False Telepathy

The following is my attempt at creating the

illusion of Telepathy between the performer
and a participant, without the need for
anything to be written down by the
participant or anything having to be known
ahead of time by the performer about the
participant.

This is the illusion of Telepathy only, for the

most part. The effect of Telepathy happens to
a greater degree in the mind of the audience.
It will look as if the performer can instantly
implant specific thoughts into the mind of the
participant and the participant will describe
exactly what the performer has in mind and
even wrote down ahead of time.

The performer will also be seen to be able to

successfully send the thought of a specific
playing card already turned over in a deck of
cards.
To the participant the performer apparently
performing feats of Telepathy will only be
true to a lesser extent at first. It will seem to
the participant that the performer is trying to
get in sync with them at first, so they can be
successful with the final trick of Telepathy at
the end of the presentation.

I use my reverse mind read principle at the

start as well as classic psychological forcing
in a slightly different way as a cover for
performing apparent Telepathy. Then I end
with a trick which fits the premise of the
presentation to ensure the participant
perceives an effect as well as the audience.
This combination of principles allows you to
perform what looks like real Telepathy
without the need for any of the usual peeks,
tears or pre show work.

This work is very similar to TRUE Telepathy

by Jerome Finley. I hit upon some of this
without knowing of his work along similar
lines. I shared what I was doing with him and
that is when he tipped his work on this. I
suggest getting a copy of his True Telepathy
manuscript when you can find it. His
approach provides those who take part in his
performances of Telepathy a very real
experience of magic. Perhaps this is as close
to Telepathy as you can get, without doing it
for real. I know this can seem to be the real
thing to your participant. Kennedy also came
up with the main principle behind this on his
own. He released his thoughts on this in his
limited manuscript The TELL TALE Factor.
This rare publication can occasionally be
found on ebay selling for hundreds of pounds.
This shows just how important this work is.

It is with their permission that I share my own

work on this here.

The first part of the routine is handled in the

following way. These words are spoken to the
participant with others watching on.

“I am going to perform a feat of Telepathy.

This is nothing to worry about. All you have
to do for this to work is to allow yourself to
be open to what ever it is I suggest as you
allow certain images to come into your
Mind.”

This prepares the participant and describes

how you want them to act in a moment. They
are going to visualize whatever images you
suggest for them to think of, with your words.
It also introduces the effect to the rest of the
audience and sets up the premise as that of
Telepathy.

“I shall write down a few words ahead of

time before we begin, so that we can check
how in sync with each other we are becoming
as we go.”

Look into the eyes of the participant and have

them slowly close their eyes. This is where I
give the line about writing down my
impressions. I write the following list or any
list relevant to the thought I am going to be
sending. The participant does not see what
you write yet.

Girl
RED Dress
In front of the Sea

This is based on the first thought you are

going to send to the participant. I raise my
fingers to my temples and act as if I am really
trying to send a specific image to the Mind of
the participant. I then say the following
words.

“Okay. The first thought...”

After a little pause I now start to describe the

thought to the participant. They will not be
able to NOT think of what you describe now.
To NOT think of something you have to think
of it first. It is this principle of psychology as
well as the fact that you have already directed
the participant to visualize whatever you
suggest that makes this work. They will be
thinking of whatever it is you suggest they
think of, with your words. Now simply by
asking if the participant has what you
describe in Mind they confirm the illusion of
Telepathy taking place for everyone else
watching.

“There is a girl of about 12 years of age. She

is walking on a beach and behind her is the
sea. Her feet are bare and she is wearing a
long flowing dress... You can see this in your
Mind now, yes?”

By writing down details of what you say

before you say them, you create the illusion in
the minds of those watching that you have
truly sent the information Telepathically and
the participant is simply confirming this to be
so. The writing down of your thoughts seems
to be proof that the participant must have
somehow known what you were thinking
before you spoke any words. This seems to be
what you mean to show by your writing down
of details about the thought.
The participant has their eyes closed so they
miss the meaning of your actions. To the
audience however, how you act makes it
appear as if you are actually sending your
thoughts. Your actions create the effect in the
minds of those watching.

By asking about details of the image in the

mind of the participant you will seem to be
confirming how alike the image in your mind
is to theirs. This will be the effect of Telepathy
to the participant. You are seeing how in sync
you and the participant are with each other
and checking how accurately you have
transmitted your thought to them, after a little
prompting. This is when the use of
psychological forcing comes in. By forcing
certain details of the image you make it
appear that you have exactly the same image
in mind as the participant, whether you
suggest what it is they are to think of or not.
This acts as a way of bolstering the apparent
process of Telepathy to the audience and also
provides the participant with an effect.

“The dress is a fairly bright colour... name

the colour you see? RED. Excellent! You
really are on the same wavelength now.”

It really does not matter if you “hit” with

these details or not as you are going to end
strongly anyway. To the participant you are
simply trying to get in sync.

You can continue on like this for as long as

you wish. Stopping to show the participant
your “hits” and then writing new words to try
this again. The beauty of this method is that
you can make anything up as your
impressions and they will always be seen to
be accurate to a certain degree. Once you
feel you can not get any closer with your
impressions you are now ready to go on to the
final phase of the routine. This is what
completes the illusion of Telepathy and
ensures that the participant is as impressed
by the demonstration as is the audience.
You are going to use a sure fire effect using
the premise of Telepathy in the context of
what has gone before to end strong and wrap
up all of the different perspectives of what
has taken place. This is what allows you to
“get away” with the previous bold approach
to creating the illusion of Telepathy. You
always plan on doing this part of the effect.

The trick you use is the Invisible Deck. It is

the over all presentation which makes this
classic as well as the rest of the routine so
impressive to your audience. It makes what
you do seem very realistic and not appear to
be a trick at all.

The idea of using a trick as a way of “getting

away” with the presentation of a greater
effect is that of my mentor, Kenton and an
aspect of his “Dual Reality” principle.

At the very least performing it in this way will

make the standard presentation for the
Invisible Deck more interesting for your
audience.

This is how I handle the final phase.

“There is a deck of playing cards on the floor

in the scene. They are still in their box.
Imagine taking the cards out of the box and
turning one of the cards in the face up deck
face down, so that one of the cards is the
wrong way around in the deck. Then place
the cards back in their box.”

I then place the Invisible deck in the hands of

the participant and tell them to name out loud
the card they turned over in their mind.

I write this card at the bottom of my list as a

way of indirectly suggesting that perhaps this
card was known ahead of time, after the fact.

Then I get the participant to open their eyes,

as if bringing them out of a trance. This shall
explain any lack of reaction on their part to
the previous demonstration of Telepathy. They
were in an altered state and so they did not
react in the way others would expect them to
react.

“Excellent! You did this perfectly. I have one

card turned over in this deck as proof of our
Telepathic connection. The 7 of Hearts. True
Telepathy?”

Have the participant take out the apparently

only face down card in the face up deck. This
confirms the process and completes the
illusion.

This looks very real and does not seem to be

a mere trick.

Fraser.