David Numen
 
 
 

Dedicated to all those who I have learnt from in the last 18 months – far too many people to
mention and some of the lessons far too complex and personal to discuss.

Special dedication to the memories of David N Bartleman and James F Hosie.

 The Sentir Tear

My wife and I started a huge transformation in our lives when we took on our own bar in the
summer of 2007 and this, dear reader, is why I have not been in touch much sooner. I had
hoped to release some new work soon after the well-received release of “Cellular Forecast”
but life kind of got in the way! Please indulge the long introduction before we get to the
goodies but I feel it’s important to cover how this tear evolved.

A little over two months after opening the bar we moved into a flat practically opposite with
the help of family and friends. The Sunday after we moved in, my brother-in-law came
round to help with little odd-jobs – the kind of stuff I know nothing about such as plumbing
in washing machines and the like. We had been warned to keep an eye on him as he had
apparently been having some chest pains. He’s suffered a bad back for years but this was
something new and a tad concerning as he’s one of those tough little Spaniards that seem
invincible – smokes, drinks lots of coffee and works 80 hour weeks.

Shortly after his arrival the chest pains started again. Since I knew it was most unlike him to
worry about pain I said not to hesitate and to get a Doctor straight away. An ambulance soon
arrived to whisk him and his wife to hospital and during the journey his heart stopped four
times. My wife followed in the car taking some family with her and I was left at home with
my father-in-law, having the first proper time away from the bar since it had opened. Not the
best of circumstances to have time off and unusual in that I had the time practically on my
own. I decided I was going to take my mind off things with Mentalism and shortly after that
decision I decided I was going to review some Center Tears and decide on one I was going
to use, once and for all.

You see, I had been unable to find a tear I completely liked – many I liked, some I loved but
with all I found a problem. Mainly that problem had to do with “squeezing” – that act of
squeezing the torn card to separate a folded portion. Since I am limited in the type of card
easily obtainable in this strange little town, and since I have pretty dry hands, the squeeze
was always difficult. Some others were slightly easier and all but eliminated this squeezing
but often involved folding and unfolding the torn pieces whilst secretly doing something –
an act I found all too clumsy and unreliable since I am a clumsy oaf.

So, that lonely night I became a man possessed and two tears came to mind. I reviewed them
both and liked them both apart from “squeezing”. Then, suddenly and wonderfully, the
unexpected happened and I found a way to combine them which, I felt, was different enough
to be called my “own” tear. I played with it, tweaked it a bit and feel I have come up with a
tear which genuinely is guided by touch, easy to do to the point of almost being self-working
and easily as deceptive as the other tears out there.
Full credits go to Stuart Cumberland and Barrie Richardson both from whom I have
borrowed to come up with this and both of whom were extremely kind in permitting me my
own release with this tear.

Firstly, you will have to fold the card in a particular way. Use whatever size of card you are
happy with – I use large sheets of coloured card which I tear into 16ths but business cards or
half sized index cards would work just as well.

The Fold
With the card flat on the table fold from right to left leaving the top half slightly short of the
bottom half so the bottom half overlaps slightly. This kind of thing is standard peek and tear
stuff. I have scribbled on the card in the photo to make it easier to follow.

With this first fold done, rotate the card 90 degrees counter-clockwise then fold from right to
left again but this time make the TOP portion overlap the bottom half.
Here is how the card should look from the front to give you a clearer idea of the overlap.

With the card pre-folded you are ready to go. So you understand the orientation of the card,
when you unfold it and present it to the spectator to write on, the left hand side should be the
equivalent of the shaded area in the earlier example photo.

Draw an X slightly below center or a line or whatever justification you use to guide the
participant to write in the center. Get them to refold and then do the following…

Tear 1
Hold the card in your right hand so that the fold crease is on your right and the open side is
facing the left. Bring your left hand toward the card and place your thumb behind and
fingers in front ready to tear. Because of the overlap in the fold it is an easy matter to hold
ONLY the back flap and in reality you will tear only this back flap in half for the first tear.
The audience view is on the left and your view is on the right.
Tear the back flap in half moving the left hand forward and keeping the right still – in
motion this is perfectly deceptive.

Now align the left hand torn piece with the left hand side of the card in the right hand - you
will make a slight grip readjustment whilst doing this. When the pieces are lined up hold the
bundle with the left hand thumb and fingers and, whilst keeping the right hand fingers still,
release your right thumb.

The act of releasing your right thumb allows the folded card to pop open slightly and if you
replace your right thumb on the far left of the card whilst slightly moving your right fingers
you will find it unfolds easily in readiness for the next tear.
In this position the left hand tears off a portion the same size as the first torn piece.

As the left hand moves forward with the torn pieces the right hand rotates its piece 90
degrees clockwise.
As the left hand returns to the right hand, allow the left thumb to slip between the folds of
the piece in the right hand – this is super-easy due to the special fold you made at the start.

For the next tear you are only going to tear through one layer of the right hand folded piece,
roughly about halfway along.

As the left hand returns to the right hand pieces it is a simple matter to slip the left thumb
behind the torn front flap of the right hand pieces and by pushing slightly to the right with
the left thumb you will find the right hand piece pops open revealing the secret writing!
A slight adjustment of the right thumb secures the opening of the piece whilst nothing
appears to change from the front. In the previous photo I was using a blank slip, in this next
photo you will see how it looks with writing.

Now is the time to get your peek whilst gesturing or making some comment about the mess
you are making or whatever. You will then continue to tear the slip and in fact one more tear
does give you another option for reading.

You have the option of tearing the open slip in half and then bringing the two halves
together to read the writing – this is a useful option if you miss the chance to catch a peek
the first time or if you caught a peek but couldn’t quite make it out. Thanks go to John Wells
for this option.
Place everything together and tear through the two larger pieces nearest you one more time.

Align the pieces once more and turn them 90 degrees clockwise.

Tear this gathered pile in half and place the pieces of each hand face to face then hand them
to a spectator – they can check everything and piece back the pieces if they so wish and
there will be nothing untoward to find. Or you can just throw them away however you want.
And there you have it. Give it a try with card in hand a few times and you will find very
quickly that you get the hang of where to place the left thumb and the whole thing can be
done without fidgeting, fumbling or fear that the pieces won’t open when you need them to.

At this point I’d like to explain the name I gave the tear. Originally I was thinking about
something involving “cardiac” and “cuatro” given the incident which allowed me time to
come up with this. Then I changed tack and suggested to my wife that I would call it “TFT”
which would be an acronym for “Touchy Feely Tear”. Trying to be more cryptic, Christine
suggested “Tocar Tear” from the Spanish verb meaning “to touch”. Immediately I thought
about the feely part and I knew that “Lo siento” meant “I’m sorry” but literally translates as
“I feel it”…which led me to realise the Spanish verb for “to feel” was “Sentir” and thus a
terrible international pun and cool title was born.
 Dead Center

Having given you this new CT variation, I hummed and hawed about actually giving you a
routine where you could use it. There are plenty out there but I kind of felt duty bound to
give my own variation.

What follows bears a HUUUGE debt to my buddy John Wells’s “Barfly Billet Test” and in
fact I don’t think this in any way improves the actual structure of his routine, rather it gives a
somewhat different approach to the “Living and Dead Test”.

There is a Jazz element to the routine which does perhaps make it more complex than it
needs to be but I find the whole concept somewhat pleasing so without further ado or build-
up let’s get on with it.

I will presume you are performing for a small crowd but with some minor adjustments this
could easily be performed one on one.

A participant is selected and they are asked to think of the name of someone who has passed
on with the usual caveat that it be someone who passed on some time ago so as not to upset
the participant. They are given a piece of card to write the name upon. They – or other
audience members – are given a few other cards upon which they are to write the names of
living people.

The folded cards are mixed and the participant uses their intuition to pick out the living ones
– she ends up with one remaining slip which proves to be the dead name and of course as a
kicker you reveal the name. This particular handling allows for a certain appearance of
hands-offness on the part of the performer and also highlights the participant’s intuitive
ability.

Whilst the number of names used can be varied I will use a total of five for the purpose of
explanation and describe the workings and variations to the best of my abilities. It is then up
to you, darling reader, to put your own spin on it.

You will be using three classic mentalism secrets to achieve this effect depending on how it
plays. An instant read CT, a secret one-ahead and mis-calling. Oh… and you will also be
secretly marking the billet…so that means you’ll be using 4 classic mentalism secrets…

The marking aspect is the first part that is a little different. Some time ago, whilst pondering
a L&D routine of Bob Cassidy’s which involved a prop I preferred not to use, I mulled over
the possibility of using Millard Longman’s spectacular “Acidus Novus” peek. It then came
to me that rather than mark the OUTSIDE of the billet as per normal requirements you could
somehow mark the INSIDE of the billet and even though the difference between marked and
unmarked billets may seem obvious to participants it’s so casual that it would fly by AND
the fact that you are not supposed to be able to see inside those lovely little folded cards aids
the illusion.

So the basic secret is that with the first card you put some kind of mark on the billet by way
of indicating where the participant is to write the name. In fact, to ensure the correct
placement of the writing in all the billets I draw a line just below center but with the first
dead name billet I also add in an X at the start of the line. So proceed as per the routine, have
a dead name written on the “X” slip and then living names on the other slips and have
someone – who we will designate the “helper” mix them up and hold on to them.

What is now going to happen is that the helper will pass one billet to the main participant.
They are to use their intuition to tell if they think it is living or dead. If they think it is dead
they are to place it aside until they check all the others and if they are unsure they pass the
card back to the helper who swaps it for another one and this proceeds until they state with
some certainty that they have a living name.

“Excellent” you say as you step forward and take the card “We don’t need this anymore –
I’m going to trust in your instinct.” as you destroy the card via your favourite instant read
CRT method. At the same time you urge the participant to locate another living name. As
attention will be focused on the participant at this point you can tear and peek without too
much worry of being caught.

Now, having glimpsed the name you will be in one of two positions. Either the card is
indeed the dead name or it’s a living name. Either way, commit the name and its status to
memory.

So a second card is decided upon as being another living one. You carry out the same move,
tearing and peeking and noting whether the name is living or dead and again urging the
participant to continue as cover for your actions.

We now vary the process for the third card. Instead of tearing yet again say you are getting a
vibration from this one and call out the first letter of a previously peeked living name (you
will have either one or two at your disposal at this point of the routine). Call out a name that
is close but not really dead on and then as if to verify, open the slip and miscall whatever the
name is as the previously peeked name whilst committing to memory the name on the slip
and its status. And of course since you, in the reality of the routine, aren’t supposed to know
whether the name is living or dead you ask for confirmation from whoever wrote it.

Now you have another name at your disposal and by this stage there’s a strong chance that
you know the dead name. Don’t sweat it, even if you don’t yet, you will soon!

Play up this next choice for all it’s worth – there are only two billets left. Give the
participant plenty of time to change their mind and commit to a final decision. When they
make their final choice they are to hold on to the one they think is dead and you take the
final living choice from them and straight away open it and…what you do next will depend
on the situation...
At this stage you have one of two possibilities. Either the participant has the dead name for
real and you still don’t know what the actual name is OR they have one of the living billets
and you have successfully peeked - either by tear or by miscalling - the dead name. Here’s
the procedure for when they DON’T really have the dead name.

With all the tension you can muster – think Chris Tarrant on “Who Wants to be a
Millionaire” – open the slip you have been given, read the name silently to yourself and
pause. Look at the participant with full-on seriousness and tell them the name on the slip and
ask for confirmation that it is a living name. Since you either call out the actual living name
from the card (if it IS a living name) or you miscall it as one of your previously peeked
names then obviously the person who wrote it must confirm it’s a living name. A bonus at
this stage if the slip is genuinely a living one is that you don’t need to miscall it and can
actually show it around freely. These slight changes of procedure from each phase help to
add confusion to the audience’s later memory of events.

You will then focus all the attention on the participant. At this point in the routine they have
a living name and you have secretly peeked the dead name BUT they think they are holding
the dead name because of your casual and varied revelations. Invite them to try something
different – they are to tear up or even burn the slip themselves as you try to connect with
them. Build-up the drama, approach them slowly and place your hand on their hand or arm
and at that precise moment reveal the dead name. Home and dry. You’ve put someone else
in the spotlight highlighting THEIR ability and to cap it you’ve done a pretty decent
telepathic demonstration which highlights YOU but also you build up their ability as a
sender.

So much for that variation but what of the statistically less likely but nevertheless possible
variant whereby you still haven’t got the dead name because they REALLY have succeeded
in doing what you asked?

I thought at first that this was the weakest variation and because of that I didn’t develop the
routine much beyond a basic idea but then it struck me to build this up as a strength rather
than a weakness so if it has happened that they HAVE still got the dead name this is what to
do.

“Wow – congratulations, your intuition has proven to be very strong. Definitely learn to
trust those hunches and gut feelings. Let’s try something else a little different. Firstly open
the card and read that name silently to yourself – I want you to burn the actual image of the
name into your mind. Done that? Good. Refold the card…” At this point you hold out your
hand to take the card from them and do your instant CT whilst you state that “we no longer
need this”. Link hands with them or hold on to their wrist or do something special and
significant as you reveal the dead name.

Yes, technically speaking this is the weakest variant because it lacks the appearance of being
hands-off BUT what you lose with that you gain with a subtle convincer in that they open
the billet and indeed do see for themselves that they did indeed locate the dead name.
And regardless of which variant you end up with just recall that most audiences have
imperfect recall and if you perform well enough everything will be built up and exaggerated
and you will be the mentalist hero!
 Chiber

The ubiquitous book test – some mentalists love them, some hate them. I personally think
there is nothing purer in mentalism than having someone open a book and think of a
word…then the mentalist reveals that word. To such end the very best forms of this effect
come by virtue of gimmicked books – and I have bought and used many of them such as
“The Key”, “Ultimate Flashback” and the glorious “Mother of all Book Tests”.

Book tests are always very memorable – presented well. A former boss once told me of
being at a dinner and seeing a performer have someone look at any page, any line then any
word on that page and the performer revealed it. This was a memory he had going back
many years so the effect was profound for him. I didn’t get to find out the exact details of
the test or who the performer was but the effect itself was burned into his memory.

When I lived on the Costa del Sol, I managed to get a spot on a radio show through a friend
of a friend. At the time I was working mainly as a psychic reader but the radio station had so
many phone-in psychics I thought I would do something different – so I prepared a few
mentalism items and went to the station and pretty much performed off-the-cuff.

I had performed on radio a couple of times in Edinburgh under pretty much the same
capacity – basically you go along, sound like you know what you are talking about, perhaps
handle a few callers and do some mentalism with the presenter which will be easy enough
for the people at home to follow. I didn’t exactly think it would be a breeze but I felt I had
things under control…until I arrived at the station. To my horror I was to be in a separate
room from the presenter – I could see her because the rooms were adjoining and there was a
great big window between them but there was no possibility of live interaction with the
presenter. I had to quickly have her take a few cards from my stacked tarot deck, I gave her
Mother and asked her to think of a word and then we started the show.

Fortunately she was a great subject for mentalism and reacted fantastically well and I
managed to make a virtue out of not being in the same room – it made everything sound
more like test conditions. I had hoped by careful scripting to make it sound like she had just
thought of a word rather than look one up in a book but she mentioned the book as I was
recapping, however it still went over very well. As a result of this I was asked back a couple
more times and followed pretty much the same format, and each time I took along a
different book test.

On my last spot I took along Ultimate Flashback. The show went well, the presenter was as
gob smacked as ever and then some ruddy nuisance of a woman called in and started asking
about the books – did I bring them in, who did they belong to, etc. I waffled on about doing
something similar every time I appeared and the books were always different –and the
presenter confirmed all this but still the woman was suspicious. “Can you do it with any
book?” she asked. I said something along the lines of “Well yes I can but I need to see the
book and get to know it a bit otherwise it’s extremely difficult.”
This prompted the presenter to pick up a book from her desk and ask if I could use that
one…I had to rather weakly feign tiredness and assure her that I would do something next
time. Had she been in the same room as me I could have done one of many impromptu tests
but given I had never seen the damned book before and my inability to handle it I was kind
of stuck.

As it happened I never returned to this station as I got a stint doing the weekly horoscopes
on another radio station so I didn’t get to do a hands-off any book, book test. However, a
little seed was sown and the quest to find a special impromptu test conditions book test
started.

A few years later I got round to purchasing Annemann’s “Test of the Tiber” and set about
thinking how to do it without switches – I had an “ah-ha” moment and this effect is the
result which, by a happy happenstance, also duplicates in essence the effect of the excellent
Canasta book test.

EFFECT
In terms of what the audience will see and recall this is pretty much similar to the Canasta
Book Test in effect but quite different in method. A page number and a line number are
chosen freely by two spectators – both choices unknown to the performer. A third spectator
is asked to select a book (or they could bring their own) and to look up that page and line
and someone else selects a position on that line. You reveal the word – and can also reveal
the entire line should you wish.

I should point out that for challenge situations the person with the book can do their bit in
another room. Also ANY book can be used so long as it’s in a language readable to you and
it can be a book which you have never seen before the performance.

METHOD
In many ways this is far easier than Canasta’s version and I should think far more surefire as
there is no psychological force involved. The secret is still pretty simple and pretty ballsy –
basically a peek and thinking on your feet.

It’s outwith my remit to describe which peek to use but if you have this ebook and you
DON’T already have a peek then shame on you! Every mentalist really should have a good
peek at their disposal and there are many available. For me there is no finer peek than
Millard Longman’s “Acidus Novus” and whilst there are many resources available for
learning this, IMHO there is no finer format than his CD available from mevproshop.com.
“Busch’s Peek” from Richard Busch’s “Peek Encores” would also work well for this, as
would the half billet peek from “Obsidian Oblique”.

Note that this really has to be a peek and a tear won’t do at all because of the way the routine
is structured.

So how do you do this? Well, it’s all in the structure. If you are going to have two spectators
select something unknown to you but which a third person needs to know, what better way
to communicate this information than to have it written down? This does away with all this
wishy-washy magicians’ thinking of “why do they need to write things down”. In THIS
routine they need to write it down for someone else to read! So set up your business card or
billet for a peek and have one person write a page number. The card is passed to a second
participant for them to select a line on that page. Until you become proficient at this I
suggest limiting the choice to up to line 15 – you have the perfect excuse in that you don’t
want the third spectator to miscount. This limitation is perfectly acceptable and makes the
effect so much easier for you to work. With practice you can get them to choose any line
they like but if you decide to work with the limitation ensure you make it clear to the
audience that it’s for the test subject’s benefit and it will fly by.

Once both choices are committed to paper you get hold of the folded card and prepare for
your peek. At this point you then ask for a third participant and whilst eyes go to whoever
gets chosen and you ask them to join you, you have ample time to peek and commit to
memory both the line and the page number.

The third participant joins you and you hand them the card with the age-old comment that
“Here, take this, I don’t even want to touch it”. You then ask them to select a book from a
pile of them – or someone else could be charged with bringing a book to the show. It can be
ANY book so long as you can read and understand it.

What you are now going to do is a magnificent bluff but is the hardest part of the effect. You
are going to tell the third participant exactly what they have to do – look up the page written
on the card and look up the written line on that page. As you tell them this YOU actually
DO exactly what you are describing with as casual a manner as you can muster with the
book in hand! You have peeked the page number and line number so you actually look up
that page and look up that line and quickly memorize it in the act of demonstrating what
THEY have to do. Told you it was bold!

Of course this is the same kind of process successfully used by Chan Canasta but the
advantage you have here is that you know exactly which page to look at and not have to rely
on psychological ploys. Not that I am denouncing psychological ploys! I love them but it
just tickles me that there is an easier and more certain way to replicate the brilliant Canasta
effect.

If you haven’t already seen it I believe there’s a pretty good clip on Youtube.com of Chan
presenting his test to the UK chat show host Michael Parkinson. It actually goes wrong and
we get to see exactly what Chan did on those occasions when his method hadn’t worked. It’s
simply mind-blowing, breathtaking and a class in presentation itself to watch.

Back to THIS test. You hand the third participant the book, they go off into a corner or
another room or wherever and follow the instructions. As an afterthought you ask someone
else to call out a small number – up to 6, say – and instruct the third participant to look at the
word on that position on the line.

Having memorized the line you are now armed with everything you need and you can
concentrate on making the rest of the presentation as hands-off as possible.
And you are set – the work is done, the spectator is some distance away from you, most will
forget you handled book or card and needless to say that during any recapping you ensure
that your handling of the billet is either reduced or even totally obscured from the watching
masses’ collective memory.

With regards to presentation, I think there are a few different routes to go down with this.
For a start I think it fits the Remote Viewing theme very well and could be done either with
you “Viewing” the word live or even having a supposed target word in an envelope or wallet
– turning the effect into a prediction rather than a telepathy demonstration. Pocket write the
word and then load it into whichever wallet or envelope method you prefer.

Remember a lot of attention will be focused on the participants and in making sure you
aren’t approaching them or able to secretly gain access to what they are doing. You should
have ample time to pocket write the word and get it ready for loading and make this a truly
unfathomable mystery. Also it’s worth noting that any time you can get distance between
you and the participants in any particular test it often makes for a stronger effect.

So there you have it – a truly AAA book test which goes somewhat beyond the “first word
on the page” presentation that most AAA tests require. Not that I am criticizing those – I
love most of them and use them often but I think this test offers something a bit special and
quite adaptable to all kinds of performing situations.