Reviews: Read What Paul Critelli Is Saying

Bending Minds 1

reviewed by Paul Critelli (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Thursday 30 December, 2021)

The instruction booklet is for me, in a word, terrible. The translation is often quite poor, and the continuity and explanation of even the basic system and then what the "example" is supposed to be showing are misleading, confusing, and left me wondering how anyone without some basic knowledge of the binary system could ever follow this. Although I would never claim to be able to do anything that the authors may be able to accomplish on their lunch breaks, the binary system is not difficult even for me to grasp. However, their explanation and use of it boggles the mind of someone who does have a Ph.D. in psychology, who has read and performed Magic for 40 years, and who owns 7000 books on Magic. Maybe it was the time of the year - month - week - day, but several readings of that first chapter (which I did not think I would need to do) still left me quite confused and wondering if parts had been left out. I suspect there were no readings and "screenings" by people who did not have an extensive history with several - perhaps all - of the topics the authors are trying (so it is assumed . . . ?) to teach. Certainly, there was no "native speaker" that did go over the translation, and following the hodgepodge of partial effect and methods and expectations left me quite unamused. I did get volumes 1 and 2, but the adoption of 3 is in serious jeopardy. I will take yet another (my fifth) stab at trying to understand the words on the page, and I do NOT expect any sort of "push button" easy-peasy Magic, but I do expect clear and direct communication. This is - definitely not astrophysics, but the authors could definitely take some lessons from Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson in communicating . . . anything.