Patrick+Froment+-+Real+Telepathy

ffiTAL

PATRICKFtrOMENT

Patrick

Froment

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the lnlelleclual Properry Code.

Publication ove^een btr Ludovic Mignon Edired and proofread btr Richard Cauche

Trafflated bl, Md P.ir.hard Tlis edilion o 2011- Ma(hand de Tru$

Marchand de T.ucs. 6 ruc du Pl6nCno 56100 Lorietrt

!wi{marchalddelrucs.com

Pr']n1ed in the EurolcanUnion b)

LlV Editiols o, belalfof the publisher Decembei 2013 ISBN : 978-2-95 36660 5 2 EAN :9782953666052

RealTelepathy

Advanced Pseudo-Telepathy

ffi:chand

.G^ dc

(Lruc_s

Editions

I dedicate this publication _to all moaicians

and mentalists who are looking _for the perfect effect.

MaA our pursuit be _{fulfilled one dag.}

Contents

Publisher's

note

... ₉

ForeNordby Jeao-Jacques Sanvert ...

rl

Introduction to the 2o11 edition... 15

A personal experience ... 27

Drau'ing duplication variations ... ₃₅

Features ofcold reading ---... 43

The stock

reading

... ₄₈

Psychological points ... ₄₉

Analysis of the rcading ... 55

Some real-life examples ... ₅₇

A few additional Iines ... 61

The mushroom effect ... 63

Arcana ...-.-...-... 65

And what if it doesn't u,ork? ... 69

By way of conclusion ... ₇₃

Telepathy: People in psychic _{union communicating} over a distance by thought

Publisher's note

When Patdck came to see me and proposed

this project, my initial reaction was one of great

excitement.

I

immediately wanted

to try

Reol TelepathA o1Jt on a lew nearby guinea pigs and

I

was honestly blown away by the result.

While it's not the best approach, the temp-tation really was too much for me

_-

the burning

desire to know whether or not it actually worked.

The effect is so strong on paper that you can't help

but

hope

that

it's

not

merely the sort

of

misleading advertising material that you get

in

any magic shop catalogue.

Take the time to study the tdck and, more

importantly, make

the

most

of

performing

it.

You'll no doubt leave your spectators feeling t}lat they've experienced something

very

unusual,

the sensation that you were, just for a moment,

actuallv able to read their minds-..

Ludo, February

zol.

Foreword by

Iean-|acques Sanvert

You have something very precious in your

hands. A masterpiece ofthe genre. Probably the

most devastating

pure

mentalism effect that I'ye seen

to

date. Patrick Froment,

its

creator,

performed

it

for

me at one of Mindon Mania's

wonderful meetings

(he

is

now

the

group's

president), and

I

wish you could have seen the

line-up

of

magicians

-

Dominique Duvivier, Ga6tan Bloom, Pascal de Clermont and me

-whose jaws couldn't help but drop when Patrick

revealed

to

us the subject matter of Pascal de

Clermont's drawing. The

only

possible

expla-nation (apart from a CCTV camera linked

to

a

television) was stooging. But that's not what

it

lVaS,

Here,

then,

is

the

explanation

for

the ultimate mentalism effect, its

list

of conilitions

closely resembling what Father Chdstmas might

offer

you

in

the

magic shop

of

your

wililest

dreams: thereare no gimmicks, no stooges, it can

be performed via telephone

_-

or,

if

you prefer,

on a desert island

_-

and, most incredible of all, you'll be able to learn it in.,. five or six minutes!

That's also why I'm keen to warn you:

I'm

sure that a Iot ofmagicians (and not mentalists) who read the explanation

will

think, "that can't

work",

It

would be a serious mistake on your

paft. Bear iI1 mind the performing conditions: you are offering a real experiment

in

thought transmission. I guarantee you that people,

parti-cularly those who are most opposedto it, want to

believe in this kind ofthing. If, therefore, of the three

t

_{?es of statement that you then} make to your spectators, only one is correct (and

I

really

can't see how that wouldn't be the case) you

will

have already done very well. But

I

should tell

you that that's the worst-case scenado. On many

occasions, two

or

even all three of your state-ments will be right, in which case you'll see how

taken aback your spectators are!

As

far

as

I'm

aware, this is the first time

in

the world

that this

system has been used:

applying 'cold reading' to an object. What a

fan-tastic idea! You have an absolutely

killer

effect

that can be carried out in'laboratory conditions',

and, what's more, you know that you're the only

people _{in the world (for the time being) to have}

this

ultimate weapon, which makes

this

effect

even more delightful to perform.

t2-You're lucky to get your hands on this rare

rlocument, which has a very limited

pdnt

run.

Make the most of it. It's a perfect eiample

ofthe

creative genius that flows out of Mindon Mania

meetings, without which Patdck Froment might

not

have

had

this

innovative idea. May this publication be the first in a long series.

Jean-Jacques Sanvert,

Introduction

to

the 2011

edition

I thought it might be interesting to introduce

this new edition ofRecl Telepcthy with a history

of the effect. This is the first proper edition,

I

should point out, insofar as this manuscript has

bcen kept top secret until now.

The story goes back some twenty years, as it was in the early r99os (1999, to be exact), that, thinking about the amazing demonstrations that

genuine psychics had per{ormed for me,

I

came up with the idea ofusing some ofwhat I had seen

to create a divination effect that didn't use any

standard magic 'tricks'.

Thus

Real Telepathy

was born, the

fruit

of my interest in the field of

parapsychology and my passion for mentalism.

Allow me,

if

you

will,

to start

with

a

des-cription ofa day in January 1997

-

18th January,

to be exact

_-

when one ofthelegendary meetings

of the late lamented Mindon Mania group was

held. At that time, the meetings took place once

a year. Each one was a real marathon, lasting

from two o'clock on

thc

Saturday afternoon to

da$,r1 on the Sunday moming. You surely had

to be a

little

crazy to get through fifteen hours of non-stop mentalism. My abiding memory

of

those meetings. lhough. is one of erperiencing

something unique. It's true

_-

last century, men-talism

in

France didn't have the impact that

it

has today. The magic u,orld sau. Mindon Mania

as a slrange sect _{praclising high)y e.oteric}

_rile.

(I'm barely exaggerating!).

We were definitely forerunners,

the

first

in

France

with

a different approach

to

perfor-ming mentalism. We invited guests Iike Patdce Serres (the creator of the foftune-telling game

Goral) and even Jean-Pierre Girard (the 'French

Uri

Geller', much maligned among magicians).

Believe me when

I

say that we weren't scared

of anlthing. The techniques

that

we used and lreasured r'rere called cold reading. pumping. neuro-linguistic programming, Cumberlandism,

Eriksonian hlpnosis, gray code, mnemonics and

mulliple ouls...

Wlile

fhe French magic

com-munitlr is now somewhat more au

Aitwith

these

techniques, these strange-sounding terms were

fearsome and dangerously heretical fifteen or twenty years ago.

Mindon was a wonderlul proving ground

in

which to test and expe ment

with

all these

16

-17-techniques.

I

confess

that while I've

always

believed

that

mentalism

had

a

great

future ilhead of

it,

I'm

amazed by the position

ihat

it

now occupies. I wonder

ifthere'll

soon be more mentalism shows to see than magic ones. And

if

vorid have told me fifteen years ago that there'd

be a hit American series called ?he Mentaiist ..

Well...l Let's head back to that day on 18tr'

Janua-ry 1997...

I

wasn't feeling great

o[

that

occasion.

Arter a long illness, my father had passed ai\,ay a

f'ew days earlier and I hadn't got anlthing ready

fbr the meeting. Given the circumstances, I was

debatingwhetherornotto go at all, but then again

I

did need to take my mind off things and the

theme for the eyent was impromptu mentalism,

too (a _{fantastictopic for} someone v\'ho didn't have

anlthing prepared) . The meeting was also pretty special because of who was attending. That day

(and

that

night), Mindon played host

to

three

big names from the magic world: Ga6tan Bloom,

Jean-,Jacques Sanvet and Dominique Duvivier.

,{s I made my way to the meeting, I couldn't have

dreamt ofthe impact it would have for me.

With

nothing

prepared,

1

_{decided to} perform a

little

effect

that

I'd

developed four

or five years _{earlier, when} I lived in Rodez. The

effect consisted ofduplicating a drawing made by

I

knew

that the

effect was a good one, albeit slightly rislf,,, but I never imagined that it would become the highlight of

the

evening and that

people would talk about it for years afterwards.

It must have been just after midnight when

I

began

my

performance

of

the

effect. Pascal de Clermont was the 'guinea pig' and he drew a

Iightbulb. I remember the moment that I stafted

describing Pascal's drawing in front of that

pres-tigious

audience.

I

remember Jean-Jacques

Sanvert's nervous laughter, accompanied by that of Gadtan Bloom and Dominique Duvivier.

I

remember seeing them spending some time

looking

for

the

"hidden

micro-camera" or attempting

to

discover "who the stooge

in

the

audience was and howhe had communicated the drawing to me".

As you can imagine,

I

was under a

lot

of

pressure, from a lot ofpeople, to 'spill the beans'

that eve[i[g. I should stress that I held out. I was

also helped

by

my friends

from

Mindon, who

spread the word that there wasn't any

tdck

to what I had done (iust

irtuition

and feeling).

A few weeks after the meeting, 1 read an

article

in

the

magazlne Le Mqgtcien Gr' ].46

-

march 1997

-

page ₅₂₄₆₎

_in

which

Jean-Jacques Sanvert wrote about

a

_Jaw-dropping effect', describing the very demonstration that

18 - _t9

-he'd witnessed that evening. Jean-Jacques, who at the time didn't know the method that

I

was

using, attributed the unusual experiment to my

intuition

alone, reluctantb lending support to the notion

tlat I

hadn't used

any'tricks'

that

evening.

I

alreaily knew that the effect was a real gem.

It

was the first time that

it

hail been per-tbrmed to mentalists and magicians and

it

was a

hit! In

addition, the only explanation for the

cffect was breathtaking in its simplicity. Howe-ver,

I

felt that lying beneath this simplicity, the

cffect, like a millefeuille cake, hail a number of

layers to it and that it would be worth describing

them

in

iletail. Now, fifteen years on,

I

believe that the ideas explained

in

Real ?eiepathy form

what may be t}le essence of mentalism.

So

I

knuckled do$.n to

it

and spent

seve-Ial weeks putting together a modest work

tlat

rlescribed the ins, outs and all-arounds of the rnethod

that

I

used

to

divine

the

spectator's

drawing.

In

doing so,

I

indulged

in

a thorough study of drawing duplications as well as adding

a few philosophical insights and a lot of

psycho-log/ into the mix. I ended up with around twenty

pages

of

material, which

I

asked

a

few close

Il'iends who were also mentalists

to

read

for

rne. They were enthusiastic in their responses.

I

and asked him to write the foreword, which he agreed

to

do.

I

felt

that

Jean-Jacques was the

right person to introduce the publication as he

had seen the effect, had once been convinced by

the 'trickless' explanation and, finally, had been

pd!l,

to the actual method. I was also impressed

by

Jean-Jacques' open-minded approach and

his passion

for cetain

divinatory arts as well

as the history of Rennesle-Chdteau (this

open-minded approach

is,

ironicafu, relatively rare

among magicians). All that remained was to find

a title.

It

was Olivier Gutenberg, my late friend,

gone _{all too} soon, who inspired the title. Olivier

was one ofthe people who read the first clrafts of

this book. One day he said to me, "If real

telepa-thy did exist, that's what

it

would look like."

I'd

founil the title!

In

the

months

that

followed,

a

photoco-pied version of Real Telepathv was distributed to a select few, mainly the members of Mindon Mania at the time and a few friends, amounting to a handfirl of people (a few dozen).

On 6th October 1997, a short time after

I

had furtively circulated my manuscript, Mindon

Mania had the privilege of hosting a lecture at Le

Double Fond,

at

Dominique Duvivier's behest.

Four

of

us were scheduled

to

lecture: Didier

Chant6me, Philippe Lange , J. Proley and me. A

few minutes before the eyent started, Dominique

l)uvivier came to see me and asked, "Will you be

tloing your killer trick this evening?"

I

realised,

of course, that the

killer tdck

in

question was

lleal Telepathy

_-

which I had planned not to do,

hoping

to

remain tight-lipped about an effect

that was, fran}ly, getting out ofcontrol.

Dominique was able

to

convince me to

perform a demonstration of my miracle

divina-tion that evening. It was a hit again, resulting

in

a number of friendly but insistent requests from

people eager to know the method. Once more,

I

held out...

The years _{went by and}

_I

made the most

of

an appearance by Jean-Pie[e Girard at Mindon

Mania to show him Real Telepathy.In his usual

mischievous style, France's number one psychic drew a chamber pot (!). He was amazed by my description of the drawing, which he kept

care-fully hidden

in

his pocket. That evening,

Jean-Piene Gimrd stated that I was an extraordinary

psychic.

Over

the

years

that

followed,

I

took

something of a step back from the magic world,

delving into a whole host of subjects (psychothe-rapy techniques, personal development, human i[teraction, Tantra, Eastem

spi

tuality, sphynx

cats,

art,

antiquity and more!).

I

nevertheless retained a passion for magic and mentalism and

-always kept abreast

of

developments

in

these

areas. As lhe yeals went b). imagine my

surp

se

when people would rcfet to Reql Telepathy

fiom

time

to time

(on magic forums,

for

example),

One person wanted to know if he could get hold of the book, someone else said that

it

vr'as the

purest and most baffling drawing duplication

ever created. The buzz was still there,..

During this period, people from the magic

world would occasionally express the desire to publish Real Telepathy on a less limited scale

-

there was even talk of a DVD project. Stran-gely enough, all these projects ultimately fell by

the wayside, disappearing one after the other as

though some unconscious

will

had determined that these ideas shouldn't be shared.

Some t\,vo decades have passed since

I

began developing Lhis effecL after drawing

inspi-ration from the work of psychics and telepaths.

It

has now been fifteen years since

I

wrote and

secretly distributed Real TelepathA. Re-reading

the

tq't,

I

feel that

it

has remained amazingly

contempomry. Despite the fact that mentalism has made giant leaps forward

in

France since

the

mid-nineties, Real Telepathy

is still

pure dynamite! As a result, I have decided to publish

it as is, without amending the text.

22

Real Telepathy

Keeping a secret for eighteen years is good going. The time has come to take the d)-namite

out of the drawer, so that the cuuent

_-

highly promising

*

crop of mentalists can put it to use.

When

I

think

about the basic concept behind

Real Telepathy and

its

philosophical implica-tions (which are explored a

little

in the 'Arcana' section), I can't help but feel that there's enough behind it to inspire people for a few more years, I(eeping the miracles coming.

In my opinion, t}le concept can be further developed...

I

have

in

mind

a

book test, for

instance, that makes use of this principle. Maybe

one day

I'll

bring that out of one of my drawers, but in the meantime

_-

shh!

Real Telepathg has proved astonishing for

eighteen years,

not

only

in

terms of the

reac-tions that

it

provokes but also the thinking and

developments that

it

stimulates.

I

get amazing

feedback from mentalists who've performed it by

telephone and even on Lhe lnternet using instant

messaging. Something tells me that it's not over

yet and that

this 'little

trick'

still

has a bright

future ahead

ofit.

Still, I will make this observation about it: a

number of mentalists and magicians have

poin-ted out to me, wit11 good reason, that Real

Real Telepathy

It

requires

a

fair

amount

of

nerve, particular

staging, a good understanding of the right time to do

it,

a decent amount of charisma and also,

perhaps, some

form of

persuasive ability. Put

together, these skills are what make a good

men-talist. It is perhaps partly in this sense that Real ?elepafhy represents the essence of mentalism.

It

also seems that this essence has

some-thing to do wit}l the very nature of the principles outlined

in

Real Telepqthy. As you

will

disco-ver over the pages that follow, these principles

are entirely psychological.

It

stdkes

me

that

in

modern times,

we

can't study paranormal

phenomena in the same way that people did

in

the

nineteenth century. Mediums

don't

make

messages appear on slates or produce ectoplasm

from their

mouths nowadays.

If

there

is

an

explanation

for

psychic phenomena, telepathy and channelling, this explanation no longer lies in gimmicked slates, special flaps or double lifts.

The explanation lies inside the human mind.

Real Telepathg isn't just a trick with which

to amaze your friends, it's an invitation to reflect

on how the human mind works. The secret ex-ploits a particular cognitive error in terms of how

our consciousness operates and how we perceive

things.

I

am convinced that these techniques, so

close to 'the real thing', form much of the

menta-Iism of tomorrow.

Welcome to the world of (almost) real tele-pathyl

Patrick Froment, Januarv 2011

24-A

personal experience,

or

ReaI

Telepathy:

the

effect

It

was the end of summer, the days were

llreadygetting shofter and night had fallen fairly

,,urly on the capital ofthe Rouergue province.

Like

every Saturday

eve[i[g, the

small, rlark interior ofthe Caf6 de la Paix was busy: the

bar, with its wealth of beers on tap, was where

l

broad selection of Rodez's youths had decided

lo meet.

It

was also home to the kind of hustle,

bustle and badinage that's only found

in

small provincial French towns. As usual, Jean-Louis,

lhe owner, uas behind the bar. The Caf6 de Ia

l)aix occasionally hosted concefts

in

which

dif-lcrentlocal groups would per{orm. The standard

wasn't the highest, certainly, but those fun-filled

cvenings remained

in

everyone's memory, high

points of conviviality.

Some years earlier, Jean-Louis had met

I)at

ckthe Magician. His abilities had very much

Real'ldeParhy

beeuiled Jean-Loui:' who was quick to ask him

,""""".".i.r*i.

nights

at

his

establishment'

i"rrJ

i.

t"'a"'ir'p.

ir's"small inner room was the

;:;#;;

f",

"

close-uP show so

it

was thal

."";;;i

;i;""t

;i".t.

Parrick would appear in this

ii"

*

i"l.

""4

he carries

lhese experiences with

lim

forever, highlights o[ his Iife as a magrcran'

That

evening,

no

Performances were

"f-r"il'frr,

p.,frtk

had

"topped

b1' as

he

I.-",i.".

Jia. to enjoy a goodtreer and chat Lo

:::;i';;;

i".run"n

r

'ngut"t

Lhat were certain

Il'l'JL"raiir.t",JacquJt

the ageing anarchist'

'""":";t:;hi;;;;nial

spot

ai

Lhe corner of

i'fJ

u*,'p'rrlrippi.

irt;

painter with.the perpetual

iili#o.,

u"J.l' r"d

again popped in to blowhis

)i"]l'-.i*.

rn,r-rir" lhe beautitul c6cile' object of

ilir,'"i".rii.r.""tu"ys

affeclions' was practi'ing

il.

t."i*

""

ir-r"

;a

piano as a lew

intellectuals

&il;';;;;""

of

che"" beMeen suPs of

beer.

All

these people knew Patrick .u"d

k?"1

"lr""t^rrit

'

Jiu'i.

i.

few

close-up-. shows

,

had

ffii,

u""r'lr,n"

bin ai

tle

c{6.& h

_llT;

been asked

On this occasion. Patrick had agatn

t'J:

il'Jm,ill;;

Jean-Louis had

gone.intolis

!",.;";;;;

;;;e"*d

a belote deck

_ITt

li:li

;';#;l"ri,

sorry state and Patdck had b€en

;;;";;;"

p",-fo,-

ut

reouSsled,

_{T:-.Pl::1s-";}

irl""iti"*

r[*

r"r.lnes, cards travelled' iumped

-28-around, transformed

into

other cards and the

audience reacted well, with a small crowd soon

forming around the magician..,

And

yet...

And yet

something

indescri-bable had occurred. Patrick was there,

perfor-rning his effects, but (was

_it

an itlusion?) he felt

that

something

had

changed, something new

had taken shape in his spectators' minds. It was

as though

his

effects, while good, were being

pholed in. The spectators were doubtless unable

to explain what was happening before their very

cyes, and yet Patrick felt that he was no longer

seen as a magician, but a juggler. Juggling, that

was definitely the word

_-

his tricks were now just juggling _{and ultimately, the impossible had}

l)ecome something ordinary. Patdck

felt

that

his magic had lost its sparkle, he no longer felt the indescribable moment

that

Einstein called 'the experience of the mysterious' in his

specta-tors'eyes. No longer a magician, he had become someone who was simply highly skilled

with

a rlcck of cards.

He needed to react quictly and get back on

his feet

_-

that evening, he needed to per{orm a

rrriracle, not a trick. Patrick had already spent

st'veral months immersing himself

in

menta-lism, determinedly following the roadto'the real lhing'. That was what was needed!

"It's late and I'm going to have to Ieave you

soon", said Patrick, retuming the deck to its

half-destroyed box.

The audience insisted on one last tdck. "I've already done quite a fewthings, and

I

don't have anphing else on me, but as you know,

I'm also fascinated by parapsychology. I recent-ly read an interesting book in which the author explains simple methods

for

achieving mental communication and even for attempting to read

someone else's thoughts... We could

try

that kind ofexperiment: it's by no means guaranteed

to

work. Telepathy is rather like hlpnosis, the subject mustn't fight

it.

I

need

to

do this with

someone who's happy

to

go along

with

it

and

really wants to give mental communication a go."

C6cile seemed very interested and eagerly

agreed to take part in the experiment.

"Okay, C6ci1e, I'm going to ask you to

think

ofan object, preferably something simple... Have

you got one?!" "Erm... Yes!"

Patrick grabbed a beermat, a piece

ofcard-board of the

kind

that

litter

the bars of every

drinking establishment around the world, and borrowed a pen. On the blank side of the beer-mat, he drew a square.

30 _3l

"You're going to focus your thought here.

l)raw your object in the middle of the square."

With these words, Patrick turned around

lnd

stood back to leave C6ci1e free to draw her

rnasterpiece as she wished.

"'When you ve finished the drawing. put

it

in one ofyour pockets," Patdck stated.

The conditions

in

which the drawing was

made were nothing

if

not straightforward and

open.

The

spectators

who

where

there

that

cyening weren't expefts in magic or trickery, but

cach of them could see that it would be absolutely

impossible for Patrick to know what C6cile had drawn. All the objects used (pen and beermat)

had been borrowed and as soon as the drawing

was finished,

it

had been immediately hidden,

out ofPatdck's sight and reach.

Had a magician, even a mentalism expert,

been there that evening, he couldn't have found

lault

with

anlthing that

Patrick had done, no

possible gimmicks or trickery.

The image had been drau.n, then, and was safely in C6cile's pocket.

Patrick's expression grew intense,

"Concentrate,

C6ci1e.,.

Visualise

your

object... Try to project

its

overall shape

to

me,

imagine a giant version

ofit

in

fiont

ofyou..."

Patrick closed

his

eyes briefly, his hands clasped together by his 1ips. When he opened

his

eyes again, they sparkled

with light.

Sub-consciously, everyone felt

it:

"He's picked up on something".

"I

sense round shapes

-

circular,

cylindri-cal... There's a shape that goes up, like this..."

The same glint that flashed in

Pat

ck's eyes

appeared

in

C6cile's. These few words had left

C6cile, and those spectators who had seen the drawing, visibly shaken. Finally, Patrick saw in his audience the 'expe ence of the mysterious' that was so dear to Albert Einstein.

Later, Patrick would learn

that

alongside

C6cile's experience of the mystedous was a hint

offear. The first thing that she had said to herself was: "So telepathy really does exist!" Then she

felt naked, stripped ofher innermost thoughts.

After a

few seconds

of

renewed

concen-tration, Patrick said that he also sensed that the

object

in

the drawing had a see-through aspect

to it. A collective 'ahhhh' greeted this new

reve-lation.

-32-Patrick asked C6cile to reveal hcr druwing,

which corresponded exactly to the telepathic

int-pressions _{that he} had felt.

Outside,

it

was late, and

the

almost-full

rnoon flooded Rodez's cathedral with light.

For a long time afterwards, people

_in

_the

Caf6 de Ia Paix asked

Pat

ck to try the drawing

divination again.

It

had become something that

few people had seen but that everyone was

tal-king about. Patdck never again performed the expedment in the Caf6 de la Paix, but

if

you're

ever passing through Rodez and pop

in

to the

Caf6 de la Paix for a drink, be sure to speak to

,Iean-Louis about Patrick the Magician.

Maybe,

just

maybe, Jean-Louis

will

go to his drawer and pull _{out an old beermat}

_with

_a

square sketched

out

on

the

back and,

in

the middle ofthis square, a drawing of a bottle.

Drawing

duplication

variations

"If

real telepathy

did

exist, that's what

it

would look like!" A fellow magician said this to

me after he'd witnessed the effect just ilescribeil,

which is the focus of the book that you're now

holding.

When performing, I've always sought the

clearest, _{most straightforward and most direct}

cffects, alongside pudty of effect and method.

In

my opinion, Real Telepathy represents an im-portant stage along this route,

The basic effect resembles what, in menta-lists'jargon, is known as a'drawing duplication'. ln Real Telepathg _, however, you're not going to

duplicate the drawing, but describe it exactly.

A drawing duplication or divination is very powerful in spectators' minds, for the following

-

Generally, when

a

divination effect is per{ormed, the spectator has a relatively limited

choice

(of lifty-two

cards,

for

example). With

drawing divinations, however, the choice is huge

and the spectator is free to draw whatever she

wants.

-

The effect is extremely simple (a _drawing is divined), bringing the spectators' imaginations

into play and Ieaving them

with

a long-lasting

memory ofthe effect.

I

would now like to briefly go over some

methods

that

are

used

by

mentalists and magicians

to

achieve

this

effect. This

list

isn't

exhaustive

in

any way,

but

I

still think that

it

covers a good many solutions.

.

The centre

teari

This

is

a

very old technique

in

which the spectator has

to

draw

in the centre of a sheet of paper, which is then

folded and torn up by the magician for whatever reason. At this poiflt, a small sleight is

pedor-med, enabling the magician to 'steal' the centre

of

the

paper (containing

_the

drawing) before

sureptitiously Iooking at it.

.

Clipboards:

A

gamut

_of

gimmicked

accessories

fall

under

this

category

usually designedtolooklike some sort ofjotter, notebook,

notepad or desk pad on which the spectator is

asked to draw an image. The principle often relies

36

on ingenious carbon-paper systems whereby the

magician is able lo discover what the image is. . _{Peekingr This method consists of having}

the image drawn on a business card and, under

the guise of placing

it

in a wallet (or envelope),

performing a small secret move that enables the

image to be flashed for a split second.

'

Glimpsingr

This is a rather bold method

in which the performer turns around for a split second

while

the

spectator draws

an

image.

If

certain psychological principles have been mastered, this brief

turling

around passes unno-ticed by the audience. It goes without saying that such a method requires a perfect performance

and an excellent sense of timing.

.

Enuelopes:

With this

method, the drawing is first placed into one envelope (which

has a secret window

in

it)

and then a second

(normal) one. As the magician places the first

envelope

into the

second,

he

glances

_at

the

drawing through the secret window.

.

Gimmickeil

card

u,alletsi

Various

models of gimmicked card wallet have appeared

on the magic market in recent years. They allow

a performer to secretly discover the image drawn

or word written on a business card that's placed

.

Electronic systems,

These methods

make use of expensive equipment. To discuss them would be exposure, so I shall mention them onlybriefly here.

.

Pencil reading;

This is

a mentalism technique rvhereby a spectator's actions $'hile

drawing an image are studied, in such a r,ay that

it is then possible to work out what this image is.

So that's basically a summary of the tech-niques used

by

magicians

and

mentalists to divine an image drau,Tr by a spectator.

Obviously,

with

all

these techniques, the

impact

of

the

effect lies solely

in

the

revela-tion and the manner in which this is presented.

The magician must draw on his

full

theatrical abilities

in

order

to

reveal

the

drawing

in

the most entefiaining way possible. Generally, the best approach is to reveal the impressions and

shapes sensed in stages, bringing the suggestion

of failure into play.

This idea is based on deliberately making

mistakes

while

performing

the

divination. This makes the effect believable and increases suspense among spectators.

A

number

of

observations can be made

in

light of this overvierv of the techniques that

38 ₃₉

magicians use

in

order

to

pedorm

drawing duplications.

. _{With many of these meLhods. lhe magicia n}

must, at some point, touch the paper on which

the image is drawn. This is highly problematic tbr anybody who, like me, seels the clearest and most straightforward effect possible.

.

Few methods are complete\ impromptu,

. _{Certain techniques} use special or

gimmic-ked accessories, which is a further drawback

for

itnybody who wants to be as clean as possible.

In shoft, then,let's say that allthe standard

(lnd

_lesr

_slantlard)

_methods

_that

_magicians

llse have a weak point from the point of view of someone looking for the

truly

perfect effect.

And yet, and yet... There are people who some-times pedorm drawing duplications using other rnethods and other principles, psychics being a good example.

In

this

modest work,

I

have

lttempted

to

explore and create a theoretical

basis for these methods.

Here we come to what

I

belieye to be the

rrost

impofiant

contribution

to

mentalism

in

recent years

_-

studFng

the

methods and

concepts used, consciously or unconsciously, by

parapsychologists and attempting to apply these

to our effects in mentalism.

Now consider the following:

.

_the

_{effect described here}

_is

_completely

impromptu _;

. _{you need only a piece ofpaper and a pen}

;

. _{the mentalist never touches the paper ;} . the effect uses no stooges ;

.

the

mentalist can be

in

another room while the image is drawn ;

. the effect can also be performed over the telephone or even on the Internet, through ins-tant messaging!

. no clipboards are used _;

. no carbon-paper systems are used ;

. there's no 'pencil reading' ;

. _there are no electronics...

Real

Telepathy

thus

surpasses

all

the

methods explored above.

Honesty, however, compels me to

acknow-Iedge the one weak point in my method, which

I

shall now explain to yoLt

i\

_{detail: Reql} Telepctthy

is an effect

that

depends on certain

psycholo-gical risks, which mean

that

it

may not work. This

will

happen very rarely. Moreover, those

of my readers who are very experienced menta-lists know that an effect that doesn't work has

much less significance in mentalism than

it

does

40

in

magic.

It's

normal

for

someone per{orming parapsychological effects

to

fail

sometimes,

something

that

also makes

the

rest

of

your

per{ormance believable.

Features

of

cold

reading

My aim here is not to offer a comprehensive

study of cold reading but to explain both what

it

is and the basic techniques that

it

uses. This is

necessary

in

order

to

properly understand the

methods employed

i\

Reql Telepathy.

The French magic community seems to

have discovered cold reading relatively recently.

It is, however, a fairly oldtechnique on the other side

of

the Atlantic (having

first

been

w

tten about

in

the

192os). Books by Robert Nelson,

William

Larsen

and, more

recently, Bascom

,Iones, Herb Dewey, Ron

Martin

and Richard Webster make up a sizeable proportion of the literature available on the subject.

Unfofiunately, there is very

little

about

it

in French.

What is

it?

Cold reading is a range of techniques that enable performers

to

'read'

a

person they've

never metbefore

_-

giving the person the

impres-sion that they know a wealth of relatively detailed

information

about

people's character, past,

present and future. Cold reading is the closest

thing

in

mentalism

to

psychic ability.

Reputa-tions have been built entirely on this technique.

Some people believe that psychic abilities are nothing more than cold reading, but that's a separate discussion.

Hou

does

it

uork?

Cold reading makes use

of a

number of

techniques, many of which come directly from

psychology. They range from morphopsychologr

to

neuro-linguistic programming

ria

various theories

of

personality

t}?e.

The foundation

common to all schools ofcold reading, however,

is what are known as stock readingc.

Stock readings are based on the premise that ceftain statements or assertions (also known

as 'lines') appear to be very personal but can be successfully applied to anyone. In cold reading,

these are also known as 'statements with a high

accuracy rating'.

45,

When

performed

well,

with

a

good

presentation

_and

a

_Iot

of

_{psychology, cold}

reading

can slay

an

audience

(particular\

women

and

spectators

who

have

an

interest

in psychic abilities). As he delivers his lines, a

cold reader continually attempts to involve his

audience, which is where the principle

of'refra-ming' comes into play: every comment resonates

with spectators at a peNonal level, and

it

is the

spectators who connect various somewhat vague statements, linking them back to their orvr

expe-riences. The spectators, we might say, 'reframe' the comments.

A collection of lines is

knowl

as a reading

or a stock reading.

Below,

for

reference,

is

an example

of

a

basic stock reading, this one is based on research

ca[ied

out by Forer, an American psychologist,

in the r94os and r95os. Note that some modem

stock readings are absolutely incredible in terms

oftheir detail and subtlety.

Forer

readbrg

You have a need for other people to like and

admire you, although you tend to be critical

of

yourself.

You have considerable unuscd abilities that

Real'lelePrriry

Some ofyour aspirations tend to be

unrea-listic.

At

times you have serious doubts as to

whether you have made the right decision or not'

You do not find it easy to accept restrictions

or limitations. And so on...

Real Telepathy is nothing less than a cold

reading applied to a drawing of an

object

lt

is a

stock r-eading that seems to be very accurate but

that co[esponds to most objects that a spectator

can be expected to draw.

The concept

of

applying cold reading to something other than the human personality is ouite orisinal and hugell effective Some

men-ralists alJo refer to lhis principle using Lhe term

'specific

generalisations'.

Once again,

these

."thod.

it"

(in

my humble opinion), a royal road

for

anyone seeking pure effects

that

are very close to real _{ParaPsYchologY.}

On occasion, I have attended psychometry

demonstrations by psychics. These are a further basis for mythinking. I noticed that the

psychics-often gave cold readings without being aware of

it.

I

have thus developed a formula that can

he aoolied to a wide range of objects as part

ola

singie stock reading. This lormula is com posed of

thrie statements and only three statements, so

if

46

you can memorise just three sentences, you,ll bc able to pedorm an _{amazing effect anyrrhere and}

at anytime, forthe rest

ofyourlife!

Experience has also taught

me

Lhat the shorter the formula. the more effeclive

it

is.

And now for the magic words to be

The

stock

reading

'Ike

ftrst

thmg tfrat

I

sense are

roun[ sfiapes

_-

circu[ar, c1[in[rical,. . .

I'm getting tfie inpression

of

a

sliape that goes up, wit{t sonetfiing

Qing on top.

I'm

d[so getting

a

see throuqli

aspect anf a sense of frglit.

Psychological

points

to

ensure

that the

effect is

as

strong

as

possible

Real

TelepothA can either

bomb

or

be

a miracle. This

isn't

a problem

if

you let your audience

krow in

adrance that

it

is a genuine

experiment, and thus something that may not work. From my ou,n experience, my

hit

rate is

80 %.

A'hit',

for me, is when the object drawn fits the description exactly (we'll see numerous

examples below).In the remaining 20 % ofcases,

you'll be amazed to see the extent to which

spec-tators are more likely to remember the correct

parts _{ofyour reading than the misses.}

You need

to

use some suggestion before

you perform your effect:

. It

is imperative that you tell the

specta-tor in advance that what you'll be doing is a real

expe ment in telepathy with no trickery, as we

.

You should ask the spectator

to think

of an object (not an abstract shape), preferably something simple.

This

enables you

to

avoid any _Bpe of strange drawing that might not be

suitable.

. It

is a good idea to draw a square in the middle

of

the paper and then ask the

specta-tor to

draw her object inside

this

square. This is a subliminal suggestion that means that the spectator is more likely to draw a round object

(people don't draw squares inside squares). As a

result ofthis subtlety, your first statement will be

a hit

(l

sense round shapes

-

circular,

cylindri-cal...). If, when you explain to the spectator what

you _{would like} her to do, you also make a circular

gesture while you show her where she should do her drawing, the first comment is unlikely not to

fit.

.

The spectator doesn't have

to

show her drawing

to

the other spectators.

Not

doing so

eliminates the idea of a stooge, although doing

so does give you an advantage: you're no longer

dealing with a single spectator who

will

reframe your statements, but the whole audience, which

is much more entertaining and experience shows

that the effect is thus heightened. Very often it's

not the

spectator who's directly involved who

recognises her object first, but other spectators who have seen the drawing.

50 _5l

.

The

reading

shouldn't

be

repeated

parrot-fashion. You are an actor playing the paft

of

someone

witr

telepathic powers. give your

script some terlture and play

with

your vocal

intonation as though you're genuinely sensing

psychic vibrations. Take your time.

. _{You'll notice how the expressions 'I sense'}

and'I'm

getting

_the

impression' are repeated

in

the

scdpt.

Once again, you're conducting

a genuine experiment

in

telepathy.

Someone

capable

of

reading thoughts would,

like

you,

sense fleeting images, vague shapes etc.

'

Actions play an absolutely essential anil fundamental role in Recl ?elepathg. You should

illustrate your statements using clear actions.

It

is

this visual siile

of

the effect

that

futher

enables your spectators to reframe your words to

fit their object. Your actions add a visual element

to your reading. I have sometimes noticed

spec-tators recognising their object more because of

my actions than my words. \^Ihen you talk about round and circular shapes, then, be sure to per-form the corresponding actions with your hands.

Wten you say "o shape thctt goes up", yo:u

ca\

gesture as follows: bring together the fingers of

both hands, moving them from low to high and high to low. Then, when you talk about

"some-thing lying on top", bdng both hands up to your

careful, though... Make sure

tlat

you adapt these

actions to suit your own personality, so if you're

not

used

to'talking

with

your hands', change

your actions. From the sublime to the ddiculous

is always a very small step!

.

Real TelepathA

is

a performance piece

with a set script, set actions and set direction.

.

The hardest part of the effect to malage

is, in my opinion, the end. You've just said your

three statements and at this point you'll already

be able

to

tell

from your spectators' reactions

whether you've

hit

or not. It's hard

to

manage

this stage because you'll need to proye to your spectators

that

what

just

happened requi-red intense concentration from you and that

it

would be

dimcdt

for you to go any fufiher. For the

majo

ty of spectators, however, it's obvious

that you divined the object and know what it is.

.

As a result, you're going to call on your

acting abilities

and

show

that the

effect has exhausted you. Generally I end by going back to

the round and circular shapes, which are really

the key idea that I sensed, and I ask the spectator

to display her drawing.

. I have sometimes performed Reol

?elepa-thy without making the spectator do a drawing

-

I simply ask her to think ofan object and then

-52-give her the reading. This is a way of presenting

the

effect,

but

having

the

spectator draw the

object seems better to me, for all the reasons that

we've seen.

.

_You'll

notice

that,

as

with

any mental

effect, the memory of Real ?elepothu that's left

in

your

spectators' minds

will

be significantly greater

_{and more}

_developed

_than

_the

_initial

effect. Spectators never remember your reading

word-for-word

and they

have

a

tendency to

improve and adjust it so that it fits perfectly with the object that's been drauryr. This is a typical

instance of the phenomenon of re fra ming.

. It

goes without

safng

that Recl Ielepa-t/ty isn't an effect that you can perform twice for

lhe same audience. You should also give a lot of thought to where you place

_it

in your

perfor-mance.

.

LaslTy, Reql Telepothy seems to be more

Analysis

of

the

reading

.

The

_first

thing

that

I

sense qre round

shapes

_-

circular,

cylindical...

This statement

will

fit

a wealth of objects

tlat

t}Ie spectator can be expected

to

draw.

A

great many objects are generally round or circu-Iar

in

shape or, at least, have round or circular parts to them. The use of suggestion also helps

you to influence your spectator somewhat.

MoreoYer,

you

are

expressing three different

but

complementary ideas

in

a single

sentence, although t}Ie spectators will remember

only the idea Lhat fiLs wilh lheir drawing.

I

have always been stunned

to

note just how powerful a feature this statement becomes

in spectators' minds,

. _{I'm getting the impression of a shape}

_that

goes up, with something lVing on top.

With this statement, you cover any object

that has a handle, foot, base

or

other

form of

supporl The idea of 'something on top' is also a

particularly powerful comment here and means

that you have a wide range of objects covered.

.

_I'm

_also getting a see-through qspect cnd

a sense

oflight.

Many objects have see-through elements to

them, while experience has shown me that the

idea of light is one that hits very frequently. Oh yes! One

last

anecdote, quickly: one day,

I

showed the effect to a psychic in her psy-chic reading room. She had drawn a crystal ball

on its stand... Alleluia!

Some

real-life

examples

Crrndle

A cylindrical shape.

A shape that goes up. Something Iying on top.

A sense

oflight.

57-Bottle

A cylindrical shape that goes up.

A see-through aspect.

Lishtbulb

Round shapes.

A sense of

light

and a see-through aspect.

-58,

-59-Telephone

r--\

A

Round and circular shapes.

A shape that goes up.

Something lying on top.

Sign

A cylindrical shape that goes up. Something lying on top.

A

few

additional

lines...

The stock formula

that's

given

in

this modest work is the reading

that

I

use myself.

Generally,

I

stick to these three sentences rvith

no

embellishment. However,

there are

other magic phrases _{with which you can supplement} or pad _{out the basic formula somewhat. Belowis}

a _{selection of examples,}

. There's a rough ideq of symmery in _aour

drawing.

. _{I sense something that suggests thctt}

_part

of the _{object could} be smooth.

.

_I

cqn sense

a

wqrm sort of

colour..,

Magbe yelloug _{orange or brown.}

.

_I

get

the

impression

of

some

parallel

lines.

.

_It

_{seems to me that your object is} some-thing that you can

_fill

up.

I'

The

mushroom effect

I thought long and hard before deciding to

publish the idea that I'm now going to describe.

Ifs

something that I use at the end of my reading

and only when I feel

tlat

my formula has already

had a strong impact (and therefore

that it's

a

close fit with the object that's been drawn).

If

I

think this

is

the case, and before

the

spec-tator

reveals

her

design,

I

grab

_a

_{pen and}

paper.

_At

this point

I

draw the image shorvn

in;Egure r.

As

I

do

this,

I

make t}te point that I'm trying to depict the

ove-rall

shape and general idea

of the drawing. fgurc

I

You'll be amazed by the power of this kind of statement and the many ways in which your drawing can be intepreted. This time, the

tators really

will

recognise their drawing or, at

the veryleast, part of it, Sometimes you r,r,ill have

to turn your sketch around, reframingitto match the spectator's

dra\aing

this

will

only enhance the mystery in the minds ofyour audience.

With this

'mushroom effect', what you're

doing is no longer a mere divination, but a bona

fi de drawing duplication.

A

similar principle

is

referred

to

in

Banachek's book Psychological Subtletres (see

chapter ro: Subtle Drara,ings).

Arcana,

or thoughts

on

the

true

nature

of

the

secret

behind

Real

Telepittlty

The map is not the territory and ihc wolrls that we use are conventions with which wt, t|v lo

describe reality.

Reality. houever. remains forever i1tr,,,.,.' sible. We can certainly perceive part of it thlorrglr

our senses (themselves a collection of frtrr-lror rsr.

mirrors).

but

is

it

eren possihle

lo

exl)rri(.r.r. ultimate reality?

It

is very difficult to answer as simplc rrrrrl

fundamental a question as that of asking: whirt

is reality?

Perhaps this is r.hat, In Buddhist

tr

ditiorr,

is relerred to as 'niwana'...

For

'ordinary'

human beings,

rcdlity

is

simply what we're able to perceive through our

five

(six?) _{senses and what}

_our

_brains

inter-pret.

Notice, incidentally,

that

every ltuman

being experiences

a

different

reality

because

of the different se[ses that we each favour and

the interpretatiols that we each

arive

at. Each

interpretation

is

heavily conditioned

by

our individual worldview, which itself develops over

time as we go through life.

Our

life

experiences

-

our successes) our failures, our frustrations and our moments of

joy

_-

shape our worldvieu, as much as our attrac-tions and our taboos.

I

like

this

story, which shows how we're constantly interpreting reality:

Tuto employees arriue at

thei

wotk in the

morning. On their desks, thelj both _rtnd a note

from

the boss, asking them to come ond see him

in the next

_few

hours.

'Ihe

_rtrst

_is

_{delighted as he heeds}

_in:

_he

belieues he'll set the promotion he

want;

The second,

more

qnxious

in

noture, is extremely wotried and imaglnes that he's going to

getlted.

Likethe characters in this storythat reframe

the note

liom

their boss according to their own

beliefs, hopes and fears, our spectatorc relrame the words that $'e use according to the drawing that they've done.

Ultimately,

we

constantly

reframe

the

messages

that

are given

to

us, we

filter

them

through

own

personal

frame

of

reference

and that's undoubtedly why

it's

so

difiicult

to

communicate.

AL

the

same

lime.

relraming

gires

us

immense power, as changing our perception of

reality is a way of changing reality slightly.

I'm

going

_to

finish these psycho-philoso-phical considerations now, at the dskofchanging the purpose of this work, which is

in

danger

of

becoming

a

book about self-improvement ra-ther than mentalism. And

I'll

end by Ieaving the

reaaler to reflect on the following thought:

The ptLrpose of magic

I I i I I i I I I

And

what

if

it

doesn't

work?

It emerged from discussions that I had with

Ludo while preparing

_the

new edition

of

this

book that we both thought that it would be

inte-resting to address this question.

From the outset, though,

I

would like to

stress that the risks are very alifferent depending

on whether you're

a

mentalist

or

a

magician. The issue of an experiment failing is much less

problemaLic in mentalism

tlan

it is in magic.

Mentalists can even make their predictions

or divinations vague in order to ensure that they

are more credible (even though it is possible to be

completely accurate)

-

in

mentalism, mistakes

cease to be obstacles and instead become risks

that support and strengtlen t}le rest of a

perfor-mance.

The

greatest

performers

have

always

worked

in

this way, from Joseph Dunninger to

Uri Gel]er.

69-The complete

or

patial

failure

of

Real

TelepGtfty is something that I've neverbeen

over-ly concerned by. Of course, $'hen

I

get ready to per{orm the effect, I'm aware that it has its risks and

that

how deeply

it

affects spectatorc wil]

vary somewhat. Once again,

this

is something that

I

accept completely r,hen

I

suggest that it's an experiment rather than a trick. "What's the

difference?" some people rvill respond. I believe

that the fundamental difference lies

in

the ef-fect's completely disarming purity. I'm inclined

to

believe

that

rvhen we use impression pads

or other gimmicled acces5ories (however

inge-nious these devices may be), there's something 'impure' about them that subconsciously arouses

spectators' suspicions.

The

question

will

be:

"How and when did he get hold of the informa-tion?"

This brings me to a broader (and also more

radical) thought about magic and mentalism.

It

seems

to

me

that

in

a

Iot of

cases,

specta-tors (who are often much less 'stupid' than we

imagine) know rvhat's going on during a trick or

an expedment. They knorv that we're control-ling their card, they knowthat the choice that we

give them isn't as

fair

as

it

appears, they know that a padicular item must have beell switched,

they know

tiat

the magician's assistant t$,ists and bends her body around inside thc box and

so o11. What they

do['t

tnolv is how or when that

happens.

I

realise that I'm labourirg this point

and am

in

danger

of

becoming tiresome, but unfortunately magic can very often be summed

up by this question: how and when?

ReaI TelepathA turns this question inside

out:

'how'

_and'when'

no longer exist because

nothing happens.,,

In

an

ideal scenario, the experiment appears

to

be

a

pure moment of

communion.

As stated earlier, even

in

the worst case,

at least one of your three statements

will

pique

your spectatom' interest to a significant degree.

There are also very few tangible features that spectatoN can latch on to

in

order to come up with a rational explanation.

As you

will

have realised,

I'm

not a fan of

being absolutely correct in mentalism, although I appreciate that not everyone agrees with this.

So,

ifyou

don't want to do effects in which

you're

not

in

control

of

every element,

or

if

you'd

like

to

pefibrm Real Telepctfty without taking any risks at all, all you have to do is what

I

advised against earlier on in this section: use an

impression pad.

A

numbel

of

pads

_are

commelcially available to magicians and you can even make

one youEelf usingjust a notepad and some car-bon paper,

Ask the spectator

to

drai{

the picture

in

your notepad, tear the sheet offand hide it in her

pocket.

Once you've given

your

reading,

if

any features don't hit, just take the pad back, obtain

the information and reveal it.

As

I

mentioned, though,

I'm

not a fan

of

using impression pads

in

mentalism. As Ted

Karmilovich said, "Less is

more"

in mentalism,

in

other words, small mistakes and imperfec-tions are more perplexing than a divination or

prediIlion lhaL s completely accuraLe...

By

way of

conclusion

As

I've

already highlighted several times throughout this modest work, it was bywatching

performances by people who claim to be psychic

that

I

was able to formulate a theoretical basis

for the ideas developed

ir

ReoI l'elepathA.

I

would now like to talk about a

demons-tmtion that was conducted on live television by a psychic during a discussion about the topic. As is

oftenthe case, passions had started running high

on both sides, for and against. At this point, the psychic silenced many sceptics

by

per{orming

the effect that I shall now describe. It makes use

of the same ideas that have been developed

in

this book, which is n'hy I mention

it.

The

presenter

_of

_the

programme was

holding an envelope, which was impossible to

see through and in u,hich a photograph had been placed. AII that ourfriend the psychic knew about the photograph was that

it

depicted a building that had been constructed relatively recently and

that was located somewhere in France.

The purpose of the experiment, of course, was to divine what was in the envelope. Here is the descdption offered by the psychic:

"I

sense

that both

modern and classical

styles were explored when

this

building

was

constructed. There's water flowing near it.

I

can

also see red and blue colours at the top of this building.

I

can see an upside-dowa 'U' shape.

I

can also sense a lot ofclearness and light around

and inside it,

I

can sense a lot of movement and activity in this area, too."

It

emerged that the building shown in the photograph was the headquarters of TF1 on the banks of the Seine.

All

the guests on the show

that evening were blown away!

And yet...

I

had a bit of fun reframing the description using a whole host of modern

buil-dings

_-

it hits every time!

Let's think about this:

It's very unusual for any location in France

not to be near water or flowing water. Red and

blue colours ate often on

top

of a wide range

of buildings (think about the French flag). The

upside-donl 'U' shape will fit any arch or curve.

As

for

the 'clearness', _{many modern buildings}

are constructed using huge quantities

of

glass

and other materials that let light through. The

list goes on.,.

Once again, then, we have a formula that,

while appearing to be very precise and to fit the details, can be applied.

to

a wealth of different things.

When pedorming the basic effect described

in

Real Telepathy, you'll notice that once your spectators have reframed your comments to fit a

particular object, it's extremely ilifncult for them

to backtrack and realise that what you said could

apply to other things.

Was our friend the psychic aware of this?

Or

was

he

actually

so

convinced

of his

own

power that he was able to create a cold reading that could fit any modern buililing without

reali-sing it? No-one knows!

Voild

_-

we've reached the end of this great

joumey to the centre of a miracle mental effect.

As with a lot of miracles, the explanation for

it

is very simple, but it's the details that you add

around

it

that

make

it

a real miracle.

I

since-rely

believe

that

the

principles outlined here

can be u"ed to creale killer etfecls. opening new

avenues

for

mentalists seeking

purity

in

their

per{ormances.