Where does Psychological Artistry come in? - Mindsways

MINDSWAYS PRISM - JAN 2018

Table of Contents 7

The Four Levels of Attention You are probably familiar with and associate magic with the term Misdirection. However, it is not about misdirection: it is about direction. It is about how the direction and attention of your spectators are dealt with. This is one of the areas that translate across all forms of interaction and communication.

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The Secret Art of Mentalism Mentalism is a way to open up our curiosity for how we think and experience the world. It highlights and evidences how we experience our surroundings, and how we make choices in our lives. Mentalism can have a direct impact on the expectations we all hold. “We do not rise to the level of our expectations, we fall to the level of our training” - Archilochus

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The Way Things Used To Be In this, we’ll go through our own personal archives and highlight some fascinating, charmingly derelict and odd pieces of magic, mentalism and performance that gives you an idea of The Way Things Used To Be. It’s our aim for you to take these ideas and run with them. I know we could all do with a zap of old timey energy, so let’s have a look!

Also In This Issue:

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Hello & Welcome

28

The Neuroscience of Psychological Artistry

16

Number Puzzler

35

Make Me Care - Story Corner

17

Tricks of Mediums

38

Your Book Test

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Hello & Welcome

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elcome to the first ever edition of Mindsways’ Prism!

This is an exciting endeavour! Like all great adventures, it will help us all if we know why we’re doing this. And it all starts with the name: Prism. A prism is a scientific instrument that Isaac Newton used to convert a single beam of light into a rainbow. This discovery, that light is not a singular entity but is a complex, multifaceted and interchangeable series of elements, changed how people saw the world forever. That’s exactly what we’re looking to do with our Prism: Change how you see the world forever. In this first edition, we’re going to look at The Art of Mentalism, and how applying it to what you do changes everything. In our Feature piece, you’ll find out about The Four Levels of Direction. Then, in The Way Things Used To Be, you’ll get your hands on some Tricks of the Mediums and a wonderful Coding system. On top of this, you’ll get a amazing Book Test, some ideas from the Neuroscience of Psychological Artistry and, in our Story Corner, Three Steps to Make Me Care. So here’s to a brand new adventure, and changing how people see the world forever!

Alexander Rowley

Editor, Director of Mindsways Ltd.

Our aim with Prism is deceptively simple: Change the way people see the world forever!

We are always paying attention to something.


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THE FOUR LEVELS OF DIRECTION We are always paying attention to something. The question then becomes: “What shall I pay attention to now?” If you can gain and hold attention, you can educate.

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e are always paying This can be summarized into three attention to something. steps: Learn, Apply, Achieve.

The question then becomes: “What shall I pay attention Attention and Direction to now?” If you can gain and hold You are probably familiar with attention, you can educate. and associate magic with the Since a large part of what I consider term Misdirection. It is not about here is theory, it seems right to first misdirection, however, it is about examine what role theory has in direction. It is about how the your practices. For me this brings direction and attention of your up the quote that “Knowing is good, spectators are dealt with. willing is great, but doing is vital.” This is one of the areas that translate So, the theory is good to have, across all forms of interaction and but goes nowhere unless we do communication. something to use it. The knowledge and theories In neuroscience terms: “use it or developed in the magic arena, built lose it”. We must take any theory to help magicians and mentalists and use it to develop our own skills capture and hold attention, can benefit us in many different areas. and talents.

"Think of your talent as an uncut diamond. To show its true brilliance, it needs to be worked with and polished."

Think of your talent as an uncut diamond. To show its true brilliance, it needs to be worked with and polished. The best way we have of polishing our raw talents is through smart deliberate practice. We build, enhance and develop our skills. This of course also means building, enhancing and developing our mental states.

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ou are probably familiar with and associate magic with the term Misdirection. However, it is not about misdirection: it is about direction. It is about how the direction and attention of your spectators are dealt with. This is one of the areas that translate across all forms of interaction and communication. The knowledge and theories developed in the magic arena, built to help magicians and mentalists capture and hold attention, can benefit us in many different areas. In looking at building our delivery (it doesn’t matter whether its through communications directly, presentations or the written word), it is thought best to weave in from the outset the ideas behind attention. The whole area of Neurodesign focuses on what we produce and how it directs and sustains our attention. There was once an excellent magician called Slydini. He used the metaphor that his magic pieces were like a piece of

cloth. For him, creating his presentation was like weaving together threads of communication from the very beginning. This is very different from producing your cloth, then realizing it must be patched up and mended with additional material. So, thinking about attention and where you are directing attention is much more effective at the design stage than as an afterthought. The four areas of Attention we’ll look at are: Constant Direction, Relaxed Attention, Concentrating Direction, Mental Concentration

"Thinking about attention and where you are directing attention is much more effective at the design stage than as an afterthought."

Think clearly from the outset about what your audience is paying attention to.

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Learn, Apply, Achieve: A model for success in business

Create a sense of Constant Direction

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ranslating these areas into your work adds a useful layer to your delivery. By examining these, you will uncover strategies that, just like the magicians, adds to your performance.

as the audience don’t have to be familiar with the techniques being used to direct our attention or to aid our understanding. The production team (directors, producers, writers, actors, stage hands, set designers etc.) or presenters, though, must know The four areas listed above are not separate. how to do this. They must be able to Although we will look at them one by one, get their points across effectively as to truly understand and make the most out well as keep the audience’s attention. of them, you must understand how they work together. The best way to do this is by This balancing act is what applying them practically in the real world. we call Constant Direction.

Constant Direction

It is our job, as presenters or performers to unfold our message, highlighting This is the one that we are all probably important details along the way and keep most familiar with. In films, theatre, our intended meaning throughout the presenting and any form of interaction, time we’re on stage. The danger is that we are looking to get the story or message if attention is allowed to drift, or our across in the most direct manner. direction is becoming too complicated, it However, to enjoy a film or theatre play, we takes people away from the core message.


Confusion is the enemy of attention.

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e can confusion

end and

up with Think of how our attention works as a inattention. babbling countryside stream. Sometimes it meanders gently towards its destination, Constant Direction means we need sometimes it rushes heavily downhill all at to look at how we are controlling attention once. Too much water and it will overflow its and how, just like magicians, we keep the banks, causing flooding and chaos. Too little focus where we want it and communicate and it will become dry, dusty and stagnant. only what’s important and relevant at the time. We talk much more of the technical Relaxing attention can help us by allowing details of how this is done when we talk some of the processing to take place and limit about MMI’s and the Enthusiasm Quotient. the dangers of becoming overwhelmed.

Relaxed Attention

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here will be times when you need people to relax, reflect or just breathe after the more intense moments of focus. At this point, people’s attention can drift and broaden away from direct focus on you.

Whilst we have more control over the other three aspects of attention, we have the least direct control here. What we do have, however, is the ability to construct points of relaxation. We can ask people to think of the ideas, how they apply your message to their lives, as well as adding in humour to release tension.

Relaxed attention can be enhanced by This broadening of attention is vital if heightening and intensifying moments of we want to hold attention for quite long tension and focus. The release after these periods. Our cognitive load has limits. moments is likely to be much greater. 10


Like a pendulum swinging in motion, the greater our attention and focus is on one element, the greater the release will be.

A balance is required in regaining attention.

Like all these aspects, they can act as a double-sided sword. Too much relaxation Another way to achieve this is by producing and we are in danger of losing control, a surprise. The greater the surprise, proving too much to get people back on track. the greater the likelihood of a period of This is where subtlety and design relaxation. That's why magic is so powerful. come into play, keeping the relaxation Of course, like everything else discussed moments brief and well timed, as well as here, these activities can work together quite considering the intensity of the moments. naturally but can also work individually. If you do find yourself in a situation where Creating a moment of surprise, mixed in the attention has become so relaxed with a good joke, can lead to a significant the focus has gone, you must think of a length of Relaxed Attention, relieving a strategy to bring it back. This is where huge amount from the cognitive load. the original design process must have attention recovery threads "The greater the surprise, possible woven in. Whenever possible, we should the greater the liklihood of have a chance to return attention to the situation just after the relaxation occurred.

a period of relaxation. That's why magic is so powerful."

Create moments of Wonder and Surprise

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Concentrating Direction

actions

internally

in

people’s

heads.

These are influenced by every everything we say, everything we do, how we look and his is doing the opposite of behave. This is also about the thoughts we relaxing attention. Whilst relaxed, suggest, the questions we ask, the images attention is relatively out of our we conjure up and the ideas we raise. control. In this Concentrating Direction, We must be aware of this fact and take it is under our complete guidance. When into account how it affects our audience. focusing very narrowly on one point, all attention is drawn to that point. Mental Concentration starts and ends with the Internal processes of your audience. The point you are concentrating on here must have enough interest and be related What questions are you asking that help directly to your relevant idea. If you have them interpret your material? Are you made a leap of logic without taking your leaving enough space to process your audience through these steps (something message? Can they see clear examples of that happens a lot in presentations, when how your message relates to real life? Do the presenters incorrectly assume their they have actions or exercises to take away points are obvious, or in movies when plot from your presentation that will help them holes develop along the way), then your develop these examples, or reinforce your moments of Concentrated Direction will message, or help them develop their own be meaningless and ineffective. If these skills? moments are irrelevant to your message our These are some of the areas you can look your audience, they will be just as likely to be at that will help you refine and enhance ignored or forgotten after you’ve finished. your periods of Mental Concentration. Beware here that because of our cognitive abilities, this point of concentration must be long enough to hold attention to get your point across, but cannot be held for too long. If we hold a high-tension point of focus for too long, we will fatigue the observers and they will either drop into relaxation mode or will lose focus altogether.

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Similar to the relaxation mode, subtle and short and well-timed out is the best policy.

Mental Concentration

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o matter what we say or do, we will be mentally creating pictures, stories and

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"What questions are you asking that help them interpret your material? Can they see clear examples of how your message relates to real life?"


Your Communication Rhythm

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s we said, although these aspects can all be viewed separately, they all interact. Because of the nature of how we mentally process ideas, the amount of concentrated and mental direction is a limited commodity. After every wave of concentration comes a lull of relaxation and reflection. This is why we talk about multiple moments of Interest, Interaction and Insight (MMI’s and our Enthusiasm Quotient). This combination creates the

the wave Constant

that

informs Direction.

From this emerges your communication or performance rhythm. The control of this wave, consisting of Concentration (both Mental and Physical), Relaxation and MMI’s, dictates the level of interest people invest in you. Because they are interested in you, they follow you and every pulse of the wave you create for them. When they are in this state, your message will definitely get through.

Conduct your Communication Rhythm with steady and wise hands

Once you establish this wave, people will acclimatize to it. Be careful not to cause too much disruption to it. Imagine your favourite standup comedian; they all have their wave and rhythm. Just think what it would be like if they suddenly changed it half way through their set. Always be looking for ways to incrementally improve. Remember you can hear falling trees, but growth is silent, creeping second by second. Take action by learning, applying and achieving through these ideas.

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Always look for ways to entertain with variety and delight

“Entertain their minds with variety and delight” - Francis Bacon


THE WAY THINGS USED TO BE

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elcome to this semi-regular segment of The Way Things Used To Be. In this, we’ll go through our own personal archives and highlight some fascinating, charmingly derelict and odd pieces of magic, mentalism and performance that gives you an idea of The Way Things Used To Be. It’s our aim for you to take these ideas and run with them. I know we could all do with a zap of old timey energy, so let’s have a look!

Number Puzzler

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irst is a piece from the Demon Telegraph Machine, in and of itself a wonderful name for a publication. No. 145, published in 1951, Douglas Francis writes about some tricky number puzzles that still stand up today.

Tricks of the Mediums

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ere, from Dunninger’s Complete Encyclopaedia of Magic, are some tricks that were veritably ancient, even by the time the book was first published in 1967. First up, there are some sly deceptions from those trying to contact the dead in seances. What may seem a bit hooky nowadays caused great waves of belief in the late 1800’s.

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What Happens In The Playing Footsie Dark...

Lastly, here’s a clever little system econd, we have an expose used by psychics and mentalists on how pinching was felt, that we’ve seen a variation of put to demonic whispering heard, good use on a certain well-known and the spirit lights seen. All very talent show. mischievous and all very uncanny. Note how, though incredibly Perhaps some of these tricks are inappropriate today, the performer still being used today? Surely is dressed as an Egyptian Pharaoh. mediums of today would never be This was, for quite a long time, a so deceptive... fashionable trend for magicians claiming powers from the Ancient Orient.

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THE SECRET ART OF MENTALISM

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THE SECRET ART OF MENTALISM Mentalism is the art and science of using your five senses to give the appearance that you have a sixth. It’s about shifting your audience’s perspectives and using entertaining, enlightening and enlivening metaphors to impart lessons, increase learning, develop deep connections, get your message heard and become more popular.

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entalism is any kind of demonstration that is designed to amaze, baffle or surprise, using any aspect of the mind and how we think. By its very nature, it provokes our belief systems to be stretched and challenged. Magic, whether it is mental magic or conjuring, is not about the tricks. It is about how it makes people feel, it is about the drama and the theatrical experience, it is about questioning the nature of the world. It is showing the impossible to be possible. Magic does not fool the eye – magic fools the mind. When we effectively deliver a mentalism effect, we are offering the experience of inexplicable phenomena. Using mentalism, we explore both fact and fiction that cultivates a deep fascination. This means we have a route to communicate insightful messages using its ability to impact almost everyone. When a model of reality changes the way you operate, the world also changes. Mentalism is a way to open up our curiosity for how we think and experience the world. It highlights and evidences how we experience our surroundings, and how we make choices in our lives. Mentalism can have a direct impact on the expectations we all hold.

“We do not rise to the level of our expectations, we fall to the level of our training” - Archilochus 21


Our aim for Psychological Artistry Live! is to give you something unique, memorable and easy-to-learn, but don't take our word for it! Just look at all of the fun people have been having on our Open Workshops!

“Spending the day with George and Alex is one of the best things you can possibly do! The Psychological A r t i s t r y course that they ran was superb in every way - I had a huge amount of fun and learned a few things along the way too!” – Adele B.

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WHAT DOES MENTALISM GIVE YOU?

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Control – The Power to Always Be In Charge

On the Psychological Artistry Day, we look at giving you a model to understand how other’s think, as well as giving you eing out of control is often the worst tools and ideas that allow you to guide feeling we can have. Sometimes it’s just conversations and make use of powerful the very threat of losing control that metaphors, ensuring that you always feel can make us act completely irrationally and confident, comfortable and in control. damage our reputation and those around us.

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Learning mentalism gives you a better understanding of human psychology and teaches you principles where you can never be wrong. You can become clearer in your goals and your attitude can become more positive, leading others to look up to you and respect you more.

"Their enthusiasm to help others add a bit of magic into their repertoire is infectious!" - Lorne M.


Always be in charge

Always think outside of the box

Creativity – The Power to Always Think Outside the Box

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thinking of challenges from a different perspective and channeling what makes you special into your day-to-day life.

reativity is sadly missing in a lot of people’s lives. Without it, we feel pent up and frustrated, as if someone has taken a part of our soul away. We need to be creative and express our passions, even if it’s just every so often.

Connection – The Power to Always Communicate Effectively

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e are social creatures, and we desperately need to connect with other human beings. This is Learning mentalism is the perfect excuse something that’s easier to ignore now more for being creative and beginning to than ever. Even in these days of amazingly introduce elements of fun, innovation fast technology and streaming services, and play back into what you do. By being Facetime just doesn’t beat face-to-face time. more creative, you have more energy, feel Learning mentalism means that you more fulfilled and can solve problems have access to a huge variety of tools that in a more effective and enjoyable way. make the most out of being in the same On the Psychological Artistry Day, we room with someone. Not only this, but promote the innate drive you have for you’ll also become more memorable by creativity. We look at how you can tap adding a touch of the mysterious and in to being your most creative self, amazing to your most important meetings. 24


Always be able to influence

On the Psychological Artistry Day, we have 7 distinct magic effects and 5 powerful conversation starters that you’ll learn which can lead to strong and meaningful connections in network meetings, pitches, coaching and therapy sessions, on romantic dates or with your friends and more.

Persuasion – The Power to Always Influence

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o be able to persuade and get your message heard, you must have a clear understanding of who you are (your internal and external brand), what you’re saying (your message) and who you’re saying it to (your audience). understanding and controlling these areas, you have greater influence.

Learning mentalism gives you a set of tools to help determine and broadcast who you are (your character, your script, your background), what you’re saying (what you’re demonstrating) and who you’re saying it to (what your audience is seeing, thinking and remembering). On the Psychological Artistry Day, we break down a lot of the theories and ideas behind why magic and mentalism works. This gives you a rich resource of understanding to pull from and helps you better predict how your audience reacts, in turn giving you greater levels of persuasion and influence.

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Preparation – The Power to Always Know What to Do

Psychology – The Power to Always Know What Someone’s Thinking

reparation is perhaps the key principle behind all of mentalism. By being able to prepare for what’s about to happen, to think beforehand and cover all the outcomes, you are immediately a step ahead of where most people are. This is why most magic tricks works, because magicians are always prepared.

entalism relies almost solely on the ability to understand, predict and positively influence people’s psychology. By doing this, you not only increase the chance of success in business, social and romantic relationships, you also get a greater understanding of how you think, act and behave.

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Learning mentalism means that you have a tool belt of ways to prepare yourself. It’s not a guarantee that the situation will go the way you want or thought it would, but it is an underlying confidence that whatever happens, you are in control.

Learning mentalism gives you the keys to unlocking much of human psychology. The mind is a labyrinth of learning, misconceptions, assumptions, prejudices and rules of thumb that we have developed over a lifetime, and mentalism offers a map to any daring adventurer On the Psychological Artistry Day, who wishes to brave this path. you’ll learn many ways to enact our ABC Principle: Always Be Covered. On the Psychological Artistry day, you get a small peek into The day will give you the mindset the mysterious ways of our that whatever happens, you minds. By understanding our have an answer or you can find mindfoolness, you become aware a way to make it work to your of many pitfalls in our thinking, advantage. This is the primary and how to avoid them, plus how benefit of the Magician’s Mindset. to work with others to avoid theirs. To start making use of this "Well done George information, book your place on the Psychological Artistry Day and Alex - I can't here: www.mindsways.com/PA/ imagine anyone attending this course and not having a most enjoyable day. I know I did!" - Tim A 26


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THE NEUROSCIENCE OF PSYCHOLOGICAL ARTISTRY “It’s biology, not opinion.” This is a shift in thinking about the causes, interpretations and repercussions of our behaviour.

“I

t’s biology, not opinion.”

For example, what neurobiology show us is that we learn our fears, send the chemical imbalance into the amygdala and then act on those fears.

This is a shift in thinking about the causes, interpretations and repercussions of our behaviour.

When we stop fearing something, it’s not that we forget that it exists or that our memories of it change. Instead, we actively learn that it is no longer a threat to us. Our intervention involves creative ways of making this shift; rewiring and relearning our old ways of thinking through new and effective methods.

Our central premise is that our mind, our body, our environment are utterly intertwined; There is no longer a debate between nature or nurture, it is the complex relationship between the two which defines our behaviour. Emotions filter the nature and accuracy of our experience. Which is why, when our emotions get distorted through mental health issues, so does the nature of our experience.

By their very nature, our mentalism and magic methodologies are untypical and non-traditional. It is this approach that makes our methods (introducing new perspectives, exploring the power of different perceptions, learning entirely new ways of thinking and doing so in safe, secure and reflective environments) powerful and long-lasting.

This instability means that we become unsure of our place in the world, our identity and the level of control we have over our circumstances. We become agitated and unsettled, leading to greater emotional fluctuations. This uncertainty then feeds back into the instability, creating a series of self-fulfilling prophecies which limit the perceptions we have of ourselves, those closest to us and those who are attempting to help us.

We leverage our natural, in-built, biological tendency to learn and enjoy novelty to teach, create new emotional memories, amplify learning points and greatly increase the chance of effective change.

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"Emotions filter the nature and accuracy of our experience. Which is why, when our emotions get distorted through mental health issues, so does the nature of our experience."


Our brains can change themselves.

Changes in the number of receptors, neurotransmitters and hormones

Neuroplasticity - The World's Ninth Wonder

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he biggest change that the last 10 years of neuroscientific research has brought about is the key principle of Neuroplasticity.

changes in the number of receptors, neurotransmitters and hormones, which means that deliberate practice can have direct implications on our health and hormonal fluctuations.

This means, simply put, we can all change. Our brains can change. Most importantly, These changes can work for us, or against our brains can change themselves. us. The neuroscience evidence shows us how in adults, our experience can alter the number of synapses, dendritic branches, remap circuitry and even stimulate new neurons (neurogenesis). Overall, these effects can be big enough to actually change the size of brain regions.

We can either use them for positive effects (more detailed memory recall, a faster reading speed, greater visualisation skills etc.) or have them negatively affect us (lower energy levels, worse perception of our bodyweight, lower levels of control over our wellbeing and fitness).

Therefore, over the space of months, The neurobiology goes even further, in our experiences can cause long-lasting stating that:

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"These changes can work for us, or against us.

These changes can have positive and negative effects

We can either use them for positive effects or have them negatively affect us."


“Stimulating environments, harsh parents, good neighbourhoods, uninspiring teachers, optimal diets – all alter genes in the brain. WOW.” It’s not just the brain regions which we can alter at will. It’s the chemical, electrical and genetic makeup of the brain that can be stimulated, altered and changed. “Thus, for our purposes, genes aren’t about inevitability. Instead they’re about contextdependant tendencies, propensities, potentials and vulnerabilities. All embedded in the fabric of other factors, biological and otherwise…” In summary, the convergence of current thinking from psychology, neuroscience and behavioural insights is that our wellbeing is contributed to when we are engaged, engrossed, challenged, stimulated and playing. Magic and mentalism naturally achieves all of these states by providing something new and different to the training environment.

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"Genes aren't about inevitability. Instead, they're about contextdependant tendencies."


Where does Psychological Artistry come in?

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sychological Artistry is the act of taking psychology, neuroscience, behavioural insights and merging it with the art of magic and mentalism. Psychological Artistry takes the building blocks of the neuroscience we’ve just talked about and puts them into practical, understandable and entertaining bundles.

Psychological Artistry is based on the power of perspectives. This is the basis of building a relationship between you and your clients. Understanding why people have different perspectives is the first part of connecting with anyone.

Through understanding these principles, you can learn the power of that mindset has over Psychological Artistry is about us and how we think, as well imparting these amazing ideas as how others see the world. behind psychology, neuroscience Though each of the Psychological and behavioral insights to as Artistry principles are unique, many people as possible, so together they act as a network to that you can use them to show build towards a greater chance people what you do, what makes of success. It’s by building these you different and demonstrate links that you can begin to powerful and entertaining skills. develop yourself and building you. All of this is brought to you by weaving It’s not just about teaching you together overlapping Psychological the skills, it’s about unlocking Artistry principles, such as: your capabilities, your mindsets and your potential. • Psychology • Confidence Before you can think differently • Influence • Story Telling about things, you must do some • Public • Thearte things differently. That is the key speaking lesson from Neuroscience and • Magic tricks Neuroplasticity. You must make a • Behavioural • Engagement insights determined effort to put yourself • Complexity into new environments and • Charisma • Neuroscience experience different things. • Performance Psychological Artistry is the perfect way of doing this, combining old secrets with cutting edge neuroscience, pushing you out of your comfort zone and teaching you brand new ideas that could reshape your genes themselves. 33


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MAKE ME CARE - STORY CORNER I’ve read dozens of books, seen hundreds of films, written thousands of words and presented for hours on stories. Why do stories matter? They do one thing better than anything else: Make Me Care.

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The Secret to Good Stories

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or the past 5 years, I’ve surrounded myself with one thing: Story.

I’ve read dozens of books, seen hundreds of films, written thousands of words and presented for hours on stories. Why do stories matter? They do one thing better than anything else:

Make me care. How do stories do this, and more importantly, how about your message? can you use stories to help you make others care Well, in my experience, there are three stages to making people care. 1) Find something you care wholeheartedly for 2) Create a character or persona whose every cell in their body is about that thing you care for 3) Send them on a journey where that thing is stressed, strained, pulled, beaten and almost entirely broken, but ultimately proves why you care about it If you do all three of these things, you will have a story people care for. The best way to make someone care is first to care about it yourself

Here are a few questions to get you started:

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Step One: Find Something You Care For

• What is a cause or charity you’ve worked for or donated to? • If you won the lottery and no longer had to work for a living, what would you spend your time doing? • If you could pass on a lesson to your younger self, what would it be? • If you could pass on a lesson to the next generation, what would it be?

• What was a lesson you learned from a parent/grandparent/teacher/mentor that has helped you? • If you could go anywhere in the world, where would you go? • If you could solve any problem in the world, what would it be? • If you had to write an autobiography, what would you want the person reading it to feel by the end?

Step Two: Create A Character

• What would your friends and/or family say was your strongest trait? • What would your friends and/or family say was your weakest trait? • What was a defining positive moment in your life? • What was a defining negative moment in your life? • In relation to what you care about, does this person have same beliefs, slightly different beliefs or the complete opposite beliefs?

• In relation to what you care about, does this person go about doing the same things as you do, slightly different things or completely opposite things? • In relation to what you care about, how did this person realise they cared about it? • In relation to what you care about, does this person know they care about it, or do they have to be taught to care about it?

Step Three: Send Them On A Journey

• Where does this person come from? What is their home like? What are their friends like? • What makes them go on this journey? Why do they need to go? What moment changes everything? • What do they think they want from this journey? What do they really need? • Where do they go? What do they look for? What do they find there?

•How can you push their limits? Make them doubt themselves? Create internal and external conflict? What event, person or circumstance (or all three) almost breaks the thing they care about? •What do they take away from the journey? What do they achieve? How do they transform? •How does the journey prove why you care and what’s important to you?

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YOUR BOOK TEST This effect is very powerful and can completely baffle and astound people. I have used this so many times in both informal and training settings.

The Effect

You turn the pad around and it matches their thought of word.

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ou bring out a book and talk about how rapport and connection can be built very quickly, even to the point where you can tell what the other person is thinking. You hand the book to your spectator and pick up a pen and pad. Ask the person to flick through the book and say how many pages are in it, then ask them, or someone else if another person is present, to name a random page number.

The Method The basic method used here is what is called a Crib. You may have come across the term before or even used one yourself, but a crib is basically a cheat sheet with the relevant information you need, hidden in a convenient place for you to look at whenever you need it.

Ask them to turn to that page and look at the first words and remember them. You turn your back as they’re doing this, to make sure you couldn’t even get a glimpse of what words are on the page. If another is present, ask your spectator to show them those first words and then close the book.

For this effect, you prepare a crib of every first word on each page with the page number next to it. This is then printed off and stuck to your pad. Of course, you make sure that your pad it is never seen by anyone beforehand and discarded quickly afterwards. If you perform it right, no one will question the pad, as to them, it’s just an ordinary pad of paper.

Once the words are remembered and the book is closed, turn around and build rapport with the individual (This will be addressed in The Performance section). Then you write a word or two on your pad. Say that you are now committed, and ask the person to say out loud the word they were thinking of.

When you turn your back, saying that you don’t want to see any words in the book in case they think you’re cheating, all you do is flick to where you’ve got the crib stuck to your pad, find the page number and remember the word or words written next to it.

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They can pick almost any word out of the book and you'll get it. But how is it done? Magic? Psychic powers? Trickery? That's where you decide!


Our brains can change themselves.

Changes in the number of receptors, neurotransmitters and hormones

Preperation

Subtleties and Process

To prepare the crib, the best way I find is to go through the book and type up in Microsoft Word or other similar software, the first word of each page as a list. If they happen to be a small phrase, including things like ‘a’ or ‘the’ or ‘I’, I tend to write the phrase as a whole as well.

I also find that this effect works best if the book in question has been on display and is related to either your interest or topic under discussion. It can then be introduced almost casually as something we can demonstrate or experiment with.

T

Have your pad ready with the cribbed Then I just number bullet point them, information two or three pages down. After making sure the numbers match up with the book is handed out, don’t say anything the page numbers. but just casually flash the empty pages on top. You can do this by relaxing your hand Depending on how many pages the book and letting a few pages fall open. has, I then put these into columns and change the size to match the pad I am As you ask for the page number, just pick up going to use. I have found that a reporter’s your pen, turn around and without drawing notebook works very well, as it does not attention to it, turn the pages so that the look out of place in most settings. crib is now visible to you. There are a few points to note here:

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1

) The more relaxed you are whilst doing this, the less people will be paying attention to what you are doing

2

) Most people’s focus will be on the book and your spectator anyway, as that’s the interesting bit

3

) Unless you’ve said otherwise, most people won’t even know you’re going to try and guess the word. They won’t know what you’re about to do, so they won’t be expecting you to be doing anything funny.

4

) For most people, they won’t even suspect you’ll have the words written down (because who would go to such an effort?)

5

) With your back turned to your spectator and/or your audience, as long as you keep the pad about chest height and few inches away from you, no one will be able to see what you’re doing. All of this is to say one thing: Don’t run if you’re not being chased. Relax, take your time, no one is watching you at this point, so just do whatever feels best and enjoy the moment. As the number is called and you turn your back to them, you look down and glance the appropriate word/s, commit these to memory, (even if you get it slightly wrong, say “opened” instead of “opening”, it will still be very impressive), and whilst your back is still turned, just turn over a few pages so you’re back to where you started.

"Don't run if you're not being chased!"


The Performance You now know the word or words and have a blank sheet on top of the notepad. All that remains now is for you to reveal this using whatever method or script that you prefer. I prefer writing the word down and then getting the individual to reveal it out loud, then you turn your pad around with the word that matches. Ultimately, like any trick, the magic is in the performance. It’s how you choose to build rapport with your audience member and reveal the word that really makes the difference. There are a few ways I’ve done it in the past, use these as starting points and develop your own approaches: - By talking about representation and visualization, I’ve asked the person to project the alphabet in their mind and gone through the letters one by one. - I’ve asked the person (if the word or phrase is emotional or evocative) to pretend to feel that way or experience that thing. From there, I’ve used cold reading techniques to read the type of person they are and associate their word or words with their personality. - I’ve used pendulum reading in a similar way, with the pendulum swinging back and forth for true/false, orbiting clockwise or anti-clockwise for getting closer to the word or further away, or for a visual representation of muscle reading. - If the word is an object, or something they could represent as an object, I’ve asked them to draw it and proceeded to draw something similar. It won’t ever be exact, of course, but it’s a different way to present the trick. - In what is called pre-show, before a training event or show has started, I’ve gone through the same process with someone but asked them, instead of revealing it then, to either write down the word or remember it for later on when it becomes important. I’ve then presented the effect during the show or event as if the spectator’s word was plucked out of thin air by using a term such as “Now, everyone is thinking of a random word, but you, (spectator’s name), have a very important word you’re thinking of, don’t you?” This obviously only works with a larger audience and you’ll have to be discerning with whom you choose to use. I hope you have as much fun with this effect as I have had over the years!

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Thanks For Reading! So, that’s it for the very first edition of Prism! I hope you’ve got some interesting things out of it, had your mind stretched a little and found something at least a little fun, funny or unique. Thank you so much for reading! Have a happy holiday, whatever you’re celebrating, and we’ll see you next year! Kind regards, George and Alex Rowley

Our aim with Prism is deceptively simple: Change the way people see the world forever!