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Second Sight Regular user Ireland 156 Posts |
In the thread on ethics, and in a thread downstairs on mediums, the question of definitions of shut-eye and open-eye has been raised. I think this topic merits its own thread.
Orson Welles described the shut-eye phenomena on television in 1970, as an 'occupational disease,' and defined the term as coming from the 'argot of those crooks,' and meaning the 'fellow who begins to believe himself.' We can somewhat take Welles' comments with a grain of salt since he claimed to start becoming a shut-eye on his first and only day of 'fortune telling.' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IjPsnfysrp8 MentalistCreationLab has stated that these terms come from the late 1800s and he has lucidly described a 'ladder of accomplishments' through which a mentalist might pass with shut-eye (meaning, without tricks and deception) being more or less at the top of the ladder. He claims that the terms were perversely adopted by skeptics in the 50s, with shut-eye taking on the meaning of fraudulent, rather than, pure. But he prefers not to reveal his sources. The earliest source I've found for what MIGHT be these terms, is from the anonymously written 'Confessions of a Medium' from 1882. For instance: "Now this may appear a difficult matter to you, until I have shown you the way," said Thomson. "Of course it could not be done in the light; darkness is the key to the whole mystery." "But how on earth did you free your hands?" "Take hold again, and this time keep your eyes open." 93 "That just shows you what a medium can do if he keeps his eyes and ears open," said he. "Olaf is an all-absorbing name with this family, and very few people know anything about it. It is a sort of cupboard skeleton..." 149 "I think you are very foolish to give your lectures as you do," said Thomson, when we were again alone. "What do you mean?" "Why don't you shut your eyes, as do other mediums, and give them off under control?" 175 "It would be impossible to me." "Nothing is impossible. Just shut your eyes and chatter away; say you are controlled by some great personage — Martin Luther, Judas Iscariot, John Wesley, anybody." 175 I have also found, in 'Psychic Mafia' from 1976 -- another "confession" which might shed light on the origins of these terms: "In the spook business, as we were soon to discover, mediums are divided into two classes: the “shut-eyes” and the “opens.” The shut-eyes were the simple believers, often sweet little old ladies (although not all old ladies in spiritualism are sweet) who genuinely felt that they were psychic and able to pick up “vibrations.” They were kept around by the others because their transparent sincerity was good for public relations. But the shut-eyes were not let in on the tricks of the trade. "The open mediums, by contrast, were those who knew they were frauds and admitted it – at least in the secret circles of the fraternity. When Raoul and I started out, we would have had to be classed somewhere in between the shut-eyes and the open mediums. We were in fact what is called in the business “open to ourselves.” This meant we knew that some mediums were total frauds– though we didn’t know how many– but the fraud, we felt, was for a good cause and didn’t do anybody any harm. If it strengthened faith, could it be that bad?" 16 Are there other references to this in the literature? It seems to evolve from spiritualism and seems likely connected to the darkness of the seance room. Can anyone shed any further light on this? Thanks in advance for your contributions. |
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January Veteran user 390 Posts |
I also did a scan of this after the post downstairs, but I didn't come up with anything that conclusively predates Orson Welles's use of the term in 1970.
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Alan Wheeler Inner circle Posting since 2002 with 2038 Posts |
I would also like to know about the development of "Wink Eye."
Perhaps Wink Eyes inhabit a no man's land between mentalism and spiritualism.
The views and comments expressed on this post may be mere speculation and are not necessarily the opinions, values, or beliefs of Alan Wheeler.
A BLENDED PATH Christian Reflections on Tarot Word Crimes Technology and Faith........Bad Religion |
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MentalistCreationLab Inner circle 1528 Posts |
You will need to read mentalism works that are not online, have not been converted to PDF that predate the anti-fraud groups of the IBM and SAM. These special works are scare and hard to obtain but they will tell you the answers your looking for within there pages. In Addition, I am not telling anyone the titles of these works the reason for this is simple one of the books is very rare only about 6 copies are know to exist I have 4 copies of this work and I know the guys who have the other two known copies and we are in complete agreement we would rather burn these works then let them become PDF. Some knowledge must be kept hidden from the masses. Some of the works are expensive, Some are short works of few pages.
Now the other works are scarce but can be found but you must read the works of early mind workers who played it 100% real. They were written in fact by mentalist in the truest definition. But you're not going to learn mentalism from reading works by those who are debunkers or have debunkers within there works. Plus the search for the answer to you question is where all the fun is. I will tell you this to help point you to the path - it's down a rabbit hole you may never think to look. I also give you another clue where did Orson Wells learn the term Shut Eye. This will lead you to a work and within that work there is a name that will lead you to another work wherein there is mention of a person find his or her name and you will have found 1 of the 6 books that are currently know that answer your question. There are mentioned a few more books but these works are currently whereabouts unknown or may not have survived as there are currently zero known copies of these works I am speaking. The truth is you cannot find these works sitting on the couch. That's another hint by the way although cryptic. The fun is in the hunt and I would not want you to miss out on the fun. |
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Raum Loyal user 227 Posts |
I noticed that hardcore skeptics and convinced believers in PSI have a lot in common. For example, they adore talking in guru-style.
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Second Sight Regular user Ireland 156 Posts |
Thanks, Bill. That's interesting information. I'd say the rabbit hole part was clear enough! We'll see where that goes. But don't worry. I won't tell anyone what I find.
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jstreiff Special user 701 Posts |
Mist of my searching was in printed material though, if course, I dud scan OSFs also. I fond all the references mentioned earlier but ignored them since I was looking specifically for the term 'shut-eye'. Some of those printed books are quite rare. I shall keep looking!
John
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January Veteran user 390 Posts |
Meh, it seems like the question is a very simple one regarding the etymology of a few terms. I've researched quite a bit in my life, and certainly the hunt can be fun, but making it harder than it has to be and seemingly cryptic is a little silly.
And I've learned plenty of mentalism from debunkers. People like Randi aren't my thing, but there's no reason you can't learn a lot from them. |
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WitchDocChris Inner circle York, PA 2614 Posts |
I think what Bill is saying there is that a lot of what the debunkers claim is the "truth" is really just something that they made up to explain things.
As I perceive it, there's a pretty big difference between what mentalists used to be, and what they are now. I don't know many people who could pull off the older style of mentalism these days.
Christopher
Witch Doctor Psycho Seance book: https://tinyurl.com/y873bbr4 Boffo eBook: https://tinyurl.com/387sxkcd |
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January Veteran user 390 Posts |
Oh, for sure. But in some ways I find there are more similarities than differences.
For example, Washington Irving Bishop's text on the subject published in 1880 gives a thorough two-person routine that could easily be updated, taken on the road, and performed by mentalists today. https://books.google.com/books?id=g2YwAQ......&f=false Demonstrations of thought reading, clairvoyance, book tests, naming randomly picked playing cards, etc.--the effects are remarkably similar to what we see today, though some of the methods or framing may inevitably feel somewhat antiquated. The two-person setup is the biggest difference I see, but the Evasons perform this material at a truly mind-blowing level. There's also the couple on America's Got Talent that I don't like as much, but they do a decent job as well... what is it--the Clairvoyants? Something like that. |
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Raum Loyal user 227 Posts |
Methods are the same (not all), but the impression is different. I remember one phrase that describes the old school style:
The performer walks in one foot deeply in the theater and the other on the world of the charlatan |
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WitchDocChris Inner circle York, PA 2614 Posts |
Yes that was the Clairvoyants.
You mentioned book tests - are you familiar with how book tests were originally performed? As I understand it, the original "book test" was very different to what we do now. I can't remember where I read it, probably one of Bill's PDFs, but I found an interesting account when I was researching old school seance techniques. The problem here is that you're still looking at performers. The term "mentalism" comes from esoteric practices, though.
Christopher
Witch Doctor Psycho Seance book: https://tinyurl.com/y873bbr4 Boffo eBook: https://tinyurl.com/387sxkcd |
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January Veteran user 390 Posts |
There are a couple of methods linked in the text I posted, but I won't discuss here since it is upstairs. The method is something we may still see at times, but the effect seems much the same as book tests of today: a page is randomly selected, and the medium is able to read the text on the page without having to see it.
As to the other comment, can you be more specific? Obviously the term "mentalism/mentalist" has a long and colorful history, and has been used in various ways, but I had assumed since we were specifically discussing "mediums" in the original post, and not "mentalists" specifically, that Washington Irving Bishop, Anna Eva Fay, John Randall Brown, etc., would be the quintessential examples from the 19th century. |
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WitchDocChris Inner circle York, PA 2614 Posts |
From what I've read, and forgive me I do not have references at this point, the origin of "book test" was that the medium would receive, say, a bible verse reference which would answer a question posed by a sitter. "Is my grand mother happy on the other side?" "I'm getting ... Psalms .. 23 ..." then they'd go grab a Bible and figure out how that applied.
An extremely simplified idea of Mentalism as an esoteric practice (because I have not studied it in depth) is that reality is a mental construct and through mental effort one can create physical changes. ie: magick Long before I ever thought about card tricks and stage shows, I was interested in the occult. Not as a serious practitioner, mind you, but more as an academic interested in the overall concepts. So I've skimmed the surface of a lot of these ideas and dabbled in some of the practices. When I was in high school I remember doing energy demonstrations that were very, very similar to some mentalism routines on the market now. Actually, I have taken some of those things I used to do and polished them up with some showmanship and still do them to this day.
Christopher
Witch Doctor Psycho Seance book: https://tinyurl.com/y873bbr4 Boffo eBook: https://tinyurl.com/387sxkcd |
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January Veteran user 390 Posts |
Yes, interestingly enough, mentalism has some pretty serious overlap with Christian Science and other esoteric religions and philosophies, as evidenced by books like A. Victor Segno's The Law of Mentalism (1902). Link: https://books.google.com/books?id=5Ak_AA......&f=false
That's certainly a different direction for a book test. Interestingly enough, there are several people I know of who could actually "do" book tests as we know them. After having a few beers at parties, C. S. Lewis was known for telling people to take any book off the shelf in his library (there were multitudes) and read a sentence aloud. He would then quote the entire page to them verbatim from memory. One of the professors with an office next to mine at the university where I previously taught could do the same thing, but with the Bible. (Your mentioning of the Bible was what reminded me.) He could quote the following and/or preceding verses in any specific version in English, as well as in the original language (Greek/Hebrew). Not quite on the level of Lewis, but impressive nonetheless. |
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Raum Loyal user 227 Posts |
WitchDocChris, You're talking about bibliomancy.I think the same way.
What I understood from my search, is that almost all methods of mentalists came from the arsenal of spiritualists. B***ets were used to write questions, not thoughts. S***i appeared for the first time for writing on a s***e, not on paper. S***e tests are no longer used widely, instead we use notepads. But on them do not appear spirits messages, only thoughts of the audience. I thint fundamental difference is not in the methods, but in the goal of the performance of these "tests" I think mediums used these tests to bypass mistrust and make clients more suggestive before reading.No matter how good the spirit message will be - this is still not enough. Therefore, after each "test" reading was going on. But today we do only "tests" and very often without even incorporating readings in it. Also we work in diferent enviroments. We also work with different audiences. The audience comes to a seance to find out the answer to they own question, the audience comes to mentalism show for entertainment. |
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WitchDocChris Inner circle York, PA 2614 Posts |
Let me flip it for you, just a bit.
What if people come to a mentalism show to get a different sort of question?
Christopher
Witch Doctor Psycho Seance book: https://tinyurl.com/y873bbr4 Boffo eBook: https://tinyurl.com/387sxkcd |
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Philemon Vanderbeck Inner circle Seattle, WA 4694 Posts |
Quote:
On Mar 22, 2017, WitchDocChris wrote: Many years ago, I actually developed a "book test" that recreated the above. It was called "Spiritbound" and limited to a dozen copies. I still use the book as part of my Q&A routine.
Professor Philemon Vanderbeck
That Creepy Magician "I use my sixth sense to create the illusion of possessing the other five." |
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Raum Loyal user 227 Posts |
Quote:
On Mar 22, 2017, WitchDocChris wrote: What do you mean? |
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WitchDocChris Inner circle York, PA 2614 Posts |
You said: "The audience comes to a seance to find out the answer to they own question, the audience comes to mentalism show for entertainment."
What if a mentalist did a show that had people coming to answer questions, rather than simply to be entertained? It doesn't have to be the sort of questions one goes to a seance for, but there's no reason it can't be more than "entertainment".
Christopher
Witch Doctor Psycho Seance book: https://tinyurl.com/y873bbr4 Boffo eBook: https://tinyurl.com/387sxkcd |
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