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Messing with People's Minds Without Rabbits Or Hats

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Messing with People's Minds Without Rabbits Or Hats Chapter 1 Messing with People’s Minds without Rabbits or Hats In This Chapter ▶ Introducing magic and mentalism ▶ Deceiving the senses ▶ Looking into the human brain ▶ Examining how mentalism works or millennia sorcerers, shamans and priests used cunning, sleight of Fhand, clever ruses, gimmicks, gaffs and props to validate their authority and maintain control over the masses. Over several hundred years, however, the art of conjuring slowly morphed into a respectable form of entertainment. Magicians became admired for their skills instead of feared for their ‘mira- cles’. The nature of mental magic means that mentalists often walk a very fine line between entertainment and psychic fraud. In this chapter, I provide an introduction to the art of mentalism and the vari- ous ways in which you can, and in certain cases should never, use it. UnderstandingCOPYRIGHTED That Magic MATERIAL Is All in the Mind A mysterious man stands with his back to a woman on stage. He’s almost sinister looking, with his jet-black mane shaved into a widow’s peak. Nothing is said between the two people as they draw images on notepads – she draws the first thing that comes into her mind and he sketches the impressions he’s receiving from her. They’ve never met before, but when they turn around and reveal the drawn images, they match perfectly. 005_9781119953500-ch01.indd5_9781119953500-ch01.indd 9 33/14/12/14/12 88:54:54 PMPM 10 Part I: Going Purely Mental Travelling light Mentalism is simple, but powerful. I love that you I can stand in front of an audience of 5,000 or don’t have to carry around a lot of props. You more people and perform for two hours with don’t need lions, tigers and bears; oh my, you nothing more than a briefcase full of items. Flip sure can freak people out with nothing more than to Chapter 4 to find out how to use everyday a notepad, a black marker pen and some clever objects to amaze your friends. patter. I know several performers who carry an entire 45-minute act around in their wallets. So, where does the magic in this scenario occur: ✓ In the lobby before the show when the performer’s assistant asks the woman to name her favourite animal (see Chapter 14 on working with co-conspirators)? ✓ When that assistant tells the performer the name of the animal just before he steps on the stage? ✓ On the stage, when the performer behaves as though he’s accessing some deep, dark, secret recess of his mind using extra-sensory percep- tion (ESP) to duplicate the drawing? The answer is, in none of those places: the magic happens where all magic takes place – entirely in the mind. Illusion has never been about the props, gimmicks, methods or sleight of hand that performers use to create effects, but instead is about what happens in the grey matter sitting between the audience’s ears. This truth applies even more so with mentalism, an art that focuses on performing feats that are ‘of the mind’ itself. In this section, I describe mentalism – and clear up a few misconceptions as well. Drawing the boundaries between mentalism and visual magic In general, two types of magic exist: ✓ Visual magic: This traditional side of the art focuses on effects, such as productions, vanishes, transpositions and levitations. Think of guys in evening tails and top hats producing rabbits, changing scarves into doves or escaping from straightjackets on stage. 005_9781119953500-ch01.indd5_9781119953500-ch01.indd 1010 33/14/12/14/12 88:54:54 PMPM Chapter 1: Messing with People’s Minds without Rabbits or Hats 11 ✓ Mentalism: This sort of magic focuses more on mental effects such as the following: • Clairvoyance: Discerning things only with the power of the mind (see Chapters 5, 7 and 14 in particular). • Cold reading: Knowing private information about people simply from talking to them (see Chapter 13). • Divination: Including predicting the future (see Chapter 11). • Hypnotism: Putting people into a sleep-like state so that their minds become susceptible to suggestion (see Chapter 12). • Psycho- and telekinesis: Moving items by willpower or thought alone (see Chapter 8). • Remote viewing: Duplicating an unseen image (see Chapter 10). • Secret writing: Including anticipating events (see Chapter 6). • Spirit theatre: Communicating with ‘deceased spirits’ (see Chapter 17). • Superhuman physical and mental feats: Lifting heavy objects or stopping volunteers from moving their bodies (see Chapters 15 and 16). • Telepathy: Reading people’s minds (see Chapters 5 and 7). Obviously, all magicians create effects that seemingly defy the known laws of physics, but artists who consider themselves practitioners of the more ‘grown up form of magic’ (mentalism, in case you haven’t guessed) try to distance themselves from visual magic. In fact, many mentalists are dead set against doing anything that may associate what they do with mere magic tricks. Some go so far as to assume a character that does justice to the mys- tique of the original nineteenth-century Svengali (check out Chapter 2 for more details on creating a performance character). Such purists are quick to point out that, if you do mix visual magic and mental effects, you’re performing not mentalism but mental magic (a pejora- tive term). Actually, I feel that mentalists who insist they’re not magicians need to get over themselves; their attitude is incredibly arrogant and quite laughable. No difference exists technically in the illusions, and a person’s choice of charac- ter and presentation doesn’t negate this obvious fact. 005_9781119953500-ch01.indd5_9781119953500-ch01.indd 1111 33/14/12/14/12 88:54:54 PMPM 12 Part I: Going Purely Mental Separating mentalists from psychologists and psychics In recent years, hordes of performers have begun mixing conjuring tech- niques theatrically with body-language interpretation, hypnotism and self-help trends such as neuro-linguistic programming. The resulting ‘demon- strations’ are unique, interesting, entertaining and more palatable because everything seems so credible. After all, it’s science! The truth is that these performers are faking it. If they relied on scientific experiments, they’d be less precise, less consistent and certainly less entertaining! Although mentalists do use psychology in their performances in front of audi- ences, they aren’t psychologists (trained professionals concerned with the scientific study of the mind and human emotions). Whereas psychologists use science to test and prove theories that are subsequently used in positive ways to better society, mentalists are entertainers who pretend to have abili- ties they don’t actually possess. Acting the part and performing are crucial to mentalism, as I describe in Chapter 2. Acting is also involved when mentalists perform illusions connected to ‘psy- chic readings’ and spiritualism, but crucially mentalists do so as part of an overall show of entertainment. In contrast, so-called psychics or mediums prey on society dishonestly by (mis)using mentalist skills, tools and techniques to defraud the public. Although many mentalists and magicians may be willing to discuss their meth- ods with scientists conducting legitimate studies, most psychics with any interest in self-preservation avoid that kind of scrutiny like a cockroach does the light. They know that the best way to stay in business is to avoid bringing attention to what they do and how they do it. Granted, some more enterpris- ing psychics have made themselves available for ‘testing’ in an effort to garner reward and publicity, especially if they are confident that they can fool the people conducting the studies. But any success has always been attributed to poorly planned, controlled and executed tests. In Chapter 9, I describe some of the tests carried out on claimed psychics. The sad fact is that anyone can suddenly declare themselves to be a psychic: the field is wide open, unregulated, and you don’t have to get a licence or pass a background check. (If you find a psychic with a degree displayed on the wall, it’s going to be pretty meaningless.) That’s why a rather dispro- portionate number of criminals, oddballs and unsavoury characters enter the fray every year and begin reading palms, telling the future and selling bunkum to an uninitiated public. 005_9781119953500-ch01.indd5_9781119953500-ch01.indd 1212 33/14/12/14/12 88:54:54 PMPM Chapter 1: Messing with People’s Minds without Rabbits or Hats 13 Investigating the Art of Extra-Sensory Deception Throughout much of history, magic was nearly always about power, posi- tion and money. From the magicians of the Bible to the Oracle at Delphi, documented anthropological and archaeological evidence reveals that these people used natural means to produce supposedly supernatural effects. And so long as everyone remained ignorant of the simple scientific principles used to create magic, those who claimed divine right to remain in power did so. Ironically, that same science eventually helped to limit those people’s con- tinued influence. With the advent of increased literacy and wider education, societies quickly matured and began to challenge illogical superstitions. The resulting shift turned sorcerers’ tools into a performer’s art. Unfortunately, mentalists were responsible for blurring the line between visual magic and sorcery. Some members of the public still have no idea that mentalists use their five senses to create the illusion of a sixth. The resulting discrepancy creates an environment in which mentalists aren’t recognised as the magicians they are; this confusion empowers and emboldens some people to pose as psychics and take advantage of others. Spotting the modern fakers Wherever you look on TV or in bookshops, more and more people claim to have ESP today than ever before.
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