Mentalism & Spiritism in Magic & Conjuring: page 72

A very effective parlor or stage effect. Cards or tickets can be used, or ESP cards or even tickets were drawn on the spot by the spectator on which to carry out an effective act of reading in the final revealing phase.

The spectator receives 4 cards, and shuffles them several times, at his discretion, while the mentalist has his back turned: at the end, he will be able to describe the correct position of all the cards.

To simplify the final phase for the performer, we propose the use of an ingenious "homemade" gimmick, which allows you to operate calmly, without fear of forgetfulness...

This is an all-mentalism issue, and the first essay is about the various kinds of mentalism, to help you describe your "powers" to your audience. These include Thought Reading, Remote Viewing, Precognition, Drawing Duplication, Clairvoyance, Psychometry, Living and Dead Tests, and also Metal Bending, and Psychic Healing (Faith Healing) and unusual "powers" such as Handwriting Analysis. Calling your feats by the correct type of power will go a long way in establishing yourself as an expert.

The next essay is about presentations that may be new to you so that your act will have more thought...

The presentation of a magic effect is linked to many aspects, from the personality of the performer to the type of audience, to the type of show to be staged. Mentalism is only a pretext, it lends itself better than other spells to the discussion, especially on the definition of the character, the construction of the story, on the revelation. What we will analyze is not only useful for those who want to be a mentalist, but it is a stimulus to the realization of any magical effect and to improve one's communication process, with anyone on any subject. It's a mini-course in communication/NLP...

Stanley Krebs was very successful in revealing the fraudulent practices of spirit mediums. One of the tools he employed was a pocket mirror that he used to see what was going on under the table.

In this series of articles in Suggestion he describes various sittings and encounters with spirit mediums such as the Bangs sisters, Dr. Henry Slade, Pierrie L.O.A. Keeler, and the Campbell brothers. Included are some comments, letters, and editorials from Suggestion journal relating to this topic.

An excerpt of this material was published in Journal of the Society for Psychical Research.

1st edition 1901, published in Suggestion Journal;...

Spirit materialization and fraudulent mediums.

A record of research and experiment in a much-talked-of realm of mystery, with a review and criticism of the so-called spiritualistic phenomena of spirit materialization and hints and illustration as to the possibility of artificially producing the same.

Excerpt from the author's preface:

The Bangs sisters, Miss May Bangs and Miss Lizzie Bangs worked out of an apartment in Chicago. The author describes in detail a sitting he had with one of the Bangs sisters, and how a sealed envelope placed between two slates could be 'written on by the spirits'.

Includes illustrations with detailed descriptions of the modus operandi.

This is an excerpt from a series of articles in Suggestion journal.

1st edition 1901, published in Journal of the Society for Psychical Research; PDF 11 pages.

Reveals the actual methods used by this master medium to hoodwink the gullible public.

Thousands of believers swore that Eusapia Paladino, the Italian-born psychic medium, genuinely used her powers to invoke and deliver the spirits of departed loved ones. While she was at it, Eusapia suggested - and received - donations of $1750 in today's money from each participant to attend her seances. No wonder she guarded her secrets so convincingly.

Read about her exploits and learn the methods used by this psychic fraud to hoax her loyal subjects. No matter if you read the contents for your own...

One single prediction card is placed face down in view to one side. Five different ESP symbol cards are openly displayed and then shuffled. A spectator is invited to freely nominate the first, second, third, fourth or fifth card in the pile. His choice is dropped out onto the table and the faces of the other cards are displayed. When the selection is compared to the prediction card, they match!

No force, this is direct and straightforward to perform and is very quick to re-set.

video 8:45

From Unsign to Sunsign, Unmask the Unusual.

Unsign is a very special star sign divination effect that uses an innovative novel principle and a brand new method for the first time in the history of star sign revelations.

A single card (business card or poker card size) is used to reveal the star sign of a stranger. This card is freely examinable before, during and after the routine. And you can repeat the effect instantly for different participants, with different outcomes, of course.

As part of the process which takes under 45 seconds, the participant tells you a single personality...

Three keychain gimmicks for the price of two.

This intro price will go up to $30 from August 15, 2023.

This is a physical product that will be shipped to you. The ebook can be instantly downloaded from your digital shelf.

WHAT YOU GET: A set of 6 specially designed and quality printed cards that are just a bit shy of postcard size.

WHAT THIS IS: Power of Influence is a complete act of 3 killer routines that form the opener, middle and closer routines using the provided set of 6 cards.

The theme is the 'juicy' subject of Power of Influence and Sphere of Influence. The routines make use of a list of 60 different well-known personalities...

Quodlibet literally means "what you like, or what you prefer" and is the theme that links the two publications that bear this name, the first dedicated to an evolution of the numerical tables and a development of the principle applied to a 52-card deck, and the latter Quodlibet 2, which proposes the Tarot version.

An upturned Tarot deck is placed on the table in full view; a spectator will be asked to choose only mentally any one of the 78 Arcana, of the major or minor series as he or she prefers, and to concentrate on it. The spectator will be handed a series of seven folders depicting...

This is a physical product that will be shipped to you. The ebook can be instantly downloaded from your digital shelf.

Here UFO stands for Unique Forcing Options. Each side of the UFO Coin has a different force. The coin itself is a solid brass coin that is approx 1.5-inch in diameter. Both forces are completely self-working. With reasonable care, the UFO Coin should last you a lifetime.

This is self-working coin mentalism without any coin sleights, magnets, threads, shells etc and the coin can be freely handled by the participants before, during and after the routines. This is in the...

From a pile of 12 cards each bearing one of the 12 star signs, a spectator removes theirs and it is slipped unseen by the performer into an envelope which is left in view.

12 further cards, which bear descriptive character trait words for each of the star signs, are shuffled and three selected by spectators at random.

The performer takes the three cards and tries to assess whether the words on any of them appear to apply to the first spectator. He eventually decides on one card. On removing the star sign card from the envelope it is seen to match!

video 9:32

A card is genuinely freely chosen by a spectator and slipped sight unseen into an envelope that is placed onto the performer's hand. By simply rubbing his fingers across the envelope, the magician claims to be able to divine the name of the selection inside, and after a few moments names a card. The spectator takes the envelope and removes the card to reveal the performer is correct.

This is just one effect made possible by this special, versatile envelope stack idea. Simple to make, this gimmick is based on a tried and tested classic principle.

video 6:54

A £5 note is borrowed from a spectator, the number noted, and then it is slipped into an empty envelope. Next, six further identical envelopes are introduced, each of which the performer claims contains a folded piece of paper. The envelope containing the spectator's banknote is added to the other six and the spectator mixes them before dealing them out in any order on the table.

In a fair yet random way six envelopes are discarded, yet somehow the one remaining envelope contains the spectator's money! The financial risk, however, turns out to belong to the magician, not the spectator,...

Excerpt from the introduction:

• Foreword
• Introduction
• Will O' the Witch
• Psychic Deck
• The Spirit of...

You need not have Remote Propless Prediction to learn and use the routines in this manuscript. But by learning both, you will have a far wider range of routines in this category.

The performer asks a participant to play an imaginary game over a voice phone call. The participant may be thousands of miles away at the other end of the call. The participant makes several free choices but all in her mind alone, she does not say anything out loud. But the final result is already predicted by the performer in a very innovative manner.

The climax can be very visual if you choose that option in performance. The participant...

Diebolique uses a single ungimmicked die to perform a fantastic effect. It uses a well-known property of a die as a completely novel and potent force.

Let us say you are on a voice phone call with a friend who may be hundreds or thousands of miles away. You propose to perform an experiment over the call itself and your friend agrees. All that is required is that your friend at the other end should have a die with him. From your end it can be totally propless.

In the routine, you apparently use your "yugen" ability to divine an impossible piece of information by apparently listening to...

Magnum means 'unusually great in power or size'. Magnum Tear is just that and some more.

Magnum Tear is a 2-step tear to the center where you can cleanly show the front and back of the folded paper at all times. There is absolutely nothing to see, nothing that can raise eyebrows.

If you don't want to peek the information right away, you can also steal out the center. Magnum has this unique feature that makes opening up the folded center easy and quick even with just one hand.

Stealing someone's information without them knowing is a tool with limitless potential and being able to do...

Imagine a technique that is totally impromptu, can be done surrounded with borrowed materials, and no evidence of trickery can be found. Imagine having someone print any piece of information on a borrowed slip of paper, which is then folded and torn to shreds. Yet you can instantly announce just what was written on it.

1st edition 1980, 18 pages; PDF 20 pages.

You can almost proplessly divine the exact date of birth of an utter stranger in under a minute. This routine works best in a one-on-one situation where the performer has met the participant for the very first time. And you can also, if you want, instantly repeat it for different people in the same group of audience. This impromptu routine is a lot of fun to do.

You do not need to have MPAC to learn and perform this one.

With this routine you prove to the participant that based on a few general characteristics related to her you are able to divine her exact birthday. This is the opposite...

Easy to do mentalism effects.

Word-Up is a word prediction where a spectator selects any magazine from a selection, any two numbers are called out and the word on that page and line is remembered. The performer reads their mind and writes down the exact same word. Then he asks the spectator to flip through their magazine and remember any famous landmark they see ... the performer draws his in advance. He's correct again. It's so easy to do. You'll have to buy a few magazines to make this, but it's worth it. Perfect for stand-up.

Then there's Where's the Balloon? Perfect for close-up or...

Join me as I continue to share with you my personal collection of mentalism effects and routines from the past decade and a half or so.

In Volume Three you'll find a wide variety of routines, including effects with ESP cards, Tarot cards, and themes relating to fate, dreams, celebrity crushes, jellybeans (yep, jellybeans!) and a whole bunch more.

Plus, you'll get full access to a custom web app that lets you create your own forcing matrix along with an anagram generator, and a couple of other goodies including printouts of one of the props you'll need.

Continue with me on the journey...