The WATERMARK CODEX Mentalism

First Writing (Spanish) ©1999 by Paolo Cavalli Second Writing (English) ©2006 by Paolo Cavalli

This is basically another weapon to add to your arsenal. It’s an INVISIBLE way to mark one or more envelopes. And the best thing about the Watermark Codex is that’s EASY TO READ.

Let me just give you some strong points about it, and that’s not some sort of hype since you have the book in your hands…

STRONG POINTS

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The marks are easily put on the envelopes when you know how

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The marks are INVISIBLE to anyone, including you, if you don’t activate them

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The envelopes can be examined against the light, outdoor or indoor, no trace of any mark will be found

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The marks are always there, it’s just that they are not seen if not activated by you

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The activation of the marks is something very simple and devious

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The marks can be numbers, letters or anything else you like, to an extent

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The marks are easy to read when they have been activated

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You do not need any special apparatus and neither some UV Light to be able to read the marks

The WATERMARk cODEX

I discovered this principle some twenty years ago by reading one of those Science & Fun books for youngsters, it was a different take to exchange pieces of paper with short secret-messages among friends; something comparable to the use of some “invisible” ink (actually, lemon juice) to write some secret-message on a piece of paper and then have your friend to heat-up the paper to see the message appear. But what immediately struck me in the method proposed was that no lemon juice, milk or other messy substance was needed. And my brain went in overdrive!… So, while I cannot take credit for how the laws of chemistry and physics work, I can take full credit for having seen right away the potential strength of that thing related to my field of knowledge: Mentalism. The first thing I skipped was the “appear / disappear” properties of this technique, which, by the way, was the exact experiment proposed in that funny science book; the appearance (and subsequent disappearance) of a short secret-message a la poor man’s secret agent. Plus, I always wanted to leave the appearance and disappearance of stuff to magicians and sleights of hand experts. I always felt, and still feel, that Mentalism is a whole other ground. There are exceptions in my Mentalism view in which you can have a coin or a card appear out of nowhere but, again, those are exceptions and well-pondered ones. With my thinking cap on (sometimes is on even when it should be off!) I went into the “invisibility” direction… Imoment thoughtbefore that if they thosewere shortinvisible, messagesI were appear inused suchthis a simple couldmade havetodefinitely thing way, to putwhen somea invisible marks to most if not all kinds of paper… So, what was better (just for a start!) than marking four letter white envelopes with the numbers from 1 to 4 and then test the results? The results were so good that I decided to test the thing “live” at the first occasion and I did it on a Pseudo-Psychometry kind of routine (with five envelopes) which went remarkably well. The Watermark Codex was born, was in good health, and was kicking!

As you are now going to discover, I called it Watermark Codex for a good reason…

The subtle secret of the Watermark Codex is…

Water!

Now, for the simple method to get this invisible kind of marking on an envelope and then for making it appear or, more properly, making it re-appear (you will understand all of this better in a few moments) at will, you need to get some blank letter envelopes, one ball-point pen, and one glass filled with tap water. Be sure your hands are clean! Take an envelope and plunge the tip of your index finger into the water. Now with the pad of your index finger (which should be wet) you simply “smear” a little bit of your finger’s wetness over a little area of the envelope (I use the left upper portion of the envelope, address side, and I “smear” very little water). Now, you pick up another envelope and tear it open flat so that you have now a single thickness of paper on which you will write with the pen. You place some part of the torn open envelope over the wet area of the other envelope and, with your pen, you write something on it (a number or a letter, just as a test). Do not – I repeat – do not put too much pressure with your pen; we don’t want to leave some embossing on the wet area of the envelope because that engraving would be still visible on that envelope when the wet area dries out. Simply lift up the torn open envelope and let the wet area of the underside envelope to dry out.

When that area will have completely dried out, you will examine your first labor of love… If you can hold your prepared envelopes against some artificial light or direct sunlight and see NO TRACE of the mark you created… Congratulations! You did a good job! If you SEE some trace or indentation mark, then you pressed too hard with the tip of your pen or / and the paper of which your envelopes are made is too soft. The first problem is easily solved… Just try again, applying less and less pressure on your pen’s tip. The second problem is also easy to solve but it will require some “trial and error” on your part. Sometimes, counter-intuitive as it may seem, the best letter envelopes for this kind of marking are the cheap ones. I don’t know for sure if that’s because of the paper pulp they use or because of the kind of grain but, again, sometimes I had some little problem only with some expensive envelopes. Also, some envelopes may wrinkle and crease even if you placed on them a single drop of water with an eyedropper. But that it’s bad only if, when dried out, that area of the envelopes (or the whole envelope) seems wrinkled or weather-beaten. Once again, some experimentation will be needed to solve those nuisances. Another thing you may want to know… I tried my Watermark Codex on different kind of colored letter envelopes and color does not seem to be an issue. If you put your work right, it will work. However, the classic, plain, white letter envelopes are the best ones to use: You will see the marks much more clearly when you will activate them during your performance. Now, for the nest step: How do you activate a mark on an envelope? The answer is simple (and devious). When I need to activate a mark (having the mark re-appear) I simply place my hand close to my mouth like in “thinker” position, and while feigning some concentration, I simply wet the pad of my thumb on my (just previously licked) lips… In some other occasions, if you are not seen, you can also give a quick lick to the pad of your thumb. Listen, I did this way for years and years, and it has always worked FOR ME! If you want to have in your pocket a film canister with some cotton impregnated with water inside of it, then, by all means, do so! That’s your choice!

As soon as I have my thumb-pad licked and wet to go… I simply place it on the area of the envelope where I know I put the marking. I just press a little (very little) but I don’t roll my thumb, I don’t “smear” with my thumb… No! I just apply it with a little pressure and on the target area the mark will re-appear before my very eyes. Yes, of course you can experiment with my Watermark Codex. I applied it to many kind of paper and I still think that the best thing to mark are the envelopes because with them one can perform so many astounding feats… Just about any kind of psychometry, Russian roulette effects, living & dead tests… and much, much more! With my Watermark Codex my aim was to give you yet another way to invisibly mark envelopes and other pieces of paper. The applications you can find for that are endless.

IMPORTANT! In the following pages, you can see the Watermark Codex in action. I took an envelope and I did on it the work explained above (the mark I chose to put is the number 2). Because I did NOT want to resort to some photo trickery, I had a hard time to catch that mark on the photos, and I tried with and without flash. The best I could do is what you are going to see for yourself in the photos that follow.

In this photo (Fig.1) the mark is present on the upper-left portion of this envelope but is by all means invisible to the eye because it has not been activated.

In this photo you should be able to see the activated mark on the upper-left portion of this envelope.

Just in case you did not see the activated mark in the previous photo (Fig.2) I encircled in red color the area of the envelope where the activated mark is (Fig.3).