Bob Cassidy - Intuitively Yours

Intuitively yours,

He has seen the face of man and watched in silence Invisible behind the screen of leaves, and safe from death’s shadow.

Intuitively yours, A Talk by Bob Cassidy Copyright 2003 by Sacred Chao Productions Seattle, Washington

It’s not always, what’s in the picture that counts. You must also see what’s missing.

.

Part One The Program

It's no secret that public and keynote speaking is one of the most lucrative markets for the skilled mentalist. Instead of earning $500 to $1500 for a typical program, the speaker generally makes ten times that. Many of the mentalists I know, though, feel a bit awkward with the idea of wrapping a piece of entertainment up as a serious lecture. probably because of the natural feeling that’s it’s just a bit dishonest to use mentalism as a means of “selling” pop psychology or spurious science. It was exactly the problem that initially prevented me from taking public speaking too seriously. Sure, things like memory, kinesics (body language) and various other forms of non-verbal communication, offered themes that a mentalist could develop seriously, they just didn’t seem as “amazing” to me as straight “scientific mind reading” (whatever that is) or “paranormal” presentations. My friend Bill Tadlock, a fine mentalist and speaker, once suggested to me that I explore “intuition” as a theme. I politely told him that I thought it was a good idea – and I did, really. The fact that many people view intuition, hunches and precognitive “feelings” as being more “legitimate” than psychic functioning gives the idea a broad commercial appeal - but I had a hard time picturing myself selling picture duplications or book tests as examples of “the intuitive power that exists within us all – and how you can make it work for you, etc etc.” And I never really cared much for pumped-up and inspirational “self-help” presentations. “DO YOU FEEL THE POWER” seemed to be an approach better suited to the Rev Dr. Bob, who takes a much more pragmatic approach than I – “They feel the power and I feel the green, and what’s wrong with a good feel now and then?” is usually the way he puts it. (Return engagements are not one of his specialties - they are too likely to result in his being held over for five to ten years.) Bur something in me told me this was the way to go. And I had a gut feeling it would work well for me. I don’t know how I knew I just did. I guess I really do believe in it. ____________________________________________________

What follows is the entire presentation of intuitively yours. While I have always considered “effects” to be of secondary importance in creating an effective mentalism act – persona and stage presence are what make or break the act – they are even less important in a lecture presentation. The right effects, to be sure, performed properly can give the mentalist an aura of authority in the eyes of the audience. But I think they really serve to ease “mentalist’s guilt” – the feeling that unless you do at least a couple of amazing things you’re not earning your money. That’s why the effects are explained separately in Part Two. You probably have many routines of your own that could worked into the presentation as effectively as any other, and you shouldn’t hesitate to use them, as long as they don’t take away from the whole point of a speaking gig – You are supposed to be giving the audience something they can use, not merely 45 minutes of entertainment. (That’s why good speakers are paid more than a performer whose sole purpose is to amuse and amaze.) As in my previous descriptions, my comments, analysis and stage directions are all in italics and the actual script is bold-faced. (As are the effects, as you will see.) I shouldn’t have to tell any of you that I don’t approve of line-by-line memorization of someone else’s script. Follow the gist of it, but make the words your own. (Even the jokes. I don’t know why so many magicians and mentalists think that certain jokes have to be told exactly the same way by everyone or else they’re not funny. Usually, they’re not funny precisely because of that inane idea. And, please, don’t include jokes in a lecture presentation unless they at least have something to do with the topic or serve to make a point or bring it home. If you don’t understand a joke or have a good idea of why it makes people laugh, do NOT use it. (While professional comedians will generally agree with that, many will point out that some things are funny for reasons that no one will ever understand, but only if done in a certain way, and only if the words have a certain numbers of syllables and/or begin with “K” or end in “ey”, etc. And they are absolutely right – “turkey” or “chicken” are funnier than “swan”, but arguably more or less amusing than “duck”. Factors such as a regional accent, the performer’s race, sex or weight, and at least two or three hundred other elements that make no sense at all except to those who “understand” the joke in the first place. This has less to do with “getting” the joke – obviously NOT getting it has been very effective for many performers – than with “having an ear” for what is funny. Corporate and professional engagements are not good places to figure these things out, so if the few jokes I’ve included don’t seem to make sense to you, or just don’t seem funny – DON’T USE THEM!! I have made such a big deal about comedy, because the same principles hold true for all of the lines you deliver- HOW YA SAY, WHERE YA SAY, WHO YA SAY, and WHAT YA SAY are not mutually exclusive considerations.

All of this relates to another point you should keep in mind when you first read through the presentation, and later, when you are writing your own script – the important differences between the WRITTEN and SPOKEN language. What looks right on paper, rarely sounds right on stage – especially if the author has never read the lines aloud. The sound and tone of the performer’s talk are critically important to the message he gives. So when you read the script and notice, for example, that I often use the word “like” where “as” is the correct usage – If you say the lines aloud BOTH ways, and listen to their rhythm you will asly sike not see why I chose one over the other. (more or less)

The Introduction

One of the nice things about speaking engagements, besides getting to eat at the head table, is that the speaker is usually introduced the way he would like to be, rather than in the manner the introducer thinks is appropriate and/or funny. I don’t know why this is so, but, it seems like everybody who gets to hold a microphone these days thinks he’s been magically transformed into a professional comic or singer. It’s like Karaoke - “I hold the mike, and I’m a star!” You know how it goes. You write up an introduction for the emcee, which he doesn’t bother to read because he knows “just the thing” for this audience. Rather than the “master mind of modern mystery, the Amazing________________”, which was printed on the card you gave him, he says something like, “And now it’s time to hold onto your wallets, folks. No, no –I mean this guy is supposed to be a good magician. Maybe he can make my wife disappear.” And you’re halfway down the toilet before the audience even sees you. Corporate affairs are quite different. No wife jokes. Instead, you’re likely to hear… “I understand our speaker is more amazing than Dick Bradley’s weave job!” Not really,… that sort of thing happens, but only rarely. The old adage is true, the more you are getting paid, the more respect you get and most of the time you will be introduced exactly as you want to be. The exact words are not that important, but the master of ceremonies should end his introduction with something like this: “There’s an old saying – what if one day you woke up and found out that everything you thought you knew was wrong? I understand our speaker is going to explain how knowing all the wrong things is the only way you’ll ever really understand anything. And my intuition tells me he’s probably right. Please welcome the author of Intuitively Yours, Mr. Bob Cassidy.” (It is strongly suggested that you substitute your own name for ‘Bob Cassidy.’)

The important points here are contained in the last two sentences, although the opening lines are very useful if delivered seriously. Mention of a recent book or a major appearance immediately establishes your credibility with most audiences (exactly why this is so remains one of life’s stranger mysteries) The line “And my intuition tells me he’s probably right,” sets up the speaker’s opening line.

THE PRESENTATION

Speaker moves to front of room and, standing still, faces the audience for a mental count of three. He smiles, nods to the master of ceremonies, looks at the audience, and takes another quick glance toward the emcee before saying to the audience: I KNEW he was going to say that. Really. And he’s right, you know. I’m sure that everyone here has had the experience of waking up one morning with the realization that the entire world had suddenly changed. It happens at each of the defining points in our lives. The day we graduated high school. The day we were married. Great events and tragic ones. Everyone in my parents’ generation knew where they were the day President Franklin Roosevelt died. Those in my generation – and I see almost all of you showed up – we know exactly where we were when President Kennedy was shot. Before he died, Roosevelt had been elected president four times and was in the White House for almost our parents’ entire lives. The idea that he was no longer there was so unusual that his very absence made his passing a major event in the lives of a generation. Now Kennedy was only president for a thousand days before he was shot, but for my generation the only president we’d ever had before him was Eisenhower. And for a bunch of young teenagers, he seemed a lot like a grandfather. Kennedy, though, looked young enough to be his son. A boyish war hero who looked like a movie star.

You may be wondering what this has to do with intuition. Nothing. The audience is being set up royally. He was the youngest president since TeddyRoosevelt and his election seemed to usher in an entire new generation. How many of you remember how Kennedy broke traditions? Not so much because he was the first Catholic to be elected president, but more for representing a new American attitude. Those of you who remember his inauguration… think back. Remember how he walked down Pennsylvania Avenue in the parade? Remember how he broke a century old tradition by not wearing a top hat – walking bareheaded to the ceremony and almost single handedly destroying the men’s hat industry? Can you picture it? Do you remember that day sir? Sure, we all remember it. We saw it on TV – another first.

The problem is that it never happened - yet most of us remember it that way. But his top hat and traditional morning coat can be seen in every picture taken of him as he walked down Pennsylvania Avenue with the elderly Eisenhower at his side. (Eisenhower wore a fedora – and you don’t want to remember want Lyndon wore – Who said a cowboy hat? No – we actually just remember it all wrong. All of our memories are handled that way. And the further into the past a memory recedes, the less likely it will resemble anything that could be remotely described as truth – an imaginary standard that purports to measure things we never saw in the first place. So where’d you get the idea that Kennedy went hatless? Your intuition told you! Why would it tell you something like that? You lie to it, it lies to you. You assume, it assumes. You believe, it believes.

The Kennedy anecdote is true. There are sites all over the Internet where you can get material of this kind suitable for almost any generation. Since corporate audiences cover a large age range – although the average appears to be dropping lately, that may be because it’s really me pulling ahead – the Kennedy story will connect with audiences in their mid forties and upwards. I have found very few people in that age range who don’t recall the “Hatless Inaugural” and many who refuse to believe it never happened. We have arrived at a stage that defines the tone of the talk. I purposely lightened it up because it has disturbing implications if you want to press the issue. The politically correct/obtuse (these are synonyms) will say “What are those implications?” and the Dr. Bobs of the world will tell them, but it is not wise to get into these things before what are often very conservative audiences. (Dr. Bob says that’s the only time to do it and claims to have an old bottle of MogenDavid that was actually served at the event. But I think the point is made simply by realizing that we can’t even remember things we’ve seen with our own eyes while assumedly sober.) Before I show you how your intuition can be trained, relatively simply, to give you useful information with a degree of accuracy that makes it seem almost psychic, I’d like to try two simple experiments with everyone here this evening and a rather difficult test with just one of you. If you would all just sit straight up in your chairs with your hands palm up in your laps. Take a deeeeep breath and relax.

Now do you see how easy it is to let your mind create false impressions? That’s it, take another deeeep breath. I am sure several of you have already come to the conclusion that I am either going to hypnotize you or at least demonstrate a relaxing, possibly meditative technique. How many of you thought that? – Don’t raise your hands. Keep them palm up in your lap.

There are two reasons you have them keep their hands in their laps. The obvious one will be clear in a second. The subtle one is that by not being able to raise their hands, there is no way for the audience to know how many of its members actually made the hypnosis or meditation assumption. When you explain, in the next line, that most of them did, there is no evidence to prove you wrong. (And, besides, you are an “authority” – they once again assume that you are right. You do not explain this technique in your talk. You save it as a wonderful little secret we will keep amongst ourselves.) Most of you thought that, however. Most everyone assumes that. Why? I have no idea. There is no reason to come to that conclusion and even if there were, you would be wrong. I need you to sit there like that so you can’t see your wristwatches. Anybody wearing their watch with the face on the inside of their wrist please turn your hands over. I don’t want you to see the faces because that would defeat the purpose of a simple memory test that will show you how little we actually notice about the things we take for granted and see every day. You can take another deep breath if you like, but you don’t have to Some watches, as you know, have Roman numerals. Others have modern Arabic numbers and still others only have dots or lines instead of numbers on their faces. Don’t look at your watches. Just imagine that you are looking at them. Imagine that you are looking at the number six on your watch. Decide if it is Roman, Arabic, a dot or a line. You should have made up your minds by now. (If you haven’t, I think you already see my point.) Now look at your watches and see if you were correct. Lets have a show of hands. – How many of you were correct? Incorrect? How many of you are lying? Only kidding. NOW LOOK DIRECTLY AT ME. KEEP YOUR EYES ON MINE. No – no hypnosis, I just don’t want you peeking at your watches again. You just looked at them. So, you should have no problem with this. Now exactly. What time is it?

This is my presentation of an idea that has been used for years by many mentalists and memory workers. I added the hypnosis angle to illustrate how easily we can jump to conclusions based on minimal evidence .

Invariably, at least half of the audience won’t know what kind of six is on their watches. Another ten percent, depending on what is currently fashionable, will not even have sixes on their watch face; a small dial or logo occupies that position. Almost none of them will have a clue as to the exact time unless you have failed to cover a clock on the wall behind you. But, even then, the test is safe to do. For most people, even though they are looking right at it, won’t consciously see that right away, either. This sets you up for another line- “Well there’s one right in front of you – care to hazard a guess?”(Be careful with your delivery when you use lines like this. Remember the earlier discussion about what works in a particular room.) Ok – don’t be embarrassed. There’s no need to be. Just relax again and this time I’ll give you something that you can calculate and visualize completely with your imaginations. Certainly, it’s a lot easier to remember something we are consciously imagining. Note how the use of the word ‘calculate’ sets this puzzle up in a manner usually not seen. Also, watch how the depot fits in. Visualize this. You can close your eyes if that helps. Ok. You’re driving a bus. Yes, a bus is just leaving the depot. See it all happening in your mind. The bus leaves the depot and drives to its first stop, where eight people board. At the next stop, four more passengers get aboard and three get off. At the next stop, three more get on and no one gets off, but at the stop after that fifteen get on and only one gets off.

Pick up speed as you go with this. It adds a bit of excitement and confusion that works in your favor. At the next stop, no one gets on but three depart. When the bus arrives at the main intersection, in town, three people get off and eighteen crowd aboard. Ok. Did you visualize all of that? Good. How many stops did the bus make?

This is not what most of them expected you to ask, and they have no idea how many times it stopped, they were too busy counting passengers. Oh, did you think I was going to ask you about the number of passengers? There were a lot of them weren’t there? But none of you could possibly know the answer to that question.

Many will argue the point. Just smile while they tell you how many were left on the bus, and then say: Well, I’m not even sure of the number myself, but how can any of you possibly be right? I don’t think I told you how many got on the bus at the depot where it started. What we're seeing here is an example of the strong power of assumption. Examples of what happens when we try to analyze the information being filtered into our minds without knowing what we are looking for, but looking for it anyway and, in some cases, staring straight at it but not seeing it at all.

The performer turns to a participant seated near the front of the room Oh, yes. There’s one more question. What was the driver’s name?

I am sure that many of you have heard this sort of misleading, out of left field type question before, but note there are a few extra questions in this presentation that help to further illustrate the dangers of anticipation and assumption. This is where you might want to elaborate on these points, but for the average presentation it is best to move on to the next test– the first of the four effects described in Part Two. I think it’s pretty clear how easily we can color our perceptions of events simply by thinking about what we are “supposed” to be thinking about, or what we “think” we ought to be thinking about, limiting our already limited senses even further. As I said earlier – our senses are really filters. While most of us assume – again - that our five senses give us access to vast amounts of information, we rarely consider that they may have another, completely opposite purpose – to FILTER OUT INFORMATION THAT IS NOT NECESSARY TO OUR IMMEDIATE WELL BEING AND SURVIVAL. Information that would literally overwhelm the brain if it were allowed to pass freely. This is the kind of information that ends up being stored in that part of our mind called the subconscious by psychologists who assume it must exist simply because it must. Old school behaviorists assumed that it couldn’t, and those philosophers who originally called themselves mentalists logically concluded that the subconscious equally existed or failed to exist according to the mind set and reality view of the observer… God, I miss the sixties. But whatever we call it there is an area where all of these nonessential, and essentially nonobserved, memories are stored - some accurate, some incomprehensible, and some, I imagine, far too terrible for comprehension. It is the source of what we usually call intuition.

The word intuition, then, does not refer to paranormal ability – although when used properly the results can truly seem psychic.

[NOTE: In the interest of keeping this script clear to the reader, I have purposely avoided referring to something the speaker has been doing for the last few minutes. It is not really mentioned to the audience, but he does not attempt to hide it either. He is just showing a stack of three by five cards to various members of the audience. Apparently, they have cities and countries written or pictured on them because he occasionally says things like, “Ever been to any of these places?” or “Do these mean anything to you?” At one point he speaks a little louder to a spectator, and many overhear him say “Wow, you really reacted to one of those. Have you been there before? Don’t tell anyone what’s going through your mind just yet. Just keep the thought firmly in your mind.” I’ll get back to this in a bit.] But to truly understand how intuition can be an effective tool in almost any human endeavor, we first have to get past a misconception about intuitionIt usually comes up in an example of intuitive functioning that goes something like this – You enter the office of a man whom you’ve never met before. A large and comfortable leather chair sits behind a highly polished antique desk. There is a photograph of two teenage boys on the desk as well as a picture of a very attractive and obviously athletic woman who appears to be in her mid-forties. On the wall is a framed degree from a local college and hardbound psychological reference books pack the shelves, which cover all four walls from floor to ceiling. There is an ashtray on the table, which contains two cigarette butts, one stained with lipstick. You observe all of these things very carefully. Are you all imagining this? Good. Now based on what you’ve seen, what can you deduce about the man who owns the office? The answer is “nothing”, really. And what you are consciously observing in the room is not something your intuition is going to help you with. Not at the moment, anyway. It’s the things that slip by your conscious awareness – the things you don’t “see”, but that you need to see, that your intuition will tell you about.

Here’s an interesting example – A few minutes ago I showed several of you a stack of index cards, each of which had the name of a different city printed on it. One of you said that the places really didn’t mean anything to you, but there was a feeling about someone else in the room, someone who you don’t really know. Isn’t that right?

The performer asks the question to a woman on one side of the room. Let me show all of you what I’m talking about.

Here the performer goes into “It’s Not What You Think, But How” (detailed shortly in Part Two) Essentially, both the woman and the man have never met before, yet the woman (whom the performer has not met before) KNOWS that there is something about one of the cities that she thinks is somehow relevant to this complete stranger on the other side of the room. The effect blends into the routine I call “The Nameless Secret.” Now that may have been an example of intuition, or quite possibly, just a coincidence. We just saw the “why” of the connection, but we still don’t know the “how.” We don’t know just what it was that triggered a reaction that made her think of this city or that gentleman. Just as pain is nature’s way of telling us that something is wrong in our bodies, intuition tells us when there is something out of place or odd in our environment. Here’s something you should try for yourselves, perhaps after you get home this evening. Try to relive every moment of this day over in your mind, in as much detail as possible. You will be amazed at some of the details you are able to recall when you let your mind just roam over the memories of the day. Tomorrow make a conscious point of SEEING and HEARING everything- even to the point of mentally telling yourself what you are seeing and hearing—don’t try to memorize – just consciously observe. And look at the details. The richer the detail the richer the entry that will find its way into your unconscious data bank. This is a simple way of getting a peek at much of the information that would normally pass into the intuitive mind that “sees and hears” things all of the time – whether you were aware of it or not. There’s nothing supernatural here. It is the most likely explanation for the phenomenon we call déjà vu – the sense “of having been there” or of “having this conversation once before.” Intuition is actually simple and when enriched by a large data bank of memories and observations it serves us most effectively in its ability to detect when there is indeed “something wrong with this picture.” But it doesn’t usually tell you WHAT is wrong, or WHAT is out of place. That is where experience comes in and why some people are called very intuitive because of their uncanny ability to detect when someone is lying.

What happens here can be very funny because it is completely inappropriate. Your cell phone rings and takes you into a seemingly impromptu demonstration of coincidence combined with the intuitive recognition of an impending coincidence. It’s called “Celluphone” and is detailed in Part Two. Its placement in the show is highly variable, as it is even more effective if someone else’s phone rings, a not uncommon occurrence, which deserves to be taken advantage of. When it comes to interpretation, an intuitive feeling can be as valuable as a lie detector test – which, in and of itself, is completely useless. Its value is directly proportionate to the skill of the polygraph examiner. The device itself is simply measures respiration, heartbeat and galvanic skin response – three graphs – polygraph. An unusual movement on one or more of the graphs can mean any number of things, depending on the nature and or relevancy of the question that prompted the particular response. Careful elimination of all other causes that could be responsible for the movement is necessary before a reliable conclusion can be reached regarding the meaning of the reaction. This is why polygraph results are only admissible on the Maury Povitch and Jenny Jones shows, and NOT in any court of law. (In the case of the television shows, though, the polygraph has proven itself to be one of the most reliable ways of detecting stupid people who may be hiding in our midst) An intuitive person can often detect lies simply by monitoring his or her OWN reactions to the statements or actions of others. But again, the reaction itself means nothing. It is skill in interpretation against the backdrop of a rich subconscious database that gives value to the ability.

The above sequence is intentionally a bit more detailed than an actual performance. I have given it to you this way to illustrate the different approaches that can be taken. Here is an example:

The example that follows is a very straightforward demonstration of lie detection that uses two common props. It is called A Dare to Forget and is detailed in the next section. Again, it is important to keep in mind that the program is very flexible in terms of the effects you can include. This is very important to consider near the end of the talk. While you may not be selling books or tapes as a keynote speaker, often it seems to be expected, especially at paid admission, as opposed to private, events.

More important than the final effect is the wind up of the talk and how it leads into anything that is to follow – back of room sales, questions from the audience, another speaker, etc. But, in any event, it is important to summarize and the following ties up the topic nicely, As I have demonstrated this evening, there are several important things to remember about intuition, the first of which is that it has nothing to do with paranormal abilities. It is simply a signal from the subconscious or inner mind that something is wrong or that something appears to be missing. The more you can consciously add to the information you have subconsciously acquired over the years, the richer your intuitive source becomes. It is very important to recognize an intuitive response. A slight ringing in the ears, a flash of nervousness or fear, a strong feeling or sudden emotional response accompanied by a sense of déjà vu or distant recognition – all of these can be signals. They can also be caused by tinnitus, ptomaine poisoning, a letter from your wife’s lawyer or a visit from the IRS so it is very important to learn the way the unique ways that you communicate with your inner self. Nowadays, as we saw before, some of us even do it by cell phone. Recognise and respect what your mind is trying to tell you. If you have a nagging feeling about something that has been done, needs to be done, or had better get done, its most likely time to get going. Review all of the events that led up to your intuitive response and make no effort to jump to conclusions. Take your time and don’t ASSUME anything. A developed intuition can tell you all of the things that are wrong about what you always thought was right. Listen to it.

Part Two The Effects

The Nameless Secret

The main criteria for effects used to illustrate points in a talk or lecture is that the props be easily transportable and the effects interchangeable. In other words, you will feel much more comfortable and appear more professional if you’re not the only guest at the dinner or affair who shows up carrying a suitcase. By “interchangeability”, I mean that the sequence and the effects themselves are secondary to the presentation and, since the routine is presented “straight”, should be changed frequently if you do many appearances in a small geographical area. There are two parts to the routine that begins quietly in the background at the conclusion of the bus driver sequence. If you are familiar with my “Strange” Series, you will recognize the cards as being similar to those used in the movie sequence. It is really a pack of Svengali blank index cards. Due to the length of the cards, the short cards (all duplicates of the same city) are cut narrow rather than short. There are fifty cards in my pack, but the exact number is not critical. A short card is forced on the woman by placing the pack on the table in front of her (unless the audience is not seated at tables, in which case the performer extends the pack to her on his outstretched palm. Due to the size of the cards, the only natural way to cut them is by the sides. An alternate approach is to casually force with a one-handed riffle as described in the next paragraph. There is a bit more to it than that, however. Note how the performer’s actions are described in the script. This should give you a pretty good idea of what the audience sees. The performer walks around the room, casually showing the cards to different spectators while he alternately discusses the idea of “Assumptions.” (The cards are held in the right hand with their faces to the audience. The thumb is at the center of the top long side of the horizontally held pack and the fingers are at the bottom. This allows for a very natural looking “Svengali riffle” that doesn’t even remotely remind anyone of the “magic cards they once bought in Atlantic City. The key to the force is that it is done very quietly as the performer is talking to the woman something like this: Have you ever been to any of these places? Hmm. Here lift off a bunch of cards and maybe we’ll get a coincidence or something to happen. Do you know that guy over there in the red jacket? Yeah, by the door. Here, peek at the city – does that one mean anything to you? Not really. Did you say you knew him? You made a strange little look when you saw him. I don’t know, it probably means nothing… I have an idea – wouldn’t it be strange if that city meant something to him? Don’t show me or anyone else the card; just stick it into your purse. I think something may be happening here. The above is nowhere near, as long as it seems. In fact, when I am doing the routine I am talking to the audience and two or three other people who are sitting near the woman. What I like a lot about this part is how it sets up the turnaround, which is about to take place. Later, when the performer is addressing the entire audience he says that for reasons she didn’t understand herself, her attention was drawn to that particular person and she never argues the point. After all, you were both talking about the guy and it hardly seems significant who saw him first.

What is significant is that the performer has pointed out a prospect who he thinks will be suitable for the routine to come. (He could actually ask the women to point out any man in the room, but I think that over-complicates the wording of the turnaround.) The rest of the routine looks like this: The performer verifies with the both the man and the woman that none of them have met before. The performer addresses the man: It’s the strangest thing. You haven’t met before and yet she seemed to feel an association with someplace or something that has to do with you. She took one of the city cards I was showing her earlier and put it into her purse. Now you wouldn’t have any idea, would you, about why she feels she knows you from somewhere? Or what city she somehow associated with you? She didn’t let me see what that was either. . .she put it in her purse. He talks across the room to the woman. Didn’t you put one of those city cards in your purse? And you didn’t show it to anyone? Not even me? He turns back to the gentleman and hands him a paperback world atlas. I have an idea, sir. While I explain to the audience what I think is going on here, I want you to open the atlas at the first page, and look over the basic information about the maps and the number of cities and countries that it contains. The performer turns back to the audience, once again discussing how an intuitive feeling can sometimes just come out of the blue. Turning back to the man, he says. About how many country maps are in there? And there would be tens of thousands of cities, wouldn’t there? And you’ve never seen here before? And yet, she thinks that you have something to do with something but she has no idea what. Open up the atlas anywhere, would you? And just put your finger down on any map and call out nice and loud the city that is nearest your finger. Before you do, though, I’m going to ask you (talking to the girl) to take the index card with the writing on it out of your purse. The one you haven’t shown to anyone. I’m sure you see how it ends. He’s selected the same city that is written on her card.

It's Not What You Think, But How You Think it That Counts

Now please think this through before you dismiss the method. It is a variation of Annemann’s instant stooge idea, but it is handled in such a way that the male volunteer actually picks the wrong city! That is the logical disconnect to the stooge method. If you were using a confederate you wouldn’t purposely get it wrong, would you? Here you do just that, apparently. It’s all based on the paper you’ve glued to the first page of the atlas. It has the following written on it: “There are 250 maps and about 30 cities in the book. READ CAREFULLY – We are secretly doing an intuition test that she doesn’t know about. When I ask you to pick a city, pretend to pick Tampa. When I then ask if you’ve been there say no, but I lived in Orlando for a while.” Now watch how this plays out. You have forced Orlando on the woman. She is standing there with the card in her hand and you ask the man to freely select a city – he goes a long – not as a stooge, really – but because he thinks it is a test on the woman that she doesn’t know about. In other words, you have him completely confused. Ask him what city he picked at random. He’ll say “Tampa.” Ask the woman if that was the same city she was thinking of. She’ll say “No”, but might want to say “Close” or something like that. Just talk over her and the man if he’s ever been to Tampa. Watch her collapse as you retrieve the atlas and put it back in your pocket. Thank the guy and shake his hand, saying, “Watch what happens next.” It is the twist on Tampa and Orlando that gives this its punch and confuses the issue in both of their minds. If the guy asks you about it after the show tell him not to tell her “because she has sees me work all the time – she’s my sister in law She always picks different guys and different cities. I’ve been playing this on her for years! Here, let me get you a drink and I’ll tell you what happened when…” (Or, whatever suits your personality. He won’t talk.)

A Dare to Forget Again, simplicity characterizes the effects I use for speaking engagements. (Yes, I often use some of my more complex billet work, but it is actually much harder to sell that kind of work as anything other than straight telepathy. It’s really too much of a stretch to expect people to believe I can read their mind purely through intuition the way that I have defined the term in the lecture. I would imagine, though, that many of us who have been in this business ever since we were expelled from junior high school in 1964, have gained a lot of new respect for the really simple and direct routines we used to treat as throwaways. And this is extremely clean in appearance, even though some would consider it a “card trick.” (Not me – like I’ve always said – my sister does tricks, I do miracles.) You’ll need a jumbo pack of cards and a psychomatic deck. (Or a telomatic type peek deck. For the uninitiated, this is the pack I explain on my video/DVD “Mental Miracles.” You show the cards to be well mixed and handle and shuffle them very freely. You snap a rubber band around the pack and hand it to a spectator. He or she peeks at a card in the pack and it is the force card. (It is, to my mind, the cleanest method of forcing a card - bar none.) In this routine, the jumbo duplicate of the force card is placed about twelve down from the top of the jumbo pack. The participant peeks a card in the force pack and is told to drop the deck into your side jacket pocket. “I don’t want to touch it, you emphasize.”) The effect is preceded by a brief discussion of the barely perceptible “tells” that enable shrewd card players to know when their opponent is lying or bluffing about his hand. There are very few people in the world that can completely conceal their thoughts from the trained eyes of these human lie detectors. is the approach I use. You have simply peeked a card in a deck of cards, which I have not touched. I am going to use this large pack so the rest of the group will find it a bit easier to see the cards I am about to show you. I fully expect that many of them – if they just listen to their intuitions, will be successful in determining your thought. We shall see. You now pass the cards, one at a time before him asking him to THINK (Don’t move your lips either, that makes it too easy!) to THINK “Not mine” when the card I am showing is NOT HIS! And “Yes that is my card,” when he sees HIS CARD. He is admonished to make every effort to keep from giving a physical sign when he sees his card. (Which, since he will be looking at a duplicate of a force card, really wouldn’t make a difference anyway.)

What is cute about this approach is that if he does follow your instructions, he will be thinking of two words – not mine – when he sees an indifferent card, and FIVE WORDS when he sees his, (Yes that is my card). If you show him the cards at a fairly steady and moderate pace, his eyes will follow his card slightly as you show it to him and then place it to the bottom of the pack. (He is still saying the words in his mind and very often, he’ll stay “Stuck to the card.” A bit longer than usual.) But why take chances. Force the card as described, nail him when he lies, and THEN tell the audience why his eyes moved involuntarily with his selected card. The wise nods in the audience will prove to you that this is accepted as a very plausible explanation of something that could otherwise be explained only by telepathy or cheating!

Celluphone This effect is just about the best use I have for my cellular phone, or, as I indicated in the routine, “someone else’s cellular phone.” The only extra prop you will need one of those ubiquitous refrigerator magnets that have a miniature telephone mounted on them. There are quite a few models around that actually ring twice when the miniature headpiece is pressed. (I got a perfect magnet phone at Office Max – its ring sounds exactly like my cell phone – it is on of the generic rings that everyone seems to discard in favor of The William Tell Overture. The variations of the classic telephone test made possible by combining the magnet, which remains hidden in your pocket throughout the routine, and the phone, should make this one of your most used effects, even outside of the speaking field.] The effect is very clean and goes like this (In one of its many incarnations) At a predetermined time your wife or assistant calls you on your cell phone. If you want to do this with a borrowed phone, you will have to wait for the moment, which will come sooner or later, when a cell phone goes off in your audience that HAS THE SAME RING AS YOURS. Ask to borrow the offender’s phone saying you promised your wife or girlfriend that you would give her a call. Then just stand there in front of them talking on the phone for a minute, then ask them if it’s ok if your girlfriend calls back. It is important because it involves just the sort of “coincidence” that often tells your girlfriend (or wife, or whoever you decided to call) that her intuition is at work. She may call back, then? Thank you. The mentalist turns off the cell phone (you can’t really hang one up, can you?) and says that she’ll call back in about 90 seconds. FROM THIS POINT ON THE ROUTINE IS THE SAME WHETHER YOU ARE USING YOUR OWN PHONE OR SOMEONE ELSE'S. If you started with your own phone, you will have given your girlfriend a call, disconnected and told the group she would be calling back in about 90 seconds.

Now set up any test at all to check your girlfriend’s intuitive abilities. The nature and tone of the test, as well as the way that you handled the initial phone calls is largely dictated by your own personality and the nature of the group. Since you never hung up the phone in the first place, your girlfriend or wife will be able to clearly hear all of the details of the proposed test. She can even take notes if the nature of the test so requires! After about 90 seconds have passed you should be standing with your hands in your pocket and the cell phone laying on a table or chair next to you. Push the button on the magnet phone in your pocket. As long as you are standing near the cell phone there will be no way to tell that the ring did not emanate from the phone. Pick up the phone, pretend to hit the answer button, give a quick “Hi” to your wife and hand the phone to a spectator so he or she may record your wife’s intuitive impressions. (You will be surprised how loud the magnet phones are. In most cases, they are as loud or louder than the cell phone itself. If you cannot get a magnet phone that exactly matches the tone on your own phone, just turn the cell phones ringer off and set it on vibrate. When your girlfriend calls at the prearranged time, you will feel the vibration. This is your cue to secretly hit the button on the magnet phone, creating the perfect impression that your cell phone just rang. Proceed as above. My intuition tells me that you will. And very soon April 2003 Seattle, Washington