The Freestyle Book Test By Greg Arce & Federico Ludueña
Copyright 2004
Remember, you shouldn’t be passing this manuscript around… or we’ll find you and then kill you. There are some very evil ideas inside that should be kept in the smallest of groups… please keep it that way… or you know what we’ve promised promised to do to you. Get ready to make up your own Freestyle Book Test.
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Remember, you shouldn’t be passing this manuscript around… or we’ll find you and then kill you. There are some very evil ideas inside that should be kept in the smallest of groups… please keep it that way… or you know what we’ve promised promised to do to you. Get ready to make up your own Freestyle Book Test.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS: BRIEF EFFECT EFFECT EXPLANATIO EXPLANATION N METHODOLOGY & SUPPLIES LIST OF EFFECTS INTERLOCKING MNEMONIC LISTS CONV ONVERTI ERTING NG NUM NUMBERS BERS & LETT LETTE ERS PEEK BOOK CODING DOODLES COLORING LETTERS & DOODLES WRITTEN IN NUMBERS WRITTEN IN PLAYING CARDS FILLED IN LETTERS HIGHLIGHTED LETTERS STAINS & BURN MARKS REVE REVERS RSE E PEE PEEK K (UN (UNDE DERL RLIN INED ED WORD WORD)) NAMING OBJECTS UNIQUE PATTERNS IN BOOKS EXAMPLE USING PLAYING CARD EXAMPLE USING PEEK BANACHEK IDEA PALMISTRY EXAMPLE OF DOODLES EXAM EXAMPL PLE ES OF OF PA PAGES GES IN IN THE THE BOO BOOK COMMENTS & IDEAS
PAGE 4 PAGES 5 & 6 PAGES 7 & 8 PAGES 9 – 14 PAGE PAGES S 15 – 19 PAGES 20 – 29 PAGES 30 & 31 PAGES 32 & 33 PAGE 34 PAGES 35 – 39 PAGES 40 & 41 PAGES 42 – 44 PAGE 45 PAGE PAGES S 46 46 & 47 PAGES 48 – 52 PAGES 53 & 54 PAGES 55 – 59 PAGES 60 – 62 PAGES 63 & 64 PAGES 65 & 66 PAGES 67 & 68 PAGE PAGES S 69 69 – 79 PAGES 80 - 83
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THE WHAT: You take out a paperback book and show it around. You explain that it’s one of those books you’ve had for a long time and even though it might not be considered a classic, it contains many memories for you. You’ve had it so long that you’ve marked it up with doodles, numbers, random information and even circled words that you thought were important… you even wrote in playing cards on all the pages when you were bored. Several things can now occur: You riffle through the pages and a spectator calls “Stop”. You have him look at the page he stopped at as you walk away. You proceed to tell him many things about the page he is looking at… words that are circled, letters you filled in, doodles that are drawn on that page & the color you highlighted them in; you can call out a random anagram you once worked out with letters on that page and there happens to be a large digit number on that page and you call it out, too. Many of these same effects can be done while you step away and have the spectator take control of the book himself. You have him call out his favorite card and tell him to find it in the book. When he does, you not only tell him what cards are near his card, but a lot of the same information that you first got with a peek.
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This is a booktest you make at home and personalize to your own history. THE HOW: We are going to teach you various ways of coding doodles, cards, colors, words, numbers and even using magic abbreviations to give you instant information to a peeked page. We will work mainly with what we call “Interlocking Mnemonic Lists.” Many of these methods have never been seen and even a few of the older methods have been restructured and reworked. We got the idea while playing around with Double Vision. Lee Earle’s wonderful contribution was to apply the method of “Mental Numbers”, by Vincent Dalban, to a book test. We thought it would be nice to obtain all the information possible from the page number. And we will be using a peek method on the book so this is the brief history of that method: The first application of Francis V. Taylor's “Peek Deck” to a book test was done by Paul Curry in "Out Of This Phone Book". Then, Danny Tong developed the idea in "Peek-A-Book". Finally, Larry Becker put together the always efficient "Flashback" series. The Freestyle peek differs from the above-mentioned ones in the sense that it is not limited to indicating the first word(s) of the 5
left-hand page. We took an idea from "Any Page Book Test", by Ronald Dayton (an idea, not the method), and decided to circle or highlight any interesting word within the body of the text. That word is coded and located in the classic peek position. You are going to pick your own book and get to know it and then finally, you will be able to astound those around you with the information in that book. Each booktest will become unique due to the person’s own history and life experience. Since this is a one-book book test, some may want to choose a Mass Market paperback, which measures four and one-quarter inches wide, thus fitting comfortably in any pocket. Also, poetry books provide more blank space, but fewer words to work with. Your choice. So go pick out a book that you like, bring some pens, highlighters and your own history and prepare to make a Freestyle Booktest. SUPPLIES: a couple of pens, five highlighters (pink, orange, yellow, green & blue) and a paperback book. The word and number lists were basically taken from “Thirteen Steps To Mentalism”, by Tony Corinda, pages 61 and 77, respectively.
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We will be dealing with various lists and mnemonic principles, but you can vary them and even use memory systems you already know. First, here’s a list of the various effects you will be making up in your book: 1.) Peek Book style coding to tell you various words you have circled or underlined in the book. 2.) Doodles that will be drawn in on every page and you can describe the doodle. 3.) Colors… each doodle and certain letters will be highlighted in a color and you will be able to tell them the colors without looking. 4.) Numbers… every other page will have a number that will be a date, bill serial number, phone number, model number or social security number… you will be able to tell them what the number is for and the exact number. 5.) Playing cards will be written in on every page and you will either be able to tell them the cards around the page they pick or, if using a memorized deck, you will be able to know what page they are looking at from a distance. For memorized deck users, two playing cards are not written into the book, but if they call those two 7
out you have the outs ready to go within the book itself. And from a distance, using their cards, you will be able to tell the exact page they’ve opened in the book. 6.) Each page will have letters that you have filled in when doodling in the book, so one page might have Gs filled in and another might have Ps filled in… you will be able to tell them what letters are filled in and how many of them. 7.) Highlighted letters… you’ve also highlighted letters on every page that make up one word such as filling in H, I, V & E will give you the word HIVE… you are able to tell them what color you filled the letters in with & the word they spell out. 8.) You will be able to use stains in the book to code yourself words or phrases. 9.) You will be able to tell a specific word that was underlined at the bottom of one page. 10.) You will be able to tell what equipment the model numbers are for and the names of the little dogs, roads, planets, and whose phone number you wrote in and the denomination of the bill you listed.
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Let’s start with the various mnemonic codes that will give you numbers, colors & letters. I will give you a few lists. You should pick the lists and codes that are easiest to remember, or make one up yourself that you’ve used in the past. Here is the number code to translate to letters: 1=D 2=N 3=M 4=R 5=F 6=S 7=T 8=G 9=P 0=O If you’ve ever looked at either Harry Lorayne’s memory work or even the mnemonic codes in 13 Steps then these should make some sense to you. You might have other letters that are associated with these numbers so use those instead. Sometimes it’s easier to remember the letter attached to the number because they both have similar shapes or sounds like 5 has the beginning “F” sound in its name while 9 looks like a backwards “P”. I use the 9
7 as a “T” because I picture two 7s back to back and that looks like a solid “T” shape. It will take a little bit of memory work, but once you do it, these letters and numbers will be locked together and ready for use later in the book test. I’m going to presume you’ve practiced and locked in the appropriate letter to number sequence. Now let’s use the numbers to give us pictures or visuals of those numbers. Here is the list: 1 = Gun 2 = Shoe 3 = Flea 4 = Saw 5 = Hive
6 7 8 9 0
= = = = =
Tricks Heaven Gate Wine Egg
Once again, if you’ve worked with these types of lists, you’ll already have an easy time remembering them. It’s not that hard, as most of the names on the list are just rhyming words to the number. Of course, four is not an exact rhyme of Saw, but it’s close enough and zero is easy to just picture as an egg shape.
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Let’s now connect the colors to the numbers. If you think of the basic colors as Red, Orange, Yellow, Green & Blue then you have the letters R, O, Y, G, & B. So you can remember that sequence by remembering the name Roy Gib or some might remember it by Big Roy then the colors would run blue, green, red, orange & yellow. We are going to give it as Roy Gib, but once you understand what’s going on you can remember the color in any sequence you’d like and match them up to the numbers.
Here are the lists: Color order: 1 = Red (pink) 2 = Orange 3 = Yellow 4 = Green 5 = Blue
6 7 8 9 0
= = = = =
Red (pink) Orange Yellow Green Blue
About the list: Red is replaced by pink because it’s harder to find a red highlighter than it is a pink one. Once again, whatever makes it easier for you to remember the colors and the order will be the best way to set up your list. And you see that it is five colors that repeat in the same sequence twice. 11
Here’s another list that coincides with the number list & the mnemonic words associated with them: 1 = GUN, but think of handgun and your doodle will be a HAND. 2 = SHOE, but think of a shoetree and your doodle will be a TREE. 3 = FLEA, but think of a dog having fleas and you will doodle a DOG. 4 = SAW, but think of a masked madman with a saw so doodle a MASK. 5 = HIVE, so think of a beehive and doodle a BEE. 6 = TRICKS, so think of a magician and doodle his TOP HAT. 7 = HEAVEN, so think of heaven & earth and doodle a little PLANET. 8 = GATE, so think of a key to open it and draw a doodle of a KEY. 9 = WINE, so think of a wine bottle and draw a BOTTLE. 0 = EGG, so think of the chicken crossing the road and doodle a ROAD or STREET. We tried to make up things that are easy to remember with each number, but if you have something that jumps out at you when you hear a number then draw that.
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We will be using the actual original word that is mnemonically tied to the number when we fill in, with a color, & various letters, on each page that will make up a word. It doesn’t make sense now, but I promise by the end of this you’ll get it. Let’s not jump ahead and continue the lists. Now let’s see how we code ourselves numbers and the item that number is associated with. First, when you peek at a page you will always be seeing the odd numbered pages… well, not always, but usually. So the only numbers you will have to deal with when remembering the long digits will be one, three, five, seven & nine. Here is that list: 1 = Will always give you a year. If the year is between 1000 and 1500 then you will always give it as B.C, but if it is 1600 or higher you will give it as A.D. More on that later. 3 = Will always be a bill serial number. Think of “as phony as a three dollar bill” and you will remember it. You will also be giving a letter that comes in front of the serial number, but we will explain that later also. Remember that bills have eight numbers so it’s a long string of digits that you will be calling out. 13
5 = Will always be a phone number and sometimes the area code. It’s easy to think of fives as phone numbers if you remember that in the movies all phone numbers are given as five-five-five for legal reasons. 7 = Will always be a model number such as the kind you find under a cell phone or other electronic products. We will also teach you how to give the two letter model codes because most model numbers sound like this MT – 4371… I like to make my model numbers have six numbers, but that will be your choice. We will teach about the letters in a bit. 9 = Will always be a social security number and you can remember that by thinking that all social security numbers have nine digits. One thing that will change here is we realized that no social security number starts with a nine so we decided to invert the nine and get a six. Whenever you are doing a social security number in the book you will be inverting the nine and making it a six so the numbers will always run something similar to 651-673033.
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So you’re wondering things like “How do I know these long digit numbers?” or “How do I know the letters associated with the bill serial numbers?” Easy. You are using the numbers and the mnemonic letters together to get you these letters. And the long numbers are gotten by Vincent Dalban’s great idea used in his Mental Numbers, found in “Practical Mental Effects”, by Annemann, page 271. Here are the basics: You peek at page 127. The first thing you do is drop the first digit because we will always just work with the last two digits of the page. So now you have 27… now what? Well, your last digit is always your key and a 7 tells you we are doing a model number. We’ve decided that you will either have a model number that’s either four digits long or six… let’s say we wanted a six digit model number. You start by reversing the two last digits of your peek page… in this case it’s 27 so you reverse that to get 72… now you start adding two digits together so 7 + 2 = 9 so your third digit is 9; now add 2 + 9 to get the fourth digit so 2 + 9 = 11, but always drop the ten so the fourth digit is 1… now add 1 to 9 and that is 10, but you drop the ten and it’s now 0 so the fifth digit is zero… add zero to one and you get 1 so the six digit is 1… all six digits would then be 729101.
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Let’s do another number. You peek at page 153 so you know the 3 tells you they will be looking for a bill’s serial number and bills have eight digits so now we figure out the digits. First, reverse the 53 because you’ve already dropped the first digit of that number. You now have 35 which you add to get 8 which you then add 8 to the 5 to get 13… now drop the ten digit and add the 3 to the 5 and get 8… add the 3 to the 8 and get 11… drop the ten to get 1… add 1 to the 3 to get 4 then add 4 to the 1 to get 5 and finally add that 5 to the 4 to get 9…. your serial number will read as 35831459.
Once again, when you see the last digit on your peek page as one then you know it will be a year and if the year is below 1600 then it is called out as B.C. and anything from 1600 and above it will be written in as A.D. If you see the last peeked digit as three then it will be a dollar bill serial number and that’s eight digits long. A five on the last digit of your peek page will give you a phone number and you can do area codes or just the number without the area code. How do you know which one? I just ask.
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When I peek the page if I see it will be a phone number I say, “I seem to remember I wrote a phone number on that page. Is that correct? Good. Did I put the area code? Oh, well, that’s going to make it harder. Let’s see… the area code is…” If you see a seven as the last digit on the peek page then you know it’s a model number and I do six digits, but you can do four… you decide which you would like to do. Finally, if you see a nine on your peek page then a social security number is coming up and that’s nine digits long. Remember, we always invert the nine here so it makes sense with the social security numbers. Here’s an example: You peek at page 129 so the social security number would be 628-08-8640. Did you see how we inverted the nine and now used it as a six? Did you also see how all the tens were dropped from numbers that added to something over ten? 6+2=8, then 2+8=0 by dropping the ten, then 8+0=8, then 0+8=8, then 8+8=6 by dropping the ten… then 8+6=4 by dropping that ten and 6+4=0 because you dropped the ten. Do you see how we got 628-08-8640?
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I believe we’ve now covered what number to write and on what peek page it is opposite of and how long the digits are. It’s all starting to come together. Now, how do we get those stubborn letters that are in front of bills and model numbers? Easy. Your letter to number code. For bills we will always use one letter in front of the bill and for model numbers there will be two letters in front of the numbers. Here’s how you get those letters: Use the digit to the left of your last digit on the peek page for the bills; and the digit to the left and the total of the two digits to get you the first and second letter of a model number. Some examples: You peek at page 243 so you know the serial number of the bill is 43707741… you did work that out? Right? Now, the letter will be given by the number to the left of the 3, on your peek page. In this case, the number is 4 so in your mnemonic code a 4 is an “R” so the serial letter and number would be R43707741… if the page number had been 53 then the letter would be “F”, if 63 then it’s an “S”… I’m sure you get it. Now for model letters it’s bit more work, but not too much.
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Okay, you peek at page 117 so the 7 tells you a model number is coming up. You do the math and it comes out to 718976. For the two letters, the first letter works the same way as a bill… in this case it’s a one so that’s a “D” in our code system. Now add the 1 and the 7 to get 8 and that’s a “G” in our system. So the whole model number would read as DG-718976. What if when you add the two digits and you get a number higher than ten…drop the ten. If the peek page digits had been 87 then the first letter of the model is “G” and the second letter is “F”… you dropped the ten from fifteen to give you 5 which is an “F” in our code. To complete this model number it would be GF-785381. So I think you now have the basics as to how to code yourself a number and a letter from the peek page and what the mnemonic code is for all numbers and their letter equivalent. Let me start working from the top of my list of possible effects in your book… yes, it will be YOUR book and in YOUR style… so we’ll work out all the effects and how you are to write them into YOUR book.
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1.)
This is going to be an interesting one because everybody’s book is going to be different in some way or another. It will all depend on the book, your own history and any abbreviations you find viable to code things to yourself. You will have to go through your book several times and I mean SEVERAL times to get used to the words and phrases that are common in the book. Sometimes you’ll find a word or phrase that makes you remember something. Or maybe you work in a particular type of job that uses abbreviations for things and you are used to seeing those abbreviations and they conjure up a word or phrase. For instance, you’re a cop and you always see M.O. which stands for modus operandi, but that means Method of Operation. Well, anytime you see the word in your book that is either METHOD or OPERATION then write M.O. in handwriting on your peek page and underline the letter of the word you are trying to code. So if the word OPERATION is in your book then you would put a line under the “O” in M.O. and when you see that you can say to your spectator, “I remember 20
that I was curious about one word in that page… did I circle a word on that page? I did. Concentrate on that word. Is it, operation?” This is where the freestyle of this book test comes in. I don’t know what you know and I don’t have your life history so it would be hard for me to tell you what words, phrases, symbols or letters would bring up a memory that could possibly clue you in to a word you have circled in the text. I will give you some of the ones I’ve chosen for myself and I hope that will help you in some way to come up with your own.
Here is a list and brief explanations as to how they code me when I peek them at the corner of the page: I.D. = INVISIBLE DECK. I will underline the “I” if there is a word or phrase that either means INVISIBLE or says something about someone not being able to see something. Of course, if you have a book that has to do with a boat you might find the word DECK in the book so you would underline the “D” in I.D. Another thing about an abbreviation such as this one, sometimes I’ll see a word or phrase in the book that means, “to be visible to the human eye”. Well, in 21
this case I will underline the “I” and then put a little arrow next to it pointing up which tells me the word is the opposite of INVISIBLE. VIB = VISION IN BLACK. This is a great effect for drawing dupes by Ted Karmilovich. I will underline the “V” if the word I’ve circled in the book is either VISION or maybe something about looking or seeing. Of course, if you have the word BLACK or DARK in your book you could underline the “B”. DL = DOUBLE LIFT. You might find these words in your book so just underline the word that you are trying to code yourself. Hornet = That’s a great impression clipboard from John Riggs and my book had the word CLIPBOARD in it so I put “hornet” at the corner of the page and now I know that’s the circled word. MMM = MIND, MYTH & MAGIC. A great mentalism book, but now each letter can tell me if I’ve circled the same word in my book. NFW = You know what that stands for and I used the “F” to code one of the words in my book and they come up frequently in my book. MOAB = MOTHER OF ALL BOOKTESTS… another great effect from Ted K. Now you can use that
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fabulous book test to code you words like MOTHER or BOOK or TEST. DV = DOUBLE VISION can now help you with these two words. These are just a few. Think about all the other abbreviations you know in magic and mentalism that could code you many words or phrases. Some people call Ammar’s card tapes EMCM so you have four words you could possible find in your book that can be coded with that string of letters and one little line under the specific letter for each of those words. I come from the film world and I was a respiratory therapist for five years. Over those many years I picked up many abbreviations that now are meaningful to me. I use them in this booktest. I’ll give you those abbreviations just in case you would like to use them: “S” with a line on the top of it = the word WITHOUT in medical lingo “C” with a line on the top of it = the word WITH “A” with a line on the top of it = the word BEFORE
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“P” with a line on the top of it = the word AFTER PRN = stands for “AS NEEDED” in the hospital world so whenever I saw the word NEED or NEEDED I put a little PRN on my peek page corner. NPO= “NOTHING BY MOUTH”, which is a warning in a hospital that a patient should not be fed at this time. So if the word NOTHING was in my book I underlined the “N” or underlined the “O” if the word MOUTH appeared. I did use the little reverse arrow next to “N” if the word SOMETHING or EVERYTHING showed up in my book to tell me the word basically had the opposite meaning to NOTHING. HS = “HOUR OF SLEEP” in hospital talk so that could clue me in for either of those words or if someone was saying something about going to bed in my book. CPT = CHEST PHYSIO-THERAPY. This was an interesting one in my book. In the world of respiratory it is a medical procedure in which the therapist massages a person’s chest and back in order to make them loosen what is in their lungs. Because it has to do with laying hands on the upper body, I found many places in my book where someone was either caressing someone that way, or 24
even punching or stabbing someone in the chest or stomach. I am able to see CPT then say, “Is there a sentence circled in the book? Good. Just read it to yourself. Hmm? I get the feeling it has to do with someone moving their hands around this area.” Now I mime moving my hands around my chest and back and that ends up fitting any way that phrase was used in the book… either in a loving or hurtful way. Trac = TRACHEOTMY. This is an operation to open an airway in someone’s neck. I used this the same way I did CPT. In my book there were times when someone was choked and times when someone lovingly put their hands around someone’s neck… this applied to either phrase. DC = DECEASED. Whenever the words DEAD, KILLED or MURDERED appear in my book I use DC to be a reference. ABG = ARTERIAL BLOOD GAS. This is something done in a hospital to check the level of oxygen in someone’s blood. I found the word BLOOD several times in my book so I would underline the “B” in ABG. I also found times where someone took someone by the wrist or hand so I didn’t underline any of the letters and that clued me in 25
that the person’s hand or wrist were being held… why? Because that is what we do to get blood from a person when we do an ABG. REM = RAPID EYE MOVEMENT. This is used to describe a stage in sleep so I used it anytime someone was sleeping or the word SLEEP came up. But you can use each letter for a specific word that might appear in your text by underlining that letter. Well, I have many more medical abbreviations that make sense to me, but you get the basic ones I use.
Now let me give you some film terms I’ve used: MOS = WITHOUT SOUND. Don’t ask why it was an “M” instead of a “W”… well, let me tell you, it comes from the old days when a lot of directors were German and were working in the states. Whenever they needed a scene to be shot and it didn’t need a microphone they would yell, “Dis one is mitt out sound!!!” Basically, “without sound”, but it became known as MOS. Anyway, I used the letters to tell me when the word SILENCE, or a phrase like “he spoke in a low voice” was in my book. Sometimes I found the word YELL or VOICE or even SCREAM, so I would underline the “S” in MOS to tell me it had something to do with something being heard. 26
XCU = EXTREME CLOSE UP. Of course you can use this to give you any of those words. Beta = BETA TAPE. I used this one when I saw they were talking about videotape in my book because most people don’t remember there was such a thing as beta tapes. Ikegami = A type of video camera. I figured it was obscure enough that I could code myself the word CAMERA or VIDEO CAMERA. Lav = LAVALIER. This is the type of microphone that you clip onto a person and I found the word MICROPHONE in my book. INT = INTERIOR. Used in scripts to describe that a location is inside so you can use it to code the word INSIDE, INTERIOR or a phrase that has to do with someone going into something. EXT = EXTERIOR. Used like INT, but for the opposite meaning. So there are some basic code words I’ve used, but I have many more that are personal to me and mean something that you might not get.
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Here are some examples: Jonas = JONAS GRUNDY. The actual name of the Skipper on Gilligan’s Island so I use that to code the word ISLAND, which appeared a lot in my book. Sonny = SONNY FONTANA. A magician I met awhile back that does an incredible shadow act so I use his name to tell me the word SHADOW or SHADY is circled in the text. Otis = OTIS. He was the town drunk in the Andy Griffith Show so anytime the words DRUNK, DRUNKEN, LIQUOR or DRINK showed up I put Otis up there and then mime raising a bottle to my lips to describe the word I was getting. SCUBA = SELF CONTAINED UNDERWATER BREATHING APPARATUS. You’ve got five cool words you can code yourself with that one. Norton = ED NORTON. My book had the word HONEYMOONERS and that’s one of my favorite characters from TV history. So you see how crazy this can get? Anything that usually brings of an associated memory will work here. You know Latin? Use some of those words. You have a knowledge of shorthand? Time to use those skills to code words to yourself. Got a handle on Morse code? 28
Well, start marking in those dots and dashes so s o you know what you’ve circled. Brush up on your Esperanto. Now your studies on the Klingon language won’t go to waste. Know some dead languages? Time to revive them. Use anything in your personal bag of tricks to give you clues as to what word or phrase you’ve circled on a particular page. The list is endless and only will end with your memory. I should be able to open up your book and not know much of what you are coding yourself… except maybe what serial number you have on page 173. And remember, you are putting your codes and abbreviations on the odd page numbers, on the upper corner, so that when you riffle and they tell you stop, you can now peek at the page and the codes you’ve written in.
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2.)
So we’re into the second effect you can perform with your book. Do you remember the mnemonic list we started with that gave you pictures associated with each number? Now is the time you can start drawing pictures into your book that you will later describe when someone opens to a page. On any page that ends in one you will draw a HAND and make it look like you just jus t were doodling. On pages ending with two you would draw a TREE… for shoetree, remember? Pages ending in three will have you drawing a little DOG. Pages ending in four will have a Halloween MASK of some sort. Pages ending in five will have a BEE. Pages ending in six will have a little TOP HAT or any kind of hat for that matter. Pages ending in seven will have a little PLANET drawn in. Pages ending in eight will have a doodle of a KEY. Pages ending in nine will have a BOTTLE drawn on them. And finally, all pages ending in zero will have a ROAD or STREET drawn in. This is going to take more time and you should put the little drawings in different spots on the various pages. It should look like you were just jus t doodling in the book.
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When you’ve finished drawing in all the little pictures it will be time to pull out your highlighters and start coloring in the pictures according to the mnemonic list.
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3.)
Remember that the list for colors to numbers was this one: Color order: 1 = Red (pink) 2 = Orange 3 = Yellow 4 = Green 5 = Blue
6 7 8 9 0
= = = = =
Red (pink) Orange Yellow Green Blue
All the HANDS and TOP HATS are in pink because they fall on pages one & six. You will paint all the TREES and PLANETS orange because they fall on pages two & six. All the DOGS and KEYS are painted yellow because they fall on pages three & eight. Paint all MASKS and BOTTLES in green because they are on pages four & nine. All the BEES and all the ROADS are painted blue because they fall on pages five & zero. We are always talking about the last digit in a peek page number and, once you know what page they are 32
looking at, you can start giving them details of the pictures and the colors. You can now combine both lists to give you these two effects of being able to say, when you know they are on page 223, “I see a little drawing. Oh, I remember I drew a neighbor’s dog on that page… is it there? Good. Did I color it? Think of the color. Hmmm… I see orange, but that’s not right. Wait… it’s yellow, isn’t it? I know where the orange was coming from… is there another drawing on those pages? Yes. It’s in orange, isn’t it? Yes. And I believe I was drawing the dog’s favorite friend. I drew a tree there.” So you got all that from just knowing page 223… isn’t that cool?
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4.)
I think we covered this one early on. Remember that you will switch the two end numbers on your peek page and start adding those digits to give you the numbers on any page. So page 275 tells you it’s a phone number and it could now be, including the area code, this number (572) 910-1123… you can do the addition, right? And you knew it was a phone number because it was a five… a seven would have been a model number… and you remember that model numbers have letters in front of them and you get those by the number to the left of the end peek number then add those two together to get the second letter. You’re getting it. It’s becoming old hat now… that would be found on what page? Any page ending with six and it would be pink in color.
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5.)
Although you could get by with using any stack system like Si Stebbins or the Breakthrough Card System, it would behoove you to learn a memorized stack because you can do so much more with it… in general, and in this book test. We’ll just say that you are using a memorized stack. Start filling in the cards at the upper areas of the pages. So on the first page you will have the first card in you stack, then the second card goes on page two… so and so on. Stop when you reach page fifty. On fifty you will put the fiftieth card in your stack, but on page fifty-one you will start all over with the first card in your stack. So you will only be using the fifty cards from your stack and they will rotate every fifty pages. 35
Why? Well, it will be easier to figure out what page they are at when they pass page fifty if all you have do is subtract fifty from that higher number. Think how easy it will be when they are in page 163 and all you do is remove one-hundred-fifty from that number and now you know you are at card thirteen in your stack. Think how much more difficult it would be if you are subtracting fifty-two from that number to figure out which card in your stack is now at the top of that page. For those that don’t want to go to the trouble of learning a memorized deck, and shame on you because they’re great, then write the cards in new deck order… sort of. Write in the cards using the traditional ChaSeD order (Clubs, Hearts, Spades & Diamonds), but put them in Ace to King order. You will be able to do some quick calculations and be able to tell where you are in the book with this method, too. So, if someone were on page 188, you would remove one hundred and fifty from that number to get you 38. Now see how many times 13 goes into that number and you’ll find it goes almost three times, but is one short so you were able to fit all the clubs, hearts and everything but one of the spades in there so the card they are looking at is the Queen of Spades. 36
It’s a workable solution, but it would be so much easier if you just learned a memorized deck. But how will you know where they are in the book if they don’t tell you the page. I guess you could guess because it’s pretty easy to judge if they have turned to something in the fifties instead of something in the two hundred mark. But what if you want to know exactly where they are? Hmmm? That’s not possible. Well, luckily we came up with a way. Remember, this is your book and you’ve had it for a long time. People not only mark on the inside of books, but on the covers and on the edges of the book. Some people will write on the edge PROPERTY OF… and this will be how you know. What I did was doodle a couple of thermometer-looking shapes with little hash marks on them. These hash marks weren’t random… they occur on every fifty page segment. So when I see them crack the book open and I see two hash marks on the front cover side I know they are in pages that are between 100 and 150. How do I know the exact page? I ask. No, not that way. We say, “What’s your favorite card? Three of Spades. Okay, find one of the pages where I wrote in the Three of Spades.” When they find their card I know something about where they are in the book.
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Well, I know my Three of Spades is in position 38 in my stack so it will be on pages 38, 88, 138, 188, 238, 288 and so on. When they find one of these pages all I have to do is look at the hash mark and I know exactly what page they are looking at. See why a memorized deck will help immensely here. If you are not doing a memorize deck, use Si Stebbins or Breakthrough Card System. In this case, write the fifty-two cards in, starting from the last odd page in the book. You will always need a peek to determine the card the spectator is looking at. Since you wrote the cards from back to front, the card you peek will tell you what card comes next in the system you’re using… now go learn a memorized deck. Since you know what page they are looking at without even peeking, you can start calling out information about that page like the doodles and their colors, or the letters you’ve filled in… more about that later. You can also tell them what card is opposite there’s because you know your stack. Anyway, if you do not know a memorized stack then you will have to peek the page and card to start giving out information. One more thing about the cards… you left out two of them. What if they mention those two cards? Well, we’ve covered those outs. I wrote one of the cards in 38
the front of my book where the author wrote: “To my mother, who always believed” and I continued the phrase by adding, “in my 6 of Diamonds.” So that covered one of my cards. I noticed that the barcode on the cover of the book only had one 8 in it so I underlined that 8 and drew a little “D” for diamond next to it so that covers that card if someone calls it out. Be creative and find interesting places to put those two missing cards.
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6.)
We are back to using our mnemonic list. Go back and look at the list… ah, better yet, here it is:
1=D 2=N 3=M 4=R 5=F
6 7 8 9 0
= = = = =
S T G P O
What is going to happen is once you’ve peeked at a page or used the card system to figure out what page they turned to, you will start remembering that while you doodled on that page you started filling in some of the letters… and not only that, you remember the letters you filled in and how many of them. Here’s how you know that: Using the mnemonic list you will fill in the appropriate letter that fits with that number. So on page 158 you will fill in the Gs because that page ends in eight.
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How do you do know that you filled in four Gs on that page? You added the two digits 5 & 8 and that got you 13 then you added the 1 and 3 to get you 4… you will always get the amount to be 10 or less letters to fill in. If when adding you get to one then go up to ten, but anything else you add up will always be ten or less. Examples: page 73 will have Ms filled in and there will be ten of them filled in because you added the three to the seven and got ten. Page 154 will have the Rs filled in and there will be nine of them filled because you added five to four to get nine. Get how it’s working? Sometimes there will not be enough of the correct letters on a particular page so what we did was just write them in ourselves then filled them in… you’re doodling remember, so what’s to say that you didn’t just write in some letters yourself? Most of the time you won’t need to do that. So, in this new effect, when you either calculate the page number, or peek at it, you will be able to say what letters are filled in and how many. Getting weird, isn’t it?
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7.)
This is an interesting concept that gives you letters, colors and a word you can call out and it’s all based on the mnemonic list. Here are the two lists you need for this:
1 = Gun 2 = Shoe 3 = Flea 4 = Saw 5 = Hive 6 = Tricks 7 = Heaven 8 = Gate 9 = Wine 0 = Egg
1 = Pink 2 = Orange 3 = Yellow 4 = Green 5 = Blue 6 = Pink 7 = Orange 8 = Yellow 9 = Green 0 = Blue
Using those words and those colors will allow you to say, “I believe I was working on simple codes that day. I think I made up a word using letters from many words. Hmm? Are there a few letters on that page that are colored in? Yes. I see it. I believe I used orange? Yes. Okay, start at the top of the page then 42
go left to right, line by line, until you spelled out a word using those letters. I remember I put them in the order they came in the word. Have you done so? I got it! You are thinking of Heaven!” So we know that this page ended in a seven because that number is orange and the word HEAVEN. So go to your book and go page by page, and bring your highlighters, then start filling in the correct letters and colors to make up the words on this list. On page one you will start at the top and the first “G” you find you will highlight with pink then go to the first “U” and highlight that in pink and then go to the first “N” and highlight that… you’ve made up the word GUN. Now you have to do it on all pages that end in one. When you’ve rested from that take out the orange highlighter and go to all pages that end in two and start finding the letters that will spell out SHOE. You will do this for every word on the list and use the correct colors that are on that list. We’ve come to another bit of information you can call out once you either peek the page or calculate it via the card. When you know a person is on page 256 you can say, “Stop there! There’s bits of color on that page and not just on the little picture. I see pink in that page. It’s right! Okay, I know I filled in certain 43
letters with that color so start at the top and go letter for letter… I think there’s a word I made out there. Wait! I see it. There’s a “T”… then an “R”… here comes a pink “I”… no, not that kind… the letter “I” in pink… followed by a “C” then… it’s… it’s Tricks… I spelled out Tricks!”
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8.)
This is something you can use when you’ve peeked at or know a certain page number and it will be up to you as to where and what words you will stain. How do you stain words? Use a straw with a dark liquid and make a round stain around a certain word. Do this only on certain page numbers so you would know that if you are on any page ending in five that it will have a stain around the word THE or ABOUT… try to use very common words that you will find in just about any page. You can also use a cigarette burn mark to mark an area on or near a word and on certain pages. Now you can say when you know the page, “I remember that day… my friend, the smoking fiend, borrowed the book… he left a burn mark next to the word SOMETHING.” This is one of those “fly by the seat of your pants” ideas that will work for some books and not for others.
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9.)
You will use a reverse peek for this method. Go to the odd pages and underline one of the last words at the bottom of that page. Don’t make it a very long word or a very weird one. Once you underline that word you will now write it in at the top of the even page so you can peek it when you riffle the book with the front cover facing the spectator. But there’s a bit more to camouflage the method. When you write in the word that is underlined you do so by writing it in backwards. So if you underlined the word KNOW on the odd page, you would write in the word WONK on the top of the even page. Make sure you write the first letter in capital because that disguises the method even more and makes that backward word look like either a nonsense word or some funny sounding word. Try it and see. And if that worries you then there are two other ways of hiding the method. First, you could decide to put other letters or numbers between the important letters so now KNOW becomes W82o3n9k. A little harder to spot the method, but also makes it harder for you to work it out on a peek, but try it.
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Second method would be to disguise the word as a series of vertical words with the top letter being important. So now KNOW becomes: W I L L
onk fei t el e di n n g
Of course, it will be hidden better when you handwrite it in yourself.
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10.)
Well, we are back to our lists, but now we can add some more stuff that seems impossible that we would know. Let’s start: You are describing the little doggy picture you drew and suddenly you remember the dog had a name tag… and it does… and you call out that name. Well, you know all DOGS will be at pages ending in three, but how do you know the name on the tag? Use the number to the left of the three to get you a letter from the mnemonic list. So if the page number is 123 then you know the 2 stands for an “N” so always call that dog NIPPER or whatever you can attach as a dog’s name with a letter “N”. If it was page 253 then the 5 is an “F” so the dog’s name can always be FIDO. See, it’s up to you to figure out names that you can easily remember when you know the first letter they will begin with. How about the phone numbers and names? Same thing.
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You know that phone numbers will always be on pages ending in five so when you hear 225 you will know it’s a number, but the 2 will tell you it’s an “N” so decide all “N” names will be for NANCY. Now you can call out the phone number and end by saying, “Did I write a name with that number? I did. Okay. Think about the name… send it to me. Oh, I remember… I need to call Nancy on Tuesday.” Now you can decide that all “D” names might be DIANE and all Ms are MARY and all Ps are PAULA, Gs are GINGER, Rs are ROSE, Ts are TAMMY, Fs are Frankie, and so on… Bills? The denominations? I’m sure you’re becoming an expert at the Freestyle method and you’ve already decided how to code it, but let us give you an example. You already know that when the peek page ends in three that a bill is written in there and you know how to get the letter in front by the number to the left of the peek page number. So now to get the bill’s denomination. Get ready to learn a new list. Don’t worry. Slowly it will all become connected in your memory… trust us… if we could learn this then anyone can.
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Here’s a new list: 1 = one dollar bill 2 = five dollar bill 3 = ten dollar bill 4 = twenty dollar bill 5 = one hundred dollar bill 6 = one dollar bill 7 = five dollar bill 8 = ten dollar bill 9 = twenty dollar bill 0 = one hundred dollar bill Okay, when you look at the number to the left of your key number on the peek page it will tell you what bill you wrote in the book. So page 73 is a five-dollar bill with this serial number T37077415… easy as pie… well, not that easy, but it will come with practice. Now you can start by saying, “I wrote in a bill’s serial number? Okay. Look at it. Wait. It was for a five-dollar bill? Correct? Good. Now, look at the serial number…” and you’re off. And now for the model number and it’s associated equipment. Yes, another list.
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Here’s that list: 1 = CELL PHONE. Think of a one-celled animal for one cell phone. 2 = TELEVISON. Think of the “T” sound you make when saying 2 and TV 3 = POWER CORD. Think of the three prongs you need to plug one in. 4 = CAR PART. Think of a car as having four wheels. 5 = SOUND SYSTEM. Think of a 5 as having that “S” shape for sound system. 6 = CELL PHONE. 7 = TELEVISON. 8 = POWER CORD. 9 = CAR PART. 0 = SOUND SYSTEM. Once you remember the first five you should be able to remember the other five and how they fall in the numerical system. Of course, if you want to get really crazy you would come up with a different piece of equipment for each number. Have fun. Now if you peek at page 287, you will know that it is for a power cord that has the following model number GF-785381. That pretty much covers it, but you could go wild and give names to the liquor BOTTLES that fall at 51
each page ending in nine. And you could name the BEES. Or give names to the STREETS and ROADS you write in at each page number ending in zero. Or when the page ends in seven and you know it’s a PLANET so you could use the planets’ names as they go in order in our solar system. So if you see a one next to the seven you know the PLANET is Mercury, and a two would be Venus, three would be Earth… and if you see a zero next to the peek number then it’s the Sun.
Here are the names I gave my PHONE NUMBERS, STREETS and DOGS, but you can use any name that the letters conjure up because some are names from my personal history: Phone 1 = Danielle 2 = Nancy 3 = Mary 4 = Rose 5 = Frankie 6 = Susan 7 = Tammy 8 = Ginger 9 = Paula 0 = Oprah
Street names 1 = Downey Street 2 = North Street 3 = Main Street 4 = Ridge Road 5 = Fifth Street 6 = State Road 7 = Toll Road 8 = Gate Road 9 = Post Road 0 = Old Road
Dogs 1 = Dingo 2 = Nipper 3 = Moose 4 = Rocky 5 = Fido 6 = Samson 7 = Tiger 8 = Ginger 9 = Prince 0 = Otto
I think we’ve covered just about every combination possible. 52
I know this looks like a lot, and it is, but take it slow. First, learn the number list and how there are mnemonic connections to words and numbers. Start to add the color list to that. As you work with these two lists you’ll start seeing how numbers and letters are associated and the names will start getting easier to remember. One added thing since this is a Freestyle Book Test, my book happened to have a certain look. In my book, when a chapter started on an odd page, there was no printed page number at the top of that page. I immediately knew that was going to cause a problem as that was my peek page so I decided to just write it in. After I wrote it in I noticed that now that was more information I could have… now when I see a written in page number I know that the long digit number I’ve put in the book will have a question mark next to it. This was just a personal effect I added. So if I peek at page 147 and, I see I wrote that page in, I can now say, “Is there a long number written somewhere on those pages? There is. Good. Look at that number. Hmm? Oh, I remember I wrote done a model number on that page… Yes? And it was to 53
a car part? That’s also right. Let’s see if I can get the number… it starts with two letters… “R” then a “D”… Correct? Yes. And the number is 741561. Yes? Great! Oh, I remember something else… I wasn’t sure what car part I needed… didn’t I put a question mark next to the number? I did. Thank you.” You see how now I have a little bit more I can toss in there. You might find some oddity about your book. Maybe there’s a weird font on some pages, or illustrations, or chapter headings, or whatever… use any of these things as possible ways to code you more information. You will have to become very intimate with your book so that you can learn its secrets that will then, in turn, give you some secrets.
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Well, I know we’ve given you a lot of information to absorb, but I also know you will eventually put it altogether… I have and it seemed like it would be impossible when we first started coming up with the various effects. I amaze myself now when I see or hear a page number and realize how much information I know about that particular page. I’ll give you two examples so you see what can happen with this book test: 1.) I hand out the book and talk about how this particular book has been with me for quite awhile. I’ve had it so long that I marked it up with various bits of information over the years. As a matter of fact, I’ve had it so long that I believe the pages are etched into my memory. I propose a test. I explain that I wrote in playing cards on the top of each page for fun, and I ask if the person holding the book could just name their favorite card. They name the Six of Clubs. I tell them to find it in the book. They go through the pages and finally find it. From a distance I see them crack the book open and I know from counting my hash marks that they are past page 150 and I know that my Six of Clubs is in 55
the 2nd position in my stack… so they are on page 152… I already know so much. Now I can start calling out things: “I believe I also put another card on the opposite page… did I not? Yes. Look at that card and think about it… hmm? It’s another six… it’s the Six of Hearts. Correct?” You know this because knowing they are on 152 then your peek page would have been the opposite page, and that’s 153, and the card at the 3 rd position is the Six of Hearts. Okay, so now you know your peek page would have been 153 so you can start to give out information that deals with your mnemonic lists. “I believe I drew in some pictures on those pages… I was just daydreaming and I drew in tiny pictures on those pages. I did, didn’t I? Okay, stare at those pictures… go back and forth from picture to picture… look at as much detail as possible…Stop! I see, I drew a picture of a little dog… not the best drawing in the world… I’m not an artist. It is a dog, right? Good. And to the left of the dog, on the other page, I drew a tree… Yes? Good. Wait, I named that dog… oh, yes, it was my neighbor’s big goofy dog… Moose. Right? Yes, and I remember I drew him in yellow. Right. Oh, I just got something… the tree was drawn in with an orange marker. Yes? Thank you.” Let’s cover all of this: You knew you were on page 153 so the 3 tells you it was a DOG drawn in and the 56
color it was highlighted with… both came from the 3 on the mnemonic lists. And the number also gave you the dog’s name because 3 is an “M” and on my list that’s MOOSE. Since you also knew that he started to look at a card on 152 then you also knew what picture was drawn there because 2 is a SHOE that gave you Shoe Tree which made you draw a TREE. The number gave you the color ORANGE, which is second on the mnemonic list. By the way, you could have also used the 3 from the opposite peek page to come up with a type of tree so “M” could have been a Maple tree… you see how everything can be connected? Let’s continue. “Oh, wait… I remember I got a little crazy that day and I filled in certain letters with my pen on both pages… can you spot some of those letters? Good. Hmm? Look towards the right page and just look at those letters. I got it! I filled in the Ms on that page… count how many… oh, I got it… I filled in 8 of them… is that right? Good. Now go to the left page… check out those letters… wait… wait… I did the Ns on that page… and I believe I filled in 7 of them. That’s right, too? Good.” Knowing we were on a page ending with 3 told me that it would be Ms filled in and then adding the 5 and
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3 from that peek page told me I had filled in 8 of those letters. I also could tell that the page opposite that was 152 so 2 tells me Ns are filled and adding 5 plus 2 tells me 7 of those letters have been filled. But there’s more to come… “Oh, I see more colors… hmm? Oh, yes, I used my highlighter that day to fill in some other letters. I see yellow letters filled in on one page, but this time they are all different letters. Can you find those letters? Good. Start going from the top of the page and go from left to right on each line… I believe I was working on a code there and I highlighted letters that would spell out a word. Go from each highlighted letter to the next until you spell out a word. Can you do it? You did. Good. Think about that word. Picture it in you mind. Make an image if possible. Wait. I’m seeing movement… like a strong force leaping or jumping… but somehow I see it like a tiny black dot jumping up and down… wait! Are you thinking about the word Flea? Great!” We were on 153 and the 3 gave us the word FLEA on our mnemonic list and we knew that we had highlighted letters that made up that word on that particular page. We could now go to page 152 and know that 2 is a SHOE so those highlighted letters would be S, H, O, & E and we could have them think of that word, too. 58
“I just got the image of a number. Is there a number somewhere written on those pages? Yes. Good. Look at that number. Think about all the digits… run them over and over in your mind. Hmm? I’m getting a letter, too. That’s strange. Oh, I see. I’ve written a bill serial number there. Is that correct? Yes. And it’s for a one hundred dollar bill. That’s also right? Well, look at the serial number and the letter associated with it. See it all in your mind. Let me try to get it. I see, it’s an “F”… Yes? Good… now the numbers… 3… 5, 8, 3… then 1, 4, 5… and finally… a 9. I got it? Great!” We are on peek page 153 and the 3 three tells us we are working with a BILL SERIAL NUMBER and the 5 tells us both that it is a HUNDRED DOLLAR BILL and the letter that is in front of it, which is an “F”. We call out the “F” then reverse the 53 to get 3 & 5 then add those to get 8 then add the 8 to the 5 to get 13, but we drop the 10 to get the 3… we continue by adding the 3 to the 8 to get 11 and drop the 10 to get 1… add the 1 to the 3 to get 4 and then add the 4 to the 1 to get 5 to get a complete serial number that reads as F3583145. We’ve given out a lot of information about the page they are looking at and we never even touched the book.
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Let’s now do an actual peek. 2.) Hold the book with the back cover facing the spectator. Riffle through the book and have them call stop anywhere. They call Stop and you crack open the book and hand it to them at that page, but as you do you peek at the opposite page, which will be an odd numbered page. In this case, I’ll see page 237 and it’s handwritten in. I also see that I put the letters “DC” and the word JONAS and a “C” with a little line over it on the corner of that page. I now not only know all the things we’ve covered in the first example like knowing that 7 tells me a PLANET was doodled in and that planet will be EARTH because of the 3 to the left of the 7, & Ts were filled in on that page, & the number is a MODEL NUMBER and the number 3 tells me the MODEL NUMBER is to a POWER CORD, etc, but I also know that since the page number was written in, I know that I have a QUESTION MARK next to the MODEL NUMBER. So I can start calling out all the various facts I know about what is doodled or filled in on that page, but I can also talk about words that I chose to circle in on that page. “Look over those pages. See if any words stand out because I sometimes will circle words that mean 60
something to me on any given day. Did I do that there? I did. Okay, look at those words. See if they mean anything to you. I’m getting something… someone is talking about death or being killed in some way… I see one of the words as being about death somehow… is that right? Oh, the word is Murder. Well, I guess someone did die.” “Look at another circled word… something with some meaning. Try to picture everything that word could mean to you. You got it? Good. Concentrate on that word. Picture it in your mind. I see, water yet it isn’t exactly about water, but there’s water around me. I see some sort of large plant or tree… It’s a palm tree, I think. Is that right? Are you seeing that? Yes. Good, keep picturing the word. I feel alone like no one is anywhere near me for hundreds of miles. I almost feel like I have no hope… no chance of rescue… is this something you are associating with that word? Yes! I’m getting it… the word is Island. Yes! Great!” “Okay, are there any other words circled? One. Okay, look at that word. Try to picture it in your mind. Say it to yourself over and over. Hmm? I’m not getting an image. It’s like the word is not connected to pictures or feelings… it’s some sort of generic word… just look at each letter and send it to me. Oh, I get it’s a short word… I’m seeing four letters… there’s an “H”… an “I”… it’s… it’s With… the word is With. Great!”
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So you see how much you can get out of those few codes you give yourself? Don’t just simply call out the words you now know… make it a process. Give it emotions and pictures. Ham it up! You realize that these codes told me that the word JONAS always tells me the circled word is ISLAND in my book and “DC” is about DEATH in some way and the “C” with a line over it is always the medical term for the word WITH. So there are two examples of what you can do with your Freestyle Book Test.
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Go out and get a few books and start looking them over. Find the unique patterns, phrases and words within those books and figure out ways to code yourself these images. We’ve given you lots of ways of INTERLOCKING MNEMONIC LISTS with letters, numbers and words, so you should be able to come up with many effects with books you already have at home. Banachek did offer an interesting idea. You do this test via a dual reality principle. You bring the spectator on stage & talk about how this book probably belonged to some student who put notes in it. Now when you do the test with the spectator it should look like you are actually calling out stuff that is printed in the book and not merely written in. Of course, the on-stage spectator can see that the stuff is written in, but still won’t know how you know what he is looking at while the audience believes you are getting things from the printed page. I think this idea from Banachek would play really well on stage where everyone is viewing the same effect from his or her own point of view. To make the effect psychic, two main techniques are used in our test: the riffle peek and the hash mark peek (asking a spectator to mark a page and then 63
getting the peek while opening the book at that page for another spectator). Basically, the objective is to obtain the page number secretly. You could also use an impression device and have someone write the page number they will be opening to.
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One last thing: don’t just fill in the codes, numbers, letters, names, doodles and phrases we’ve given you… put in random letters and numbers and phrases all over the book. This will be further camouflage the system. It will really look like a book you’ve had for years and wrote in random things.
One more last thing: you can draw one palm line in every hand and name it. Here’s the code list: Page ending in 11: the LIFE LINE… remember it as having one life to live. Page ending in 21: the HEAD LINE … remember it as two heads are better than one. Page ending in 31: the LUCK LINE… remember it as a three-leaf clover for luck. Page ending in 41: the FATE LINE… remember they both have an “F” sound. Page ending in 51: the HEART LINE… remember it is the only word with five letters. Page Page Page Page Page
ending ending ending ending ending
in in in in in
61: 71: 81: 91: 01:
the the the the the
LIFE LINE. HEAD LINE. LUCK LINE. FATE LINE. HEART LINE. 65
The interesting thing is that now you can do a bit of palmistry and cold reading with a book test. Here’s an example: They turn to page 131 and you say there’s a small doodle of a HAND, but you continue, “I see that one of the lines of the palms has been marked. Has it not? Right. I feel that you didn’t pick this page randomly. You were drawn to it… no pun intended. I feel you are wishing for something to happen in your life. Some good thing is coming your way. Maybe it’s time to buy that lottery ticket as it seems Good Luck is headed your way.”
Basically, you can have tons of fun making your Freestyle Book test. Oh, for those that are artistically challenged… as I am… I’ve made a few examples of the doodles on the next pages. Please remember that I can’t draw a straight line with a ruler, but that’s okay for this book test… they’re just suppose to be doodles… not go up on a museum wall. I also threw in some pictures of some of the pages in my book. You will get various pages taken with two types of cameras so you can check out what the book will start looking like as you fill in the information.
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HAND
DOG
TREE
MASK
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TOP HAT
PLANET
BOTTLE
BEE
KEY
ROAD
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Page 217: Jack of Spades, Planet = Mercury, HEAVEN is spelled out using orange highlighters and filling in H, E, A, V, E & N on various words. At bottom of the pager you will see LOCALS underlined and that shows the word that will be peeked at when you look at page 216. Notice that eight Ts have been filled in with a pen. At the top corner you will see the letters “C” & “A” with lines over them, which represent the words WITH & BEFORE.
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Page 212: Notice the orange painted TREE and the highlighted letters S, H, O & E for SHOE. Also, three Ns have been filled in with a pen using the Interlocking Mnemonic Lists to give you “N” with the 2 of that page and adding 1 to 2 to get 3 Ns that need to be filled in. At the top you can see the reverse word DOWN, which is now shown as “Nwod” and that will be underlined at the bottom of page 213. Page 213 told you that it was a bill serial number and the 1 told you that it would be a “D” for the letter in that number. It is hard to see that I wrote one dollar next to the money sign. Since BLACK & BEFORE are circled, it tells me those word were coded on page 213.
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Page 213: shows the VIB with the “B” underlined to tell me BLACK is circled somewhere. Notice the yellow DOG named DINGO because the 1 told me to use a “D” for his name. The word DOWN was underlined and was coded on the reverse peek at page 212. The letters F, L, E & A have been highlighted in yellow to spell out FLEA.
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Page 174: The GREEN MASK is there because of the 4 & the letters S, A & W have been filled in with a green highlighter because of the MNEMONIC CODE of 4 = SAW. Notice the Ace of Hearts at the top which is my 24th card in my stack so I could see three hash marks at the side of the book and know he is into the 150s so I add 24 to that and I know the exact page he has opened to. Also, see the word NEW written in backwards at the top. Finally, can you see the PHONE NUMBER, NAME and QUESTION MARK all coded on from page 175.
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Page 175: It is handwritten in so that tells me the phone number will have a question mark next to it. It is my Ten of Hearts card so using the hash marks I know that he is past page 150 and I add 25 to that to get page 175. Notice the BLUE BEE below and the underlined NEW that will be peeked at in the reverse page. At the top, you can see ABG & DC so you know those are codes. The “B” is underlined so somewhere on pages 174 & 175 I have circled in the word BLOOD. And the DC tells me there is something about DEATH circled in one of these pages.
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Here is what the hash marks look like from the side of the book. Each space between the marks represents approximately 50 pages… give or take five pages. So you know if you see the 2nd hash mark you are near the 100th page, but if the card he has chosen is in the beginning of the stack then you should know it comes after the hundredth page. For example if he calls out 10 of Diamonds and the hash mark is on or near the hundredth mark I know he’ll be at page 105 and not 150 or 50 because that card is fifth in my stack.
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Pages 148 & 149: Look at the Social Security number you would know because your peek page ends in nine. The nine also told you a BOTTLE would be drawn & in GREEN. Notice the REM at the peek page shows you circled something about sleep and the word is DREAM. Also, NPO is on the top but with a line under the “N” and a little arrow to tell you it has the opposite meaning so the word SOMETHING has been circled. The word KNOW has been underlined at the bottom of 149 and you knew that by getting a reverse peek at page 148 where the word WONK is seen.
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We are in pages 136 & 137: The PLANET Earth is seen because the 3 in front of the 7 tells us it is the third planet you have pictured. Underlined near the PLANET is the word GIVE that can then be reversed peeked on page 136. The seven in our peek page told us we put in a MODEL NUMBER and the three in front of the seven told us it would be a POWER CORD. Barely visible on the photo, I put NORTON on the top of my peek page because I circled the word HONEYMOONERS.
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Pages 250 & 251: MOS with a line under the “S” has told me the word SOUND is circled on a page. Because our peek page ends in one then we know that a STREET or ROAD has been drawn and the five in front of that tells me it’s FIFTH STREET in my list. You can also see the underlined WATER at the bottom of the peek page which will be give to me via a reverse peek on page 250 as RETAW.
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Pages 274 & 275: Notice I.D. at the top corner with the line under “I” and an arrow… I know that I’ve circled something that has to do with the opposite of INVISIBLE and in this case it’s APPEARANCE. The number five in our peek page tells us it’s a PHONE NUMBER and it also, on my list, tells me it is the name TAMMY. We also know from the page numbers that a BEE and a MASK has been doodled in and their COLORS.
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This is the beginning of Federico’s poem book he has started. Notice that he changed the color list so that zero & five are PINK. Because there are fewer words in this type of book he wrote in the necessary Fs & Ws to follow the code. He also decided that the five peek page would code him a SNOWMAN instead of a BEE. So you see you can use whatever doodles make sense to you with their numbers. In this case, he still uses the five to tell him to write in a PHONE NUMBER. All of his filled in letters still follow the pattern we explained in the book.
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COMMENTS & IDEAS In making up this manuscript we keep getting other ideas and comments… some come from other mentalists. So we want to be as complete as possible so here are some of the other ideas that have cropped up: “There are mnemonic lists in every language, but you are not providing them with the Freestyle Book Test. Basically, Westerners will need to find or create an image list, whereas Asians and Arabs will need to find or create all the lists. My point is that Non-English speakers should not be under the impression that this book test will work in any language just as easily as it does in English. It will work, but the user will need to do their own extra research.” “If you have a "Flashback" set, you may want to use a one of the four books (not the fifth one) to make a Freestyle Book Test. You could highlight words in the MOABT paragraph. That way you will avoid the awkwardness of the prose in said paragraph by directing the spectator to one single word. Names are also an option. For the right hand page, you highlight words that you freestyle-code. You still can use all the Flashback features, plus all the Freestyle features. The only drawback is that page numbers will not be readily available for peeking since they are centered in the page.”
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From Paolo Cavalli:
“Some different old looking newspaper cut pieces to be found inside some of the pages of the book (let's say 25 or so).” “They must be old looking (because they are then perfectly congruent with the story of your old book full of doodles, highlights, etc.” “Also, if you make them look old with some coffee or tea... You can get a second sneaky benefit from that... YES! You can indeed artfully apply some of the coffee / tea (even some ink blot!) on some of the portions of the newspaper containing more little words and articles... so you NATURALLY eliminate those words from being chosen and you need less memory work in case spectator picks up one of those pages in which a newspaper retail cut is present... so less memory work...” “Or... you could not mention those newspapers bits... and, if someone CHALLENGES you to do that with the newspaper instead of with the book... you can fake apprehension about doing it and then go ahead and BLOW THEIR MINDS!” “Another idea is.... why NOT TAROTS? If you're going to use playing cards... if you're going to use a sort of palmistry... why not Tarots also?” 81
“You could limit yourself to the 22 Major Arcana… two benefits: Less memory links to do and people in any case have no difficulty with the major Arcana while because they are easy to imagine due to their pictures and what they represent.” Remember, the Freestyle Book Test is just that… freestyle. Your imagination should run wild as to the various ways you can code yourself and all the things you could add to your book. As a matter of fact, some people are gifted when it comes to learning mnemonic lists and might even have a list that runs up to a hundred or more where each number is associated to a picture. Use it. Make every picture in the book different if you can. And don’t let a difference in language stop you. Try to work out mnemonic lists in your own language that will give you pictures and letters. You should be able to come up with lists that work in your language with very little effort. For the sake of complete credits: In 1996, Max Maven published an effect entitled "Quaranta", as part of his one-man parade in the Linking Ring. There, he applies the concept of interlocking mnemonic lists to a deck of cards containing numbers, words, and images.
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