SUGGESTABILITIES
BY DR. BILL
COPYRIGHT 2008
DEDICATION THIS ONE GOES TO ALL OF THE MANY PATIENTS WHO HAVE ATTENDED HOLLYWOOD PAVILLION’S INTENSIVE OUTPATIENT PROGRAM OVER THE YEARS I’VE WORKED THERE. NOT A DAY GOES BY WHERE YOU DON’T TEACH ME SOMETHING ABOUT COURAGE, CONNECTION AND WHAT IT MEANS TO BE FULLY HUMAN. DR. BILL, NOVEMBER 2008
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INTRODUCTION Suggestabilities is a collection of essays, effects, methods and one story. These date back to my first published work in mentalism: “Ericksonian Extracts,” from the book “The 73 rd Hour.” “The 73rd Hour” was given as a gift to all who attended “72 Hours: The Ultimate Mentalism Gathering,” a small convention c onvention hosted by Andy Leviss and Quinn Pearl in 2002. “The 73rd Hour” is a little known gem and when I read it I was flattered to be in such good company. This is where Greg Arce first published “Six Degrees of Separation and the Nailwriter,” a work so powerful Banachek included it in “Psychological Subtleties 2.” Banachek also contributed to “The 73 rd Hour” as did Ted Karmolovich, Karmolovich, Alain Nu, Craig Browning, John Riggs, Quentin Reynolds, Quinn Pearl, Ray Haddad, Richard Busch, Rick Maue and Sam Haine. What a wonderful experience for me to “break out” among such talented performers. “Ericksonian Extracts” is my attempt to apply the work of Milton Erickson, M.D. to mentalism. The second essay is “A Suggestion On The Use Of Suggestion.” I address what I see as a common problem many mentalists mentalists encounter when first applying suggestion to their work. More importantly, I offer a workable solution. The third essay, “Justifying Your Gaze,” is an outgrowth of an effect I published in Allen Zingg’s “Extending Your Powers,” a book devoted to using The Zingg Wallet. Within are several methods and approaches to improving your your work on peeks of all kinds. A section of musings, further explanation and random neurons firing titled, “Afterthoughts 2008,” follows each essay in “Suggestabilities” but the last. There are no Afterthoughts for “Justifying Your Gaze” because the essay already includes my most recent work in this area.
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Each piece is also followed f ollowed by an effect that gives examples examples of one or more the principles explored in the essay. From “Ericksonian Extracts” comes “Alphabody Langage,” a performance piece where the audience actually divines a word freely chosen by one of their own. “The Jumping Pulse” follows a “Suggestion On The Use Of Suggestion.” This is an effect wherein one person or the entire audience is invited to experience a change in their pulse that I believe is unique in the annals of mentalism. It is a mindfulness exercise I use in my own clinical work and have adapted to use as an effect on its own or as part of a longer routine. “Outside The Fold” is a three-phase prediction that exemplifies the ideas in “Justifying Your Gaze.” Taking a 180 degree turn, it uses no peeks but applies the same principles to a method I have coined “one behind nail writing.” Millard Longman provides an alternative twist to the presentation that is typical of his brilliant work. And how appropriate that I mention Millard just now since “Suggestabilities” ends with a bonus, “Bill And Millard’s Excellent Adventure.” It describes a service Millard and I attended at the home of a psychic healer, Red Duke, in 2004. At the time, the director of the hospital I work at and I were concerned that Red was taking advantage of a patient from our outpatient program. So Millard and I went “deep undercover” and attended one of the psychic’s weekly meetings. I hope you find the account within of some interest.
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ERICKSONIAN EXTRACTS
For the last few weeks, Andy Leviss and I have been corresponding via email. Somehow, a request on my part for additional information on his effect, “It’s A Match” morphed into, among other topics, an exploration of a few of my thoughts about the application of psychology to mentalism and the need for crediting the contributions of Milton Erickson M.D. to the field. For his own evil reasons, Andy seems to believe that these thoughts have some merit and may be of interest to others. While working toward a doctorate in clinical psychology, I had the good fortune of taking a course called “Ericksonian Hypnosis and Psychotherapy.” Psychotherapy.” I was instantly entranced as we delved into the theories of Milton Erickson, M.D. I continued to study and apply Erickson’s work and the work of his “disciples” to my own therapeutic work for f or several years. My first realization that his ideas could be applied to my long time avocation occurred (heresy of heresies in a book like this) in the context of a coins across routine. Rather than saying my typical “and now there are three coins in my right hand and only one remaining in my left,” I “reframed” (in itself and Ericksonian maneuver) the effect as an “audio illusion,” and said things like, “when the third coin goes, it sounds like the first but in reverse, because, as you all know, one coin doesn’t make nearly the noise of three.” This was said while first shaking my silent left hand and then rattling my coin filled right. I discovered that presented in this manner, I was no longer asked to open my left hand to prove a coin was still there. This was a good thing, as it wasn’t. Now, of course, many people before me had used phrasing such as this to good effect without any knowledge knowledge of Erickson (ask me someday about how “Ericksonian” “Ericksonian” cats train kittens kitt ens with pacing and leading) but making the connection between this use of verbal and
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non-verbal non-verbal “implication,” and it’s impact on the mind of an audience improved my magic and mentalism dramatically. Well, quite taken with my cleverness, I began applying such verbal manipulations to all the magic and mentalism I knew. I even decided to write a book someday, tentatively titled, “Ericksonian Magic and Mentalism.” Then I stumbled across Kenton Knepper and “Wonder Words.” Ah, well, we all need a reality check once in a while. As I’ve now gone on for seven paragraphs and haven’t yet included anything I promised to Andy, it’s time to switch s witch gears and provide some background on Milton Erickson, M.D. While I find his childhood and early life experiences fascinating (I am a psychologist after all), I suppose I’d better stick to the stuff most likely to interest the attendees of 72 Hours and the readers of this t his book. Milton H. Erickson was born on December 5 th, 1901 to a pioneer family in the town of Arum, Nevada. The family soon moved East in a covered wagon wagon to rural rural Wisconsin. WAIT! Rewind, Rewind, I said I wouldn’t wouldn’t do this! There, that’s better. Lets begin again. Milton H. Erickson, who eventually trained trained as a psychiatrist, began to demonstrate a talent for hypnosis even as an undergraduate. Eventually, he would form his own hypotheses and methods, in sharp contrast with those of Clark Hull, (one of the early scientific practitioners of hypnosis), whose demonstration of trance induction had stimulated young Erickson. Erickson, always the rebel, had abandoned the authoritarian style of hypnosis and therapy typical of his day and developed what came to be known as the utilization approach and the cooperation principle. He believed that anyone could be hypnotized; you simply had to enter their world rather rather than impose your your world on them them (Arggghh, I want to write about how he was born color blind, tone deaf, arrhythmic, was dyslexic, didn’t talk until age four and was stricken with polio at seventeen and how all this shaped his unique view of the world and his interest in alternative means of communication, how his unusual speech patterns were unlike most Americans and have been compared to that of certain Central African, Brazilian and Peruvian tribes and….but….OK, I promise, no more). 8
All right, maybe if I just write about a few of his accomplishments I can get this out out of my system. system. Erickson was the founding editor of The American Society of Clinical Hypnosis and wrote the entry on hypnosis for Encyclopedia Britannica in the 1950’s. His work was highlighted in Life Magazine. He once hypnotized Aldous Huxley and later collaborated with him on a seminal study on altered states of consciousness. He studied for twenty years at the feet of Mahatma Gandhi (O.K., I made that one up). Erickson worked with noted anthropologist Margaret Mead for more than forty years. He took part in the Macy Conferences in 1952 where the groundwork for the field of cybernetics was laid. A study of his work (along with that of therapists Fritz Perls and Virginia Satir) led to the creation of NLP. It’s no wonder that many performers performers (including Kenton Knepper, Richard Marks and Richard Busch) have drawn inspiration from Erickson. Some accomplishments of Erickson that readers of this article may find especially interesting (though admittedly the line between fact and legend can get a bit blurry): Erickson had a wholly unique approach to hypnosis, leading to methods of induction never before seen. He was known to have developed a “handshake induction,” leading to several of his colleagues refusing to go on shaking hands with him. At a 1959 lecture in Mexico City, he hypnotized a Spanish-speaking nurse with pantomime gestures despite the nurse having no idea when she volunteered that it was a hypnosis demonstration. Erickson was a born “cold reader,” exhibiting an almost Holmesian skill at diagnosing problems from nearly invisible clues. A transvestite seeking treatment rejected several clinicians who thought he was actually a female. He finally settled on Erickson because he so quickly identified his gender. He supposedly accomplished this by observing the manner in which the man picked lint of his sleeve. There was no subtle detour around
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the breast, which Erickson had noted as an unconscious mannerism common to women. In another account, a woman came to Erickson’s office, claiming a fear of airplanes. Based on the way she sat and spoke, he asked her how long she had been having an affair. He was correct. Admittedly, just like with psychics, psychics, we probably probably hear a lot more about about his hits than his misses. After seeing 26 physicians for physical exams that were never quite completed, a woman was referred to Erickson. Working together, they quickly identified that she always interrupted the exam by sneezing as the MD began to examine her right breast. Erickson called a gynecologist and told him that he was sending him a woman with a likely lump in her right breast. He added that if he were correct, she should be immediately taken to the hospital because she was the type type of patient who runs runs away. Her fear of facing her diagnosis, which she must have already made at some level, could lead her to avoiding treatment. Erickson was again correct; she had a malignant tumor on her right breast. Erickson was also known to mess with the heads of fortunetellers and parapsychologists. parapsychologists. In 1979, he wrote a letter to another doctor, stating that he believed the field of parapsychology parapsychology was not scientifically validated and that any evidence to the contrary was, “based on false mathematical logic, misinterpretation of data, overlooking of minimal sensory cues, biased interpretation and, frequently, on outright fraud.” According to one account, Erickson believed that some psychics operated by detecting and interpreting subliminal or sub vocal speech. He once demonstrated this to a friend, who had been enamored by a psychic, by writing out a false history of his family. The psychic fed back the false history that Erickson said he’d been repeating over and over in his head and communicated via subliminal speech. He likened the process to how people move their lips when they count or read. This description sounds very much like a form of ideomotor response.
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Erickson also told a story of having someone hide a pin on the campus of Cornell University. He held hands with the person who hid the pin and walked around the campus, eventually locating the pin stuck in the frame of a painting on the second floor of a building. Though, he never uses the term, he describes a process akin to muscle reading. My favorite story involves J.B. Rhine and Zener cards. Erickson had noted that the original Zener cards had the ESP signs stamp embossed. At the right angle you could discern the shape from the impression on the card’s back. Erickson tipped this to two colleagues and all three ran through 25 cards without error, convincing Rhine he’d come across three perfect subjects! With stories like this, it is no wonder that Erickson has influenced so many magicians and mentalists (let alone therapists). Without a doubt, Kenton Knepper has done the most work applying Ericksonian methods to magic and mentalism and deserves our gratitude for his efforts. I’m going to do my best not to just travel the same ground. At the very least, I’ll offer my own take as a psychologist on the application of Erickson’s methods to mentalism. Specifically, I’d like to cover three areas that have seemed to capture Andy’s interest during our ever-expanding ever-expanding email exchanges: The Cooperation Principle, bypassing resistance and shutting down the analytic mind. These terms have more in common common than they differ but I need to draw some distinctions to t o help make sense of this and make it useful. I’m going to start by going way out on a limb and suggesting that the effective presentation of mentalism has a lot in common with Erickson’s style of trance induction, which often sounded like ordinary conversation. I’m not saying that as mentalists we hypnotize our audiences (neither am I saying we don’t), but I think there is a lot to gain by taking advantage of the similarities between the two areas. Lets begin with the Cooperation Principle. 11
The Cooperation Principle (not a term used by Erickson, but a term coined later by his students to describe his work) incorporates many things, including utilization (using whatever whatever the patient offers, including his or her symptoms) and pacing and leading (starting by staying with the patient’s world and gradually leading them toward yours). Over the last forty or so years, there has been a movement in many areas of therapy away from a “do it to ‘em” approach, toward a “do it with ‘em” approach. Whether this is coincidence or a subtle “infection” of Erickson’s ideas I have no idea. In much (admittedly not all) of the world of clinical hypnosis, this has manifested via a move away from a more formalized (and often authoritarian) stance toward engaging the client to work with you instead of against you (along with the use of utilization and pacing and leading as mentioned above). However, However, if the client’s worldview is such that they reject this stance, then the utilization approach dictates that THIS must be accepted and worked with. Actually the Cooperation Principle still applies in that the hypnotherapist hypnotherapist cooperates with the client’s worldview to insure the client’s ultimate cooperation in return. In magic, we see movement movement in this direction via encouragement to work with the participants rather than spectators. Eugene Burger’s work on engaging the audience and “Spectators Don’t Exist” by Jon Allen,” both exemplify this approach. Most interesting to me are Paul Harris’ essays in the “Art of Astonishment” that refer to things like “astonishment guides,” and leaving behind the win/lose perspective to help place the magician and audience on the same team. I love the fact that Harris sees the experience of astonishment as “therapeutic.” He goes on to suggest inviting the participants to join in on the moment of astonishment. Harris and the other writers in his magnificent books speak of the use of ceremony (also utilized in many therapeutic approaches; round and round we go), breathing 12
exercises, the use of a bell or gong all to this end. The point being to sell people on willingly surrendering their ego and achieving a suspension of disbelief in exchange for the payoff of an awe-inspiring experience. In mentalism, we recently have Andy Leviss’ essay on the Visions website about working with participants rather than spectators. An idea of mine, also in keeping with my comfort level as to what is claimed, (admittedly influenced by Harris) is to invite the spec…er…participant spec…er…participant (I make a small joke here but I don’t think we are being obsessive or too picky when we insist on using language correctly. Words ARE magic and they wield enormous power. The words we use not only reflect our worldview but also help shape or alter it. Burger, Knepper, and many others, obviously know this), to experience what what it is like to have their mind read or to read the mind of another. This posture, the whole idea of “invitation,” can avoid unnecessary power struggles. A caveat: I have seen more than one author (and I have been there myself) comment along the lines of, “and try not to laugh your ass off when applying…” applying…” and then go on to t o mention some aspect of verbal deception. I offer here that if such thinking enters your silent script, you’ve corrupted any chance of true cooperation due to the inherent disrespect of this stance. There, as indicated above, thankfully seems to be a movement away from belittling audience members. Suggestions to not laugh (because, by the rules of the subconscious, to not laugh requires us to first laugh) at the cleverness of our deceptions move us dangerously close to the older, more authoritarian way of thinking. I propose that we can still relish the cleverness of our techniques as means to move, entertain and engage our audiences; to offer them seemingly genuine experiences experiences of the t he paranormal, and not merely for their ability to deceive. A similar dynamic, I believe, operates with some practitioners of NLP. The heart of what I see as central to Erickson’s work gets sucked out when his practices are reduced to mere technique. Here, too, I
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believe is the answer to why such practices are effective in one person’s hands and not another; lack of respect. And now on to bypassing resistance, though as I hope is clear by now, much of the above relates as well. Erickson’s approaches epitomized efforts to not intrude upon a client’s worldviews worldviews as a means to avoid unnecessary resistance. Again, a warning: if this is done simply as a means to an end, as an overt manipulation, manipulation, it is likely to backfire or not work at all. Remember, Remember, R-E-S-P-E-C-T. Obviously I can’t emphasize this point enough. Though, hey, maybe I’m wrong. Maybe this only applies to working as a therapist and doesn’t matter one whit to a mentalist. But maybe not. not. Maybe it’s more important than we want to consider if these ideas conflict with how we’ve been working. working. Maybe this is so because such ideas are relevant to how we lead our lives. Getting back to what we claim as mentalists should help clarify the above. Two Ericksonian approaches seem especially relevant here. First, the idea of bypassing resistance by offering numerous numerous possibilities, a kind of mentalist’s mentalist’s multiple choice. And, second, achieving the same end by using language that allows the participant to impart meanings consistent with their worldview. A response by Banachek to a thread at the Magic Café exemplifies this first approach perfectly (though also accesses elements of the second approach approach as well). He states that he he tells the audience, audience, “Everything “Everything I do is accomplished by one or all of the following five things; verbal communication c ommunication,, non-verbal non-verbal communication, magic, psychology and perceptual manipulation.” So many choices are offered that, along with staying true to Banachek’s presentational stance, there should be something for everybody. Though directed more toward those comfortable with a “scientific” explanation, a believer should also be able to attach meaning to at least one of the choices (and the believer is also covered by Dunninger’s “No explanation is needed for those who believe….”). And I maintain, contrary to the rest of Dunninger’s 14
assertion, “and none will suffice for those who don’t,” this approach satisfies the non-believer as well. With an Ericksonian approach, sometimes you CAN have your cake and eat it too. Andy Leviss’ Gestalt approach also treads similar lines (gee, where I won’t go to make sure this article gets included), and I shared something with Andy that I’ve toyed with but have never fully used. I’ll now share it with those patient enough to stay with me thus far: “I combine a variety of abilities in unusual ways to produce unusual outcomes. I use logic, memory, induction, deduction and even seduction. I access knowledge of both the mundane and the arcane. Of psychology, ESP, the paranormal, suggestion, hypnosis and a healthy dose of altered states and combine them all in ways I hope will entertain you.” Use this at your own risk. The second approach I mentioned above to bypassing resistance is using words that allow the participant to impart their own meaning or phraseology that has two or more meanings. Knepper’s dual reality approaches accomplish this beautifully, as do the work (and advertising!) advertising!) of his student Luke Jermay. A student of Erickson, Bill O’Hanlon (who has written what I consider the most easily accessible treatise on Ericksonian hypnosis, “Solution Oriented Hypnosis”) calls such terms “packaged” or “Ronald Reagan” words. When I told friends and family that I was writing an article for a book on mentalism and they kept asking, “what’s that?” the best definition that I felt comfortable with is, “the use of psychology and related methods to produce psychic phenomena.” What does this really say? What doesn’t it say? Is it a disclaimer or not? It sounds rather specific but doesn’t really say anything other than what the listener wants it to say. And that is the whole point. And, finally, to the last area I want to touch on, shutting down the analytical mind. Thankfully (as I’m sure many readers of this much longer than intended article would agree), there isn’t much more to add. In gaining cooperation, in bypassing resistance, this is precisely what we do. When we utilize what the client offers, when we pace then lead, when we “invite,” when we offer multiple alternatives and 15
when we use “packaged” words, it all has the same effect, especially in combination, of allowing the participant to stop analyzing how we do what we do. Certainly not all, but most participants, will respond this way. Such approaches dissolve the audience’s need to try to figure anything out. You’re telling them how it works and simultaneously deceiving them. Just don’t gloat over it! I suspect that there is a certain group of people that will always suspect trickery, their intellect tripping up their own capacity for enjoyment, enjoyment, and when you give them the “trick” (or use words that allow them to imply the “trick”), they are more likely to relax and go with the flow. Phew. I’ve said just about everything I set out to. As a final reward (or punishment, depending on your perspective on verbose writers) to those who’ve followed followed this to the end, I’d like to to (briefly) share a presentation that incorporates, at the very least, the idea of shutting down the analytic mind. When I sent this to Andy, he wrote back, “Bill, congratulations, you have just shared with me the first ever presentation presentation for a magic square that I actually buy! I normally can’t stand the effect, it just seems like a cute math trick to me. This, however, is a really cool idea. I love it, love it, love it!” Gosh, I think he liked this! I feel just like Sally Fields. Basically, it’s a presentational reframe on the instant magic square. It will work with any approach where you can ask the participant for a number and then instantly produce a square that adds in multiple directions to the chosen number. This is generally done by having a square already written up with four blank spaces, subtracting a pre-determined pre-determined number from the participant’s number and entering the result and a resulting series in the blanks. Those who are familiar with the effect will know what I’m talking about, those who aren’t can look it up in Gregory Wilson’s “Stockholder” (the first place I encountered it) or Jack J ack Avis and Lewis Jones’ “Ahead of the Pack,” or, last but not least, Doug Dyment’s, “Mindsights.”
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Unlike Andy, I like the instant magic square, but it occurred to me that this could be turned on its head with interesting results. Basically, what I suggest is first speaking about subliminal messages, things like the movie theatres flashing “eat” or “drink” messages as was rumored to have been done in the fifties, to stimulate food and beverage sales. You then quickly flash the cover square (see Wilson or Dyment, Avis and Jones don’t really use one), ala “Out To Lunch” (or you could use a Stockholder, Mind Spy or Himber Wallet. Or you could have a completed square on one side of a packet and the one with spaces on the other and just flip it. Or anything else that allows an uncomplicated switch) then ask them for the first number that comes to mind. Under cover of signing and or dating (to commemorate commemorate this auspicious occasion?) you add the needed numbers. Then, miracle of miracles, you show them that they really couldn’t have chosen any other number as they’d been influenced by the subliminal message of “The Magic Square,” or some such rot. Well, that’s it. I hope you like the effect as much as Andy did. And I hope you found the Erickson stories at least interesting. As for my ideas on applying Ericksonian thinking to mentalism, if you don’t agree, and I’m sure many won’t, may you at least find them thought provoking. Because when you get right down to it, that’s what this is all about.
AFTERTHOUGHTS 2008 Man, that was tough! I truly did my best to edit only for typos and clarity but I had to remove a couple of references that made me cringe just a bit more than I could handle. I really want this ebook to show both the origins and evolution of my work as a mentalist to date and with this being my first published article it seemed imperative imperative I leave it alone as much as possible. I’m sure you’ll agree after reading the above, I did leave in many a “cringe worthy” word, sentence and paragraph! Overall, Overall, I’m satisfied
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with Ericksonian Extracts as a first effort but I certainly hope, and like to believe, that my writing and sense of humor have improved over the years. The works of the many friends I’ve made since Ericksonian Extracts was published have significantly influenced me and I can see their impact in my more recent efforts. This is in the best interest of all involved! A couple of historical notes need to be made. The Erickson anecdotes come from several sources. These include “My Voice Will Go With You” by Sidney Rosen, “Hypnotic Realities” by Milton Erickson and Ernest Rossi, “An Uncommon Casebook” by William Hudson O’Hanlon and Angela Hexum, “The Wisdom of Milton Erickson; Volumes I and II” by Ronald Havens (Editor) and personal communication from Bill O’Hanlon. I mention early on that t hat Kenton Knepper probably has contributed the most Ericksonian approaches to mentalism but that may have shifted with the growing body of work by Richard Busch, particularly “The Busch Factor.” Also my friend Enrique Enriquez has since come on the scene with his “in the bones” understanding of the beliefs and practices of Erickson. Regarding how Ericksonian cats train kittens with pacing and leading, I’m glad you asked! Our first cat Kirby was about 10 years old when we found a very damp six-month-old Felix crying under our barbeque during a fierce rainstorm. My wife Linda was pregnant, I was applying for internships around the country and we were looking to buy our first house. All positive experiences but stressful nonetheless. Felix wasn’t getting the attention the little guy deserved from us and Kirby was paying the price. One day a few weeks after we’d rescued him, I watched as Felix tried to engage Kirby in play. Kirby did his best to ignore him but Felix wouldn’t have it. No matter how blasé Kirby behaved, the kitten kept jumping him in mock attack.
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After a minute or two of this, Kirby started flicking his tail rapidly in Felix’s face. Felix would swing a paw, snag the tail and Kirby would give him a good whack. This was repeated several times when Kirby began to gradually slow down the speed of his tail flicking. And as he did, Felix started to react in kind. Then he would get another burst of energy and Kirby would pick up speed once more. And then slow down. After a just a few cycles, Kirby began slowly moving moving his tail in what I can best describe as a hypnotic fashion. Felix stared, seemingly entranced. Ultimately he just watched Kirby’s tail, purring contentedly and going to that peaceful place felines seem s eem to know so well. Of course you could look at this as Kirby just wearing the little guy out. After seeing this happen a few times over the next couple of weeks I began to have my doubts that it was quite so simple. Erickson was known for deriving his techniques from close observation of natural phenomenon. phenomenon. I like to think that Kirby was doing the Kitty Kat version of pacing and leading and that it is a dependable biological function. Just the kind of thing a young Milton Erickson would notice and incorporate into his repertoire of hypnotic skills. Finally, a word about the effect with the magic square mentioned at the end of Ericksonian Extracts. It eventually evolved evolved into Subliminal Square with the generous and able assistance of Doug Dyment and was published with considerably more detail in Banachek’s “Psychological Subtleties 2.” To this day it remains one of my favorite performance pieces and examples of how to bypass an audience’s conscious resistance.
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ALPHABODY LANGUAGE
On the Desert Brainstorm series tapes, Gene Urban suggests purporting to read body language as the modus operandi for a book test. I love this idea and it is an excellent example of bypassing conscious resistance via offering an alternative, believable explanation. It’s durability, flexibility and effectiveness is demonstrated by the number of performers who have since incorporated reading body language and other “tells” as a faux explanation for a variety of effects. Marc Salem and Derren Brown come readily to mind. What follows is an outgrowth of Gene’s handling and can be applied to any kind of revelation of a word. Use Alphabody Language Language for booktests, center tears, billet peeks, peek wallets and impression devices with equal impact. On the tape, Gene has the participant continue to hold the book after selecting their word. He then points out how the way he is holding the book and/or standing communicates via body language the letters of the word they chose. This is jazz mentalism at its best and and is the kind of presentation I love to keep me on my toes. The change that I have made is that rather than having the performer decode the body language, the audience is coached in this procedure. Right off the bat, this invokes The Cooperation Principle since you have invited everyone to work with you. And by making the audience members members the stars, you utilize their sense of pride and accomplishment as another means of insuring cooperation and bypassing resistance. My addition originated after a performance of Gene’s version at a PTA function at my daughter’s school. One of the other parents came up to me afterwards and stated that he was reading the body language right along with me. I’ll admit I was taken aback; I basically just nodded my head in confirmation. confirmation.
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At another performance shortly after this, an audience member cornered me to describe how she had made out a couple of the letters from the participant’s body language but wanted to know how I “read” the more difficult ones. The seeds of an idea were planted. I asked myself, “If people believe they are reading body language when I am only pretending to be, how can I use this to my advantage?” advantage?” My answer answer was to use this interesting phenomenon phenomenon to cue audience members to decipher the individual letters and ultimately the word. At one level, I am actually looking for body language that can be interpreted to match a letter I know is in the word and then simply pointing it out. This is the exact opposite of what I am claiming to be doing and therein lays the fun and challenge. Consider all the things you have working in your favor. You know the word but the audience isn’t aware of this. Therefore you can determine which movement movement or body position to point out or emphasize to elicit the correct letter. Also, letters occur in familiar, predictable sequences. So if a “Z” has been identified as the first letter, no one is going to be looking for another consonant. You can ask leading questions of audience members who are very motivated to succeed at a process that they believe is truly at the crux of what you are doing. This is fun for the entire audience and puts them in the limelight for a bit. Though the entire audience becomes involved, another plus (something I explored in detail in my ebook “The Fource”) is that you don’t have to rely on everyone being successful. And even if no one picks up a particular letter (very, very rare) you can’t miss, because you always can! I generally set the pace by demonstrating the process with the first letter or two myself. Then I say something like, “See how she is holding her arms? What letter does that suggest to you?”
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As I make such statements, I am exaggerating (and sometimes outright confabulating ) the body position for the letter I’m going for. While I am pretending to be receiving information via body language, and helping the audience to do likewise, I am actually transmitting information with body language! Your doing so acts as indirect suggestion, another Ericksonian trademark, and widely understood to be more effective than direct suggestion. This is a real kick to do and the audience picks up on your excitement. As they get hits and become excited the whole process becomes contagious and you will often find audience members pointing out tells to one another, laughing and debating their meaning. This is entertaining in and of itself and amps up the enthusiasm in the room. And many times you won’t even have to exaggerate. Simply note a movement movement or position that truly does suggests a letter in the word to you and point this out to the audience. A nod to Kentonism is in order at this point. For the record, when I do this presentation with MOAB, I use Richard Busch’s clever handling from “The Mother’s Home Companion” (the most recent update) and reveal two words. The first word I do as above, letting the audience have the fun deciphering the letters from the body language. For the second word I state, “That’s what it looks like when we apply an understanding of non-verbal communication. Now let me show you how it looks when done with telepathy.” Then I quickly nail the second word. This plays very strong because just when the audience thinks they know what you are doing, you abruptly shift gears and leave them in the dust. I have found this to be a great closer. c loser. However you choose to incorporate this idea, I hope you have as much fun with it as I do.
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A SUGGESTION FOR THE USE OF SUGGESTION
A mentalist once wrote me asking how I got my participants to actually feel the key bending in Andrew Gerard’s wonderful Key Accessory. I wrote him back an extremely extremely long long reply. In it I addressed such things as picking a suggestible person (and who and what to look for to accomplish this task), creating a verbal and non-verbal yes set, what to do when required to work with someone low on the suggestibility continuum, and some applications specific to Key Accessory that I can’t go into in this context. Like I say above, it was a long letter. Soon after I finished it, I realized I’d left out a simple but potent step to using suggestion effectively. I’m not so bold to suggest that this is THE secret to the successful s uccessful use of suggestion, but it is one of the big ones. A technique more important than anything I did share! An absolute essential to anyone struggling with the application of suggestion to magic and mentalism. I hope this contribution contribution offers a fresh fresh approach to a common problem I often read and hear about when it comes to using suggestion. This method is a staple of training in hypnosis and therapy. That it hasn’t received more attention as a specific tool for teaching suggestion to mentalists surprises me. Almost every time I’ve taken a hypnosis class or attended a seminar on learning a new therapeutic method it is a given that you must experience what what it is like to be at the receiving end of the technique that is being taught. taught. I have found found the exceptions exceptions to this rule usually occur in classes and seminars that are not nearly as effective, useful, or memorable. In the realm of magic and mentalism I think Richard Osterlind has come the closest to the point I’m making. In “The Magic State of Mind,” the first chapter of “Making Magic Real,” he speaks eloquently about learning to experience what we do as real magic. Indeed, he
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titles his second chapter, “If You Believe In Your Magic So Will Others.” If you don’t have “Making Magic Real” and its sequel, “Making Real Magic” you are missing out on invaluable information. What I am saying may be seen as an adjunct to what Richard teaches; that if you want to get a participant to feel a physical sensation as part of an effect, you need to have had that sensation yourself. You need to have experienced the same suggestion on your own terms. This also applies to the use of suggestion outside of the realm of inducing physical sensations. For example, psychological forces. In his books mentioned above, Richard teaches methods to experience the magic as it occurs as a means of evoking the same response in your audience. The distinction I am making is that you need to experience suggestion prior to using it! To hypnotize another person, it is essential, at least in my mind and most hypnotists I’ve come in contact with, to know k now what it is to be hypnotized. Likewise, to use suggestion successfully you need to be able to feel precisely what it is you are trying to get your participants to feel. This is a vital step that I think gets left out of explorations of the use of of suggestion in mentalism and may explain why certain people encounter difficulties applying it. Sometimes to the point where they simply don’t believe it possible and that those who do are either scamming or self-deluded. Some people harbor a skepticism that suggestion cannot be successfully used on a regular basis and not only sabotage their effects by communicating this to the participants, they may not allow themselves to have this wonderful experience. Having experienced successful suggestion is key to helping a participant do likewise. Though not as often a requirement as it used to be in clinical psychology programs, programs, students are still encouraged to complete a course of psychotherapy. Sure, part of the reasoning is to protect the public since anyone who pursues this field is almost certain c ertain to suffer 24
their own neuroses . But it is also to give the student the experience for the same reasons I’ve been explaining as applied to the use of suggestion. The process is simple in theory, t heory, but may be difficult in practice for some people, even those who aren’t skeptical s keptical and desperately want to successfully use suggestion in their their mentalism. Let me take a moment to explain why I think this is, in service of later helping to assist such folks. Suggestion relies on a form of dissociation. Dissociation is what happens when our thoughts take off in one direction and our physical sensations and/or emotions take off in another direction. The official definition in The Diagnostic and Statistic Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) is “A disruption in the usually integrated functions of consciousness, memory, identity, or perception of the environment. environment. The disturbance may be sudden or gradual, transient or chronic.” Being a manual of psychiatric disorders, the DSM is defining dissociation in a way that is pathological. But it is far more than that and can actually be a healthy, growth promoting response. We all dissociate to different degrees. Think of dissociation as existing on a continuum. At its furthest, least intrusive and most commonly experienced end we have things like highway hypnosis. hypnosis. In general, this level of dissociation is that sense of having gone on “autopilot” and completed an activity without memory of the intermediary steps. Other examples at the non-pathological end include when you are so engrossed in a movie, book or television show that you don’t hear someone calling your name. A bit further down the continuum, but still far from pathological, is the experience many people have of reading a captivating story and unconsciously mimicking an action described by the author. For instance, when you read, “As she spoke, her head slightly s lightly tilted as if she were doubting her own words,” then find yourself doing just that, you have experienced a form of dissociation (you can straighten 25
your head now!). Ideomotor activity also comes into play, itself related to dissociation, but I’ll leave that alone for now. At dissociation’s furthest, most intrusive and least experienced end, we have multiple personality disorder or Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) as it is now officially called. Even within DID there exists a continuum between those people who experience a “fragmentation” of personality (technically Dissociative Disorder Not Otherwise Specified) and an actual “crystallization” of alternate personalities. Obviously we want to focus on suggestion requiring mild dissociations! But knowledge of the entire continuum can be helpful. Some people are simply less prone to dissociation. It is our job as mentalists to find the individual entryway into each person’s stimuli for dissociation in order to successfully apply suggestion. They are always there, just sometimes less obvious. They are easier to spot and apply when we have had strong experiences ourselves with our own suggestibility. I believe many people can learn to do this on their own. While initially you may have to devote far more time t ime to achieving a strong experience of suggestion for yourself than you can allow for a participant during performance, this will still transfer into enhancing your ability to bring about the desired effect within the available time. The “demand characteristics” of being in front of others will also help speed things along. Returning to my original example of a key bend, whatever technique you have to employ to really make yourself feel that key bend, not simply imagine what it would feel like if the key bent, do it. And do it until you know that feeling inside and out. Should one technique not work for you, try another. Should you still have trouble, find a friend or professional skilled in these t hese areas and let them give you the experience. As far as a professional, a skilled certified hypnotist is probably your best bet.
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For some lucky souls this seems to happen right from the get go, as they are more easily able to accept suggestion. Others have to work harder at it but I believe anyone can achieve the desired result. I have no proof, but I suspect that those folks who experience trouble effectively using suggestion in their performance to induce participants to feel a key bending, a coin c oin getting warm, a thought being plucked from their mind (or inserted in via a psychological force), have not yet really felt it themselves. When YOU can feel it, you’ll know what it will feel like for your participants. You will know in your bones what this is all about and be able to far more easily and elegantly share the experience with others.
AFTERTHOUGHTS 2008 Since writing the above, I have had some experiences that I would like to share. We often talk about how to identify good subjects for hypnosis and effects that use suggestion. Many authors have chimed in on this of late, due to the surge of interest in these areas. A common piece of advice is to begin a performance with a presentation that involves the entire audience and that can be used to differentiate those most likely to be cooperative from those whose thought style might interfere with their responsiveness. responsiveness. Examples include classics such as “Magnetic Fingers” and “Light and Heavy Hands.” These are old effects that can serve multiple purposes. First, they are entertaining and effective in their own right. What better way to engage a crowd than to involve everyone from the very beginning?
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Second, people who respond well to these are more likely to do well with effects involving suggestion and/or rapid induction. Check out Anthony Jacquin’s “Reality is Plastic! The Art of Impromptu Hypnosis” for several wonderful examples. He refers to them as “set pieces” and as the “first rung on the hypnotic ladder.” Anthony encourages us not to overlook these gems and I absolutely agree with him. Several years ago I saw Millard Longman and Gary Goodman perform a show together and use these very pieces to open. They had an exceptionally strong effect on the audience and had everyone everyone participating and laughing from the very beginning. Even though there was no hyp act involved, it truly set the mood for the entire evening. I have done the same and love these kinds of effects to have on hand for a truly impromptu performance that will carry a small or large crowd and requires no props. I am not alone. In “The Fource” I devoted a chapter titled “Group Dynamics” to effects that engage the entire audience. This was at the encouragement encouragement of Alain Nu who shared that he felt there is a dearth of such material available to performers and was among those who contributed “whole audience effects” from their own repertoire. Another contributor, Lior Manor, the popular Israeli mentalist and the mad genius creator of “Mobile Opener” which, in my opinion, sets the modern day standard for such effects, had this to say about presentations involving the whole audience: “Workers know the value of effects that capture the imagination of the entire audience and gets those hands up. Performing effects with all of the spectators is something that many mentalists and magicians miss out on.” Recently I found one of the cleverest approaches to “trolling for the suggestible” I’ve ever come across and it uses none of the above! In a video released in 1998, “Secrets of Magic and Stage Hypnosis,” Ormond McGill performs a classic hyp act and one of the only true Q
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& A’s I’ve ever seen. If you can get your hands on a copy, I can’t recommend it enough. While watching it, I kept waiting for the suggestibility tests. When they didn’t come I assumed they’d been done pre-show. Then Ormond asked a single question that accomplished everything inherent in a suggestibility test and then some: “How many of you have guardian angels?” Absolutely brilliant! What more do you need to know to determine if someone is going to be cooperative and suggestible? I don’t mean to insult anyone or tread on personal beliefs. It’s just that it doesn’t get any better than this! Of course this was over a decade ago and you may want to update your questions to tap into the current zeitgeist. Not long ago the movie, book, website, soundtrack and every other marketing possibility for “The Secret” skyrocketed s kyrocketed to incredible popularity. I won’t go into my feelings about this as a psychologist, but as a performer the phenomenon suggests a question or two t wo that serve as well as Ormond’s devastating approach. For example, “How many of you have successfully used the Law of Attraction?” Or how about, “Who in the audience is familiar with using intention to manifest your deepest desires?” I hope my readers can see the versatility of such questions and create unique queries of their own to meet their individual needs and circumstances. I offer this with the best of intentions. Switching gears now before someone hurts me , in 2004 I began working for a private psychiatric hospital. A significant portion of the population are diagnosed with DID. I run groups at the outpatient program so I have the privilege of witnessing people who are overcoming their struggles not while hospitalized but rather in the context of their day to day life. Seeing the extremes of dissociative behavior on a regular basis is an educational and humbling experience beyond compare.
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A certain portion of our therapy involves teaching patients to recognize the signs of dissociation as they first occur and how to use this knowledge to ground themselves and stay in the present. Group members also work together to help one another achieve this since they are the true experts. It is one of the most inspiring places I’ve I ’ve ever worked. I mention this to explain an aspect of the nature of dissociation that I glossed over in the above essay. Dissociation is a gift. It is a survival skill that is literally life saving. It allows people to separate themselves from pain that would otherwise be intolerable. There is an incredible level of respect present in program philosophy, training, staff and ultimately among the patients. It is impossible to work in such an environment and not come away with a tremendous admiration for the capacities of the human mind and the resilience of the human being. We speak of things that initiate the dissociative process and how to recognize them, avoid them, or, if need be, defuse them. In a very real sense, anything that can bring on a flashback f lashback and the resulting dissociation is a form of suggestion. This has taught me to be aware of the many pathways available to express a suggestion. Also, it has given me the certainty I referred to in the essay of the existence and power of suggestion. That I can take this knowledge away and utilize it in performance as well as to help teach this process to others is an odd blessing but a blessing nonetheless.
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THE JUMPING PULSE
As far as I can determine, what follows is original with me. I developed it for use in my private practice and with groups at the hospital after becoming familiar with the now popular concept of mindfulness. If you would like to learn about this fascinating and useful model, I recommend the books of Jon Kabat Zinn, including “Where Ever You Go, There You are,” “Full Catastrophe Living” and “Coming To Our Senses: Healing Ourselves and The Word W ord Through Mindfulness”. They are available online and at any full service bookstore. Mindfulness is now being taught at hospitals and health centers all over the world. Related to meditation, especially in health benefits, Kabat Zinn began this work in 1979 with the opening of a stress reduction clinic. What initially attracted me to this approach was its adaptability. Virtually any aspect of life lif e can be approached, “mindfully.” “mindfully.” Indeed, Zinn and his wife even have books that teach mindful parenting and mindful politics! Originally, I wanted a novel technique to use with patients when teaching relaxation and stress reduction. For years I’ve given classes on these topics and used traditional methods such as progressive muscle relaxation and visualization to help my clients achieve their goals in these areas. Each method is like a tool and some people respond better to working with one tool than another. Mindfulness seemed like a philosophy that could be applied to any of the typical tools and not evoke the knee jerk reaction I find some people have in response to the terms meditation and trance. “The Jumping Pulse” (definitely not what I call it in clinical practice!) occurred to me one day when it essentially happened spontaneously.
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I find it quite easy for clients of all ages and dispositions to learn and it seems universally accepted and enjoyed. I realize that several factors are involved above and beyond mindfulness in what makes The Jumping Pulse work. Facets of ideomotor function, suggestion, imagination and placebo effect are certainly relevant. However, However, none of that takes away from its effectiveness and utility. The philosophy I’ve come to operate from over the years, even more so as I’ve I ’ve become well versed in mentalism (!), views views these factors as operative in all forms of therapeutic work. I believe that the position of respect I discussed in Ericksonian Extracts requires that I be able to share these realities with clients. If the work loses impact because of a truthful presentation, I am just not comfortable with it. Eventually, it occurred to me to apply “The Jumping Pulse” to mentalism. Again, it fits my needs and desire for propless, completely impromptu effects useable for one person or one hundred. I don’t want to engage in any debate about disclaimers here (I came close enough in “Ericksonian Extracts”) so let me simply state that I like to be able to call some things exactly what they are. The Haunted Key and pendulums are perfect examples. My preferred presentation is to define them as examples of ideomotor function. I see it as no less amazing to demonstrate this exceptional capacity of our brains than to invoke telekinesis, ghosts or poltergeists. Truth is truly stranger than fiction in my book! I also realized that “The Jumping Pulse” is an effective way to communicate the use of suggestion to other mentalists. It is fun to experience, easy to teach, and easy to learn. You can use “The Jumping Pulse” as an effect in its own right, as a suggestibility test or as part of another effect. It can also be used to ratify other phenomenon in your show. Ratification is a process taken from f rom hypnosis to validate that an altered state or trance exists and is used to deepen said state. 32
For example, in “Sanctum II” from Outlaw Effects the performer prepares the participant for “traveling” to another time and space via a mild induction. I use The Jumping Pulse in place of the method described in the instructions. Similarly, I have an unpublished multi-phase routine, “Room With A View” that incorporates a remote viewing theme. I use “The Jumping Pulse” as a “short focusing exercise used to elicit the best state of mind for remote viewing.” This has proved very successful with a variety of audiences. Though I’m using it with the participant who is in the role of remote viewer, I encourage the rest of the audience to join in, as it is an experience that everyone can enjoy. I’m sure you will be able to apply “The Jumping Pulse” to many of your own routines but my present goal is increase your confidence in the use of suggestion. I want you to master experiencing “The Jumping Pulse” for yourself first. Then you will easily be able to evoke the response from others as described in, “A Suggestion For The Use Of Suggestion.” The script need not be long. When you are ready to perform “The Jumping Pulse” with a participant or an entire audience, join them in the process. This will help you to experience what the participants are experiencing in the same context. In other words, a form of pacing prior to leading. I will share the script I use with “Room With A View” as follows: “I want you to take a couple of deep breaths and you may begin to relax. I’m going to take you through a short focusing exercise used to elicit the best state of mind for remote viewing. Everyone else feel free to join in; it is actually quite pleasant and an interesting process. Put all your attention into your left hand. As you take another deep breath, allow this awareness to increase. Simply notice whatever sensations you are experiencing.
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You might feel warmth, a slight breeze from the air conditioning, the pressure of your hand on your leg. That’s right. Just notice what is there, allowing your attention to become more refined. Some people feel their hand on their leg; some people experience the same sensation as their leg under their hand. Whatever you feel is right for you. Continue to breath smoothly and pay attention to your own experience. I particularly want you to begin to notice your pulse as it beats in your hand. As you do so, it may jump before becoming smoother and more rhythmic. Allow your attention to drift to your fingertips. Feel how they can slightly move with your pulse. Once you have this, nod your head….. That’s right….. Now turn your attention to feeling the pulse beating in your index finger. Nod your head when you can feel it…... Good. Allow it to continue for a few beats…… Fine, now imagine it moving to your middle finger and as you do this you can put all your attention into this finger and feel your pulse as it beats there…. Now move it to your third finger for a few beats…. and experience this sensation as fully as you like…. Next, place your attention into your little finger and simply notice what your pulse feels like as it beats there…. After a few beats, take it back to your third finger…. f inger…. Good. Again to your middle…and back to your index finger….. By now you are ready.” That’s it! Do this a few times and you’ll have it down. At that point you’ll find it easy to lead others into the experience.
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A couple of more thoughts. Be sure s ure to go through the process yourself as you lead your participants. This will insure greater congruency. What you notice will be at the very least similar to what they are noticing in the moment. Pay attention to small movements or deviations on the part of your participant. Incorporate these into your script as a way of pacing. This is helpful if there is any disturbance in the process and you need to get back on track to t o lead them through the experience. This is what I was doing when in the script I said, “As you do so, it may jump before becoming smoother and more rhythmic.” I don’t always say this by any means, but wanted to give you an example of how to pace a change in the participant’s behavior when needed. needed. Finally, for your own understanding (though I see nothing wrong in ultimately sharing this if it fits your style and you so choose), realize that it isn’t your pulse that is moving. It is your attention. Think about that and all it implies for any work with suggestion. I hope you enjoy The Jumping Pulse however you decide to use it. I didn’t mention it earlier, but I utilize the method when I become antsy or my thoughts wander. It is a wonderful way to get centered.
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JUSTIFYING YOUR GAZE
Some of what I’m about to discuss is controversial. There seem to be two schools of thought when it comes to peeking secret information. The first essentially says that we should just go for it when the heat is off of us. Proponents of this position maintain that if we don’t feel guilty when we peek we won’t communicate anything to the audience that will arouse their suspicions. This is akin to the “don’t run when no one is chasing you” philosophy applied to much of magic and there is a lot of sense in taking this into account when performing both magic and mentalism. The second school of thought teaches that when we peek hidden information, our actions should be motivated. Proponents of this school maintain that if our actions are motivated, we won’t have anything to feel guilty about in the first place. Techniques emphasizing naturalness in movement and the use of repetition fall into this category. While I lean toward the second school s chool of thought, I don’t see s ee the two as mutually exclusive. I believe a balance can be struck between these approaches that utilizes the best of both worlds. I’m going to share several approaches that can be used to relieve the anxiety that many mentalists experience when it comes to peeking secret information. At the same time, what follows is still consistent with tenets that discourage us from going to extremes to disguise our actions. I first began my serious study of this t his topic when I purchased Allen Zingg’s deceptive Zingg Wallet. I had the good fortune at that time to also be reading Mark Striving’s book, “Silent Partner” which went into great detail about his methods for successfully using cribs. I realized that much of what he wrote applied equally, if not more, to peeking whether it is when using wallets, billets or impression devices.
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As a matter of fact, f act, several of Mark’s statements made perfect sense by merely substituting the word “peek” for “crib.” Take the following quote for example: “The biggest problem with the vast majority of hidden (or open) cribs that I have seen lies not with the crib itself, but rather, with the performer who uses it. The problem can be summed up with one word – eyes.” A light went off when I read those words and I still clearly remember remember the feeling of discovery I experienced. As I mentioned, simply substitute “peek” for “crib” and you’ll see exactly what I mean. In “Silent Partner,” Mark brings together three areas that clearly sum up my experiences with peeking. I will briefly address all three t hree before moving on to specific methods and applications for justifying your gaze. The first is context. W We e must place a peek within a context where it makes sense. Kenton Knepper has a wonderful quote that is relevant to this concept. He writes, “Meaning is the best misdirection.” Simple but extraordinarily powerful words. While having applications far beyond the subject at hand, by giving meaning to what we are doing while taking our peek, the audience is led far away from any reason to be suspicious of our actions. Examples will follow. Related to this, Mark next mentions motivation. When our actions have meaning, they are motivated. When motivated, again, they do not arouse suspicion. The audience is too busy paying attention to the theme in which we have embedded embedded our actions. This doesn’t mean our actions can be sloppy; far from it. But they are more relaxed, and so are we. This leads us to Mark’s third point, guilt. If you feel guilty, your audience may not know what you are doing but they will sense, even if on a subconscious level, that something isn’t right. This topic has
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been covered extensively in the classic works on both magic and mentalism as related to sleight of hand and other forms of deception. In turn, we react to the t he audience’s discomfort. Our confidence suffers for it, and a vicious circle ensues. The archetype of the magician is someone who who is a master of the natural natural and supernatural world. world. I use the word magician here in its broadest sense and this isn’t the time or place to get into distinctions between magic and mentalism. To perform mentalism successfully we can’t afford to be awkward. This doesn’t mean we have to fit into any of the “slick” stereotypes that have and sometimes still plague mystery performers; performers; it does, however, however, call for poise and belief in ourselves. Context, motivation, motivation, and the absence of guilt apply to the art of peeking information secretly written or chosen by our participants every bit as much as they do to covertly obtaining information information from a crib. If at all possible, read “Silent Partner,” both for its exhaustive study of cribs as well as the ideas explored above. Now on to some specific examples of how to put theory into action. Let’s first look at two forms of “time misdirection,” as applied to peeking. It can add a layer of deception NOT to peek at the t he first opportunity available to you. Or even the second! In my routine “Eye-Detic Memories” published in Allen Zingg’s “Extending Your Powers,” I take ample advantage of this method. While the book is devoted to effects using The Zingg Wallet, most of the principles used in this effect can be applied with almost any peek wallet. Eye-Detic is a multi-phase routine. The general premise revolves around the different forms of memory we use in our day-to-day lives. lives. I begin by differentiating between emotional and factual f actual memory. I ask the participant to write down what I classify c lassify as an emotional memory on the back of a business card. Then I place the card in the
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wallet’s outside pocket, stating we will save working with emotions for last. I am about to divulge a method of mine that I’m very ambivalent about sharing! While I explained it in “Extending Your Powers” that was such a specialized release that publishing it there was tantamount to hiding it! I have always planned on saving this for a book on peek wallets but it will help to make sense of the overall use of time misdirection in the present context. I think many of you will find it extremely useful, and it is an answer to a question that t hat comes up over and over again on forums: Why place your business card back in your wallet subsequent to a participant writing on it? After the participant has written down what I have requested on the back of my business card, I tell them to read the card from beginning to end, keeping their writing hidden from me. When they are done (I’m taking a deep breath here ), I tell them I’m going to test their factual memory of what they just read. So they can’t cheat, “I’m going to put it away so you can’t see it.” This accomplishes several goals. First and foremost, it gives you a reason to put the card away in your wallet. So for all those folks who worry they need a reason to do this, now you have one! I’ve never been questioned; I always indirectly make it clear that I am not looking at what they wrote as I place the card away. This is done by being very careful as I return the card; “no fumbling” as Eugene Burger likes to remind us. This also creates a powerfully deceptive subtext: If they can’t see the card once it is put away, the implication is that I can’t either. I personally believe that as a rule, you don’t need a reason to put a card in a wallet. But there are always exceptions and I know this act makes many mentalists nervous and/or they find it incongruent. So there you have it; a perfectly motivated reason for returning the card that the participant has just written upon to your wallet.
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I don’t peek yet. I casually drop the wallet to the table or if standing, my hand with the wallet to my side. Then I begin to ask them questions about aspects of what is written and illustrated on my business card. I couch this as a test of factual memory but it serves more important purposes, one of which I’ll explain now. At the risk of being overly obvious, obvious, the act of asking these questions creates significant time misdirection. It places a block of time t ime between when the participant wrote their information and when you get back to it. Another purpose is to fulfill the requirements of the theme of the effect. In other words, to enhance the meaning, “the best misdirection.” This needs to be done casually, without risking making the participant feel badly if they don’t recall much. I simply praise what they do remember and if they are having any difficulty, keep the process short. I stress the difficulty in remembering “raw data” that doesn’t have any emotional hook. If they do well, I praise them for exactly the same thing. In either case, I don’t take the peek until quite a while after the card has been placed out of sight. Since the method is contingent upon the nature of The Zingg Wallet it is not something I am free to explain. But that isn’t the point here and the strategies above and to follow can be applied to most (if not all) peek wallets. Since I’m not teaching the entire effect (though pretty close!) I’ll stop here, and return in a bit to share the specific strategy I use in “EyeDetic Memories” to justify my gaze. On to the next form of time misdirection. After I do take the peek, I place another block of time between that moment and when I finally reveal the information written by the participant. The way you do this has to be consistent with the context and meaning of your routine. In the case of Eye-Detic, I begin to do this by coaching the participant on how I want them to think of their emotional memory. I ask them to 40
visualize and hear aspects of the memory. As they do so, I make observations about their general demeanor without getting too specific. For example, I “guess” at an emotion their body language suggests to me. Of course since I already know the specific memory I tend to be uncannily accurate . I’m sure you can think of ways to apply this principle to your own effects, and/or how to use it to create new effects. So, to sum up the use of time misdirection in peeking, you can delay when you take your peek. You can also delay revealing the information after you take the peek. Or, as in Eye-Detic, you can do both. Since my first dedicated method for justifying your gaze is perfectly exemplified in “Eye-Detic Memories,” I might as well start with precisely how I accomplish this. Basically, you memorize a piece of information written down on a card or paper and then place it in line with the hidden information that is the true goal of your gaze. While pretending to read the memorized information, you have several justified seconds to stare directly at the secret information. Of course, since the angles of this have to be specific to the wallet you are using, you will have to identify what works best for you. With “Eye-Detic Memories,” I begin to test their memory of my business card. If they are doing poorly, I suggest s uggest finding something easier. If they are doing well, I challenge them to continue with more difficult information. Either way, my next action is the same. I open the wallet (remember the peek card is inserted in an outside pocket with the Zingg) to remove a new business card from the inside so I can review it and choose the easier or harder items to continue querying the participant. I hold the card so I can read it but keep it out of their line of view. And I hold it so my views of both cards are lined up with one another. Since I’ve memorized the data I’m quizzing them on, I don’t need to
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actually read it. I just state what I memorized. This gives me several seconds of a perfectly justified gaze to look at what they wrote! In my case, I’m using my business card from f rom my clinical psychology practice, upon which several specialties are listed. So when I decide to assist or challenge their memory, I remove a fresh card from inside and ask them to name at least 4 out of the 7 specialties. I’m reading the peek card as I appear to count and say, “1,2,3,4,5,6,7 specialties. Name 4 out of the 7.” Whenever applying memorized information for a justified gaze, I find f ind counting some aspect of information on my business card works very well for me and I recommend you find a way to apply something similar. The nature of the Zingg Wallet allows me to do this in an extremely fair fashion. While it happens relatively quickly from the participant’s perspective, you have all the time you need. And if you are in a situation where you do need more time, you can take this principle and orchestrate its use to cover c over a longer period. This is a useful and versatile method. There are many other reasons to look where you require that are equally valid. A common one involves involves trying to place a wallet, pad or billet in your shirt or jacket pocket and missing. You do this once or twice, and then glance down at your pocket, gaining your peek when finally succeeding. This method is equally legitimate though might not grant you as much time as the method I describe with “Eye-Detic Memories.” In the latter case, I’m reading words so I want to allow myself sufficient time. With the pocket maneuver you may want want to restrict its use to peeking drawings or a single word. Here are some more tips. If possible, know the category of the information, especially for the quick peek of a word that has been written down. If you know whether you will be peeking the name of a movie, a song or a person, it helps. If the range of secret information is infinite, you need to arrange things so you have more time.
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Next, make sure you can get to the secret info easily without having to search. A simple line drawn in the precise spot where you will be peeking works wonders. Millard Longman makes excellent use of this procedure with Acidus Novus. In my book “Mind Index,” there is a routine called “7 Deadly Sins.” It uses a center tear but rather than a circle, a tombstone is drawn on an index card. Instead of a name, the participant is writing one of the 7 Deadly Sins. This is what you will be peeking. I’ll return to center tears in a moment. Whatever method for peeking you are using, you want the writing to be large, precise and clear. This can be difficult to achieve without asking for it, which can elicit suspicion. In 7 Deadly Sins I add verbal and non-verbal non-verbal indirect suggestion. The tombstone already has the year written on it as well as the standard “R.I.P.” There is only one place left to write the sin and I ask that it be engraved “like the writing on the rest of the tombstone.” Done in the context of a ritual, it is perfectly natural and meaningful. I am confident that I will get writing I can easily read. I use Richard Busch’s Zen Tear from “Peek Performances.” Performances.” With this tear, I know the hidden information will be correctly oriented. All of these seemingly small touches add up to large advantages. In another effect, included in “Mind Index,” I perform a “mini Q & A.” The card to be written upon already has a curved line with arrow pointers at both ends. As I describe the process we are about to engage in, I fill in the rest of the open spaces on the card. I draw a large “F,” representing the future, to the right of the arrow and an equally large “P,” representing the past, to the left. Beneath the curved line, I write the word PRESENT in large, capital letters. It is in context and given meaning because according to the “plot,” the line is curved to represent the flexibility of any given moment in the present.
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Finally, to the right of the line, just inside the right hand arrow, I draw a large question mark. All these factors together, size, placement and clarity, help to assure the participant will respond in kind. You don’t want to have to search for the writing or spend time deciphering it. And know where you are going to have to look before it becomes time to peek. This is a real time saver and makes the process more elegant. In the majority of the time it is more congruent to bring the information to be peeked into your line of vision rather than moving your eyes eyes toward the information. The latter can risk attracting unwanted attention. But don’t get too rigid about this. Like with “Eye-Detic Memories,” there are times when it is perfectly natural to move your eyes. The Magnum Wallet from Outlaw-Effects is another good example. The way it works, the peek information is in full sight of the performer but invisible to the audience. Once the card is put in the Magnum, you simply place it on the table and forget f orget about it, allowing for as much time misdirection as you want. While picking something else up, or even reaching to touch t ouch the wallet to get a “vibe,” your gaze downwards when you obtain your peek is perfectly justified. Choreographed, Choreographed, repetitive movements can also serve a similar purpose and have the added benefit of lulling the audience into complacency. This technique is most most often found in sleight of hand hand where, say, a coin is really placed several times from hand to hand and then on the last transfer it is held back or lapped. Another technique I use a lot with a center tear, as I explain in “7 Deadly Sins” from “Mind Index,” is to make the tear opening the peek area, but not looking quite yet. When I’m ready, I ask the person to cup their hands together “like mine” and as I cup them in illustration, I look at my hands and get my peek.
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If I need more time or a second look, I take my cupped hands under theirs and move theirs higher before depositing the torn pieces in their cupped palms. Opportunities abound if you think and plan ahead. Millard Longman, friend and mentor, points out a faulty logic that many mentalists fall victim to in their prohibitions not to look while doing certain things, such as a center tear. Pick up a piece of paper right now and fold it in quarters. Tear it up in several pieces and note your natural mannerisms. mannerisms. From time to time, especially as the pile gets thicker and more difficult to tear, you naturally look at your hands and the paper within! To do otherwise would raise a red flag! Millard is famous for his billet peeks, “Acidus Novus” and “Acidus Globus” and he discusses this poing on his DVD, “Thought Reading With Billets, Volume II: Acidus Globus.” With “Acidus Globus” or Alain Bellon’s “Obsidian Oblique,” I perform a “psychic drawing interpretation,” the reverse of a “psychological drawing interpretation.” Rather than look at a drawing and determine qualities of a person’s character, I observe their character and try and determine what kind of drawing they might make. After a participant makes a drawing on the back of a business card, folds it up and hands it back to me, I discuss the nature of the usual process. I explain that if a young man drew a severed hand clutching a heart, “I might have second thoughts about his dating my daughter.” This gets a laugh from the audience but I quiet them down and explain why we have have to be careful c areful about jumping to such conclusions. In my case I say, “After all, that is essentially the logo on my business card,” as I hold it up for them to look at the drawing of a stylized hand reaching toward a valentine shaped heart in a gesture of compassion. That is when I take my peek. They are looking right at the illustration, just imbued with new meaning, and again laugh, this time at the irony of the situation and 45
their natural assumptions. My pointing to the drawing in explanation is the most normal thing in the world and the concurrent c oncurrent peek always flies right by everyone. I hope you can use all of the examples and methods above to weave together your own style of handling peeks and justifying your gaze. These ideas are solid and have served others and myself well for many years. Take them and make them your own, and I’m sure the next time you have to peek secret information you will do so with far greater ease and confidence. I have no real afterthoughts to speak of in relation to Justifying Your Gaze, so this section varies from the others in that respect. Though a few paragraphs were written out a few years ago, the majority of what you just read has been a gradual evolution and I shared any other thoughts about the evolution of these ideas within the essay proper. Now I will share an effect that draws on justifying your gaze while nailwriting!
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OUTSIDE THE FOLD A.K.A ONE BEHIND NAIL WRITING EFFECT:
“Sometimes I get sudden images in my head that don’t make any sense. They can come in any form; faces, letters, names, colors, whatever. whatever. I usually just forget them. Every now and then though, something happens happens a bit later that seems connected to these images. But I can’t be sure I’m not just forcing things to fit together after the fact. So I’ve gotten into the habit of carrying a memo pad with me and writing the images down when they occur. While I was driving here it happened to me again. I wanted to record these thoughts before I forgot, but I also wanted to be safe. So as soon as the cop behind me turned the corner I got out my pad and jotted down what what came to mind.” You remove a memo pad from your pocket. Pointing out a participant you go on, “I think this has something to do with you. Or at at least someone you know. Name the first good friend friend who comes to mind that I couldn’t know and who isn’t here tonight.” “David Bukowski” “Well I sure didn’t write that down but this could still have something to do with Dave. Tell me something. How old is he?” “42” “42? This is getting more interesting. A color also came to me but I’m I ’m not sure what it means. Does Dave have brown hair?” “Sort of a dirty blond, but I suppose you could call it brown.”
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The mentalist turns over the pad, holding it at the tips of his index finger and thumb and gives it to the participant, hands obviously empty. “Check this out. I wrote down brown and you say Dave has brown hair. I wrote down 42 and when I asked how old Dave is you told me 42. I didn’t get his whole name but I did get his initials, D. B!” METHOD:
One risk allows for a very clean method for a triple prediction where you can look as you nailwrite without it seeming out of place. Outside The Fold is extremely flexible flexible and you can predict information other than the above. When I first shared this with other mentalists, it received a very positive response and generated some interesting alternative presentations. Of course, standard operating procedure (SOP) teaches that we should master nailwriting without looking, but for those who don’t perform full time, this isn’t always practical. So One Behind Nail Writing is a method and presentation where you you can obtain the benefits of using a nailwriter in a way that is “outside the fold” (re: outside SOP on nailwriting) and provides us with another kind of very good example for justifying your gaze. There is a certain rhythm that gets established, as you shall see, that makes this handling flow very smoothly. Also, though it is a lot easier to be neat with a nailwriter when you are looking, the plot contains a ruse, writing while driving, to explain less than perfect penmanship. In “Adam’s Prediction,” in his wonderful book “Deep Thought,” Greg Arce uses another subterfuge to justify less than t han perfect writing. I recommend that you check out both the book and routine. I like to use a memo pad that fits in my shirt pocket. With your nailwriter, write, “brown” a couple of lines below where your nailwriter naturally falls when you hold the pad. This way when you nailwrite during the effect your thumb will automatically fall where it is most comfortable. 48
Have your pad in your pocket with the writing toward your body. Make your introductory comments comments about getting sudden flashes of intuition, remove the pad, look down for a moment (your internal script should be something to the effect of “What could these letters mean?”), regain eye contact and ask the participant to name a friend as described in the effect. When they do, look down again and state, ““Well I sure didn’t write that down but this could still have something to do with your friend.” By the time you finish the sentence, you are looking up and have regained eye contact. When you next ask, “How old is Dave?” you look down again, the implication being at a number, and can easily write in the initials without arousing suspicion. Again, your internal script should support your actions. This is why I refer to this as one behind nail writing. You don’t write what you are told at the time you are told, but always one step behind. While you are being told Dave is 42 years old you are writing “DB”. You should be done writing and looking up again before or as the age is said.
Once this is done comes the comment about the hair color. I handle this a little differently. I name the color FIRST, the idea being as they reconstruct the effect afterwards they may recall that I always spoke first. Also, I mention the color but not what I think it might mean. As I’m looking at it and musing, I’m writing the age in. By the time I ask if Dave has brown hair, I’m holding the pad at the very top between my thumb and forefinger. Again, my intent is that this is the image that will be left with the audience of how I was holding the pad throughout the routine. Obviously you can totally miss this the color and still have a very strong effect. At first glance, this may seem like a bad idea because if that occurs it is with your final prediction. But the way it plays out reverses and neutralizes this situation. 49
You hit or miss with the hair color FIRST since you have yet to share your earlier impressions. It also happens to be the prediction where the odds are most in your favor. The number of hair colors is less than the range of possible ages, which in turn is considerably less than the number of two letter combinations possible with the name revelation. So even though you proceed from the greatest to the least number of possible outcomes when asking questions, the revelation is given in reverse order so you end with the most impossible prediction. A few comments comments about the hair color ploy. ploy. I know some people people will be uncomfortable with this and want to be 100% correct. In an effect this strong, the possibility of a miss is worth it in my opinion. If you hit, it is all the stronger. Plus there are some ways to spin a missed color that provide good opportunities to “play” with the participant and/or audience. If you get a “no” to the hair color, you can ask if his eyes are brown or if he drives a brown car. If he’s married you can ask if his wife or kids have brown hair. Finally, if all else fails you can joke, say by asking, “Has Dave been neglecting his lawn lately?” or “Does Dave ever wear brown?” Other opportunities to minimize the miss with humor are available and must fit your personality and the circumstances. Also, if one of these guesses (which I ask with increasingly mock desperation) is correct you’ll get credited with a hit. You probably want to vary the hair color depending on where you are performing. Where I live in South Florida, brown or black hair is very common. If it turns out to t o be black I can comment on my being color blind but at least I knew it was dark. Last but not least, the handing over of the pad. Simply turn it around with your left hand in a clockwise direction and end up holding the pad in your right hand by the top with your index finger (and middle finger if needed due to finger size or comfort level) in front and your thumb in back. You are saying your last lines as you dangle the pad 50
in this position. You can even turn the pad around right after you ask about the hair color or when “digging” for a hit. Again, this is the picture I hope to have the audience remember afterwards. You then extend your hand forward and let the participant take the pad. This automatically leaves your index finger, and if needed middle finger, naturally covering the nailwriter. Credit goes to Richard Osterlind from his “Inside The Fold” for the inspiration for this ending position. So there you have it. I think this handling allows you to make a threeway prediction in a very straightforward manner that is both astounding and unsettling for the participant and audience. It just seems like nothing happens but asking a few questions and handing over a pad to show you anticipated the answers. The pre-writing of the hair color allows for the one behind, which I think establishes a nice rhythm and allows for a smooth presentation. You write on the offbeat and at a moment where it makes sense to look where you are writing under the guise of reading. Your gaze is justified. One final thought, from the fertile mind of Millard Longman. You can pre-write just about anything you want that has the likelihood of being able to be spun into a hit. Millard recommends “travel.” You can then ask if Dave has recently taken a trip or is planning on one. If you get a complete objection, simply tell your participant not to be surprised if they find out soon that Dave is going out of town. As usual, another brilliant idea from Millard. Speaking of Millard, I’d like to now share a story with you about a visit we took several years ago (2004) to the weekly meeting of a local psychic healer. I think you’ll get a kick out of this tale! What follows was written shortly after our visit.
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BILL AND MILLARD’S EXCELLENT ADVENTURE
I had an interesting experience the other night that I want to share with you. A few weeks ago, one of the patients at the psychiatric hospital that I recently began working at mentioned that he goes to services at the temple of an “Avatar,” which he defined as someone who is spiritually evolved. He went on to say that this reverend does healings and every Sunday evening has a meeting at which he does “billet readings.” Naturally this caught my attention, having never heard this term outside of mentalism. A few days ago, the patient gave me the business card for Reverend “Red” “Red” Duke and I checked c hecked out his website at http://www.reverendredduke.com/ . I suggest you do the same and make sure you hit a few of the buttons on the left, especially to see the photos of ectoplasm that is emitted from Red’s hands as he heals and the spirits that tend to show up next to Red whenever he is photographed! So this past Sunday, Millard and I decided to see what was what. The “church” is in an older, run down neighborhood in the outskirts of Fort Lauderdale and is actually Red’s home. His front yard has been converted to a parking area and also has a few benches to sit on while waiting for the festivities to begin. The actual service is held in what must have originally been the living room of the home, just inside the front door. There were about 20 to 30 chairs set up in front of a podium and the room was decorated with many Indian and new age paintings and artifacts. Red says that his mother was a Cherokee. Next to the podium was also a large TV (for “channeling?” ) with several large crystals on top. When we entered, Loretta, Red’s assistant, greeted us. She told us that she attended Red’s “boot camp,” and has also learned to heal, channel, etc.
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One of the first things Loretta did was to give us an envelope which served both to hold our “offering” (she recommended ten dollars) and to write our name upon and a question the answer to which was unknown to us and could only be answered via the passage of time. We were told to do this in cursive as it helped Red to pick up the vibes. There was also a place to write the name of anyone we wanted prayed for and a section for our name, address and phone number, which she assured us, was confidential. Visions of a central database shared among local psychics danced before my skeptical eyes! We were also directed to a handout that had topics which we might want to ask questions about in the t he beginning of the meeting. There was a stand right when you walked in like you would find at a turnpike rest stop for tourist site fliers but in this case it held testimonials from folks Red had healed as well as pamphlets describing his various interests and services. These ranged from ESP to UFOs to the “Cosmic Orgasm.” If you go to the website it covers pretty much the same stuff. Red is a tall, rather physically imposing man about 77 years of age. Despite appearing imposing, he has a very gentle demeanor and very intense eyes. As a matter of fact, one of the handouts said that we shouldn’t be disturbed if during the service Red’s eyes appear to elongate, shift or change in a variety of ways. The handout also said that he shifts among various dimensions whilst talking, and also to not be disturbed if his voice changes as he is just channeling various entities. There were only about ten people including Millard and I when the service began. Three left in the midst of everything so it was a pretty small crowd. Red began the service by asking if anyone had any questions and when no one asked anything he proceeded to pretty much ramble about his life story until finally someone asked a question about a spirit that had recently visited them in the night. Red proceeded to talk about visitations and his beliefs about spirits, s pirits, pulling for several yeses from the woman who mentioned the visitation.
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After a bit of this, Red started playing with two very long, metal dowsing rods. He showed us how they could be used to answer yes and no questions. Red also used them as to demonstrate telekinesis, stating that he didn’t use any “gimmicks,” or “hocus pocus dominocus.” He had a beautiful Golden Retriever who was very well trained and either sat on one of the chairs or went up to people to be pet the whole time. To show us how Morgana had never been hit, he swung the rods very close to her head a few times and pointed out how she never flinched. There was also a cat that t hat sat next to one of the congregants the whole time allowing himself to be pet non-stop. About an hour into this, Red said it was time for a break and invited us to have some refreshments in the house proper. The house was extremely funky with with lots of interesting nooks and crannies full of more new age and Indian artifacts. Red worked the room and after a few minutes tapped my shoulder and asked me to accompany him into his office. This was a converted bedroom with a desk and a massage table that he said he used for his healings. Next to the table was a board like you might find in a diner or shop with movable letters and numbers detailing the prices of his various services. Healings went for 75 dollars, more if he visits you in the hospital or at your home and general counseling was 150 dollars. This is almost what I charge as a psychologist! The room was lined with shelves filled with hundreds of old books on every supernatural supernatural topic imaginable. There were many photos of people that he’d helped or associated with over the years, including one with him and “a descendant of Edgar Cayce.” After a few minutes he herded the other folks into the room and proceeded to show us an “apport.” He claimed it was a genuine wrapping from an Egyptian mummy and that it had appeared out of nowhere one day while he was ironing.
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The room also held his computer and assorted nick knacks. It was pleasantly messy and he held court there for about fifteen minutes, suggesting we return when we want to study his books since he doesn’t lend them out anymore as too many had never been returned. He also showed us an old spirit horn that had been used in séances and a frame with photos of someone in a spirit cabinet with ghostly looking emanations. We then went back to the main room and he brought out the envelopes for the billet reading portion of the night. You’ll notice on his website he spells it “billit” but on his printed material it was spelled correctly. He used an old fishing tackle box with a slit cut in the top that had been decorated rather cheesily. This was to put the envelopes in when he was done. It appeared that he had several more envelopes than participants, which didn’t occur to me until after we left. The questions were not hidden, being on the outside of the envelopes but he generally kept his eyes closed and clasped the envelopes between his hands. He started to do a rather standard Q & A type act (“Who is Lisa? You are wondering about someone named Carla?) that was actually a bit disappointing. He tended to ramble and go off on all sorts of tangents. He frequently used the line (if someone didn’t recognize a name or place he mentioned) that, “it is OK, it will make sense in the future.” He made it clear that he wanted yes and no answers as he proceeded. He also started to “channel,” coughing, and twitching as his voice shifted like we were told to expect. He said that no one would channel for fun as it gave him a sore throat and was otherwise uncomfortable. He missed totally with me, and almost everyone else. Millard said he hit on the name of “Curtis,” a dead nephew (he hadn’t written it down).
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Loretta, his assistant, had also given him an envelope, which struck me as strange but she seemed very devoted to Red and a true believer in his abilities. He then went into his healings, taking us along on a rather pleasant visualization where he asked us to picture the person we wanted healed as if they were already healed, young, vibrant and doing something they enjoyed. Red called this a “proxy healing,” and proceeded to kneel down in front of Millard and place one hand on his chest and the other over his heart. Millard later told me that he was gently moving him rhythmically back and forth and that this induced a trance in him along with the visualization and Red’s voice. Millard said he wasn’t sure if Red knew that he was doing an induction, especially given he did nothing to bring him back when all was said and done, other than to abruptly stand up and begin speaking louder and faster. Mill said he had to bring himself out of it. After it was all over, he invited us back into the house for brownies and popcorn. The brownies were excellent and Loretta said s aid that Red is a “master baker.” Millard and I left after about 3 hours, though the remaining few people lingered on. All in all, Red couldn’t have taken in more than 90 to 100 dollars. I suspect that this meeting was a “loss leader” to help market his more expensive services.
AFTERTHOUGHTS 2008 After reading the above again for the first time in years, there are a few things that I’d like to address. With the exception of the final point, I’ll discuss them in the order they appear. I was fascinated when I read in his online literature that Red did “billet readings.” I admit that I was hoping for subterfuge that I would be able to catch him out at, though was curiously glad when nothing of
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the sort took place. Exposure and conflict were not my main interests in attending the service. Red had many of the qualities of a charismatic leader, mellowed with age. His relationship with his assistant Loretta had the feel of something not quite appropriate, mostly arising from the wide-eyed nature of her devotion. Loretta’s request that we write our name upon the envelope, and a question the answer to which was unknown to us, and that could only be answered via the passage of time, was so familiar to me from the literature of mentalism that it was all I could do not to laugh out loud. If she’d told us to reduce it down to a word or two to help us focus better, I’d have started looking around for a copy of George B. Anderson’s “It Must Be Mindreading!” I half expected to see a photograph of the two of them together amongst the rest of Red’s extensive collection. Speaking of the collection, it was pure pleasure to see such a wide range of classic spiritualistic items and books related to topics that I’d only read about and never before had the opportunity to view close up. The apport of the mummy wrapping was my favorite, followed not far behind by the old classic séance spirit horn and the photographs of ectoplasm and spirits. What does one say to such claims? To my surprise, I felt no urge to refute anything, rather to simply to enjoy being granted entrance into a world I’d previously only read about. The juxtaposition of the spiritual paraphernalia with computer equipment, the equivalent of a rest stop tourist trap pamphlet stand and the chintzy board with the movable type pricing his various services gave me a very large grin that I managed to keep on the inside. To hear Red utter lines I first learned from the classics on cold readings such as, “If that doesn’t make sense yet, don’t worry, it will in the future,” and see how this satisfied the audience was probably more educational than reading about the method 1000 times.
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And if you didn’t notice, this is essentially how Millard advised to use the pre-written word “travel” in “Outside The Fold.” The form and functions are essentially the same. Truly wonderful! Beginning the service by distributing handouts that said, among other things, not to be disturbed if Red’s eyes appeared to elongate, shift or change in a variety of ways was a brilliant approach to indirect suggestion. Milton Erickson would have smiled! It wasn’t like Red, or even Loretta, was making such claims. Nor was the literature stating it would happen. Only that we shouldn’t be disturbed if it did. This is very sneaky stuff! The same with the information on his voice changing as he traveled t raveled among various dimensions and channeled various entities. You couldn’t argue with these assertions without being rude! This gave them a power far beyond what they would have had if Red or Loretta had personally introduced such ideas. They were, on the surface, being so respectful of the attendees, who would be such a cad to challenge them? Red used some high level methods that would make practitioners of NLP, not to mention Kenton Knepper, proud! Coughing and twitching while his voice changed when he claimed to be channeling was beginner’s stuff. But to then state s tate that no one would channel for fun given the inevitable sore throat and related discomfort took things to an entirely new level. A) Channeling is very physically uncomfortable. B) No one would want this discomfort. C) If you experienced such discomfort you were really channeling. c hanneling. Yes, there is a classic error in logic relying on an original false premise. But if you have the least desire or inclination to believe in such things as channeling, the false premise is easily dismissed as the rest falls right into place and, before you know it, the physical discomfort is conclusive proof that Red is legitimately channeling! Red’s healing visualization held particular interest for me but I didn’t realize just how so at the time. He asked us to imagine the object of 58
our visualization already healed, vibrant, young and doing something they enjoyed. I didn’t realize it then, but he was engaging in a form of Solution Oriented Therapy. Had he taken it a little bit further, Red would have been practicing the art of Solution Oriented Mentalism that I’ve been gradually introducing in my recent releases, “The Witches’ Almanac” (in collaboration with Outlaw Effects) and “Mind Index” and plan to develop in some interesting new directions in the near future! If anyone knows when he is being hypnotized, it is Millard Longman so I have no doubt that putting my friend, colleague and partner in ghost busting in trance was Red’s doing as Mill described toward the end of our adventure. While Millard may not be sure that Red did this intentionally, I’m not quite so forgiving! From Millard’s perspective, Red did nothing to bring him out of trance, a possible indication Red didn’t know he was hypnotizing him in the first place. In Millard’s own words, Red abruptly stood up, breaking the physical connection between them and began talking t alking louder and faster and Millard had to bring himself out of it. Red’s behaviors are consistent with techniques I’ve been taught to end trance, even if a bit rough around the edges. This is particularly so for a conversational conversational or impromptu induction where trance has not been formally introduced. Erickson was known to engage in such practices himself. Though Millard wasn’t sure, nor was I at the time, I strongly suspect that had Millard not come so readily out of trance, Red knew precisely how to handle the situation. I know my biases show as I tell this story, but with experience gained in the years since, I also hope my pleasure at participating with Millard in Red’s service also stands out. I learned quite a lot that evening, more than I realized at the time. Though we talked about returning, Millard and I never did.
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The patient who I was originally concerned about suffered from severe, chronic, paranoid schizophrenia and had been “in the system” for well over half of his life. As far as I know he continues to occasionally attend Red’s meetings and from time to time avail himself of Red’s other services. He has no money to speak of so wasn’t in danger of being financially abused. He was highly intelligent and loved access to Red’s library. When he wasn’t with us, I knew that at least once a week he met with other “spiritual travelers,” joined in their stories, popcorn and some fine brownies. He kept up a similar pattern at our day treatment program and for the most part managed to avoid further hospitalization. So I share this story now less for him or for Millard and myself but for you, the reader. Make of it what you will. I look forward to “Bill And Millard’s Excellent Adventure” generating interesting and instructive online discussion and exploration. Thanks for joining Millard and I on this “long, strange trip!”
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REFERENCES & RESOURCES Alain Nu: (www.shopofsecrets.com) Andrew Gerard’s Key Accessory: (http://www.andrewgerardmagic.com/ ) Anthony Jacquin’s Reality is Plastic! Plas tic! The Art of Impromptu Hypnosis: (http://www.anthonyjacquin.com/ ) Banachek’s Psychological Subtleties 2.” (Magic ( Magic Inspirations) Dr. Bill’s Mind Index and The Fource: (http://www.outlaw-effects.com/ ) ) Greg Arce’s Deep Thought: (www.freestylebooktest.com/cashout (www.freestylebooktest.com /cashout ) John Riggs’ Impression devices of all shapes and sizes : http://www.jonsaintgermain.com/books02.htm Lior Manor’s Mobile Opener: (Product-Mobile Opener) Opener ) Millard Longman’s Acidus Novus and Acidus Globus: MEVPRO Shop - Professional Products for Professional People ) Richard Busch’s Zen Tear from Peek Performances: (Product Entry Page). Page ). Richard Osterlind’s Making Magic Real and Making Real Magic (http://www.osterlindmysteries.com/ ). ). Rick Roth’s Outlaw Magnum and Outlaw Hideout: (http://www.outlaw-effects.com/ )
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