P.A.T.H.S.

by

MATT MELLO
 P.A.T.H.S.
by

MATT MELLO

No part of this publication may be duplicated, copied, or transmitted in any form

without written, explicit permission from the author.
Copyright © 2017 by Matt Mello
2
 Table of Contents

Opening Thoughts...........................................................................................................................4

Path I..............................................................................................................................................6

Player One……………………………………………………………….…………………….…10

Player Two………………………………………………………………………………….……12

Birthmonth.....................................................................................................................................14

Path II...........................................................................................................................................16

Triangulation…………………………………………………………………………………..…19

Path III…………………………………………………………...…………………………...…23

Card Coding…………………………………………………………………………………...…25

Codex………………………………………………………………………………………….…27

Intersecting………………………………………………………….……………………………28

Anagram Architecture………………………………………………………………...……….…31

Alphagram………………………………………………………………………………………..37

Closing Thoughts……………………………………………………………………………...…48

3
 Opening Thoughts

I’d like to start by thanking you for purchasing this work on progressive anagrams. It’s the first
book that I’ve written on the subject, and I hope that you’ll glean some useful, practical
information from the paths that I’ve treaded.

For most mentalists, the biggest issue and pet peeve with progressive anagrams is the act of
fishing or guessing the letters. I can tell you that this was why I steered clear of them for years.
There have been some attempts to cover the process of guessing random letters, but I still felt
that most were far too obvious, and not particularly inspiring.

The first record that we have of using a progressive anagram within a list of words dates back to
1920, developed by a man named Stanley Collins. His original concept has remained relatively
unchanged amongst magicians since its creation.

Atlas Brookings is well-known within our mentalism community for his work on progressive
anagrams. His material offers some of the best and most thorough thinking on the subject to date.
The way that he uses them is to be admired and studied, as many of his thoughts could be
incorporated into the concepts from this manuscript.

P.A.T.H.S. is an acronym for “Progressive Anagrams Through a Hidden Sequence”.

All of the approaches taught in this book are well hidden within the framing of the
demonstrations, which I believe is vital to their deceptiveness.

My initial approach to progressive anagrams came from an idea that I was working on with
psychological forces called “Targeting”, which I recently released in my manuscript, The Grey
Area. I just had a feeling that the presentation could be applied in some other way, and
thankfully I continued working at it.

After thinking and tinkering with ideas, I came to the realization that this could be a perfect
method to deceptively perform a progressive anagram right in front of a person. The pieces just
fell together, and I suddenly had a fully formed system for working with any anagram.

The processes are completely covered by our simple instructions and actions. Everything is
perfectly justified. The given presentations seem to make the effects even more difficult, while
simultaneously making things easier, helping to disguise the standard method.

4
Along with the teaching of my personal approaches to this kind of work, I’ll also be teaching you
a couple of anagrams that I love. “Player One” and “Player Two” are Nintendo anagrams.

“Player One” is only for characters in the Super Mario Bros. universe.

“Player Two” expands the anagram to pretty much any common Nintendo character that they
could think of. I haven’t seen anyone perform this before, and I particularly enjoy the
presentation of having them pick their players.

I also teach a basic anagram for months of the year, as I find the effect of guessing a person’s
birth month to be more interesting than guessing a star sign. Unless your participant really
believes in astrology, accurately guessing their birth month will have far more impact than
guessing a star sign that they might not relate to. Though, I do teach an interesting star sign
divination effect near the end of the book.

There are also a few other branching anagrams that I teach, each with their own unique touches
that I think you’ll find to be highly interesting and thought provoking.

“Triangulation” is something that I’ve never seen applied to progressive anagram work, and I
think that it will spark inspiration in many of you.

“Alphagram” will likely have the most hype surrounding it, and it’s something that I’m very
excited to share with you. Because of this, I’m sure there will be a desire to skip ahead and read
it first, but I would suggest working your way through the chapters as I’ve outlined them, in
order to slowly grasp and understand the concepts before progressing into the more complex
pieces. Of course, this is only a suggestion, as I’m sure some of you may have already skipped
past this opening section to dive right into the material. I can’t say that I blame you.

From the beginning to the end, these approaches truly look as if we’re peering straight into our
participant’s minds and thought processes. Very few demonstrations of prop-less mentalism look
this clean, and are this lethal in application.

It’s my hope that if you’re someone who doesn’t particularly enjoy progressive anagrams, that
P.A.T.H.S. will be a helpful guide into this wonderful world of word working.

Along the paths we go.

Matt Mello

5
 Path I

When working with progressive anagrams, the first thing that most of us focus on is hiding the
sequence of guessing letters. This is because when we get a mix of “yes” and “no” answers with
no real presentation or justification for why we’re asking, it looks like blind guessing.

With my approach, our questions aren’t just being asked as a way to guess. Any “yes” or “no”
answer that we receive serves a logical purpose within the given presentation. I’ll give an
example using a person’s birth month, but “Path I” could be applied to nearly any progressive
anagram.

The process starts where every branching anagram does, by asking for a volunteer who’s fairly
confident with spelling, followed by naming a specific category.

“Could you please think of the month that you were born?”

Our next instruction sets up the entire sequence and forms the backbone of this approach.

“I’d now like you to think of a few other months to try and confuse me. Every time I snap
my fingers, I want you to think of a different month.”

We now slowly snap our fingers four of five times, instructing them to change to a random
month on each snap.

“I think that should be good enough. I now want you to look out in front of you, and
imagine those random months you’ve chosen are being projected onto a screen.”

We appear to study the participant, adding, “I think I can see a few months coming through
pretty clearly, but I’m a little hazy on one or two of them. Are you having a hard time
remembering all of the months you thought of?”

You’ll find that the participant will almost always forget at least one item that you’ve asked them
to think of during this snapping sequence. They are being asked to remember four or five
months, colors, or any other thought in rapid succession. They will naturally forget one, or even
two of their choices. We can then take advantage of this common occurrence.

Appearing to get in their head during this opening section only helps to add to the believability
that we’re truly seeing what they’re imagining.

6
In any case, after they’ve confirmed that they’re having a hard time remembering one or two of
the months, we say, “That’s perfectly fine. All of your thoughts are still locked away in your
subconscious mind. Focus on relaxing your conscious mind. Take a deep breath and look at
me. Excellent, that’s already a little better. I can see them coming through a bit clearer.
Just give me a moment to look things over.”

We look into our participant’s eyes, and then at the empty air in front of them, as if truly
visualizing whatever months they’ve randomly chosen to think of.

We now ask, “Yes or no, is there an R in your birth month? Please take your time to go
through the spelling in your mind.”

They will answer either “yes” or “no”.

Let’s assume that they say, “No.”

We then say, “Okay, so that means I can get rid of this one.”

We appear to grab a single word (month) that we’re visualizing in the space between us, and toss
it away to the side.

If they had said, “Yes,” we would have said and done exactly the same thing.

I’ll continue with the finer details in a moment, but I hope that you all have big smiles on your
faces, as you should now instantly have a basic understanding of this approach.

From the audience’s perspective, it should appear that we’re genuinely seeing and interacting
with the participant’s thoughts. When we ask about a particular letter, it seems as though we’re
asking in order to eliminate and differentiate between the options that we see before us. We’re
looking over their personal selections, and we’re appearing to naturally go through each month
that they’re visualizing.

When we finally bonk them in the brain by revealing their birth month, it makes the process
seem even more real, that we must have been going through their four or five random choices to
have correctly arrived at their selected thought.

Essentially, this approach allows us to perform an anagram openly in front of our spectators.
When I’m ‘seeing’ letters in the air, I’m genuinely visualizing my progressive anagram.

As our participant has no understanding of the workings of an anagram, that we can discern a
specific thought with only a few questions asked, it organically sells the idea that we’re really
going through the few thoughts that they imagined.

7
At the same time, we’ve asked them to think of these extra months as a way to try and ‘confuse’
us. To them, it appears that we’re making things harder for ourselves, while truthfully, it helps
immensely in making the process invisible.

Picking up where we left off, our participant has said “no” to the letter (R) being in their birth
month. We’ve then appeared to swipe away one of the months.

Continuing through our progressive anagram, we look over the ‘months’ in the empty air for a
moment, and then ask, “Is there a Y in your birth month?”

“Yes,” they say.

“I thought there might be. That means I can remove this month.”

We grab and swipe away a second month. For this letter, we’re seemingly removing a month
they’re imagining that doesn’t have a (Y) in it.

We look over the ‘months’ again, as if trying to find a letter that could help to further narrow
things down.

We say, “This should be the last one. Is there an A in your birth month?”

“No,” says our participant.

“Okay, then this has to be the one.”

Grabbing an imaginary month, we bring it to the center of our attention.

“You know, I had a feeling from the start that it was this month, but I kept second guessing
myself.”

We write “July” on a piece of paper and place it into their hand.

They say their birth month aloud, “July” and then turn over the paper and react to your
unparalleled mental prowess.

I hope that you can see the power of this subtle shift in presentation. The process can be applied
to practically any progressive anagram. The only anagrams where I feel this doesn’t really work
are ones where we need to ask for more than five letters. Certainly, we could snap our fingers six
or seven times, and have them think of seven or eight items, but I think less can sometimes be
more when it comes to progressive anagrams. Though, I will cover a way that we can easily
include more letters within a branching anagram in “Path II”.

Overall, these approaches are very simple, but they do take a certain amount of confidence and
believability to pull them off.

8
The audience must believe us when we say that we’re seeing a variety of items coming through.
This is subtly suggested with the use of our “forgetfulness” ploy, taking advantage of the fact
that they will likely forget at least one item. As I mentioned, this really gives weight to the belief
that we’re actually in their head and doing this for real.

They must believe us when we swipe away an item. They must believe that it actually contained
the letter they rejected, or that it didn’t contain a letter they confirmed to be in their word.

Their belief comes directly from our belief. We must really try to envision these items. Act as if
the words are really there in front of you. This is easy, because we actually are visualizing a set
of months and letters.

Always take a few moments to look over these ‘imagined’ words.

Don’t act as if they’ve all just popped into view in an instant. Once they’ve appeared, we must
now pretend to be genuinely looking over their choices, looking at the letters and finding
connections, so that we can cut it down to their specific thought.

The psychology behind this demonstration is perfectly logical. It plays like the real thing. If you
could truly peer into a person’s mind and view their random thoughts, it’s possible that you
might sift through them in this way.

Now that you understand the workings of the “Path I” approach, I’ll walk you through a couple
of progressive anagrams to use it with. for more marshalexander01@ gmail.com

9
 Player One

We begin by asking a person about their childhood, and if they played a lot of video games as a
kid, specifically Nintendo games.

After a bit of healthy nostalgia, we propose a demonstration.

“I want you to imagine that you’re playing Super Mario Bros. and you’re going to pick
your player. You can choose to play as any character, but preferably one that most people
would know. And please be sure to include the entire name, whether it be a ‘junior’ or
some type of royal title. So if you thought of Bowser Junior, you would want to spell out
‘junior’ in your mind. Okay, so pick your player.”

Give them as much or as little time as needed to choose.for more books and dvds
contact marshalexander01@ gmail.com
“Now, we’re going to play a mental game. Whichever player you’ve chosen is the one that
you’ll stick with, but I’m going to have you go through four or five other characters in your
mind to try and confuse me. So, allow a new character to come into your mind. Focus on it
for a moment, and now think of another character…and another…and one more.”

Snapping our fingers, we instruct them to change the character each time, finishing by saying, “I
think that should be good enough. I now want you to look out in front of you, and imagine
all of those characters are being projected onto a television screen.”

We look at them, studying their blank expression. We then look at the empty air in front of them.

“Okay, I can see four characters coming through very clearly, but I’m not as positive on
the fifth. Are you having a hard time remembering all of your chosen characters?”

They will confirm this statement, and we can add, “That’s okay, all of your thoughts are still
in your subconscious mind. Just take a deep breath, and focus on relaxing your mind. Very
good! Things are already coming through a bit clearer. Just give me a moment to think
things over, so I can try to work out which one of them is the player you’ve chosen.”

Further studying the ever so interesting empty space, we appear to look things over, and then
bring our attention back to the participant.

We now go into the “Player One” branching anagram, which is displayed on the next page.

10
 “Player One”

R no A no O no LUIGI

yes yes

O WALUIGI YOSHI
yes

TOAD

E no W no MARIO

yes

yes WARIO

W no PRINCESS PEACH

yes

BOWSER no BOWSER JR.

11
 Player Two

This addition extends the “Player One” anagram to almost any common Nintendo character.
Which, after our instructions, really only includes four more characters.

“I want you to imagine that you’re playing a Nintendo game, and you’re going to pick your
player. You can choose to play as any Nintendo character, but preferably one that most
people would know. And please be sure to include the entire name. So if you thought of
‘Bowser Junior’, you would want to spell out ‘junior’ in your mind. Or, if you thought of
‘Zelda’, the full title would be ‘Princess Zelda’. As I’ve just named them, I would prefer if
you didn’t choose either of those characters. With this in mind, please pick your player.”

This basically leaves us with all of the Super Mario Bros. characters, as well as: Link, Donkey
Kong, Diddy Kong, and Kirby.

One of the only other characters that could be named is Fox McCloud from Star Fox, but I’ve
never had someone think of him. Our inclusion of the line, “preferably one that most people
would know” pretty much eliminates him as a common choice.

I’ve only had Kirby chosen every now and then. Most of the time, if they choose someone
outside of the Super Mario Bros. universe, it will be Donkey Kong, even though he’s technically
featured in certain Mario games.

Link is also a choice that comes up every so often. I decided to make Zelda an example to
include the ‘princess’ title in the character’s name, because I’ve had people mistakenly think that
Link’s name is Zelda. It also solidifies the instruction that should they choose Peach, it should be
Princess Peach.

With our primary targets being Link, Donkey Kong, Diddy Kong, and Kirby, the common
denominator between all four of these characters is the letter (K).

So, if we ask about the letter (K) and they say “yes”, we can proceed into the provided anagram.

If they say “no”, we go directly into “Player One”. We could even reveal that they’re thinking
of a Super Mario Bros. character at this point, but I prefer not to mention this, as it suddenly
destroys the illusion of there being a larger selection field of any Nintendo character. marshalexander01@
gmail.com

12
 “Player Two”

K no (proceed to “Player One”)

yes

G no R no LINK

yes

yes

KIRBY

I no DONKEY KONG

yes

DIDDY KONG

13
 Birthmonth

On the next page is a basic, branching anagram for the months of the year.

An interesting attribute of “Birthmonth” is that the final two options at the end of any branch
begin with either a straight capital letter, or a curved capital letter.

Because of this, when we reach the end of a particular branch, and we have two options left, we
can ask, “If the first letter of your birth month was capitalized, would it be curved at all?”

Depending on their answer to this question, we would either name the option with a curve in the
first letter, or the one made up of only straight lines.

So, if we’ve anagrammed the months down to “June” and “August”, if they say “yes” to the first
letter being curved, we know that they’re thinking of “June”.

If they say “no”, then we know they’re thinking of “August”.

This presentational idea of asking if a letter is a curved or straight letter is not original to my
work, but I can’t recall seeing it used in an anagram sequence.

It isn’t particularly my favorite method to progress through an anagram, but I’ve become a big
fan of this sort of approach.

At the end of this manuscript, the “Anagram Architecture” chapter covers a myriad of different
ways that we can move through an anagram without needing to specifically say a letter aloud.
“Alphagram” then takes this concept to a whole new level.

When we apply these ideas alongside the variety of paths that I teach in this publication, it can
make for some of the most deceptive presentations for progressive anagrams that we can
perform.

14
 “Birthmonth”

R no Y no A no JUNE

yes yes

yes A JULY AUGUST

MAY

M no Y no B no APRIL

yes yes

yes B JANUARY OCTOBER

FEBRUARY

C no T no NOVEMBER

yes

yes
SEPTEMBER

B no MARCH

yes

DECEMBER

15
 Path II

“Path II” will explore a variation on “Path I”, as well as a concept with branching anagrams
that I’m shocked I haven’t seen published before. This is the idea of mixing multiple categories
within a single anagram.for more books marshalexander01@ gmail.com

The closest work that I’ve seen to this is by Atlas Brookings, though I haven’t heard of him
mixing multiple categories into a classic anagram as I’ve done here.

Using this concept, not only does it make their choices seem even broader, but we can target
their chosen category, as well as their specific thought within that category.

As you may already comprehend, this idea of combining categories can sometimes lead to the
creation of quite large, branching anagrams. The two that I’ve provided can get us to any thought
in only four letters, but it’s possible that some anagrams you develop may require you to guess a
larger number of letters.

This is where I would suggest making a slight adjustment to the process in “Path I”. Personally,
this is my favorite approach to this kind of work, and is what I find myself using most often.

Instead of asking the participant to think of other items, we ask that they imagine random letters
around their word.

Once the participant is focusing on a thought, I say, “I now want you to imagine a bunch of
random letters around your word to try and confuse me. Every time I snap my fingers, I
want you to let a random letter of the alphabet pop into your mind.”

We now snap our fingers maybe ten to fifteen times, instructing them to change the letter each
time. Because of the vast number of letters going through their mind, there will be no way that
they’ll remember every single letter that they’ve thought of.

“Okay, I can see some letters starting to come through. Is there an A in your word?” we
ask, as we appear to grab a single letter from the empty space before us.

Let’s assume that they say, “Yes.”

We can add, “I thought so. That letter was just a little bit bolder than some of the others.”

16
This line about seeing any confirmed letter as a little bolder is a nice subtle convincer of what
we’re doing.

“What about the letter B?” we ask, as we grab a second letter from the air, “Is the letter B in
your word?”

“No,” they answer.

“Okay…I wasn’t sure about that one. It was fairly bold, but not quite as much as some of
the others. Let me look things over for a moment.”

We toss away the (B) and ponder the ‘letters’ we see before us, and simply continue through this
process for whatever number of letters we need to finish our anagram.

I would suggest only using the “bold” and “not as bold” lines once each, on the first “yes” and
“no” responses that we receive.

From then on, if they say “yes” they will just assume that I’ve seen it as bolder than some of the
others.

If they say “no”, they will assume that I wasn’t sure about that letter, but was just checking.

After our first two comments, the audience should have a good idea of the apparent “process”
we’re going through. It’s much better to then let the suggestion take over that this is what we’re
doing the entire time. It leads them down a false trail, giving them the sense that they understand
how we’re going about deciphering the thought.

So, just a quick recap:

In “Path I” we’re appearing to visualize and eliminate the other thoughts they’re imagining by
finding connections between the words.

In “Path II”, it looks like we’re working our way through all of the randomly thought of letters
that are clouding their chosen word.

We’re asking about a letter they’ve thought of in order to locate the decoys. This approach of
having them randomly think of letters is much quicker and more natural than asking them to go
through ten to fifteen random thought of items.

Another interesting thought is to use this approach alongside something like Ouija by Fraser
Parker and Ross Tayler, or some of their most recent work in Second Coming.

After getting the first two letters, if the third letter could be a couple of different options, we
could proceed into the “Path II” process and then guess the most probable letters that we think it
might be. I also like that it stems perfectly into the original Ouija process.

17
The difference is that instead of naming letters aloud, we have them think of their letter, followed
by a bunch of random letters which we try to filter through. Finishing this process, we should
more than likely have enough information to guess the entire word or name.

I’ll now teach you my “Triangulation” anagrams, with the full presentation of the “Path II”
approach.

18
 Triangulation

I call this one “Triangulation” because I’ve combined three different categories into one
anagram. I’ve designed a male and female version of this demonstration, which will perhaps
offend some of you, but that isn’t my intention. This is just one example of a combined anagram
that I enjoy. There are many others that can be devised.

We begin the demonstration by saying, “We’ll start with a simple exercise. I want you to
think of a random thought. So, you could think of a color in the rainbow: red, orange,
yellow, green, blue, or purple. You could think of a type of jewelry you might wear, or your
favorite season of the year. You decide. When I snap my fingers, think of something.”

SNAP

“Have you got something in mind? Very good, now please imagine that word is written in
the air in front of you. But, I want you to imagine random letters around your chosen word
to try and confuse me. So, every time I snap my fingers, I want you to allow a random letter
of the alphabet to pop into your mind.”

We now snap our fingers at least ten to twelve times, giving them instructions to continue to
change to a different, random letter on each consecutive snap.

When we’re finished with this process, we look over the air, trying to visualize the letters that
they’re sending.

After surveying the floating ‘letters’, we ask for the first letter in the female “Triangulation”
anagram, as we grab it from the air.

“Is there an N in your word?”

They say, “Yes.”

We then boldly state, “I thought so. It was just a bit bolder than some of the other letters
I’m seeing.”

We grab a second letter, “Is there an I in your word?”

“No.”

19
“Okay…I wasn’t sure about that one. It was fairly bold, but not quite as much as some of
the others. Let me look things over for a moment.”

We throw away the (I), looking over the remaining ‘letters’ in the air, and then grab a third letter,
asking, “Is there an R in your word?”

“Yes.”

“Okay, I think this should be the last one,” we say, as we grab a final letter, “Is there an O in
your word?”

“No.”

“Perfect, let me see what I can do here. Can I have you focus on whatever category you
chose?”

We talk to ourselves a little bit under our breath, as we grab a few letters, and appear to place and
arrange them into an invisible word before us.

We then write the word, “GREEN” on a piece of paper, and place it facedown in their hand.

You’ll notice that the scripting of this demonstration makes it seem like we’re allowing them to
think of anything. Of course, they will naturally think of something within our three named
categories.

But by reframing the demonstration, we can say, “You had a free choice to think of any
thought from any category you could think of. There is no way that I could have known
what random thought you would have picked. For the first time, can you say the word you
were thinking of?”

“I was thinking of the color green.”

They flip over the card and we have something nearing a miracle.

This is one of sixteen destinations that this anagram can lead us to, but it seems like much more.

For the male version, the only difference is the categories that we name. We ask them to think of
a simple, basic shape, restricting their number of choice to only a triangle, a square, a circle, or a
rectangle. We also give them the option to think of a type of transportation vehicle. We say
aloud, “Like an airplane, that sort of thing.”

We mention this choice so that they know to spell out “airplane” instead of just thinking of the
word “plane”.

The final option that we offer on the male side is a popular sport . I specify “anything with
teams…like volleyball , etc ” to remove possible choices like “golf ” or “b owling ”. for more
marshalexander01@ gmail.com
20
 “Triangulation” (FEMALE)

N no R no A no W no BLUE

yes yes yes

U no L RED W FALL YELLOW

yes yes BRACELET WATCH

L no SUMMER

yes

PURPLE

I no R no T no NECKLACE

yes yes

yes A GREEN AUTUMN

ORANGE

E no S no RING

yes
yes
SPRING

S no WINTER

yes

EARRINGS

21
 “Triangulation” (MALE)

T no C no U no R no BASEBALL

yes yes yes

O no I no CAR R no BUS AIRPLANE

yes yes yes

yes
CIRCLE SQUARE

R no L no HOCKEY

yes

SOCCER

E no O no N no TRUCK

yes yes

L no BOAT TRAIN
yes
yes

FOOTBALL

C no R no BASKETBALL

yes
yes
TRIANGLE

A no MOTORCYCLE

yes

RECTANGLE

22
 Path III

om
This path makes use of something that I call the ‘progressive negatives’ ploy. It’s a quick way to

l.c
go through a different type of progressive anagram, and it can be used as an easier method to
track multiple participants’ thoughts at the same time.

ai
In this version, the spectator never has to say “yes” or “no”. Instead of asking them to answer our

gm
questions, we say, “I’m going to say a few random letters, and when you hear a letter that’s
in your word, I want you to say stop.”

@
The basic idea consists of finding and asking for unique letters within any set of possible
choices. As we narrow down the list through this procedure, more unique letters come into play.
01
The moment that they stop us, it will give away their chosen thought.
r
We may choose to have them say “stop” aloud, or we could instruct them to close their eyes
de

when they hear a letter in their word, telling them to focus on its location in the word.

I’ll explain the progressive negative ploy with a simple example using only one category.
an

Let’s assume that we ask a person to think of a day of the week.

ex

In this example, we would set up our list like so:

al

Thursday
sh

Friday
ar

Saturday
m

Tuesday

Sunday

Wednesday

Monday

23
The letters that we would name, in order, would be: H, I, R, T, U, and S.

(H) is a unique letter, in that it only appears in (Thursday).

(I) is a unique letter that only appears in (Friday).

Because we’ve gotten rid of (Friday) and (Thursday), the letter (R) now becomes a unique letter
in (Saturday).

om
(T) is now a unique letter in (Tuesday), which then makes the (U) a unique letter in (Sunday).

l.c
Of our remaining two days, we say the letter (S), and if they stop us, they’re thinking of
(Wednesday).

ai
If we go through our entire list of letters without them stopping us, we can now guess (Monday)

gm
while apparently receiving no useful information from our participant.

To help cover this letter naming sequence, we use the approach from “Path II” of having them
imagine random letters around their chosen word, every time we snap our fingers.

@
We can then start naming the ‘random’ letters that we see, and when they stop us, we will
01
instantly know their thought of day of the week.

Be sure to take your time as you go through the list of letters. We don’t want to go too fast and
r

not give a person enough time to go through the letters in their mind. Just grab the letters at a
de

slow, but steady pace.

On its own, with only one category, I don’t think progressive negatives are quite as deceptive as
an

they could be. But the ideas that I’m about to share demonstrate a couple of ways that we could
incorporate this progressive negative ploy into our work.
ex
al
sh
ar
m

24
 Card Coding

om
This is a simple way of applying the progressive negative ploy to discover a card a participant
has thought of from a small chunk of cards. The concept can also be applied to a tossed-out deck

l.c
routine, which, in many performances, can actually remove some of the dual reality in the effect.

We’ll start with a close-up performance, where we force a spectator to take a pack of seven

ai
cards. We do this by riffling down the side, asking them to say “stop” at any point, and riffle
forcing to the top card in our small stack.

gm
We then count out seven cards and give them to the spectator. While we turn away, they are
instructed to shuffle the small pack of cards and just think of one. They then close up the pack

@
and put them into their pocket, or return them to the deck.
01
The seven force cards that they looked at were:
r
de

Eight of Clubs

Ace of Hearts
an

Two of Spades
ex

Three of Diamonds

Ten of Clubs
al

Four of Hearts
sh

Queen of Diamonds
ar
m

Ask them to focus only on the value of the card, ignoring the suit. They would be instructed to
spell it in their mind, and then imagine a bunch of random letters around it, as per “Path II”.

The sequence of unique letters that we would call is: G, C, O, H, T, and R.

Whichever letter they stop us on will point us to their selected card.

25
I would also suggest performing this with multiple people. Give them the small pack of seven
cards, have them shuffle while we look away, and each person chooses one card. We can now go
through the letters, and when each person stops us or closes their eyes, it will tell us each of their
cards in succession.

Once they’ve alerted us to the letter, we ask them to focus on where the letter is in their spelled-
out card, but not to mention where it’s located.

om
Following this sequence, we ask them to focus on the suit. They don’t need to say anything out
loud for this, as when we learn their value, we automatically know their suit. I think this extra

l.c
piece helps to take some heat off of the letter naming sequence, before we finally reveal all three
of their thought of cards.

ai
“Card Coding” could also be used within a tossed-out deck sequence.

gm
Toss out the gimmicked pack to three people and ask them to stand. Going through the letters,
we can learn who is thinking of what. In some scenarios, this will eliminate the dual reality

@
commonly associated with this demonstration.

In other cases, you may get only two people thinking of the same card. You could then openly
01
reveal the unique card, followed by using the Hoy principle on only those two participants.
r
de
an
ex
al
sh
ar
m

26
 Codex

om
“Codex” takes this progressive negative concept and applies it to more of a book test effect, but
we can present it in multiple ways.

l.c
As an example, we could have a single piece of paper that we’ve handwritten a note on. We give
a spectator the note, ask them to think of a longer word on the page, and then they give it back to

ai
us and we read their mind.

gm
Our force words could be anything, as long as they are longer than the other words that appear
on the page.

@
Let’s assume that we write a note that features five longer, force words:

Jumping
01
Conditioning
r
Trampoline
de

Irrational
an

American
ex

So, asking a person to think of a slightly longer word in the note, the letters we could name are:
U, D, P, and T.
al

Once they stop us, we know which word they’ve mentally selected.
sh

We could also have a notebook which we’ve filled out entirely, repeating those five words
throughout the book so that no matter which page they choose, they will see one of our force
words.
ar
m

27
 Intersecting

om
“Intersecting” is an amalgamation of almost every approach and concept in this book. This is a
unique method and procedure to allow three different participants to think of something, and we

l.c
can then target each individual thought.

We limit their choices to three categories: a basic shape, a day of the week, or a season. Of our

ai
three participants, each is instructed to pick their own category and think of something.

gm
We handle this selection process by turning away and saying, “Whoever wants to think of the
shape, please point to yourself, now. Whoever’s going to think of a day of the week, please
point to yourself. And whoever is remaining, will you please think of your favorite season?”

@
For this approach to work, we need to then psychologically force a circle, a square, a rectangle,
01
or a triangle on our ‘shape’ participant. The reason for this will be made clear shortly.

Upon turning around, we ask the group to imagine their chosen words in the air.
r
de

Intently focusing on our subjects, we say, “I’m not sure who it’s coming from, but I can see
the letter E near the end of one of your thoughts. I’m fairly certain it’s the very last letter.
Who’s thinking of this?”
an

Someone will identify themselves, and we will instantly know that they’re thinking of a shape, as
ex

we’ve psychologically limited their choices to four shapes that end in the letter (E).

We can now use any path we wish to discover exactly which shape they’ve chosen.
al

I might start by saying, “Think about which category you’ve picked, but don’t say it out
sh

loud. Is there an I or a C in your word?”

Based on their answer to this question, we can learn their thought of shape through this simple
ar

anagram. Alternatively, I would suggest using my “Targeting” approach to simply force a circle.
m

I no C Square

yes Rectangle

C Triangle

Circle

28
Assuming I’ve used the anagram to learn their thought of shape, I would commit the shape to
memory, but I wouldn’t reveal anything yet.

We now have two people left, and we need to figure out who is thinking of the day of the week,
and who is thinking of a season.

We can figure this out by saying, “I don’t know which of you it is, but I’m seeing the letter A

om
near the end of one of your words, maybe the last or second to last letter.”

Whoever identifies themselves as thinking of a word with the letter (A) in this position will be

l.c
thinking of a day of the week, because every day ends in (DAY).

I would make use of the progressive negatives to learn the exact day that they’ve picked, using

ai
the “Path II” approach of having them imagine letters around their word.

gm
Call the letters in the order I earlier discussed: H, I, R, T, U, and S.

Whenever they stop us, it will alert us to their chosen day of the week.

@
Our remaining participant will be thinking of the season. I would suggest playing this last one up
to seem more difficult.
01
Ask them to think of different items from each category in order to try and confuse you, using
r
the approach from “Path I”.
de

We can then go through a simple anagram for the seasons, appearing to filter our way through
their random thoughts.
an

R no M no FALL
ex

yes
yes
AUTUMN
al

S no WINTER
sh
ar

yes
m

M no SPRING

yes

SUMMER
29
At the end of this entire process, we can write down all three thoughts, ask each person to say
their thought aloud, and we can finish with our accurate revelations.

If you wish to design your own version of “Intersecting”, the only obstacle to overcome is the
fact that our final anagram can’t contain an item ending with (E) as the last letter, or an (A) as
the second to last letter, which puts limits on our options. We could also choose to ask about the
letter (D) or (Y) at the end of the chosen day to offer us more options, but it still puts restrictions

om
on our third anagram.

For instance, we couldn’t use a month as our final anagram, because ‘June’ and ‘May’ would

l.c
mess with the cueing from the shape and the day. Likewise, we couldn’t ask about a color,
because ‘purple’, ‘blue’ and ‘orange’ all end in (E). This is just something to keep in mind

ai
should you wish to substitute the ‘season’ anagram for some other category.

gm
It’s also possible to use this concept with only two categories, which can help to make things a
little simpler. For instance, one person could think of a day of the week, and a second person
could think of a month.

@
We ask about the letter (D) near the end of the word, and can learn who’s thinking of the day,
01
and can go through the progressive negatives with this person.

We can then go through a branching anagram for the month, finishing by easily revealing both
r
randomly thought of items.
de
an
ex
al
sh
ar
m

30
 Anagram Architecture

om
This chapter isn’t related to any one particular path. It’s dedicated to the little details that we can
employ in preparation behind the scenes, aiding in making this work look as seamless as

l.c
possible.

Designing and building my anagrams, I like to construct them out of items which can be cut in

ai
half, especially when mixing categories into one anagram. If the subsequent lists can also be cut
in half, and so on, we can get through the entire group in the most efficient manner.

gm
In the female version of “Triangulation”, when we ask about the letter (N) it either confirms
eight choices, or removes eight choices. The next letter in the path breaks those eight remaining

@
choices into four, then two, and finally our final choice. This approach takes a sixteen item list
and gets us to any finishing point in four letters, or a thirty-six item list in five letters. Obviously,
01
this won’t always work, but you would be surprised how often it can work out with any given
number of items.
r

A common trend with progressive anagrams is to design them to start with the most common
de

frequency of letters, in order to get as many “yes” responses as possible.

They’re typically structured this way because without a solid presentation of why we’re naming
an

letters, we want to get as many “yes” hits as possible. But “Andy”, from the Jerx blog, brought
up a great point about anagrams that I wholeheartedly believe in, which is that the more “no”
ex

answers we receive, the more deceiving the overall experience becomes for our participant.

If they say “yes” repeatedly on a number of letters, they’re clearly giving us information. If they
al

say “no” more often, then it feels like they’re giving us less information. Correctly guessing the
sh

word after seemingly receiving no useful information is much more powerful and fooling.

Because of this, I prefer to focus on getting rid of as many items as I can, as quickly as possible,
ar

instead of being worried about getting as many “yes” responses as possible.

m

I do, however, think it’s smart to call out letters that are featured in the highest frequency within
a given list of words, when we get towards the end of an anagram.

For instance, in Mind, Myth, and Magick by T.A. Waters, the end of his “Signse” anagram has
us ask for the letter (Q) to differentiate between “Sagittarius” and “Aquarius”. As the letter (Q)
only appears in “Aquarius”, if they say “yes” it seems rather obvious what their star sign is.

31
In that scenario, I would rather ask for the letter (G), as it could then apparently be Gemini,
Virgo, or Sagittarius. It isn’t so immediately obvious that the letter gives us all of the information
that we need. I think this is something important to keep in mind should you enjoy creating your
own anagrams. I also try to use the first letter of a word as infrequently as possible, as I feel like
that seems to give things away even more to a participant, but sometimes this is unavoidable.

These next few ideas weren’t initially planned to be taught in this publication, but this work just

om
didn’t feel complete without their inclusion. I had also intended to withhold “Alphagram”, but
after deciding to share the following thoughts, I’ve chosen to hold nothing back in this project.

l.c
In “Birthmonth”, I explained how the last two months in any branch could be identified by
asking if it begins with a straight or a curved letter. This idea of getting rid of choices without

ai
verbalizing a specific letter helps to more discreetly eliminate options.

gm
The following thoughts push this idea further, offering a few different solutions to the endgame
of narrowing down our list of options. These are some of the more deceptive ways that we can
progress through an anagram without needing to call any specific letters.

@
The first thing that I want to share is one of my favorite starting questions, because it seems
01
completely innocent.

I simply begin my anagram sequence by asking, “Is there a letter repeated in your word?”
r

If they say “yes” it will get rid of some items, and if they say, “no” it will get rid of other
de

options.
an

If we were asking about colors, this would either confirm or eliminate: green, yellow, and purple.

Using the male version of “Triangulation”, this “repeated letter” question cuts the list perfectly
ex

in half, and can then get us to any destination in only three letters, but I’ll share a way that we
can cut it down to only needing to say two letters.
al

I’ve sometimes asked, “Is this a long word…more than six letters?”
sh

By asking the above question, we could also cut the male “Triangulation” list in half.

Something else that I’ve worked into anagrams is asking, “If the first letter was capitalized,
ar

would it look the same in lowercase?”

m

I may give a couple of examples to the participant.

For the letter (A), they would say “no”, because from a capital to lowercase, it looks different:
(A) (a)

For the letter (O), they would say “yes”, because it looks exactly the same whether capitalized or
lowercase: (O) (o)

32
I’ve also occasionally asked, “The second letter isn’t a vowel, is it?” or whichever letter
position might give us the most information. I’m not as big a fan of this question, as it seems to
give away too much useful information.

When guessing a birth month, we could ask, “Is there a popular holiday that’s celebrated
during the month you were born?”

om
Only June, August, May, January, and September don’t contain common holidays that everyone
will know about. You could casually ask this question at the very beginning of an anagram, and
subtly remove some options. I would typically only use this when guessing a person’s birth

l.c
month. Sometimes people can get the months and the holidays confused, but they will often be
aware of any holidays that occur within their birth month.

ai
Another concept that I’ve very frequently made use of in progressive anagrams is Derren

gm
Brown’s “repeat it” ploy.

When we come to our last two options on a branch, we can say, “Repeat your choice in your
mind, over and over, like March…March…March.”

@
If we get a hit, we have a clean reveal without needing to explicitly say another letter. If it
01
doesn’t hit, we merely write down the other option and give it to them to turn over and read.

Instead of using Mr. Brown’s “repeat” out, we could also use Peter Turner’s “wash principle”
r

at the end of our anagramming.

de

The point is, whenever we can remove the need to name a specific letter, we should use it. If we
an

work to apply these tips and techniques to our progressive anagram work, we can make them
significantly more deceptive to our audiences.
ex

On the next page, I’ve provided an astrology anagram that makes use of the “repeated letter”
question, combined with Derren’s “repeat it” ploy to get through the entire list of star signs with
al

only one or two letters needing to be named.

I’ve also included another way to construct the male version of “Triangulation” as well as a new
sh

variation of the female version, so that you can see the impact of employing these techniques.
ar
m

33
 “Astrology Anagram”

? no A no VIRGO

LEO

om
yes

yes

l.c
ARIES

LIBRA

ai
C no G no TAURUS

gm
AQUARIUS
yes

@
01
yes SAGITTARIUS

GEMINI
r
de

S no CANCER
an

CAPRICORN
ex

yes
al

ANAGRAM KEY
sh

PISCES
ar

SCORPIO
? “Is there a letter repeated in your sign?”
m

“Repeat your sign over and over in your

mind, like….”

34
 “Triangulation 2.0 (Female)”
(Basic Shape/Favorite Season/Common Type of Jewelry)

? no N no E no STAR

om
yes yes WATCH

E no SPRING SQUARE
yes

l.c
yes RING HEART

ai
WINTER

gm
TRIANGLE

N no C no SUMMER

yes
@ FALL
01
CIRCLE
r
BRACELET
de

yes
an

C no AUTUMN
ex

EARRINGS

yes
al
sh

RECTANGLE ANAGRAM KEY

ar

NECKLACE

? “Is there a letter repeated in your word?”

m

“Repeat your word over and over in

your mind, like….”

35
 “Triangulation 2.0 (Male)”
(Basic Shape/Sport/Vehicle)

? no T no R no HOCKEY

om
yes yes BUS

N no TRUCK CAR
yes

l.c
yes BOAT SQUARE

ai
TRIANGLE

gm
TRAIN

T no C no BASEBALL

yes
@ AIRPLANE
01
SOCCER
r
CIRCLE
de

yes
an

C no FOOTBALL
ex

BASKETBALL

yes
al
sh

MOTORCYCLE ANAGRAM KEY

ar

RECTANGLE

? “Is there a letter repeated in your word?”

m

“Repeat your word over and over in

your mind, like….”

36
 Alphagram

om
This is one of my favorite methods to discover a letter that a participant is thinking of, and it’s
probably the piece that I’m the most proud of in this book, as it was the hardest to conceive. As it
sounds, “Alphagram” is a method to perform an anagram through the English alphabet.

l.c
It took a lot of work to get this demonstration into its current state. I had tried and failed for years

ai
to develop something like this. I could never quite crack the code and get everything to work out
exactly how I wanted it to.

gm
Never being one to quit, over the years I compiled a list of questions that I could ask in order to
anagram through the alphabet, eventually finding a starting question that helped to split up the

@
letters exactly how I had envisioned.
01
The other hurdle in this demonstration that I always knew would need to be overcome, regardless
of finding a way to build the anagram, was the reason for why I was asking these questions.
When I developed the “Path II” approach, my mind started to spin with the possibilities, and I
r

immediately got to work on “Alphagram” again, eventually cracking the anagram over the
de

course of the next few days.

an

Had you entered my home during the creation of this system, you might have mistakenly thought
I was Russell Crowe auditioning for A Beautiful Mind. There were literally piles of papers
everywhere covered with questions and arrows and letters and symbols. Any sane person would
ex

have thought I was crazy.

But at the end of my lunacy, I finally had the “Alphagram” that I had been attempting to build,
al

along with a logical presentation to help cover the process.

sh

Let us examine what the demonstration looks like.

ar

We could technically guess a word with any number of letters in it, but due to the length of the
process, I typically ask a person, “Please think of a three letter word. You could even change
m

your mind a few times to see that there are actually quite a large number of options.”

When they confirm that they’re thinking of a word, we say, “Very good, please focus on the
first letter of your word. I’d now like you to think of a few random letters to try and
confuse me. Every time I snap my fingers, let a random letter of the alphabet come into
your mind.”

37
Snapping my fingers seven times, I study the participant’s eyes, stating, “Excellent, I can see
about seven or eight letters coming through, but we need to narrow it down to the one that
you’re thinking of. If you imagine your letter as capitalized and lowercase, does the letter
look exactly the same? For instance, a capital and lowercase M look the same, but a capital
and lowercase J are similar, yet technically look different.”

As I say my example letters (M) and (J), I’m drawing them as capitalized and lowercase in the

om
open air, so that they can properly visualize what I’m explaining. This is the only instance where
I take the time to do this, clarifying those two individual letters. I’ll explain why after showing
you the anagram.

l.c
Let’s assume that they say, “Yes.”

ai
When they do, we grab two ‘decoy’ letters, tossing them away as we say, “That gets rid of

gm
these.”

We then ask, “Is the first letter you’re thinking of positioned somewhere from A to O in the

@
alphabet?”

Once again, our participant answers with a “yes” response, and we grab two more letters and
01
remove them.

“Imagining the letter capitalized, is there a straight line in it?” we ask, as we draw a line
r

straight up and down in the air.

de

On this question, the participant replies, “No.”

an

We eliminate a few other ‘letters’ from the air, and then we’re finished with this particular letter.
ex

Jotting something down on an index card, which we don’t allow anyone to see, we continue on.
You’ll notice that the process will flow much quicker now that we’ve gone through the
procedure and explanations once.
al

“Now, please think of the second letter of your word. And once again, as I snap my fingers
sh

imagine a few other letters around it to try and confuse me.”

ar

We snap our fingers six or seven times.

“You’re doing great. Once more, imagine this second letter capitalized and lowercase. Do
m

they look exactly the same?”

“No,” our participant answers.

We remove a few letters from the air, saying, “That eliminates these letters.”

“Focus on your capital letter. Is there a curve to it at all?”

38
As we say this, we draw a curve in the air like a backwards (C).

“No,” they answer again, and we remove one letter.

“Is the letter positioned somewhere from I to Z?”

“No,” they answer, and we remove two more letters.

om
Astutely tapping our chin, we study the remaining letters for a second, asking, “Is there a line
across the top?”

l.c
“No,” they answer for the last time.

We remove the remaining ‘decoy’ letters, and then make another note on our index card.

ai
“Finally, please think of the last letter of your word, and a few other random letters.”

gm
Snap seven or eight times, look over the ‘letters’ coming through, and continue with, “For the
last time, capital and lowercase, do they look the same?”

“No.”
@
01
Remove some of the options.
r
“Is there a curve to the capitalized letter?”
de

“Yes.”

Eliminate and toss away another two ‘decoy’ letters.

an

“Is the letter positioned somewhere from J to Z?”

ex

“Yes.”
al

One decoy letter is removed from the bunch.

sh

“And finally, is the curve at the bottom of the letter?”

“No.”
ar

“Excellent, then it must be this one, but I’d like to be absolutely sure. Can you just say the
whole word in your mind, now? Just repeat it to yourself, over and over.”
m

I study their lips and their eyes, before commenting, “Perfect. I think I have it right. You’ve
really done an amazing job.”

I scribble something onto the index card and place it writing-side down onto the participant’s
palm.

39
“Could you please say whatever random word you thought of?”

“Car,” says our participant.

We instruct them to flip over the index card, revealing the word ‘CAR’ clearly written on the
other side.

Our participants will often think that there's no way that we could have eliminated all of their

om
decoy letters to discover what they were thinking of, so when we in fact do reveal their thought-
of word, it seems absolutely impossible and mind blowing.

l.c
I understand that this can seem like a lot, but it really plays incredibly well. On the next page is
the framework of “Alphagram”. I’d suggest that you just do a quick overview for now, and then

ai
continue reading to learn the full details and further extensions of the system.

gm
@
r 01
de
an
ex
al
sh
ar
m

40
 “ALPHAGRAM”

“Caps/Low Same?” no “Curve to the letter?” no “Somewhere from I to Z?” no “Is there a line across the top?” no H A

yes yes

om
yes “Line across top?” no L N E F

yes

l.c
yes I T

ai
“Somewhere from J to Z?” no “Vertical line?” no G

gm
yes yes

“Is the curve at the bottom?” no R D B

@
yes
01
J Q
r
“Somewhere from A to O?” no “Curve to the letter?” (W and Y example) no “Does it rhyme with the letter E?” no X Y
de

yes yes
an

“Is the curve near the top of the letter?” no W U V Z

yes
yes
ex

P S
al

“Is there a straight line in the letter?” no O C

sh
ar

yes
m

M K

41
Having seen the design of “Alphagram” you may be feeling a little overwhelmed, but if you’ve
ever memorized an anagram, this is no more difficult to learn. There are actually a few simple
tricks and mnemonic features built into the anagram that can aid in our purposes of memorizing
the letter positions, as well as discovering exactly which letters they’ve chosen.

During your brief examination of the anagram, I’m sure you noticed that nearly every branch
actually ends with TWO letters. Although this is the case, you’ll find that more often than not,

om
you’ll be able to easily work out the chosen word, but we can go one step further.

We can typically figure out the word due to the fact that all of the vowels are separated, being

l.c
paired with a consonant. The vowels will very often give away what the word is, and there will
typically only be one “common” word that would work with the given set of letters. This is why

ai
I jot things down on the index card, in order to quickly work out the word at the end.

gm
But, if you want to be absolutely sure of their letter choices, I’ll now cover a way that we can
anagram every branch down to a single, individual letter with one more question.

We’ll start with the vowel pairs: HA, EF, IT, OC, WU, and XY

@
For any one of these vowel combinations, we could simply say, “Okay, we have two letters
01
left, a vowel and a consonant. Is it the consonant that you’re thinking of?”

If we’ve arrived at the end of the branch (HA), and they say “no” to our question, we know that
r

they’re thinking of the (A). If they say “yes” we know that they’re thinking of the letter (H). The
de

same would apply to any of the other vowel pairs.

an

Now let’s examine all of the consonant pairings: DB, LN, JQ, VZ, PS, and MK

(DB) – “We have two letters remaining. Does the letter make a closed-lipped sound when
ex

you say it?”

(LN) – “Is the line across the bottom?”

al

(JQ) – There will never be a time when we won’t be able to figure out if they picked (J) or (Q),
sh

but we could ask, “Is there a straight line across the top?”

(VZ) – Again, there will never come a time where you won’t be able to discern which letter is
ar

needed, but we could ask about the number of lines in the letter. I’ve never needed to.
m

(PS) – “Does the letter make a closed-lipped sound when you say it?” or we could choose to
ask, “Is there a straight line, as well?” Either would indicate (P) if “yes”, and (S) if “no”.

(MK) – “Does the letter make a closed-lipped sound when you say it?”

The only remaining letters in the alphabet are (R) and (G), but “Alphagram” leads us directly to
those specific letters, so there isn’t an additional question needed.

42
You may choose to include these finishing questions, or you may choose to write things down
and work things out at the end.

With the (CAR) example, our end pairings would be: OC, HA, and R

Our possible word options would be (CAR) or (OAR), and I would place my bet on (CAR) being
the choice every time.

om
But, if we wanted to be sure at the end of the process, we could simply ask, “The first letter is a
consonant, correct?”

l.c
This would immediately make it clear which word they were thinking of, eliminating the need to
ask the other two questions.

ai
Alternatively, we could use the out of writing ‘OAR’ and then crossing it out with a line and

gm
writing ‘CAR’ above it. If it is ‘OAR’, then we can at least prove that we had considered it.

One of the only instances where I go all the way through for each letter is if I don’t have

@
something to write on, and I’m attempting to follow everything in my head. Otherwise, I
typically just anagram it down to two letters and trust that I’ll be able to puzzle it out.
01
Now that we’ve covered how we can get every branch down to any individual letter, let’s
examine the inner workings of “Alphagram” to give you a full visual understanding of what’s
r
taking place as we ask our questions.
de

Our starting question of comparing the capitalized and lowercase letter breaks the alphabet into
two groups. This question was the key to cracking this system, as it cuts the alphabet into one
an

group of fourteen letters, and a second group of twelve letters, which can then be broken down
fairly evenly.
ex

To ensure this outcome, I give an example of the letters (M) and (J), only because some people
could confuse whether or not they’re exactly the same.
al

Some might write a capitalized (J) and a lowercase (j) without a line at the top of the capital, or
sh

without a dot at the top of the lowercase, in which case they would look exactly the same to
them. This is why I write this particular letter in the air as an example of letters that aren’t the
ar

same.

The same thing can be said for the letter (M), in that it’s usually sharper as a capital letter and
m

curved as a lowercase letter (m). Because of this, some people may say that they look different,
which is why I include it as my example of letters that are the same. The letter (W) is covered
under the same (M) example to be included as a letter that looks the same.

The (W) is used as an explanation in its own branch, which you can find listed on the anagram,
where I ask, “Is there a curve to the letter?” When I ask about the curve on this branch, I use

43
(W) as an example, curving the bottoms so that it’s included in the curved group, evenly
dispersing our remaining letters. I also add (Y) as an example of a straight letter.

After giving the explanations for these letters, I typically don’t mention them again, trusting that
they’ll remember my examples.

Following our “Caps/Low” question, we are left with these two groups:

om
Caps/Low Different: Aa Bb Dd Ee Ff Gg Hh Ii Jj Ll Nn Qq Rr Tt

Caps/Low Same: Cc Kk Mm Oo Pp Ss Uu Vv Ww Xx Yy Zz

l.c
Depending on if they say “yes” or “no”, it will tell us which group to progress into, and the next

ai
question to ask.

gm
The rest of the questions mostly concern the location of the letter in the alphabet, i.e.
“somewhere from J to Z” or asking about a specific shape to the letter.

It should be said that during every question where I ask about a particular line being either

@
straight or curved, I’m always drawing things out in the air in order to avoid any confusion for
the participant. Just study the given letters, and then make a motion where the curve or straight
01
line should be positioned.
r
Another important thing is to be sure to specify that they focus on the capitalized version of their
de

letter. I pretty much remind them to capitalize it on every question that involves asking about the
shape of it. If they imagine it as lowercase, this can drastically affect the anagram on many
levels.
an

For (I), when we ask about a straight line across the top, if they’re imagining (i), they would say
ex

“no”. This mistake can happen with many other letters, as well, so always reiterate for them to
focus on the capital letter on any question asking pertaining to a straight line or a curve.
al

This next tip will help you to memorize the letter positions.
sh

Eventually, when we’ve progressed through a few questions, we can start to bundle some of the
letter pairings together in order to make simple words that we can memorize, instead of trying to
ar

remember the random scattering of letters across the entire anagram.

At the very bottom of “Alphagram”, we have the letters (MK) and (OC).
m

Instead of imagining these as random letters, I put them together in my mind to create the word
(MOCK). I then ask the question about a straight letter, drawing a vertical line in the air, and can
simply remove whichever letters don’t work. We could then progress one level further to learn
the exact letter, if we wanted to.

44
Although this isn’t a word, for the branch of (PS) and (WU), I remember the ‘word’ (WUSP). I
ask about a possible curve near the top of the letter, and if they say “yes” I can remove (WU).

At the top of the anagram, for (IT) and (LN), I imagine the word (LINT) and can then ask about
the straight line across the top of the letter to progress to the final two letters.

For (HA) and (EF), we could remember the fake word, (HAFE).

om
For (JQ) and (R), I think of the word (Joker), but I imagine it spelled, (JoQR)

For (DB) and (G), I visualize (DeBuG)

l.c
There isn’t a real shortcut for (VZ) and (XY), but as they are the only remaining letters in the

ai
alphabet, all near the end, they are fairly easy to memorize. But I suppose you could make up a
weird word, like (VZYX), pronounced like “physics”.

gm
Due to these groupings of letters, this basically leaves us with seven “words” that we need to
anagram towards. From there, we can ask the remaining question, or questions, to funnel us

@
further through the anagram.

All that’s left is to memorize the order of questions based on the “yes” and “no” responses. This
01
will take some time, but as I stated earlier, “Alphagram” is no more difficult to memorize than
any other anagram. It just takes a little bit of mental effort, which we shouldn’t shy away from as
r
supposed “masters of the mind”.
de

Though, if you’re someone who struggles with memory work, you could also make a crib sheet
with an abbreviated version of “Alphagram”.
an

All of the letters would be on there, but I would have symbols to represent any questions that I
ex

need to ask, like a simple curve or a straight line, (A-O), (J-Z), etc, indicating exactly what I
should be asking about.
al

I would print this onto an index card, and would place it second from the top of a small pile of
index cards. By turning the top index card sideways, I can write information on it, as well as
sh

glimpse the “Alphagram” anagram below.

ar

I would always recommend putting in the effort to memorize the anagram, so that you can have
it ready to go at a moments notice, but this cheat sheet can act as a safety net if you’re
uncomfortable with memory work.
m

After sharing “Alphagram” with Madison Hagler, he suggested the following addition to the
word selection on the next page.

45
Instead of asking them to just think of a three letter word, say, "I'd like you to think of a three
letter word. Please make it an object that you could draw or touch rather than something
abstract."

Asking them to do this dwindles down the options greatly. For instance, if I know the first letter
is (H) and I’ve just said to think of a three letter word, here are some possible options:

om
Hat, His, Hot, Hen, Hit, Him, Her, Ham, Hop, Hip, Hog, How, Has, Hey

With the instructions to make it a tangible object that they can draw or touch, the list becomes:

l.c
Hat, Ham, Hen, Hog, Hip

ai
Of these choices, (HAT) is almost certainly going to be their word, but it has helped to eliminate
certain word options entirely.

gm
Aside from a three letter word, I’ve also considered using this to guess a name, after learning the
first two letters and the very last letter. I would recommend anagramming all the way down to a

@
single letter in this scenario, so that there’s no second guessing yourself on a particular starting
letter, etc. I would also suggest that you make use of the CUPS principle, or something similar,
01
to learn the total number of letters in the name. Any additional bits of information are helpful.

Sean Beard also provided some interesting thoughts on presenting this sort of name guess as a
r
type of graphology demonstration. Instead of studying their handwriting to learn about personal
de

traits, we just use the letters of their name, claiming that our names can affect our personality,
and that the shapes and sounds and positions of the letters can have an impact on our behavior.
an

Having asked about a straight line or a curve to a particular letter, after they reply, we could ask,
“And is this person very straight-forward, or more round-about and soft spoken?”
ex

This additional question appears to cover the reason for asking our previous question, aside from
just narrowing down the decoy letters. Because we’ll be repeating the questions, I’d advise that
al

you only make these types of comments the first time that you ask about a unique quality of the
letter. Afterwards, just let them assume that we’re continuing to make judgments based on their
sh

answers. At the end, we could provide a brief cold reading before revealing the full name.
ar

In a scenario where it could possibly be a couple of names at the end, another interesting tidbit to
add, after learning the first, second, and last letter of the name, is to say, “It’s muffled, but it
m

sounds like (blank), but there’s a beat in the middle, so it may sound slightly different for
some reason.”

Sean gave an example from his own experience using this statement, where they picked the name
“Camdyn”, but he guessed “Cameron”. The line about the name being a bit muffled in his mind
perfectly covered the slight miss, and still produced a powerful reaction.

46
One last thing that I wanted to mention was the idea of possibly using this concept within a
category, as a replacement to a traditional anagram.

Providing a simple example, we could ask about a color of the rainbow, and then use
“Alphagram” to learn the first letter, and subsequently the entire word.

For certain categories, it may involve using this system on the first two letters in order to learn

om
the full word. Though, you could also combine this with the “repeated letter in the word”
question to try and narrow things down first, following it up by using “Alphagram” on one letter
to learn their selection.

l.c
If you decide to do this, I would propose that you ask the questions and receive the answers
verbally on the first letter, followed by having them answer the questions only in their mind for

ai
the remaining letters.

gm
Since the first letter will often give away the entire word, the other letters are all presentation and
performance. I would demonstrate a similar process for the second letter, but have them answer

@
in their mind, followed by a different process on the third letter, perhaps just repeating it
mentally, over and over. This will help to further disguise the procedure on the first letter.
01
Personally, I prefer to keep the concepts separated, using “Alphagram” to guess a random short
word or name, and using a traditional anagram to progress through a category, but I always like
r
to cover as many options and additional thoughts as possible for you to consider.
de

With that being said, that’s pretty much everything that I have to divulge on this piece, and it’s
certainly a lot to take in all at once.
an

I would recommend reading this chapter a couple of times, familiarizing yourself as best as you
can with this system before attempting to memorize anything. The more comfortable you are
ex

with the workings, the easier it will be to learn and execute.

al
sh
ar
m

47
 Closing Thoughts

om
We’ve treaded the paths and have emerged from our journey, having likely only dipped our toes
in the water. I hope that you’ve found this to be a satisfying treatise on the subject of progressive,

l.c
branching anagrams. I sincerely believe that this book contains material that can help to change
the opinions of those who find anagrams to be too obvious, or those who have been unhappy
with some of the previous work on this topic.

ai
I’ve seen many releases where there is almost no focus on the presentation. Because of this, it’s

gm
obvious that we’re embarking on a lengthy fishing expedition, as there’s no apparent process for
our audience to latch on to.

@
For progressive anagrams to play effectively, we must at least attempt to disguise the guessing
game we need to play. I personally feel that the paths in this book help to successfully achieve
01
this ideal.

I understand that some of the memorization required to perform these demonstrations can seem
r

daunting, but if we take our time with them, everything is learnable.

de

Some of the best advice that I can give a person trying to memorize a progressive, branching
an

anagram is to make flash cards. I typically write them out on computer paper or a similarly large
pad of paper, so that I can really visualize everything on a larger scale. This is a trick that I find
to be immensely helpful.
ex

If you can focus on memorizing the anagram visually, then you can just go through everything
al

openly in the air, which I find to be easier. Just the act of writing it out yourself on these flash
cards can be more helpful than simply reading it. Make a page for each individual block of the
sh

anagram you’re trying to learn, and take it one step at a time.

Be patient with yourself while learning a new anagram. I think one of the biggest mistakes we
ar

can make is to use an anagram before we have it truly committed to memory. It just kills your
confidence in relying on them. Make your flash cards, take your time memorizing the
m

information, and then either use it enough to never forget it, or refresh yourself every now and
then.

If we can retain the directions through the maze of paths in our mind, we will always be able to
perform powerful, direct demonstrations of mindreading with nothing on us.

48
I personally think that progressive anagrams have a lot of untapped potential. It’s one of the
purest forms of mindreading that we have available to us, and it truly deserves a lot more
attention and use amongst our fraternity.

Hopefully this manuscript will add something useful to your current approaches to anagram
work, or if you’re a naysayer to their deceptiveness, that this will reshape your thinking on them,
and get you started along the right path.

It’s been a pleasure being your humble guide through this field.

Sincerely,

Matt Mello

49