Hangman The Game

So you want to win every game of "hangman" you ever play? How can you do that? Well we mentalists have a plethora of ways to know what your thinking. In almost all mentalism there are only 4 principals in play.

They are,

Force it; This means making someone choose what you want, without their knowing.

Find it out; After something has been done (like writing something down) we find out what it is . More on that in a minute.

Fake it; Act as though we know something (Like in cold reading) that we in fact don't know, but pretend that we do.

Fill it in; Where we can do double writing or use a swami gimmick. Look to future posts for those explanations.

For now lets deal with find it out. In our example we are going to play hangman with a participant, and we want to know in advance the word they are using before the game begins? Some might use what is know as "pre show work" This just means that before a performance we approach somebody before the show and ask them to help during our performance. They're not in, on what we are going to do, but are asked to think of something, which they are to recount latter on in our performance. Because we don't want them to forget, we have them write it down, like on a clip board or book cover, and to take the paper with them, (to prove what they will say latter on) This is where the dirty work happens! We as mentalists have developed special pads, clip boards, books and the like that will take impressions of what is written so that we can latter read the words or whatever has been drawn. These are called "Impression Devices" duh, and are readily available at most, if not all magic shops.

So here is how the scenario might go with the hangman game? "Excuse me sir. Latter on in my performance I'd like to use you would you mind helping out?" If he says yes we continue with "Good. I want to play a game of hangman with you and will be asking you to think of a word for the game. Do you understand?" If he says yes we continue, "Good. Now many people get nervous when helping out and I don't want you to forget the word, so just write it down so you don't forget." See how the mentalist makes it out to be for the participants benefit when in fact it's for his own. After the guy writes down his word (atop the impression device) the mentallist thanks the participant and sends him on his way.

During the performance the mentalist calls upon the "helper" and says something like " Now although I approached you before the show I have no way of knowing WHAT YOUR THINKING OF. Giving the impression (no pun intended)  that all the guy did was THINK of a word. That's it, the whole trick in a nutshell. They go on with the game but since the performer knows what the spectator wrote, it's no big deal to recount it. This technique is used quite often, and should be suspected whenever these kinds of presentations are made.

There you have it another "secret" shared with you my readers. Remember I post purely my own opinions and for entertainment only. Thanks for reading and till next time.

Iain Dunford

At this point you have to be wondering, is this guy just making these names up?  Well I can assure you  this is a real person. Well he's another so called mentalism writer, like that guy Pablo only  this guy is from England instead of Mexico or wherever Amira is from.  He recently let me know about a site that mimics this one called "the sh*t-list". I'm not really sure what the site is about except that it talks of a Jdmagic and one David Samaria. Now I don't know who these people are so I Googled the name and came up with this,

http://www.samariachurchofchrist.com/about-us/evangelist

Why in Gods name would somebody want to cast dispersions on a man of the cloth, is beyond me? So I started looking more into the Iain person and found that basically he trolls forums all day and every so often puts out an ebook he tries to sell as something worth wild, but isn't often received very well.

His books have names like, The Hateful Page Book Test, The Games People Play, and The Beautiful Lie. With names like those it's no wonder he would try hurting a man of God as he does with that blog. I'm not even going to comment on the content of books as it's just not worth my time or yours in my opinion. Anyway back to his trolling ways, on one popular forum when you pull up his most recent posts, all that comes up is his insistent complaining of others and their posts. He adds nothing to the content of discussions, and tries to
play cop or something?  You can see for yourself here:

http://www.themagiccafe.com/forums/search_results_posts.php?search_id=7016812

He seems like a person who was ignored as a child so I'll guess he has some siblings that really out did him in life, and he is always living in their shadows. If not, it's he himself who finds his existence so loathful and spends most of his time wishing he would have done things different. I feel sorry for the guy, but not so sorry that he will escape his own actions. To undermine a religious person because your mad at somebody, seems quite reprehensible?

In my opinion Iain Dunford needs to get a life and concentrate more on himself, than others. When you have as many problems as this guy does, in my opinion it would be better if he got help, rather than fumbling around all day on his computer. I think it very sad, to not have as much a life as the rest of us, and wish him well.

These are my opinions. They are strictly my own, and are meant to be for entertainment proposes only.

UPDATE!

Well it seems Truth About Mentalists has once again righted a wrong. That popular forum where Bob Cassidy plays psychiatrist has done the right thing, and deleted the thread discussing this blog and that poor boy Theodore Fraser. Good thing, I saved the pages on my hard drive. Should the parents ever need them as evidence. I hope it never comes to that, but such irresponsible behavior can't just be ignored. Till next time.

UPDATE!

Now we go from what might have been entertaining to downright dangerous! On a popular forum there is a person named Theodore Fraser who says he "was diagnosed a Sociopath as a child" But Bob Cassidy in his infinite knowledge and wisdom sees fit to say "Theo- You may be a bit whacky sometimes, but you are NOT a sociopath." Here is where you can find it;


http://www.themagiccafe.com/forums/viewtopic.php?topic=409458&forum=82&158&start=60

Now I'm not a lawyer, but it would seem to me that if one practices psychiatry without a license, they may have some splaning to do if God forbid, something adversely happens to that poor boy, as a result of Bob's diagnosis?  Another example of how in my opinion, the good "Dr." over steps his bounds with reckless abandon of all sense. When, oh when, will he learn?

UPDATE!

Well seems like flip flopping Pablo does it again, and has paid for those stolen books. On a popular forum he says, "I rethink this subtle missunderstanding that I have with the eBook/Book thing. Docc knows that I love his work and for that reason I pay him back the money and already download the 3 eBooks." Well of course I have no way of verifying this, but if true, then consider it the first of many wrongs this blog will try to right. Now if he, would just consider the brave men and women who gave their lives for THIS country, that would really be something. We will see?

Pablo Amira

Yeah I know another who, in this metalism thing. Well while I had never heard of him before, I'm certainly aware of him today. Seems as thought he's had a recent beef with one Docc Hilford over a deal that Docc's offers on his website http://www.docchilfordproducts.com/scarletdragon/ problem was poor Pablo didn't realize it was ebooks he was buying and instead of asking questions, asked for a refund. That wouldn't have been bad, except that he had already gotten the ebooks. So in essence he stole them from Docc since he got the books and the money back.

If that was all this punk did it would be enough to condemn him, but the guy was on a personal crusade to black ball one Jose Prager, from entering into the mentalism market by using, slanderous lies. He has since changed his tune, but the damage had already been done. This is a common theme with this flip flopping dweeb, that he just can't seem to make up his mind about anything? In one popular forum, he says paraphrase "I'm not going to participate anymore in this forum" then comes back when he has something to sell. He Says paraphrase "Jose Prager's products should be avoided because he dosn't respect creators" and then says "Ethically speaking you should do it if your feel it. If you came up with your presentation and method in an independent way, I don't find necessary to asks permissions. If you publish your idea and you know about that similar idea, is better to give references for further study." What a confused mind he has.

And finally this so called mentalist, is on some sort of mission to help Japan. Now in and of itself this isn't a bad thing, but when we consider that he isn't doing anything for the victims of Pearl Harbor I think it speaks volumes about him as a person. Sure lets help those who killed innocent men and women in Hawaii, but to those familys that greve so from the lose of there fathers and mothers lets do nothing. I think it somewhat hypocritical and counter U.S. sentiments.

On a personal note my father was killed at Pearl Harbor and I find it in extremely bad taste to care so much for those who are responsible for his death, without some acknowledgment of the brave who fought for this country. On that note, I'll leave you to consider this when thinking about Pablo, and when wanting to buy his EBOOKS. Yeah that's right the same thing he complained about buying from Docc Hilford is what this punk sells himself.

As always the opinions expressed in the blog are my own and to be taken as entertainment. Till next time.

More On The Billet Switch.

What is the billet switch? Your first question should be what's a billet? A billet is a small piece of paper. That's it. The size is about that of a small post-it note and in fact post-its are often used as billets in effects. Another thing used is 3x5 index cards such as those used by the good Dr. that are cut in half making two pieces 3 x 2 1/2. These are folded in quarters. In total you have 3 at least for the name place or remote viewing trick that Mr. master mind-reader does.

To prepare you put 2 of the above billets in your right pocket with 2 pencils. In you left pocket you have the 3rd billet along with a white disposable lighter. You hand out the two pieces of paper to two spectators along with the pencils and ask one person to write the name of a famous person. The other is write the name of a place. (in the remote viewing version it's place place). The papers are mixed by one of the participants and one is handed to the performer for burning. He (the performer) while removing the lighter from his pocket also
brings out the "dummy billet" finger palmed. Then in the act of transferring the lighter from one hand to the other, switches the dummy for the actual billet with the writing on it. This is called the lighter switch and was invented by Richard Osterlind who wasn't credited with it by the Bobster. (SHAMEFUL) Ok so when the perform goes into his pocket for the lighter he leaves the slip with the written information on in there with some other slips which he will bring out after burning the dummy. Now after the dummy burns the performer reaches into the pocket where he dumped the one with the writing and withdraws it with the other slips as if all he has are blank pieces of paper. The mentalist instructs the spectator holding the other billet to concentrate on what she's holding while he mimes writing on one of the blank pieces. In reality he's looking right at what one of them wrote. Here begins to tell the person about what they wrote acting as if this is whats in the participants hand but in fact is detailing what he has seen. At this point he takes the slip being held by the spectator to "verify" that he's right miscalling it and memorizing what it says for the second reveal to come. He then tosses the paper away as if it's of no importance only to then revel the second word.

This may all seem confusing but if you watch these youtube videos, it will all make sense. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ke_jjAuwy8 or http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQpVZ9xQW-8&feature=related The point is there is no special powers at work just good  old fashioned chicanery.

That's all for now. Remember these are all just my opinions and for entertainment proposes.