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Assorted Thoughts
Written by Pablo Amirá Thanks for respecting this art and keeping this document to yourself.
Copyright: © 2016 Pablo Amirá All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher
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Index Introduction 1. 6th sense 2. Twisting Minds 3. Psychic Insight 4. Glasses Finesse 5. 1 se Participant POV 6.Covert Parallel Reading 7. Transparent Finesse 8. Line dry Finesse 9. Blindfold Cancellation 10.Prayer Peek 11. Casual Peek 12. V.A.K. 13.P.P.F. Drawing Reading 14.Mentalist vs. Graphologist 15. More success on performances 16.Living Spoon 17.Psychological Forces Cancellation 18. Practical tips for Performances
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19.Energy through Body 20.Ungimmicked Spirit Pendulum 21.Face Morphing Mindreading 22.Creating a reputation 23.Symbolic Natural Clearing 24.ForceRing 25.Pacing Mindreading 26.Equivoque thoughts 27.Hump System 28.Meaningful Drawing Duplication 29.Energetic Blessing 30.E.T. Haunted Key 31.Circle Marking 32.10 Applause Opener 33.A.W. Technique 34.Creating False Memories 35.Making your own “old” key 36. Idea for Psychometry from A-‐Z 37.TA(t)ROT Conclusion
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Introduction Welcome to “Assorted Thoughts”. First of all, thank YOU and your support. It´s very difficult to make the decision to share ideas to the community these days due to piracy and other issues, but the love of the art and hopefully helping others in their growth motivates me to share all these thoughts, and I thank you for understanding this and not publicly sharing this material. This eBook is all about techniques, thoughts, finesses and tips that I think can give you some new ideas to have in your toolkit. This is a collection of ideas that I gathered through several years of performing, meditating and thinking about our wonderful practice that we as a community call “Mentalism”. After all these years of writing, testing and playing, I think that it is finally ready to be shared. Read all the ideas, take whatever you feel is usable at your present state as a performer and use them! Enjoy your reading. Pablo Amirá, 2016
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1. 6th Sense “How is your sixth sense today?” This is a line that I use when I want to open a performance in a manner in which the focus is primarily on the participant and the theme is related to intuition and a participant´s empowerment. The nice thing about this question is it presupposes the idea that anyone has this invisible sixth sense and the attention is only on the quality of that gift at the present moment.
2. Twisting Minds In PKMB you can find techniques that are visual in nature (the spoon is visibly moving, twisting, etc.) or mental in nature (the participant feels that the spoon is becoming hotter and suddenly breaks in his hand). This is one technique that I use to create the idea in the audience’s mind that the participant onstage is feeling the spoon twisting in his hand. It’s all about language and performance. During your routine, hand an already twisted spoon to your participant and ask him to hold it, with the handle towards his body. Now you can give him suggestions while his eyes are closed (an important tip that can enhance suggestibility) and let them experience different sensations. After a moment of building up the scenario, stand on your participant´s left side. Put your left hand on the handle of the spoon (covering it completely). After this you will start to turn the spoon slowly with your right hand (on the bowl) saying: “You can feel the spoon twisting, right?” Your participant obviously will say:”Yes” You can add: “Yes, it’s twisting in your hand. The metal for a moment is like gum, and you can feel now how the upper part of the spoon is morphing…” Believe me, this is far more powerful than just placing the spoon on the participant hands and just turning the spoon, as many performers do it, and
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because you are covering the whole spoon and just leaving the bowl visible, the audience and participant can create a great picture of ONLY the bowl twisting. Now you can build up a better moment and be more credible with this amazing demonstration or mental power using just some blocking and good verbal finesses. 3. Psychic Insight During your performance, suddenly stop for a moment, close your eyes when you feel that it’s right and declare “Maybe it’s something unrelated, but someone is thinking about…..” And just let your intuition get connected and say whatever you feel saying. Maybe that someone is thinking about a problem in a relationship, or something that a female lost during the day, or another thought.Declare your statement, give maybe an answer for that question or issue and just move along. You can smile at the end and say: “It´s a little confusing, but it’s necessary”. I love to create those types of moments in my performances. They are perfect to let the audience create their own version of reality. 4. Glasses Finesse This is a perfect finesse that can be even an indirect methodology canceller if you use a Q&A or blindfold act during your performance. In a moment in which you need to read something, before the blindfold or Q&A act, just take a pair of glasses from your pocket, place them on your eyes, and read. In that way you are indirectly communicating that you don’t have good sight, so when you do your Q&A (peeking the info secretly), the audience will get the idea that “you don’t need to read”.
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5.” 1 sec Participant POV” This is an idea that I use after the final climax of an effect. I reveal my prediction or my revelation of a thought, I let the applause die and I say: “How that can happen?” while I look directly at one person in the audience. Saying that allows me to become a part of the audience for a moment, planting that same question in their minds. Another option is: “Wow, that’s amazing, that guy must be psychic!” It´s also a funny line and lets you bring leave the pedestal of being a performer for a moment; a nice thing sometimes. 6. Covert Parallel Reading This is an approach to doing a quick reading as a parallel effect. In my bank night routine (as an example of this), I use colored envelopes and I let my participant choose a color. Once my participant makes his decision, I say: “Ah, Green. A color that tells me that you are a person that is full of life, searching for balance and an expansion…” And I can continue if I want. After my quick reading I say: “And that´s why I placed a gift for you in the green envelope” Once a participant told me: “I am not that kind of person”. I reply: “Ok, but what if I told you all that just as a process of reverse psychology?” That was a good out because it sounds clever and my participant kept his mouth closed. Maybe for some performers this approach isn’t appealing, but my experience tells me that it works well. The bottom line of this idea for me is that
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giving a reading doesn’t need to be just a single event, separated from a Mentalism performance. Surely this isn’t truly original, several other performers in the past mixed Readings with Mentalism, but this realization will allow you to understand an approach that you might find interesting to create something unique for your audience. A variation of this principle that allows you to give a reading when you want to ask a participant to join you in performance or onstage. This is the script: “…So for this next demonstration in mind connection I need someone that feels that on a daily basis they experience strange things. Moments that almost look like psychic epiphanies. (Look at someone in particular) A recent life changing experience….An important female figure in your life right now… a lot of blue and green in your aura…. What´s your name?...” As you can see, this simple moment of revelation can be very meaningful to your participant. The method? Just use your intuition. It sounds abstract, and it is. Experiment and adjust according to what your see at the moment. Obviously you can use psychological techniques to create a more solid moment. As you can see on the script, the participant will not have a moment to refuse or dismiss your statements, you are going directly to the question that will lead to the next part of your routine. You can use this simple and effective technique in various moments. Just understand the basic principle and adjust if for your own uses. 7. Transparent Finesse I love the dry marker method. It´s so simple and you can achieve so many things with it. This is an idea that you can use that has a great indirect methodology canceller in it. Canceling methodology in an indirect way is about taking advantage of normal presuppositions that we do during our lives, and use them to separate and/or cancel your own methodology. In this case we will use a transparent Bic Pen, full of ink, as our indirect and visual methodology canceller. If you see a pen full of ink that means that it can write, right?
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Well, in your case this pen will be full of ink, but the ballpoint will be glued and coated, so it will not work. Simple and very powerful. 8. Line Dry Finesse Another technique that you can use to indirectly communicating that your marker is working like any normal marker is to have a pre-‐drawn line on your hand or on a business card and while you are giving the instructions to your participant about what he needs to do in your routine, just use your hand (or a card) as a visual aid. That will communicate in a subtle way that the marker has ink, and with that you will cancel the idea of a “marker without ink”, and surely your routine will gain a new layer of mystery. 9. Blindfold Cancellation This is one of my secrets in blindfold work. A very simple and indirect way to cancel the idea that you are peeking in an entertaining way. Start your blindfold act and be blindfolded with all the things that you use. In my case I use coins, duct tape and a sleep mask/normal blindfold. After this I open the act with a piece in which I just need to peek one time to get all the necessary information. One example can be demonstrating remote viewing with playing cards/symbol cards (for a Card Calling) or a magazine test. In that way your participant and audience will perceive that you can still create amazing revelations even with your head turned and clearly without seeing. After this and if you perform this properly, your audience will believe in the reality of your performance and not assume the logical idea of “seeing thru or via the nose´s gap”
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10. Prayer Peek This peek of a business card/blank card is very handy when you have 2 cards as one and you want to secretly see the content of one of them.I use this peek in the context of one of my Drawing Duplications called “Only 2 DD”, but you can use it whenever you see it fit. This technique is called that way due the hand position that I take when I do the secret move. I use various motivations to do it, just create your own coherent one with your effect. First of all, I hold 2 cards as 1, keeping the participant’s card reversed on the bottom of the stack. (Photo 1 , 2 and 3) (Photo 1 (Photo 2) The participant in this case is named Pablo… yes… very cool coincidence). Now you need to simply lift your top card secretly and peek the information. (Photo 3) In the action of putting the hands together like a prayer, you will bend the top card.(Photo 4 and 5) The angles are very good using this move. (Photo 4) Participant`s POV
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Exposed View (Photo 5) (Photo 5) Your devious peek (Photo 6 and 7) (Photo 6) (Photo 7) You can use this with or without the square on the bottom, it´s your choice. I prefer to do it in that way because it allows me to keep the information restricted in one area. If you want to learn a routine with this technique, you can search for my “Only 2 DD” piece.
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11. Casual Peek This is another nice technique for peeking information on a business card. For this you need a stack of cards. You can use this for several uses; just use it according your routine. Let the participant write his thought and let him place it in the middle of the stack. Now you will casually "casually bring it to the bottom of the stack (using your favorite method) Now your actions and script will cover your secret peek. If you are following the actions, the card with the written information is on the bottom. Now take one blank card from the top and say: “Make your mind completely blank (showing the card) and just imagine and believe that your thoughts will become mine” As you do all these, just place the card on bottom, so it will cover the bottom card. In that way you will have the blank card as the bottom card and the next card will be the card that you need to peek. Take your time, don’t rush the peek and whenever you see it proper, just move the blank card slightly, so the “written card” can be visible for a moment. After that you just need to take your single blank card, do a cut/pass and leave the participant´s card in the middle. An additional tip for this. While you have the blank card at the bottom, you can grab your card and the participant´s card for a moment. In that way you can flash the “second card from the bottom” (actually the third from the bottom), in that way you can indirectly prove that the participant´s card isn’t near your eyes. 12. V.A.K. This is a premise for any “triple mindreading” piece. Start the routine explaining that people can be categorized in 3 groups. Visual, Auditory and Kinesthetic. Ask your audience to raise hands and select your 3 participants. These type of premises are very interesting for your audience and surely they will remember you for this after your performance.
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After all this you can ask the “visual person” to make a simple drawing (you can boost this with Idea #28), the “auditory person” to think of a famous song and the “kinesthetic person” to think of a personal activity that uses his kinesthetic abilities. You can play with any type of option. Now you can use whatever method you want to obtain the information and create wonders. If you have an imp pad, an idea is to perforate the sheet in 3 sections, so the first participant can draw and easily remove his piece, then repeat the same with the other 2 participants. If you use this you need to obviously place the “Visual Thought” at the bottom, in the middle the “Auditory Thought” and at the top, the “Kinesthetic Thought”, 13.P.P.F. Drawing Reading This is a fun way to do readings. Ask your participant to make 3 drawings, one that he could have made in his childhood, one that reflects his present life and one that he will do in his final days. With those 3 drawings you have a lot to interpret and a lot of conversation. You can compare each drawing, see similarities, differences, see how he sees his future, etc. Obviously you can use also Webster´s A-‐Z to stimulate your unconscious associations and keep the reading coherent with your participant. If you are a little skeptical about the power of giving readings, try this and frame it as a “psychological game”, being always positive with your insights and empathic with them. 14. Mentalist vs. Graphologist This is an idea that you can use to “motivate” the use of an impression pad, using a psychological reading. If you are a ‘psychological mind-‐reader’ and you don’t want to claim psychic powers (a possible implication when doing readings), don’t worry! Just say: “If I was a Graphologist / Tarot-‐reader / Palm-‐reader”
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The idea behind this approach is very interesting, because you never claim ‘powers’, but rather say what some other person, who claims to be a reader, would say. This is an effect which moves away from the “you draw something in secret and I’ll tell you what it is” type of presentation. The basic choreography of the effect is this: · The participant thinks of a situation in which they needed help and where someone came to their rescue (or at least provided help) · They write the name of that person on the pad and tear out the paper, keeping it safely out of sight · You take back the pad and then explore with them why that person was of help to them · An idea occurs to you – you get them to draw a picture which reveals something of a current problem or of how they deal or see difficulties in their life generally. (Somewhere around this time you get your peek) · You give them a character reading based on this drawing · Discuss the implications of how they see problems and how the person they thought of before brought help / might be able to help again /how they need other help now / how they need to develop their owner sources / etc., etc. · Somewhere during this discussion, or at the end, name the person they thought of Well, that is the bare bones of the effect. How you perform it exactly is up to you and your preferred style as a performer. As long as you can see the skeleton of the effect you can clothe it however you like. You can have fun and play with the details to meet your particular needs. For example, you could make this light and quick and it would be seen as more of a parlor piece, or you can give it a much heavier personality profiling or psychological approach. You could just casually mention the thought-‐of name during the last phase and let it dawn on them that you somehow know the name, or you could make a much larger play of saying that you now have such a good understanding of the person that you will attempt direct mind-‐reading – and then go into your favorite style of acting to reveal the name. It’s up to you. Here are some other things I do which may be of interest:
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I have the participant think and then write the name of a friend who reminds them of an important moment or of an important time in their life. I ask for a specific person because it ties in with the nature of the “Person in the rain” test later. This test was designed to probe for inner feelings about stress moments (the rain being a stress factor in life, supposedly), so for that reason I ask for that specific feeling – but in truth you could use whatever rationale you prefer. I have some ‘notes’ written on the first page(s) of my pad in order to communicate in an indirect way that this pad is just an ordinary pad in which I write things (and thus not a prop). You can use any excuse you like to get the reading: · Graphology · Tree drawings · House/Tree/Sun pictures · Other drawings, etc. The reading part is just an excuse to allow you to use your pad in a more relaxed way, and to enable you to give to the participant the pad and ask for a second drawing. What this means is that you have tons of time to get your peek! You can get it when they are folding up the paper and putting it somewhere safe; you can get it while the idea occurs to you to get them to draw the picture; you can get it while you are reading the picture, when you have finished reading the picture and are putting the pad away. As I said, tons of time! For personal preference I like to keep as much time as I can between them writing the name and me peeking it in order to allow time misdirection to cover the moves. The main thing here isn’t the fact that you read the mind of the participant, but rather that you remind them of an important person in their life, the resources they need, how they can develop them and what this whole thing says about their character. In this way your performance gains a more profound meaning in the minds of your audience.
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15. More success in performances Uncertainty and curiosity are normal and natural participant´s reaction after a Mentalism experience is lived. Normally we as performers practice our repertoire doing the necessary moves and choreography and our script, and sometimes we forgot that after the proper performance a new internal and external dynamic happens in our participant´s mind, and in my opinion it´s important to look at this and use it in our favor. I am sure that you have the experience to do an amazing effect and after the revelation/climax one of the audience members shouts a possible logical explanation. It feels very bad, right? Even when you have a clever out for an explanation/heckler´s throw off, you finish your performance and you think: “What did I do wrong?” I normally don’t suffer from heckling for a simple reason. I treat my audience and participant with care and a positive attitude. No one denies love and a warmth, and that approach gives me the opportunity to touch emotions and feelings from the inside, and not just thoughts from the outside. Even when you feel that your participant will be defensive and will not cooperate, trying to throw off everything, just move on, use someone else but always treat them as you want to be treated. If you present your Mentalism as a puzzle to be solved, we are stimulating the rational part of the self. When we challenge the conscious/logical part of our mind, it´s obvious that after the “puzzle” we will receive a logical/conscious feedback/solution, because the rational part of the self is working. So my tips for you about this are 2: 1. Aim all your work and performance to the emotional/creative/imaginative part of our self, the unconscious mind. Let your participants REALLY feel, not just think.Involve them emotionally and adjust with their interest. Let them be part of what is happening and focus all your attention on how THEY send a thought, or how THEY, with their intuition, can pick the correct decision. At the end you will still win credit for the performance. 2. After the mysterious experience, DON’T STOP, rather keep the performance going. This is a SIMPLE idea, but believe me, it creates a world of difference. An example: You read the participant`s mind and you reveal his thought of person. After the revelation and the mysterious internal burst, ASK the
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participant about that person. A sincere and warm question about that person, how they met, how many years did he know her, etc. If you incorporate these simple 2 realizations, you will realize that the participant´s present experience will be more focused on the fun, the enjoyment of the mystery and after that, the memories that will be created will impact them in a deeper way and at the end the “method” or the “How?” will not be a theme, they just will not care about that. They will just care about how GREAT they feel with you. 16.Living Spoon Try this. Put your thumb on the bowl of the spoon and imagine that slowly the spoon will become alive, and believe it or not, it will start to move as if it was breathing, Take a few moments and experience what your participants will experience if you do this correctly. This is a great moment of mystery that you can add to your PKMB routine or just as a strange “energetic” moment during a dinner. All the sensations are caused by the physical fact to feel our own pulse on the spoon. Imagine how powerful this can be if you mix this with good suggestions. That natural sensation plus your intention and guidance will create the appearance that the spoon is full of energy and is becoming alive. You can mix this idea with other demonstrations that can be nicely routined, such as moving the spoon psychokinetically using available methods (PK ring, elastic thread loops, etc). 17. Psychological Forces Cancellation This is a powerful and simple idea that I use whenever I use some type of Psychological Force. In my country there is a famous game in which you basically force a color and a tool, to create a fun revelation of a “red hammer”, so I work in a way that cancel the idea of using that same type of procedure of quick thinking and I came up
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with the bold idea of cancelling the method telling them directly what the method (roughly) is!. Like several performers, I normally use PsyForces to create “Major Effects” of thought transference, so my script goes like this: “I will try to create something amazing. Sending a thought, from my mind to the mind of each of you. The first one will be simple and concrete. A number between 1 and 10. Now. Great, each of you has a number now. Normally, by psychological factors the most common number is 5, but I sent another number, the number 7. If you receive the 7, just raise your hand” As you can read in my script, I state that “normally” people choose 5 (a total lie), so the idea that boldly cancels that I am NOT using that fact, when in reality, that´s one of the factors on working with psychological forces. I use this idea for another piece using paintings. Onstage I have a painting with a cloth as cover (the painting is the Mona Lisa) I ask a person to stand up and quickly name out loud a famous painting. In my experience the “Mona Lisa” works as a frequently chosen one. If the participant names the “Mona Lisa”, you are done BUT if you use the bold methodology canceller (in my experience), it places all this on another level of mystery. “Interesting. Normally, by psychological factors the most common painting is the “Last Supper”. How many people were thinking of that? (You can use that moment to reinforce the idea that other people were thinking about that painting. You can even fake some raised hands ala Maven) but you decided on the Mona Lisa…” What if the participant doesn’t name the Mona Lisa? It´s all about the Reframing (as in my effect called Casino Prediction). “Interesting, “The Last Supper”? In here I have several photos with famous pictures and one of them is the one that you name. But obviously that was conscious. I want to work with your unconscious, with your inner mind, so just put your finger like this and touch one of them…” After that you can go with a normal force and finish your moment with a revelation of your precognitive abilities. As you can see, it’s a very simple idea and for that same reason, workable and fun to use.
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18. Practical tips for performances a. Have a spare marker: One time I saw a close up magician failing on this issue. He was doing a card trick and his marker was dry. Sadly he was not prepared and because he was working in a bar I frequented, I realized the importance of having more pens/markers when performing. During walk-‐around performances, for the sake of pocket management, I have 2 markers at hand, but always, for any performance, I have several more markers and pens in my case. b. Tie: Maybe you were paid to work at a private cocktail party during the summer and outdoors, and you assume that all attendees will wear light shirts and for that same reason you just use a shirt without tie. The surprise starts when you realize that no matter how hot it is outside, everyone is using formal clothes with ties. Now you look like an unprepared performer. Always have a tie in your case. A tie can give you the required formality that you will need. c. Handkerchief: Sweat on your face can be a painful enemy during performances. Have a handkerchief or a small tissue to clean your face and hands (if you suffer from sweaty hands like me). d. A LOT of business cards: Business cards are an incredible tool for performers and especially Mentalists. They work as billets, as paper for your written predictions and more. I literally do walk-‐around mentalism gigs with just a pendulum, a marker and business cards and for those occasions I have a good stack of cards (50-‐60) in my pocket and 2 or 3 more stacks in my case. It´s far better to come back home with your stacks than suffer from losing potential contacts because you left your cards at home. e. Case: I love to work as a minimalist Mentalist. A pendulum, some cards, markers and a few other things. No more, so I can comfortably organize everything in my pockets. However, I always use my case even if “I don’t need it”. Why? Because a briefcase, in a visual way, will give you a different and professional look. Obviously you will not carry the case while walking around during your gig, but you can leave it in a secure place and entering and leaving your gig with that case communicates professionalism and seriousness about your work.
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f.Water: In my case I always have a bottle of water. At least for me it’s very necessary to hydrate myself and feel that I will arrive with renovated energy to the next performance area. Not alcohol, but water. g. Band-‐Aids: One time at a gig I had a hang-‐nail on my thumb and for some reason it started to bleed. It was very uncomfortable and messy. I stained several cards and from that I learned that Band-‐Aids are a necessary thing in my case. 19. Energy through Body This is an excellent parallel effect that I learned through experience and from receiving feedback from a show. After my performance I receive an interesting comment from a member of the audience. He was clearly a “new age” person, and he told me that during my PKMB act he felt some vibrations in his body. I realized the power of this sensation and the conscious use of these strange phenomena. As a matter of fact I feel this on daily basis, and I assume that it’s my phone, and surely that was the same sensation that the audience member felt during that show. I frame my PK during performance based on energy work, so a script like this can be very powerful: “Now we will see and feel the power of focused energy. You (participant onstage) and even some of you, the most sensitive to energies, will feel strange sensations. Heat and vibrations on different parts of your body. Even some chakras expanding” Believe me, this simple suggestion has a tremendous impact due the fact everyone wants to feel something special, everyone WANTS to be special, so be prepared to receive strange and incredible stories. At one time during a Spoon Bending Party I was being accused of bending metal from the kitchen AND was responsible for finding lost silverware. 20. Ungimmicked Spirit Pendulum A neat idea that I saw during a self-‐hypnosis moment. I enjoy placing myself in trance to discover new ideas, relax and enjoy different sensations. I have a quartz pendulum on a stand to look at it and relax and I once started to suggest to myself that the pendulum was alive. Suddenly I saw the pendulum move slightly
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as if it was breathing. After this I started to suggest to myself that the pendulum was actually moving, and surely enough, I SAW the pendulum move. It´s a strange sensation and perception because I knew that the pendulum wasn’t actually moving, but if you’ve experience hypnosis in the past, you will understand how this will be experienced by your participant. The imagination becomes more active and the critical factor of our logical mind becomes secondary, so if you pace and lead the process correctly, you will let the participant experience this. I suggest you (pun intended) experiment with this first for yourself. Take a pendulum and put it on a stand. Now practice your script and confident attitude. This is a possible script: “You can see the quartz pendulum on there. You can see the transparency of the stone and how the pendulum is hanging on there. You can see that the pendulum isn’t moving yet but in a moment and because your unconscious mind is powerful, you will see and feel how this will start to move. Look at it directly and feel how you feel absorbed by the quartz and now you will see that it almost looks like the pendulum starts to become alive….That´s right. And now as you see that, you will see that the pendulum starts to move slightly. It will not be a huge movement, but you will see how the pendulum will start to move. And now you can see it, can’t you? That´s right…” Obviously this is a dynamic process in which you need to be synchronized with your participant. If you are new to this type of work, I will give you a few tips that will ensure your success. 1. Compliance: It´s necessary to create a dynamic of influence and social guidance. You can do this on 1-‐on-‐1 situations but for me it’s far more effective when an audience is present. The participant wants to succeed and wants to feel special. You can use this in your favor and create this reality. 2.Pace and leading: A classic concept in Ericksonian Hypnosis. Basically you need to be “on the same rhythm” as your participant, and from there, you can guide him to your intentions. If you want to learn more about this concept, find books on Hypnosis and specifically about Erickson´s work.
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3. Dual Reality: If for some reason you feel that this type of suggestive work isn’t working properly, create the altered reality that it´s working. A simple thought but very powerful. In this frame of mind, no experience will be a failure. Everything that happens will be used positively. “Maybe you aren’t seeing that the movement is dramatic but you can feel the sensation of absorption, right? Excellent, and while you are experiencing this, just imagine that the pendulum is alive and is responding to your imagination. Can you imagine that ?Yes…” As you can see, the line “Can you imagine that?” is VERY powerful. Anyone can imagine something and even better, everyone can imagine that they can imagine something. Use this to your advantage. This concept of using dual reality in suggestion work is explored at a deeper level in my eBook/Book “Mysteries Anywhere 2”. I encourage you to try this type of work, it´s different and powerful. Ask Kenton Knepper and Fraser Parker about this. 21. Face Morphing Mindreading You can use this strange “psychic” phenomena as a dramatic revelation during a mindreading piece. Ask a participant to join you on a telepathy experience and use any method to get his thought. Normally I do this with an “important person in his life, whether they’re alive or not”. After some subtle revelations and before your final revelation (the name), use the concept of “Face Morphing” to create an outstanding weird and dramatic moment. “Now I will ask you to focus as you did before but now start to imagine that my face will change slowly to the face of the person that you have in mind. That´s right, you can see now how every aspect of her (if you already reveal that it was a lady) is now in my face. You can see her pointy nose, her light hair on my head, that´s right… and you imagine now that you come close to me and say “Hi…. Joanne”… “
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As you can understand, this Face Morphing Revelation has a lot of potential: 1. You can reveal characteristics of the thought of person´s face, or at least, create the appearance of that to the audience. 2. You can REALLY create a Face Morphing experience for your participant if you know how to do it. 3. The built in drama that this revelation has will give your participant and audience a great experience and they can really feel it. 22. Creating a reputation For the world, you are special. No too many people can claim such strange statements (I can read minds, work with pendulums, bend metal) and prove this claim. If you perform and you take your role seriously, you can be seen as a gifted individual. It´s important to me to BE special and explore this world of knowledge and experiences with an optimistic attitude and by being REAL. By real I don’t mean that you have to be the next meta-‐physical guru, but rather believe that what you do is relevant and credible.I accomplish that by really believing in ESP and metaphysical phenomena. I normally mix the normal reality alterations that Mentalism technique gives us with real demonstrations of strange mysterious phenomena, Readings, psychometry, predictions, real empathic mindreading, etc. For that, I realized that I do several things during my life that help me in an unconscious way to be that special individual that people want to met and finally being that “Mentalist”, the “Magician” (in the true sense of the word), the “Psychic” and the “Gifted One”. It isn’t about being what other want to be, but rather being the one that you enjoy the most, and personally I enjoy bringing enjoyment and mystery to other people´s life, and this is a extremely good way to do it. 1. Do true predictions during your day: In normal situations during your daily basis and while you are with someone, tell them “ I feel that XYZ will happen”. I do this a lot during soccer games, for example, even when I don’t know anything about soccer. I just make an educated guess and go with my gut feeling. The cool part is that if you are wrong, they WILL forget or at least take your statement in a light way as if it was never a real prediction. But if you nail the score of the game,
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or the results of the presidential votes, you WILL get the feedback from them. It´s a WIN-‐WIN situation. 2. Do readings all day: You don’t have to be a private reader to do readings. If you think about it, everyone does readings all day, they just do it internally. You have the tools to look at people and see and feel their characteristics and from there you can break the space of time and tell them their possible future. If you are with someone during your day resting in a park and you say: “Look at that person, I feel that this person is a liberal thinker, full of potential and ideas that she might look at as being invaluable sometimes….” You will be doing a cold reading based on your observation and being REAL. For this, I also add some of my ideas regarding readings, and how to mix them in a subtle way with normal Mentalism because I realize the power of this practice. It´s huge. 3. Read minds for real: Take chances, meet people from the inside, try to connect with them and be emphatic REALLY believing that you can do this. You will amaze, maybe you have that inner potential that just needed a little bit of trust and faith. As I told you in “Pacing Mindreading” (Idea #25), it´s about thinking LIKE the person. Put yourself in their position and make your best decision. If you miss, it doesn’t matter, as in “Doing true predictions during your day”, the “mistake” can be deleted, but if you hit, it´s one more piece of evidence of your interesting talents. You can BE the mysterious and interesting person in your life, and I know that you will enjoy several moments even off stage, as I am doing. 23. Symbolic Natural Clearing Did you try the amazing demonstrations of busting clouds? In normally do when I suffer for migraine. That helps me a lot to relax. This, in the right context, is not just a Mentalism effect, but also rather an amazing ability that you can use whenever you see the right environment (if you know how this works, you will understand that). One use that is extremely powerful is whenever you are doing readings outside, or just a conversation with some person who needs some clearing in his life.
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Frame the Cloud Busting process as a way to eliminate that negative energy from that particular issue, focusing all that on the target cloud. The moment, in which your client/participant will see how the cloud will start to dissipate, he will receive an amazing symbolic moment that he will never forget. 24. ForceRing This is a fun way to force a participant secretly. I use this on a context of selecting a pre-‐show participant. Onstage, I select 5 people to participate in a game of intuition, in which I take a ring and place secretly on one of my fingers and place the hand with the ring behind my back. Now let the participants name one of your fingers, and just like with the classic ring flourish, move the ring from fingertip to fingertip, maneuver the ring to the finger that your “preshow participant” names. In that way it will look as if your participant was randomly selected. 25. Pacing Mindreading This is a technique for creating empathy with my participant and “real mindreading” to the audience (and sometimes for the participant). Wonderful creation of different realities. Imagine that I ask you to visualize in your mind a pad in which you will write the word that you “are thinking” of (the word written previously), how do you visualize that? A blank rectangular pad, a pen on the right side, some rings on top maybe, etc. You can use those educated guesses as part of your mindreading. It’s simple AND if you feel that the participant isn’t really seeing this in his mind, IT DOESN’T MATTER because your statements will look as if you are just GUIDING the participant into the visualization. Let’s see an example of this: “Now that you are relaxed and connected. Imagine a big pad in your mind…That´s right, rectangular, white, a pen at the side, right? …Yes… The pad has lines? No Excellent, it´s easier to write on those…”
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As you can read, your statements can be heard as revelations or just guidance. Another great tip that I discovered through time with this realization was that a smile from my part is VERY important, not just for creating some emotional connection, but also because if I smile, the participant smiles and that can be interpreted by the audience as a confirmation of my statements! How cool is that? You are making him feel good and you are creating some amazing mindreading without even using the information that you got previously (the word written on the billet). Also, as you can see, in the script I place a delivered “NO” from the participant. DON’T TAKE THAT AS A MISS, rather use that to your advantage and move on. If you don’t communicate that it’s a “mistake”, it won’t be. With this “Pacing Mindreading” technique you can create several moments of mysterious connection and create a methodology canceller (if you use this correctly) about the fact that you secretly knew the written information in advance, because you never peek the billet in which the participant writes “I will think of a rectangular pad with a pen…”, but rather the name revelation will just be part of this flowing dynamic, not just THE moment of mystery. 26. Equivoque thoughts I LOVE this technique. I think that it’s really fundamental in our practice for the simple reason that it summarizes everything that a performer should have in his toolkit. Good verbiage/script, correct use of non-‐verbal communication/subtext, and clever thinking. In here I will share with you some of my techniques to improve any “Equivoque” procedure. a. Conscious-‐Unconscious Ploy This is a ploy that I came up independently but Kenton Knepper told me that he has a similar idea in his repertoire for years, so credits to the Wonder Wizard.
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If you want to force something on someone using Equivoque, you can add this ploy to create a possible scenario of a direct decision and not ambiguous choices. With the participant facing say: “If I ask you to consciously name an object quickly, what would you say?” Now, if your participant names the object that you want to force, add: “Excellent, that comes from your unconscious and when you made your decision consciously it becomes conscious. It sounds strange, but it’s the process that happened inside you, right?” And move on with your routine. Now, if your participant names another object, say: “Interesting. And that’s from your conscious mind, right? Well, I don’t want to stimulate your conscious mind right now but rather your unconscious mind. You will decide on a few things just on impulse, without thinking consciously, okay?” As you can see, this question becomes an explanation about conscious and unconscious decisions rather than creating a selection from the first response. So now you can go on with your normal Equivoque procedure. b. Sure? The wonderful word “Sure?” after a decision is very powerful. Normally in Equivoque we don’t explain in a verbal manner what the decision means, but saying this word will create the appearance that you were specific about the meaning of your statement, that the participant has the option to change his mind and you can’t change the meaning of the decision, when in fact decision is labeled afterwards. So in this case, you can create the apparent idea at the end of the whole procedure that the participant EVEN had the opportunity to change his mind but he didn’t do it. As you know, it doesn’t matter because if he changes his mind, you will takeanother action. c. Energetic last decision
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This is a cool way to present the classic last stage of an Equivoque routine, in which your participant has one object in each hand and one of them is the one that you want to force. In here you will use the idea that the participant for a moment will be sensible to energies and will sense a “different energy”. “Now as you have both objects in your hand, start to feel the weight, the form, that´s right, and even, for a moment, you will sense energy coming from those objects, and in one moment, at the count of 3, you will hand me the one in which you feel that different energy. Just relax… 1, 2,3…” As you can understand, this simple action will create the implication that the participant REALLY felt something, and that by itself creates a mysterious moment. Now, if you read the description, you will realize that labeling one of the objects as the one that has a “different energy can play for both sides. Lets see an example in which your participant passes you the FORCE item: “Excellent. You feel that this object has a different energy, a special one, almost like it doesn’t belong to the other one…” Now let’s read the other example, when the participant hands you the NON FORCE object: “Excellent. You feel that this object has a different energy, not a bad energy perse, rather it feels like it isn’t in tune and didn’t give you harmony” On the first example, “different” is “special. On the second example “different” is associated with “strange” and “undesired”. If you don’t like the premise of energy, you can substitute that with “emotions” or “feelings”. d. Presupposition about the decision Presupposing an idea in a sentence is very powerful and can allow you to place secret realities and thought with less caring of scrutiny. In the context of an Equivoque, I use presuppositions to cement the idea that the participant really DECIDED on the object in this manner: (After the participant decides on the forced object)
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“Excellent, tell me, what did you feel when deciding on that?” Or “Tell me, why did you choose that? You felt something physical, or something more metaphysical in nature? As you can see, the question is about what the participant feels, leaving the idea of a decision on a subliminal level. Normally performers try to cement the idea of fairness about the decisions with the line: “Is all this fair?”, or “It was fair, right?” Those types of lines are risky. You need to know how handle them and any possible reply that your participant might give you. Honestly in most situations, I prefer to use the presupposition. It lets me achieve the same idea but doesn’t challenge your participant too directly. As you can also see, in the second example, I gave the participant a question and immediately some guidelines about his answer. In that way he will feel more comfortable in answering me and move on with the performance. e. Reading after the procedure When the routine allows me to do it (in my “Decision and Intuition” piece from my “Ideas about Pendulums” book for example), after the revelation of the predicted object I give a reading based on the decision about the person. This is powerful and elevates the moment from a nice theatrical and entertaining moment to a whole new world of symbolism and synchronicity. You can use normal borrowed objects, but if you use objects that inherently have arcane visuals and meanings, you can create the mood in a direct way. f. Focusing the attention to the unimportant As you know, Equivoque is all about controlling in a subtle and secret way. This is a simple and effective technique that allows you to move the attention a little bit from the procedure, giving a moment of relaxation. Let’s see this in the context of a routine in which you will force a playing card suit and you are in the moment in which the participant “decides” on the red:
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“And you can see how this red ball breaks in 2 like a coconut when it’s broken, and all the red juice is flowing, and we leave the hearts at the right and the diamonds on the left. Be careful; a little bit of red juice stained your shirt” As you can read, in that script, the attention for a moment is focused on how that invisible “red ball” is broken like a coconut. This is a fun moment in which you can play with smells, colors and sounds, and other stimulations. Also at the last part, a fun moment is created in which you can focus attention again to other ideas that aren’t really important to the decision, but give the process an entertaining dynamic and doesn’t give the participant a moment to critically analyze. g. “Forgetting” your script This is similar to “Focusing the attention to the unimportant “, the basic idea of directing the critical mind to another thought. I am sure that you experience a moment during your daily life when someone forgets a word or can’t remember a name. It´s a strange moment in which you, as a listener, feel like waiting and even sometimes helping the person to finish his idea. Well, in here we will use this in our favor. I use this technique mostly when the participant is using both hands. If you understand the basic principle behind this, you can apply this technique to other situations. “With your right hand take an object. Great. And now with your …… (act as if your forget) left hand (smile) take another object, obviously” As you can read, I stumble with the word “left” almost like I forgot the name of that hand. That 2-‐3 second moment will create in the participant’s mind, the need of telling you “left”, and that idea will help you to put his rationalein another place Subtle and effective.
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27. HumpSystem This is a marking system for billets that I came up with some time ago with the idea to create a technique for marking that could be done on the spot, without special liquids or gimmicks that allows me to hand out the marked billets and without caring about exposing the idea of hidden differentiation. I played with several things and this one was workable and simple, 2 characteristics that I search for in my work. These are cards #1, #2 and #3 (Photo 1) (Photo 1 The marks on these ones are less subtle for the sake of explanation of course. As you can see the lines have differences in what we call “humps”. Because we are dealing now with 3 cards, our places for humps are beginning, middle and end. That’s your cue. After mixing those cards you can still take the cards and do your desired effect (pun intended). You can expand this concept for your own uses with a little bit of thinking. If you are interested in a great routine using this system, stay in touch with my future projects. 28. Meaningful Drawing Duplication When doing a drawing duplication, ask your participant to draw something that in a way reflects his own personality or other characteristics that will allow him to put more than just lines on the card. This is my script:
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“Normally our inner world can be expressed through drawings and I will ask you that on this card you just make a simple drawing that in a mysterious and maybe unconscious way will reflect all your past, present and future characteristics” On those lines you can read that the drawing selected by the participant will have some meaning for him, and that gives me the opportunity to mix my mindreading with some readings and create several moments of mysterious entertainment. Talking about this, if you want to have a “motivation” to ask for the drawing, when putting it amongst the rest of the stack (you can use my casual peek technique for knowing the information) and you can just say: “I need your hands in a moment, please put the drawing on here…” After this, go to a brief palm reading, mixing what you are sensing and watching, creating revelations even before getting any peek. This is powerful and one of the secrets in the creation of “real mindreading” in Mentalism. 29. Energetic Blessing You can create a great symbolic moment with a willing participant and a pendulum. You can use a clearing sequence (Neal Scryer´s is fabulous). After this you can associate the circular movement of the pendulum with the creation of a “ball of white and pure energy” that will be, in a moment, given to the participant to experience. You can create for this a nice and beautiful ritual that will be remembered. One time I met a lady and the topic of pendulums was brought up (as in several conversations during my day). I gave her this experience and she was truly touched by the power of that amazing moment. She felt the weight of the energy and while I was putting the energy on her head, on the 7th Chakra (like in a baptism) she felt the warmth of the energy through her body. Maybe sharing this premise and creating this dynamic isn’t comfortable for you. You can just create the ball of energy for them and just give it as a symbolic souvenir. You can mix this idea with the clever work of Bill Montana and Jerome Finley.
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30. E.T. Haunted Key I will give you a nice “new position” to create movement for the classic effect of the haunted key based on the work of Punx and Dr. Jaks that I call the “E.T. Haunted Key” and can serve perfectly before this effect. Ask for the participant´s right hand index finger and touch it gently with your right hand index finger. After this, you will just place the key with the bit towards you. That way, if you just focus and think in this movement (subconscious response rather than conscious), the key will move. This movement has to be subtle and slow. Don’t treat this effect like a magic trick. This is a powerful demonstration in real mind over matter (you ARE moving the key not with real psychokinesis, but with a real state of mind that allows you to move your hand in a subconscious manner to create that subtle movement). The nice thing about this new position for the animation is that you will have 2 anchors for your participant. You can use the “Sistine Chapel” or the E.T. movie as presentational frames and anchors. 31. Circle Marking This is a method to do your own marked cards with Tally Ho “Circle Back Design” I came up with this marking system because I don’t want to pay every time for an expensive marked deck. I just buy some decks and make my own. This system can be expanded to any back design that has several little designs that can be used. This idea isn’t new at all; several others were playing with similar concepts. For this you need just a red backed deck and a sharpie. The only important part for this is this part. (Photo 1) (Photo 1) Specifically, we will use 4 dots that will cue the suit of the card and the 2 little flowers that will cue the value.
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In here you can see the important points (Photo 2)
(Photo 2)
The number 1 is Spades (1 point) The number 2 is Hearts (2 bumps) The number 3 is Clubs (3 leaves) The number 4 is Diamond (4 sides) So, if you have a Spade, you will take your red sharpie and fill the first circle, so it will look like this (Photo 2) (Photo 2)
Now, the value is organized in this manner. As you can see in each flower we can use 8 petals. So we will fill each petal in a clockwise direction. The Ace of Spades looks like this (Photo 3) (Photo 3) Some similar marking systems instruct you to have a value without marking. I don’t like that, for that reason I prefer to have each card marked.
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Let’s see another mark now, the 2 of Hearts. (Photo 3) (Photo 3) As you can see, the second dot to the right of the left flower and the second petal on the left flower is filled. Now let’s see the 9 of Clubs (Photo 4) (Photo 4) You can see how the first petal (as if looking at 1:00 on a watch) and the upper white circle, which tells you that the card is a club is filled. The last example, the King of Diamonds (Photo 5). The 6th petal and the lower circle from the right part are filled.
(Photo 5) So now you can take a red marker, your Tally Ho deck and make your own marked deck in 15-‐20 minutes. 32. 10 Applauses Opener As you know, an audience gives you applause when they feel that they need to give you gratitude for what you are doing. When musicians finish a song, they clap. When the poem is over, they clap. In our case, when something amazing happens, they clap.
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The nice thing about this opener is that they WILL give you 10 applauses, convincing them in very subtle way that you deserve those claps and during your act they will be conditioned to give you applauses, thanks to this simple opener. Imagine using this on a trade show. Get a 2-‐way kismet-‐window envelope (without technical words, just an envelope with a window and an extra divider). Inside of the first section (the one without the window) put a business card with the prediction: “The audience will want the number 7” In the second section (the one with access thru the window) place a card that reads: “The audience will want the number” And leave the blank space after the “number”. If you need it, you will fill that with your trusty Swami. Now, start your performance with your personal way to do it and place attention on the envelope in your breast pocket. Tell everyone to relax and quickly think of a number between 1 and 10. As you know, this wording and your non-‐verbal dynamic will create an archetypical response of “7”. Now add: “I now need a member of the audience who will be for a moment the “”applause-‐ meter.” Find someone and ask her to stand up. Now tell the audience that everyone who was thinking in the number “1” must start to applaud. Do all the numbers until 10 (this way you will get the 10 applauses). As you know, normally the decision will be “7”. If that´s the case just ask your participant to join you on stage, take your business card and read your prediction, let her confirm what you read.
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If the number isn’t 7, just fill in the necessary number with your swami. While the participant joins you onstage, load the writer on your thumb and write it as you do the recapitulation. Obviously the participant can’t handle the envelope, but that’s not a problem at all. Several performers are worried about these types of things. The truth is if that worries you, that will be communicated and at the end your audience will care about that. If you don’t care, they won’t care. If you want to have a double prediction you can add to your prediction that: “The audience will want the number 7” AND just a few people will think of the number 10” As you know, the wording that is used “BETWEEN 1 and 10” cancels for most people the number 1 and 10. So, if when you ask for applause for number 1 you receive just a few, say: “That’s interesting, so just a few people thought of the number 1. This will be important in a moment” So during your revelation you just need to casually cover the “0” with your thumb and your written “10” will become a “1”. See the example in this photo (Photo 1) (Photo 1) Now, if for some reason, more than “just a few people” applaud on “1” but just a few people applaud on “10”, you don’t need to cover anything. If you use this opener, you can use the methodology canceller explained in Idea #16. 33. A.W. Technique A.W. stands for “After Writing”, a bold technique that allows me to do great and fun predictions without too much mechanical effort with some rather nice thinking.
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Let’s see an example. You ask a lady to join you onstage. After this she makes several decisions and at the end you read your prediction that includes her name and all her “free choices”, while SHE is proving all the predictions right and at the end you can give her the prediction as a souvenir. How? Simple. I never predict her name. I just get her name prior the performance while the envelope is hanging on the stage or just use Dunninger´s ploy to get her name and at the end I just add her name to the prediction. My prediction looks like this
I will meet a lovely female called. She will have a $1 bill in her hand.
She will select from all the symbols the
Circle I see the number 502.
You can see that the first line is placed in a way that you can place your thumb casually to show the prediction to your participant, so even if she sees that, she wrote her name. After the performance, she will keep the will assume that you prediction and will see her name written on it, so it´s the same. Also at the end we place a space so when it comes time to add the signature, we can have a place to leave our name or other message. In using this technique it’s very important that your participant is placed far away from you, so she will not be tempted to read the first part of the prediction (the apparent prediction of the name). Larry Becker has a great influence in this sneaky technique, so credits to him. I use this phrasing and timing:
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“It would be incredible if everything that you did was written before right? (Reading the prediction) I will meet a lovely female called Helen (Look at the participant )That’s your name,right? YES (Get close to her) She will select from all the symbols the…. Circle Show everyone which symbol you chose! The Circle, excellent! She will have in her hand a $1 bill… Read outloud with me….. I see the numbers 502. Those numbers are on your bill? Really the last 3? Amazing! Today is February, 31, right? I will sign it. A big applause for her” As you can read, the participant is confirming your 2 last predictions, so at the end the memory that can be left indirectly is that she read with you each of the predictions. Now comes the bold moment of placing the date and signature at the end. In between you will just place the participant´s name. Another great use for this technique is “The Prophesy” from Corinda. In my version I use a message in a bottle (an iconic image). I use the marking system that I taught previously, so the participant can shuffle the deck. After that, I take the message from the bottle and I “read” the card with the prediction in the same way. At the end I use the same acting, creating an impossible souvenir prediction, something that cannot be done with the original. 34. Creating False Memories This is one of my techniques to create false memories during a mentalism experience. For me a performance is an experience that is created in a present moment, but also aimed to be experienced as a past memory in the future. By that I mean that in my opinion we don’t need to focus only on what we really do in performance, but also what will be remembered about what we did. If we focus also on the second part, we can achieve AMAZING experiences.
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Our demonstration can perhaps be a simple mindreading piece using a billet peek, but the present experience can be molded, and even easier, so can the memory that the members of the audience and the participant can remember. You know that by using correct language we can create ideas that can cancel the methodology used. For example you can directly or indirectly suggest that the paper isn’t transparent and maybe that you never handle the paper, but with this simple realization I want to open in your mind the idea that if you script your performance correctly, you can create EVEN the idea that there was never a paper in use. You know that several performers and pseudo-‐performers bother with the idea of a “Holy Grail” in mentalism. We typically hear about the “purest” mindreading effect, the perfect ACAAN or the definitive book test. You know? THOSE EFFECTS CAN BE DONE! How ? Manipulating the actual actions and experiences. Surely, at the present moment you will use a pass for placing the named card in the named position, or you will force a thought… IT DOESN’T MATTER. You are creating the demonstration, you control the actions and what you want to be deleted from the procedure and at the end you can create the MEMORY THAT ALL THOSE PERFECT CONDITIONS REALLY HAPPENED. For that, you can take the direct or indirect path. I will give you 2 examples: 1. Direct: Several years ago I was doing the Hoy Bold Book Test on stage. Before the revelation of the thought I said: “Let`s see what happened. You took the book, looked at a word, I read your thought slowly trying to catch some details and finally I wrote down my impression. For the first time out loud for everyone, tell the word that you have in mind, now” When I am performing I generally have a flexible script, but for my approach it’s very necessary to use some lines at some points during my performance, and this is one of them. A powerful script that uses a concept that I call the “XYZ and Truth”, when all the XYZ statement can be false in some way,but because you are ending your statement with a undeniable truth and plus you are onstage with your participant, always influence them to do whatever you want in order to reach the goals of your performance, he WILL accept those lines, and consequently, it will slowly erase the whole procedure and leave only the golden mystery.
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I remember that 1 month later after the performance, I met a friend´s cousin, and my friend description of the book test was that it WAS the “Holy Grail”. “Pablo passed her a book and asked her to look at any word, and he told her what word she was thinking of!” That´s the direct approach. Now, the indirect approach to create false memories is using implications and subtle communicative actions to give the message that will create that perfect demonstration that you want. An approach that can be extremely powerful, as we discussed previously. 35. Making your own “old” key If you have a normal “Royal Magic” Haunted Key, just leave it on your keychain with other keys and wait some time. You can see that the normal damage that it will receive will give the key an “antique” look, and a very realistic one. In the picture, you can compare a normal key with the one that I have on my keychain. 36. Idea for Psychometry from A-‐Z Webster´s Psychometry from A-‐Z is one of the most valuable things that I learned throughout my life as a mystery performer. It’s an amazing technique to get inspiration to let your intuition run and work for you and others. Only with this system alone plus your own charisma and charm, you can create a living and a reputation as a psychic. I will give you now a simple idea in using this system. If you don’t know what I am talking about, I urge you to learn this great system from Richard Webster. Psychometry from Z-‐A
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One technique that I use to get the most of it and not be frightened (consciously or unconsciously) is just to start backwards with the meanings and the interpretations. This approach gives me the freedom to talk and get in touch with my intuition without that little thought that can stop me when I start to use this. If you know the system you know what I am talking about. You can use this simple idea with Michael Weber`s addition to Psychometry from A-‐Z from The Practical Psychic´s Little White Book to get great results and more inspiration for your intuition to work. 37.TA(t)ROT Another tool for the reader. In my past psychology class I studied the “Thematic Apperception Test” also called just “TAT”. This is a great and frequently used projective (based on psychoanalytical theory) psychological test that allows you to know personal views of the self, the world, and interpersonal relationships. The psychologist shows the client a series of ambiguous pictures about which they are asked to tell a story. The main points about the story are: 1. What happened before the image. 2. What is happening during the image 3. What will happen after the image 4. What is the main character feeling and thinking in each state. TA(t)ROT is basically using the normal tarot deck of cards as the provocative images in which your participant will unconsciously show his inner characteristics. As you can analyze, the images from the tarot are very cryptic and ambiguous, and you can use them in a very interesting way with this concept. Now,obviously the TAT has decades of studies and refinement. I encourage you to play with this idea, let the participant not just be a client, but rather an active entity during the reading, giving you the stories and you give them the meaning that you find coherent and most complete. The basic steps are simple: 1. Explain the premise using the quantity of cards that you want to use
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2. Let them to tell you the story based on the important points to see 3. Remember or write the characteristics that you found to be relevant and share them with your participant There is a lot more to discover with this simple idea. I will let you discover them. The conjunction of the cards that you can use and even how to mix classic techniques in tarot readings with this concept of TA(t)ROT is very powerful. If you want to learn an interesting and poetic approach to tarot you can search for Tarology by Enrique Enriquez. Kenton Knepper took my concept and expand it in great manners. You can check more info in “Tarot Without Memory” on his site www.wonderwizards.com
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Conclusion Thanks for reading all these ideas. I hope that you can find value in them. They were and are part of my life. Study them correctly, always reading between the lines and make them yours. Put your own charisma in them and you can see how they will evolve and will give you great satisfaction as a performer. I also hope you don’t just use these ideas, but also come up with your own finesses, methodology cancellers, and more important, ideas that can make your demonstrations entertaining, credible, interesting and meaningful to your audiences and participants. If you have any question regarding this material, you can find me at
[email protected] Have awesome moments! Pablo Amirá
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