Mentalism & Spiritism in Magic & Conjuring: page 5

The nail writer is an extremely powerful tool for the mentalist. It's origin is unclear. One of the earliest references can be found in the book Spirit Slate Writing and Kindred Phenomena, written by William. E. Robinson and published in 1898. Therein it was called "The Thumb Pencil Carrier". This booklet will give you an easy start using this gimmick.

Paul Fleming wrote:

Annemann describes a wealth of forty pieces in this wonderful booklet. The first, "Call me up sometime" is a beautifully direct telephone miracle. This is a prime example of Annemann's mantra of 'effect before method'.

I found the following line from Annemann's introduction funny:

1st edition 1934; 50 pages.

5. Call Me Up Sometime
6. The Borrowed Deck Tragedy
7. Help Wanted In The Dark
9. A Thought...

Another masterpiece from Arthur Buckley written together with John Brown Cook. Only 125 copies were printed, but now again available as a digital download. It comes with an introduction by the great John Mulholland.

This is a collection of 33 extremely practical and entertaining mental routines primarily for stage and parlor. They are all clearly described. There are not that many great books on mental magic. This one is definitely one of them.

1st edition, 1947, privately printed, Chicago; 132 pages.

1. Preface
5. Devious Digits
9. It's A Small World
12. Astral Addition
15. Projection
18. Pennies, Nickles and Dimes ...

U. F. Grant presents several clever ideas on billet reading or how to use a svengali deck for mentalism. He also has a completely different version of "Grey Elephants in Denmark".

• Bill Reading
• Name Duplication
• Impromptu Test
• Best Digit Test
• Cards Impossible
• In Their Pocket
• Up & Down Test
• Thot of Person
• Card Projection
• Lites Out
• Dunninger Type Act
• Another Dunninger
• Weekly Prediction
• Committee Test
• Thought Projector
• Private Lives
• Lobby Tip-Off
• Directory Test
• Houdini Bill Reading
• Glass Clipboard
• Mental Table
• Flaming Answer
• Fake Questions
• Flower-Color-Animal
• Mass Mind Reading

10...

Five Mind Reading Acts Exposed was written prior to 1940 and upon reading the 12 pages of instruction you realize that everything old is new again. Although all the routines are designed for a two person act some of the ideas contained can be adapted for a single performer. No author is credited and it is a compilation of secrets of acts of that era.

Act No. 1 is the reading of dates on coins sealed in envelopes. Today’s mentalists could combine this with Psychometry and Cold Reading to use as a feature in their act.

Act No. 2 is a preamble to the question answering act of Falkenstein....

Burning of Candles, Use of Roots and Oils Powders and Incenses. Significance of Cards, Horoscope with Lucky Days and Lucky Numbers. A Guide to Spiritualists, Mediums, and Readers, from the most powerful and famous Voodoo priestess.

72 pages.

Dale describes effects and methods of bizarre tricks in story form through his acquaintence B. Bizarre. It is the uninterrupted version of Dale's popular BlogBook. Each chapter brought into one uninterrupted sequence.

1st edition 2006; 57 pages.

A collection of 36 ideas and variations. Some are descriptions of substantial routines, others are merely an initial spark of an idea. Dale started this manuscript with a few variations on some work sent by Liam Montier. It continued to grow including variations of tricks Dale found in other ebooks and books.

In "Bits and Bytes", you'll learn:

D. D. Home PC: Prove the presence of the spirit of D. D. Home on a friend's borrowed laptop.

Mind Over Mint: A three phase bending routine using a tin of mints.

Tossed Out Wallet Ploy: Apparently give away $26 while keeping your trusty, lucky, $100...

This is an exposure of some of the greatest imposters of the 19th century. You gotta love this sentence:

Contents:

• The World of Dupes
• Slade and the Spirits
• Hindoo Juggling and Christian Credulity
• Spiritualism as an Infectious Mental Disease
• Materialization

Warren places utmost importance on the effect and uses whatever method suits him to achieve it: mathematics, stacks, crimps, sleights, etc. He credits Ed Marlo for clarifying and simplifying his work.

Contents

• Packet Prediction
• Miracle Do As I Do
• In My Estimation ...
• Blindfold Poker Deal
• Card Illusion
• Double Separation
• Royal Mentalism
• Superstitious Mentalism
• Peek!
• Divination Supreme
• Think-a-card - Wiersbe version
• A Change in Number
• Fantispell
• Pasteboard Affinity - a complete routine with eight effects using the Si Stebbins stack.

1st edition 1946; PDF 39 pages.

Effect:

The magician spreads a packet of five cards (from Ace to 5 of mixed suits) face up and a spectator thinks of one of them. The magician squares the packet, telling the spectator that among these cards, there is one card with a different back. The spectator says the name of his card out loud. For example, the 3 of Diamonds. The magician shows that any of the other cards could have been thought of and he deals the selected card on the table. He turns the remaining cards face down and clearly shows only Bicycle backs. The spectator turns over his card revealing the only Tally-Ho backed...

From the introduction:

1st edition 1938; 16 pages.

Table of Contents

• Table of Contents
• INTRODUCTION
• PART ONE. What is "INTUITIONAL SIGHT?"
  • "THE BLINDFOLD" and ITS ACCESSORIES
  • "The Construction of the Blindfold"
  • The Cotton and...

A Multi-Phase Routine of Sensing with Your Fingertips With Multiple Typos and No Photographs!

Please Note: This routine utilizes dual reality and pre-show. If you don’t like those tools, then this manuscript is probably not for you. If you do enjoy these types of techniques, then you will enjoy this ebook.

What People are Saying:

"Cute!"—Craig Browning

"Dale Hildebrandt's Skin Type is one of "those" routines. By that, I mean it's the one and only routine you need to perform when you find the right moment to do so. This routine represents a sentient crescendo made up of several methods that...

Effect:

A spectator is asked to think of an animal of virtually any kind. After concentrating on both its name and its image, the thought-of animal can be immediately revealed.

• easy to do
• no set-up
• no difficult moves

What you get with the PDF only version

You receive an instructional PDF that explains the secret, performance, tips and the history of the concept. You will also receive the design files in SVG (vector graphic format) and PDF to print out the necessary cards yourself. Please note that you will not receive any cards in the mail. You will have to print and cut the...

A method in mentalism so bold you will never believe it works – unless you have the balls!

So what is Balls?

Basically it is a no-budget version of the famous Master Prediction System, that everybody loves but only the pros are able to afford:

A sealed cardboard box is seen standing in full view or hanging from a stand – it can also be given to an audience member at the beginning of the show. Random people call out random things: dates, the amount of money in their pocket, holiday destinations – whatever you (or they) like.

The box is retrieved and opened by a spectator. Inside...

This is Victor Farelli's answer to: "Can you tell fortunes?"

As magician you will occasionally encounter this question. Farelli describes and teaches a strong effect that can be done with a borrowed deck of cards. At the end Farelli includes some practical advice on fortune telling.

Briefly, the effect is as follows. Having been requested by a lady in the company to tell her her fortune, the magician asks her to give him the date and the month (not the year - never ask the age of a woman!) of her birth. Pretending to make some intricate calculations, he informs the sitter that her "lucky"...

From the creator of Mathematical Amensia comes its creative counterpart, Verbal Amensia. How would you like to cause any spectator lose the ability to speak? I have studied hypnosis for quite some time, and this is the easiest application of a secret principle that I consistently use with 100% success, and you will be able to do so also immediately after reading this manuscript.

You give a piece of paper to the spectator (not a stooge) on whom you will perform Verbal Amensia with some very simple instructions on it. You have another spectator (again, not a stooge) confirm that what is written on that piece of...

Brain Bracking represents my innovative take on the "Think of Any Word" plot, and unlike the traditional methods, with Brain Bracking you can immediately perform with a 100% success-rate after reading this manuscript. Also, unlike the traditional method which involves a "process" requiring a tremendous investment of time and energy, Brain Bracking is done without any fishing and without any questions - questions apparent to the audience that is. The method involves an instant stooge and you will have to ask the instant stooge a question.

This is the powerful "think of ANY word" plot, done...

Honesty. Integrity. These words form the foundation of our society. Without people being honest and without people having integrity, our world would crumble into a place of bad intentions and negative actions. In this routine, you will apparently hypnotize a spectator to not resist lying, even when pressed to tell the truth. Good thing it’s just “hypnosis”, as your power to control the intentions and actions of people in this act will have people believing that you can truly alter the way in which society operates in a world characterized by both truth and deceit.

Specifically, you...

Here, Doug MacGeorge presents a streamlined version of his famed "30 Second Memorized Deck." Demonstrate to your audience that you can memorize a deck of cards in about 30 seconds:

• This all-new version is a perfect mentalism piece for close-up or standup.
• It uses only half the deck, so it's faster and easier, and it amazes audiences of any size.
• Required: a deck of cards, which can be borrowed. Also required is the ability to perform basic arithmetic.

Turn a card trick into something much more relatable - a stack of instant photographs taken just minutes ago.

Polaroid Princess was an effect Gregg kicked around for hours on the phone with the great mentalist Bob Cassidy. He liked the idea. This is a further development of the same idea. You will need some form of instant camera, be it a classic Polaroid camera or any regular camera with a Zero-ink portable instant photo printer.

1st edition 2022, PDF 3 pages.

Gregg teaches two methods for the same trick. The question this trick tries to answer is who was the famous author of The Expert at the Card Table? This trick will probably not provide any deep insights into this question but it may produce laughing, weeping, protesting, or other human emotions because the subject of Erdnase can evoke some very strong ones.

One method is based on equivoque, the other uses a Himber wallet.

1st edition 2022, PDF 3 pages.

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...

Following the mentalism issue of Triplets 6, this one, Triplets 7, will also be mainly mentalism, specifically about Equivoque. I learned a lot about this, with 5 objects, from Max Maven's video, and at the same time, I discussed this with Charles Reynolds who in turn discussed it with Pat Page. Then I put in some work of my own and came up with a very practical way of working this.

I will go into every detail. Every mentalist I have shared this with thought my procedural changes worthwhile.

Next, I will go through every object I can think of with which to do this feat. I once saw Kreskin do it with...