| Psychological | Subtleties 2 (> VF BanachekPSYCHOLOGICAL SUBTLETIES 2 by Banachek Edited by Doug Dyment and Scott Wells Design and Layout by Mark Garetz Cover Illustration by Louis Daniel Also by Banachek: Psychokinetic Touches Paychokinetic Time Pre-Thoughts Key Erect Pychophysiological Thought Reading Paychokinetic Silverware (the video) Steve Shaw’s Radio Magic (the three CD set) Psi Series (the four DVD set)First Edition 2006 First Printing 2006 ISBN Number: 0970643829 Library of Congress Control Number: 2006927393, Copyright 2006 by Magic Inspirations Houston, Texas wwwmagicinspirations.net Magi Inspirations All rights reserved; no parts of this publication may be reproduced, scanned and/or stored in retrieval systems, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, recordingor otherwise without prior written permission from the publishers. Printed and bound by ‘Thomson-Shore, Ine. Dexter, Michigan USA, Psychological Subtleties 2 DEDICATION Usuallya dedication isto someone —a wife, sibling, or friend—who has had a direct influence in someone's life. This one is a litle different. 1 want to thank someone whom Ihave never met, someone who had no direct influence on me. But in my mind, these thanks are even more befitting, ‘This person influenced my best friend, making him who and what he is today. Without his guiding hand, Tam quite sure that my friend would not have the values and scruples he manifests daily. He would not be the kind family man he is, nor would he be the pillar of the magic and sociat community that I know. He certainly would not thirst for the knowledge he has gained, nor be as patient and understanding a human being. Certainly, without these qualities bestowed ‘upon him, my business partner Scott Wells would not be my friend, let alone my best friend. For that, I thank Scott’s father. May he rest in peace. It is as a direct result of his influence on his son that Scott has influenced who and what I am today, and I am better for it. ‘To Wilbur Wells, (Cetober 18, 1919 — June 22, 2006)Banachek, Psychological Subtleties 2 SPECIAL THANKS ‘Thanks to all who have influenced me in a positive way through the years, with their ideas, creativity, and conversation. A special thanks to all those who contributed in any way, major or minor, to this series of books. Most of you know who you are; some of you do not. in fact, | am quite sure even I don't know the names of all those who have influenced me to become the thinker and performer that 1 am. Still, they all deserve my highest praise and gratitude.Banachek Psychological Subtleties 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS Dedication. Special Thanks .. Foreword Introduction Subtle Psychology. Context, Context, Context. Piggy Back-Up. Keep it Moo-ving, Red Hammer Force. Harvesting! Limiting by Inclusion The More the Mertiet ss. A Single Word Makes the Difference... The Orchestrated Foree..m ‘The Orchestrated Force It Mechanical Breakdown .. You Say Carrot, [Say Tomato Terasabos. Mind Opener. ‘The Book of Lies, : A Little Bit about Color nn. Hoy/Karmilovich Test Redux. Color Me A Rainbow... Drving Ms. Daisy, or Was She Called Rose? AMerchant’s Switeh sno aeBanachek Subtle Presentation Points... Shout, Shout, Let It All Out, These Are The Things I Can Think About! on TRead Thoughts, Not Minds! Is Ita Cheap Trick?.. Can anyone do it? . : Are Skeptical People Harder to Read?. Touchy, Touchy, Feely, Feely ‘AMan of Many Names. First Lie Subtle Suggestions Scientists Use MRT to t Subliminal Suggestion ... False Memories. se eee Six Degrees of Separation and the Nailwriter Broadcast Phenom. ae Subtle Pre-Show.. We Have No Secrets! Visualization Equals Process Subtle BlindfOld sense When is a Dot nat a Dot? When it’s Not, Behind Enemy Lines... Eyes Wide Shut Subtle Non-Verbal. Body Language Giving Them the Finger. Down the Line. What's All this Flap About a Phone Book?. Subtle Teaching... : For One to End. Circle Triangle Psychological Subtleties 2 Instant Messaging Pseudo Directing... Stroop Test Number Stroop Test Directional Stroop Test. Disorder in the Court Invisible Word Principle Invisible Letter Principle... Bits & Pieces ‘The Phaomaneil Pweor of the Hmuan Maid ItsOn the Tip of My Backward Alphabet conan Subtle Amnesia Menor Forget Me Nat OF (Remembering to Forget)... Twinkle, Twinkle, Little .. What? Subliminal Square...Banachek Psychological Subtleties 2 FOREWORD Its a distinct privilege to be asked to prepare an introduction to this book. No one appreciates more than I the work of Banachek, an appreciation that has grown over the years. I can perhaps claim to have Known of him and his work longer than any other American magician. I take great pride in being able to say, “I knew him way back when.” That is a story in itself, Very carly in our acquaintance, Banachek was “enlisted” by me as an undercover agent to investigate—from the inside—a major laboratory that was churning out nonsense for exploitation by the media, fabulous stories of miracles that they were experiencing at the hands of various “psychies” who were hornswoggling them mercilessly. He was one of two young magicians whohad volunteered toinfiltrate the system and establish that the scientists involved ‘were incompetent to judge the validity of the obvious tricks that their subjects were performing, Banachek and his sidekick agreed to go into the laboratory and equal or surpass the wonders that the “geuuine” poychics were working on che sclentists They did the job so well that they soon replaced the origina’ subjects of the lab’s investigation, and were thoroughly accepted and touted as genuine, We had accomplished what we set out to do: show that even relatively inexperieneed young conjurers could deceive degreed academics who found themselves out of thoir depth.Banachek T have no idea what specific value this experience provided to Banachek, but it seems obvious that he benefits from everything that comes his way, adding it to his knowledge of how people are deceived. This, is a man who could have become a swindler, a con artist of major proportions, a media darling like so many of the current crooks who are out there feeding, off the gullible. He chose the straight path, and we're all better off for that fact. Yes, you'll find the word “subtle” used frequently in this present book. And for good reason. I'S a word that describes Banachek’s work, his approach, his underlying, philosophy, and his success. Having seen some of the great mentalists at work, Ican tell you that many were largely successful in spite of their bullying and often intimidating — approaches; Banachek has somehow managed to treathis audiences with respect, and part of that respect is that he always levels with them. It’s easy to miss the subtleties in this book. As with certain Charlie Chaplin movies I've seen, upon a later viewing I can spot litle nuances that I earlier missed; with Banachek’s work, the same applies. Dor’t pass by apparently casual or seemingly incidental aspects of what he tells you. The wealth of the whole effect may bbe contained in those details. Choose carefully what you decide to use, being sure that an effect is suitable {or your approach or appearance. You shouldn't be a bearded acrobat in a tutu, Psychological Subtleties 2 Above all, know that the author is a man of great integrity who gives value to his consumers. Don't miss a crumb of this feast James Randi April 2006,Banachek Psychological Subtleties 2 INTRODUCTION When I wrote Psychological Subtleties, 1 never intended it to be a series of books. Yet here we are with beok number two. Book one was a lifetime of ‘experience; book two (or PS2) is a continuation of that ‘experience. My intent with the first book was to give fellow ‘mentalist a toolbox so they can select the right tool(s) at the rght time to place in their own effects. It was never meant to bea book of only psychological forces, although it is often referred to as the stopping, place for those who are looking for such material, It was never meant to be a book of effects, although certainly there are effects in the book. It was never meant tobe a book full of original material, although there is plenty of original material there. It was meant to stimulate thinking and be a book that would help improve the quality of output of my fellow workers, amateurs and professionals alike, It was a book meant for the beginner and the pro, Some consider Psychological Subtteties as the best book ‘on mentalism ever written. Flattering, but a bit of 2 steep claim if you ask me. What worried me, though, were those who just did not “get it” and there were quite a few. [started to doubt my ability as a writer and even more as a teacher. Then slowly the letters started to come. The following is typical of the type of letters I received and still receive:Banachek Dear Banachek, Towe you an apology and a huge thank you, Tread your book Psychological Subtleties d few months ‘ago and I really did not think it a big deat despite the accolades of some well-known people. Some of the routines were in my mind at the time not totally original and the book was not that long of a read. 1 {felt Thad been had. Tiao weeks ago I gave a mentalism show. The show twas okay but not the type of response I wanted Something was missing. After watching the show ‘on video I saxo your book sitting on te cafe table I picked it up and started to re-read it, Suddenly 1 sta things that Thad missed... litle gems on every page. I sharted to take notes and then I watched the video of my show again I took more notes and ‘again watched the video and continued inthis vein all day. When 1 was done I had made six pages of notes and ideas directly asa result of your book. 1 aaa excited [felt I now knew hot to speak and act 2s a mentalist, something I did not realize | was lacking. [knew why my show was not working. Last night I had a very important corporate shove sand I reacived my first standing ovation in over 1 _years of performing. attribute this totally to what ‘you shared in your book The ttl is indeed correct; the first time I read your book Iwas looking atthe effects and not at the tools _you were giving me. Theyare indeed subite, bus they ‘ave what makes the difference between an amateur mentalist and a professional one. 1 will noo tell Psychological Subtletios 2 people that your book is the sltimate textbook for those who wut to be a mentalist or ever a magical performer. Only they must not be like me and look Jor the easy trick, as they will be hard pressed to ‘ind that in your book. But if they want a book of subileties that will take their performances to the next level and give them confidence that they have the experience and knowledge to pull off miracles in any situation handed to them, then Psychological Sublleties is the book to get. Once again, thank you so much; I owe you a Your number one fan, Jim Vanderzyden Due to the fact that some did not understand the intent of the book not being a series of tricks, but more about having a mentalist attitude, I have tried to add more effects in this second book (and some pretty good ‘ones if | do say so myself); however, I must warn ‘you, this book is not intended to be a book of tricks for you to perform verbatim either. Each effect is full of subtleties and advice that you should catalogue and put into your cerebral filing, cabinet. As with the first buuk, itis intended to help you create your own ‘material, infact, there are one or two effects that were given to me to include that are, in my opinion, way too long and slightly convoluted to be performed as a single effect; however, the subtleties they hold are priceless, so they are included. It is up to you to pick and choose which of these you want to use.Banachek Read between the lines; look at what paints the pictures of the effects and not the effects themselves, and I guarantee you will find invaluable information and save yourself time and energy that can be put to ‘good use elsewhere, ‘One last thing before we continue on this journey. Although the psychological mentalist was not original with me (others like Al Koran and Ned Rutledge have used this previously) [ take great pride inthe fact that Lam credited for bringing this type of presentation to the forefront, and even influencing some of the top performers today—to the point where this style of presentation now overshadows the “psychic” presentation of mentalism. Mentalism is no longer a con game. Asa result, Ihave peppered the pages of this book with lots of this type of thinking, To me itis really exciting to see mentalists moving forward and, as a result, respecting our art and creating methods and effects, never thought possible before. Unlike out related art of hypnotism, mentalism is not stagnant. We are not using the same tired old routines and methods. We are looking fresh, and Llike that look; it wears well In thoughts, Banachek 4/20/2006 Psychological Subtleties 2 SUBTLE PSYCHOLOGY The average human brain al birth weighs 14 ounces; its average maximum weight, reached at age 15, is 46 ounces.Banachek Context, Context, Context When using psychological forces of any sort we must think of the context: the visual influerice, the auditory influence, and all other the influences that come into play. It is easy to mess things up if we don't look at the overall picture. For instanee, there is a difference between writing the numbers one through five in a row (see First Lie) and asking a spectator to circle one ‘number, and asking her to think of a number between ‘one and five in her head. In the latter case, most spectators will choose the number “three,” but in the former there is a high chance they will select two or four. On the other hand, if they write the numbers ‘one through four in a row, they will probably choose “"Uhece” again. This is due to the psychological visual influence that comes into play when you see items ina ow, as opposed to a pure mental psychological force of something not visualized. 1 touched upon this briefly in Psychological Subtletes (P51), with no real explanation, when I talked about subtle voice forcing. [mentioned that itis better to use numbers that have no natural mental psychological force going on when trying to force a number by voice alone. In other words. you should not ask people to think of a number from one to ten and then say the numbers out loud if you are trying to force the number nine using a “voice force,” as the most ‘common number selected in this case is the number seven. Better to state, "Think of a number out of Six, Seven, Eight, Nine, Ten, and Eleven.” Putting the high w Psychological Subtleties 2 note (or whatever tonal change you feel comfortable using) on the nine (see PSI.) A periect example of putting something in context (mentioned in PS1) is Richard Bloch’s psychological force. Itisa fact that if you say to a person, “when Iwas just a child, my mother said to me ane day, ‘Don't worry ‘about the dog: the dog doesn’t get __. Onty people get _.”", and ask her to suggest the missing word, usuaily they say “measles.” What | left out was the context of the sentence. In Richard's routine, a baby rattle was handed out to select spectators and each was asked a question about his or her childhood (see Epic Wallet by Richard Bloch and Davey Marlin Jones in These Are 4 Few of My Favorite Things, page 1). Leaving this piece of information out of PST was a serious mistake on my part. Not all. psychological forces rely upon context, but using context for such forces inereases your suecess rate. ‘As written in this book’s introduction, | am truly amazed by the number of people who simply try to use a psychological force as a full-blown effect in a stage show with no backup, whether it is the hidden agenda or the outright performance of the force. ® Piggy Back-Up T usually use psychological forces with some sort of “out” for myself. For instance, in a restaurant setting I might be set up to “pocket write” on a Post-It Note nBanachek in case of failure. [ hand someone a pen and business card and ask her to draw “tuo different geometric shapes, ‘one inside the other... like a square with something else, only don’t use a square as everyone does... two different, simple shapes. Go ah... don’t let anyone see what you draw. When you're done, fold up the paper and hold it between your two hands.” Now I tell another spectator that he is going to try to read the fist person's mind, and have him cup his, hands over her outstretched, closed hands, He then stares into the first person's eyes and names the first two different shapes that enter his consciousness; I am able to tell from the first persor’s reaction if the second person got it right. If so, Ijust have him open the paper and show it End of effect. f, from the reaction, I realize that he got it wrong, Lask what the shapes are, and have him show the drawing. Then [remove the folded Post-it? Note (pocket-written with the correct drawing) from the same wallet from which I removed the business card earlier. Istillhavea miracle, showing that [ knew ahead of time what they would choose. A win-win situation, buta strongerone if they get it right themselves. Notice the way to get rid of the choice of the sqpiare (Tike a square with something else, only don't use a square as everyone does."). Also, [don’t give them time to think Trush them. It is sometimes possible to see what the shapes are by the movement of the pencil (pencil reading). If so, I skip the pocket-writing, place my hands over the first spectator’s hands, and verbally reveal her shapes, 2 Psychological Subtleties 2 Always think of the items you want to force yourself 8 you ask spectators to think of them. Believe it or not, this will improve your odds, Often it’s a simple ‘matter of conviction that makes all the difference. Another example; have a large marker board on stage, with the white side of the board facing the audience. ‘Try to force the number 37 on someone via the method! found in PSI. If it succeeds, turn the board around to show acompleted magic square (see Subliminal Magic Square, page 194) Ask her if she sees her number. She will reply, “No,” Proceed to show the audience all the ways the numbers add up to 37. If any other number is chosen, don't tum the board around. Simply complete a magic square in front of them that adds up to the named number. Just making a magic square for any named number is very, very impressive to an audience, Routines like this give you lots of confidence to try psychological forces. 1 suspect that, due to some failure with these, some performers telegraph what Rot to choose. Again, conviction is everything, 2 Keep it Moo-ving I would not try too many psychological forces in a row, unless first writing down all the answers in advance and having them try to read your mind. Ask the questions quickly, like: Name a number from one to four ... name a color ... name a vegetable ... name a tool in the toolbox 3Banachek Then reveal the answers. Otherwise the forces, if performed one at a time, start to look like limited selections, and the person you are trying the psychological force on will attempt to come up with something unusual. z Red Hammer Force In PS1 I covered a multitude of psychological forces; Dan Kirsch reminded me of one that slipped through the cracks. If you ask someone to think of a tool, they will usually think of a hammer. He also states that they may think of a saw or a screwdriver. This is a perfect item to use for the HoyKarmilovich Test or Color the Nail effects (from PSI). By the way, the usual version ofthe Red Hammer Force is, “Think of a tool... think ofthe color of tat tol,” the expected answers being “hammer” and “red,” In this case, I think the context of the tool being a hammer helps people go straight to the color red rather than blue. B Harvesting! Here is a ploy used by many seasoned pros. Itis what 1 call harvesting hits. Instead of limiting the amount of hits, make it appear that there are more hits than originally thought. For instance, in the Red Hammer “ Psychological Subtieties 2 force, ifdoing it for an entire audience, ask, “How many fought of a red hammer? Raise your hands and keep them up.” Now a large portion of the audience will have their hands raised; to make it even more impressive, continue with, “How many at least got the hammier? Raise your hends as well... and how many at least got the calor red? Reise your hands, too.” Now you should have a very large portion of the audience with their hands raised and it looks very impressive. The same can be done with a multitude of forces. Let's, say you tried a bit with the entire audience and used three psychological forces. Maybe a color force, the vegetable force, and the number 37 force (see PSI). One could ask, “How many got the color blue, a carrot, sand the number 37?” And then continue with; “Keep your hands up, how many at least got two of the three? And how many got one? “Impressive that so many got all three or at least a couple of the items I was thinking of ... a very intuitive audience!” Or ane ronld go another route, and after asking those who gotall three right to keep their hands raised, ask, “How many got the color blue? Raise your hands as well, “And those who got a carrot, raise your hands ‘as well 5Banachek “And those who got the number 37, raise your hands as well.” Itisalso possible toaskall three questionsindividually, rather than ask who got all three right. Just make sure they keep their hands up. The fact that most people got one or all three is impressive and in most people you can create the false memory that the entire audience got all three correct by stating, “Great. Look at how many got all three or a combination of the three right, avery intuitive audience!” ‘Any of these methods will work for “harvesting hits” to point out the accuracy of the force. & Limiting by Inclusion Youcanoften eliminate unwanted choicesby including, them in your speech. For instance, when doing the 37 force, if you state that “15 would work but 11 would not,” you have eliminated the numbers 11 and 15, and reduced the chance they will choose 35. Another example: when I do the circle and triangle force, 1 always mention that “Most people choose a square, se don't choose that,” thus eliminating the square. ‘My good friend Luke Jermay goes a5 far as stating, "Keep in mind that a trapezoid and a pentagram are complicated shapes for me,” when asking them to think of two different simple shapes, thus ensuring that people will stay with the simplest of shapes. Paychological Subtleties 2 If someone still names a number or shape that I have spoken, [ often point out that | mentioned that, and perhaps they were influenced by my saying it. & ‘The More the Merrier To me, one of the best ways to utilize psychological forces is by using the entire audience rather than one on one. Your results will be much stronger and more impressive than a failure with an individual. See the Subtle Teaching section in this book for a perfect demonstration of how to utilize this with a combination of other methods outlined here. 2 Often a single word can make all the difference in an effect. My friend Christian David is well aware of this Since writing PST, many people have asked for other psychological-type forces. Christian David is one such person, who not only asked the question but also researched it and came up with some original ideas. I believe vou will like hie thinking A Single Word Makes the Difference by Christian David ‘The psychological response of different’ audiences, F. picking acommon item over "7Banachek and over again given the same situation, occurred to meearly in my magiccareer. [would perform theColor ‘Monte by Emerson and West. This isthe version with cards showing a blue diamond, a red diamond, and the phrase, “You owe $14.” printed in green. At the end of the routine, you ask the spectator which color he thinks the final card is, People should and usually do pick either red or blue. However, a small number of people figure they are not going to win either way, and respond with the seemingly offbeat answer of green. This somewhat ruins the ending since the last card is printed in green. In an effort to thwart the problem, [ changed my wording ofthe question to, “Do you know which of the colors this card is?” (my frst attempt at psychological subilety). This helped, and fewer people answered green; however, for the people who chose a third color, it would generally be green. This anomaly started my exploration into what Banachek calls “psychological subtleties.” The Orchestrated Force by Christian David Here isa fun subtlety that explores people’s answers concerning a musical instrument i an orchestra. It ‘you ask people to quickly name an instrument in an ‘orchestra, their most likely answer is “a violin.” This is followed by “trumpet,” “trombone.” and “tuba.” ‘The final most common answer is “flute.” ‘With a dry erase board in hand, ask the audience for a show of hands of those who play a musical instrument, 8 This understated question is for you to identify those that play an instrument so that you can steer away from them. (People who play an instrument will tend to got more creative in their answers because they have more exposure to musical instruments, You want a person who is not overly familiar with the array of instruments in an orchestra.) Point toa sign on your table that says “Imagination” and tell the audience that, “We are about to practice imagination using all of our senses.” Have them imagine that they are going to a musical on Broadway. Using the dry erase board, do the following: Write the word “hear” and show it to them, “Hear the instruments warming up in the orchestra pit." Erase the word, write “feel,” and show it to them, “Feel the plush velvet chairs as you relax and wait for the show. to begin.” Erase the word, write “smell,” and show itto them. “You can smell the coffees and wines that patrons have purchased before the show.” Erase the word and write “trumpet,” but do not show them. this word. “See the instruments warming up in the orchestra,” Walk over and point to someone who did not raise her hand as an instrumentalist and ask, “Quickly, what instrument do you see?” If she says “violin,” turn the “Imagination” sign around and show “violin” written on the back. If she says “trumpet,” turn the dry erase board around, If she says “trombone,” it is written on a piece of paper under her seat. 9Banachek As an alternative opening, I sometimes begin my explanation of imagination with a balloon in my hands. Inside the balloon, written on a piece of papet, is another instrament. Youcan also use piece of paper wadded up into a ball as an object you toss out into the audience as a random way of picking someone. On the paper you have written yet another instrument asa further out. You can give yourself additional outs depending on how creative you want to be on stage. Thatwasthelong version, created tobea fulleffectunto itself. The following is the quick version, sometimes used to bridge two effects together in the show, ‘The Orchestrated Force 1 by Christian David Walking out with a dry erase board, ask, “Who plays. ‘@ musical instrument?” and mentally note someone who does not, Ask the entire audience to imagine that they are ata Broadway musical, and hear the orchestra warming up. Ask them to think about i for a moment. Write “violin” on your dry erase board; do not show it, “I want everyone to think of an instrument you see in the orchestra.” Walk up to someone and ask, “Quickly, what instrument do you see?” If she says “violin,” turn the board around. If she says something else, pause. Shake your head and state, “Strange.” Look up and ask the audience by a show of hands how many were thinking of violin. Mostof the audience willraisetheirhands. Ask the lone spectator to repeat what she was thinking. Whatever her answer, respond with, “A very interesting answer. 20 Psychological Subtleties 2 1 like someone who marches to her own drummer. ‘You will be perfect for this next experiment.” ‘The following isa truestory to emphasize how you can use this principle in a quick and very impressive way. Alter a show, a few audience members approached my wife and me, and asked the usual after-show questions. They were very nice, but very curious. They asked my wife if she could read their minds straight up. We explained that it did not work that way but they were insistent on trying. Usually my wife and {will shy away from such challenges, but this was a fun group and we decided to take the challenge. Here is what happened: Step one: I picked one woman to be the sender. I told her this will be conducted under test conditions. So I wanted her to walk away from us with my dry erase board. “Face us so no one can see what you write.” I then gave her the following instructions: “You will think of an object in a moment, and I want you to write down the word on the board to focus your mind. But, I want you to ensure that no one can see what you have written.” Everyone agreed this was very fair. I have learned that when you have people write down their answer/thought, they are less apt to get creative. Step twor Using a subtlety in PSI, I told her, “You are sitting in the back seat of a car. You are relaxed and you just looked out your side window. You see an ‘object. Quickly, write down the object you see.” Since knew the most common answers to this question, I watched to see the movement of her arm and hand to determine what she was writing. I could tell she wrote aBanachek the word “tree.” Ithen coded this to my wife who was talking to someone else at the moment and she looked. ‘up and responded “tree.” The audience flipped out. Step three: I had her rejoin her group. | did a little bit of the orchestra setup and then asked everyone to think of an instrument they “see in the orchestra,” No one wrote anything down or said anything. My wife walked over, looked at them and said, “Violin.” They flipped out again. Three of the four of them were thinking of the word “violin.” We stopped there because you can’t get any stronger than that Knowing when to stop is many times the most important thing in a strong mentalism moment, Mechanical Breakdown by Christian David This routine is a quick one that has a special kind of use for a mentalist, It will give your audiences a tangible explanation for how you accomplish some of your impossible feats. Itis important that you select a female for this routine, and use the following dialog: “Do you like shopping? Yes? Great... I want you to imagine that you saved a Jot of money for a fantastic shoppit going to (Use an appropriately named shop for the age of the person you are using; always use expensive shops.) You are positive you will find some great deals, You feel electrified as you grab your purse and head out the door. You jump into your car and tip. You will be 2 Psychological Subtleties 2 head to the mall. On the way there, your car breaks down. Suddenly, negative feelings cloud your mind, You jump out of your car and raise the hood. You look. under the hood and besides the engine what do you see?” The number one answer is “battery” What is enjoyable about this routine is that ifother people are watching, you can use this as an example of how you can influence someone by going back over the dialog and pointing out the words “negative,” “positive,” and “electrifying.” Sometimes people listening to your dialog will key in on it. Butif you do it with only a couple of people they almost never hear it. Even if people did pick it up, congratulate them for their acuity, This is a lot of fun, and gives you a certain credibility concerning how you are accomplishing some of your feats through influence. You Say Carrot, I Say Tomato by Christian David | was really disappointed that, thanks to the Internet, the vegetable/carrot routine became common, knowlecge. However, I played around with the idea and now [use this: “How many of you have seen the mental exercise where you add some numbers and then think of a vegetable? (hands go up) “And everyone knows the answer is... (the audience replies carrot). "Great, Ido not want you to think of a carrot, but I want you to think of a vegetable that you or your mother might grow in their garden. Think of it now!”Banachek The number one answer is “tomato.” Author's note: I recognize that a tomato is a fruit, but most people don’t think of it in that category when asked quickly to respond to such a question. z Tome the following effectby Rick Maueisthestrongest impromptu effect in this entire series of books. I read this in Rick’s book, The Book of Haunted Magic, and thought it brilliant atthe time. Then, ata little known one-time mentalism convention with the title 72 hrs, T saw Rick demonstrate and explain this effect. The presentation was devastating to those in attendance, and Rick certainly set the bar very high for any fellow lecturers, including me. If you do not have any of Rick’s materials, I suggest you do a search and find them as quickly as you can; you won't be disappointed. I thought so much of this cffect that I begged Rick to allow me to include it in this series. It is the perfect blend of verbal and non- verbal psychological techniques. This is a true lesson in how to utilize these tools. Rick hae refused many who have made this request of him but, fortunately for us, he has allowed me to include it here. By the way, Rick has a few other variations in print elsewhere that are well worth looking up. Read the following description very carefully, and then read itagain. Note the words Rick uses, Pay attention to his litle psychological helpers. m4 Psychological Subtleties 2 Learn. This is a piece that Rick performs all the time. He knows the ins and outs of this type of thinking, The following effect is reprinted with permission from. ‘The Book of Haunted Magick, written by Rick Maue and published by Deceptions Unlimited, December 2000 ~All Rights Reserved. Terasabos by Rick Maue The performerselectsanaudience re) », member to assist him with an F< experiment. He then addresses the crowd: “At this time, the too of us will attempt to create a bridge of unspoken communication. We will use a technique that was frst experimented with back in the early 1300s, Iti called ‘Terasabos, which actually means ‘bridging the lands’ The earliest known practitioners of this technique have been traced back to several parts of Western Europe, but newly found records show evidence of this process as recent as 1911 in the Northeastern United states “For centuries many cultures have feared Terasabos because they fell i¢ was a direct link to the devil, and 80 it was forced underground for many years. And yet, others throughout history have maintained that it was simply a misunderstood and untested scientific process, Some have believed that if it could be hamessed, strong telepathic links between certain individuals could be developed. Tonight, the two of us shall test the power of Terasabos.”Banachek The performer directs the volunteer to table; upon it are five inverted cups. “Here on the table you see a series‘of inverted cups, ranging from one through five. In addition, we will need a personal object from you. It should be something that you carry with you every single day Perhaps a wallet or a watch?” The volunteer removes her watch and hands it to the performer. Upon taking ithe continues, “I will sk that You concentrate upon these cups and listen closely to ‘my instructions. In ust a moment, I will step away so that I cannot see your actions, but I will still be able fo communicate with you verbally. Atthat time, Iwill have you mentally select a single cup. You will then lift it like this (the performer demonstrates) and place your watch beneath it (once again, the performer demonstrates). Once you have replaced the cup upon the table, I will ask you to step away so that | have no indication as to which cup contains your possession Are you ready to begin?” The performer returns the watch to her so that they may begin. ‘The performer tums his back, steps away from the table and says: “We will now begin. First I ask that you clear your thoughts. Now. concentrate upon the cups and mentally select one of them. Have you decided upon one? Wonderful. Simply reach out and lift that cup, place your object beneath it and replace the cup. When you have completed this simple task, please step back from the table so that I may face you once again.” 26 Psychological Subtleties 2 Upon turning around, the performer continues, “ will now attempt to focus on your thoughts and your selection, That means that I must eliminate the four empty cups, thus revealing the one that contains your watch.” Repositioning himself behind the table, the performer looks down and slowly passes his hand over the inverted cups. Gradually his hand comes to rest above the cup in the fourth position, which he lifts to show that itis indeed empty. He then states: “We have. climinated the first of the empty cups.” After several moments of silent concentration, hi hand stops above the cup in position one and he says, “I get the strong feeling that this cup is also empty. Your watch is not located here. Yes, this cup is also empty.” He then lifts the cup in position one to show that it too is empty. ‘The performer continues to concentrate. Passing his hand above the remaining cups, he comes to rest above the one in position five and states, “Once again, I get the strong feeling that this eup is empty. Your watch is not located here. Yes, this cup is also empty.” Once again, aiter completing his statement, he lifts the next ‘sup, tsi time the one in position five, to show that it is indeed empty. With just two cups remaining, he closes his eyes and continues to concentrate, After a long silent pause, the performer begins to smile, He slowly lifts his head, opens his eyes, and nods as he turns to the volunteer, and then to the audience. With a broad aBanachek smile, he confidently announces, “We have arrived at the moment of truth. It is now time for me to reveal the exact location of your watch.” He reaches for the cup in position three and, as he begins to liftit, states, “Here is the fourth, and final, empty cup.” The only remaining cup is then lifted to successfully reveal the object How: Aswithmany ofmy items, thiseffect maybe presented as either a bizarre performance or asa standard piece ‘of mentalism. That will be determined by the scripting, that you may wish to create for each effect. One thing that you should know about this routine is that itis defintely a performance piece. It should be rehearsed. like a play, but with three separate endings. (Actually four endings, but we will get back to that in a minute) would suggest paying close attention to the scripting throughout this section, because itis very important to the routine, To be honest, Terasabos could have been explained in fewer pages than you see before you. But there are several reasons why I have decided to go into such detail, First, | felt it was important not simply to go the route of: “Tt works, there is no need to go inta why, It just does.” In my opinion, that just isn’t wise here. It is important to know why you are doing what you are doing with this; otherwise, you are destined to fail with this effect. ‘Terasabos is not a technique that can be traced back to the early 1300s, It also does not mean “bridging, 28 Psychological Subtieties 2 the lands.” The truth is that the name Terasabos actually stands for “This Effect Requires Acting Skills And Balls Of Steel”, This effect may not work every time that you attempt it, but due to the psychology involved, the success rate can be well above 90% when presented properly. (The fourth ending mentioned earlier occurs when the effect fails. But I will tell you, since perfecting the method to the form that you see here, my success rate has been 100%.) It should also be noted that Terasabos has been intentonally designed with absolutely no outs (although other variations that I have released are indeed foolproof). I believe that if this piece contained outs, it could very easily become just another “trick” that many magicians would use to “fool” people, and there are already plenty of those in existence. Although there is a slim possibility that the routine may fail, please keep reading. We will discuss how to turn the occasional “failure” into a positive occurrence that can enhance the remaining parts of your performance (see notes at the end of this routine) ‘The main keys to success with Terasabos are: good acting skills, psychology, strong verbal instructions that subeansriously direct the opcctator, strony twit verbal direction, confidence, and letting the odds work in your favor. Technically speaking, for the effect to be successful, the volunteer must put the target item in either the second, third, or fourth position. If it is placed in positions one or five, the effect will fal Although at face value it may appear that you will 29Banachek have a failure rate of 40% (two positions out of five), that is simply not the case. ‘There ate a number of things at play here, (Before going any further, itis important to say that many of, the techniques included here can probably be traced back to Max Maven. His influence is felt throughout ‘Terasabos.) First, you have the odds in your favor; most individuals will not select the end positions, This is just basic psychology. In this routine, the goal is to increase those odds to the point of almost being foolproof, Thisis accomplished with a series of actions and verbal controls. There are three “main” controls. that you should pay close attention to in order to direct the spectator, ‘The first control is when the performer displays the cupsand says that they are “ranging from one through five.” By mentioning “one” and “five” you are helping, to guide the spectator away from selecting them because they seem too obvious. In addition, when elivering this part of the patter, simply reach out and touch “one” and then “five” when you say their corresponding numbers. This reinforces the desire of the spectator to avoid them, ‘The positioning of the performer and the spectator is important for this part of the routine. The two individuals stand with the table between them, facing, the audience. The performer should be standing (while facing the audience) with the table to his right and the spectator should be standing (while facing the audience) with the table to her left. It appears that this is simply to permit the rest of the audience to see 30 Psychological Subtleties 2 whatishappening, Actually, this places the performer near the fifth cup and the spectator near the first (if the audience is counting from its left to its right) This positioning also helps to eliminate the end positions, especialy position five, because itis the one nearest to the periormer, thus making it, in most cases, the least likely to be selected A small collection of spectators may simply choose the cup nearest to them to avoid moving or reaching too far, That is why the performer “demonstrates” how to place the object beneath one of the cups, and he does that with the one nearest to the spectator. This is another way of forcing the selection away from position one. They simply do not wish to place the “object where it has already been. To them, that would seem too obvious. So position one, in almost all cases, will not be selected. (Thanks to my friend Chris Handa for suggesting the idea of placing the object under one of the cups as an additional psychological elimination.) It is now time to have the spectator place the object. If you refer back to the scripting, note that she is instructed to “mentally select” one of the cups. Only then is she told to place the objectbeneath it. This keeps her from changing her mind and moving the cups all, about. Afterall, this isn’t the Three Shell Game. Ihave found that if spectators have too much time to change their minds, you can lose control over the situation and the odds of their selecting one of the end positions increases. Spectator management is the key: make her mentally select her cup, and then instruct her to place her object beneath it. 31Banachek At this point, the object is under one of the cups. It is now time to go into the next phase of the effect. ‘The first thing that you need to know is how to play the odds, The most commonly picked position will be number four, closely followed by number two, and then number three. ‘As you approach the cups, the first statement that you make is very important. It does not commit you one way or the other. You say, “T will now attempt to focus on your thoughts and zero in on your selection. That means that [ must eliminate the four empty cups, thus revealing the one that contains your item.” You have not stated whether o not the item is going to be under the first cup that you lift or not, so your performing ability will really come into play here. At this point, get a very serious look of concentration fon your face as you look down at the cups, From this point on, you will not look up again, and you will not change the look of concentration on your face. In all honesty, I have found these points to be the most important elements in selling the effect. Never look up until the precise moment that you should (which T will describe in a few moments), and certainly do not change the serious expression on your face. After a moment of concentration, lift the cup that is in position four, and say nothing. After it has been lifted, pause with the raised cup in your hand (while still looking down at the table) and simply adjust your next comment to either, “We have eliminated the first of the empty cups,” or “Here is your object.” Itshould 2 Psychological Subtleties 2 bbe obvious that your reaction will be determined by whetherornot the objectis there, (Once again, thisidea is credited to Max Maven. For an excellent example of this technique, refer to Kurotsuke from Volume 1 of Max Maven’s VideoMind, or the booklet, Verbal Control, written by Phil Goldstein.) 1t is worth noting that, in my case, 1 have found that if the object is under the first cup that I lift, 1 say absolutely nothing. I simply pause and let the ‘moment speak for itself simply relax, and exhale, as if to say to the audience that what they just witnessed was inceed very difficult to do. I believe that stating the obvious (that you successfully located the object) greatly detracts from the moment of amazement. To quote Dr, Winston O’Boogie, “A conspiracy of silence speaks louder than words.” So if the object is under the first cup that you lift, you have been successful in finding it. You can then go ‘on to your next routine. But if it is not under position number four, continue along exactly as scripted to carry the routine through to its conclusion. ‘Next, lift the cup in position one. (IFitis there, you fail, 50 make sure that you use the psychological forces explained earlier to avoid this to the extent possible.) Since you are not using any outs, use position one as a “convincer.” In other words, take a chance and commit to your decision. It is very important that, before you lift the cup, you boldly state that you feel that the object is not under it. My words are, “I get the strong feeling that this cup is also empty. Your object isnot located here. Yes, this cup is also empty.”Banachek The reason for making your statement before you lift the cup is that you are conditioning the audience to believe that you are committing to your decision before you lift each of the cups. That why you deliver your scripted lines before making any physical actions (except for pointing to the cup), and then you remain silent while lifting each of the cups. If the object is not beneath the cup in position one, then repeat this exact same approach with number five. Again, boldly state long before you even touch the cup that you feel that the object is not underneath it, If you have sold the psychological forces properly, these two cups can be among the strongest parts of the effect. Once again, you are actually conditioning, the audience to believe that you are stating whether or not the item is under the cups before you even touch them. This is the key to being successful with Terasabos. We have come to the final phase, and it will be very difficult to pull off if you have not sold the audience up to this point. However, if you have successfully sold them to this point, the final step will be seamless, and very impressive. At this point, the object ether appears under number two or number three. Belore you do anything, stop and continue to concentrate on the final two cups. After a long pause, begin to smile and for the very first time, look up at the spectator, and then at the audience, Smile broadly, nod your head, and show complete confidence. The audience should assume from your actions and your expression that you have Psychological Subtleties 2 just “mentally” located the object. Say, “We have arrived at the moment of truth. It is now time for me to reveal the exact location of your abject.” Now reach forward to lift the cup in position three. As you begin to lift it, say “Here is...” (and with no hesitation, lift the cup just high enough to glimpse to sce it the object is there; if it is not, you continue) “... the final empty cup.” This statement must be deliberate and continuous. It must seem as if you intended to show the final empty cup the entire time. (Gee the Notes section for my alternative to glimpsing, to see if the object is there.) Now, if the object does appear in this position, you must change direction in the middie of your statement. It would go like this. Reach forward to lift number three. As you begin to lift it, say “Here is ..." (and with no hesitation you lift the cup just high enough to glimpse to see if the object is there: itis, you continue) *.. your abject.” Once again, this statement, and the lifting of the cup, must be deliberate and continuous. Tt must seem as if you intended to show the object the entire time. ‘Thisis why itis so important to condition the audience to believe that you ave comunitings Wy your decision prior tolifting numbers one and five. Those two cups will help to sell this phase. In addition, the wording is very important because with numbers one and five, your line was consistently, and emphatically, “This ‘cup is empty,” and in both cases you lifted the cups to show that you were indeed correct. The statement this time around starts with “Here is ..,” which can 35Banachek lead to either the final empty cup, or the object. The wording, coupled with a smooth flowing delivery and proper timing, will make this successful. Anything loss than the combination of all of these elements will be suspicious to the audience. The key is to rehearse often, and exude confidence in both your words and your actions. Another key to the final phase is to “non-verbally” convince the audience—with your body language, your attitude, and your facial expressions—that you have mentally located the object before you lift the cup in position three. That is why you do not look up, or smile, until the proper moment. Strong acting skills will make both statements much easier to deliver, and much more effective. From this point on, you simply wrap up the effect. Notes: There are a number of things that can be said about this type of effect Ihave aleeady covered quite a bit of “theory,” so let me mention some important physical aspects of Terasabos, and also some additional random thoughts, First, when horrowing an object, make sure that it is rather large. That is why I ask for a wallet or a watch. If you borrow something small (like a ring) it may be very difficult to glimpse it under cup number three and your flowing statement may get botched up. Worse yet, you will most likely hesitate as you say: “Here is...” and it will seem like you are looking under the cup before you commit to your decision 36 Psychological Subtleties 2 (That is what you are doing, but it should never seem like that to the audience.) Also, make sure that you do not perform this on a really low table (or on the floor) That aiso will make it too difficult to see under cup ‘number three, which will result in the same situation as when using too small an object. But there is a very strong, alternative to glimpsing the object, and over time [have found it to be a much more effective way to discover whether the object is there or not. I have leamed to do it by feel, and not by sight. Allow me to explain. As long as the object is latge enough (such as a watch), you can lift the cup a fraction of an inch and move it in any direction, thus feeling if the cup is empty or not. (have found that moving forward works best for my typical action while lifting the cups. In addition, a very small forward or backward motion is undetectable to even a close-up audience, whereas moving left or right could possibly be noticed.) So, in essence, as you move the cup ever so slightly, you will make contact with the object if it is there. On the other hand, if you feel nothing, you know the cup is empty. This allows you to deliver your scripted lines while not even looking at the cups, bout instead making eye contact with the audience! Feel free to utilize any type of cup or goblet for this ‘effect. in fact, I have had tremendous success with borrowed items when in the homes of others, at formal dinner parties, ete Another point that I feel is very important is that Terasabos cannot be presented as a trick to fool the audience. Now, please do not take that to mean that I 7Banachek. Wish for any of my creations tobe used todemonstrate “real” psychic powers. On the contrary, as a dedicated skeptic, my audience always knows.that Iam nothing more than performer of deception. But what I mean by “a trick to fool the audience” is that this cannot be presented as: “Go ahead, hide your watch and | will find it!” That simply sets up a challenge situation, Which means that the audience member may now try to outsmart—or even trick—you. If that happens, you have lost control, which is sure death ina performance of a mentalism piece such as this. If that happens, the spectator may not even place the object under one of the cups, but instead, in her pocket. Remember, mentalism is performed with the audience ... not at them. Finally, we arrive atthe question that many performers will ask: “What do I do if this fails?” Well, let me address that question with two very different answers First, if t fails because you didn’t sell it properly to the audience, then go back and read this over numerous times until you understand exactly where you are falling short. The nice thing about this routine is that you can rehearse it when yen are all alone. Simply Place the object under each cup and rehearse exactly What you will say and do when itis uncovered in that position. All good performers understand that there is huge difference between practicing and rehearsing, This routine requires serious rehearsal time. But then again, in my opinion, every routine that we ever perform requires serious rehearsal time. Psychological Subtleties 2 Second, if the effect fails because the object is under position one or position five, then you must do two things. To begin, you must go back to make sure that youaretaking advantage of every possible control that was described earlier to direct the audience member away from those cups. If you have done that, and the spectator still places the object under one of the “dead” locations, then you must turn that “failure” into victory. Allow me to explain with a brief story: A circus performer comes out and walks effortlessly across the top of the tent on a thin wire. Asa member of the audience, you are impressed, and politely applaud. But now, picture that very same circus performer, He star's out to cross the exact same wire, and then. sudden'y, he slips. Catching his balance, he seems unsure of his next step. But, he slowly starts again, You are now breathless, Simply put, you are caught up in the drama. His trip from one side of the tent to the other seems endless. With every step that he takes, you are right there with him. Finally, he is victorious! Your elation overwhelms you as he has conquered all, obstacles and achieved his seemingly impossible goal ‘The audience erupts into thunderous applause. Simply stated, if the effect fails, it sets you up for a greater victory with your next experiment. Terasabus ‘was originally designed to be used as a preliminary effect just prior toa strong, sure-fire piece of telepathy (although for a number of years, I have used it as a stand-alone piece). So basically, if you wish to play it safe, use Terasabes as a “preliminary test” to gauge the 39Banachek level of difficulty for your main experiment (which, I suggest, should be foolproof). ‘That way, in the event of “failure,” you simply state how difficult the main experiment will be under the conditions that you have to work with. This means that Terasabos is like slipping off of the tightrope that is stretched across the top of that circus tent. It can create a higher level of excitement and increase the drama. Once again, if your acting is believable, you can utilize the occasional failure to set up the greatest success of your performance. Over the years, Terasahos has been one of my favo routines io perform. In truth, it has been one of my signature pieces. | wish you well with it. 2 Inspired by the effect “Mental Projection” by Gene Nielsen on page 473 of Bascom Jones wonderful Magick Magazine, the Canadian comedy mentalist Patrick Kulfs developed the following interesting routine Mind Opener by Patrick Kutfs Lam quite proud of this particular routine, with which I have conquered many analytical minds. It is fast and direct, and has what 1 feel are highly desirable features in 40 Psychological Subtleties 2 an opener: no set-up, no props, no stooges. It relies on pure chutzpah! After your introduction, tell the audience that you have an uncanny knack for guessing how people will react in particular stressful situations. You propose to demonstrate by way of a quick test with numbers, In your hand isa small dry erase board in virgin state You openly write the numbers 1,2,3, 4 without saying a word and then re-establish eye contact with the audience. You boldly ask; “Who is already thinking of number ‘one’? Please raise your hand.” Some people will raise their hands. Start counting the raised hands, pointing at the individuals. When you have finally counted the raised hands, you write that total under the numeral “I”; for the sake of explanation, say 6. (Imagine this routine performed ina club with an audience of 100, so it won't be that ‘many people who think of the number “one.” This will make people react and laugh in the crowd.) Continue by saying “Only six, which is quite normal; no one knew that I was going to ask you to think of a number. So, most of you passed on this opportunity and kept your hands down. Thats fine by me!” Go right to the second request: “Now you know what to do, who is thinking of number two? Please raise your hands ... Adah .... Much beter.” And you count these raised hands once more, and write the results under the numeral "2” on the board. Say you write 11 “Number three, now ... please raise your hands..." and you count and write the new number under the numeral “3.” Let's say 32, anBanachek ‘And finally ... on to number four ... and the same procedure, Let us say that I4is the number you count and writebelow thenumeral “4.” Lookat theboard and. comment that without any doubt, the number three appears to be the most popular with this group. Circle the most popular number as you mention to the audience that you had a feeling earlier that evening that 3 would be the number for that particular group, and ‘you are quite happy that your hunch was dead on, Sensing a certain degree of disbelief in the audience, mention that you can prove you knew of the results beforehand ... a written proof. Actually, you have arranged for 300,000 predictions distributed throughout the city in order to make sure everyone ‘can check on your claim. At that point you produce the latest edition of the best- known local newspaper and give it to an audience member. This “Keeper of the Truth” is presented to the audience and asked to follow your instructions. Immediately bring theattention tothe white board still in your hands and mention that a key to the prediction is written behind it. Turn the board around to show, written in bold letters, “Page 78, fourth entry in the Classified Sevtivn 310 Of the Houston Chronucte (il i the appropriate name), followed by the date 11/30/05, Pause, and ask the “Keeper” to find the appropriate spotiin the newspaper, and verify the data The “Keeper of the ‘Truth” turns to page 78, looks up #310, and is asked to read the advertisement aloud It reads: “Tonight, at the Four Seasons Hotel, my 2 Psychological Subtleties 2 prediction for the show is that 32 individuals will pick the number 3. Signed, Kutfs.” How: ‘There are a number of desirable things that take place here. A few interesting points are established early in the routine. First, it tells the audience about you and the type of offbeat entertainment they can expect Second, you get the attention of the whole audience without getting anyone on stage. And finally, you get to plug the establishment. The secret is simple but so. deceptive. This is what makes it so interesting, When you perform this effect, the feeling that you want to generate with the audience is one of experimentation; thus, no instructions are given to the audience at the outset as you write the numbers 1 to in abig, bold manner across the board No one in the audience knows what you are about to do. $2, when you ask who is thinking of #1, itis reasonable to anticipate that few people will raise their hands, From my experience, 8 is a lot out of a 100-ish field. You do really count the number of raised hands with emphasis. This establishes the fairness of the counting procedure and appropriately sets sp the audience for the swindle For #2 the audience reaction will be slightly diferent, People will bein an anticipatory mood and, seeing that participation does not cause embarrassment, more will be inclined to raise their hands. (A litle cajoling might be in order) By now you have established that you need the audience participation, that you BBanachek are intriguing, and that you are a nice guy. Count the raised hands again: you may expect a yield in the 16 to 18 range (again, assuming.a 100-ish group.) The physical aspect (pointing with emphasis) of the counting procedure is important, but so is the vocal element At times the counting numbers are counted out loud, eventually fading as you focus upon the count, then resuming loudness ‘gradually. This prepares. the audience for the bluff count. (Oops, did not want to tip the gaff so soon, this being such a bold approach. Yes, bluff it is...) Hold on, please keep reading, and be honest it atleast s mildly entertaining reading, So bear with me. Now we arrive at #3. The gaff is partly that most people will choose #3. Let us probe into the minds of the spectators. Few will choose #1 because they cannot anticipate that you will ask for a number to be chosen in the first place. Individuals will think, “I did not have time to think.” By #2, people will mostly prefer to pass on it, because they may feel that they want to “wait and see.” Others will hold out, feeling somewhat tricked by the approach to #1: “Maybe he wants me to pick #2, so I will pass on this one also.” By the time #3 rolls around, the mindset is different: “I could not really choose #1 because I wasn't ready for anything. 1 did not choose #2 because of the performers strategy. If I don’t select #3, he will coerce ‘me into the last choice. He wants me to take the last “4 Psychological Subtleties 2 choice of #4, and will probably make some joke about that, Sort of loser random pick, s0 I will go for #3." The number “3” is the nice psychological force. Whatever the actual mindset of the audience is, most will go for #3. Because you are addressing a group, the force will literally come out in force. No one feels, the trap since no one knows where you are going, This routine will bear repeat performances—unless the group is identical from one show to another, which isa situation you would know beforehand. Vary your material accordingly. How does one know the number of people who willl raise their hands? You don't... but experience does permit an educated guess/bluff. (Please bear with me ) Estimating the number of hands going, up is easy as you already know the room's eapacity—and can eyeball a reasonable guess. This routine is best suited for 100 people, but the ideal range is from 70 to 100. What if you do not have access to this information before the show? You must have some measure of the room's seating capacity if you want to use the newspaper prediction, last-minute approach could entail sticking the prediction in an envelope behind the board, ur sum other “revelation” spot. Letus suppose that you dohaveanewspaperad ready, and the prediction is 32. First, visually sweep the crowd to obtain an estimate. Say your educated guess is 25. Ask the audience to keep their arms raised as you begin the count, and begin at stage left progressing to the rightat a swift yet unhurried pace.Banachek ‘As you proceed (and mime) the counting, process verbally, you know that you need to finish counting at 31, (yes, one digit less than your final prediction. 1 will return to this in a moment). Figure a counting rate that will fit with your body language and verbal subterfuge counting, This sounds complicated, but the real-world application is quite straightforward. Keep in mind that the audience does not know in which direction you are leading them. For the faint-hearted, who wonder what happens if someone counts along with you, no problem, it’s easy. Remember that you will have to give the impression that the final count is 32. So, this is the time to share the real selling point of, this routine, Herearea couple of psychological points that will help sell and seal the overall impression in the audience's minds. Say you have arrived at a total of31, and convey the impression that everyone was counted. Begin to write 31 on the board ... pause, and then pretend to notice someone at the back of the audience. Ask that particular person to tell you if you have counted him or not, finally asking him if he wants to be added or not This brings the new final count not to 31, but 32. This later bit of business will make a big difference when they try to recap or re-construct the routine for their next kid's show, At this point, the scenario may have taken one of two possible pathways: 46 'sychological Subtleties 2 First Path: One person may actually anticipate you talking to him and raise his hand; you may be handed this superb convincer on a silver platter. Second Path: In some cases you will just have to pretend that someone raises his hand to make the count one more, bringing the count to 32 ... a time- honored bluff that would make Dunninger proud. When addressing this non-existent stooge, take the time to say, “Thanks.” Your exchange with this nonexistent person takes no more than a few seconds at the most—or whatever feels right with your working pace. The point is that the nonexistent stooge is addressed as if being a real person, in your delivery and tore. Some audience members will tum their heads to check cut the back of the room, but (and this is the real secret of the concept) the person addressed by the periormer is not clearly pointed out and seems of trivial importance. Should someone start to count along with you and tries to follow you, at one point you will lose him by rapidly counting small sections of “raised hands” in random sections of the audience, crisscrossing back and forth across the audience sometimes counting out loud while other times under your breath. You can also count some “raised hands” over his head. Because he did not have your stage point of view and your speed of counting, he will not be able to keep up with you. You finally write “32” for the count of hands. After bringing their attention to the fact that the most aBanachek commonly chosen number was #3, you announce #38 “victory” over the other three possibilities by circling it on the board. You conclude your routine at this point by taking out the newspaper and making, the revelation, For this revelation, you must pick someone who will be a good responder, someone you feel can be a good “straight man” for two minutes of on-the-spot, Participation, Other considerations come into play in order to maximize the effect through the volunteer selection Process. Consider selecting someone who wears glasses. This way you know that if she needs them to read, she has them readily available. In a polite ‘manner, ask if she likes to read. This will prevent you from selecting a person with poor eyesight, or who is illiterate, A small hint is to pick women; they read more often. If you're afraid that the person will spoil the ending because she doesn’t read your prediction correctly, ask her to confirm what is written in the ad by silently reading over your shoulder while you read italoud ‘Comments The idea of using a newspaper prediction for marvelous publicity stunts came to us from the brain of that legend, Ted Annemann. You can read the original idea in his Practical Mental Effects. Don’t forget to remind them to check their own newspapers after the show to make sure you have not used a gimmicked paper. That way they will continue 8 Psychological Subtleties 2 to talk about you. They will think of you for years to come whenever their fingers touch a newspaper. Banachek Note: If the idea of miscounting makes you a little uncomfortable, then look up Doce Hilford’s Color tne Nait in PS1. In Doce's effect you actually do count the people and fill in the number with a nail- writer through a window in a prepared envelope. Using this methodology can give you good practice if you incorporate the miscounting ruse on the number three. This will allow you to build confidence in your estimation, bluffing, and counting pace. Using the envelope as Doce suggests gives you a great back-up, yet gives you the flexibility of using your newspaper prediction as irrefutable proof of your prediction. z Ravi Jobannes Pazhur isa 37-year-old magician living in Germany. He started performing magic at the age of 16. He has won numerous prizes with his manipulation, but switched to close-up magie during university time to earn his living. Ravi is best known for publishing a German “All Star” book on magic with some great contributors, like The Flicking Fingers, David Harkey, Gary Darwin, and others. Mr. Pazhur shares some wonderful ideas elsewhere in this PS series. His first offering uses numerous psychological forces to create a one-of-a-kind book test. Ravi fears that sometimes itis too strong on the °Banachek bizarre slant. Thisis definitely not a beginner's routine if you want to perform it effectively Ravionce gaveaperformance oratelephonecompany. “There was a woman at the dinner, who asked me to stop after the first three effects. She was so frightened, she did not want to touch the book again. What l mean is that this plays rather strong. This isa money maker, a signature peace, atleast for me.” Just imagine the incredible impact on the spectator: A spectator touches a book, suddenly knows everything that is written in it, and can even describe the author! The Book of Lies by Ravi Johannes Pazhur The roots for this effect come from PS1, Kenton Knepper’s book Kentonism, and from watching, Derren Brown's Reminiscence Talways wanted to have a multi-phase routine like Derren’s that could be performed anywhere, anytime, with few props and gets stronger effect after effect A book test seemed great, but you usually only get one effect. Also, [never could get a book test to work effectively by itself. It might have been because I atl 80 many questions about the presentation: “Wiy ant L using book? 1s there a reason for the book itseif 7 A ‘good reason?” 1 was always running around looking at book tests but never performed one. That is why I developed The Book of Lies, 50 Psychological Subtleties 2 Part One Show a book to a spectator. It is The Book of Lies by Aleister Crowley. Talk about Crowley and explain that, "Its not clear if he was good or evil, angel or devil, if he wns using witchcraft ... or had deep insight into mysticism. "Was he dark magician with charismatic features, or wos hhe a man who gained insight into the principles of life that twe all roculd like to have? “Despite all that remains unclear, Crowley's Tarat cards ‘are widely used even today. “Even if we do not believe the things that were written in this book, ze cannot help feeling the magic and the influence the book has on every reader. Sometimes the impact is low, sometimes high, but it sometimes happens that one will experience some truly weird phenomena.” Give the book to the spectator, and ask her to hold on to it. After handing it to her, realize that you forgot 4 photograph that is between the pages in the book: take it out and pocket it. The spectator can see that it's a photograph, but should not see the details. “Oh, Lam sorry, let mie take this out." Ask the spectator, “Do you really want to go on? We can stop any tame you want!” Take the book, riffle through the pages from front to back, and ask the spectator if she has ever read this book ors familiar with the author. She says, “No.” otBanachek, Place the book on the table. The spectator sits next to the book. She is asked to place one hand on the book and close her eyes. “Close your eyes. How do you feel? Is everything okay? Now, let the book speak £0 you. Clear your mind. Relax. Take a deep breath. You may find that certain images come {0 mind, You may see or think of numbers, symbols, amd pictures now. Do not be frightened. Open your mind and let the book speak to you.” While talking, take up a writing pad and draw a circle inside of a triangle, Continue with the circle and triangle force. “Okay, 1 ‘want you to name too simple geometric shapes The drawings on the pad can be seen from the audience. She tells you, “a circle inside a triangle.” Be sure to use the excellent suggestions from Banachek’s PS1 book. As he suggests, reword the order of the shapes to fit your written prediction. For instance if the spectator says “a triangle inside of a circle,” state “So you chose a triangle and a circle.” Then show your prediction to be correct. You are slightly wrong but it is still impressive ‘This is the first effect for the audience. The spectator herself does not get the effect yet; as she has her eyes closed and just hears the approval of the audience. And this is just the way we want itto be. 52 Psychological Subtleties 2 Next Effect: Inside the triangle within the circle, write four sevens (7772). Ask her to give you a number between one and ten. Most of the time a spectator will go for seven. The socond most named (at least for me) number is four. IF this happens, you smile to the audience and point to the four sevens and make a “four sign” with your fingers. Next Effect: Write the word “blue” on the pad, show it to the audience, and ask the spectator to name a color. Next Effect: Write the word “Iion” on the writing pad, show it to the audience, and ask the spectator to name a wild animal found in the jungle Do the last two forces more quickly than the ones before them. In other words, start slowly, but speed up as you go along, Write on the pad, show it to the audienes, and then ask your questions. ‘Ask heragain if she has ever read the book. Ask her to ‘open her eyes. Ask her if she fet anything during this experiment. Did she make the decisions on her own or did ste have the feeling of getting impressions? ‘Then show her the writing on the pad and go through it with her one item ata time. Tell her that maybe there hhas been more to this than meets the eye. : 53Banachek ‘Take the book, open it, and show her this picture: Aleister Crowley founded an order dealing with mysticism and this is the official symbol (Sigel) of that order. It is printed in nearly every book that he has written. Itis much bigger in the books and can be seen very clearly by the audience. “Do you see the sevens in there?” or “Do you see the four sevens in there?” Point to the sevens in the three o'clock and nine o'clock Positions. “Do you see the circle? Do you see that ‘triangle shape’ in there?” Point to the stat. You are always right! ‘The star within the circle on the original Crowley symbol never caused a problem for me. Some women even said star and this made it even better. If she gives you the triangle, itis enough. Be sure to draw your own triangle with one of its tips in a six o'clock position (an upside down triangle) Psychological Subtleties 2 “You naned the color ‘blue’. This was Mr. Crowley's favorite eslor. “You named the lion. He always saw himself as a lion. He loved this anima, as he admired its strength and elegance, “Very strange. You never read the book? Are you sure?” Most of these claims are made up, but it always works. Thave no idea if Crowley liked the color blue or called himself a lion, But in this routine, you have written it down before the spectator has said it. This adds to the credibly of your statements, Always start with the words, “You might think that you came up with it by yourself. No, No. It is Mr. Crowley and it is in the book and it is his influence, even from the grave. Are you frightened now?” Accept whatever the spectator saysand blame ton the book; label it in the way you want it to be. Everything the speciator says is in the book. As you go through the items one by one, most of the time you will see a very surprised expression on her face. Since I talk of fear andinfluence the whole time, it actually frightens the spectator. Some laugh, but you always get a strong ‘emotional reaction. Part Two Ask her 1o close her eyes and touch the book again. “Close your eyes again. Shall we go on? How do you feel? Is everything okay? Let us go one step further! Now, let the book speak to you. Clear your mind. Relax. Take a deep breath. You said that you never read the book, you never saw Aleister Crowley, the dark, evil man.” 55Banachek Smile, “Let's see what is on your mind now.” “Tell me, did he have blond or black hair?” “Did he wear a beard or not?” “What color were his eyes?” “What did his nose lok tke?” Each time the spectator answers, smile and nod. Then go to your pocket and remove a picture. It matches the description perfectly. Do not play this part too long, One minute and the whole thing should be over. Remember that you took a picture out of the book before the routine started? You placed it in your pocket where you already had a picture, You thus have two pictures in your pocket (downloaded from the Internet and printed on photo paper). Both show Crowley at different times with different looks. 56 Psychological Subtleties 2 So whatever the spectator says, you are right. If you label a person dark and evil, people will say that he has dark hair (always), dark brown eyes (most of the time), and no beard (most of the time). If you look at the pictures, they can be interpreted however ever you wish. One spectator even once said “green eyes.” ‘The pictures are black and white, so you are still right. Even if you miss one element, it doesn’t matter Take the matching picture (beard or not) out of your pocket and show it "You hae never read the book, you have never seen hin, yet you give usa perfect description of him.” “Are you frightened now?” only do this part when I have a female spectator. I go through it quickly. It is too simple to show alone. But within the routine, it works most of the time, Part Three Again, ask her to place one hand on the book and close her eyes. “Twill ask you to visualize some images now. A vegetable ‘an onion ... it is peeled.” I do not know why, but people always laugh here. “Someone tells a joke: some laugh, but strangely enough, some ery. The universe is there, too. Did you understand those images? Does that make sense? Shall we go on?” ‘Then you use the “37” force from PSI.Banachek “You said 37? Page 37? You said it does not make sense? Oh yes, it does! Open up this book ta page 37 and read aloud what is written there.” She will read on page 37: (Onion peelings) The universe isthe practical joke of the {general at the expense of the particular, Those next to the laughed, seeing the universal joke. Below these, certain disciples wept. Others next laughed. Others next wept Even ifshesays390orso, yousay thatshe wasextremely close. It is not a simple number force anymore. It is, like you quoted something out of a book and she gave you the number of the page where—or near where— itis writtent When I perform this, some things work perfectly, some things work not so perfectly, and some do not work at all. I is for this reason that I always end the routine with a simple riffle force book test. This way you finish the routine with a 100% foolproof effect You always end strong, This is a book test with about five or six effeets, all of which build to a climax with your favorite foolproof book test. Italso creates perfect justification for using a book to select a random word. rather than just having, a spectator think of any word, You can use any book for this routine as long. as you make the connection with your forces. You can perform it in a humorous or serious way. You decide. But please remember, we are responsible for our Psychological Subtleties 2 spectators and should treat them with respect. If see that the spectator feels uncomfortable, I stop. | always use a cheap paperback edition of the book. It looks better, less prepared, and more impromptu. [ am not abizarre performer. Ido not want to take out a leather bound copy, wipe off the dust, and so on. This is not my style. Kenton Knepper gave me the following advice, which he has allowed me to pass on: As I am sure you know, Crowley has a book called 777. That's a7 and a 3, the most commonly named numbers with the number force. You could use this book and still do the Sigel as your proof. The book cover could then be used if a spectator chooses “three” A lion is about the Magical Element and Strength, among other things, and can be seen in many Tarot cards as Key #8. Be sure to label any misses as the spectator’s lack of intuition on those few issues, followed by quickly pointing out how she is primarily correct in her impressions. After reading the Book of Lies, Nimrod Havel, a professional mentalist from Israel, sent me some suggestions for the color force within the routine. I phyed for a long time with the color force in the Book of Lies, and found out two things. After asking, a spectator to pick a color, 1 always add, “and no red please.” So, one ofBanachek the most common choices is out of the game and my chances rise a bit, But the bigger problem is that although many times they 0 for “blue,” often they also go for green— another common and unpredictable choice. To catch the “little green men” you need a book that has a green cover under its dust jacket. If she says “green” (and you wrote “blue” on your board), you can say, "No, 1 swan you to concentrate harder on the real color af the book. What do you fel?” and then throw another glance at the book, immediately laugh, and apologize in front of her. “My mistake. You got it right; 1 was wrong. It is indeed ‘green’.” and now lift up the book a litle and show everyone its color under the dustjacket. This increases your chances greatly. This little subtlety can also be played with any book. Just write on the inner side of the book “dedication” from the author ... let's say in green ink. Now I would use the phrase (after hesays “green"), "Ne, Izant you toconcentrate harder, concentrate on Mr, Crowley's farmrite color. inside the book there isa dedication in his handwriting with that ink color. What do you feel? Twant you to breathe deeply and zat before Yyou answer; take all the time you need.” Before she manages to answer, act as if you are suddenly not so sure of yourself, take the book from her hands, open it, and go Psychological Subtleties 2 for the apology above, showing everybody thatthe dedication is indeed in the color she named. You will find that when the spectator knows something that even the performer doesn't know, it strengthens the whole effect a lot. 1 often use this subtlety in other effects. One final suggestion isto use a yellow book cover (yellow ink is too weird), with a green dedication on the first page and a pink or purple dedication on the last page. It doesn’t hust to have those outs Finally, here is an excellent book suggestion if you are from the English-speaking countries. I got this idea from James Cheung. Perform this effect with the Book of Spells. by Arthur Edward Waite. Yes, the same A. E, Waite who gave us the Waite Tarot. Ithas illustrations and diagrams throughout, which makes it perfect for this type of routine. Tt is available in an inexpensive paperback edition, Banachek Note: If you want to end the routine as is, but with the words written on the back of the picture, then you could do away with the 37 force and simply force any page at al, either by a riffle force or a miscall (Hoy Ploy) of the page number. For the latter you need a second book, but it’s not a problem if you carry two books. As suggested by Brad Henderson in his book test, The Satanic Bible might work for this. Another out for the 37 force is to have the following dedication written in pencil: 6Banachek (onion pein) Th ener is te rca afta gar the expense of th praan, Thne ‘tthe ghd igh aarp Bow tos, crn el ne eters ve ahd thr net np fall pone amber signed, Aster Coley Now fill in the appropriate number with a nail-writer if needed. A Little Bit about Color Often, just revealing interesting knowledge to an audience can be entertaining, For instance, when talking about color, the following might prove interesting: In Celtic times, the Green God was the God of Fertility. Green in renaissance times was a symbol of fertility; asa result, many women wore green wedding dresses. Later, early Christians banned the color, due to the fact that green was used in many pagan rituals Even today, in American culture, one who picks out just green M&Ms from a jar sends out a signal of Ineighteried sexuality Speaking of M&Ms, the decision by the candy company to add blue M&Ms may not have been such a great one, as blue is an appetite suppressant. Even some weight-watching companies suggest putting your munchies on a blue plate when placing, it in the refrigerator for later. The reason we find blue Psychological Subtleties 2 unappetizing is due to the fact that itis not a common, naturally occurring color for food in nature. As a result, we have not developed an automatic appetite response to blue. Back in the days when we foraged for food, blue, black, and purple were often warning signs of foods that are poisonous to us. Just the sight of food fires neurons in the hypothalamus part of our brain, but, with blue foods, less so. ‘The color yellow is iritating to the eyes, and causes babies to cry more in a yellow room, husbands and wives fight more in yellow kitchens, and opera singers throw more tantrums in yellow dressing rooms, Although a yellow legal pad will wake your brain up ‘when you first look at iit is suggested you do not use yellow paper to write on when working on critical tasks. In China, white is the color of mourning; as a result, women are not allowed to be married in white. Even in India, Christian women who wear white relieve it with some other added color. They believe that a matried woman who only wears white is inviting a life of unhappiness and widowhood. One would not want to talk about the above prior to a psycholagiral color force. since it will put the mentioned colors within their mental reach prior to selection, but doing research on colors and their impact upon the human psyche can certainly add fentertainment value to any such effect after the force has taken place ®Banachek For the following item, I must briefly explain the original Hoy/Karmilovich test. For a full explanation and context, look in PSI. The basic idea that Ted Karmilovich invented was based upon the David Hoy ruse of having people (who have been “forced” the same item, but believe that they have selected different items) stand, The mentalist names numerous items, including the forced one, so it looks like each Person is thinking of something different and the mentalist has divined the item each person had in mind. For example, if there are five people standing and you have forced the six of clubs on each of them, then you name five different cards (including the six of clubs), asking them to sit down if they heard their card named; all five people will sit down. Additional versions evolved usinga deck ofcards with five force cards. Five people each peek at a card; you name the five cards, and have them sit down if they heard their card. This way, if they happen to peek at two adjacent cards, either on purpose or by accident, they will see two different cards and the method is safe. ‘Ted suggested we use this with any psychological force. In other words, have three people stand and think of a color. Since we know that blue and red are the most common colors, we name three colors including red and blue, and ask them to sit down if they heard their color. In most cases, all three will sit 48 they willbe thinking of red or blue and you get to throw in an extra color for additional coverage. Psychological Subtleties 2 1 quickly came up with a way to add a fourth color into the mix, soit still looks like you are naming three colors. By having the spectators close their eyes, I found that you can use body language to indicate that you made a mistake on one color, naming another color out loud to fix your mistake. To the audience it looked like you named only three colors, one being a mistake. The three with their eyes closed hear four colors. But since most people stop thinking after they hear their own color, they donot remember how many colors you name. I taught this effect at_the Psychic Entertainers Association convention, The Meeting of the Minds (MOTM). Shortly thereafter, Jonathon Grant sent me the following idea, Not only had he independently hit upon my concept, but he had found a way to add one more color, bringing the total of potential color resporses forthe three people to five Hoy/Karmilovich Test Redux by Jonathon Grant The mentalist picks up a pad of paper and shows the front page tobe blank. He tears off this page. simultaneously crumpling it up into a ball. He shows the new front page to be blank before ripping it off and crumpling it the same way. He does the same with the third page, and finally crumples the fourth page into a ball without first showing the page blank. As it may or ‘may not become important later, this should be doneBanachek in such @ manner that people notice the discrepancy but think little of it Hethen throwsthe four paperballs out tofourdifferent sections of the audience, and has the four people who catch them stand up. Next, while never leaving the stage, he asks them to close their eyes and keep them. closed throughout the demonstration. They are told to concentrate on the first color that comes into their minds. One by one the mentalist divines the colors they are thinking of, and at the end asks those whose color he correctly named to open their eyes and sit down; however, one spectator remains standing, ‘The mentalist asks this spectator what color she is thinking of She namesit, for example, asbeing yellow. “The mentalist then asks her to un-crumple the paper ball and read what is written inside. Upon the paper is written, "There will be a mistake, and the thought- of color will eally be yellow.” ‘This can be done impromptu if desired (and in smaller audiences) without the pieces of paper, just doing, away with the last part of the effect completely. How: Although there is a small chance of failure in this effect, the vast majority of the time, the performer will be 100% correct in his divinations. The key is in what you say and what you do. A major component that makes this effect work is the fact thatthe spectators involved have their eyes closed, and can'tsee the different non-verbal communications Psychological Subtleties 2 you are giving that everyone else ses. In the minds of the parlidpants, you name four different colors and thervack tem at down f they fear thee color. But tothe audience it looks slightly different I looks a if vouare making a mistake at ne point and corecting 'Sometsing the participants who have their eyes closed never see. As you crumple the paper into balls, inform your adlence that "Most people donot realize that Black tind white are not considered tobe colors.” [Ask four people to stand up, and then to, “Close your eyes and keep them closed until I ask you to open them. Now think of a color. Keep it in your mind. Don't change it. Got one? Remember to keep your eyes closed.” Now stare off into space and gesture as if reading the speciatots’ minds, Stare at one or two of them for a second, then straight out into space. Gesture with your hands as you name the first color, “blue,” but {nd the word on a rising inflection as ft indicate that more iscoming and you are unsure that the choice is right (ce, suggesting that this isnot your final choice). Reposition your stance as you relax your arms, hands, and head th signify moving on, Reposition yourself as before. Look from one to the other quickly, then ‘again straight ahead and up, and gesture back and forth with both hands. ‘After an initial struggle to read a second spectator’s mind, use body language to communicate, “Yes, okay, Thave it now, of course ..” and actually say, “Okay,Banachek blue!” then immediately go to the third thought and state, “red!” but then shake your head and hands as if to say, “No, wait, I'm sorry.” Keep in mind this is, just strongly suggested with your body language and nothing is said out loud except for the colors. Correct yourself by stating, “Purple.” Now reposition yourself again and after a brief struggle to read the last thought, announce, “aaaaaand green!” When Ido. the final divination I start the word “and” and fairly early in the brief struggle let the word drag out as I'm trying to divine the last color: “aaaaaand green!” Let me recap. To the spectators with their eyes closed itsounds like was not sure of the blue and then made a direct statement of it being blue. To them it seemed as if [named the colors blue, red, purple, and green, To the audience it will look like T corrected the red to purple, naming the colors blue, blue, purple, and green. Thedifferenceisasubtlebutimportantone, toconvince the audience that an unusual color was included and that two people were thinking of the color blue, something that most people in the audience suspect should happen, Use a tentative voice inflection on the first blue to indicate that you are not sure, and a definitive inflection on the second mention of blue. Use only body language to indicate your possible mistake on the color red as you correct it to purple After you have finished divining the colors, say, “Now, if I correctly divined your color, please take a 68 Psychological Subtleties 2 seat!” It seems fo the participants as if you are asking, “If your color was one of those named, please take a seat!” When they all sit down, you should receive your applause, Nine times out of ten (probably much more than that), you will have named all of the colors thought of, and. bbe 100% correct. If so, stop here and act a little self- satisfied, without appearing arrogant, You want the audience to like you, and it makes it tough when you like yourself too much. Anyone who does not sit down will most likely be thinking of the color yellow. The only other color is orange, unless venturing outside the color wheel ‘The primary colors are red, yellow, and blue; the secondary colors are green, purple, and orange. In my experience, yellow and orange are hardly ever named when thinking of the “... first color that pops into your mind.” Orange is about five times less likely to ibe named than yellow. Remember, you gave out four different colors but the audience only thinks you gave out three, The one that you seemingly left out was red, the number one most picked color! The illusion is that of a vast number of colors but, when thought of quicly, there are only six possibilities. And using only one of the remaining two (orange and yellow) still only gives the illusion of using four colors. What about the revelation of the color yellow on the ‘crumpled ball of paper held by the person who was thinking of that color? Well, all four papers have the message written on them. Only one will be read aloud and because of the papers being shown blank, the oBanachek audience figures only one could have been written con. The message is general, 0 even if all four of the spectators were to read their papers later, it would not come across as trickery. But because the one remaining spectator reads it, it will be remembered by the audience as predicting that that person would think of yellow, and that the other papers were blank. Before the show, simply write on the back ofthe first three pages the message, “There will bea mistake and the thought-of color will really be yellow.” As you crumple the pages after showing the audience the blank fronts, crumple them so the message is on the inside. This is easy to do, but abit difficult to explain, Lift the pad to show it blank, then casually tip it back so the pad is parallel with the ground and place your palm down upon the paper. Tear it out and crumple the page, at the same time bringing your fingers together as if making a fist. The pads of your fingers are pressing against the paper and, because of the downward pressure on the paper, brings those points to the center as you crumple it up. If this is done while looking and talking to the audience, it won't benoticed. Besides, they don’t understand what's going on and it won't make sense to them until the end of the effect. It really 1s unnoticeable, and they will remember the pages being blank on both sides. Frankly, I prefer just not showing the pages before crumpling them up; I do not feel it to be necessary. But for those perfectionists who fear the audience will, assume they are all written upon, this works well Psychological Subtleties 2 Another way that works well is to have a spectator come up on stage and hand her a wadded paper ball while instructing her, “Take this crumpled-up piece of paper ... and I'll give you three more just like it” Wait until she has all four pieces of paper, then instruct her to, “Toss one to each of the four sections, of the audience, proving there are no plants.” Show the pad of paper by facing the front sides of the pages toward the audience, crumpling up the last three balls as before except while keeping the front of the pad always visible to the audience. Don’t look at the pad, but instead look at the spectator the whole time as you instruct her what to do. This will give them plenty to think atout later without looking, too obvious. They will not be left with the conscious thought of “the papers are all blank except for possibly one,” but they may be lett with that idea in their subconscious, which, they may later recall ... if they think about it at all What if the remaining spectator selects orange? Well, there are many outs you might have. | have a whitedoard turned over with the same message that is written on the papers, with the color orange substituted for yellow. I plan to use the board in my next effect, and simply tum it over and show the prediction if necded; ifnot, then [don’t show it. When need the whiteboard, I simply pick it up and erase it before tuning it over. It is natural to clean a board before using itso this is never questioned. People just assume it’s from my previous show or was borrowed in advanee. nTo address an unlikely “What if .." situation, what happens if two people remain standing? Ask them what colors they were thinking of. If they are both thinking of yellow, or both thinking of orange, have cone or both of them read their papers or read the whiteboard. Because of the generality of the statement, your prediction can easily be interpreted as; the mistake is that both people whose thoughts you got wrong were thinking of a specific color (yellow or ‘orange accordingly). In other words your prediction can be interpreted as “Fle will incorrectly divine this person's color and it is actually yellow” or “Two people's thoughts will be incorrectly divined and they will both be thinking of yellow.” Unlikely “What if ...” number two: someone thinks of some other color, like fuchsia or chartreuse. Show your humor, “No wonder, I don’t even know what that color looks like!” And don't worry about them selecting black or white, as you have eliminated that in your introduction. Unlikely "What if ...” number three: one or both of your predictions do not match the thoughts of the spectators. As Banachek suggested in PSI, tell thom, “You are the kind of person/people Iam looking for in my nex! effect because I want a challenge.” If more than two people remain standing, I suggest that you not take a trip to Vegas in the near future! Thave given you the outs, but to be honest, I never have to use them. I just believe it is going to work, Paychological Subtleties 2 and it does, due to my attitude and the structure of, the routine. Banachek note: When Jonathon sent this fo me, he suggested staring at specific spectators as you nam thecolers Tused fo dethis when fist performed Ted Karmilovich’s effect. I later realized it was not the best technique, as people sitting next to them might ask them their colors, and they might be different from what you indicated. It’s best to act randomly with respect to whose thoughts you are receiving at any particular ime, & Color Me A Rainbow by Christian David In the beginning of a mentalism show, people tend to answer questions with the quickest and easiest answer. As the show progresses, they tend to answer with more obscure choices, because they anticipate that the mentalist might guess the simpler answers. Case in point: color. At the beginning of a show, people ‘will think of the colors red and blue, Ifthe question ia asked later in the show, they will often answer with more unusual suggestions, like black, pink, or grey. ‘To help get around this problem, I ask the question in this way, “Name a color in a rainbow.” It sounds like a question with a lot of answers; however, they only have the following colors from which to choose: red, ‘orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet.Banachek For whatever reason, most people remember these colors fromschool.Thishelpsavoicl getting any strange colors. Many people (guys especially) will remember the above order, which is how most Americans learn them. This sets up another interesting anomaly If you ask a male in a challenging way to think of a color in a rainbow, quite often they will think of the color indigo. You will know this by the sudden look of smugness on their faces. They inwardly feel proud to have come up with the word “indigo.” Ofcourse, they would not have done so hacl you not used the word “tainbow" in the sentence and said it in a challenging, manner, as if you know the color they were going 0 select. I believe they select indigo thinking that you ‘might not know the word, and it seems to them to be an obscure color, like tangerine or mauve. & Paul Draper, a magician/mentalist from Las Vegas, received his Bachelor of Science in Anthropology from, Weber State University in Ogden, Utah with a minor in Communications (you will discover shortly how the communication part hae influenced his performing style). At the time of this writing, Paul is pursuing graduate research on Performance Magical Apparatus in the archeological record. Sounds interesting. | have included Pauls definition of magic because in these few words he says mucl Psychological Subtleties 2 “From in-depth thought and research I have come to believe that, throughout time, performance magic has been notonly about the phy'sicsorthe physical process. Its, instead, about the nature of consciousness, It is not about reality, but rather the observations of the observer Not the outer reality, bt the inner reality. As magicians, we do not make magic. Magic does not exist in the tangible world, However, magicis real and it exists. Where does it exist, you ask? Magic exists as aneventexperienced in the mind of the spectator, Only there is magic real ... only there can magic happen. Not in our hands, but in their minds. Only there can ‘we find real magic.“ ‘The following effect is directly from Paul's Magic ‘Trick #3 of 5 Lecture Notes. Paul tells me that one of his proudest moments was when he performed the trick for an audience that included Eugene Burger: Burger's head tilted in wonder (as only Eugene can do) and he later exclaimed, "That trick fooled most of us, Iteven fooled me ... for a minute.” ‘This effect is used primarily on stage, as a transition piece to bring a spectator out of the audience to assist the performer in his/her next effect. Even though this is used as a method to bring someone up to help, It's important that it not just be used as a throwaway. Itis, a powerful effect that Paul has used to entertain many Jay audiences.Banachek Driving Ms. Daisy, or Was She ae Called Rose? : by Paul W. Draper 2 Look at a person in the audience *, after my second or third effect, and say, “Lets play a game. I'm going to name a category, like ‘car’, and I want you to name the first ‘kind’ that comes to mind. For example your car would be ...?” At this moment I snap my fingers. They answer with a car name. I repeat their answer and continue, “Great, ready to play? ... Flower!” ‘Again I snap, forcing them to answer quickly. They answer “daisy” and Iraise my left hand from bebind my open box (or out of my doctor's bag) in a swift motion and show the audience that | am holding a daisy. “I knew that you would say that. Please come oon stage. This is for you. (Present the flower) Please give her a big round of applause.” Props Required: Alive ora silk daisy, a box or bag on stage that you use to hold some of your other props used in the show, a pad of paper, a black Sharpie® marker, and some tape or Sticky Tac. How: What I have added to the usual presentation of this type of effect (as we have seen it in the past) is a change of flower in some instances, plus a multiple. ‘out method %6 Psychological Subtleties 2 Before the show I write “rose” on a piece of paper, and tape or otherwise attach it under a seat in the front row of the audience. Next, I place the daisy in my bag ina spot where I can easily grab it without looking. If am unsure ifthe oom will be ful, [ask the usher cor host to make sure to fill the front-row seats first, and place a “high-energy” young lady in my hot seat (the one with the “rose” note taped to it). If, at the beginning of the shovw, the seat in question is not filled, or if my audience is spread out, I take a second to usher everyone down to the “expensive seats up front.” (but only if everyone paid the same price for every seat). When performing this effect, IT have found that Americans twenty years old and under respond with “daisy” when asked to name a flower and Americans over twenty answer with “rose.” Due to this peculiarity, I am prepared for both outcomes. 1 place my left hand casually into my box and rest it atop the daisy as I present the above patter. If the audience member says “rose,” I step away from the box and say, “I knew that you would say that and 1 placed a note for you under your chatr. In a big, loud, booming voice will you tell the audience whatitsays?” ‘The audience member will say “rose,” to which I will respond, “Give her a hand as she makes her way up to the stage.” If she says “daisy,” I instantly pull out the daisy, as above, and no one ever knows about the note. What if they say “chrysanthemum,” or some other strange flower? This seldom happens, but luckily the 7Banachek audience does not know that Iam performing a trick until present the flower or reveal the note. in their minds lam merely talking with an audience member, “Name the first make of car that comes to mind a Ford. Name the first flower ... a chrysanthemum. Yes, that tells me a great deal about you, and will help me in performing my next experiment in mental phenomena, Please give her a hand as she joins me up here on the stage.” After the applause dies down, “A Ford and a chrysanthemum .... you have an opposing mind. Sturdy and delicate, simple and elegant ... ” Just say. some things about the choices and what these choices tell you about the person, using classic cold reading techniques. Remember, make sure the effect you place after this is a zero-failure effect, one you know well and that works consistently, ‘Those magicians who are reading this book might like to try the following stunt in an informal situation When you are asked to do something, A Merchant's Switch by Mike Merchant Hoklng two lite pieces of paper, ask MMB ABA ire spectator to rare a veto. He says "carol," bu instead write down “rose,” fold that piece of paper, and put it in his left Psychological Subtieties 2 hand, telling him it’s the vegetable. Then ask him to. name a flower and he'll name “a rose,” but write his first choice “carrot” and put it in his righthand, telling him it’s the ower. ‘Then go over it with him again, saying, “The vegetable you're thinking of is in the let hand, and the flower you're thinking about isin your right hand. I'm going to try something, impossible. I'm going to switch them jn you: hands without touching them.” Then do some pulse suggestion to make him feel a litle something and when he looks Wow!!! They switched!!! Banachek Note: ‘The trick here is that the words ‘changed places ... they are not predictions or switches of predictions. The weakness of the above trick is: What if the psychological force of the second selection doesn't work? The jig is up. How do we fix this so as, to include this wonderful iclea? First, it is not necessary to use two separate psychological forces. If you wish, use your strongest psychological force for the first object you write down (the second object the volunteer will name), Then ask foradiferent object forthe second item. I would refrain from getting too far from the category of the original item. For instance, you might be inclined to ask for the name of his dog, and then a vegetable (force item you wrote first), But this might be too psychologically distant Best te use a fruit and a vegetable, or a tree and a flower. This way, if you miss on the psychologicalBanachek force, you at least have the unknown item right. If this is the case, all is not lost. Have him drop both slips into your cupped hands. Then open up the slips to show that you at least predicted one item right (the ‘more impossible of the two). If you are correct with your forced object, then you can continue with this amazing switching effect In my variation, the sotup would be as follows: 1) Ask the volunteer to think of, le’s say, a fruit (non- psychological force). 2) Pretend to make a prediction of the fruit, but in actuality write down your psychological force of the vegetable (“carrot”) 3) Fold and place the “prediction” in the volunteer's left hand, reaffirming it as the fruit. 4) Ask the volunteer what his fruit was (let's say he says, “Peach”) 5) Ask the volunteer to think of a vegetable (your psychological force). 6) Pretend to make the prediction, actually writing, down “peach.” 7) Place the prediction (the Iruit they stated earlier, peach") in his right hand, reaffirming it as the vegetable. 8) Ask the volunteer to name his vegetable. 9) Conclude with either the switching as in Matk’s original routine, or dumping the predictions in a 0 Peychological Subtleties 2 bowl or your cupped palms, revealing one hit and alBanachek ‘ Payeholoel Sublets 2 SUBTLE PRESENTATION POINTSBanachek When I first saw Uri Geller perform live, I found him to be extremely charismatic. I was very disappointed inhi technique, but it did not seem to matter to those present. Geller was not performing. for magicians; he ‘was performing for people in the real world Those in attendance were his fans and they unwaveringly believed that he had “powers,” so technique was of no concern to Geller’s success that evening. They did not believe he had technique; they believed he had the “power.” One thing that stood out more than anything else was the way he asked his audience to transmit ideas and thoughts to him, Usually thought reading or thought projection is not visual at all, but his presentation was very dramatic, He would have audience members “shout in their minds” their thoughts. This was and is the same technique he uses for bending, metal “Shout bend, bend, bend!” I was thinking about this for this book, and—surprise, surprise!—~Leonardo Silverio sent me the following, which describes the psychological benefits of adopting this presentational ® Leonardo Silverioisa vampire from Brazil who, during, the day, plays the part of an electronic engineer, and, at night, of a mentalist and close-up magician. He never sleeps ... Gust kidding) Psychological Subtleties 2 Leonardo was born in 1974 in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and divides his time among mentalism, close-up magic, and electronic engineering. He is a creative thinker who has been sharing his thoughts with many magicians around the globe. His reflections on this topic ae as follows: Shout, Shout, Let It All Out, ‘These’ Are The Things [ Can Think About! by Leonardo Silverio 1 was thinking about the ~ “concentration” stuff that we _ ask spectators to do, and I asked myself, “Does the spectator have any idea of what itis we are asking them to do when we say, ‘Concentrate on a word.’?” Isit to visualize it? Is it to repeat it over and over in their minds? Is it to imagine that they are writing that word? What is it? Do spectators know what to do? I think if we were to ask most spectators, they would answer the same as I did: “I don’t know for sure.” And what are we asking when we say, “I'm not getting it «+» please, concentrate harder."? They may think, “Of Course you didn't yet it; Tdon't know what to do.” or “Does he mean that I must visualize the word with more calor contrast?” You get the idea. I think we ten create confusion in the spectators’ minds, ‘Asa result, instead of being so vague with a line such as, “Concentrate on a word,” I say, “Shout the word in your mind; imagine yourself yelling the word, very 85Banachek loudly.” This isa direct and easy-to-follow instruction and much clearer than the “concentrate” stuff. The spectator knows how to put more emphasis on what she has been asked to do. Ask her to, “Shout it more loudly in your mind.” She has been given a direct, easy-to-follow command, instead of the flimsy instruction of, “Concentrate harder!” When you are going to do a “near miss,” you can just misspell based on normal audible confusion, as in mistaking “thirty” for “thirteen.” This mistake is understandable, and makes sense in this plot, much more so than the usual “thirty” with “thirty-one” mistake. The latter would be a justified miss if you ‘were counting things, but not when reading minds. Another example is to near miss the word “magical” with, "Tm getting two words here ... one sounds like the word ‘call’, the other like the name ‘Mary’ “call Mary’ or ‘Mary call’... or ‘miracle’... don't tell me what the word is, but am I close? Say it again in your mind and be clearer and louder with the part that is confusing me.” You may turn your ear to the spectator acting as if you can psychically hear what she is projecting, Por those why play the part of a “psychological reader” as I do, you may wish to try something like the following: “Now I will demonstrate the best thought-reading you will ever see, Pay close attention!" 86 Peychological Subtleties 2 call upon a spectator and state that we will try an. exercise first. “What is your name?” “Kevin” “So, Kevin, look at me and say your name again.” Now I begin to act, observing Kevin's face muscles. “Okay, now say your name again but not with your mouth. Say it in your mind. Say ‘Kevin’ in your mind.” 1 act a little confused at this point, and then state, “Okay, please do it again, not with your mouth but with your mind a little louder. In other words, shout it with your mind!” I make people believe, without stating it, that I'm trying to analyze his face as he thinks of his name. thank him and begin any effect that is normally presented as “thought-reading,” without explaining what I've just done. They will begin to interpret the precess by themselves, especially when I do the exact same things when | am trying to reveal a secret thought that I am not supposed to know. People conclude by themselves, that the “mind- reading” effect was, indeed, body language via facial expression, Banachek’s note: The problem I see with many mentalists is that the audience does not see the “process,” and when they donotsee the “process” that is supposed to take place, then mentalism becomes boring or too much like a magic puzzle (tick).Banachek Having said that, sometimes a mentalist can overdo the “process.” Nothing could be more boring than a mentalist who hems and haws his way through an ‘entire performance, acting as if he ishaving a difficult time getting thoughts. ‘One short effect where onehasa very hard time getting a thought is fine, But an entire show? The performer will ust not ook polished. In this era of MTV fast cuts, cone needs to find that fine balance between something looking difficult to accomplish and something, just being boring Warning! The following is of controversial nature for s in our profession. 1 Read Thoughts, Not Minds! Dunninger used to tell his audiences that he read “thoughts, not minds!” What did he mean by this? I tell my audiences the same thing. I could give my thoughts on what Dunninger meant by this, especially since at times Dunninger seemed to want his audiences to think he was real. or at least leave the idea open that he could really read minds; however, to do so would just be conjecture. What I can do is tell you what I mean when I say it, and what | tell my audiences when [ expound upon it to them. It is exactly the same thing in both cases. begin by telling my audiences that [am not a psychic, but that (as I have covered in more detail in PSI) 88 Psychological Subtleties 2 “L use my five senses to create the illusion of a sixth. [use verbal communication, non-verbal communication, magic, psychology, and perceptual ‘manipulation to create a show. I don't read minds ... Tread thoughts. I am not a psychic. If you come up to me after a show and ask me to read your mind, I can't do that. But if you came up to me after a show and punched me in the face, I would know what you think about the show; don't do it, but I would know. Ifa husband and wife are sitting on a park bench, a pretty girl jogs by, the husband turns and looks and the wife slaps the husband in the face, we know what the hucband was thinking and we know what the wife was thinking; we have not read their minds but we have read their thoughts. That is what do; fread thoughts, not minds.” 1 then go into some of the teaching demonstrations, found elsewhere in this book. The definition used here that reading minds is something “psychic” (in the supematural sense) and reading “thoughts” is really a combination of techniques used t0 deduce certain information a person may be thinking of; these techniques are physiological and psychological, whether it be verbal, non-verbal, magic, simply perceptual manipulation techniques that we are using, This all true. These are the methods we use. I would never tell any audience that itis all psychological or verbal or non-verbal. To ‘me that is not true in the context of my entire show, although some effects may rely solely upon one or simple combinations of non-standard magic methods, as You can see from certain examples in this book 9Banachek Mentalism is not the only area of magic where an effect can rely solely upon psychology, but it certainly is my belief that iti one of the two (the other being a pseudo-hypnotic show) where psychology ean carry an entire evening's entertainment Having said that, what is magic? Is it just sleight- oFhand and illusion, or is there added psychology and verbal direction? Are the non-verbal and verbal techniques we are adapting to mentalism considered ‘magic tools now? Have they always been? If we are being honest with ourselves, isn't misdirection by its very nature the use of psychological techniques? And. isn’t misdirection the basic premise of what magicians have relied upon since the cups and balls were firs presented to the pharaoh? This is why I do not run from associating myself with the word “magic.” T would never promote myself as a magician because the audience has a pre-conceived image of the archetypical magician. What | do simply doesn’t fit that mold. What I do is a special form of magic ... fone that transcends ordinary magic. I do magie with information! There is no reason to lie when one can ‘embrace the truth, OF course this is my book and my personal beliefs, which also change through experience. I respect those who at least think about this issue, even though they ‘may come to different conclusions. Do your own research and choose your own path. ® 90 Psychological Subticties 2 Is It a Cheap Trick? Although what we do is indeed trickery of some sort, T dono! like the word “tricks” to describe it. The word “tricks” just sounds and seems like a very “cheap” term that oversimplifies what it is we do, When pushed and asked if what I'm doing is a trick, I place the word “trick” in the following context: “If you mean ‘tricks’ like a piano player uses to accomplish a wonderful concerto, or ‘tricks’ as a memory expert might use to help him mem: every name of a three-hundred-person audience, or “tricks as a tight-rope walker uses to help him keep his balance, then indeed I use ‘tricks’. But if it means that what I do is as simple as a ‘trick’ found on the back of a cornflakes box, then ‘no’ because there is so. much more to what it is Ido.” z Can anyone do it? Often people will ask if everyone can do what I do. 1 often answer along the line that Dunninger’ used, “Anyone can do what I do. A child of three can do it with 23 years experience.” But I take ita step further with, “But how well they could do it, one could not say. For instance, some people can play a piano the first time they sit down, and they sound wonderful; they have a natural ear. Others take lessons for years and still they can’t play a note.” To me this lets people know that what we dois an art, itis very difficult, and onBanachek it is not something that everyone can do and do well. This implies that no matter how hard some people try, they probably will never meet my level of expertise, yet there is a possibility others out there can do it For years I have used the Sherlock Holmes analogy in “Ring of Truth” (from PS1), as it gives audience members a good sense that what we do is natural, but extremely difficult to accomplish. That what we do takes special skills of observation and deduction. Skills not everyone can develop to this level of expertise. It puts us almost in the same category as a memory expert or a human calculator. In other words, we do ot diminish what we do in any manner, yet we do not taint or prostitute our art with the words and actions of “fake psychics.” Are Skeptical People Harder to Read? This is a question I get all the time. And my standard response goes something like this: “Actually they are sometimes easier. Often skeptical people will limit their choices without realizing it For instance, if Take a deck of cards, place a joker in the center, and fan the cards out, I know the skeptical, spectator will look at that joker and think to himself, “Ah, he will never get that card. I'm going to trick him.” Not realizing that it is Twho am really tricking him, Whereas a non-skeptical spectator might choose any. card in the deck. » Psychological Subtleties 2 That same type of response can be used for the question; “How do you select spectators?” My answer starts with, “It depends upon what I am trying to do. For instance, if] am trying to get someone to think of 4 particular card, I might choose a skeptical spectator because I know that a skeptical spectator will limit her choices.” And continue as above. ® F In my talks about muscle reading, I have touched q (pun intended) on why it is natural to spectators to see you hold a person's arm or hand. They have been bombarded by visions of psychics getting their visions from people on TV and in movies. Andy Leviss, a 2 unique writer and inventor of mentalist effects, offers the following observations and an expansion of this 4 technique, ‘Touchy, Touchy, Feely, Feel Tenby Andy Lewiss Lately, I've become addicted to the USA Network television series The Dead Zone (based on characters : ‘from the Stephen King novel) : Bofore!I get into this, let me say that any mentalist even considering doing psychometry needs to do him/herself a favor and buy the available DVDs of this show, as well as reading the original King book. It wouldn't hurt to go out and see the movie version starring ChristopherBanachek Walken either. This is what the real thing looks like, or at least what the public believes it should, You'll learn more from sources like this than from watching. a.dozen new mentalisim DVDs. As an example, the following thoughts came to me while watching the show. First, whenever Johnny Smith (the psychometrist protagonist of the series) touches an object and has a “vision,” he's transported into the actual vision. Sometimes he sees it in real time, and at other times he is able to “pause” the vision and wander through it, looking at it from all angles. While most ofthe time we see the visions through Johnny's eyes, at times they show us the perspectives of others in the room with hhim. They often see him moving and looking around the room as if he's really “in the vision” that they can’t Jf your acting abilities are up to par, this is really powerful stuff. When you touch an object and start to get your vision, don't see it as pieces of information, but as a complete scene. Then tum your head, looking around the scene. If you feel so compelled, walk around it a bit. If there's a table, feel it out in space. When the audience sees you really going through these motions, its hard not t0 believe you Te really seeing it, More often than not, they'll begin to “see” it too! Another touch I've picked up from the show is literally the touch. As Johnny reaches for an object to pick it up. you see his hand actually shake, He's reluctant to touch it out of fear of what he'll see. When he finally 96 Psychological Subtleties 2 touches an object that brings on a vision, you can almost see the spark of the vision jumping into his mind. Even with the sound muted so that you can’t hear the big “thuimp” that signals an oncoming vision, ‘you can still immediately tell whether he getting a vision from the object or not. Let your audience see the vision come to you, too. Your hand can jolt, your eyes can go wide, or whatever makes sense to you. Just let there be something tangible to signal the ‘oncoming vision. [Banachek’s Note: Let them see the “process.”] And that leads us to another thought. You may not be able to get a vision from every abject you touch. Sometimes you may pick up an object and just get nothing, This is okay. again makesit more believable. ‘And, as I just noted, the audience should be able to teil almost immediately from your physical reaction that you're not “picking up” anything, Sell the ability to the audience as real. Finally, a new favorite ploy of mine, which is effective ‘when the objects presented fora psychometric reading are articles of clothing, or jewelry. When you pick up the object to do the reading, put it on. In a perfect, situation, you'll have previously caught a glimpse of how the object's owner was wearing it, and are thus able to wear it the same way: glasses perched atop the head, ring on a specific Finger, scarf wrapped a certain way, which wrist a watch or bracelet is on, etc. This will really sell it to the owner of the object, although if you can't catch this info, its still worth wearing the object, however you feel is appropriate. 95i i i | | | I | | i Banachek ‘The idea is that you become the person for the time that you're touching the object This realy helps to make everything seem real, and can be very powerful Also, if you do adopt the approach of embodying the person during the reading, don’t feel obligated to stay there for the whole reading. It’s not infrequent to see Johnny as the person who owned the object at one moment, but then to watch him step out and walk around the scene. This lets him get a perspective on the situation beyond just that of the owner. In addition to being a very effective tool in creating believability, it looks pretty cool Watch these types of shows and see what you can adopt o fit your persona. You'll be a better performer forit, I promise! Anytime you can make an audience think you are doing more than you actually are, it is, as Martha Stewart likes to say, “a good thing!” | first became aware of the brilliance of my next contributor when he shared some extremely offbeat bout very practical ideas on an Internet forum, Michael Sibbernsen has a wonderful psychological ploy he likes to use, based upon dual reality. I calli Psychological Subtleties 2 A Man of Many Names by Michael Sibbernsen I developed this out of the blue during one specific performance, and have utilized it ever since with wonderful results. The following, strategy can be used whenever you gain some piece of information (from a peek, center tear, etc.) from a particular member of your audience. ‘The example below is within a “Living or Dead” -like presentation, but the basic concept can be employed in any number of routines. Since Tam giving a concept with many applications, no method for gaining the key information is given. small piece of paperis introduced and the participant is asked to write the name of a very special family member or friend, one whom the performer could not possibly know. This paper is burned in a candle flame to signify "the bond” she has with the memory of this person. The performer then states, “even though you 20 about every day, thinking about many things and ‘many people, Ican tell that this one very special person is always on your mind at some level or another. Let me demonstrate.” The participant is asked to think of other first names: friends, TV personalities, fictional characters, anyone. The performer concentrates for a moment, starts to reveal out loud numerous names he sees, “Jolin, Barbara, JoAnne, Michael, David ...”, then stops and asks, ‘One of those names I just gave ... your ‘special person’ was among them; is that correct?” 7Banachek “Yes, she was,” she states. The performer then asks the participant to concentrate only on the name of her ‘one special person. After a few moments of additional thought, the performer is able to correctly divulge that ‘name, and perhaps some information about the person, What the performer has done is take a basic “think ” and make it so much more, courtesy I-reality concept. To the audience he has apparently just extracted a half dozen or so names straight out of the mind of your participant, then narrowed it down to the one “special individual” on her list. To the participant, he rambled off some names (which is exactly what he did), one of which was, amazingly, the name of her special person. He then reinforced this specific knowledge by distinctly revealing that name once again. Although only icing, fon the cake, when calling out names like this, use a few fairly common ones, so that you ostensibly make numberof hts" z Good friend and creative brain John Riggs suggested the following interesting presentational idea. For lack of abetter name I calli First Lie When John performs a book test, or the divination of a word, he often acts like he is having a hard time getting the word and is getting a few different thoughts. He either writes down or states four or five words, and asks the spectator not to give him any clues, but just let him know if one of the words is his. 98 Peychological Subtleties 2 At this point he asks the spectator questions about the words. She is to answer “yes” or “no” each time. ‘After he has eliminated one oF two words, he then has her think simply “yes” or “no.” Each time, he gives a pseudo-body-language explanation as to how he has, discerned whether she has lied or told the truth. ‘This ides makes a lot out of very little, giving the performer a nice way to present a small effect and tum it into a full blown routine. One could even have the person write down four or five letters, one being. the first letter of her word. Play with the letters then reveal the whole word. Those who use Ted Karmilovich’s wonderful MOABT will find much use in this, especially if you use a Richard Osterlind idea that I have mentioned in my other writings: a pen that writesin two colors. Justload the pen with two almost identical blue ink cartridges. ‘Write out the numbers one through five and have the spectator write her letter next tO any number. Take back the pen as you talk, retract the blue she used, and switch itfor the other blue. Now she fills in four other letters. Tne subtle color should not be noticed by her atall, yet you know for sure which letter is hers.Banachek Psychological Subtleties 2 SUBTLE SUGGESTIONS ‘The adult human brain weighs about 3 pounds (1,350) ‘The elephant brain weighs about 13.2 pounds (6,000g). q ‘The cat brain weighs about 1.0 ounce (303) 100 101Banachek, Scientists Use MRI to Test Subliminal Suggestion John-Dylan Haynes and Geraint Rees of University College London showed volunteers two images in Quick succession, with the first flashing so quickly that the subjects couldn't clearly identify it. But by analyzing their brain activity via Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), the scientists successfully identified ‘Which image had been shown, even when the subjects themselves didn’t remember seeing it. Together, the results elucidate how the brain reacts to stimu, even when they are “invisible.” If scientists could gain a true understanding of the neural basis of subjective experience, Kamitani and Tong write, it might one day, “allow for reliable prediction of a person's mental state based solely on measurements of his or her brain state.” Nothing could be better than when spectators create the effect in their own minds. No one is going to convince them otherwise, no matter how hard they try. If they created the effect in their minds, then that what happened and that is what they will always believe. Anyone trying to tell them different must be “saying Lam a liar or stupid!” Many times I have had reporters write stories about wonderful effects 1 performed that I wish I could perform. There are various reasons why this happens, The easiest is to rewrite history and create false memories as you are performing. By doing this prior to the event being placed in long-term memory, one ‘can erase the short-term memory of the actual event 102 Psychological Subtleties 2 as it really unfolded, leaving just the false account of the event forever implanted in a spectator’s long-term False Memories Usually you can do this while you recap. For instance, say you shuffle a deck of cards then place the cards on the table, saying, “I don’t want to touch the deck You cut the deck and you complete the cut!” Now later when recapping, you state, “You shuffled the cards and you cut the deck. I did not want to touch the deck, Said with enough conviction, the spectator will later remember that you never touched the deck and, more importantly, will remember that he shuffled the deck. ‘You have created a false memory. I believe that Uri Geller did this all the time. He would be holding a spoon as he “psychically” bent it but later said, "Tncver touched it as it bent.” People repeated this phrase, meaning that he, “never touched iti any toay that he could physically bend i.” Butas time went by, and having said it several times, they falsely remembered that he never physically touched the spoon at all. If using a PK Factor, and making an object stand on end, state, “The object is levitating.” Later when people repeat it, they will falsely remember that it levitated, and wil often tell people how high the object levitated off the table. ® 103Banachek Creating false memories is one way of solidifying, effects in people's minds, so they remember them the way you want them remembered. There are other ‘ways, however, like the following idea by Greg Arce, where he allows spectators to come to their own conclusions. This is something that can be very, very strong if done in the right circumstances. This might not be something you want to rely upon in a large, full evening stage setting, but done in a small informal setting, it can play wonders. Six Degrees of Separation ‘and the Nailwriter by Greg Arce “Nailtoriting.” What a curious name. T'm sure the uninformed would assume it is some sort of calligraphy actually printed on the cuticles ... not far from the truth and, ina way, just the opposite. ve been doing some form of nailwriting for over two decades and quickly found that I had to have reasons for what I did, and reasons for why my predictions looked like they were written by aman witha partially broken hand, Over the years 've come up with several reasons and theories regarding what | do and why it supposedly works. Why is my writing so horrendous when I print the future prediction? Well theeasy answeristhat haven't taken the time to practice the skill of nailwriting so that it matches my own handwriting. Curiously, my ‘own handwriting already looks like I wrote it with 108 Peychological Subtleties 2 a nailwriter, but it does look different enough to require me to make up a reason for the distinctions. Here is what I say to misdirect from the future lousy handwriting (bad nailwriting) “idave you heard of automatic writing? Yes? No? Well, for those that have never heard this, it is a psychic theory stating that if you hold a writing implement in one hand ard let that hand touch down onto a paper ... well, if you let yourself go, the hand will start to trite. Some say it ia spirit taking over while Dihers say it is your own psychic intuition that marafests itself and fakes over. I have tried this over the years and found something carious about my own personal skill in the fold. I'm a lefty, but for some reason it only seems to work when I use my right hand. I'm siill not sure why. Anyway, [want to try ant experiment and, now that you know, please forgive me if the message is a bit hard 10 read, 11! try it a fro times if we keep getting tnreadable messages. I don’t want this to become a lesson in breaking codes, Ready? Let's begin.” Okay, there you have it. A reason why they will later see my chicken scratchings. And its true. Iam a lefty. Although I'm a bit ambidextrous and can write with my other hand. But they don’t need to know that. Of course, should tell you Thold my pad of paper in my left hand and then lower my right hand onto it. As Tact, out a scribbling process, I don’t ever look down at the 105Banachek paper, It's acting, Act as if you are getting a message. 1 then put the pencil behind my ear and start the rest of my speech. Oh, there is a reason for the pencil behind the ear, Its a subtle convincer that 1 cannot post- write anything. Why not put the pencil away? Well, 1 don’t want some smarty-pants to think I'm stealing, out another pencil that is small in nature and can be hidden in the hand. The message I'm sending is, "This is the only pencil I use, And you can sev it all the time.” Now for the actual experiment [ use, and why I use it. A long time ago, I read about a patter line that dealt with having the spectators envision themselves landing somewhere on earth. [loved that thinking, So that’ the story I've gone with for all these years Why do I use it? Well, that's another of my theories. I like to give myself problems when I work in the psychic realm. My feeling is that if have no idea what the person will call out, then [have to do some mental gymnastics to get there. Those moments where my ‘mind is racing to get toa uscable answer translate into physical contortions of the face and body that give the illusion that something is going on up there. Again, thisisa theory I've worked into mentalism that comes, from my acting training. Using an inner dialogue will allow your audience to see that you are not a blank slate. There is something mysterious going on behind your eyes. [Banachek’s Note: “Process” Tsay, “Lwant you to close your eyes. See yourself hovering over theeartt The world isspinning 106 Psychological Subtleties 2 below you and you are slowly coming down to earth, But your eyes are closed and you have no idea where you are going to land. Keep seeing yourself getting closer and closer to the earth. “ns going to snap my fingers and when 1 do you will open your eyes and see yourself somewhere on this planet. It could be anyavhere; in a foreign land, or maybe a place you know. It could be on something or int something. Maybe it's a generic place ‘Maybe you see an object you know. Maybe ‘you are alongside a good friend or a stranger. Get ready, You will now end up anywhere on earth. When Esnap my fingers, want you to ‘open your eyes and see yourself somewiere ‘on this planet. 1's all in your mind, but 1 ‘want you to call out the first impression you {30!. Realy? (Snap) Where did you go?” ‘The spectator is now going to call out anything. Anything! Is that great, or what? You have to be ‘on your toes. I've gotten: France, boat, Aunt Lila, computer screen, airplane, telephone, Egypt, Miami, sea, volcano, dog, etc. Well, the list is endless. ‘And now comes my Six Degrees of Separation. The first time I did it was just for fun. I really had no idea why Ididit.Ijust did. Itwas “France.” AsI approached the person who called it out I decided to write “Fry.” Don't ask me why. [looked down at it and said, “Ol, well, lets try again, I didn’t get anything this time, It's crazy. Sometimes I get some strange things on this paper.” 1.07Banachek I showed the paper around and suddenly, someone in the group, shouted, “French fry, man! Its French fry! Holy s*#!” Others now began to agree and saw it as a monster hit. began to downplay it and say, “Really? [ don’t think so I's not always right. Let's try again.” Well, the more I fought for my own miss, the more they scored it as a hit, [had discovered something purely by accident, Here is how the theory goes: Whatever is called out you must try to think of an association that is linkable to that word or phrase, but not right on target. And here's the great thing: the further you link itaway, the more of psychic revelation it becomes. But the key is to let your audience do the inking for you; you act as if it is a miss. I've had spectators try to convince me how much of a gifted person I was when they finally linked the association, The more I gave it the, “Oh, shucks, this never works,” attitude, the more they begged me to see how freaky it was that the word “forest” can be tied to “shrimp.” Yes, I did that one, too. Can you figure out the six degrees of separation? I think pretty fast on my feet and that one came to me in a flash. Well, “forest” can be linked to “Forrest Gump" and in that movie the character has a good friend in the army, Bubba, and Bubba only talks about one thing: “Shrimp.” Believe it or not, this was a huge hit and took over five minutes at a party for someone to tie it together. When they did tie it together, it became the talk of the party. [had long since passed that prediction as a real miss because no one got it, so I was doing another 108 Psychological Subtleties 2 effect when a guy sitting on a couch, with the paper, screamed, “Its Bubba shrimp!!” Thats only three degrees, but you get the idea. To be complete, six degrees of separation isthe theory that anyone on earth can be connected to any other person through a chain of acquaintances that has no more than five intermediaries. The theory was first proposed by 1929 by the Hungarian writer Frigyes Karinthy ina short story called Chains Go out and try this method the next time you do some nailwriting. You're going to have fun just trying to come up with a silly connection. And fun is what life is about. I'l leave you with one that no one got, but I chuckled when Iwrote down the prediction. The word was “sailor” and, like a silly ool, I wrote “monkey”. Banachek Note: This idea of six degrees of separation. isnot only good for nailwriting, but works just as well for pocket writing or any prediction effect. ® The following man, whom I am proud to call a friend. is the author of what I consider to be the best introductory book on cold reading: The Full Facts Book of Cold Reading. Ian Rowland has offered the mentalist community quite a few brilliant new concepts. His lecture on skeptical thinking is one of the best I have ever seen, teaching how to think skeptically without exposing. 109Banachek ‘The following is a perfect example of Ian’s ability to take something and break it down to its simplest form and basic outline so we can all understand how and why it works. Broadcast Phenom! by Ian Rowland ‘One of the most fun things you can do as a mentalist is trying what Leall “the broadcast effect.” For example, you do a radio interview and bend a spoon and say that spoons will also bend in listeners’ homes during the broadcast. Sure enough, the switchboard lights up and people ring in to confirm that this miracle has taken place, ‘The reason why this is fun is because you don’t have to do anything, There is no “method,” and you don't need friendly stooges waiting to callin with a made- up story. just make the announcement, and people phone in. Why? Who cares? They just do. It works on radio, on live TV, and in press interviews. Even better, you can make up almost any “effect” you waut and it will still Work, This 1s good, because it means you have a trademark “bit” that you can claim as your own and it’s something unique for your promo material/demo tape. To make up your own effects, focus on things that are open to subjective interpretation, hard to measure, or prone to human no Psychological Subtieties 2 Examples: ‘+ Subjective interpretation — “The humidity in the ‘vom will change.” © Hard to measure ~ “The razor blade will get sharper by the morning.” + Prone to human error~ “Get a video tape that has something you've recorded on it. Place it near the radio and at the same time I bend the spoot here in fe studio the tape will be erased and will be blank ‘again next fime you check.” At least a few people will think they have recorded something on the tape when in fact its still blank, as they will later discover and attribute to your amazing “psychic powers.” All youneed to provide is the confidence, the bravado, and the lure that if enough people join in and try the “experiment,” it will work for some of them. Then sit back, wait for the phone calls to come in (or readers letters i its @ press interview), and take the credit Banachek’s Notes: In PS1 I touched briefly on this under the Geller Efect: Jeff & Tessa Evason, the best two- personact Ihave ever seen live or on video, gave their presentation. [have used this type vf demwnstration many times on the radio and television. Usually I tell the audience at home that, “Something unusual will happen. It may not be thatthe spoon, key, or item will bend, dhut maybe the TV or radio will licker and static wil result. Or maybe sometsing wll happen in the house, like the VCR surning on or the lights going on and off” umBanachek T have had people call in, stating that their cars started up while they were sitting in them listening to the radio. One lady called up and wanted the radio station to buy her a completely new set of solid gold silverware due to the fact that her entire set had been bent. Uri Geller once had a lady claim that she became pregnant because the [UD she was wearing at the time she watched the TV program bent and malfunctioned, Basically you are telling the audience that something is going to happen, and then taking credit for anything that happens. With the number of people listening, many things are bound to happen, including bent objects. Why shouldn't you get credit for them? ‘One of Geller’s famous ploys of this sort was to tell people to bring broken old watches to the TV or radio and concentrate on them. Many would callin, stating, that their watches had started up. m Psychological Subtleties 2 SUBTLE PRE-SHOW ‘The human brain his about 100,000,000,000 (100 billion) ‘The octopus brain has about 300 million neurons. 13Banachek We Have No Secrets! Back in the early 1980s, I moved {p Houston, Texas. Immediately I started to work as a close-up mentalist ata very trendy nightclub called Confetti’ Within two ‘months I was promoted to entertainment manager. It ‘was my job to hire entertainment for the club. I had to hire everything from dancers to gorillas on roller skates, Every hour, something had to be happening. ‘One night I had a guy come in and build a box in the middle of the club, something for people just to wonder about. Another night [hired a marching band to march through the club and out again. One night even managed to havea giraffe walk through the club. Crazy times! Leven hired a very bad juggler. I thought it was so funny that he kept dropping the pins on his head. Yes, [ got him cheap, and yes he had to keep taking Tylenol, but it was brilliant. Now that guy is one of the top jugglers in the US. During this time I met many magicians, mentalists, and other entertainers; some are still working, today and a few have become top headliners. Others just passed through our world on their journey elsewhere. ‘One of these acts, which will remain nameless, had just spent an entire paycheck on a top-of-the-line card sword. His idea was to use it in his stage show. He would have a spectator just think of any card, a deck of cards would be thrown into the air, and the sword would be stabbed into the flying cards. The thought- of card would appear on the end of the sword. My employee and good friend was very disappointed after his first few tries. It seemed that each time he 4 Psychological Subtleties 2 tried it, the spectator named the wrong card. What was he doing wrong? Now for the secret: he was using pre-show. Prior to the show he would approach a person and say, “Pick a ‘card. Great, now remember that card. Later ther I ask yor to name acard, that is your card, okay?” 1 immediately determined what was wrong with this approach. Later, when he did the eard sword, he ‘would turn to this spectator and say, “Think of any card in the deck,” He would stab the deck and the spectator named a completely different card. The reason was that his pre-show spiel was not consistent with his show directions. There were no anchors. There was plenty of reason for a spectator to be confused about ‘what they were being asked to do. “Think of any card in the deck,” can casily be acted upon as if you are asking them to, "Think of any cand in the deck,” rather than “Think of the card you picked earlier.” Now of course if one were to say, “Think of the card you picked earlier," the rest of the audience would know you Spoke to thems earlier, kind of defeating the purpose of pre-show. Ihave always hated it when a mentalist tells the audience that they spoke to a spectator before the show: To me it isthe kize of death, and the audioncw is left to wonder what really went on before when you talked with them “in secret.” “There are circumstances where it can work, like on a TV show with a host. If worded carefully it can bbe made to appear you gave them directions to do something while you were nowhere in sight, and that nsBanachek is fine. But to say, “Tad you picks just awful. Why would you not just have them pick whatever while the audience is watching? Consider: “I asked you to think of any ___at all. You did that and it was a completely free choice. You have not fold me what ___you chose and you were instructed not to tell anyone else, is that right? And this was a completely free choice on your part.” ‘This works fine and makes the audience think that the participant never wrote down anything, and you only asked if she would help you in the show by thinking of any ‘There are circumstances where this will not work, such as having them draw a picture that they will show later. In this situation you will be showing they did draw something prior to the show. This isa whole iferent bird, so use your words to make the audience think that you were nowhere in sight while it was being drawn. You simply tell the spectator as they are about to draw the picture, "Now I don’t want to be anyzohere in sight, so I will step over to the corner here and turn around.” Later you can tell the audience that you ‘were “nowhere in sight.” Just make sure you remind the spectator that you were nowhere in sight of the drawing when she made it, “So when 1 tell the people at home it was a free choice by you and Twas nowhere in sight, 1 will be telling the truth.” Pre-show can be even stronger than that, and presented in such a way as to make the rest of the audience think you are asking the spectator to think of 116 Psychological Subtieties 2 something there at the moment, as they are watching, it all unfold. ‘The secret to good pre-show is making sure itis not presented to the assistant you are using as if you are hiding a secret. So many performers have a guilt complex when they perform pre-show, that they signal to the assistant that they are doing something secret ‘They also feel so guilty about it that they rush through the pre-show activity, not giving clear instructions. Itis, imperative that you tell the assistant exactly what you are going to do, and exactly how she is going to react. Ifyou do this, there are no surprises. The assistant has ‘no reason to tell others that you talked earlier, simply because you are not hiding anything. Let me give you an example. Keep in mind that this is just one way to perform pre-show; you must find cout what works for you and what itis you are trying to present, In this case, let's say Tam going to use pre show work to obtain the name of a city. The assistant will indeed have a free choice of any city in the world; however, one could just as easily use postcards and force one. Let's pretend that I will use a center tear or clipboard to garner a freely selected city Tapprosch the spectator: “Hi, my name is Banachek and Tam the performer this evening. 1 was wondering if you would mind helping me later in the show; I promise I will not embarrass you in any way. That is nob what my show is about Infact, I will be using « lot of people and if "7Banachek you help me with this, I promise you will not Juve fo come up om stage and it will ensure that I don’t accidentally bring you up on stage later. It is a simple thing, not simple in asilly way but a way for me lo start the show. Would you mind?” Using this approach enables you to do a few things: inform spectators that you will not embarrass them, something all spectators are afraid of; reassure them that they will not have to come up on stage, something else most spectators are afraid of and inform them that if they help you with this, there is no way you will accidentally bring them on stage later for another effec. If someone says “no”, you can remind her that you might accidentally call on her later in the show. If she really is adamant, don’t use her: simply move on This verbiage should put her at ease and in a helpful mood Continue: “If 1 ask most people to think ofa city, they think of London or Paris, I want you to think of any city at all except London or Paris. Don’t tll me; just picture it in your mind. Do you have one? Would you like to change it? Are you satisfied with it? Make sure you are, as that is going to be your favorite city {for the rest of he evening and once you decide ‘on one, you can’t change it. You have one? Great. Now write your city here, make sure I cant ee it” ns Psychological Subtleties 2 Step away and turns your back; point out that you are doing this. When she is done, continue: “Good, now keep it im your packet. T don’t reed it, but justin case you forget what city you chose, you have it. I oon't need to see i again, unless | am wrong, then and only then I might ask to see it. think you are an honest person but I have had people change tneir mind to try to trick me. It alsa protects you in case I think Lam right and insist Iam Fight when I arm worong.” ‘This statement doos a few things. First, itlets her know that she should not to try to trick you (if she does, then you have the proof in her pocket!) Soften this attitude abit by saying that it also protects her from you. Best to do this so you do not create a defensive attitude in the audience member. “This willbe the frst thing 1 do. If you can fvep thinking ofthis city fram time to time, 1 aight be able fo tell you something about the cily from your body language. 1 may not be able to tell you the exact city but I might get what continent it is i, or something about the cit itself. Your first ewe to think about the city will be when I come out on stage, Tight say something lke, If L were to ask everyone to think of acity, many might think of London or Paris.’ That will be your frst elue to start ‘thinking of your city. The second cue to think of the city when [ask everyone ese to think fa city. Don't change yours; keep thinking 19Banachek, of your city over and over again. Do you understand? Don't change yours, or else it will be confusing to me; just keep thinking of it over and over.” 1 Now you have told her exactly when to think of that city and not to change it. You have told her that you will ask everyone to think of acity and that when you do that, you want her to think of the city she wrote, the one that is on her mind. You have also told her that it will be confusing for you if she changes her mind. If your effect is somewhere in the center of the show or at the end, then you would of course tell her exactly when you will be using her: Tell her what you are going to be doing prior to that effect. This way she is prepared, and knows exactly what to expect. You don’t want any surprises, such as her going to the restroom just when you need her. Again, the key throughout is to tell spectators exactly what is going to take place so there are no surprises and it does not look like you are hiding anything. “if this works, Iwill be able to tell the audience exactly how Lam getting the information from your body language and teach them how 40 do it. ft works, i will break down berriers in the wadience 30 Tan get numbers, words, and entre sentences they wil be thinking of Again, don’t change itor it gets dificult for ‘me and you will be sending me conficting signals. Do you understand? Also notice 1 uve not asked your name or anything. Ht is important Ido not know anything about you 0 Psychological Subtleties 2 | can't guarantee f will use you. If Tean't get anything, then T1o0n't have you stand up. So please don't tell anyone what toe have talked about until after I da it would hate for you to tell people that Iam going to use you for something and then Idon’t. Ihave had people get upset, later telling me, ‘I told all: my Jriends and you did not use me.”” This paragraph accomplishes several things as ‘well. By telling the spectator you will be teaching the audience how you are doing this, it causes her to think that everything will be out in the open. Since you arenot being secretive, there is no reason to try to trick you. It makes her think you will be using other spectators—and you will—but you will use them for other effects. You again remind the spectator not to change her chosen city. You have also set her up such that later, when you ask if you know anything personal about her, she has to answer “no.” By telling her that you may not use her, you have ensured that she will not tell anyone in advance that you spoke to her prior to the show. When you are ready to use the information in your show, you might say something like, “If I were to ask everyoe here o think ofa city, many might think of London or Paris. T want everyone to think of a city please... any city but London or Paris. Now, I need afew people to help ime get this started.” Now “select” your pre-showed spectators. You can be assure¢ that they will be thinking of the correct cities, because you have instructed them very specifically rti Banachek when to think of the city and you have started the piece with the exact wording you said you would use. ‘There is no surprise about what you are doing. No surprise when you ask everyone to think ofa city. And if using more then one spectator, each might very well think the other person was just randomly selected and not pre-showed. You can even ask your spectators, “You are thinking of a city, right?” Say itsuch that you are not sure they are the one you spoke to earlier. They will take it that way. ‘The rest of the audience takes it that you are making sure that they are thinking of a city now. If you feel that you have a spectator who might change her mind, you can always say, “You've been thinking of a city, right?” and this will register to them that they are to think of the city they had thought of earlier. Inever find this to be a problem, but have used it from time to time when I have a spectator I feel isa litle ditsy. (One ruse I use to make the rest of the audience think spectators are just being randomly selected has to do with something the spectator was told earlier: “It is important that I don't know anything about you.” Use this to your benefit in performance by saying, “Idon’t Anow anything about you, like your name or where you tive, right?” She will have to Say “yes,” and will only say “yes” since you brought it up earlier. If you were to just ask it out ofthe blue, she might say, “Well, besides when you talked to me earlier...” You have prevented this by bringing it up and framing the question in advance. Again, there is no confusion as to what you are talking about. I continue by turning it into an 12 Peychological Subtleties 2 old joke with the words, "You seem happy about that.” This again softens what you are doing, and puts the spectators and the rest of the audience on your side. Now continue, explaining out loud how you are doing it via their “body language.” After a pre-showed effect I like to go into the next ‘effect quickly, so no one nearby has time to question the spectator I ust used. By the time they even think of asking the spectator (if they ever would), Ihave done many other incredible things. Plus I get rid of any thought that I might have set up something ahead of time by the following verbiage in the very next effect I perform. It encourages the audience to come to the conclusion that | do not talk to people before the show, and it allows the fact that I did—to those spectators I spoke with—not to seem contradictory. It is a simple sentence, asking the new spectators in the effect I am about to perform, “Now we did not alk about this before the show, did we?” | know that this seems like alot to say to a spectator before the show, but it really is not. Often I will streamline the wording, but I make sure that they fully understand what they are to do, when they are to doit what Lam going to say, and how Tam going to presentit. By doing it this way, Ihave never, ever, had anyone change his or her thoughts by accident or on purpose, Using these techniques ensures that you too can feel comfortable that your pre-show activity will {go as planned every time. 3Banachek ‘Visualization Equals Process Often, when I pre-show a person, I will tell her that when T ask her to name whatever it is she has selected to think of, I want her to stop and visualize it first before naming it out loud. In other words, if thinking of an animal, she is to picture the animal before telling, me what itis. a number, she is to imagine it in bright, green neon letters before revealing it To the audience, this visualization looks as if the spectator is mulling over her selection, and making a choice among many in her mind. Psychological Subtleties 2 SUBTLE BLINDFOLD ‘The eye and other parts of the visual system are composed ‘of matter very similar to white or grey matter — the eye is nearly a brain in itself “We see nat with our eyes, but with our brains.” Tava Sullivan 15Banachek Years ago, 1 performed a blindfold routine that involved a few different interesting effects. One was @ fairly old routine where had acandlelit taken around, the room, and then handed to someone. I would find, it with a balloon and pop the balloon with the candle. ‘The great thing about this is that the candle is so easy to find and the pop of the balloon at the end is loud. and very intense for people in the audience. Everyone cringes, and emotions run high as the balloon comes ever closer to the bursting flame, When the balloon bursts, everyone in the audience hears as well as sees the action. It is very dramatic, and a highly visual performance piece ‘There was a bit of business in one of the routines that always seem to hit home, convincing the audience that what I wes doing was definitely more than just a trick of some sort. One of those little psychological convincers that I love so much. When is a Dot not a Dot? When it’s Not! After the performer is blindfolded, a spectator picks up a marker board behind the performer's back. He is instructed to, “Draw a dot the size of a silver dollar anywhere on the board.” ‘The performer waits a second or two, and then asks if he is done. He replies, “Yes.” The performer then states that the spectator did not draw a dot but a circle and he isto fill it in to make a clot. This despite the fact 126 Psychological Subtleties 2 that the performer is blindfolded and his back turned. to the spectator at all times. How: There are a few things going on in this little psychological convincer. By stating “the size ofa silver tollar,” the performer leads the spectator to draw a circle; the image of a silver dollar cements this image. In addition, the performer makes a circle with his finger in the air, and only waits long enough for a circle to be drawn before asking if the spectator is done. Ittakes more time to fill in a circle and make it a dot, thus the performer is easily able to tell ifa circle has been drawn, Ihave used this convineer thousands of times and can honestly state that there have only been at most three times that the spectator actually drew a dot, and that was because | messed up the wording and did not include the “size ofa silver dollar” line, For completeness, the rest of the routine is as follows, * Listen carefully,” the performer instructs the spectator. “Now you are going to dravo a line from the dot, The line must not intersect itself, In other words, it cannot crass over its.” It is important to clarify that last instruction with the following line: "The line can zigeng, it can cirele, but it must not intersect itself. Go ahead.” Now the performer waits a few seconds and states, "Good, place the board on the easel and hanal me the pen in 17Banachek ‘my right hand with the cap off. Now place my left hand on top of the marker board and stand back. “I need the entire audience to let me know if T have hit the dot!” ‘The performer moves his hand around the board and stops on the dot. The audience applauds, as itis really the only way for them to let you know that you have succeeded per your instructions. The performer then instructs the audience that they are to try to lead him with their minds along the line and to let him know when he has hit the end, as he will not know since he is blindfolded. The performer takes his time and starts to follow the line. Again he asks, “Aun 1 going the right way? Again the performer receives a small round of applause. “Let me know when I have hit the end of the line.” ‘The performer finishes to a loud round of applause, ‘There are a few things to note here. The fact that the performer tells the audience to let him know if he has found the dot really is a nice little psychological way of gaining applause at the right moment. The same goes for asking the audience to let him know if he has hit the end of the line. Usually when I am at the dot, I take my other hand and move it around the dot as if sensing which way the line goes before I move along, the line. Usually Iam not exactly on the line but either above it or below it so the audience can clearly see I followed the line, 128 Psychological Subtleties 2 [sometimes do one other thing if the spectator does not follow my instructions perfectly, and the line they draw intersects itself. I do not follow the line, but go in the direction of the intersecting line, taking, the shortest route to the end of the line. When the blindfold is later removed, I look back at the board, notice this, and erase with my finger (dry erase) the extra loop that the spectator made (in other words, erasing the extra section that I did not follow). Behind Enemy Lines One thing I like to do when blindfolded is a three- object test. have an audience member bring up three objects, and my job is to describe them, sight unseen. 1 usually perform some other effect with a spectator on. stage while the objects are being collected by a second spectator, 50 that there is no dead time, The collector has been instructed to bring the items up and set them on my table as I work with the first spectator. These objects are placed upon a small table that is in front of me and to my left. As I work with the first spectator I get a good look at the objects and remember everything about them that | possibly can. When I am ready, I have the second spectator, who collected the objects, stand behind me. I play around, a litle with this spectator (usually a woman) and pretend that she pinched my bottom. This allows me to move forward and closer to my table for a second to get a closer look at anything that might be on my table (like the name on a driving license or number on a credit card), 129Banachek Now I have the first spectator hand one of the three objects to the woman standing behind me and she holds this first object over my head. The illusion is that a spectator is standing behind me, holding an object over my head, and despite the fact that I would not be able to see it even without the blindfold, I stil can reveal what the object is. Any pictures taken at this time show a spectator standing behind me with an object held in a location impossible for me to see, yet Ican still describe it and tell what it is. What is also great about this presentational method is the fact that I do not have to look in the direction of the table at all as I describe the objects. All | have to see is which object is missing, After the frst object, Tam no longer standing behind the table; T move up a little so Tam next to it. By the last object, Iam standing to the right and in front of the table; since I know the remaining object, [ do not have to peek to see which object has been removed. I often ask, with the final object, “You're not trying to trick me are you?” just to make sure that they are not trying to test me by holding one of the objects I have already revealed, since I can’t tell for sure what was removed from the table. If they are trying to trick me (one time in 200), 1 have proven my abilities even further. If they are not trying to trick me, then itis no big deal ... just me not getting any “impressions” yet. 2 Psychological Subtleties 2 In my book, Psychophysiological Thought Reading, 1 deal with non-contact ways of getting information from people. One of these ideas is to have a spectator think of a stop sign shooting up when you name the item she originally thought of. Her eyes are closed, and you will see her eyes move up if she truly plays along. Using a trick blindfold makes the effect work even better, since you apparently can not see her. In PSI Lalso cover various ways to figure out in which of two handsa spectator holds hidden coin, David De Leon has come up with a brilliant version combining two of these methods. At this writing, David De Leon is a 35-year-old Swedish father of two, a graduate student of cognitive science, employed by Sony Ericsson. This version first saw the light of day on July 7, 2003 on the Ultimate ‘Magic Network, an Internet forum. { call David's idea: res Wide Shut by David De Leon 4 Tam on my honeymoon at the moment, and between bouts of lovemaking and romantic walks, 1 have finished roading Banachek’s mentalism opus PSI. In Chapter 14 there are some ideas on reading a volunteer’s physiological reactions to determine a selected hand (eg, reading a person’s body signals to figure out in which hand they are holding. coin), which prompted some immediate experimentation with my newly wedded wifeBanachek {don't think my method is 100% reliable, but with a bit more psychological tinkering I think it could be made to work more consistently. For what its worth, here's what happened yesterday. My wife and I were standing facing each other. She held a coin in one of her outstretched fists. While my back was turned, she had chosen which hand would hold the coin, The object, obviously, was for me to find out which hand this was. I gently geasped each of her wrists and tried to get her to relax by asking her to close her eyes and take some deep breaths. | then tried to clear her mind by asking her to count backwards from fifty, in increments of three. I don't know if this does any good, but itis a method used in psychological experiments to clear working memory. My intent was to make her stop thinking about the coin so that when I directed her attention to it again, this would be an abrupt change of mental focus. I then asked her to once more take some deep breaths, and instructed her to concentrate hard on the hand in which she was holding the coin. To my absolute delight I could see very clearly how her eyes (below the closed lids) made a distinct movement to the right. Having seen this, I paused, and then revealed to her that the coin was in her right hand. She was completely aghast at my skill That's it; that’s all. Looking at the movements of subject's eye is itself not a novel method but one nice thing about the method is that the subject has her eyes closed and is therefore unlikely to think that you 1m Psychological Subtleties 2 observed their movements, As a further consequence, they are also less likely to have any reason to disguise these movements. Banachek note: One important concept that David has picked up on is that of taking the person’s attention completely away from the coin, then bringing it abruptly back. David accomplishes thiswitha counting, technique; however, thiscan certainly be replaced with anything else that might fit your personal style or the framework you are using to present your abilities. For ‘example, you can have the spectator repeat certain words not associated with what is going on at the moment, such as naming past presidents, saying as many state names as she can think of, naming all the continents, or saying the alphabet backwards. Also, you must bring awareness back to the coin suddenly, such as by asking, “Can you feel the coin im your hand? Feel it getting warm. 1 is in your right hhanadt” Banachek tip: For a successful honeymoon, always take Banachek along,Banachek 134 Paychological Subtleties 2 SUBTLE NON-VERBAL Einstein's brain zoas smaller than average, ashe was smaller than average. His huge intelligence came from the number of connections he liad among his brain cells. Every time you learn something new, you are making new brain cell ‘connections. 135Banachek Body Language like to use convincers to prove to the audience that I am indeed doing what I am claiming, Often [ tell my audience that the way they talk, stand, act, and even breathe tells me things about them, This is accurate... toa point. observed long ago that, when asked to stand, women will usually have their hands touching and that men usually stand and put their hands in their pockets, ‘Therefore on my table I have a notepad for just such occasions. On the top of the pad I have written, “Hands itt the pocket means __.” 1 have written on the next page, “Hands touching means." Now of course the ”_“ is replaced with whatever it is you know about the information the person is thinking about. Let us say you are having them think of cities, and you know that you will be forcing a Latin country on the man and a European country fon the woman. Replace the “___” with the words “Latin country” on the top of the pad, and the words “European country’ on the second page | put de man’s psychological body language item on the top card, ast this seems the more likely ofthe two scenarios to occur. Ifthe lady's hands are not touching, atleast can show the “hands in the pocket” statement to be true and not reveal the second statement. Keep, in mind, the audience has no idea that you have these statements on the table—Iet alone two statements, Psychological Subtleties 2 ‘one behind the other —until you point it out, And you only point it out if applicable. Another thing 1 often do (for theatrical reasons) is point out that the things | am doing, and the gestures Tam making, are purposeful, subliminal influence (even when they are not), The next item is a prime example of this thinking. I am sure you can come up with othe ® Giving Them the Finger ‘Often, when the occasion arises (such as when asking, someone to name one of three or four columns in a phone book), [do the following, and then point out how I was able to get the person to think of a specific number, and give her a chance to change her mind if she wants to, 1 state the numbers. “one, fnoo, three, or four” out loud, but as I say, “two” I hold my hand as in the picture, moving it up and forward as I say, “fo” and back as I say, “thre.” This whole action is performed quickly, 80 no ‘one can really tell how many fingers are held up. No matter what number they choose out of, two, three,| | | | | | | | | ‘ \ Banachek or four, I can ask them, “Did that fel like a free choice? I will tell you it was not!” I then demonstrate how on the number they selected {moved my hand forward and up and held up that many fingers, For four I have to lie on that last piece and hold up an extra finger but if I'm not on TV this works fine. On TV they can rewind and find the lie. With my hand holding two fingers up, and a thumb, itcan either be considered asa three with the thumb, ‘ora two with only the fingers. 1 will often say “Two” with a slightly higher voice, and “Three” with a slightly deeper voice. Now I can point that out as well, depending on which number is chosen. When I recap and explain, I leave out the higher or deeper voice emphasis observation on the nor-selected number. Usually two or three will bbe selected; with four I do not mention the voice inflection, ‘Take the opportunity to practice your vocal forcing of a number. Knowing most people will select three when given the choice, practice forcing the two. You will be surprised how often you can succeed in doing this over time. Think of forcing the two when you say the numbers. This will help. Another variation of this is placing my hand against my chin as I talk. As she says the number, I change the number of fingers against my chin to match her number, and continue tatking. I repeat her number and ask if she felt it to be a free choice. I then tell her itwas not, and ask the audience to look at the number 138 Psychological Subtieties 2 of fingers I'm holding against my chin. The new comprehension of “what was going on” can be seen ‘on her face as she looks at and sees how many fingers Iwas displaying ‘The great thing about these little types of things is the reactions you will see from audiences when they think you are explaining how you are doing what you do. The more you can do this, the more gasps and laughter you invoke as folks feel like they are being brought into a secret world that they were not aware ‘of before they came to your show. z Down the Line Much like the prior audience “explanation,” this one works just as well—if not better—to persuade your audiences that you are actually using psychology to control them af times. And to be quite honest, you will be amazed at how often your statement is true, despite the fact that you can make it appear accurate even when i is not, Whenever I bring my finger down page and ask a spectator to stop me at any time, whether it is for 2 demonstration of Wordo, or a phone or other book test, [say and do the following, “Lam going to bring my finger down the page: Iwill tell _you then lami going to siar. From; that point, at any time Troan you to call out ‘Stop! Look directly at me please.Banachek “Are you ready? Look at me. Lam starting now!” At the point when state, “Lan starting now!” Look down at the page. I start to bring my-finger down the Page, wait about two seconds, and start to look up at the spectator. More often than not the spectator will say “Stop!” when I look directly at him, Sometimes it ‘will be as [look up. Either way, I state the following, “Dill that fee like a fair choice? 1 am telling you that it ‘wns not. You did whal everyone does. It was not your fal It is human instinct. Remember I told you to look at me? Remember 1 told you tohen T wns going to start and I told you I wanted you to call out ‘Stop!"? Well I looked awony From you as started, and when Twarted you to say ‘Stop! 1 simply looked up at you. When I looked directly at you Jor when I started fo ook up at you), you called out Stop!” You could not help yourself Everyone does it; again, itis ‘human nature, So woudl you like me to start all over again, eep on going down the page, move up, or stay where Lam? ‘The choice is yours.” At this point, the spectator usually wants me to start over again. I do exactly the same things again. Sometimes the spectator again says “Stop!” when I look at him, and I state, “See? I told you that you could riot help yourself. Let's try it again, and I will not look at you this lime.” snot a problem if they do not react as before, because the audience usually laughs as I do this; if they react as L look back down, however, I still have one more bit of business up my sleeve. I can say, “Did that feel like a free choice? Again, I tell you that it was not. You see, 140 Psychological Subtleties 2 ser you explain to someone that you forced them to react by looking at them, they always react when you look away. I ‘will gioe you one more chance: We can stay here, start over again, or move up the page [usually you are fairly far down the page by this point].” ‘This is one more great piece of business to convince audiences that you are using psychology to get them to react in certain ways, Look for things like this in your shows that fit the actions of your body language at moments of revelations or reactions, and use them in this manner, ‘You won't be disappointed at the audience responses The more you do it, the more you will be surprised at the wonderful bits of business audience members will give you at the endl of the show ... things like, "I noticed you said __ before you asked me to think ‘of __ and so on. Some of my best bits of business have come from lay people, without them realizing it ; The following isan effect Ihave been performing since the mid 1980s, after reading a similar effec in a John Mulholland book and later seeing Phil Goldstein's wonderful adaptation of the principle in use in his effect ‘sclation’. Both of these were book tests. ‘The method is based! on an effect first put out in the 1940s called Wordo. [have been unable to track down the original inventor. [believe Fred Peterson improved coBanachek upon the basic idea. Peterson's version first appeared in Phoenix No. 21, January 26, 1951, page 882, within a routine ealled Puzzle ofthe Pages. The Peterson version includes a second (un-gimmicked) hole, so one could see the page print move in the uncovered hole as the card was moved about the page. Max Maven made a further improvement to hide the gaff in his effect Isolation. Others who have explored this concept include Barrie Richardson and Michael Sibbernsen. ‘The method I give here uses only one hole. Back in my early days, I used a piece of plastic for the gimmick. Later I used a small section of hotel key card to make the gimmick. When I used this gimmick, Inever made mention of it, and in the right situation (e.g., a large stage), it appeared to the audience that I was just moving my finger down the page. I quit using, this method during the late 1990s, and only started to reuse it in the new millennium. It was during this time I began my phase of not needing to “run and hide” things. Asa consequence, I now use a business card. Feel free to revert to the old version. [ am sure you can figare it out without me having to explain things twice. Just don’t make mention of the gimmick to your audience. The first time this routine saw print was in April 2002, in the exclusive PEA publication Vibrations. You will also see that I incorporate the bits of business from earlier in this chapter. 142 Paychological Subtleties 2 ‘What's All this Flap About a Phone Book? Effect: ‘A prediction is sealed in an envelope in plain view fon stage. Three spectators help to select a phone number from a phone book. One spectator selects ‘a page, another selects a column on the page, and the third selects a phone number from that column. ‘One number from hundreds of thousands, yet the performer shows that he predicted it in advance. How: ‘A business card with a hole in it is used to isolate a phone number. There is a flap on the card that brings ‘a phone number into play to force it when needed Items needed for the preparation of the effect © two business cards © Scotch” tape + telephone book ‘© Post-It” Note glue + three spectators + prediction Preparation: From the printed side of the business card, in the ower right-hand area, about half a centimeter from the right edge, cut a rectangular hole about the size ‘of two phone numbers, Cut a matching piece from 43Banachek the second card; this piece needs to be slightly larger than the hole. Scotch® tape the extra piece at the top of the hole, creating a flap that pivots up and down into place. Fae oe ieee From the telephone book, cut a section of phone numbers, sized to the flap, such that the numbers show through the hole in the business card. Use Post- it? Note glue to affix this section to the flap. Close the flap, making sure that the bottom number matches up on the top of the hole, Write this number as your prediction. Multiply the number of pages in the phone book by the number of columns, and multiply the result by 150. Note this number on the front of the phone book so you can refer to it later when mentioning the amount ‘of phone numbers in the book, ua Psychological Subtleties 2 Stick your gimmick in the last page of the phone ‘book containing numbers (most phone books end the numbers section prior to the end of the book). Make sure your gimmick is set with the flap open and the hole clear Performance: Bring one spectator on stage to help. “J have « local phone Book here. Ihave placed a business card in the book atthe last page ofthe phone numbers.” Open the book at the business card, and remove the card. “How many pages are there here?” 400," roplies the spectator. “That is right, and on each page there are five colunans Eacit column has approximately 150 niembers. How may phone numbers is that?” “Alot,” states the spectator. “tt is alo) Is, give or take, depending upon white space, 300,000 phone numbers. You and afew other spectators are going to aelp me select one phone number from the book Please lnck at me. Now open the phone book to any page.” The spectator does so and is given the opportunity to change his mind.Banachek Place the business card fon the second column with the flap open so you see the real numbers on the page through the hole. “If place my business card on the page, you can see that it covers two columns, We are dealing with the one on the right, so we will always use this second number right here.” Point to the second number in the box. “For instance, ifiwe were here, we would choose 713-867-5432." Move the card further down, ”... or if ‘we were here, it would be 281-887-8652. Is thal clear? | want to make sure you understand which number we are using, so you do not think I am changing anything on you later.” ‘A few things have been accomplished here. The auctience does not know that there isa hole in the card. Do not hide this, but do not mention it either. Because you mention two columns, it sounds to the audience like you are talking about two different numbers in two different columns, when in reality the spectator ‘on stage is looking at the hole with two numbers in it, To the spectator on stage you are explaining that the second ssuutber is the one to be chosen. You could change the gimmick such that it displays only one number, but I prefer the look and feel of the extra space and additional numbers in the hole. You are also subconsciously making it clear to the audience that the numbers are all different. I take it a step further by remarking to the spectator on stage, Psychological Subtleties 2 "So as yor can see, the munbers are all different on the page. This is not a phonebook I had printed. There are over 300,000 different phone rwurabers in this book.” Select a second spectator to choose a column on that page. “I need a third spectatar to help me select a phone tnuniber from these 150 phone numbers.” A third spectator is asked to stand; at this moment the flap is brought into play. Slide the card down the age, asking the spectator to call out “Stop” at any time. The spectator on stage reads out the number stopped at, and the audience is asked to remember this number, Close the book and drop it on the stage with a loud thud. As you turn to your prediction, drop the business card in your pocket. “One number out of over 300,000 selected by the audience.” Now reveal your prediction to match, Notes: Never mention the page number selected by the spectator. This way, if some astute audience member remembers. the phone number, she can’t check later if the number . was on that page. As you stide the card down the page with the gimmick in place, make sure you hide the phone number from the on-stage spectator. If he is really close, cover it entirely. If he is to your side, just 7Banachek 4 Paychological Subtleties 2 make sure that your arm or hand (see picture) blocks the number until you ask him to look at it, Do not | treat the business card like something you are trying, q to hide when you remove it from the phone book, 4 SUBTLE TEACHING ‘A study showeil that when rauthers spoke freyuently fo eis infants, their children learned about 300 more words by age : froo than did children whose mothers rarely spoke to them. 8 149Banachek When I perform, [ike leaving my audiences feeling, that they have leamed a litle something about how the brain works, or how I accomplish things in my world, Following are examples of presentations 1 use toconvince audiences that [can indeed influence them by what I say and do, and that the world around them may not be as simple as they see at first glance. This first example is based upon a wonderful concept that Doce Hilford came across. In the original version, which appeared in Kenton Knepper's Wonder Wordls Volume 3, the performer reads a sentence and then shows how the sentence contains all of the numbers listed, except for the number “three.” Docc has kindly allowed me to share my version of his effect. Thave retained the same sentence, but added a host ‘of subtleties to convince the audience that I truly did influence themon verbal and non-verbal psychological levels. For One to End ‘The performer stands on stage with a printed sheet of paper, folded lengthwise and bearing the statement, “For one to end, one has to begin.” He says to the audience, “I will read this once and you will read this twice; Twill read this once and you wil read this twice.” 150 Psychological Subtleties 2 ‘The performer then points to each word on the paper as he reads, “For one to end, one has to begin.” “Read it with me please, For one to end, one has to begin.” again pointing out each word as he reads the phrase. “One more time, everyone please. For one to end, one has to begin!” ‘The performer then turns the folded sheet around, revealing tae numbers 1 234 (as in the picture). “Get one of these numbers int your mind, Lock it in your rind; don’t change it.” Almost immediately, the performer opens the folded paper, displaying the contents and asking, “Hou many people got this number?” On the inside of the folded sheet is a large number oy “Great, how many of you want to know why so many people chose the number three? 151Banachek “It's simple; most people do not want tobe first, and most people do not toant to be last,” explains the performer as he points atthe 1 and the 4. “Most people are happy being somewhere in the middle, so they choose the two or the three. How do I make sure you don’t choose the two or the other numbers? Well I mentioned all the numbers and their positions, except fer the three, as often as 1 possibly could, keeping the three fresh, so when you saw it you would select it.” The performer then folds the paper in half again, with the original phrase facing the audience. “Remember ‘wher 1 said in the beginning ‘Tam going to read it once and you are going to read it twice’? I mentioned the one dad the two tice and T had hardly even begun. [then hud you read this sentence twice and it says: “For one to end, one has to begin” 41241 21 The performer points to the words representing 4, 1, 2, 4,1, 2, and 1, and then points at the 4 and Tas he says the words “End” and “Begin” respectively. “Notice that it names all the numbers and their positions, all except forthe 3, that is. That's why, when you see the 3, it is new fo your mind!" 182 Poychological Subtleties 2 The performer pauses for effect, because people will ‘gasp with the realization that what was said is true Fie then his them with one more item: “And how many people saw thenon-verbal communication? T hela up the sheet of paper with three fingers the entire time." Like the preceding demonstration, the following is directly out of my show. I would prefer that, while Tam still around, no one actually perform it as described, but instead create their own variations; however, Ihave to be realistic and know that since it is in this book, others will do it. As noted elsewhere, my reason for writing this series of books is not to create Banachek clones, but to help others think ‘outside the box and create their own effects. This uses numerous techniques I have taught elsewhere in this series, including presentational points. Forgive me if some of it seems repetitive as a consequence, but it helps to put things in perspective, and is a perfect example of structuring an interesting routine using these methods. Circle Triangle “How many people here would tke to know how 1 do what Ido?” I boldly ask There is nothing psychic about what I do. I take my five known senses to create the illusion of a sixth. I use verbal comrunicctios, non-verbal communication, magic, psychology, and perceptual manipulation to accomplish ‘my feats, Some are a combination of these techniques, some 153,Banachek only use one, as to which effect contains which, that is up to -you to decide; | need to leave you with some mystery. “What is non-verbal commumication? A husband and wife are sitting on a porch. A pretty woman goes jogging by. The hhustand watches her go by. The wife slaps the husband. We know what the husband was thinking and we know what the wife ts thinking. We have not read their minds but we do know what they are thinking. We have read their thoughts. That is what Ido. I read thoughts, not minds! “If you come up to me after the show and say; Read my mind,’ Lean't do that. But if you punched me in the face— don’t do it—then I would know what you though’ about the show, “Now 1 know that sounds kind of silly, so let me teach you what I mean on a more subtle level. “For this 1am going to use verbal and non-verbal ‘communication. “Verbal communication; what does that mean? It means 1 ‘want you to listen to me. If you are talking to someune else cr they are talking to you, this will not work for you or for them, and probably will not work for those around you. “Twill also be using non-verbal communication; what does hut mean? IC means Lwunt you to took at me, look directly at my eyes. If you look up or down or anywhere but at me, this probably will not work for you either. “Since 1 am using the entire audience, I also sant you to {30 with the first thing that comes into mind. If Thad you up here one on one, it would be a little different. But remember, Tam trying to teach you something as well, so go with the 154 Psychological Subtleties 2 {first thing that comes into your mind and do not change it ‘oF i will get confusing for you “OK, lt’s see... what are we going to use? OK, [have it “I oant you to think of tao different geometric shapes, one inside the other like « square with something else inside, bout don’t use a square, because everyone does. “Two different geometric shapes, one inside the other ... do you have them? “Great, how many people were thinking of triangle and a circle? “Keep your hands up. “How many at least got the triangle? Raise your hands as well? Good, all of you keep your hands up. “How many got the circle? Fantastic, there are one or too people whe did not, but almost everyone else did. “Want to bow why? “Let me explain. Firs ofall, used verbal communication. 1 asked you io think of two different simple geometric shapes. This should get you to think of a simple geometric shape If you thought of anything complicated you either weren't listening or trying to trick me instead of going along with it. The most common shape selected is the square, but T pointed out that i is the most common shape and asked you not to select it “But that still leaves you with many shapes, like a heart, diamond, rectangle, oF star. So how do I make sure you get the circle and triangle, or at least a combination of those shapes?Banachek “Well L used non-verbal communication. Let me explain, except this time, instead of looking at my eyes, I want you to watch my hands. This is exactly what.t said and did; “OK, let's se, what are we going to use, OK Ihave i “want you to think of two diferent geometric shapes, one inside the other” As state this, both hands simultaneously make shapes of both a triangle and circle. I first draw the triangle, and then the circle, performing these actions at about shoulder level. There's no hurry; [have plenty of time. T walk towards the audience as I do this continue, “... lke @ square with something else inside.” At this point I make a triangle shape with my hands in front of my body as Istand still, “... but don’t use a square, because everyone does.” 156 Psychological Subtleties 2 Now I make a single triangle shape with both of my hands, pulling them away from each otherasmy hands go down and in and | state, “Tivo different geometric shapes, one inside the other ... do you have them?” As Lask “do you have them?”, I punctuate it by drawing, a circle with my right hand in front of me. Atthis point the audience slaughing atthe realization of what! just did, Iam now giving them abit of a hook tohangitheirastonishmenton. To them tis plausible explanation. To me, it isa bit bogus; however, there is some truth in the demonstration. Again, to put it all in context, Ido tell my audience that 1 use magic and other methods to accomplish my goals. Itwould not be right for me to tell the audience 157Banachek that verbal and non-verbal communications are the only methods I use. As said elsewhere, a lie is a lie, and holding to such a statement would be a lie. Conditioning an audience to accept your hand gestures as a part of your normal body language is, extremely important in this routine. When I start the demonstration, [ wave my hands around a bit as I say, “OK, let's see .. what are we going to use?” This gets the audience conditioned to the actions of me moving ‘my hands around, and as a result it is not as obvious when [later draw the shapes in the ai 2 Based upon the structure of the previous effect, my good friend Andrew Gerard, a professional hypnotist and mentalist living in Canada, and regarded as cone of the greatest thinkers in this field, sent me the following routine, Notice his subtleties. Everything, has a rhyme and reason. He calls it Instant Messagin; by Geran ‘The following routine is one that hhas been the opener to my show for the past few years. Although the routine had simplebeginnings, it has developed into something that is a well-constructed "macro effect’ for any audience 158 Psychological Subtleties 2 ‘As mind entertainers, our strongest effects and moments happen in the imaginations of those who watch us not on a chalkboard. Itis my belief that, after an effect, the audience should ideally place all of its attention/focus on the performer, not the props. This routine pleases me very much, asit involves the entire audience, getting their attention with no props at all, and having a huge impact, with a kicker ending. After being properly introduced, you walk to center front stage and stand totaly still, with a slight grin, making eye contact with as many people as possible in three to four seconds. This technique raises the question in their minds, “Who is he and what's he going to do?” Now you will answer. “How many here believe in ESP? Raise your hands.” You ook at a man in the front and says “I said ESP sir, not ESPN.” The audience lets out a chuckle and relaxes. Now they know two things about you: one, that you are about to do something involving ESP and, two, that you are a lighthearted guy. If this does not suit your style, insert an opening line that will fit you, but never just walk on and assume they know who you are and what you do. That is a death wish. 1 prefer the term ‘instant messaging’." looking, at the same man in the front. “Not like AOL sir.” Another chuckle occurs. This is called a “call back” line, and will be very important at the end of this effect. “Let's try a warm-up test so that all of you can test the power of your own minds.” Again you are putting the audience in a situation where they must pay attentionBanachek and focus on you on a secondary level, the implication being that your mind has already been tested. “Everyone sit up straight in your seats with your fet fiat on the floor If you are holding a drink, then please put it own arid look at me.” Again, sitting up with feet on the floorhasnothing to do with the effect, but it conditions them to do what you say and follow instructions. “Twould tke each of you to imagine that you are siting in 4 movie theatre and there is a large screen that separates ‘you [pause] from me. Good. In a moment I will project a ‘message onto your screen; a simple geometric shape lke a square, but not that, “So your job isto think of it and try and get it sharply in ‘your mind.” Here you make forward gestures from your temple to an imaginary point in front of your face. Remember, that’s where they are looking. It should look as though your hands are forming the roof of a house oF a triangle in the shape you are trying to force. Study the wording and you will see that the phrase “try and-get” sounds like “triangle,” emphasized by the word “sharply.” “Not all of you participated!” This statement is totally untrue, All did participate but you need an excuse to do itagain. “So we will doit again; for those who already have a shape in mind, please remeniber it and follow my instructions. I want everyone to clear your screens and imagine another basic geometrical shape around or outside the ist one.” 160 Psychological Subtleties 2 “Much like before, you use the term “around” to force circle. Actually draw ahalf circle in the air with each hhand as seen in your peripheral vision. At this point you have eliminated the square by mentioningit; the rectangle screen will notbe picked as it’s too obvious. Almost everyone will be thinking of a triangle and a circle, some will have them backwards a circle inside a triangle. That's not a problem, because you are not going to draw the image, but announce it. ‘We learn again here that our words are the strongest tool we have. The following statement covers both drawings, making this a 100% successful test “I am interested to see how many have passed their mind tesi.” Really, who does not want to pass the test? “Raise your hand if you received my message ofa triangle?” Wait for three seconds ... all hands go up. Very spooky for them. Now say, “... and inside a circle? Give yourselves a huge round of applause.” ‘This statement fits both images, a triangle inside a circle and a triangle with a circle inside it: “a triangle and inside a circle.” Atthis peint you will hear people starting to talk about this. Let them do so for three to four seconds, then regain control by saying, “I want fo explain something here. This test has nothing to do with ESP but everything to do with what you are about see forthe next 45 minutes: influence, But this was not entirely my doing, no... no no. “You will remember that, in the very beginning, I made a ‘casual comment to this gentleman in the front row about 161Banachek “Instant messaging.’ Well it appears that our friends at AOL know quite a bit about influence. They know that ‘everyone here has seen their ads 2,318 times last year, Do you remember what their logo looks like? Maybe not consciously, but your subconscious does!” Now you display a large picture of the AOL logo: a circle and a triangle, AOL Thope that you see why everything is where itis in this routine. The jokes are not simply jokes, but wording carefully placed for more than one reason. Banachek Note: Don't forget that you can also point ‘out your use of the words “try-and-get” and the word “around” to influence them even further to get the triangle and circle, Pseudo Directing Often in my demonstrations, when I know information ahead of time, I will purposefully draw that information in the air, or hold that many fingero up, of state a strange sentence in such a way that it looks like Tam making the person think of the abject via verbal or non-verbal means, even if it is not so. ‘This just adds to the overall illusion for the rest of the audience. If they catch me doing this, then they assume that is how I am influencing the spectator. To 182 Psychological Subtleties 2 the audience, this is just as amazing as me reading, someone's mind, For example, if I have pre-showed someone on a number (let us say itis “three”) I will have her look into my eyes and quickly draw the number three in the air or hold up three fingers as I gesture to make it look like lam making her think of the number three. Sometimes, instead of making a physical gesture, I will use a vocal variation on the item I know she is thinking of, especially if | am reciting a list of items or ‘numbers. |All of these techniques work just as well with psychological forces, Here is an example of this principle used by my business partner, Scott Wells, He does a movie prediction during his performance that is pre-showed (ie, Scott knows in advance which movie will be selected) While on stage, he says that his volunteer will soon think of a movie, but first the volunteer is to select, ‘a category tor that movie. Then Scott names a few categories, such as comedy, romanee, science fiction, action, drama, animation, etc. He subtly touches his volunteer on the correct category in such a way that it is obvious to the audience what just transpired (the secret touch). Those in the audience who catch this now feel as if they are “in the know” as to Scott's 163Banachek method of influencing his volunteer, He correctly reveals the genre of the movie, and then continues bith his routine 2 Stroop Test This next demonstration is a fun thing that many mentalists have used. It shows how easy itis to tick the brain, especially when the brainis trained tofollow certain psychological patterns. To understand why it works, try the following, Look at the next word but try not to read it: FISH Could you doit? More than likely, not. We have trained ourselves so well to read words that when asked not to read a word looked at, it is very difficult, if not impossible, to do so. The Stroop test demonstrates our ‘mental vitality and flexibility. It demonstrates how we can read a word more quickly and automatically than we can name a color we see. For instance, if we print the word “red.” using blue ink, it is easier to read the color “red” than it is to say the color it is printed in (blue). Our ability to read overshadows our ability to say the color of the letters. You must inhibit or stop one response, and say or do something else. The cognitive mechanism involved in this task is called “inhibition,” 164 Psychological Subtieties 2 This task of making an appropriate response (when given two conflicting signals) has tentatively been located in a part of the brain called the anterior cingulate. This is a region that lies between the right and left halves of the frontal portion of the brain. It is involved in a wide range of thought processes and ‘emotional responses. ‘The Stroop test is named after John Ridley Stroop, who published his findings in his 1935 thesis. When the test is given scientifically, itis usually given in three progressively harder stages. For example, the first stage displays a colored box and the subject has to select the matching written color (out of two possibilities) The second stage displays a written color and the task is to select the matching word out of two written options. The last stage displays a word that names a color, but is printed in a different color. The challenge is to match the color of the printing with the names of the colors (all written in black) below the word. Thus, if the word is “blue,” but written in orange ink, the correct response is the word “orange.” ‘The differences in times used to complete each stage—and the differences in the numbers of mistakes made—are amazing, Scientists use such methods to gain insight into ‘cognitive effects they say are caused by Attentional Fatigue.Banachek It's the final stage that so many use to demonstrate how our minds can be tricked, and how hard it is to change a set routine once our minds have been trained. ‘ ‘To illustrate this for yourself, type on your computer the following words: “ted,” “blue,” “green,” “purple,” “yellow,” “pink.” Now change the displayed color of each word to a color other than the one named. For example, display “red” in a green font, “blue” ina red font, etc. Now quickly read aloud the colors used to display the words (as opposed to reading the words themselves). You wil find this extremely difficult. You ‘caneven create large placards to show your audiences, to let them see how the mind can be tricked. Number Stroop Test Since the original Stroop tests have become common, ‘many other tests, including auditory and othersensory interruptions, have been developed to demonstrate how easily the mind can be confused, Below are the ‘two stages of the Number Stroop test. In both tests you say how many words you see rather than the words themselves, For instance, in the first block of Test One, the word “cat” is written luce times. So the correct response is “three.” Go through each block and name the number of words rather than the words themselves, Then try the second stage of this test and see how difficult it becomes. Make sure to time your responses and see how many seconds different the second stage is 166 Psychological Subtleties 2 Stage One: aa hand cat cat | PE | car | 4008 | 298 | gait | hand cat] pen door | flag hand fag hand | $27 | batt | pen | oy lag | car Cor | ball | pen 7 hand | $90r P fag | pen cat car | ball | hand | 138 | Pen cat | #°°F| car | bait | hand | fa | Pen In Stage Two, do exactly the same. Do not say the ‘word as printed, but the number of times the word appears, Stage Two: a two two three | one | four | two | {| two | three three | ore | ae | four | two two one wo four three pan two J ree four | 8M | thre | 0 two one wo two | one one three | one | four pd one | "° |three| one | four | {¥° | one As you can see, the amounts of time required for these tasks are considerably different: 167Banachek Still another version of this testis called the: Directional Stroop Test In this experiment you are required to say if the word is located “up” in the box, “down” in the box, on the “eft” side of the box, or on the “right” side of the box. Do not say what the word says. For example: tet | Left Left You should say -Youshould You should say “up” because say “right” “left” because the word isin because it isin itis in the left the upper part the rightside part of the box. ofthe box. of the box. ‘Once again, the idea is to go as quickly as possible, and keep track of your time Stage One: UF Up oF Lot Right} Dow UP UB ight} Lot Let own | [or ight Lett Down Down 168 Psychological Subtletios 2 Stage Two: Bown Rat ty Ron | | oom] be, Deum ie ‘Bown Right | | Right Lon Lor Tait Bow Rant et Len vp z In the July 2004 issue of the Psychic Entertainers Associations newsletter, Vibrations, mentalist Lance Campbell related a wonderful anecdote about how he used the next principle in a court of law. Lance performs primarily in the western part of the United States where he takes his show, An ESP Experience, on the road, Lance has given me permission to reprint the story here. Disorder in the Court ‘by Lance Campbell My wife and I had just come out of a movie theater that we have gone to consistently for over ten years IN. When we got to our car we found a 169Banachek parking ticket on the windshield. They had changed the area to a residential (sticker required) zone, 1 felt annoyed because the area looked the same: no new buildings, no new sidewalks, and no changes in the street in any way. Just a new little sign, high up on a pole, stating, “No Parking Unless Stickered.”” Idecided to fight the ticket. Kknew (hey, 'mamentalist) that the judge was going to say that I should have looked around, been more aware of my surroundings, tc. My logic was that since the area looked the same as it has for ten years, there was no reason for me to suspect any change. So I came up with a way of proving my point. I wrote the following phrase for the judge to read out loud As we drove down the street next to the theater, someone pulled out and we took one ofthe too empty spots that were there. It was upon returning from the ‘movie that we noticed a ticket on the the windshield of our car, It was only then that we noticed the sign stating the area was zoned, Not only did she read it, but she also had a tape recorder on her desk that she had used as a matter of procedure. | thanked her and said that she had just Proven my puintl I den showed her the duplicated “the” before the word “windshield.” 1 said, “If you play back the recording you will see that you read it as only one “the,” even though the other was iw plain sight next fo it. That's because that is what you expected to see. Likewise, I did not see the sign on the post because the neighborhood looked just like | expected to see i” She smirked and said, “All right, dismissed.” 170 Psychological Subtleties 2 I was tempted to give her my business card, but thought better of it. Invisible Word Principle Lance's story is a true one, but perhaps you can come upwith your own to tell after you present the following versions of this old demonstration. Have your entire audience read the sentences below. Then after they do, point out the double words they missed A Bird Inthe the hand Paris inthe the Spring A drop inthe the bucket wiBanachek, You got to pick a a pocket or two! can you read minds like like Banachek? a Invisible Letter Principle Another of the same basic principles is shown by having the audience count the leter Fs n the following sentence: FINISHED FILES ARE THE RESULT OF YEARS OF SCIENTIFIC STUDY COMBINED WITH THE EXPERIENCE OF MANY YEARS. ‘The majority of people will say there are as few as three Fs, but in reality there are six. Most people do not count the Fs in the words “of.” This is as a result of the brain's ability to process short words as one single unit (symbols) rather than separate units, as is done with longer and less familiar words. In fact, the two. Psychological Subtleties 2 types of words are probably processed in separate areas of the brain. Bits & Pieces Another example of the brain’s ability to take words and read them as a whole, rather than as individual letters, is demonstrated by the following self- explanatory paragraph ‘The Phaomnneil Pweor of the Hmuan Mnid Avcedimig to rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mitaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and Isat Itteers be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a total mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is beuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ecah Iteter by istlef, but the wrod asa wlohe. You may recall, from Scott Wells’ Foreword in PS1, that the stencil font for the book title was specifically chosen with this latter idea in mind. Specifically, the mind puts together what it knows should be there, So, aldhwugh the Fetters do not join, the mind completes Goch iter 2 Here are a few related ideas from lan Rowland who uses many teaching tools in his “skeptical” lectures, 173Banachek The “Watch Face” isa standard that many mentalists have used at some point and even one I have written about; however, lan uses it as an example’only. The types of demonstrations that Ian talks about can. be used whenever one is presenting a partial memory lapse effect, like forgetting one's name or a playing card, This is also a wonderful demonstration of thinking and creating your own unique presentations for standard effects. Comedians do it all the time. How many versions of the knock-knock joke have you heard? Yet it all started from one simple knock- knock joke. It’s On the Tip of Mi by lan Rowland If you ask people whether the head on their country’s coins or stamps face left or right, most will have to guess, because they don’t really know. Likewise, they are unlikely to know if their own watch, which they wear every day, has regular Arabic numerals, Roman numerals, or just non-numeral marks indicating the hour segments There are many of these little everyday proofs that swe tend not to be very observant, and mentalists have made use of many of them at some point or other. ‘They are a way to involve an entire audience, they are fun, and they can be used in all sorts of routines to bolster specific themes (e.g, the way the mind processes information is stranger than we realize, or ‘we can all train the mind to develop new faculties). Psychological Subtleties 2 It’s a good idea for mentalists to constantly be on the lookout for fresh examples of this kind of thing, rather than constantly relying on the old classics. One point is, that the classi ones can get outmoded. Many younger people may never have seen any watch display except a digital one, or never have used a stamp at all in the age of e-mail, Developing new examples also helps to keep our material fresh and contemporary and to engage new (younger) audiences. For example, a lot of young people are very brand conscious, and may be loyal to popular brands that cultivate the youth market, such as Nike. They all know the Nike “swoosh.” But ask them if the second letter in the Nike logo is drawn as a solid capital J shape (essentially an upright rectangle) or a lowercase T with a dot over the upright, and they'll find they can’t recall even though they have all seen it a million times. In fact, they may even be wearing it The Simpsons. What color is the sofa that they all sit on when they watch TV? You've seen it a million times, bbut you don't know! What about the logo of that famous burger company: does it say, “McDonald's” with an apostrophe or “McDonalds” without one? ‘Again, you've seen it a million times but you don’t know. Everyone in America, whether they read it or not, hhas seen the USA Today newspaper logo. It’s written across two lines, “USA” on top and “TODAY” on the bottom. But which letter is the $ over? And what are the colors in the NBC “peacock” logo? 75Banachek ‘These are all items we see in everyday life, things we stare at, things our subconscious knows, yet we forget to remember, Look for fresh examples from your own country and ‘culture, ones that are relevant to your audience. Backward Alphabet A fan stunt to show your audience how the mind works is to teach them to say the alphabet backwards. Have them memorize the few nonsense lines below to recall the matching letters. A few run-throughs will do it, Let me first explain to you that being from England, I pronounce the letter Z as zed rather than zee. As a result, the letter Z (zed) rhymes with "said.” Zed) YX wo Said Wye, Eggs double-your fee. UTSR QP You Tea is our Kew Pee. O NML KJ Oh animal cage, eh? IHGFEDC BA Thate G if he deceives B.A. Another versio Zyxwvts rqp on mk jihg fed cba Six withouts recoup on milk JING, FED CBA 76 Psychological Subtleties 2 ‘Think of JING as dancing a jig, FED as in Federal and CBA as some other organization. Try both versions and see what works for you.Banachek Psychological Subtieties 2 SUBTLE AMNESIA To attain the rank of grand master of memory, you must be able to perform three seemingly superhuman feats: You have to memorize 1000 digits in under an hour, the precise order of 10 shuffle decks of playing cards in the same amount of time, and one shuffled deck in less than tao minutes 178 179Banachek, Memory Memories are stored in many areas of the brain. But one brain structure known to be involved in the complex processes of forming, sorting, and storing memories is the hippocampus. Not only is the hippocampus responsible for fling away memories, it also connects them with other related memories, giving the memories meaning. In other words, the hippocampus might be connecting the memory of your first day in kindergarten with information about the physical surroundings, the smelis, and the sounds of that event. There are three major types of memory: Short-Term Memory is stored in the brain for milliseconds and believed to last up to a maximum of 30 seconds. It is sort of a scratch pad for long. term memory, and the ink fades quickly if not transferred to the main computer. Up until recently, itwas believed that short-term memory was stored exclusively in the hippocampus, but recent studies have shown that it shares the responsibility with the subiculum, In fact, the shortest memories are stored exclusively in the subiculum part of the brain. No new protein synapses are formed with short-term memories, hence the reason they fade quickly. Then there is Working Memory. Although some think working memory and short-term memory are the same, they are not. Working memory is stored in many areas of the brain, whereas short- 180 Psychological Subtleties 2 term memory is stored in only two areas. What this means is that unlike short-term memory, where we are aware of all the information at the same time, with working memory we may not, We use working memory for tasks like multiplying numbers, In order to multiply ten by five and get the answer of fifty, we have to perform a series of calculations. To keep all this in memory for the brief period of time during which we need it, we ‘use working memory. ‘Then there is Long-Term Memory. This is where working memories and short-term memories are stored indefinitely, via a mechanism called consolidation. This is usually a consequence of attention, repetition, and associated ideas. ‘The major difference between short- and long-term memories is the fact that short-term memory is a bi electrical type of memory, storing information in the form of electrical signals, whereas long-term memory is a bio-chemieal type of memory. ‘The power of the brain to commit our lives to memory is amazing when you think about it. But what ahont when we forget things? When we have temporary of long-term amnesia? Forget Me Not ‘Transient Global Amnesia (TGA) is a type of amnesia involving a sudden, temporary disturbance in an otherwise healthy person’s memory. In transient ‘global amresia, both distant memories and immediate recall are generally retained, as are language function, 181Banachek attention, visual-spatial, and social skills. However, during the period of amnesia, people suffering from the disorder cannot remember recent occurrences, nor can they retain any new visual or verbal information for more than a couple of minutes. People afflicted with transient global amnesia always recover, and can remember the memories that were lost during the episode. Once they regain their memories, some people, can recall both the episode and the feeling of not being able to remember. However, others never recover the memories of the disturbing event or the events immediately preceding it Anterograde Amnesia is a type of memory loss associated with a trauma, disease, oremotional events, It is characterized by the inability to remember new information, Emotional/Hysterical Amnesia (also known as Fugue Amnesia) is a memory loss caused by psychological trauma with which the mind finds it difficult to eal, usually a temporary condition, As a rule, the memory slowly or suddenly comes back a fow days later, although memory of the trauma may remain incomplete, Lacunar Amnesia is the inability to remember « specific event. For instance, it could occur when person witnesses an act of violence so terrible that the sufferer rejects the reality ofthe situation. Childhood Amnesia is the inability to remember events from ones own childhood. Sigmund Freud attributed this 10 sexual repression; still others 182 Psychological Subtleties 2 have theorized that this may be due to language development or immature parts of the brain. Korsakoff Syndrome is memory loss caused by chronic alcoholism, The person's short-term memory may be normal, but he or she will have severe problems recalling a simple story, lists of untelated ‘words, faces, and complex patterns. This tends t0 be a progressive disorder and is usually accompanied by neurological problems, such as uncoordinated movements and loss of feeling in the fingers and toes, Once these symptoms occur, it may be too late to stop drinking Posthypnotic Amnesia is memory loss sustained from a hypnotic state. can include inability to recall. events that occurred during hypnosis, or information stored in long-term memory. Retrograde Amnesia is the inability to remember events that occurred before the incidence of trauma or the onset of the disease that caused the amnesia Sometimes people never remember the seconds leading upto the incident. Sufferers tend not to forget their childhoods or who they are, but have trouble remembering day-to-day events. As an amnesiac recovers, he or she usually recalls older memories first, and then more recent memories, until almost all memory is recovered. Memories of events that occurred around the time of the trauma or onset of amnesia are sometimes never recovered. The two most commonly discussed forms of amnesia are Retrograde Amnesia and Anterograde Amnesia. 183Banachek ‘Someone suffering from Retrograde Amnesia cannot recall memoties that occurred before the onset of amnesia. Someone with Anterograde Amnesia cannot remember incidents that happen after the onset of amnesia. An easy way to remember the difference between the two is that Anterograde Amnesia begins with the letter A, which can be associated with “after. Global Amnesia means a total loss of memory. This may be a defense mechanism, which can occur after «a traumatic event. Sufferers must learn to read, write, add, subtract, talk, and basically everything else all over again. Partial amnesia results in forgetting, only one or a few incidents. Infantile Amnesia is the inability to recall events from the first few months following birth, This is due to the inability of the brain to create a substance called myelin, which insulates neurons. Sleep-Induced Amnesia is the most common type of, amnesia and we all have it. Its caused by the brain's inability to store dreams in long-term memory. Any of these types of amnesia makes for a great topic to talk ahout with audiences when precenting an effect that involves temporary memory loss. In Particular, every person in your audience can relate to the last two types. Imagine telling your audience, “Everyone here has experienced memory oss or ammesia in their lifetime; I can prove it “Can anyone rememiber what they did when they were five ‘months old? Of course you can't. You see, at that stage in your development the neurons that make up your brain 1st Psychological Subtleties 2 hadn't developed a substance called myelin, which sheathes ‘and insulates them. The result is that the brain cannot retain messoges in sequence. I's called Infantile Armesia. “How often have you had a fantastic dream, woken up, rementeredit-ony lo have tee toa oaporous memory rover tobe ale again leaving frustrating oo? This teed Slop Induced Amnesia, Ii caused by the fc thatthe brain és unable to perform its usual frst step of ncn ston yo are sleep de 10 the ful hat eile gon sleep yr cortex does not ge a lined 0 when Sow arate. Ave vesult, memories do not get encoded Jiang tht is retricoble. Dreams are store in short- form momory ad teres ited space in hat area ofthe brain Asan, the dream gets pushed ou prior to being tncoted in ong-term memory “One way to remember that dream is to think about it the moment you wnke up and go over it before something else pushes it out to never never land. By thinking about it sufficiently while awake, you will encode your dream in iontorm memory 2 ‘The following item, submitted by Veter Arcane, is perfect to imply forcing using verbiage. Peter has been performing mentalism for over one and @ half decades at this writing. He is a prolific author/ inventor of mentalism and magic(k), and has an aifinity for anything associated with the occult, Peter twas and is the owner and creator of Center Tear e- Magazine (the first free electronic magazine devoted 185Banachek entirely to mentalism) and is the author of The Arcaie Approach and Zodiac Key Words (ZKW) a book to which contributed. R2F (Remembering to Forget) ( by Peter Arcane “How are you with numbers?” asks the performer of a volunteer. "Do you think you can remember a simple three-digit number?” A three-digit number is written on a business card. The volunteer signs this card, which is placed face down on the table in full view of the audience, ‘The performer now looks the volunteer in the eye and says, “Sometimes itis just as easy to forget as it isto remember. Remembering to forget is okay. It's forgetting fo remember that is easier. Just let yourself elax as you forget {0 remember ... forget to remember ... it’s gone! Do you remember your number?” The performer is suggesting to the spectator and to the audience that he is throwing her off balance bit by using some confusing words. “You won't be sure whether you've forgotten fo remember or remembered 10 forget, Now, can you remember or did you for-gat-to [482] remember?” The volunteer stutters and stumbles, then calls out the ‘number “482.” The signed card is turned over and she is shown to be wrong, The number is “248.” nS SAO SSS atisicsest Psychological Subtleties 2 How: ‘The method uses the “Out to Lunch” (OTL) principle, invented by Edward Bagshawe, and found in his book Twenty Magical Novelties. Take one business card and cut it in half. Take a stack of 15-20 business cards, blank side uppermost. Hold them in portrait orientation, and write 248 on the top half of the top business card. Take the business card you cut in half and place it on top. of the writing. Wrap a couple of elastic bands (two in case one breaks) around the middle of the stack to hide the seam, In performance, bring out and show the cards to the volunteer. Write the number 482 on the half card. Make sure that only the volunteer sees the number. Ask her to sign the bottom half of the card. I find that it helps if you place a small “x” on the blank half or draw a line for her to sign on, After she has signed the card, take back the pen and stack of cards. Turn the cards so that the numbers face yous, and pull out the card from the signed end. Hold onto the half card and the rest of the stack, Place the cigned card face down on the table or in the spectator’s hand, Now go into the R2F script, understanding that the important part is the "forget to remember” phrase. As you say it repeatedly, speed up, and emphasize different arts of it. For example, “four get two remember,” and “four eight two remember.” 187Banachek For both the volunteer and those watching, it should sound like you are trying to have her think of the 482. Of course that’s the number she will call.out unless she has forgotten it, If she forgets her number, then you have shown it to be simple to make someone forget something as simple as a three digit number. If she remembers her number and calls out “482,” then turn over the signed card to show the number “248.” Either way is a win- win situation for the performer and the notion of “complete mind control.” & | believe it was Luke Jermay, in his trick RGM from his 7 Deceptions book, who first used a switch to make it look like a spectator has forgotten what is on a card and used the verbiage “remember to forget.” It was Peter who cleverly hit upon using the word forget to sound like an 8 and using it in such a way to cause the audience to think you are using verbiage to cause the spectator to have a memory lapse. Unaware of Peter's contribution, my good friend Tony Razrano, past President of the Psychic Entertainers Association, sent me a very similar idea a year later: He had worked on the concept with another friend, Nick Belleas, Nick and Tony used the same Out to Lunch (OTL) Principle fo cause a spectator to forget one of four shapes. My friend Luke pointed out to me that Jay 188 ed Psychological Subtleties 2 Sankey ws te fst ase people t apparent forge one shape from a group in his Memary Lapse effet fom: his DVD, 2 Bs fo the Hen. tke the iden a Tot and as a result changed it somewhat to come up with some nice visual imagery. ‘Twinkle, Twinkle, Little ... What? The performer selects a spectator to help with an ‘experiment in memory. Once the spectator is standing, next to the performer, the latter removes a stack of business cards. He walks forward and shows the audience that there are some shapes on the face of the banded stack. In a minute he is going to cause the spectator on stage to forget one of them. The performer moves back and stands next to the spectator, pointing to the stack, and saying, “In a minute I am going fo ask you fo memorize these shapes. ‘You are going to forget one.” The performer then removes a pen from his pocket and hands the stack to the spectator, asking him to memorize the shapes and, when he is sure he can remember all of them, sign the card and hand the stack back to the performer. The performer takes the stack back, pulling the sited card out as he instructs the spectator to, “Hold your hhand out palm up. Tami going to place this on your hand; place your other hand over it. If | touch the card at al, the experiment ends. roant you to let us all know if touch the card at any time during this experiment. | also toant you to keep trying to remember those shapes and not forget any of them.” 189Banachek Saying this, the performer looks the spectator in the eyes, telling him to, “Relax, in a second you are going to close your eyes. Look at me.” The performer reaches over and takes the spectator by the head, tipping the spectator's head forward (to his chest), being careful not to touch the spectator’s hand at any time; simultaneously, he instructs the spectator to close his eyes. Alternatively, the performer closes the spectator’s eyes with one of his hands as he instructs him to relax and keep his eyes closed. It should look like you just hypnotized the spectator. Now the performer moves away from the spectator, telling him to stay relaxed and keep his eyes closed until the performer instructs him to open them. “I want you fo visualize a situation for me. Become aware of your surroundings in this new environment where J am about to take you. See the colors, be avoare of the smells and sounds, but do not under any circumstances forget the shapes on your signed card; if at any time T touch your hands, open your eyes immediately. Ready? Let's go. “Tsoant you to imagine that you are om a teach; fol the soft sand beneath your fet. In your mind, lookout across the ‘ny. Ii dark out, yet you can se the square outlines ofthe Ihouses armas: the bay, and you ean hear te unces us hey break against the shore. Now look up ti cloudy, so there are no stars... no stars in the ky, yet you can make out the fright circle ofa full moon behind the clouds, despite he fact ‘hat there are no stars. Rela, 1, 2,3. 4, open you eyes, “Believe it or not, you have now forgotten one of the shapes on the card. As a matter of fact, it is so erased from your ‘memory that you will swear that it was never there 190 Psychological Subtleties 2 “Look at me; Fwant you to be honest. How many shapes did ‘you memorize on the card?” He replies, “Four.” “Only four?” Turning to audience, the performer asks someone who was paying attention how many shapes were on. ‘Turning back to the spectator on stage, the performer asks him to name the shapes he saw, eliciting “Circle, plus sign, wavy lines, and a square.” “Really, and just lke our little experience on the beach, there were wo stars?” Spectator states that indeed there were no stars, ‘Now all that remainsis to have him tur over the card, see his signature, and discover the star in the middle. How: The OTL principle and an additional cutout card. Cut one about 60% of the way down. Keep the larger piece. Cut a second 6 card the same way, only makeitslightly shorter as in. the pictures. You will also need a rubber band, 1Banachek Draw all five shapes on the shorter card, making sure to put the star in the center. (On the larger of the cut pieces, draw all ‘the shapes minus the star. (On the face of the stack of the business cards, duplicate the first card, including all the shapes, again with the star in the center. (On top of this stack place the larger of the two cut cards ... the one with no star. Place a rubber band around the stack such that it holds the cut piece in place, with the rubber band hiding the seam. The face Of the stack should look like it has a card with shapes drawn above the band and blank below the band, but appearing to be one card, not two, Finally, loosely place the shorter of the tivo pieces on top of the other shapes: it should bump up against the rubber band. Once again, the result should look like ‘one (single) whole card on top with five shapes. Have this in your pocket. emmy Bring up the spectator. Once he a has joined you, remove the stack + "5 9) of cards, with the loose card on top held in place with your hand, Hold it facing toward the audience and show them the shapes. Pause longer at one person; you can even ask him to memorize the shapes if you want. This is the spectator that you will later ask to name all five shapes, including the star. Allow enough time for other people to see all five shapes as well. 1 ed Psychological Subtleties 2 Now head back to the spectator on stage. You are about to palm off the extra piece, but not yet. Show the stack to the spectator in a casual manner, telling him that he is going to forget one of the shapes. While doing so, point at the drawings and cover the star with your finger so he does not see it. Now tum the stack upside down in your left hand letting the loose card fall into your left hand. Turn the stack back over on this card so it lies behind the stack. As you talk to the spectator take the stack of business cards in your right hand, leaving the palmed piece behind, Your left hand goes into your inside ‘coat pocket to remove a pen and leaves the extra piece inside. Now have the spectator remember the shapes, and sign the card on the blank section once he is sure he hhas memorized them. If you prefer, you can have a line there with the word “signature” below it, so he knows where to sign, Now take back the stack. Start to bend the business card up at the end where his signature is aud as you ppull the signature card out, you turn the stack over. ‘The stack goes in your pocket as you place this card on his hand symbol sides down, take his other hand, and place it on top. From this point on it is all theater. If you are afraid they will not know what the wavy lines are, you can simply tell him that the squiggly things are wavy 193Banachek lines; optionally, you can just do it with four shapes and have him “forget” one of those. Don't forget to emphasize the shapesasyousay them whiledescribing, & Subliminal Square by Dr. Bill Cushman I begin by speaking about subliminal messages, giving cxamples like movie theaters flashing the words “eat” or “drink” to stimulate food and beverage sales, as was rumored to have been done in the 19605. An acquaintance recently told me that his father was a projectionist at the time and that the method was so successful the government stepped in to stop further experimentation/exploitation After your discourse on subliminal messages, you quickly flash a completed square to a participant. He or she is then asked to state aloud the first number between 20 and 100 that comes to mind. ‘Then, miracle of miracles, you show the participant thatthey really could havechosenany other number as they have been influenced by “Tho Subliminal Square,” which adds up to their choice in 24 different combinations ea SA OAH Paychological Subtleties 2 Background In 2002, Andy Leviss helped organize a mentalism conference called 72 Hours. Each attendee received a book of theory, ideas, and effects called The 73rd Hour. I was flattered when Andy asked me to contribute an article and I gave him a piece I called Ericksonian Extracts. Hidden at the end of the article was my original presentation for the magic square. Basically, a presentational reframe on the instant magic square, Suiliminal Square works with any approach where you ask the participant for a number and then instantly produce a square that adds in multiple directions to their choice. This is generally done by having a square already written up with four blank spaces, subtracting a pre-determined number from the participant's selection, and entering the result and 1a subsequent series of numbers in the blanks. In my opinion the best source for the work on the square itselfis Doug Dyment’s wonderful Mindsights, where you will find his Flash Squared described in detail. Doug's ideas present a quantum leap in terms of ease and repeatability. Ifind his method the simplest in operation and, to quote Doug, “perhaps most important, there are 32 different versions of the square, along with 2 simple mnemonic cue to indicate how the missing portions are to be filled in. Thus as many 1s 32 different participants can receive individually customized magic squares, without any duplication whatsoever, cen if their chosen numbers happen tobe the same. 198Banachek Doug's basic version utilizes a modified Out fo Luncit setup, where the square with the four blank spaces is hidden under the usual half card. In Subliminal Square the half card has a filled-in square drawn on it, the current date is written on the card with the four blanks and concealed under the rubber band or strap. The idea of hiding a pre-written date comes from Gregory Wilson’s Mental Giant routine in his The Stockholder & Portfolio, originally sold with a special wallet. I will suggest some other options at the end of this description. Doug has been kind enough to allow me to include the basic square and method from Flash Squared. If you want to know his complete methodology, have access to the other 31 squares, or learn a variety of other presentational strategies, you will have to buy his book. You won't regretit. Along with Flash Squared, Mindsights is full of stunning effects and thought provoking essays. ‘While the instant square approach is amazing in its ‘own right, it occurred to me that it could be tuned on its head with interesting results ‘The central modus operandi is that under cover of, writing the date (to commemorate this auspicious occasion?) you use the Out to Lunch principle to switch cards and add the needed numbers. Iwill describe this process in detail after I explain Doug's basic square and method. 196 ii a aS A SSE SA Psychological Subtleties 2 Magic Square Method ‘The following magiesquare, from Doug's Flash Squared, adds up t0 35 in all directions for a grand total of 24 variations. This includes all rows, columns, diagonals, the four central squares, the four comer squares, the four comer 2 x 2 squares, the comers of the four 3x 3 squares, the two opposite central pairs and the two “pandiagonals.” Don’t worry: 'm mentioning all of these for the sake of completeness; in practice there is no need to go further than the four corner 2 x 2 squares, if even that far. us [a4] 2 15[ 1 [2] 7 4fielo [9 [5 fio s faz The next magic square is the key to producing the effect, Note the four squares that contain letters rather than numbers. In the actual effect, the lettered squares are left blank. These are the key squares where you ‘will insert your own numbers, as determined by the participants selected number. Tips [a 1fi2]7 a[clelo 10{ 3 [D 7Banachek ‘The formula is very simple. Subtract 21 from the participant's selected number. To make the math even easier, Doug suggests subtracting 20 first and then subtracting 1. For example, if 40 is selected, subtract 21, giving you 19, This is written in square A. You now write the next three numbers in sequence (in this example: 20, 21, and 22) in squares B, C, and D, respectively. The final square looks like this: nfs fis] 2 2o[ a [a2 7 afafele 5 |ao[ 3 [22 ‘As you can see, all of the 24 combinations listed above now add up to 40, I write the chosen number on the same card, in the blank area beneath the square. I said that I would offer some other variations. You could use a Himber wallet (or similar), using one side to hold the completed square and the other side to hold the square with the four blanks. The date is pre-written on this card. You could also simply use a stack of index cards, with the bottom card having the completed square and the next to bottom card having the square with the four empty spaces and the date, After showing the completed square, you tilt it down and do a glide to remove the card with the key spaces. With the last three methods, you can't openly write | Psychological Subtleties 2 the chosen number under the completed square but T don't see this as a major disadvantage. At the end Til detail one more method for stage use that doesn’t, require a switch or writing in any numbers. Filling in the Blanks One of the more difficult aspects ofthis effectis writing one thing while you are saying something completely different. 'l share a method that Ihave found helpful in simplifying this process. As described above, I use the pretense of writing in the date to cover filling in the four key squares, What Thave found works best is establishing a “rhythm” as I say the date and write in the numbers. I do this by breaking the date down into four segments and as I say each segment, [fil in one square, For example, I'll use the date [am writing this, August 66°, 2008, and the key numbers from theabove example. Isay, “Let me write down the date so you will always remember the day you truly learned to appreciate the power of subliminal suggestion, August {I write 19 in the first key square] sixth [1 write 20 in the second key square], two thousand {I write 21 in the third square] and three [I write 22 in the last key squarel.” Other mentalists who perform this effect have suggested using their names or an all-purpose phrase nstead of the date, so that you don't have to change the card with the blanks every day if you regularly carry this with you. This makes sense, and you can still derive a rhythm to facilitate writing in the key numbers. 19Banachek Alternate Presentation I have an altemate presentation that some might find interesting. The handling is exactly as described above. Instead of talking, about subliminal messages, I begin with describing the abilities of savants. Ishare the story of a twelve-year-old math savant who could derive the square root of any number up to ten digits. When asked how he accomplished this feat, he confessed that he didn’t know and said that the answer just “appeared” to him. 1 go on to say that scientists researching this phenomenon have concluded that such skills are the result of unconscious pattern recognition. They determined that this ability is present in all of our brains, butis usually dormant. [state that the ancients knew how to activate this ability using what is now commonly called a magic square. I then procecd as above in Subliminal Square (I guess this version could be called Savant Square?), with the end result “ proving” that the participant has indeed derived the pattern inherent in the square. ‘Thi is a less “threatening” approach (though sometimes the impact possible with the subliminal influence approach may have more of the effect you want, depending oncontext) and has the added benefit of making the participant the star My experience with these two twists on the instant square approach is that the audience leaves thinking about the wonderful possibilities of the brain rather 200 | | ' i : a ; : : i | | | : / | | : Psychological Subtleties 2 than, “how did that guy compute those numbers so fast?" In many circumstances, this may be preferable. ‘Also, ithides the modus operandi under another layer of obscurity or “logical disconnect.” Platform and Stage Presentations Next, I'd like to describe how Ibring these ideas to the platform orstage. Have a blank square already drawn up on a pad, resting on an easel, and a second helper nearby with marker in hand. Flash the gaffed square to the first participant, via any of the above methods you choose, and have her name a number. Do the dirty and hand the switched-in card to the pant Have her read the card to the helper, who the numbers on the large pad so everybody can see them, This can be built up in itself, but really shouldn't take more than a few seconds. Then, using, the large square on the easel, you “prove” that the prewritten square matched the number subsequently, chosen, in keeping with whichever presentation you perform. I mentioned above that 1 would describe a stage method that doesn't require a switch or the writing, ‘of any numbere, I have only recently came npon this idea, so be warned that it is untried. I suspect, though, that its viable, and is the kind of idea that Dunninger or David Hoy would have appreciated, Have a relatively large completed square on a hand- held board. This time there is no need for a second helper, bu: you still want a large easel with a blank grid and a marker ready. Establish either of the above 201Banachek premises, flash the hand-held square, and have the Participant state the chosen number. Have the participant go up to the easel’ then start reading off the numbers for her to copy. When you get to the key squares, just miscall the four needed numbers. Depending on how bold you are feeling, you could even start by having the participant read the first couple of numbers and write them down, and then, to help speed things up, you finish reading, substituting the key numbers. When thesquare on theeaselis filled in, place thehand- held square aside, as itis no longer needed. If using a dry erase board, you could also erase the square and write in the chosen number. In any case, the use of the smaller hand-held square is justified because, as per either premise, you need to flash it quickly so that the patterns are only picked up by the participant's subconscious. You don't necessarily need to state this but it should be part of your silent seript. L hope you find Subliminal Square a useful addition to your repertoire. In hypnosis there is a process referred to as “ratifying the trance.” The Subliminal Square presentation can serve a similar purpose in {hat It ratifies the reality of subliminal intluence and can enhance any subsequent actual use of suggestion, as in Kentonism, That it does this via trickery is icing on te cake! 2 202 pei stconstasnonisiccaamsaniaissitotinsitinicisiisibissti tiie ATORN Psychological Subtleties 2 At this point your brain has processed 76431 words or 379,239 letters. If time for a rest.