SEPARATION ANXIETY

By
Watkins
 This routine is an excerpt from my limited edition hardback book, “Positive/Negative”. At
the time of writing this there are still a few available. If you are interested in purchasing a copy,
email me at watkinsmentalism@gmail.com. Enjoy.

-Watkins 2017
 “Separation Anxiety”

“Whatever is not yours, let go of it. Your letting go of it is for your long term happiness and benefit”

-Buddha

The following routine is an alternate presentation of my previous effect called “When the Sky Was
Opened” explained in my book, “Jhana”. This version has a different feel to it and it creates a different
philosophical point. I have created this routine specifically for stage and it is now part of my regular show. It
does rely on genuine suggestion but I promise that you will be able to pull it off as I have structured everything
to work in your favor and I have designed this routine for people just starting out to get into genuine hypnosis.
So even if you have never performed any hypnotic effects, this is a great place to start. I know this because I
never did hypnosis before performing these routines. I will show you exactly how you can make it work for
you as well. There are ‘back up’ plans throughout this entire routine to fall back on so do not be afraid. Here is
“Separation Anxiety”

**I do need to stress a point before we get into the method. This is on the Negative side of
this book for a reason. You could theoretically use this to legitimately steal a person’s identity using
Post-Hypnotic Suggestion. I am putting a disclaimer here because this material can be dangerous in
the wrong hands, just as any hypnosis can be used for unethical means. Please be responsible. The
presentation of stealing the memory of a person’s bank account information is very intriguing and
powerful. Use for entertainment purposes only***

EFFECT: An audience member is chosen and brought up to the stage. The Mentalist is seen to put
her into a trance. Her eyes close and her head bows forward and the Performer begins to instruct her:

“I want you to imagine you are walking down an empty street at night. Up ahead you will see an ATM.
I want you to go up to that ATM and imagine punching in a four digit PIN code. After you have punched this
code into the machine, I want you to imagine deleting the number. To the point where it no longer exists in
your mind, to the point where if I were to ask you what this PIN was you would not be able to answer me.
Nod your head when you understand that. Because the only way I will be able to pick up on this thought is if
it vanishes from your mind completely so it can appear in my mind. Nod your head when it has completely
vanished from your mind”
 The Performer writes something down on a clipboard. He puts the clipboard down on a table and
brings the participant out of her trance. He asks her what her PIN code was and she is seen to have actually
forgotten it! The Performer explains to the audience:

“You see, a lot of people ask me if I can guess a person’s bank account information but that is not
enough! If I can effectively steal the information from a person’s mind it leaves them in a very bad position as
she can no longer go to a bank and confirm her bank info, nor can she stop me from taking her money.
However, I am not an unethical person so let me just remind her what this PIN was”

The Performer touches the participant on the head and she can now remember her PIN code and
reveals it out loud. The Performer turns over the clipboard he wrote on earlier and proves that he did in fact
steal the PIN from her mind.

METHOD: We are about to go really in depth with this routine because there is quite a bit to cover.
It is very difficult to explain every little nuance in writing but I want to make sure I cover everything. This is
probably my favorite effect in this book because of the real power it has. It can literally be used to legitimately
steal a person’s information and make them completely forget their own PIN code. It is a very disturbing
premise in my opinion so I find it perfect for the Negative side of this book. However, if you perform this
routine the way I describe it here, you will have an entirely ethical presentation that looks amazing.

Even though I describe this routine in a Stage context, it can be used for Close Up situations as well.
You can see a video of me demonstrating this routine for some strangers in Central Park by doing a search on
Youtube for my channel, “Watkins Mentalism”. You will see a video entitled ‘Separation Anxiety’. I encourage
you to watch the performance so you can get a visual aid in the process of my instructions. Here is a link as
well:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLfOApcox-U&t=2s
 I hope you watched the video so you will understand this entire process a lot easier. I will begin by
explaining how I get the PIN using a technique I call “Severance” which was explained in “Jhana” and then I
will give a complete step by step run down of the entire performance in a stage context. I will give a brief
rundown of the basic idea behind the principle, and how I use it in this routine. “Severance” is ultimately a way
to unlink a thought from a billet, making it invisible…

Severance for PIN Codes

Imagine you were an ordinary layperson who has never seen any form of magic whatsoever. Imagine
a strange person walked up to you and claimed to be a ‘Mind Reader’ and handed you a piece of paper that
said: “Please write down your PIN code”. How would you react? What would you do?

I would imagine that you would object to the request. Or at the very least ask for more clarification.
This is something I have run into many times with Additional Information billets that call for a PIN code to
be written. This is a problem because the entire purpose, with regard to my ‘Severance’ principle is to create
the impression that the participant could write down whatever they wanted. And the rest of the audience is
supposed to remain oblivious to the fact that there was any requests on the billet itself. I will tell you how I
solved this dilemma later on.

In my original “Severance” technique, the principle was simple:

If the Performer is the one to ask a participant to think of a specific piece of information, it is
automatically implied that the participant was not already thinking of it.

In other words, if a Performer hands a participant a piece of paper and tells them to write something
down on a billet, and then proceeds to change his mind and asks the participant to think of their Mother’s name
and reveals it- doesn’t that seem miraculous? Because in that scenario, we automatically assume that the request
from the Performer to think of that specific piece of information came from the Performer himself off the top
of his head, in the moment. And in “Severance”, we take advantage of that.

So basically, we create an Additional Information Billet that calls for the participant to write down their
Mother’s name (without the audience being aware of that, of course). We can then pretend to change our mind
and perform a Center Tear and get a peek of the info. Then we ASK the participant to think of their Mother’s
name in such a way to imply that the idea to think of a Mother’s name has just occurred to us.

We justify changing our mind by saying something like “I think you tend to see things in your mind as
images as opposed to just letters so let’s do this a different way” while ripping the paper up. I then instruct
them to close their eyes and I will guide them through a visualization process. I say “I want you to imagine
someone very important to you is standing in front of you. In fact, imagine your Mother standing in front of
you. Imagine her saying her name over and over again…”

You should be able to see what I mean by now. By asking them to think of their mother after we have
already peeked the info, it implies to the rest of the audience that the information we are currently going for
was NOT the information written down and discarded.
 That is a very brief explanation of the “Severance” Technique. If you would like to learn more subtleties
involved with it, you can read about it in “Jhana”.

Now that we have seen how this works for a Name, how do we make it work for a PIN code?

With all of the aforementioned problems with handing a person a piece of paper that asks them to
write down a PIN, I had to come up with a solution that keeps the Dual Reality in place. After a lot of thought,
I figured the best way to get a participant to write down a 4-Digit PIN on a “Severance” Billet was for it to ask
for the last 4 digits of the participant’s phone number.

The great thing about asking for the last 4 digits of their phone number is that it will not be questioned
and it won’t cause any disturbance to the Dual Reality we are trying to create. Better yet, I will show you how
we can still create the illusion that it is their Bank PIN that we are divining. It also allows for a few other really
interesting implications as well, which we will be getting into in a moment.

To create the “Severance” PIN billet, grab a piece of paper that you would use for a Center Tear of
your choosing. I personally prefer index cards and I use Ran Pink’s ‘Think Pink’ Center Tear myself. You’re
going to write a note to ask the participant to think of the last 4 digits of their phone number. Here is what the
billet ought to look like:
 Now that you have prepared your billet, all you need is a clipboard and a marker and you are completely
prepared to perform this routine. It is incredible how much of an effect you can create with a simple piece of
paper, some writing utensils, and your words.

Upon choosing a participant from the audience and bringing them to the stage, you are going to use
this script as you introduce the billet:

“What I want you to do is take this piece of paper and unfold it. You will see that it asks you to write
down a piece of personal information. It is essential that you remain silent while you do this as I don’t want
you to give anything away as to what it is you are thinking of. So take a few steps back and write the information
and fold it back up”

This script is very sneaky as it creates the illusion for the rest of the audience that the participant could
write down ANY piece of personal information on the paper. You should notice that in this version of the
routine, we are letting the audience know that there is a message on the billet- but we are misleading them as
to what it says.

It is important to unfold the paper yourself and actually show the participant what is written on there
as you give this instruction. This makes sure that they know exactly what to do by pointing to the message
written on the billet. The really cool Dual Reality is the fact that the four digit number they are going to write
IS a piece of personal information! This is far better than having them write down a random four digit number.

Sometimes if you are worried that the participant will refold the billet the wrong way, you can ask for
their initials and write it on the outside of the folded billet to ensure that they fold the Billet so that their initials
remain on the outside. There is nothing worse than trying to do a Center Tear with an incorrectly folded billet.
Especially on stage.

Of course we also ask the participant to remain silent while they are following our instructions. This is
for the obvious reason that we don’t want them to give the game away for us, but the great justification we give
the participant is that we don’t want them to give anything away as far as the information is concerned- as if by
them talking, they will give a ‘tell’.

Here is another cool thing about having the participant write down the last four digits of their phone
number: Quick! Think of the last four digits of YOUR phone number right now. I bet it took you a second
and you had to think about it. This phenomena further enhances the illusion that the participant could have
written down ANYTHING because the participant will have to think for a second. It’s a small detail, but very
convincing nonetheless.

Once your participant has written the information on the paper, folded it up, and walked back- you
are ready to begin with the real work of this routine. Remember that we know they are thinking of the last 4
digits of their phone number, and the rest of the audience thinks that the participant is thinking of ANY piece
of personal information. This is where the ‘Severance’ principle actually occurs. We need to unlink the thought
from the billet. Here is how…

Making the Billet Invisible

The participant has just come back from writing down the last four digits of her phone number. The
next step is to hold your hand close to the paper and pretend that we are picking up on impressions. I don’t
actually say anything while I do this, but in my head I am imagining that I am legitimately receiving information.
This is a complete bluff, but it is necessary to the presentation.

After a few seconds of this, I begin to give a reading of the participant. This is a stock line with one
purpose: to create a narrative that the participant views things in images as opposed to letters and numbers:

“I see you as a creative individual. You think outside the box and have a very great capacity for
imagination”

After I give that line, I sometimes take a guess at their star sign but that’s not necessary. Once we have
given this mini reading it is time to unlink the thought from the billet by taking the billet from the participant
and performing a Center Tear while saying:

“You know I have to be honest, I don’t think I am going to be able to get this. The reason being that
I see you as a person that sees things in images as opposed to numbers and letters.

(*point to the ripped pieces when you say letters to imply that the info written down was a word or
name)

So I want to try this a different way. We are going to do something different and start again. Here take
these pieces and we will do something a little more visual”

*(get your peek when you hand the ripped pieces to the participant)

So you should see how this creates the illusion that we are starting over again and that the feat we were
trying to attempt was not going to work because the participant is a more ‘visual’ thinker. I don’t mind doing
this in my stage show because it implies that I have to do things according to the personalities of my participants.
It also creates a supposed ‘limit’ to my capabilities, which is a good thing for your character. It also doesn’t
come across as a failure because you never took a guess at the information. You are simply trying something
different.

So here is the situation we are at now. You have just got a peek of the last four digits of your
participant’s phone number, the audience doesn’t know the participant even wrote her phone number, and now
you have just said that you are going to try something different. Soon this is going to mean two different things
for the participant and the audience:

For the audience it will mean that you are starting over with a completely different routine and that the
information written down is not the target anymore.

For the participant it will mean you are going about the process in a different way while still going for
the same piece of information.

Once you have got your peek, discarded the ripped pieces of paper, and implied to the audience that
you are going to ‘start over’, we are now about to go into the actual hypnotic section of this routine. Pay close
attention to this section as there are a lot of subtleties that make this whole thing come together. What’s great
about this routine is the fact that it doesn’t matter if your participant experiences the amnesia or not- you will
always end on a strong note.
 The Induction

So far we have acquired the last four digits of our participant’s phone number, the audience doesn’t
even know the participant wrote down the last four digits of her phone number, and we have just ripped up
the piece of paper and told the audience we are going to try something else that is a lot more visual.

This new process is going to be a ‘pseudo’ induction. The reason I call it ‘pseudo’ is because it is not
necessarily a real induction unless your participant believes it is. I’m not going to discuss what real hypnosis is
because it really isn’t important here for what we are doing. The bottom line is that this works. I have no idea
if the participant is truly ‘Hypnotized’ when I do this or not. The only thing I am concerned with right now is
creating the illusion of an induction.

Start by asking your participant to give you her hands. Then say the following:

“I want you to really relax and trust me. If you follow my instructions to the best of your ability, I
promise you something amazing in the end. If I tell you to imagine something, I want you to imagine it vividly.
If I tell you to do something I want you to try your best. It may seem strange at first but I promise there is a
reason for everything I do”

This is a very suggestive script because it really just tells the participant to do what you say and they
will experience something amazing if they do. The reason for this is that we need the participant to trust in
what we are doing and not question it. This puts them in a very suggestible state, and creates a reason for them
to follow our instructions. I usually choose someone from the audience that I think looks like they are a person
who will follow instructions. Obviously don’t go for the heckler with this. After you have done this a few times,
you get an eye for who it will work with. Anyway, let’s continue:

“Take a deep breath and relax. In a moment I am going to say the word ‘Now’. When I do, your eyes
are going to close and your head is going to bow forward…1…2…3…Now!”

As soon as you say “Now”, you are going to lightly pull on their arms and you can watch their head
fall forward. This really creates a great visual for the audience. Audiences love seeing inductions because they
look so amazing. In this case, we are simply telling the participant what to do and it still looks like she has been
‘put under’ (she may be, but that doesn’t really matter at this point in time).

Now the participant is in a situation where their eyes are closed and they look like they are in a trance.
We are immediately going to move into a guided visualization process with the participant (remember she is a
‘visual thinker’). The participant is in a very suggestible state right now. We are now going to give further
instructions.

The Visualization Process

As soon as the participant goes into the supposed ‘trance’, I immediately give the following script:
 “That’s right, you are doing a wonderful job. Just relax and drift while listening to the sound of my
voice. I am going to start counting backwards from 3 to 0. As I do I just want you to relax even further.
Completely clearing your mind and listening to my instructions. 3… still relaxing...2…you’re doing
great…1…and 0. I now want you to vividly imagine you are walking down an empty street at night. Up ahead
you see an ATM. I want you to imagine walking up to that ATM and punching in the last 4 digits of your phone
number just to protect your privacy. Once you have punched that number into the ATM, I want you to now
DELETE the number from the machine and from your mind. To the point where it no longer exists in your
mind. To the point where if I were to ask you what this number was, you would NOT be able to answer me.
Nod your head when you understand this.”

Once the participant nods, you know you are doing well as this means they are implicitly agreeing to
clear their mind of this number. Continue:

“You must completely delete this number form your mind because the only way I will be able to pick
up on this thought is if it completely disappears from your mind, so that it can appear in mine. Nod your head
when you understand that.

So later, when I ask you what this number is, you will NOT be able to answer me. It will be almost as
if it were on the tip of your tongue. You will be able to answer any other question I ask you, but you will NOT
answer when I ask you what this number is. Nod when you understand”

This script is almost fool proof. It works 99% of the time for me. I can’t really explain how or why it
works- it just does. You may have your own theories on hypnosis and I have mine. As I said earlier, I am not
going to go into theories on how hypnosis works. I am just going on experience and practicality. And this
scripting seems to get the job done when given with confidence and clarity. It is a combination of suggestion
and direct commands. It is also a case of the participant not wanting to mess you up. You have literally told
them that the only way you can pick up on the thought, is if they clear their mind of the information!

Here are a few more points that are very important before we get into the “Wake Up” phase. You
should probably notice that we have asked the participant to think of the last four digits of their phone number
in the process. This is what ties the “Severance” principle together. Remember the main principle of
“Severance” is: If the Performer is the one to ask a participant to think of a specific piece of information, it is
automatically implied that the participant was not already thinking of it.

When we ask the participant to imagine punching in the last four digits of their phone number during
the visualization process, we are automatically implying to the rest of the audience that the information was not
already thought of. We are also implying to the participant that this whole visualization process is how we go
about getting the information- which in turn increases the strength of our suggestions. Here’s the really sneaky
part: When we ask the participant to think of the digits, we are going to give body language to the rest of the
audience that implies that we are just now coming up with the idea to go for the last four digits of the phone
number. Remember that the participant’s eyes are closed, so they can’t see what you are doing. I usually make
a motion that makes it seem as though the idea to think of the digits in a phone number has just occurred to
me.

Now if you are not wanting to say that these numbers are the last four digits of the phone number,
and instead want to imply that it is a genuine random PIN code, you can be bold and say to the participant:

“I want you to imagine punching in the four digits into this ATM”

The audience will not catch you on saying “The four digits”. You are so far ahead of them they will
not put it together in their mind. But your participant will. One way to enhance the illusion is to once again
make a motion with your body language to imply that this was a ‘spur of the moment’ idea to focus on four
digits.

So now that we have given our suggestions to the participant to forget the number we are going to
continue by instructing them further:

“Nod your head when you have completely deleted this number from your mind”

As soon as they nod their head, grab your clipboard and write down the code. Once they nod their
head they are agreeing that they have deleted the number. This is where something very interesting happens.
This is the thing that is going to save you. This is the thing that is going to give you the courage to perform this
routine even if you are terrified of Hypnosis:

By writing down the information as soon as they nod and before you wake them up, you have a
beautiful “Out”. I will explain more after I describe the wake up process.

The Wake Up

At this point we have committed to the information by writing the PIN on a clipboard and we have
just given our participant the suggestions to forget the PIN and experience amnesia. I know all of this sounds
like it wouldn’t actually work, especially for people who have no prior experience with Hypnosis but this is such
a safe situation to try it out because as you will soon see, you are completely covered. It is now the moment of
truth. Here is where we get our participant out of the trance and finally see if our suggestions were taken on.

Explain to your participant:

“I am about to say ‘123 wide awake’. When I do your eyes will open. I will ask you what this number
was and you will NOT answer me. You will be able to answer any other question I ask you, but you will not be
able to answer when I ask for the number…

123 wide awake!”

The participant opens their eyes and lifts their head.

“So where are you from? (Participant answers)

And what was the 4 digit PIN you put in that ATM?”

It is highly recommended that when you ask for them to say the PIN that you ask it in a way that
appears as though you, yourself have forgotten it as well. This creates an effect of empathy in a weird way. For
some reason it seems to suggest amnesia and strengthen the entire effect’s reliability.

This is the critical moment. Because if they show that they have forgotten it (a blank stare, or signs of
confusion) it is vital that you give them just enough time to show the audience that they have forgotten the
PIN, but not enough time for them to ‘snap out of it’. So after a couple of seconds, I quickly say:
 “Just stay like that for a moment. Now a lot of times I get asked if I can guess a person’s bank account
information but that’s not enough! If I can effectively steal that information from a person’s mind, then they
can no longer verify their identity and they cannot stop me from taking all of their assets!

However I am not an unethical person, so let me just remind you what this PIN code was”

By interrupting their confusion and giving patter to the audience, you are in effect making a great
presentational point AND you are keeping them silent even longer. This creates a sort of false memory in the
minds of your audience (and perhaps your participant) that they were silent for a much longer period than they
actually were. In reality, they are simply remaining silent while you were talking and perhaps they could have
said their PIN during that patter.

Once you have told them you are going to remind them of the PIN code, I usually tap them on the
head and tell them that they can say it now. This is usually enough to get them to remember it, but sometimes
the participant will still forget it (if they are very suggestible). What you need to do then is really make sure you
clear them of any suggestions by telling them that everything is back to normal. Be sure to stay ethical and read
about proper handling of people under hypnosis. It is rare that this happens and in the worst case scenario you
can legitimately remind them of the PIN by revealing it. Which is what we are getting into now…

The Reveal

What makes this routine so great in my opinion is that it creates a solid ‘out’ and gives a point of
reference for the reveal. The moment the participant actually says their PIN out loud- you have this great
moment to turn over the clipboard and show to everyone that you did in fact steal the thought from their mind!

But what if it doesn’t work? What if the amnesia doesn’t happen? Well I can tell you that 9 times out
of 10 it does happen for me. But in the rare event that the participant actually says their PIN when you wake
them up, it’s no big deal. Just immediately turn over the clipboard and you have an amazing PIN divination.
The induction will be seen as simply a process to get the PIN. And you will also notice something very clever
in the actual moment I write the PIN on the clipboard.

I write it after I have told them to ‘nod’ when they have completely deleted the PIN from their mind.
There is a reason for this. It makes the presentation completely smooth even if the amnesia doesn’t occur
because it implies that they did delete the information in that moment. And that is why it was committed to at
that point in time. The presentation is not lost. And in all honesty, lay audiences will be so shocked at the
revelation of a (supposedly not written down) PIN code that they won’t care if the amnesia doesn’t work.
Mainly because they won’t know the difference.

There are only three possible outcomes with this routine, and you ought to prepare yourself to be
happy with all three:

1. Best case scenario: The participant experiences true Amnesia

2. Second best case scenario: The participant simply plays along

 3. Third Best case scenario: The participant doesn’t experience Amnesia and you still get a beautiful
‘hit’ on a PIN that was simply thought of.

Now for those of you who would like to see what to do in the worst case scenario, I have provided a
link to a private video of me performing this routine on stage at a comedy club in New York City. This was in
front of a live audience. Notice how they react, and realize how you have nothing to lose:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fLgcJJNZ30