THE AIlE ESTATI A'I' I

aIV,ER alDGE, W.VA.

Tel. 304-947-mO
P.O. Box 155
Great Cacapon, WV25422

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 THE AM! ESTA"I AT

IUVl:It .tOGE, W.VA.

Tel. 304-947-7730
P.O. Box 155
Great Cacapon, WV25422

-il.rom~a4
. t~e/' . <P
~O~~PYright (1997) by Ai Mann
EXCLUSIVES

Part III ARIES

ARIES RAM 3/21/18. Kind,

sympathetic, keen, independent,
jealous, impulsive, spendthrift, marry
slowly, strong will power, hate
criticism, like music & art, June, July,
Tuesday. Red, crimson, rose, ruby.

It is with the greatest of pleasure that I write the

following Arcane Secrets. I stumbled onto these secrets so I can
easily say that these have never appeared in print before. As
per AME standards, this is something refreshingly new under the
Sun. - Any Mentalist in possesion of these secrets can baffle
anyone silly.

If you are wondering wh~t the fat lady above is. Rest easy,
she is the Devil's Advocate and she is pregnant.

1
 VOICES FROM HADES

Modesty be dammned again, dear reader. What I am about to

put to writing is simply Great. We can thank mother nature for it.
For it was mother nature who gave me the idea.

Once a week I must take the trash out and dump it into my
barbeque pit in my back yard and burn it. My community will not
allow unattended fires, so I have to stand over the fire with
water running through a garden hose and a long poke and stay with
the fire till it burns out.

While watching the fire, I noticed a discarded book in the

middle of the flames. The book was opened. Although the book was
surrounded by flames, its pages burned very slowly in comparison
with the other trash. The center of the pages of the book would
not burn! Only the edges of the pages were singed a bit. The top
page of the open section of the book would separate from the rest
and go up in flames, exposing the next page fully. A second or two
later another page would rolled up in flames exposing the next
page.

I asked myself, "Why?"

The same thing would happen if I threw an old deck of cards

into the fire. Only the edges of the cards blackend. Later when
removing the ashes I noticed that the playing cards survived the
burning. The centers of all the cards did not burn!

Lucky for me that I deal in magic, and I could see magic in

the firey display. Mother nature was trying to tell me
somehting.

Three components are needed to produce a fire. Everybody

knows that. You need a 1. fuel, 2. heat and 3. oxygen. If
anyone of the components is removed the fire goes out.

That is the reason why the pages of the book did not burn
readily. There was no air (with oxygen) between the pages. The
same goes for the cards.

Considering the above, I have invented a billet that burns

faster on one side than the other! I named this billet the
Devil,s billet. I also constructed an envelope that burns
faster on one side than on the other. There seems to be no end to
what a magician can do applying these principles. The principle
can be applied to newspapers, books, etc.

The above mentioned billet and envelope are not treated in

anyway chemically (I thought of that, but no chemical preparation
is needed). Both the billet and the envelope must be totally
opaque.

2
 ~
L
\
;-

So let us prepare a Devil's billet and do a test with it.

Get some totally opaque paper. I get mine from security envelopes
but any opaque paper will do. Cut the paper to the size of an
average billet, say 2-1/2 by 4 inches.

Fig. 1, shows the layout of the

Devil's billet.
mentally
The
into four
billet is divided
panels. Panels A
r----------
I
I
and B are of major importance. Panels C l
Cl J)
and D will
ritual.
be sacrificed during the
i
I
i
In panel A, draw a line, (and I A
write in a word for the test). This L ...-._.;...-.~~
. __~_·
line is where the VIP will write his
private thought.
Fig. 1
Panel B is what will cover up
panel A and the secret thought when the
billet is folded.

Take a sharp knife and cut the crease section as indicated by

x.
NOTE: Panel A, after the cutting, will be unattached at the
bottom, the left side, and the right side (except for about 3/16"
of material at the bottom of cut "X". When this 3/16th inch of
paper burns, Panel B will act like a flap. Attached to the billet
proper only at the top.)

PREFOLDING THE BILLET. The prefoldini of the billet is most

important. This you must do in private before the show. And it
must be done as per the following instructions other wise the test
may fail.

1. Take the billet as shown in Fig. 1, and

fold it in half from RIGHT TO LEFT but fold it
short for about 3/16th inch as shown in Fig. 2.

NOTE: Panel B is now covering the secret

thought.
Fig. 2

3
 VOICES FROM HADES THE DEVIL'S BILLET con t ,

NOTE: To the spectators it appears that the secret writing is

covered with three layers of paper, and it is, but only from the
audience side. you can tell the audience that. BUT from the
performer's side, only one layer of paper covers the writing.

2. Turn the folded billet (Fig. 2) completely over from left

to right and then fold it into quarters by folding from top to
bottom towards you.

The billet will now look like in Fig. 3 as it

lays on the table tent fashion.
The billet must be folded well so that it
will fold agin into the billet as shown in Fig. 3.
Fold the billet only in one direction. Fig. 3

You will need a pair or two of tweesers. Use tweesers that

depend on spring tention as shown in Fig. 4.

e 5 ,,:;:Ai :s
Fig. 4

Note Fig. 4. It shows a pair of tweesers that will grip the

billet and hold on to it by spring tention. The Devil's Billet
will be released from the tweesers only if you sqeese the
tweesers. The idea is not to drop the billet accidentally. That
would gum up your act.

After the VIP writes his thought and

refolds the billet, ask him to place it
on the table tent fashion. YOU MUST NOT
TOUCH THE BILLET YITH YOUR FINGERS. So
you use the tweesers. Note Fig. 5.

Fig.5

In Fig. 5 the tweesers are being used to pick up the billet.

NOTE that the tweesers are pinching only three panels, panels A, C
and D., keeping the air out, while panel B is loose.

The folded billet has two vital spots. Spot X is the loose
corner of panel B which is covering the written word. Spot Y is
the fold where panel B is attached by only 3/16th inch material.

The tweesers serve three purposes. They allow the audience

to see the billet.

4
 VOICES FROM HADES THE DEVIL'S BILLET cont.

The tweesers pinch together three panel~, A, C and D, keeping

the air out and slowing down the burning of the three panels. The
tweesers protect your fingers from burning.

TESTING TIME Let's test the above claims. Get a billet,

write a word on it and hold it as in Fig. 5. Don't be a hero.
Stand still. Don't wave your arms or the billet. Now take a match
or a candle and apply fire to point X first and immediately apply
fire to point Y. Hold the billet on the vertical line. As soon
as point Y catches on fire, panel B will be like a flap and free
to curl up and burn faster uncovering the secret word just long
enough for you to read it.

As soon as the word is read turn the billet writting-side

down and allow it to burn completely.

Fig. 6

Fig. 6 shows the end results of two tests I

did in my office. I put the fire out as soonasthe
secret word was uncovered and then I made foto

COPieS"& etJ..tL cil e &gh. t

You can glimpse the secret
word. All you need is a tall candle with the flame
at about you height of eye. Lift the billet with
the tweesers tilting the bottm of it a tiny bit
towards you. Then you must look at what you are
doing, glimpse the word and burn the billet.

5
 VOICES FROM HADES

efe.cLle d.. by.. !i:r e

Here we will deal with an opaque envelope that is sealed and
burnt. We simply preparethe letterenvelope so that the address
panel of the envelope, acts like"tbe flap panel B of the Devil's
Billet.

Fig.

size.
Get a

With a
security envelope.
8 shows a
envelope, 3-1/2
letter
by 6-1/2

sharp knife
size
in

we
1\
~
~
rtPF r~
~
slit the entire bottom of the ~

~";r~
envelope. We slit also the
sides of the envelope but not
entirely. The address panel
of the envelope will be
attached to the back panel S" _

only at the top and about 3/16

inch at the lower corners. Fig. 8

, We also cut a triangular piece from the left side of the

address panel only. Fig.8 X. This is to later be able to insert
the tweesers and also to see the index card inside and stick the
tweesers over the edge of the index card.

Prepare an index card as shwon

in Fig. 9. Mark the card on its back
with a pencil dot so that you can
tell the bottom of the card.

After the VIP writes the word

tell him to turn the card over and
then have him insert the card into
the envelope and then seal the Fig. 9
envelope.

Make sure the index card shows through the triangular cut.
You , of course are covering the triangular cut with your fingers.

The envelope can be shown all around.

FOR THE PRESENTATION, Take the envelope with the tweesers

making sure that one prong of the tweesers goes in thruogh the
triangular cut and over the index card.

Set the two lower corners of the envelope on fire and the
address panel will burn fast giving you a glimpse of the secret
message.

6
 VOICES FROM HADES THE DEVIL'S BILLET cont.

I know that at least one of my readers will try doing the

Devil's Billet Test with two or more billets.

Fig. 10

If you set two billets on fire at the same time, your

audience can not follow your method.

Fig.

TRY IT YITH A DOLLAR BILL. The VIP memorises the serial number
and folds the dollar bill into quarters. You grip it with the
tweesers as shown in Fig. 11 and then set fire to the lower left
corner. Tha~ part will burn faster and you can memories the last
three or four digits of the bill and that is all you need.

TYO BILLETS. Give a billet that has the name of a force

card, word or number to one spectator, while you take a real
billet with a secret message and have both billets burned. The
distraction of two billets burning will entertain and misdirect
your audience.

YITH A BIT OF THOUGHT AND BOTHER, you can have three blank
billets hung on bulldog clips in podition 1, 2 and 3, and next to
them have three Devil's Billets hung. A spectator burns the first
three billets while you burn the three Devil's billets.

7
 VOICES FROM HADES cont.

ATTENTION DOCC HILFORD AND ALL BIZARISTS

SHADES OF MALINI. You prepare a hardcover book that you no

longer want by breaking its spine and make sure that the book
opens to the same page every time when you drop it spine down. Say
it opens to page 105. Go to page 111 and write in big letters the
name of a force card, say, QUEEN OF HEARTS or its initials. You
have forced the Queen of Hearts upon one of the celebrities that
you have invited to a pic-nic.
At the picnic call on the celebrity and show him the book.
Say that you are going to perform a magic ritual. You have this
magic book that is now obsolete and you must burn it. So you
throw the book into the pic-nic fire carefully making sure it
lands with the pages opon. Tell the VIP to watch and one page
goes up in flames and then another until the page with the Queen
of Hearts shows up. Well you know what to do.