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DR.ib New user 14 Posts |
Quote:
On Apr 27, 2017, sbays wrote: Well, thank you for your advice man.. |
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Conner New user 60 Posts |
If I were starting over, I would wish someone had told me to focus on these three skill sets:
1) Mnemonics 2) Contact mind reading 3) Suggestion All three are absolutely real, give you genuine abilities, and are immensely entertaining. If your style also includes the more mysterious in addition to the psychological, then #4 would be cold reading. I am often puzzled at how many mentalists shy away from memorizing a deck of cards, doing contact mind reading, or suggestion legitimately, opting to use trickery instead and reducing the real techniques to patter. These skills are usable by anyone and require no deception. For mnemonics I recommend: - 13 Steps - Anything by Harry Lorayne (The Memory Book mentioned above is a great start) - Anything by Dominic O'Brien For contact mind reading I recommend: - Psychophysiological Thought Reading by Banachek - Making Contact by Satori - Mind Reading and Telepathy by Erik Jan Hanussen For suggestion (either waking hypnosis or deep hypnosis) I recommend: - The New Encyclopedia of Stage Hypnotism by Ormond McGill - Watching as much stage hypnotism as you can For cold reading I recommend: - Anything by Richard Webster - Anything by Julian Moore - Honestly, any book on a system you find interesting (i.e., palmistry, runes, graphology, etc.) If I could only recommend one book though, it would be the seldom mentioned Body Magic by John Fisher. It is one of the best books of real mentalism around. It also includes many of the force deflection Georgia Magnet stunts which can be used as a failsafe when practicing suggestion. If your goal is to gain legitimate background knowledge about nonverbal communication, I would actually advise against Paul Ekman material. Most of his research is about affective displays and not nearly as diagnostic of deception as many entertainers think. Much of his research is taken out of context and used to sell pop-psychology books. For a great academic resource on nonverbal communication I recommend Nonverbal Communication: Forms and Functions by Peter Andersen. For a great academic source on deception in particular, I recommend Detecting Lies and Deceit: Pitfalls and Opportunities by Aldert Vrij. Both are terrific books, which cover the best of Ekman, plus a plethora of other well-documented peer-reviewed research. If you can perform the real skills of mnemonics, contact mind reading, and suggestion then you will absolutely devastate once you throw in a sneaky trick or two from Corinda or Annemann. |
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WitchDocChris Inner circle York, PA 2614 Posts |
I do slightly disagree with this part:
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For suggestion (either waking hypnosis or deep hypnosis) I recommend: I don't, personally, recommend starting with the Encyclopedia. It should be read at some point, because the information is interesting and I think the aspiring hypnotist will benefit from the knowledge, but it's a huge book with a LOT of fluff. Someone who doesn't already understand hypnosis could easily get lost in that amount of information. Reality is Plastic is a straight forward, inexpensive resource that teaches all the basics and not much else. I would recommend following that up with either The Trilby Connection (Which is basically Jacquin teaching the stuff in RiP to a new student), or the Mandel Online Hypnosis Academy, or both. Once you've seen one comedy hypnotist, you've effectively seen most of them. There's a lot of cookie cutter hypnosis shows out there. So do try to see some performers, but understand that if you're watching videos online you're going to be seeing a lot of the same stuff over and over.
Christopher
Witch Doctor Psycho Seance book: https://tinyurl.com/y873bbr4 Boffo eBook: https://tinyurl.com/387sxkcd |
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Conner New user 60 Posts |
That's fair enough. Anthony Jacquin's material is a good recommendation. Clearly taught and very usable. I can't say that a lot of McGill's book is fluff, I've found just about every page very practical. But you're right in that it is pretty dense. I can see how it might not be ideal to some people in the way it was for me.
I also benefit from watching stage hypnosis because of all the little subtleties and slight variations. No doubt, I see a lot of the same skits, but I also see a lot things that could go wrong or how a performer takes advantage of an unforeseen quirk to boost entertainment. Different ways of dismissing less-suggestable participants with discretion and respect, different types of audio equipment for mics or music, what to do when a participant doesn't go under as well as the others, how a performer behaves with participants much older or younger than themselves, how to deal with someone behaving rudely. These are all nice little unexpected things to see in action that I can learn from. In fairness, if there were more footage/performers of mnemonics and CMR, I'd have recommended watching those too. Whatever the craft is, it is useful to be able to watch it with a trained eye. For those studying suggestion, they have the advantage of being able to see lots of hypnosis. |
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WitchDocChris Inner circle York, PA 2614 Posts |
The history is great, and it does get into stage craft a bit, but for example the 99 Inductions (or whatever the number was) is just filler. A couple are worth paying attention to, but for crying out loud there's one that teaches you to wrap copper wire around your head and your subject's head (All one long length) and perform the induction. It's absurd - unless maybe if you're doing a wacky mad scientist thing.
Considering an induction isn't even necessary, I'm still of the opinion that much of that book's contents are based from models of hypnosis that are outdated and no longer necessary. I also feel that the proliferation of people suggesting that this is the only resource needed is partly responsible for the amount of cookie cutter shows. It's always a good idea to watch professionals work, but you'll never be able to develop those skills of handling the audience and the subjects unless you are actively performing and encountering those situations yourself. The person who spends all their time studying other performers, but never stepping on stage, is likely not going to be able to remember all those clever ways of dealing with unexpected situations under fire. Better to start with a smaller show that has fewer opportunities for unexpected events and build up their own repertoire of responses themselves.
Christopher
Witch Doctor Psycho Seance book: https://tinyurl.com/y873bbr4 Boffo eBook: https://tinyurl.com/387sxkcd |
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Conner New user 60 Posts |
That makes sense. McGill's not your first choice, but my recommendations would be incomplete without it. Jacquin's material is good to mention as well, I'm glad you brought them up.
With respect to watching performances, I would certainly never advise anyone to "spend all their time studying, but never stepping on stage." I don't think that advice has been given. |
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Djin Regular user 191 Posts |
Advanced skills are basic skills done with advanced experience.
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