Hi guys,

This seems very interesting. It's from the authors of Sleight of Mind. Any thoughts?

Better the Devil they know…

From the authors of “Sleight of Mind” comes a book to inspire you to greater deception – “Geist”. Although containing a wealth of strong, real-world effects and their variations, “Geist” is also an exploration of how to give your routines more impact by changing them to suit the differing psychologies and beliefs of your Subjects – and how to revitalize and lengthen your existing material using simple strategies.

Although the information in Sleight of Mind can stand on its own, Geist is the companion volume. This book offers a continuation of Sleight of Mind. Geist offers many effects that illustrate the techniques taught in Sleight of Mind. These are effects that go beyond mere tricks; these are demonstrations that are supposed to be presented as real demonstrations of contact with spirits or paranormal abilities.

”Geist” also includes :

28 effects, many with extensive scripts and handling notes, including a solution to “Reversal”!!!
At last, a way back to the Subject’s original number!

“Concipio” – a clever gaff that will allow you to predict names, numbers, dates, etc, faultlessly every time.

“The Envelope” – an indispensable, ultra-clean gimmick with tons of uses.

An extensive glossary to help you create believable scripts for your effects.

200 pages and over 45 photo-illustrations.

I was also interested in hearing any thoughts about this, as well as Sleight of Mind, but I wasn't able to find any information about those two books (and I mean outside informations, other than what the blurb says).

edit: I just looked at jheff's market place of the mind and it looks like he added the two books in his store so we can expect his reviews about them some time soon.

That's great.
I searched the Café and there are not many reviews on this book.

"Sleight Of Mind" is a wonderful book. Full of inspiration. I have ordered" Geist" immediately because if it is just as good as "Sleight Of Mind", you have to get it.

Ravi

Sounds great, Ravi.
Would appreciate if you write a review on it later

Phil

Still reading through it, not made my mind up as of yet

I'm about halfway through it and I must say I'm enjoying the ride so far It's a further extension of Sleight of Mind, their first book, but has more effects in it. I just finished the bit about their original Concipio plans and it's an effect you can really use various presentation for... versatile indeed *grin*

I'm a slow reader but this isn't very hard to digest, so I think most of you out there with a keen interest in mentalism would appreciate its contents Back to reading!!!

ning

Is 'Sleight of Mind' actually required reading before delving into the sequel 'Geist'?

If I don't really have to buy 'Sleight of Mind' to comprehend the stuff in 'Geist', I won't buy it; the money has been flying out quicker than it's coming in. Too much good stuff out there.

Any help will be appreciated.

Marqus

You don't need to buy Sleight of Mind to understand Geist, although I would recommend it just as one of those books that any mentalist who is into using suggestion and hypnosis should buy. It's a very direct, no frills book. But Geist is slightly different because it's a book of effects, but based on a way of thinking and presenting material that I think is pretty original. I found myself nodding in agreement with them through most of the first part of the book where they talk about either doing tricks as mentalism, or as a pretence of the real thing. For anyone else who has read it they'll agree that the 'Geist' that the authors talk about is incredibly important to any performer, very thought provoking.

There's a good selection of tricks in there too, with a lot of variations. I use five of them now myself and a gimmick they've come up with called 'The Envelope', which is very useful. And the Reversal thing, and their 'Concipio' gimmick too now I come to think of it. 'Concipio' is a gem, as I tend to perform quite late at night with a leaning towards darker tricks. It's a very clean way of forcing just about any short phrase, date, name etc and can be reset in less than ten seconds, which is perfect if you're a table hopper like me. Nice book, nigh on packed with information and useful ideas.

It's not original -- what Harling & Nyrup call Geist is what others have called subscript, thread of plausibility, etc. Other than effectively engaging your audience and participants, it's obviously the most important thing in magic and mentalism. But they say some interesting things that may provoke you to think of aspects you hadn't considered.

The book is an assortment, very loosely tied together with the Geist discussion. Only a few of its effects explicitly use the suggestion techniques covered in Sleight of Mind.

I understand that Geist is more of a toolset than a collection of effects... aside from "the envelope" "Concipio" "Reversal", could someone tell some other goodies inside? Thanks in advance.

An effect book. Their book 'Sleight of Mind' was a toolkit of psychological techniques.

I don't know what I can add to the first posting about its contents other than to say there are some clever and original tricks in there. I wouldn't suggest for one second that they're the first people to talk about the subscript ('Geist'), but their approach to it and emphasis upon it is excellent, in my humble opinion.

I'm slowly being turned, by books like this and the work of Doc Sheils and Max Maven in particular, into what I hope will one day be a 'thinking mentalist' instead of the 'do the tricks and run' kind of performer I still tend to be. I'm still at a stage where my attention's almost completely on what I'm doing and I have to prod myself to think about what effect I'm having on my audiences or volunteers and trying to make use of it. But, one day.

Does anyone have any recommendations of books like 'Geist', that also look at and use the psychology of who you're performing for? It's an interesting subject, there must be a lot written on it, but I can't seem to find very much in depth material?

Is this still available anywhere or can one only get the merged copies of the 2 books now titled Mischief I believe. I have Slight of Mind but not Geist.