mokes sense,...,..the Mentolist is putting his money where his mouth is. This ver-sion is o bit different thon the more usuol voriotions. I hod developed it os o presentotion for people who knew me well. I wonted something off beot, ond hoped thot they would "buy"the ideo I messed up,
BFFBOT: You ore holding on envelope from which you toke out o -S100 bill. You then seol the envelope, ond exploin thot you will bet the money thot you con predict whot freely chosen number from I to .l00 thot o spectotor will pick. A spectotor is picked...,.,..you look of him knowingly ond secretly print o number on the envelope. You toss owoy the writing utensil ond then osk the spectotor to close his eyes ond then
choose o number. He is then osked to coll it out ond... ..you get o disoppointed expression on your foce, ond exploin thot it's not the number you hod predicted. You then stote thot before he gets the
money, you wont one more try. He colls out onother number,... ogoin, disoppointment covers your foce. O.K.,you osk for o third number...he colls it out, ond finolly you get o look of triumph. You hond the envelope to the spectotor, who verifies the numbers motch.
You soy thot he thinks thot you lost the bet, but you then exploin thot you didn't soy which of his numbers you would be oble to predict. You osk him to open the envelope, ond remove whot's inside.
A piece of poper which stotes: I WILL CORRECTLY PREDICT THE THIRD NUMBER CHOSEN AT RANDOM!
Obviously, you did whot you soid you wou|d... ond you keep your money.
ilETftOD: The method is quite simple. You write out "l will correctly predict the third number chosen' prediction on o piece of poper, which you fold ond put into on envelope. Put the lorgest volue billwith which you feel comfortoble in the envelope next to the prediction. Get your noilwriter into position ond you're reody to go.
After you exploin whot you're obout to do, disploy the bill ond seol the
Pni-lliekr envelope. Pretend to print o number on the envelope ond throw your pencil oside. When the third choice is mode, print the number on the en-velope ond you're done. The hordest thing in this effect is the octing. You wont people to think you messed up, but to hove enough sympothy for you so thot the spectotor will go olong ond choose two other numbers. People oren't stupid, ond if you ploy ii properly, your oudience will reolize thot SOMETHING is coming ond will ploy olong.
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This is obviously o lot more flexible then whoi l've outlined here. This con give you on excellent out for those "tough" situotions, or odd o bit of hu-mor to on otherwise dull presentotion.
BFFBOT: You osk someone to think of o common word in English (for exomple they think of "house'). You concentrote ond then reveolthot you think their word is "coffeq". They soy you ore wrong. You osk if you're even close, to which they respond in the negotive. You look confused, but try ogoin. Agoin you're woy off. You then osk for one more try, but you're wrong ogoin. You then osk whot their word is.
You then stote thot this rorely hoppens, but thot you've got some insur-once thot should help you out of such on emborrossing situotion. As you soy this, you bring out on envelope morked 'INSURANCE POLICY'. After some by ploy, you open the envelope ond show whot is inside. lt looks like on Insuronce Policyl
You exploin thot you purchosed insuronce for just such on occosion, ond then hove the person reod out loud whot is written on the policy,
"Since Bruce Bernstein is o policy holder in good stonding with the Psy-cho Dynomic lnsuronce Compony, we feel the word thot will return Mr. Bernstein's reputotion is'house'."
üIBTHOD: The method is quite eosy. The policy is set up os o stondord window envelope ond you noil write in the proper word (or number etc.) The rest is oll presentotion.
This is olso o reol "insuronce policy" to keep on hond in cose someone messes you up on o reol book test or similor situqtion.
The policy, in the window envelope, con olso be in your pocket for o very effective heckler stopper. The prediction would reod something like, 'The nome of the person who chollenges me fo reod their mind is
( the spoce for the nome is where the window is cut in the envelope.) lf someone does indeed give you o hord time, just osk them to stond, ond very cosuolly, osk their nome. Then remove the policy from your pocket, ond noil write in his nome. You've turned o tough position,
Irri-lIick* into o killer effect.
Another ideo, is to use it in the previous effect.'Let's Try One More Time.' lnsteod of just hoving o prediction thot stotes thot the third number will be ihe correct prediction. hove it written on the bock of the Insuronce Policy. Since you con write this out before hond, you moy hove the
spectotor open the envelope, Hove him reod the front of the policy first, ond then hove him reod the prediction on the bock.
"Since Mr. Bernstein is o policy holder in good stonding, his prediction will conectly predict the third number chosen of rondom."
Pleose feel free to use this orfwork, or if you wish, you could xerox o reol policy. : 3 ? t x ' ;..: i.:--:: .,:.:'':-1:.:.::-j.-]'':...'.'-...'.1'}:..'1':::..:.-.;-.:j.;;'..;:.;.;;..:;:;;.-'.5;:'..:'{.:-...':,..';-i-ij - ;.--.tr..-"-,...--.,r-.t.ri+r-rt-:;;:"-.;-';;.:";';;,;{-:-;;;';;.-ia::1'""i:aväxtl*äi l 3
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When I wos proofreoding the monuscript, on ideo popped into my heod. While rereoding the Mentolist's lnsuronce Policy, it suddenly oc-curred to me thot the 'Policy" might be useful in on One Aheod routine. I pondered it o good while. ond the "mechonics' of whot to do become cleor, ... lt wos how to "frome'the routine thot wos the biggest ob-stocle.
I hope you like this solution, To the oudience, the 'mistoke"should ploy os o humorous diversion, yet it excuses the methodology very noturolly. Any opprooch to the One Aheod technique should work just fine. Since olmost everyone is fomilior with "Mentol Epic". l'll describe the routine with ihot type of presentotion.
BFFBOT: You propose to predict three differing choices freely mode by members of the oudience.
You hove o "cholkboord- divided into six sections. The top three sections hove flops covering them. Ohe Clossic Mentol Epic Boord.)
You secretly write o prediction on the boord underneoth of the first flop. At your request, o choice of on onimol, (for exomple) is mode by on ou-dience member. which you write under the squore your prediction wos mode.
You moke onother prediction, under the middle flop.
When you osk, onother oudience member colls out, (for exomple) o type of food. This you write under your second prediction.
You now moke your third prediction under the lost flop, but you seem un-certoin... unsure of whot to predict.
Finolly you write down something, ond mutter thot you don't think you're going to be right this time.
Pri-llicks
You then osk o third oudience member to coll out o common nome. Something like Bill, or Joe.
When they coll out their choice, you hove o look on your foce thot indi-cotes thot you did indeed guess incorrectly, but you write their choice on the finolspoce on the boord.
You reveolyour predictions, ond you did get the first two choices right, but your "nome" prediction wos Bob, However the person in the oudi-ence colled out Som.
You opologize to the oudience for predicting ihe nome incorrectly, but then go on to soy thot ot leost you KNEW YOU'D BE WRONG.
You then pull on envelope out of your pocket, morked INSURANCE POL-lCY. Telling how you took out insuronce for just such on occosion, you re-move the Policy from the envelope. You exploin thot Bob is your Insur-once Agent, ond thot's why you wrote down his nome.
You hove o person come on stoge to reod whot the policy soys. It reods:
'A Messoge from your lnsuronce Agent Bob.' 'The nome Mr. Bernstein meont to predict is Som."
\tHBTllOD: I imogine thot you've olreody figured out how this works. One nice thing is thot you've eliminoted the force usuolly needed to moke the One Aheod work, ond reploced it with o little humor.
Just do the 'Clossic' One Aheod. Of course, feel free to chonge the first two type of choices. To moke the presentotion work out 'logicolly", lthink the choice of nome works quite nicely for the finol choice.
When you get to tfre third phose, predict the nome of your'ogent". I picked 'common nomes', becouse I feel there is o foir chonce of hoving the person pick the nome you hove predicted. lf you osk for'o simple
nome... something like Bill, or Joe", o foir omount of people will probo-bly pick Bob. Of course, if they do coll out Bob, you end the routine, ond
P*i-lI.iekr toke o big bow.
But when they coll out o different nome, your mutfering obout 'probobly being wrong" mokes sense to the oudience.
But when you exploin thot you goi insuronce, ond since you KNEW you were going to be wrong, you hod predicted your ogent's nome, the ou-dience will see thot something's coming.
Allthe by ploy should give you omple opporiunity to get your Noil Writer into position. As the oudience member comes on stoge to reod the Pol-icy, is o perfect time to do the writing.
You should get o good lough when you whip out the Policy, ond get o nice round of opplouse when the prediction is reod.
B
j:
t
Pni-llicks
TH|)UGHTS
OS THB SAIL ll'llITBN
As you con tell by reoding this book, ond others I hove writien, I moke use of o Noil Writer to occomplish mony of the effects I creote.
l've put o lot of time, energy, ond proctice into leorning to use o Noil Writer. I hove gotten to the point where I con write in script thot motches my own 'normol" writing quite well, olong with the more usuol numbers ond check morks.
I personolly feel ihot the Noil Writer, ond oll its voriotions .., Boon Wrii-ers, Pocket WritWrii-ers, Bond Writers etc,, ore some of the most powerfultools ovoiloble to us, lt often surprises me just how few people use them 'Under fire". True, the proper use of o Noil Writer is not eosy, ond requires o greot deol of proctice to become comfortoble, but think of the rewords. Under the toughest conditions, you con predict olmost onythingl Num-bers, words, even simple pictures. the imoginotion olmost boggles when you think obout the possibilities!
How mony times hove you heord, 'whot's my out if something goes wrong?" The Noil Writer is the ULTIMATE out. I would be hord pressed to think of o situotion where one COULDN'T get you out of o tough spot. So why don't more people use them?
Probobly the biggest drowbock to most people is the problem of getting it into the proper position to use. Thot's why,if o Noil Writer is being used, it is usuolly done os on opener. Thot woy,the performer con position it properly before coming on stoge, ond not worry obout getting it in posi-tion from o hold out.
Thot'drowbock" is eosily solved!
ln my book "Psi - Tech" I described the Noil Writer thot I use. lt con be in my pocket, with keys. chonge, etc., yet I con hove it securely on my thumb, without looking, in o couple of seconds. Becouse of the
'holdout', its leod is very secure, ond l've never hod o breokoge prob-lem.
Pri-lI.ieks The Noil Writer itself is noihing new...,..., it's just o hord plostic thumb tip thot you cut down o bit, so thot your thumb goes ollthe woy in. You then glue o piece of leod into it. I just moke o smoll hole neor the pod of the ihumb, ond use some croz./ glue io stick the piece of leod thot I insert into it. As I soid, this is nothing new,... Annemonn ond others hove described such o writer. But, compored to under noil. ond Boon writers, this opprooch gives you on exfremely stoble writer. lt won't move out of position, or even worse, foll off.
It's the Holdout for this writer thot I'm proud of..,.. ,,.. o thumb tip! I reolized thot this thumb tip writer will fit securely into o regulor thumb tip. It's the perfect holdout. lt protects the writer, ond keeps the leod from occidentolly breoking. As I soid before, I've kept one in my pocket with keys, chonge. oll kinds of stuff, ond hove never hod o problem. And getting it into position is o "piece of coke". ljust reoch in my pocket, ond feel for the thumb tip. I get the "tip" of the thumb tip between my first ond second fingers, ond move it so thot my first finger is ogoinst the "thumb noil" of the tip. Now if I insert my thumb into it, the writer will be in the perfect position when my hond comes out of my pocket. lt's quite eosy, ond is done in just o couple of seconds.
Of course, you olso hove o thumb tip ovoiloble for use. Two powerful weopons together in o very smoll pockoge.
OK, moybe l've gotfen you o bit more interested in using o Noil Writer, but now you moy be wondering how to go obout procticing with one. Here is the method I used when I decided to 'get my chops togethefl" I hove the writer on my right thumb. I hold o pod of poper with my left hond. My right hond FINGERS olso come oround the front of the pod, os do my left fingers, but the right thumb is not in contoct with the pod. lt looks to the oudience thoi both my honds ore holding the pod, but the right fingers, ot the bose of the polm, only stobilize the pod o bit.
(Obviously l'm right honded. lf you're o lefty, just reverse things.)
lprocticed three bosic things. Numbers, Printing, ond when comfortoble with those, I moved on to Script.
Psi-liicks
Holding the pod os obove, lwould print the number 1 just lefi of center on the pod,then the number 2 just right of center. Then 3 just left of cen-ter, ond then 4 just right of center. Oou ore octuolly writing over the
number previously printed... you'll sove o lot of poper this woy.) Con-tinue until you reoch 0. Then stort ogoin. After o few doys of this, you'll
hove your numbers down pretty well.
When you feel comfortoble with numbers, then try to print letiers. lfollow the some procedure os obove. I print A just left of center, then B just right of center. Then C left of center. ond D right of center, Continue until you've worked through the entire olphobet.
This will toke more time to leorn thon numbers, so toke your time, ond be potient. Most people give up leorning their letters well, ond thot restricts whot the Noil Writer con do for them.
After o while, when you feel comfortoble, continue on to leorning script. This is much more difficult thon numbers ond printing. Agoin, you proc-tice os obove, only now you must procproc-tice both upper ond lower cose, ond you connect the letters.
Just left of center you write A, ond connect it to the B you write left of center. Then C to the left, connecting with the D you write to its right, ond so on.
After o month or two, with o reosonoble omount of slow coreful proctice in front of o mirror, you'll be oble to write wiih your thumb olmost os well os you normolly write,
You'll probobly heor from some people thot you shouldn't hold on item you're noilwriting on with both honds.
You moy olso heor thot o righi honded person should leorn to noil write with their left hond. ond viso verso.
ln my mony yeors of writing with my thumb, I've never run ocross o prob-lem using both honds to hold whot l'm going to write on, or using my right thumb.
I see no problem in moking things horder on yourself, if you think it will
Pni-l{ickr moke things more deceptive, but the concept thot you might be writing something with your thumb is WAY out of people's minds.
As hos been soid, why run if you're not being chosed!
lf you've been unhoppy, or unsuccessful trying to use o "writer' before, pleose give this o try. I believe you'll be very pleosed with this opprooch.
6Q'-'
alrri-l{iekr
A lrrr:rlictiorr
ilt Oorlo
Al Koron hod some very clever ideos. One of the cleverest ideos wos his use of o 'Code Book"to decipher o previously delivered prediction. Be-couse the Prediction is mode in Code, it con be disployed openly of the time it is mode. The only problem wos..,...1 didn't likethe ideo of the book, ond the work you needed to do to moke it look right, so here's my opprooch.
EFFBOT: An experiment in prediction is proposed by you, os much before on event os you wish. People moy,ond should, wotch you print out numbers on o sheet of poper, which you exploin is o Code. This coded prediction moy be on public disploy untilihe show.
You hond o seoled envelope to the person who is to be the trustee . You exploin thot it contoins the solution to the Code, so under no circum-stonces should it be opened,
On the doy of the event, you osk thot the envelope contoining the Code to decipher the prediction be brought out. The trustee verifies thot he hos been in possession of the Code since the prediction wos mode. You open the "Code" envelope, ond remove o piece of poper, which the trustee opens ond uses to decipher the prediction.
It, of course, sums up on event in the news!
Of course, this moy be presented much more dromoticolly...,,,.The code con be put on disploy in lorge numbers, ond left in public view until it is decoded!
üIBTH|)D: Agoin, I like to keep it os simple os is possible. And os be-fore, you hove to do some sneoky thinking to moke it work.
You write out o series of numbers. The numbers oren't reolly importont, since you're going to creote o code thot will moke your prediction work out properly. Once you see whot I meon, try from l0 to 20 numbers, ond try your luck of moking things work out. You'll find on omount thot fits the type of prediction you ore moking...sports results, heodlines etc.
Plri-l{ickr I do recommend thot you do not repeot o number immediotely, since thot would require o repeoted letter, which con moke things more diffi-cult.
(lf you wish, in the 'Code" envelope, you could hove o decoding thot will tronslote olong the lines of, 'l knew you would open this'.)
Whot will hoppen of the show, is thot you will hove o piece of poper, with your speciolly designed Code on it, looded in your thumb or finger tip.
Or use ony other clossic method for switching in o heodline prediction. Whot's nice in this cose, is thot oll of the heot is off of you. You never ever hove to mess with the prediction itself!
Here's on exomple of o Code prediction. 1 0 , r 3 , 6 , 2 5 , 1 4 , i l , 2 , 1 7 , 1 , 9 , 2 1 , 3
(ljust typed these numbers of rondom....reolly!)
Let's soy o troin deroiled before your show. I hove l2 letters to deol with, so I hove to come up with o I2 letter prediction, without immediotely re-peoted letters.
Troin = 5
Deroiled = B Hmmm odds up to .|3, so it's no good..."...let's try: Crosh = 5 Hmm, might work.
Trogedy = 7 Ahhh thot's itl
Troin Trogedy = 12, ond no immediotely repeoted letters. So, now you con moke up your "Code poper".
Write out the numbers from I to 50 on o piece of poper. 50 is so thot let-ters con be represented by more thon one number. Of course, I to .|00 could be used if you con print it oll out cleorly on o smoll enough piece of poper
lrni-l{iek*
After your torget numbers, you print in the letters you need. For exom-ple: 1 0 = T 1 3 = R 6 = f i 2 5 = l 1 4 = N l l = T 2 = Q 1 7 = A I = G 9 - E 2 1 = D 3 = !
Fill in other letters in the non used numbers, ond you're reody to predict the future.
I think this procedure mokes sense, ond seems quiie foir ond obove boord. I hope you feelthe some.
Pri-lI'iekn i : G 1 8 = F 3 5 = J 2 = R 1 9 = Y 3 6 = C 3 = Y 2 0 = U 3 ' l = C 4 = C 2 t = D 3 8 : V 5 = H 2 2 = e 3 9 = O 6 = A 2 3 = Y 4 0 = W 7 : Z 2 4 = L 4 i = N 8 = X 2 5 = I 4 2 = P 9 = E 2 6 = 8 4 3 = K l 0 : T 2 7 = K 4 4 : Z I l : T 2 8 = G 4 5 : H 1 2 : P 2 9 : X 4 6 : M 1 3 = R 3 0 = K 4 7 : U 1 4 = N 3 l = L 4 8 : Q 1 5 = M 3 2 = O 4 9 = L 1 6 = F 3 3 = N 5 0 = B l ' 7 : A 3 4 = P
-CODE LIST" THAT YOU REMOVE FROM THE ENVETOPE AND HAVE THE TRUSTEE
USE TO DECIPHER THE PREDICTION
e i I
1 0 ,
1 3 , 6 , 2 5 ,
1 4 , I 1 , 2 ,
1 7 ,
r , 9 , 2 1 , 3
25lr*i-llielis
Irsl'oHt)Lt)GtoaL
oarlD F|)lloß
BFFBOT: You hove o deck of cords, ond ore seen to toke o cord ond put it foce down on the toble. You now stote, "l'm going to osk you to think of o cord, but don't do it yet. You see, most people if osked to think of o cord, will pick obvious ones, like the Ace of Spodes, or the Queen of Heorts. So when I soy now, just nome some out the woy cord thot
c o m e s t o y o u r m i n d . . . , . . . N O W . "
They nome their mentolly selected cord, ond you turn over the cord on the toble, They motchl
ilBTll|)D: OK, this doesn't work ollthe time, but believe it or noi, I hit obout 25% of the time. I come close obout onother 25o/" of the time, ond when it works, it's o mirocle.
The phrosing obove is IMPORTANT. Whoi I did for quite o while is osk peo-ple the obove while keeping the phrosing identicol eoch ond every time. I discovered thot o pottern emerged. A lorge percentoge of peo-ple would choose the 2 of Clubs. Then o smoller group would nome the 7 of Spodes. lt wos quite unconny. A smoller percentoge of people
nomed the 3 of Heorts, I con't guorontee the results will be the some for you, so stort out by just osking the quesiion in THE EXACT SAME WAY
EV-ERY TIME ond o potfern will probobly estoblish itself quite soon.
When I get my honds on o deck, I secretly get the 3 of Heorfs to the top of the deck ond the 7 of Spodes to the bottom.
I openty remove the 2 of Clubs ond ploce it foce down on the toble. I then osk the question os obove. lf the 2 of Clubs, or the 2 of Spodes is
nomed, l'll then turn over the 2 of Clubs on the toble ond cloim o hit. ( lf they soy the 2 of Spodes, o block 2 is pretfy domn goodl )
lf they soy the 3 of Heorts (or Diomonds), l'll put the deck on the toble, hove them cut it. ond then I use the 2 of Clubs os o cord 'to mork where you cut the deck". CVou don't moke o big deolwhen you put the 2 of Clubs foce down. so they don't know whot you were going to do with it.) After I recop whot hos hoppened. I split the deck where the 2 of Clubs wos inseried sidewoys, ond show the cord "they freely cut to", which wos the cord on top of the deck. lt's our old friend, the X, or Cross Force.
26
.-:r-_s.:r:5;:?-::i:-a:l-: j-f - . t : - - - |
Pri-lI.ickr lf they nome the 7 of Spodes (or Clubs), I do the obove but show the cord obove the 2 of Clubs, which wos the bottom cord of the deck. lf they nome the 7 of Heorts, or the 3 of Spodes, I show the cord obove ond below the 2 of Clubs soying one cord motches the volue ond one motches the suii.
CONDITION OF IHE DECK AFIER THE "CROSS FORCE"
SEVEN OF SPADES IS NOW ABOVE THE TWO OF CLUBS
THREE OF HEARTS IS NOW UNDER THE TWO OF CLUBS
So, insteod of o I out of 52 cord situotion. you hove 3 'direct hits', 3 "reolly close hits", ond 2 -pretty good hits' which increoses your chonces for o successful outcome to B out of 52, without toking ony psychology into considerotion.
But whot do I do if none of these cords ore nomed?l?l?l There ore plenty of outs ovoiloble (see Mentolist's Insuronce policy) but here's one ideo you con try.
They soy the '10 of Clubs. Pick up the deck ond fon it with the foces to-words you ond hove them insert the 2 of Clubs foce up into the deck. Note if their cord is obove or below the 2 of Clubs. lf it is below ihe 2 of Clubs (if the deck is held foce up), remember the cord below the
nomed cord. lf it is obove the 2 of Clubs, rememberthe cord below the 2 of Clubs. Hold the deck foce up in the position for the 'glide', ond stort pulling cords off of the bottom of the deck. When you get to the cord below the torget cord, you know the torget cord is next, so glide it bock ond keep pulling off cords until you get to the 2 of Clubs. Then peel off
B
lrni-l{.icks
the torget cord. lt seems thot they inserted the 2 of Clubs next to their selected cord.
lf the cord wos obove the 2 of Clubs, when you see the cord below the 2 of Clubs, you'll know thot the 2 of Clubs is next, so you pull it bock ond do the glide until the torget cord comes. Then peel off the 2 of Clubs ond you're done.
Of course, if they put it in ne>Cr to their cord...-...toke your bow. Vernon's "Trick Thot Con't Be Exploined", ond its offspring, con give you mony effective outs for this type of situoiion.
lrsi-li.ick*
I]IIBAIIITG
THB I]ASK
ßFFBOT: You propose on experiment ihot will need the help of four people in the oudience. As you choose the four people who will be os-sisting, you ore seen to ploce o Piggy Bonk, o strong poper, or stiff plostic bog,ond o hommer in full view,
You then pick up o pod of poper ond o pen, ond osk one of the four people to collout ony single digit number. You write the number on the pod, ond then osk onother of the four to coll out onother single digit number, which you olso jot down. (lt could be the some single number, or o different one.) Then o third person colls out his choice of o single digit number, which you olso record.
For exomple, the numbers colled out ore 3, 7 ond 9. You osk the fourth person to decide in whot order he would like the three digits. For exom-ple, he decides on 739, which you jot down. You osk him to come on stoge. You then osk him to open the bog ond exomine it, if you wish, ond the ploce the Piggy Bonk inside of it. You osk him to get the hom-mer, os you ploce your pod of poper down beside the poper bog, so thot the numbers con be verified.
You recop whot hos hoppened etc., ond then osk the "ossistonf'to hit the bog with the hommer in order to breok the Piggy Bonk. The bog, of course, is to keep shords from flying oll over.
You osk him to pour out the now destroyed Piggy Bonk, ond omong the pieces of pig is o folded up piece of poper. You osk the person to open the piece of poper ond reod it out loud. lt stotes:
Deor Piggy Bonk, I owe you $739, Thonks, Bruce
DIBTI||)I): Those of you fomilior with the closic effect 'Minding the Store'by Ned Rutledge hove most probobly figured out how this works. lf you're not fomilior with 'Minding the Siore", trock it down - it's brilliont!
lrsi-llick*
This effect is o simplified version ond the use of the Piggy Bonk mokes it o bit unusuol compored to the overoge Mentol effect.
All you need to perform this is: l. An eosily breokoble Piggy Bonk.
2. A strong poper, or stiff plostic bog.thot is toller then the bonk. 3. A smcill pod of poper.
4. A piece of poper with, Deor Piggy Bonk
I owe you S(spoce left blonk) Thonks, Bruce
5. A NoilWriter.
The piece of poper should be folded with the spoce for the dollor omount on the outside.
The rest is quite'simple. Your thumb holds the folded piece of poper on the pod so thot when you "jot down the numbers" you con olso write the
proper numb'er on it. Then, when you osk the person to get the hommer, you Just hoppen to" let the lower edge of the pod touch the top of the bog,ond let the folded piece of poper to foll into the bog. lf you hove ony doubt this willwork, forget it - it does! Just moke sure you proctice enough so thot it looks cosuol. Of course, when the broken bonk is poured out, the piece of poper mingles with it. The rest is oll build up. lf you don't think this is for you, moybe you'll like this voriotion on the theme:
The effect is the some except you ore not holding o pod of poper, ond you put the bonk into the bog. Here you hove the poper lightly woxed to the side of the Bonk owoy from the oudience. When you hove the bog opened, you pick up the Bonk (to be helpful) ond NoilWrite the proper number in ploce. When you lower the bonk into the bog, you give the slip o push to releose it into the bog. Continue os obove.
Pxi-llickr
Dear Piggy Bank,
I owe you the sum
Thanks.
Bruce
he sum
frsi-l{.ickn
LOlvB o|)..tBoTl|)s
This is o PRESENTATIONAL gombit. There ore mony woys of technicolly ochieving these ends, but the plot fills o need for both Mogicions ond Mentolists.
BFBBOT: You've been hired to perform of on engogement porty, ond you osk the future bride ond groom to come up on sioge. You go on to exploin thot o gypsy you knew tought you o method to find out whether two people ore truly compotible. You osk them if they would core to be put to the test.
You osk eoch to choose o ploying cord. You hove the cords returned to the deck, ond then you osk the bride to shuffle the deck while thinking of the groom. The deck is then honded to the groom to shuffle while think-ing of his bride.
You exploin thot the gypsy tought you thot the further owoy the cords end up in the deck, the les likely it is thot the people will end up to-gether, ond thot if the Ace of Spodes is between the cords, their mor-rioge will be doomed!
You slowly deolthrough the cords, turning them foce up os you go, until one of the selected cords is seen. You ore seen to be concerned of this moment of truth. The cord is deolt off the deck, ond the next cqrd is the Queen of Heorts, which you exploin is obviously o very.good cord, for it is the cord of love. You osk whot the other selected cord is. You deol off the Queen AND THE VERY NE)O CARD lS THE OTHER FREELY SELECTED CARD. Since the only cord between thelr.cords is the Love cord, their morrioge must be blessedl
illBTllOl): l'll give you two bosic methods, but os lsoid before, l'm sure mony of you will opply other methods thot you olreody know from other tricks, both sleight of hond ond goffed.
One woy, ond to my woy of thinking, the best, is to do the dirty work pre show. Ask to tolk to the honored couple, ond inquire whether they would like to be 'put to the test'. lf they onswer yes, pull out your hondy dondy MARKED deck, ond hove eoch of them remove o cord, which they put bock into the deck ond shuffle. When you ore olone, you toke the
Pri-lliekr
Dear Piggy Bank,
the sum
Thanks,
Bruce
lrri-l{ickn
LOlvB O0.SBOTI|)il
This is o PRESENTATIONAL gombii. There ore mony woys of technicolly ochieving these ends. but the plot fills o need for both Mogicions ond Mentolists.
BFFBOT: You've been hired to perform of on engogement porty, ond you osk the future bride ond groom to come up on stoge. You go on to exploin thot o gypsy you knew tought you o method to find out whether two people ore truly compotible, You osk them if they would core to be put to ihe test.
You osk eoch to choose o ploying cord. You hove the cords returned to the deck, ond then you osk the bride to shuffle the deck while thinking of the groom. The deck is then honded to the groom to shuffle while think-ing of his bride.
You exploin thot the gypsy tought you thot the further owoy the cords end up in the deck. the les likely it is thot the people will end up to-gether, ond thot if the Ace of Spodes is between the cords, their mor-rioge will be doomed!
You slowly deolthrough the cords, turning them foce up os you go, until one of the selected cords is seen. You ore seen to be concerned of this moment of truth. The cord is deolt off the deck, ond the next cord is the Queen of Heorts, which you exploin is obviously o very.good cord, for it is the cord of love. You osk whot the other selected cord is. You deol off the Queen AND THE VERY NEXI-CARD lS THE OTHER FREELY SELECTED CARD. Since the only cord between their.cords is the Love cord. their morrioge must be blessed!
ülBTllOl): l'll give you two bosic methods, but os lsoid before, l'm sure mony of you will opply other methods thoi you olreody know from other tricks, both sleight of hond ond goffed.
One woy, ond to my woy of thinking, the best, is to do the dirty work pre show. Ask to tolk to the honored couple, ond inquire whether they would like to be 'put to the test'. lf they onswer yes, pull out your hondy dondy MARKED deck, ond hove eoch of them remove o cord, which they put bock into the deck ond shuffle. When you ore olone, you toke the
Irsi-llickr Queen of Heorts, which you hod previously removed from the deck, ond put o bit of wox on both sides. You then stick one of the selected cords on top, ond the other on the bottom, Pui them o few cords from the botiom of the deck ond the rest is history. Allyou need to do is moke sure thot there is not o surfoce on which they could riffle shuffle the cords. You wont only overhond shuffles, which won't disturb the three cords thot hove been woxed together. When you deolthrough the cords, you seporote the woxed cords - they must be blessed! A more stroight forword method is to hove the Queen on top of the deck with o bit of wox on its top, ond onother bit of wox where you con eosily get to it. Ohe cord cose would be o good choice,) Hove the first selection ploced on the top of the deck, (A quick squeeze will stick them together.) Over hond shuffle the cords so thot the Queen is now on the
bottom. Your middle finger con eosily odd the wox to the foce of the Queen. Hove the next selection ploced on top ond, os you exploin how eoch of them is to shuffle ihe deck, you cut the cords, which will ollow you to stick the second selection to the foce side of the Queen. The rest is presentotion.
Oh, lf you ore coutious, you moy wont to remove the Ace of Spodes, just in cose..
For those of you who do reodings:
Obviously, this con eosily be opplied to Torot cords. In foct, the use of Torot cords octuolly mokes more sense, I reolized thot this 'two significo-tor"cords concept is, to the best of my knowledge o new one, ond con
be reodily opplied to legitimote reodings. Hove the two significotor cords chosen, ond returned to the deck which is then shuffled. Do your reod-ing with whotever cords end up between them. The cords will represent the things thot will hoppen to the couple os they poss through life
to-gether. lt con olso be done with business portners, o porent, literolly ony situotion thot involves the relotionship between two people. lf you do your reodings legitimotely, don't use wox - let the fotes decide the out-come, but if you like to bonk the odds in your fovor...wox it is.
!.,.
r
* .
lDsi-lI.iekr
HU0lilBrr lrsYoH|)l)l ßTlll'
BFFBOT: Three people ore osked to porticipote in o demonstrotion of Psychometry. Three envelopes ore tossed down on the toble os you ex-ploin thot eoch person is to toke on envelope ond seol o personol ob-ject in it, You tellthem to proceed, os you turn your bock.
While your bock is still turned, you osk thot two of the ossistonts ore to switch envelopes, so thot only one of them will hove their own object, while the other two will hove someone else's object.
You turn oround ond osk one of the people to hond you the envelope thot they ore holding. The person is not to reoct to the reoding so thot you con't tell from their reoctions if it is their object. You proceed to give o generol reoding while holding the envelope. You osk for o second en-velope, which is then honded to you. Agoin you give o reoding. The third envelope is now honded to you. You proceed to give o third reod-i n g .
Exploining thot now thot you hove to motch up the objects with their owners. You go to eoch of the people in turn ond hold their envelope in one hond, ond osk to hold their free hond, os if "feeling their Vibes". You go to the first person ond briefly recop the reoding you gove forthe item. You then exploin thot you don't think it belongs to the person who is holding ii. You then hond it to the person to whom you feel it belongs ond toke the envelope they ore holding. You olso osk for the finol enve-lope ond recop the reodings. You then hond one of the enveenve-lopes to the person you took the envelope from, ond hond the finol one to lost person.
Eoch of them ocknowledges their reodings were quite occurote, ond when they open their envelopes, oll of the items hove been honded
bock to their proper owners,
1;l$TltQl): Boy, this sure tokes o lot of description for something thot is so simple to perform.
The only pori thot is "confusing', is how con you tellwho hos which enve-lope, if your bock is turned. Remember, you ore not honding out the
Pni-llicks velopes in ony order, ond eoch moy toke whotever envelope they wish. This method is bosed on on old Bob Hummer concept. Briefly, if three people eoch hove on object, ond you know whot object just one of them hos, two of the people moy switch objects yet you con stilltell which belongs to whom. lf the person who hos the object you know ot the stort still hos it ofter the switching, the other two must hove switched items. lf the person ends up with o different item, then he ond the person who now hos his object were the two who switched. Think obout it ond try it - it's not os complicoted os it moy seem.
lf your envelopes ore morked, os long os you know which envelope one of the people hos chosen, you con occomplish this mirocle.
When you ore obout to hove the envelopes selected. osk one of the people to toke one ond seol their object. As they do so, you slowly stori to turn oround, timing the movement so thot you con spot which of the envelopes they toke. Then proceed to tell the other two to seol their ob-jects os the first person did os your bock is now fully turned. Hove two of them switch envelopes ond you're reody to go.
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BFFBOT: Someone osks you for o cord reoding. You exploin the on-cient concepts of Fire, Woter, Air. ond Eorih. You shuffle o Torot deck, cut it into 4 piles. os you exploin thot the pile to their left will represent "FIRE", the next one, "WATER', the next, "AlR', ond on the other end, 'EARTH". The sitter is then to shuffle eoch of the piles. to 'put
their influ-ence' into the cords.
You turn your bock, ond instruct the sitter to think of their question. lf the question is obout themselves, they ore to remove ony cord from the 'FIRE" pile, but if it's obout someone they core for, it should be token from the "WATER'pile, someone they know of, but hoven't met, the "AlR' pile, ond if it is obout on object, not o person, the'EARTH" pile.
Then you exploin, if their question is obout possion. or love, they ore to re-move onother cord from the 'FIRE" pile, ond ploce in on top of the first cord. lf it is obout Heolth, the cord should come from the 'WATER' pile. lf it's obout School or Educotion, it should come from the "AlR' pile, ond if obout Money or Finonces. it should come from the "EARTH" pile.
This process is repeoted severol more times, until enough cords hove been selected to use for the reoding.
Although nothing hos been written down, ond you hove no inside infor-motion, you ore oble to give on incredibly occurote reoding.
ülBTHl)D: This is just o voriotion on the old 20 questions gome.
The deck, Torot or regulor is morked into 4 distinct sections. You con eos-ily folse shuffle the cords, ond split them into the 4 piles. Short cords on top of eoch section con help moke this quite cosuol.
When you see. ond observe the sitter, you should hove o foir ideo of whot their possible questions / concerns ore, so oll you do is hove them help you norrow it down, without them reolizing it.
Obviously, the "rituol"you describe for selecting the cords con be eosily odopted for whomever you ore giving the reoding. As long os you de-scribe the functions of FIRE, WATER, AlR, ond EARTH so your questions will
Pri-ll.ickr seem consisteni, you con customize this for olmost ony person.
When you turn bock to give the reoding. ond spreod out the selected cords, you will see which piles they eoch come from, ond in whot order. With o bit of thought, you con eosily zero in on just whot the sitter wonts to know.
lf you wish to do this in on impromptu monner, just borrow o deck of cords. Hove them shuffled, ond returned to you. As you cut the deck into the 4 piles, you scrope your thumbnoil ocross the side of the cords, but in o differing locotion for eoch of ihe piles. When you ore reody to pro-ceed, turn bock oround, ond pick up the group of selected cords, ond look the sides. You should, with o little proctice. see the where the scrope morks ore on eoch of the cords.
SITTER'S VIEW OF THE FOUR PILES
" F I R E " P I L E -WATER" PILE " A I R " PILE "EARTH" PILE
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This concept is GREAT for onyone who does reodings in o porty or Psy-chic Foir context. lt moy seem silly, but toke it from me, it con be quite powerful, ond con moke o reoding seem much more powerful then it re-olly wos.
BFFBOT: You ore seoted ot o toble, giving short reodings to those present. During your reodings, those woiching see you leon over ond, in o very soft voice thot no one else con heor, soy something thot seems of greot imporlonce to the person hoving their fortune told. The sitter is then seen to nod in totol ogreement with whot you hove confidentiolly predicted.
This process hoppens mony times through the night. so thot everyone woiching con tell thot your reodings ore not only occurote, but con
delve into oreos thot the sitters would not wont to be heord publicly, in o sensitive, coring woy,
O.K. - let's be honesi. I don't core how good of o Reoder you ore, there ore times it would be greot to be oble to get o .|00% solid hit, becouse you oren't moking ony heodwoy with the person for whom you ore reod-ing. This gives the illusion thot you ore right on torget to those wotching. The story goes...Bob Nelson told how he hod decided to personolly
deliver on order of ostrology choris to one of his biggest customers, So thot he might see how she wos generoting such o lorge volume of busi-ness. When he sow her giving reodings, he wos highly impressed with the number of solid hits she wos moking. All night long, sitters were nodding their ogreement wiih whot she wos soying, When she wos done, Nelson osked how she wos oble to be so consistently occurote. Her'secret'wos so remorkobly simple. he wos omozed.
ülBTHOl): During the reoding, she would leon over so thot she wos closer to the sifter, ond with o coring, concerned look on her foce, she would osk in o sofi voice, "con You heor me O.K.?' Of course, the sitter would leon forword when she did, soy 'yes', ond nod her heod offirmo-tively in response to the reoder's question ond body longuoge. To the
lrni-lI.ieks people wotching, there wos o whole different interpretotion. lt looked like the Reoder hit on o sensitive oreo ond wos correct.
Thot's obout oll of the detoil thot Nelson possed on to us, so let me fill in the o few of the blonks. ond tellvou obout some voriotions I've devel-cpeo.
First of oll, l'd like to stress thot the moin ingredieni thot helps this concept to work is your body longuoge. Remember, the reoson people think you've "hit" on something is becouse they see the sitfer nodding their heod in response to something you've soid. lf you just osk if they con heoryou O.K.,you moy well only get o verbol response. YOU WANTTHE SITTER TO NOD THEIR HEAD, SO THAT EVERYONE CAN SEE lT! To set up the situotion properly, you wont the sitter to respond os much, if not more to your body longuoge then to whot you ore soying.
Think obout it. lf you ore tolking to someone, ond you then leon closer ond soy something in o soff tone of voice, you ore implying thot you hove something personol ond privote to soy to them. lt olso implies thot their response should be done in the some monner. lt olso implies to ony-one wotching you thot the situotion is personol, privote, ond posibly im-portont. lf the person sees you nodding (eiiher yes or no) os you osk the question, the chonces ore greotly increosed thot the onswer will olso be o nod.
As o technique for reodings, this combinotion of body longuoge ond chonges in verbol style, is of greot importonce. When octuolly stoting things, it will help leod the sitter to confirm if you ore correct non verbolly, which will help them leod you in the right direction when pumping. But in this technique, it is of utmost importonce,
lf the only time in the reoding thot you leon closer ond soften your voice is when you osk, "con you heor me O.K.?', they moy look of you like you ore nuts. But if you've done it o few times with "reol informotion', the slightly out the ordinory question will not seem inconsistent with your pre-vious behovior.
Another point l've discovered is thot the questions don't hove to be ones thot osk for o positive response. As long os the sitter's reoctions motch yours, the people wotching will ossume thot you ore correct. For
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ple, you leon forword, look concerned ond whisper, "you're not uncom-fortoble in thot choir, ore you?', while nodding your heod bock ond forth (os if looking for o negotive response ), the sitter will nod bock ond forth olso. This will olso look like o "hit"to those wotching, just os much os o pos-itive response.
Here ore some possible questions:
" Y o u con you heor me O.K., c o n ' t y o u ? " "lt's owfully loud in here, isn't ii?"
"ls thot your Husbond?" "Wos the food good?"
"l'm not going ioo fost, om l?"
"Aren't these Torot cords beoutiful?"
I think you've cought the drift. Any question or stotemeni thot seems op-propriote sociolly, ond thot comes out of "concern" for the sitter con be put to use.
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l've been holding this concept bock for quite o while. lfeel it mokes on excellent opener, ond is stroight to the point, There ore o lot of woys of ochieving this double prediction. l'll use one os on exomple, ond then cover some others.
BFFBOT: An oudience member is chosen totolly of rondom from the oudience, ond osked to come up on stoge. ües, it is o totolly free
choice! The person is NOT chosen by you. He con be picked by on oudi-ence member, or by tossing something into the oudience,) You remove o smoll pod of poper from your pocket, os you exploin thot you ore mok-ing o prediction of somethmok-ing thot will soon come to poss.
You study the oudience for o moment, ond then write something on your pod. You teor off the top sheet with your prediction ond fold it. You then hond it to vour 'ossistont' to seol in o envelope ond hold on to for o minute.
You put the pod owoy, ond remove o wollet from your pocket. From ii you remove o smoll envelope, exploining you olso hove o prediction you
mode before coming on stoge thot concerns your on stoge "ossistont". You exchonge envelopes, so he hos the prediction thot concerns him, ond you hove the envelope with the prediction you hod just written out o minute ogo, which he seoled in on envelope.
You now exploin thot you ore going to write o secret, torget number be-tween I ond '100 on the envelope, ond thoi you wont your on-stoge os-sistont to point to members of the oudience in ony rondom order they wish. As o person is chosen, they ore to coll out o number from I to 100. You exploin thot prediction you ore holding willforetell who picks the tor-get number.
He storts pointing to people...for exomple the first 4 people pick numbers, but you soy, go on. The Sth person, for exomple, is o blond womon, ond she picks 43. You get excited, ond osk the osistont to reod the torget number you hod written on the envelope. lt is 43.
You osk the Blonde womon to come up on stoge, so thot everyone con
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see whot she looks like. You osk her to open the envelope you hove been holding, ond reod the prediction thot wos seoled inside. It stotes, "The first person who chooses the torget number, will be o womon with blond hoir,"
You smile triumphontly, ond stoie you ore glod thot your first prediction wos correct, otherwise everyone would hove o hord time believing the prediction in the envelope thot you wrote out before orriving of the show.
After o dromotic pouse, you osk for the envelope, remove the prediction ond osk your ossistont to reod it,
It stotes, for exomple ,"Mole, Brown Hoir, FS".
Of course, he hos Brown Hoir, ond his nome is Fronk Smith.
OIBTHI)D: I guess this is o voriotion on the I oheod, but it's o bit more worped, ond more to my liking.
The obove wos described using o Confobulotion Wollet.
On the top sheet of ihe pod, is your prediction thot stotes whot the per-son who picks your torget number in the first phose will look like. lt doesn't motier. since you don't reolly print o torget number on the envelope when you soy you will. All you print is, 'ihe torget number will be', ond leove o spoce in which to noilwrite. You just woit to heor whot number is colled off by o person who comes close to your prediction description, ond write it in.
When the freely chosen ossistont is picked, you politely introduce him or her to the oudience, ond you now know their nome. Since you use o pencil with o bit of glue on its point to serve os o stylus writer it won't write on the top sheet. You write the description of your ossistont, but insteod of priniing on the top sheet, it impresses the info through the corbon po-per inside of the Confobulotion envelope. You then teor off the predic-tion they thought you just wrote out, ond hond it to the ossistont to seol in on envelope ond hold on to for o minute.
Put the pod owoy, ond bring out the envelope, exploining thot you hod
lrsi-llieks writfen this prediction before the show, ond thot it concerns him. Trode envelopes. The rest is history.
Of course, you could just hove on envelope, with corbon inside of it, ond o sheet of poper.
When you go to moke out your 'first" prediction, you use the envelope os o writing support. Since you hove the first prediction olreody wriften out, you directly stylus through to the inside of the envelope.
A TOUCH OF GLUE IS PUT ON THE TIP OF THE PENCIL, SO IT MAY SERVE AS A SWLUS WRIIER. THE WRITING
ACTUALLY GOES ONTO THE SECOND PAGE
Or:
You ore seen to be holding 2 envelopes. You write out the 1st prediction, ploce it into on envelope,ond hond it to the ossistont. You ore seen to be holding onother seoled envelope, which you stote concerns the freely chosen ossistont.
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You hove 2 envelcpes set up for the flopless envelope switch. You hove fhe "first" prediction in the botiom envelope. This time you octuolly con write out in more deioil whot the ossistont looks |ike...,.no stylus work. You put the ossistont prediction in the top envelope, but olthough it will look like thot envelope, he octuolly gets the one with the "torget" num-ber, os he should.
Obviously, there ore mony other smoll voriotions on the theme you will come up with. Just keep the concept in mind. ond you'll come up with o woy thot fits you style.
Of course. ony reolly good force could be used insteod of the noil writing method, but it is very deceptive, hos much oppeol for me, ond mokes sense in this context.
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BFFBOT: You stote thot you moiled o prediction thot will cover some events in the news to o trusted person, He is brought up on stoge ond confirms thot he hos the prediction ond thot NO ONE HAS TOUCHED lT lN ANY WAY, SHAPE OR FORM. You olso siote thot someone else wos to go ond buy todoy's newspoper. You osk thot the person with the newspo-per come up on stoge. You osk both of them to verify thot they ore not octing os stooges etc.
You go on to exploin thot you hod o dreom obout some events thot would be oppeoring in todoy's news, but since your don't hove control over whot you dreom, sometimes your visions ore o bit odd. You go on to siote thot you rorely dreom obout importont events. ln foct, you're glod thot you don't dreom obout things like oirplone croshes or other
trogedies, but insteod you ofien dreom obout weird ond unusuol hop-penings!
For exomple, you exploin thot you hod o dreom obout o mon who re-ceived o letter moiled 20 yeors ogo. You then open the poper ond show on orticle obout such on event. You then stote you olso dreomt obout o mon who likes to collect gorboge cons, ond you olso show on orticle obout him. And then you olso tell of o dreom concerning o weight los progrom thot involves someone only eoting sordines. Of course,you show thot orticle olso.
You now hove the prediction envelope opened. All your predictions ore correct!
(And the nice thing is thot you NEVER touch the prediction envelope of-ter it is given to the trustee. lf it is opened before the show, it willstill con-toin the some predictions.)
üIBTll|)D: This is o simplificotion of on old stondord by U. F. Gront. but l've mode it much eosier, opened the possibilities of humor, ond elimi-noted the problems of, 'if you knew this would hoppen, why didn't you do onything obout it?"
Get o copy of the poper on the doy you ore going to moke out your predictions. Find three items, on different poges, thot you feel will ploy
