Al Mann - The Alpha Files

THE

AME ESTATE AT

Jl:IV.E1t RIDGE, N.VA.

Tel. 304-947·7730 P.O. Box 155

Great Cacapon, WV 25422

An ALMANN

ULTRA"EXCLUSIVE Release

It

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The astonishing secrets of Psychic metal bending as performed by Steve Shaw and Richard Osterlind. Most of the secrets appear in print for the first time. THE TEST OF THE TINE. MATTER IN by Steve Shaw. Plus THE SPOON ORBIT. THE BENDS, and MELT DOWN BEND and THE REMOTE PSYCHIC POWER by Richard Osterlind. Plus THE PSYCHIC TOUCH by Al Mann. Plus the account of James called Project Alpha which parapsychologists.

Randi,s psychic sting operation world of the shook the

THE "HE ESTATE AT

RIVER RIDGE, N.VA.

Tel. 304-947-7730 P.O. Box 155 Great Cacapon, WV 25422

An ALMANN

ULTRA EXCLUSIVE Release #

_2_.

Copyright 1995 by Al Mann Exclusives

WINTER OF 1994. No one in Appalachia remembers such a severe winter. Snow started falling in early January and continued in waves until mid March. New snow fell atop old snow. The old snow turned to ice and the emergency wards of the hospitals were full with cases of broken ankles, hips and injured backs. Residents of my community were imprisoned for a whole week unable to leave or even walk around the house due to the high snow drifts and icy grounds. One of these days was January 20th, my 70th birthday. I had plans for a tuxedo dinner but had to cancel. But life must go on and through the gloom a ray of light often shines through. That ray of light came as an unexpected phone call from Steve Shaw of Houston, Texas. I had never spoken to Steve before. I did see him at one of the conventions where it was rumored that he was one of Randi's Alpha gang that had pulled off a psychic sting by using trickery to pretend true phenomena. Steve introduced himself and then asked if I could consider writing a book on metal bending and the Alpha Project, for magicians only. This episode should be told in book form. So far only magazine articles existed telling the story and would soon be forgotten. So you don't believe in true psychic phenomena. thinking of approaching Steve about the same thing! fly over unlimited distances!

I had been Thoughts do

I was flattered. Steve was one of the big league of metal benders. He had dazzled audiences allover the world with his spoon and metal bending. He knew all the secrets of the art plus many of his own invention. Yes! Of course I would write a book on it. It would be my pleasure. Another big-league metal-bender that called was Richard Osterlind, my life-long friend. Richard knows secrets of metal bending that are not known by others. He also voiced the opinion that a book should be written on the art of metal bending. Steve said he would mail to me everything so far in print about Project Alpha and later we could get together and take photos of the inner most secrets of metal bending to be included in the book. February 28th, 1994. A phone call came from the road maintenance official of River Ridge, the community where I live in the mountain state. "Stay home today." He said. "The roads are treacherous. We have been pulling cars out of ditches all morning." BUT nothing could stop me from going to the post office to pick up the mail and the package from Steve. I plowed my car into the snow and sure enough, got stuck in my own drive way. One hour of shoveling freed my car and finally got it to the icy roads inside River Ridge. Another half hour of wheel spinning and sliding got the car to the outside state highway. The highway was already plowed and salted but still only 15 miles per hour or less could be made in progress. The package from time to digest.

Steve was a heavy one that

STEVE SHAW: Steve Shaw is today one of the giants of metal-bending. He has refined the art into the perfect illusion. Audiences are convinced that Steve bends metal by some unknown power. Both the lay audiences and the psychic investigators see the spoons, forks, spikes and keys bend, twist and break before their very eyes apparently without any physical help. In one demonstration during the Alpha Project in McLab one investigator witnessing Steve's art of bending spoons and forks, remarked, "This is the real thing. I wish James Randi was here to see this." In fact Randi was close by disguised as a yippy,

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would take some

STEVE SHAW

complete with hat, etc.

buck teeth,

long hair,

baggy pants, drooping

Steve is at his greatest when he demonstrates remote phenomena by having members of the audience hold spoons and keys that bend, break and fall to pieces while Steve is far away. Steve Shaw was born in England on 11/30/60. His father was American and his mother English. They later moved to South Africa and then to the USA. Steve attended school in all three countries. Steve Shaw was seduced by Lady Magia while reading a book about Uri Geller written by James Randi. Steve felt that he could duplicate anything that Uri did plus he had some revolutionary ideas of his own. Martin Gardner stated in his column in the Skeptical Equirer that Steve was a better metal bender than Uri Geller for he had ways to visibly bend a fork that far surpassed any of Uri's techniques. The one paramount difference between Steve and Uri is that Uri claims his magic is performed by the power of his mind while Steve claims he can duplicate. the same effects by the art of the conj ur or.

The Project Alpha Experiment: Part 1. The First Two Years What would happen if two young conjurors posing as psychics were introduced into a well-funded university parapsychology laboratory?

James Randi In 1979, James McDonnell, chairman of the board of the McDonnell Douglas Corporation, donated half a million dollars to Washington University, in St. Louis for the sole purpose of investigating psychic phenomena. Mr. McDonnell had a life long interest in the paranormal. It is said that he was primarily interested in communicating with the dead! He wanted to talk to dead test pilots and asked them what went wrong. That was not asking too much. After all communicating with the dead is well documented. The dying speak to the

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JAMES MCDONNELL

dead. - - The great Nazarene spoke to the dead (Matt. 17:1-9; Mark 9: 2-9) and then ordered the witnesses to keep it quiet for the deed is incredible. The half million dollars would support the McDonnell project (called McLab for short) for five years. It would survive another year by an additional grant of $150,000. Donating mega-bucks for psychical research has been done many times in the past and will be done again many times in the future. The donators are not foolish or naive. In fact they are very intelligent, aggresive and dynamic individuals who are in the habit of getting things done. They are only doing what comes natural for mortal man. Man has inherited from his dim past a sense of wonder and an unsatiable thirst for knowledge that forces him to forever reach for the unreachable. Man must forever search for a power beyond his limits and a way to peek into the infinite. McLab, under the direction of physicist Peter R. Phillips, advertised in newspapers for gifted persons to come forward and be tested. Many applications were received including those of two young men, Steve Shaw, 19 years of age, from Washington, Pennsylvania and Mike Edwards, 17, from Marion, Iowa.. Both Steve and Mike were accepted and Steve and Mike secretly contacted James Randi and the sting operation called Project Alpha sprang into being. The fact that Steve and Mike were magicians was kept secret. Most amazing, for Project Alpha was to last years with hundreds of laboratory experiments some with PETER R. PHILLIPS negative results and some positive. As usual, the negative results are forgotten while the positive results become exalted and taken as miracle. Other applicants were also accepted but it was Steve and Mike who created a sensation with the investigators. Mike placed a key in the hands of Phillips which bent! It was said that of all the people tested by the laboratory, Steve and Mike were the only ones considered to be genuine cases with psychic ability.

RANDI

"These two kids are the most reliable of the people that we've studied." said Peter R. Phillips.

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SHAW

EDWARDS

RANDI

TESTING The testing of Steve Shaw and Mike Edwards for psychic power at McLab was done for a continuous period of almost two years (1980 to 1981). The boys clocked 160 hours of testing. The overall results of the many tests were most positive, thoroughly convincing the investigators that the two young psychics truly had paranormal powers. The proceedure used in the testing was archaic as far as magicians and mentalists are concerned. The investigators were using methods that were used 100 years ago when the spiritualist mediums were in their heyday. Apparently the McLab professors never read the histories of the testing of famous mediums like Charles Foster, Dr. Louis Schlesinger and others. Foster had his share of testing from which he emerged triumphant. These famous mediums were tested by their own clients, the 'sitters,' and also by competitors posing as psychic investigators. Many curious sitters reveled in putting their

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mediums through most difficult tests. In one case a sitter wrote a question on paper and then solder it between metal plates. And then, would you believe it, left the missile in the hands of the medium for several days. The same thing happened with other sitters who wrote messages and sealed them in envelopes and then threaded the envelope all around with thread or wire and then wax-sealed the whole envelope. The mediums always found a way to open the envelopes and read the message and then reseal the envelopes with wax or resolder the metal plates without signs of tampering. That is hard to believe but it did happen. In the case of Henry Slade, the slate writting medium, double slates were brought to him locked with bolts and nuts and pad locks and asked the medium to produce a chalk message in the inside surface of one slate. Again the locked slates were left with the medium for weeks! Needless to say when the slates were opened a message was found inside. A live flea was supposedly used in a pseudo-psychic test. The flea was carried in the cap of a fountain pen and then secretly released inside a glass dome that covered a sensitive weighing machine. In time the flea hopped onto the machine registering weight! Whether the above test was someone's pipe dream or was actually done is immaterial. The fact is that magicians think up and study these tricks and put them to use while laureated college proffessors ignore magician's books considering them 'trivia. ' Yet, it is this selfsame trivia offered as miracle that occasionally shake the very foundation of the world, start new religions and make intelligent men sit up and take notice. Physicist Phillips was thoroughly convinced that Steve and Mike were the genuine article and had psychic powers and he so stated in a research report at the annual convention of parapsychologists. Dr. Berthold E. Schwartz, psychiatrist and consultant to McLab, who personally tested Steve Shaw in his nome in New Jersey, stated that, "It is an understatement to say that Shaw is one of the the best psychics in the world. There is just no body like him in the field. He is a prodigy." Parapsychologist Walter Uphoff stated that Mike Edwards "is certainly one of the strongest, most exiting psychics in the world. - - He has passed all kinds of stringent tests before 18 people, including metalurgists, physicists and psychiatrists." In the case of Steve Shaw, test sealed bottles containing fuses, spoons, locks etc. were left overnight in the boys bedroom so that perhaps while asleep, psychic phenomena would occur!

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mediums through most difficult tests. In one case a sitter wrote a question on paper and then solder it between metal plates. And then, would you believe it, left the missile in the hands of the medium for several days. The same thing happened with other sitters who wrote messages and sealed them in envelopes and then threaded the envelope all around with thread or wire and then wax-sealed the whole envelope. The mediums always found a way to open the envelopes and read the message and then reseal the envelopes with wax or resolder the metal plates without signs of tampering. That is hard to believe but it did happen. In the case of Henry Slade, the slate writting medium, double slates were brought to him locked with bolts and nuts and pad locks and asked the medium to produce a chalk message in the inside surface of one slate. Again the locked slates were left with the medium for weeks! Needless to say when the slates were opened a message was found inside. A live flea was supposedly used in a pseudo-psychic test. The flea was carried in the cap of a fountain pen and then secretly released inside a glass dome that covered a sensitive weighing machine. In time the flea hopped onto the machine registering weight! Whether the above test was someone's pipe dream or was actually done is immaterial. The fact is that magicians think up and study these tricks and put them to use while laureated college proffessors ignore magician's books considering them 'trivia. ' Yet, it is this selfsame trivia offered as miracle that occasionally shake the very foundation of the world, start new religions and make intelligent men sit up and take notice. Physicist Phillips was thoroughly convinced that Steve and Mike were the genuine article and had psychic powers and he so stated in a research report at the annual convention of parapsychologists. Dr. Berthold E. Schwartz, psychiatrist and consultant to McLab, who personally tested Steve Shaw in his home in New Jersey, stated that, nIt is an understatement to say that Shaw is one of the the best psychics in the world. There is just no body like him in the field. He is a prodigy." Parapsychologist Walter Uphoff stated that Mike Edwards nis certainly one of the strongest, most exiting psychics in the world. - - He has passed all kinds of stringent tests before 18 people, including metalurgists, physicists and psychiatrists." In the case of Steve Shaw, test sealed bottles containing fuses, spoons, locks etc. were left overnight in the boys bedroom so that perhaps while asleep, psychic phenomena would occur!

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Needless to say it did. The fuse inside the sealed bottle was blown simply by inserting wires to touch the fuse, one at the bottom end and one at the top end and then touching the bitter end of the wires to a car battery! Spoons inside other sealed bottles, bent and twisted, pad locks became locked together, other items like pipe cleaning rods were twisted into wire dolls, etc. and etc. In one case the boys were offered sealed digital watches. Mike Edwards stole one as he went to lunch. He then placed the watch inside his sandwich and into the microwave oven. When retrieved, the digital watch developed the crazies. One thing is constant in all the laboratory psychic testing throughout history. When the controls are relaxed, miracles are forthcoming. When the controls are tightened, miracles stop. There was one test where some 48 test bottles had negative results. To negate that, another test was done with a small paper vane pivoted on the point of a vertical spike and then covered with a glass dome. As an added precaution the bottom edge of the dome glass set into a half-round groove in a wooden platform! Would you believe it that Steve and Mike made the paper vane move supposedly with the power of the mind alone. This test was indeed a convincer. This type of test is strong enough to start a new religion! But Steve later confessed that, while the investigators were not looking he slipped a tiny ball of paper under the rim of the glass dome lifting it about 1/16 of an inch. The paper vane was made to move simply by blowing on it. Ho! Hum.

Berthold E. Schwarz, M.D., A close friend of the Dunningers and Psychiatric Consultant at the National Institute for Rehabilitation Engineering, Butler, N.J. started to test Steve in his horne and office in New Jersey on November 3rd, 1981. During the testing of Steve, Schwarz referred several times to the agency of The Psychic Nexus. This mysterious sounding title simply means a connection. It can be taken lightly or it

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can be deadly. Let us call it the PN. SHORT RANGE PN: Someone tried to take a picture of Steve but the shutter in the camera would not work. The photographer fixed that but then he noticed that the metal arm of his flash gun attachment was bent. The shutters of two other polaroid cameras held by another person also taking pictures would not work! and both batteries in the cameras went dead! Another person closeby noticed that his LCD alarm Chronograph malfunctioned. A television screen sUddenly went out. It was discovered that one of the diodes went diodead. In fact the T.V. screen repeatedly shut off when Steve was around. And would you believe it, the electric shaver quit when Steve was using it. Decorative metal flowers drooped when Steve was close by, and clocks stopped. A lady that took part in some key bending by holding the keys that bent in her hands went horne and found that her stove was out-of-wack and her phone did not work, etc. and more etc. LONG RANCH PN: Steve called a lady long distance and after up her phone she noticed that her new the lady hung battery-powered Seiko wristwatch stopped working for one half hour. While I was reading the exploits of Steve Shaw in my horne in West Virginia, my community of 1200 acres had a massive power failure. The residents were set back a couple of centuries. We were without power for five days and covered with snow. No running water, the electric pumps in the wells would not work. Forget about taking a bath. The bath room was out including the toilets. The T.V., radio and thermostats were cold and silent. The residents took the frozen foods out of the freezer and threw them on the snow outside. But the snow was not cold enough and the food spoiled. Oil lamps, candles and the fireplace were lit. Snow in buckets was melted for making coffee and shaving. We did have charcoal broiled steaks from the fireplace. The phones were working. So I started to call Steve to give him a dressing when I remembered that these power failures happen every winter in our area like clockwork. Our trees are very tall and the roots shallow. So during a storm they fallon the power lines and break them. BUT Steve states that rain follows him wherever he goes. FATAL PN: Here is one talent that everyone should master. Especially Mentalists and Psychics. Quoting Dr. Schwarz' own words from his book ftTaming the Poltergeist,ft he stated the following about a couple that was to attend a planned evening session with Steve - ftthe couple did not make it, and months later I learned that the day after our evening with Steve, E's father, who was living with them and in no acute stress, had died. No

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special significance is attached to this, but it passing as a possible part of the psychic nexus."

is mentioned in

The Psychic Nexus, like the curse that dried up the fig tree, can now be seen as a terrible deadly weapon. Some miserable poison-tongued creeps that I used to know croaked unexpected. It is indeed a wonder. THE BURNING OF THE BOOKS: James Randi made offers to McLab several times to take part in observing Steve Shaw and Mike Edwards to look for possible trickery. But Randi was turned down every time. In the meantime Berthold E. Schwarz, M.D. wrote and published a 50 page booklet titled 'Taming the Poltergeist Clinical Observations on Steve Shaw's Telekinesis. ' This booklet totally glorified Steve and declared him to be a true psychic. Paul at EpheaUi

(Aoto 19.19)

In 1983 Dr. Schwarz was about to release his book when Randi held a news conferrance in Manhattan and exposed his sting operation which he called The Alpha Project, where he declared that all the miracles performed at McLab and with Dr. Schwarz, were done by trickery and that Steve Shaw and Mike Edwards were magicians under Randi's control. To illustrate the powerful draw of pseudo-miracles, Steve Shaw performed the mind shattering illusion of making one tine of a fork bend visibly! The entire audience gasped. The media boys asked how that was done. Randi replied· that it was done beautifully and Steve confessed that he cheated. Needless to say this caused much embarrassment and discomfort to McLab and Dr. Schwarz. Laureated college professors are reluctant to socialize with Randi. There is no common rapport. In fact they don't want him around. Yet Randi was kind enough to show them, the hard way, that they were on the wrong track and barking up the wrong tree. Dr. Schwarz burned his books "The Taming of the Poltergeist." Three copies of the book survived as these were in the hands of

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Steve Shaw and are today a highly prized co11ector ls item. McLab ran out of funds and closed down in 1985.

Sting operations for the psychic sciences are not new. In biblical times, we read in the Apocrypha in the Book of Bel and the Dragon about Daniel, the prophet/magician, who convinced King Cyrus that his priests and his god Bel were frauds and layed a trap that caught 70 of the priests of Bel entering the godls chamber (which was securely locked by Daniel and the King), through a secret door and eating the goodies that were intended for the god Bel (Marduk). Cyrus destroyed the priesthood and the God Bel. In 1882, Edmund Gurney, psychic investigator and member of the Society for Psychical Research in London and prime contributor to the 520 page book, Phantasms of the Living, became stung by what i~ now known as The Blackburn-Smith Fiasco. Two young magicians, Douglas Blackburn and G. A. Smith, tricked their way through telepathic tests triumphantly enough to convince Gurney that they were genuine psychics. Gurney made progress reports to the S. P. R. Blackburn later confessed.

GURNEY

"I, Douglas Blackburn, now declare that the whole of the alleged experiments were bogus, and originated in the honest desire of two youths to show how easily men of scientific mind and training could be deceived when seeking for evidence in support of a theory they were wishful to establish." Stated Douglas Blackburn. Edmund Gurney died in 1888, at the age of 41, in a hotel room in Brighton, with a sponge bag with chloroform pressed over his nose and mouth. In 1884, Henry Seybert of Philadelphia, left in his will to the University of Pennsylvania, $10,000 with the provision that a

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commission be appointed to investigate spiritualism. The Seybert commission investigated Henry Slade, the slate writing medium with negative results. The Seybert commission was in turn completely mystified by magician Harry Keller who produced writing in answer to questions by clever trickery. In 1949, Arizona prospector James

Martin Gardner, a former columnist for Scientific American magazine who assisted Randi in planning the Alpha Project, put it as follows: hThere are aspects of reality which will remain forever impenetrable to science. - There is a notion that science will always remain incomplete." So! Where do we go from here? We go forward. Steve Shaw, Mike Edwards, James Randi and several of the researchers of McLab, agree that psychical research should continue.

MARTIN GARDNER

Every last one of us senses and knows that there is 'something' out there in the vast space between mortals and Gods. This writer believes in that 'something.' A Godly power that shows itself occasionally, but shows it does. The following article by this writer appeared in the Psychic Entertainers Association paper.

CHILDREN OF THE ID Bizarre stories are part of the fair of the magician. During a lifetime of magic, magicians experience strange and unexpected happenings and coincidences. Bessy Houdini told about the time she was giving readings in Canada. An old lady sitter asked Bessy LO help her find her son who had left home many years before. Bessy knew a man in her neighborhood in Brooklyn who worked as a butcher and who had the same name as the old lady. She told the old lady that her son was well and living in Brooklyn and working as a butcher. Hidden forces were indeed at work, for the butcher turned out to be the old lady's long lost son! Bessy and Harry decided to layoff the spook business after that.

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Fogel told about the time that he wrote down a fictitious name on a dummy billet and then switched the dummy for the true billet, only to discover that the writer had written down the same name. This unnerved Fogel and threw his program off kilter. Dunninger, Blackstone, and many other magicians tell similar stories and keep reminding us that where there is smoke, there is fire! I no longer wonder about strange and all-powerful psychic forces, for I have seen them at work. Here is my story: In 1959, while living in the Bronx, a friend

and his wife came calling at 3:00 PM on a Tuesday. An unexpected call, since at that time, everyone was at work. My friend had taken the day off for some very important business. He was a close friend, with whom I visited regularly, and had some beers with at the local bar. He was no ordinary person. He had travelled widely and was a very successful purchasing agent for a big firm in New York. His wife went upstairs to converse wiu: my wife while we stayed in the 'living room. Straight away, he begged me to read the cards for him. I had done this before, and he had been very impressed. He knew that 1 would divine and answer important questions. He had one paramount question in his mind: "Will I have a son?" After the regular reading, I answered his question and said, "Yes!" He was baffled and overjoyed at the same time. He asked, "Is that in the canis?" "Yes," 1 said. "Very much so." My friend jumped high in the air with joy, picked up his hat, called his wife, and bid us farewell. My wife carne down and asked, "What did your friend want?" I told my wife about his question, and that I had said that he would surely have a son. "Wish 1 had known," said my wife. "I would have warned you. They have just been to the doctor and the doctor told him he could never have children. He's sterile. His sperm is as dead as a doornail. They have already been to several doctors, and they have all told him the same thing." I then told my wife that I had fol1owed the old Gypsy formula. I had to encourage the sitter and give him an optimistic view of the future. My friend was a very intelligent person, aggressive, and a most positive thinker. He believed devotedly in magic and prognostications. He visited a Gypsy fortune tel1er about once a year or whenever he needed help. He would listen intently to everything that was said and remember and interpret it for his own purposes. Both he and his wife were late bloomers, and they had married late in life. They were both near their fortieth year when they married. Neither had been married before. Ten months later, this couple had the most beautiful and healthy baby boy one can imagine. Today that child is alive and very healthy, 29 years of age, married, and with children of his own! '

Positive Determination Do stay with me, for there is more to come. First let me ask, were the doctors wrong in their analysis, or did the unbending faith and iron-will positive determination of the sitter unleash the psychic motive force in his mind that resulted in conception? I choose to believe that the magician, the reader, in this case me, had lillie to do with it other than to plant the much desired suggestion in the most expectant mind of the sitter. God-forces, of which we know nothing about, did the rest. , Along comes the year 1985. I am invited to do readings for some society ladies for the benefit of Planned Parenthood of Freehold, New Jersey. I had a swell time doing readings for these fine ladies. One very beautiful young married lady walked into my parlor. She was coy, very quiet, very careful, and seemed to be afraid to talk. I gave her a reading. But she was not at all interested in the reading. She spoke with tongue-incheck, and afraid of insulting my intelligence said, "I have been examined by several doctors and have been told that I am sterile and can not have children. ' 1 want very much to have a baby." . Did she ring a bell? Yes! 1 heard many magical bells ringing. Here was an identical case to the one in 1959! Another person with the same unyielding faith and iron-will determination and a profound belief in magic. Not on purpose, but by pure chance! I proceeded in the same fashion as before. I told the lady there was a baby in her future. What else could I tell her? I was her last resort. Magic! The last pillar to lean on. The very last port-of-call. And what, dear reader, did I have to lose? A year later, I was invited to a party given by the same group of friends. As I sat amongst the group, I could, not help noticing that the women were going bananas over a newborn baby. I asked who the mother was and to my most pleasant shock, I was told that it belonged to the beautiful lady, the same lady that had come to me for help the year before! Do I believe in hidden and unknown forces? You can bet your gold plated nail writer I do! We are mortals, ladies and gentlemen, and believe it or not, we are surrounded by the most marvelous mysteries. For mysteries have been reserved for mortals. The Gods have none.

,

~

MENTALIST STEVE SHAW

THE AME ESTATE AT

RIVER RIOGt, W.VA.

Tel. 304-947-7730

P.O. Box 155 Great Cacapon, WV 25422

ache ~rtbetlt~ @£ ~ttu~

£hahl

What is your pleasure? Gentlemen. For whatever miracle you wish, just scoop a spoon full of wonder brew from the magic cauldron of Steve Shaw. So you want to transmute basic (bent) metal into gold. You got it. Steve Shaw is doing it on a daily basis. He 1s booked solid. He bends, warps, twists, contorts, braids, coils and breaks metal with the power (it seems) of his mind. His audiences are dazzled and baffled, amazed, dumbfounded and at a total loss as to a solution. "He is better than Uri Geller." says Martin Gardner. STEVE SHAW'S TECHNIQUE The following effects of bending metal were invented by Steve Shaw: THE TEST OF THE TINE This is the effect that drew girls in Manhattan.

gasps from the media

boys and

This test is done with a fork. Use your own. A cheap variety is the best. The presentation of this test is grossly incredible. The audience is of course not aware of what is about to take place other than the fact that Steve is a metal bender.

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What will be done i~ that one tine of a fork , Fig. 1, will bend visibly before the eyes of your audience whether they are close in front of you or seated in an audience.

I

Fig. 1

PERFORMANCE: Steve takes out two or three forks and passes these out for examination. These forks are ungimmicked and unbent or prepared in any way. As soon as Steve takes back one of the examined forks he bends one tine out as shown in Fig. 1. This move is done while holding the fork with both hands at the ends. The move is totally undetected by your audience and can be done surrounded. This move puts Steve far ahead of his audience for now he is holding a bent fork in his hands unbeknown to his audience. in Fig. 2, Steve As always holds the forks or spoons with both hands. The right hand (or left) covers the tines and at the same time the thumb bends down one of the tines as shown. Steve does this move in a most casual and disarming manner as he looks and converses with the audience with a pleasant smile.

Fig. 2

Fig. 2 shows the performer's view. NOTE: The fingers of both hands while bending the tine DO NOT MOVE! The muscles on the back of the fingers of both hands DO NOT MOVE! Only the thumb moves! Your thumb is hidden behind your hand, therefore your audience sees nothing. Bear in mind that at this juncture the audience is relaxed for they have seen nothing happening yet. The wise ones are watching Steve's hands expecting him to bend the fork in the middle of the handle into a nu· shape. But that does not happen. Next Steve does a short lecture about bending metal. It is a strange phenomenon which he cannot explain. "You have examined these forks so please watch." Right away Steve starts to shake the fork fast back and forth as shown in Fig. 3. Every joint of the hand and arm shake at this time. The first finger and thumb holding the fork move up and down in a rubbing motion. Plus the wrist and and elbow are all shaking. It is utterly

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impossible for the human eye to see the bent tine while the arm, wrist and fingers are movig rapidly. Next the finger tips stop moving and then the wrist stops shaking while the elbow continues the shaking back and forth. Slowly the action slows down and stops as Steve says. "Look! Look! the fork is bending." then the shaking is stopped altogether but the wrist and arm continues slowly to bend downwards towards your audience. This action makes the tine of the fork appear to bend further. It is an illusion of the first water. All the giants fall with this one. MATTER IN ORBIT In effect the bowl of a spoon is made to turn visibly 180 degrees around its vertical axis, right in front of the spectator's eyes. This happens while you hold up the spoon between your thumb and finger tips of one hanq. This is shown by the arrow in Fig. 4A.

A

B

C Fig. 4

Wonders never cease! The gaff to accomplish this fabulous effect is undetectable. In fact the gaff is in, long before the show. For you must prepare the spoon ahead of show time and then you can place the spoon on the table in full view and no one will see the preparation. TO PREPARE Take a soup spoon as shown in Fig. 4a and bend the bowl towards you so that it bends at the neck, Fig. 4B. Next twist the bowl of the spoon to the right as shown by the arrows in Fig. 4B and 4C and all the way until the bowl points upwards as in Fig. 4D. Fig. 4D shows the finished product. The spoon again looks normal except that now it has a twist at the neck, as shown in the circle. The twist is then covered by your thumb as you handle the spoon and show it around. If the spoon is placed on the table it is covered by a second spoon that lays across it. Your viewers see nothing.

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THE PRESENTATION. You pick up four spoons off the table or remove them from anywhere. One of the four spoons is prepared as in Fig. 4. You pass out the three ungimmicked spoons for examination, then take the first one back and walk to a fourth person and give him the spoon from the first person to examine while you retain the gimmicked one. "Ladies and and found to be

Gentlemen, four spoons have just been examined solid. Let's try a test with one of these."

"Those of you holding spoons, please hold them at the tips of your fingers like this and concentrate on trying to bend them by the power of your will. Think hard and tell me if you see anything happening." "LOOK! Look! the bowl of my spoon is turning." Amazingly, the person close by watching your spoon can see the bowl turning, but the handle which is also turning is not seen because you are holding the spoon with both hands and the handle is not seen. At the end you pass your spoon around and leave it with anyone to keep. The turning of your spoon is done by the tip of your thumb Yet, your audience does not see pushing up a tiny bit at a time. any movement of your hand. THE BENDS Fig.

5

An examined spoon is taken in both hands and while your audience is examining another spoon or fork that you bent, the spoon in hand is bent. This move is covered by the hands. The spoon is bent into a shape as shown in Fig. 5. And then it is held in one hand as shown in Fig. 6. Only the part of the spoon that is not bent is exposed to the sight. Steve says "Watch this." and he places his other open hand as shown in fig. 7 and moves this hand back left and right, as shown by the arrows, over the exposed part of the spoon and slowly pushes the spoon out so that it appears to be bending upwards and then he passes it around.

Again the illusion is perfect.

17

MELT DOWN

This is the classic spoon breaking effect. Steve makes a masterpiece of it and it appears that the metal simply melts and the bowl of the spoon falls off. The usual before-the-show preparation is applied to the spoon. Preferably a soup spoon is used. The spoon is bent back and forth just below the bowl until the metal shows some fatigue. At this point the spoon looks normal but is about to break near the bowl. A few trials with half-a-dozen spoons will teach the novice just how far to go. If you look at the spoon with a magnifying glass you may see a tiny almost inperceptible line where the spoon will later break. For the show, the prepared spoon is on the table. This spoon is picked up with another one or two spoons which are passed out for examination. The prepared spoon is kept and this is tapped on the table, carefully, indicating it to be solid and in one piece. The spoon is then given to one spectstor who is told to hold the spoon gently between the fingers of both hands, one hand at each end. Tell the spectator not to bend the spoon for you wish it to to be bent by mindpower only! While the spectator is holding the spoon by the extreme ends you rub the spoon with the thumb and first finger near the bowl where the invisible break is and at the same time you push down slightly and then up slightly without exposing the act. You will then feel that the spoon has broken but it is still holding together to a tiny fraction of metal. You next take the spoon from the spectator and hold the spoon by the tip of the handle so that the bowl of the spoon is at the lower end as in Fig. 8a, and start shaking the spoon like a pendulum. Shortly the spoon breaks but hangs by a thread Fig. 8

18

of metal, Fig. 88 and then it falls. The illusion created that the metal simply melts and then the bowl drops off.

is

IN THEIR HANDS. Occasionaly hit the table with a prepared breaking spoon and then give it to a spectator and have him or her hold it by the tip of the handle and tell them to shake the spoon until it breaks. CRUSHING POWER,

by Al Mann

Toying with Steve's metal bending secrets I accidentally misdirected my psy-power at a spoon and, would you believe it? the bowl was crushed flat. Since this was an accident it cannot be repeated. So! Take the crushed spoon and place it amongst the other spoons and forks that you have bent during the show. Leave it on the table for the patrons and waitresses to take home as souvenirs. This crushed spoon is now in the collection of Steve Shaw. I gave it to him as a remembrance together with other metal items that I have accidentally bent. HOW TO PREPARE CRUSHED SPOON: Take soup spoon and place on hard rock. Hit bowl of spoon with sledge hammer. Sure hated to part with this secret.

Richard Osterlind

Lenderman & Jarvis Entertainment 106 Conn. Blvd. East Hartford, CT 06108 203-289-0221

Richard Osterlind RichardOsterlind four-digit-plus fee.

is

a

professional

Mentalist

with

a

He has been a Mentalist since 1973. In 1974 Richard played in his own television show for 14 continuous weeks. Richard looks and acts like a Mentalist and better yet he thinks like one. He has the inventive mind of a genious. Back in 1978 Richard was unable to understand the Tear and Read method as written by Al Baker due to incorrect illustrations. So Richard invented his own method which he called The Ultimate Center Tear and which I published in "The Apodosis" and which was immediately adopted for use by Mentalists of the Hollywood Magic Castle. Richard also invented the black board that he uses for doing a streamline version of Dunninger's Q & A act, which is hard to beat. In fact he invents practically every prop he uses in his shows. John Gardner, author of the modern James Bond mysteries and friend and admirer of Richard Osterlind has just published a James Bond novel titled "SeaFire" which he dedicated to Richard. Richard in turn made a book test out of it. ON METAL BENDING Richard Osterlind in one of the giants in metal bending. He has spent a lot of thought on the pseudo-science of psychic metal bending. He is credited with bending an iron spike on stage. Richard knows a great deal about the technique of psychic metal bending that he appears to stand alone in the field. THE SPOON BEND Richard is at his best when he springs some spoon bending on his audience when least expected. Forget about body, table and chair bends. Richard secretly bends the spoons while he holds

21

them in his bare hands anG right in front of the spectator's eyes! If he sees a table of young people noisely talking and ignoring his show, Richard just walks to the table and bends their spoons right before their eyes. That shuts them up, says Richard. THE METHOD: Richard picks up a spoon with his left hand and immediately bends it while he misdirects the audience by picking up a second spoon with his right hand and handing it to a spectator. Fig. 9 shows a tea spoon that has just been picked up and held ready foe bending. The handle of the spoon is anchored at the base of the little finger (arrow in Fig. 9) and then the little finger is cur led over it. PresSure is then applied with the tip of the thumb to the base or the tip of the spoon.

Fig. 9

Richard has discovered several spots on a spoon that help in the bending. The tip of the bowl of the spoon, the base of the bowl, the neck and the tip of the handle. Amazingly after the spoon is bent it can be shown to the audience casually and your audience CAN NOT SEE the bend! This is one of Richards pet moves. It is the angle, says he. Please note Fig. 10. This shows the same spoon from different angles. Fig. lOA shows a side view of the spoon with a very perceptive bend, while Fig. lOB shows the top view and the spoon appears to be normal. The hand also assists in hiding bends.

. 13 Fig. 10

After this the bend in the spoon is exposed slowly. Right after it is shown Richard manages to bend the spoon some more and the spoon is shown a second time with the exagerated bend for the mystification of the audience.

22

THE REMOTE PSYCHIC FORCE Fig. 11 shows how the REMOTE PSYCHIC FORCE IS displayed to the audience. This is Richard's invention and truly the picture does not do justice to how actually Richard presents the act. He pretends very dramatically to exert great power with his right hand towards the left hand. The hands never meet yet the spoon bends!

THE ?SYCHIC TOUCH by Al Mann

In the effect that follows, the breaking spoon takes place of the Devil's Flask. So you are free to apply dramatics.

the the

In Effect an examined spoon bends and breaks while psychic holds it motionless between two fingertips!

the

Sounds impossible, doesn't it. Yet it is easy to do provided some practice and dicipline of the fingers is learnt and applied. PREPARATION: You must prepare some spoons, preferably tea spoons. Bend the spoons back and forth close to the neck until these are ready to break. FORCING THE SPOON. Prepare about 20 spoons (this is optional, you can sell the effect with only one prepared spoon) and place these bowl down into a glass or deep dish. Three of the spoons are not gimmicked and are placed bowl up among the other spoons. These unprepared spoons are passed out to the audience. Another person is asked to point to anyone of the spoons in the glass (all of which are gimmicked) and this spoon is used for the test. 23

THE PRESENTATION. Take the prepared spoon and show it to the audience. Drop it on the table lightly to show that it is solid and in one piece. Knock the spoon on the table in front of the spectators all around the room and let them see that the spoon is solid and in one piece. Do that on several tables or on the microphone if you are on stage or platform. - - That, Gentlemen, is the extent of the examination of the spoons. The prepared spoons which are ready to break should not be placed in the hands of the audience, but all looks fair. Three ungimmicked spoons have been passed out while another spoon was chosen by the audience from many. "Ladies and Gentlemen, with your help I am going to make this spoon bend like a pretzel right before your eyes with the power of our thoughts alone. So everybody please concentrate your thoughts in bending this spoon. Watch me carefully." (the audience does not belive you nohow) As you say that, you are holding the spoon between the left thumbtip and the tip of the first finger as shown in Fig. 12.

Fig. 12

You must show the spoon to the audience all around so that they can see that only two fingers hold the spoon. This is what the audience will later remember so hold the spoon openly and make sure that the other three fingertips are not touching the spoon. Please note that at this time the audience in expecting that the spoon is going to bend so they will watch your hands but your fingers never close around the spoon. After you have shown the spoon all around and as you walk back to center stage hold the spoon high in the air and at the same time you place the middle finger against the spoon as shown by the arrow in Fig. 13. Please note that the first and middle fingers are separated for about 3/4 inch. Now you can apply pressure with the tip of your thumb against the spoon at the break and it will break in two and fall to the floor.

Fig. 13

DICIPLINE. You must train your fingers not to betray you by practicing the move several times. The only way you can do the move correctly is to stiffen your first and middle fingers so that they do not move. ONLY THE THUMB MOVES. If you apply pressure to the spoon with the tip of your thumb and the spoon does not break, you must turm the spoon over and 24

apply pressure from that side. You may need to turn the spoon over several times BUT the important thing is to remember to concentrate in keeping the first and second fingers stiff and motionless. A Day Wi th Toni Forster,

(1984)

It was a bitter cold winter day in Munich. The Bavarian winds were howling outside as I played the guest in the home of Toni Forster, leading Mentalist in Germany. Toni had just bought this beautiful home. In fact it was not yet finished. The carpenter and his son were busy putting the finishing touches by coating the inside walls with 3/4 inch thick panels. The fireplace which kept the house warm was finished with thick green glass blocks. Only a few pieces of furniture had been moved in. As I layed on a rug on my stomach reading some of Toni's Magic books (written in German), he shoved a whiskey glass that had a spoon in it towards me. I picked up the spoon and it broke in half in my hand and fell to the floor. WH-H-H-HAT? What kind of satanic magic is this. The spoon was whole and now it broke in half at my touch! Toni explained. There was a strong magnet under the whiskey glass! A break in the spoon's handle next to the bowl, was expertly machined so that the edge of the break had a groove in the shape of a 'V.' While the edge of the break on the other half of the handle was machined in the shape of an inverted'V.' Fig. 15. One piece fitted well into the other when the spoon was held straight up, or almost straight up. The circle in Fig. broken spoon's handle.

15 shows

an enlarged

Fig. 14

Fig. 15 side view

of the

The whiskey glass held the spoon up in an almost vertical position while the hidden magnet under the glass gave the extra pull to keep the spoon from falling apart. Get it? For the show, plus you also have have other whiskey pick up one of the is almost ready to

say that you have one of these gimmicked spoons a spoon that is almost ready to break, plus you glasses with straight spoons. Ask the VIP to straight spoons while you pick up the one that break. You tell the spectator to do as you do.

"I am going to show you how these spoons can be made to break by psy power." you say. You rub your spoon and ask the VIP to do the same. Your spoon breaks but the VIP's does not. "Let me try th~t one you say as you hand the gimmicked broken spoon to the VIP whlch falls apart as you put it in his hands. "There." you say, "You are now a psychic spoon breaker."

P HOT 0 G RAP H S Top - Al Mann (left) and Peter Reiss of Munich, poundering a mystery. At the Atlanta Convention 1994. Center At the horne of Axel Hellstrom ne?rew) in Dusseldorf, Germany, 1984. 1. to r. Hellstrum, his wife, Al Mann and MrS. Lutz Bottom Left Osterlind 1994.

Steve

Shaw

(left)

and

(the Axel

Richard

Bottom Right Al Mann and Toni Forster in Toni's horne in Munich, 1984.

26