Benjamin Earl - Psychologica

 

PSYCHOLOGIC y

enjamin Earl Earl

 

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Expectation creates existence

 

Dedicated to m my y wife Kathryn

 

  OR YOURATTENTION

All rights reserved worldwide. No part o f this publication publicat ion may be recorded reproduced transmitted translated or communicated in any form without the prior written permission o f the copyright holder. Owners o f original copies o f this publication are granted permission to perform Psychologica in non streaming non-broadcast non-recorded non-ticketed environments only. Any other use o f this material s not permitted without the prior written permission o f the copyright holder. No permission is is granted to publish teach or or communicate derivative handlings o f this material n any form without the prior written permission o f the copyright holder. Illegal or unauthorized holders o f this material are not granted any performing rights or permissions o f any kind. Thank you you.. Psychologica opyright© 2016 by Benjamin Earl Photography and design by the author Edited by Justin Higham and Mike Vance First edition January 2016

 

  ONTENTS

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Preface Background Theory Expectation nd Imagination Memory Distortion Embodied ognition

Psychologica Selection Procedure Finessed Fines sed Slop Shuffle Overhand Overh and Mess Mess Shuffle Hallucination Shuffle False Frame Script

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End Notes

 

VIII

PREF

CE

( 193 7) by John Braun and Stewart Judah, Sid Lorraine contributed an effect with an ordinary deck o cards called 'The S L Reversed Card'; the cards were mixed face up and face down before they all magically turned the same way, way, with the exception o a spectator's spectat or's selected card. This plot is popularly referred to as 'Triumph' and is understandably associated with Dai Vernon; however, M r Lorraine undoubtedly created the modern handling o his plot and deserves far wider wide r acknowledgement. I have have developed M r Lorra Lorraine's ine's origina originall effect - incl includin uding g his brill brillian iantt yet much-mali much-maligned gned technique, the Slop Shuffl Shufflee - into completely new deceptive tterr erritor itory. y. In Subtle Problems

ou Will

o

Over the years I have experimented with virtually every handling o 'Triumph' you can imagine (including many unpublished routines), but none o them really delivered in the way I wanted them to; I had to invent something new. I wanted the spectator to see the mixture o face-up and face-down cards in their own hands, then close the deck, and when they respread, the cards are all the same way except the card o which they are tthinki hinking ng I also wanted this to be performed under any conditions, not require the use o a table and to be performed perfo rmed with aan n ordinary deck This may sound like like a pipe dream, but after many years o experimentation, risk, failure, creativity and refinement I can confidently state that Psychologica delivers all o this and more. Psychologica subtly bombards a spectator with deceptive visual and psychological techniques in order to reliably manipulate their experience. This 'manipulated experience' is the space where Psychologica exists; it can be argued that it doesn't exist in the objective movements o the cards or the words o the performer, it exists in the subjective understanding and memory recall o the spectator. Therefore, Psychologica is the point where technical and cognitive methodologies converge within the mind o the spectator; it's about them and their internal internal experien experience ce not you and you yourr objective actions. I have included some academic research references in the Background Theory chapter o this publication. However, this is not an an academic paper holding its itself elf up to the lofty heights that constitute scientific study; it is a subjective, artistic expression o he many ideas and concepts which I believe inform inform Psychologica. The academic references have been included solely for interest and in order to aid the the reader's rea der's understanding understanding o my approach. Benjamin Earl, January 2016.

 

BACKGROUND THEORY Expectation and Imaeination In the 18th 18th century Franz Anton Mesm M esmer er claimed to have grasped the beating heart o f the universe with his 'animal magnetism' (later to be known as mesmerism

and hypnosis). Although Mesmer had tremendous success at healing the sick, his claims served as a distracting veneer to what was truly remarkable about abo ut his methods: the power o f expectation and imagination to influence experience. Over the past few decades a large body o f research has made some interesting discoveries regarding expectation and imagination; expectation and imagination are not exactly the same concepts, but they are closely related and reflect the mind's constructivist nature toward understanding and experiencing reality. The research is comprehensive and often counter-intuitive, such as: tricking athletes into better sporting performance, 1 thinking yourself thinner2 or stronger, 3 improving eyesight, 4 improving the taste o f wine 5 and even curing illness through imaginary surgery 6 Probably one o f the most remarkable areas o f research I have come across regarding the imagination concerns the fact that eating cubes o f imaginary cheese or imaginary M&Ms can affect how full you feel 7

This is ju just st the beginning; fo forr example, it is even possible for the placebo response to expectation to become a conditioned response within the immune/nervous system o f rats 8 Does this have implications for the response to expectation in humans? Human mirror neuron research shows that mirror neurons fire up simply by viewing the same behaviour, thinking about the behaviour or doing it ourselves.9 I E. S. Chambers, M. W. Bridge, D. A. Jones, 'Carbohydrate Sensing in the Human Mouth Effects on Exercise Performance and Brain Activity', The . 011mal o hysmlogy 587, (2009), pp. 1779-1794 2 Alia Alia Crum. Ellen Langer, Langer, 'Mind-set Matters: Matters: Exercise and the Placebo Effe ct'. P. iychologiJazine, (January 2000) 7 Carey Morewedge, Young Eun-Huh, Joachim Vosgerau, 'Thought for Food: Imagined Consumption Reduces Actual Consumption', Sl'lem:e 330 6010, (December 2010), pp 1530-1533 8 Roben Ader, Nicholas Cohen, 'Behaviorally Conditioned lmmunosuppression', / yt.:ho.mma/K M e d u w e 37 4, (1975), pp 333-340 9 Roy Mukamel et al_, 'Single-Ne uron Responses in Humans During Execution and Observation of Actions'. Current Biology 20·8, (April 2010), pp 750-756

 

2

Again what s the relationship between brain activity, psychological and physiological response to expectation and imagination? Exactly how do these factors impact experience n the world? The interaction o physiological and psychological states/responses to expectation and imagination are fascinating and we are only just jus t beginning to see the correlations, causes and possibilities for for how they can impact experience. For those o you interested n further research, source the cited articles, or for a very good and comprehensive collection o this research read Mind Over Mind by Chris Berdick. 1 One thing s for certain: due to our physiological/psychological response to expectation and the brain brai n s difficulty n distinguishing between real and imagined events, t can be definitively stated that expectation and imagination impact our perceptions and experiences o reality. This s profoundly interestin interesting g to me and continually informs my approach to conjuring methodology.

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md Over Mind

Th Thee Surpri m g Power o Expec;ta11011s Current, (2012)

 

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Memory Distort Distortion ion Memory is not simply an objective recording o f experience; it s a partial, edited and re-edited digestion o f information over time, therefore it s prone to continuous error in its attempt to reconstruct events. General working memory operates by understanding the rough idea. Specifics are not its strong point; when we remember events we fill in gaps by what we already know about the world or what is an easy fit. Without wanting to launch into an essay about models o f memory and the very complex research behind the encoding, storage and retrieval o f memories, instead I will detail some extremely basic concepts that will help you understand how false or distorted memories mi might ght be created. By considering the extremely basic information listed below it is not difficult to see how intentionally targeting or considering one or more o f these concepts might result in partial or full full memory distortion: distortion: Schemas: a mental model o f objects, events and information that includes knowledge, beliefs and expectations. Schemas are pre-existing frames o f reference that we bring with us to any situation or environment. Faults in schemas or differences between schemas and reality can affect a ffect mem memory. ory. Source Amnesia: not remembering the source o f information is very common as it often doesn t seem as important at the time or it s not as distinctive as the information itself. Therefore, distorting or altering the source can be a relatively simple simpl e process. The Misinformation Effect: Effect: pe people ople s recollections o f events are distorted by information given to them after the event occurred. This effect can be responsible for altering existing memories or constructing false ones. Hindsight Bias: the tendency to interpret the past in a way that fits the present. prese nt. Ma Many ny magic effects use this principle as part o f the methodology, including the classic card trick which relies on a spectator mistaking two pseudo mates as the two original selections. The Overconfidence Effect: Effect: the tendency people have to overestimate overestima te their ability to recall events correctly. Most people are completely unaware o f how inaccurate their recollections can be and would be shocked to learn how easily distortion can occu occur. r. l l f you are interested in the idea of frames of reference and how that relates to expectations an and d decision making, then I would suggest looking into the work of Gary Klein and his work with Naturali Naturalistic stic Decision Making (NDM) and Recognition Prime Decision Making (RPO)

 

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Psychologist Elizabeth Loftus has been a pioneer in the area o f false/distorted memories and her contributions to this area o f research have had far-reaching consequences, such as her influential work on the misinformation effect which showed that memory reconstruction can affect eyewitness testimony (although this has been criticised by a study in 1986). 13 12

Loftus also conducted a famous experiment in 1995 in which she was able to convince 25 o f the experimental group that they were once lost in a shopping centre as a child, even though this was completely false. 14 The work o f Loftus et al shows the impact that suggestion can have on memory Combini ng imagination and memory distortion, Go Combining Goff ff and and Roedi Roediger ger ( 199 1998) 8) 15 demonstrated how easily imagined events can be stored in the memory as real events; participants o f their study were asked to either imagine performing an action or really do it (in this case breaking a toothpick). This process was repeated at a later date. Then, later still, participants were asked whether they had performed the actions or just imagined them; those who imagined the actions more frequently the second time were more likely to think they had really performed the actions the first time. There is so much more that could be said on this subject regarding encoding, storage, retrieval and the roles o f emotion, expectation and suggestion .. .... but it it's 's not really relevant at this point. I just want you to grasp the basic concepts at work. All that I want you to think about right now is that by exploiting some very simple principles it is possible to distort a spectator's memory with relative ease, including the notion that an imagined action really can be 'remembered' as something that actually happened.

12 E. F Loftus J _ Palmer, 'Reconstruction of automobile destruction destruction An example of the interaction interaction between language and me mory' Journal o f Verhal Leammg and Verhal Hehuvwr 13 ( 1974), pp 585-589 13 Yuille, J C., Cutshall, J L (1986), A case study of eyewitness memory of a crime', .Journal o pplied P.\yc:hology 71(2), p 291 The

of

P.\y,·h1alrtL' Annal - 25, pp 720-725 14 Loftus, E F Pickrell, J E. (1995), formation false memories', 15 'Imagination inflati inflation on for action events: events: repeated imaginings lead to illuso illusory ry recollections' . Memory ( oKflllion, 26, pp 20--33

 

5 Embodied

Co1:nition

Possibly the most interesting and counter-intmtJve theory to emerge from modem cognitive science is the idea that cognition is embodied. 'Embodied Cognition' suggests that the mind is not thinking independently o f the body and the environment, but the mind, body and environment think together as a singular system. Embodied cognition (in any form) is about acknowledging that the brain is not the only cognitive resource available to us when solving problems or 'understanding' the world; cognition is a broad system involving perception, physical action, and the environment. Standard definitions o f Embodied Cognition involve the straight-forward claim that "states o f the body modify states o f the mind." This might not seem that counter-intuitive or o r radical at fir first, st, however, i f examine examined d further the implications o f embodiment are quite profound; our bodies, their physical motion and the environment does much o f the work required to achieve our ou r goals, goals, replacing the need for conscious, internal mental representations. Therefore, simple actions or motions within the environment at that specific specific moment, can 't 'thi hink nk'' for us us in ways which which are indistinguishable fro from m how 't 'thin hinkin king' g' normally feel feelss Also, i f cognition is a broad system assembled from an extended array o f resources, its definition and agency can only be understood in the context o f those resources and any specific moment. ( 1 Cognition is situated. (2) Cognition is time-pressured. (3) W e off-load cognition onto the environment. (4) The environment environ ment is part o f the cognitive system. In ordershortcuts to effectively and efficiently operate in the world, cognition is constantly taking by off-loading work to different aspects o f its broad system: Research has shown people perceive hill gradients as being steeper or flatter based on whether an imaginary person with them was a helpful or non-helpful person. This is based on their perceived access to resources .. changing their visual perceptions 16 As this research suggests, i f cognition can find a 'thinking shortcut' within its broad system, it will; regardless o f whether that shortcut is mental, physical, environmental or imaginary. I find this idea exciting and inspiring, especially when applied to specific magic effects or the art as a whole. 16 Thomas

/J1men mm \·

_

Schubert, Anne Maass. Simone Schnall. 'Embodiment in an affective space· Social influences on special perception', Spa11al

o/Soc1al Though Thoughtt (2011), pp

129-147

 

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Studies have also explored the effects that social power has on the perception o f the physical properties o f objects. 17 Our perceptions 18 o f reality are not only

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bodies are doing and how all these elements interact.

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This perspective toward cognition is extremely interesting to me; it suggests that when performing the magician is a critical part o f the environment and therefore a critical part o f the spectator's cognitive system. Therefore, i f the magician is a part o f he spectator's specta tor's cognitive system then per perhaps haps one one shoul shouldn't dn't underestimate the degree to which the magician can intentionally think/or the spectator specta tor iinn nn ways which are indistingui indistinguishable shable from from their own thoughts This perspective also highlights the the tremendous impact that that the spectator's physic physical al actions or interactions can have on their cognition, regardless o f how minor they may be. There is a huge amount o f interesting research 19 on Embodied Cognition and I m sure there is much more to come, but for now let's just think o f this viewpoint as an exciting and ultimately empowering perspective, which although simple, has profound implications.

17 Lee, Eun Hee, Schnall, Simone, Simone, The influence 143(4). (Aug 2014), pp 1719-1725 143(4).

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social power on weight perception , Journal o Experimental P \ycho/ogy General, Vol

8 Gibson s work on direct perception (Gibson, 1966, 1979) changes the nature

o

the problem facing the organism Perception is not critically

flawed, we have extremely high-quality, direct perceptual access to the world This means means that perception and by extension, the environment) can be a useful resource. rather than a problem to be overcome by cognitive enrichment 19 Eerland et al, (2011 , Adam and Galinsky, Galinsky, (2012), Lak otf an and d Johnson, (1980, 1999), Miles et al, (2010), Gibson, ( 1966, 1979)

 

7

ummary

Memory is a malleable and unreliable way to record reality. t is prone to continuous error err or and thankfully, thankfully, for our purposes, it is open to direct and indirect manipulation. Expectation and imagination can deeply affect experience and memory, and our cognition is not a simple case o f internal mental analysis but part o f a complex system spanning the environment, action and the moment. Wi With th this in mind, it is not hard to see how a simple magic effect might manipulate the experience and memory o f a spectator, especially i f the effect is designed to do so with multiple, mutually supportive and complimentary techniques. This stacked, co-operative, methodological approach is the essence o f how Psychologica will bend reality for the spectator; distorting real memory, implanting false memory, stimulating mirror neurons, creating expectations (which are congruent with both real and imagined events) and creating opportunities for the mind to take desirable cognitive shortcuts. f course this is all just theory; however, it seems to work and it s deeply interesting to me. I hope this chapter has helped convince the reader that this approach is not only possible but completely practical and very reliable. Although Psychologica will also be exploiting the notion o f hallucination, I haven hav en t explained the role that exp expectation, ectation, the imagination and suggestion might play. From a scientific perspective this subject is so vast that I simply don t have time to go into it I think at this point the reader is probably more than aware that expectation-based hallucinations are not only closely related to the material presented in this chapter but are a common feature in conjuring methodology. is

This chapter, as andI its apparent correlation my experimental methodology,trialsincluded speculatively have not conducted anywith serious to test my ideas Uust highly subjective, performance-based analysis). However, Psychologica works, and the reasoning presented throughout this publication is my best understanding o f how and why. why. Hopefully that comes across, rather than a collection o f hokum and non sequiturs. Obviously this is not an academic paper, just an attempt to explain an aspect o f my approach or attitude toward conjuring.

 

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A spectator thinks o a card and the deck s cleanly mixed face up and face down. They see the deck is a complete mess and they take the deck n their hands and mix it further. Without the performer touching the deck, the cards all straighten out with the exception o a playing-card o which they are thinking.

Selection Procedure Introduce a deck as you say,

o

cards, hand the deck to a spectator and ask them to shuffle

I came up with this piece after something that happened to me when I first started in ma magi gic. c. I did di d a card trick an and d a guy took them from me an and d shuffled the the deck face up and ace do down wn.. The deck was a complete mess o ace-up and ace down cards on both sides sides.. He said sa id he was was thinking thinkin g o one and he challenge challenged d me to find it ... I didn t know what to do. I couldn t even touch the deck as he was holding holdi ng the them. m. Imagine that; imagine looking down now to see a mess o ace-up and face down cards between your hands .. and you had to find what I was thinking o Whatt wou Wha would ld yo you u do do? ? It was a disa disaste ster. r. For years year s I thought abo about ut that moment, moment, and an d I wish I could coul d have done something. Over the yea years rs I thought o several things I could have done .. until I finally created create d something inte interes restin ting. g. So I'm going to show you what I wish I could have done back then.

If his sounds like I'm I' m sshowing howing this to you as a form o cheap therapy ... that's because it is.

 

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As we will establish later this is a very important moment: you are implanting the concept and visual image o cards being mixed face up into face down ... while they have the cards in their hands; they have a tactile experience o shuffling and have imagined seeing this mess in their hands. They are also listening to something that apparently happened, so it is something 'in the world'. Over time all o these separate channels o information will become conflated into one experiential channel. Therefore the script above is not jus justt a 'presentation' or 'patter', it is cognitive methodology. Now, we begin by having a card selected, however it is important to create the impression that they simply 'thought' o a card and the following technique is my way o creating a strong impression that they really have just thought o a card. 20 Tak Takee the cards back from the spectator and spread the deck face up from hand to hand, in front o their eyes while looking away as you you say /don want to see the order o f he cards .. /just want you to think o f one o f hem. Close the deck and hold it in a position ready for the fingertip peek and, while continuing to look away, synchronise the following actions and words: I'll. flick through the cards like this I'll.flick this.. You II see lots or reds reds,, blacks and an d numbers spinning around. .. like a roulette wheel. Just say stop somewhere inside and think o f one you yo u see.

Slowly riffl the comer o the deck until they say stop and hold the gap open for them to see; let the cards go and maintain maintai n a break with the little finge finger. r. Make sure the deck is closed and square, ask i they have one in mind, and once they confirm that they have, relax, lower the deck slightly and tum back to look at them and say the following: You

i

You.. probably You prob ably saw quite few fe w different ca cards rds. chan your mind m ind ou like it doesn matter matte r asalong as yo you u have a.car card d can in mind mchange ind.. ge This This is much better than yo you u 'taking 'taking a card'; I want yo you u to think o f one you see so it only exists inside your you r head head..

While delivering the final part o the script above, control the card above the break to the bottom via a shift and a casual bottom slip shuffle, or use a very direct overhand shuffle control by maintaining the break as the deck is levered onto its side, chopping off all the cards above the break and shuffling the remaining cards on top. This control is simple, relaxed and unconsidered. At 20 Over the years many ideas by many magicians have informed aspects Chan Canasta and Del Ray

o

this technique, including Chris Power, Power, Cy Endfield, Eddie Fechter,

 

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the completion o f this sequence subtly deliver downward pressure with your thumb n the middle o f the top card and squeeze s queeze with your you r ffing ingers; ers; this delivers a subtle concave bend to the deck which s imperceptible and over n the blink o f an eye. This longitudinal concave bend will become very useful at a later point n the effect. The above script serves several functions: it introduces the idea o f chaos and chance by mentioning a roulette wheel, allows them to fee feell that they can change their mind and implants the idea that they are just thinking o f a card. f you study the script and choreography a little closer you will see some very clever things going on. With the spectator now 'thinking' o f a card (which unbeknownst to them s under your control at the bottom o f the deck) you now mix the deck face up and face down with a finessed technical and psychological handling o f Sid Lorraine's Slop Shuffle.

Finessed Slop Shuffle I'll I'l l mix the cards/ace up and/ace down .. i f you see the card you re thinking o f ust ignore it Face up and/ace down. at this stage it doesn ~ m t t e r as long as all the cards are in a mess.

As you deliver delive r the above line your left fi fingers ngers have pushed off a portion o f 6 10 cards into the right hand (Fig. (Fig. I). The right hand then revolves palm down and another portion o f 6 10 cards s pushed off under the right-hand portion. The right hand grips both portions and moves to the right (Fig. 2) as it then revolves palm up, and once again another portion o f face-down cards s pushed off under the cards n the right hand. This process o f the right hand turning palm up and palm down as small portions o f cards are added to the portion

n

theoff right hand continues roughly six or seven times unt until il the fina finall portion s pushed into the palm-up right hand and the left hand s left holding the bottom card (Fig. 3). Now the right hand turns palm down and the left hand places the single face down card onto the exposed face-up card on the 'bottom' o f the deck (Fig. 4). Without the slightest hesitation, and n a continuing flowing motion, the right hand turns palm up (turning the deck over) and the palm-down left hand grabs everything (Fig. 5). The left hand now turns palm up (Fig. 6) and the deck s displayed for a brief moment before it s delivered into an overhand shuffle position (Fig. 7).

 

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Fig. I)

Fig. 2

Fig. 3)

Fig. 4)

Fig. 5

Fig. 6)

 

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This is a finessed finessed han handling dling o he Slop Shuffle. However, there are some important points to bear in mind: the exact nature o the movements communicates a casuall randomness and maximises the perception o contrast while making the casua movement o the selection look more incidental. This aall ll happens in conjunction with the script above, which takes their focus away from the mixing and temporarily makes them focus on the possible appearance o their selection. The Slop Shuffle Shuffle iiss largely largely considered conside red an amateurish move, a begi be gi nn nner er s technique lacking in the sophistication and deceptiveness o mode modem m techniques. I believe that this perception is not only inaccurate, but in fact, the Slop Shuffle (when executed well) is the most psychologically and visually deceptive mixing technique in existence. However, it requires that you overcome your elitist assumption, remove your ego from the equation and instead objectively look at the expression o he technique. technique. It s a thing o sheer beauty. What follows are some simple and direct convince conv incers rs which simultaneously prepare the deck for the climax while further further compoun compounding ding the impres impression sion o a genuinely mixed deck.

Overhand Mess Shuffle With the deck in position for an overhand shuffle (Fig. 7) the left thumb chops o a small portion o I 0-15 cards (Fig. 8); this packet is picked up behind the rest o the deck as the left thumb chops o another 10-15 cards (Fig. 9). At this point all that is important is that there is a face-up card visible on the front o the portion in the right hand. Now everything in the right hand is brought down onto the packet in the left hand, as the left thumb grasps the packet above the break (Fig. IO; exaggerated for clarity). The right hand now lifts all the cards ; this beneath break, the left fingers fingers push up on the rear rearmost most (Fig.and face position the looks veryashaphazard and convincing as there are card face-up down cards visible in both packets. No w bring the right-hand packet down onto the cards in the left h Now hand, and, but as you do so, pin the face-down card with the left thumb thu mb as you yourr right fi fingers ngers lift up on the face-up cards and move them from side to side in an apparent mixing motion (Fig. 12 12). ). At some point continue to push up on the rearm rearmost ost card,21 leaving the deck in an apparently chaotic state (Fig. 13 ), which you allow to be displayed at the fingertips for a brief moment. 21 This is a brilliant touch which I first learned from Gree

shuffle he called the Gre ek Shuffle Mag C Vol I, VHS by Lennart Green in a shuffle

 

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A close study o the Overhand Mess Shuffle will reveal that it is technically a combination o very old and simple full-deck false-shuffle techniques; however, its visual expression is very different and incredibly convincing when choreographed in this way. You now tap the protruding cards square with the right fingers. With the deck now square you separate the cards at the point where the cards meet back to back (made easier by the longitudinal concave bridge) by lifting the top half o with the right hand and turning the hand palm up (Fig. 14 . The right hand now reverses its actions but keeps a break between the halves, and then the right hand lifts off a small portion o 10-20 cards and once again turns palm up (Fig. 15 . This moment occurs as you say: a moment you are going to hold on to the deck yourself. . and mix the deck some more. Jn

You now replace the right-hand cards onto the cards above the break and immediately execute a half pass with all the cards below the break as you raise

the deck to the fingertips and manoeuvre it into a longitudinal position (Fig. 16 . This entire sequence happens in one simple, smooth and flowing action and will be completely imperceptible.

Hallucination Shuffle You are now about to execute a very special shuffle o mine that I call the Hallucination Shuffle. This shuffle is incredibly convincing and will actually induce a form o hallucination based on a small amount o visual stimulus,

expecta expectation tion ns and and verbal verba l priming. priming Unfortunately like livent ke all alhim l mexpectatio expectation-based n-based hallucinations hallucinatio - the performer's performer 's . knowledge knowl edge will -pre prevent hi fro from m person personally ally experiencing the illusion. But before you do that .. lets give the deck one more shuffle so you can see the cards mixing . face up and ac acee do down. wn.

As you deliver the above sentence, split the deck in half as i preparing to execute a Faro Shuffle (Fig. 17), weave the two halves together, making sure that the face-down card is on top, and manoeuvre the deck into a position so that you can bend the cards and cause them to visually cascade together (Fig. 18 . Here comes the most deceptive aspect o the Hallucination Shuffle: as the

 

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(Fig. 17)

(Fig. 18)

pressure is released and the cards are visibly visibl y shuffling toget together her (Fig. 19 19), ), the spectator should be looking directly into the space/arch o the shuffle at the exact momen momentt you say the words, " .. face up n d face down " The cards are now handed to the spectator in thei theirr unsquared condition conditi on (Fig. 20). The mixture o visual stimulus, verbal priming and expectation will cause the spectator to perceive a perfect perfe ct mess o face-up and face-down cards falling randomly before their eyes, even though there are only face-up cards falling The Hallucination Shuffle is not a false shuffle in the traditional sense but rather falsee perception via a visual hallucination. a real shuffle which creates a fals hallucination . I cannot stress strongly strongly enough e nough how convincing convi ncing this technique techn ique is is;; just make sure that the face-down card on top is clearly seen throughout, and the cascade is sharp and