http://www.LivingWaters.com has a newer tract out entitled "Which square is darker? A or B?" It can be viewed at http://www.LivingWaters.com in the tract section. It is a really great looking and baffling optical illusion- the tract has a flap on it with two holes- you place the two holes over squares A and B and it proves the squares are exactly the same color. Without the flap- you absolutely would say every time the A square is MUCH darker than the B square. The back of the tract has a little box to stamp in contact information about your church, etc.. The inside of the tract has some freaky skull "hidden pictures" from around 1860.

I put the tract on my color copier and blew the front page up to 8.5 by 11 inches. The illusion still works great- I am going to have the page laminated and will show it on the next http://www.ChristianMagician.org. Will use an index card with holes it it to show the illusion. If you wanted to go to "stage size", my guess is you could go to a place like Kinko's that could enlarge the page size to at least legal size I would imagine- I may try doing that as well to get my page even larger.

The tract itself also has the typical "Way of the Master" Ten Commandments evangelism approach text. This is a tract I will definately use- and I think people will keep it- it has a real startling effect that people will be eager to immediately show one another- and hopefully read the rest of the tract. I use a "stamper" for the back box to include and invitation to my home church and website (Lighthouse Community Church in Kalamazoo) and my own website.

Followup: I just went (2-19-2011 11:25am)to the "Store" section at the Living Waters web site, and the above described amazing tract is currently "Out of Stock" which does not surprise me one bit. It is a good one! It usually does not take Living Waters much time to get more printed up-this hopefully will not be out of stock for long- I know I want to order more after seeing them for the first time earlier this week...

Followup to the followup above: I took the tract over to Office Depot- they enlarged the front page of the tract to 16 x 20 inches and laminated it for $12.99. It does not look as good as the original tract- or as convincing- it came out kinda grainy- not sure if I will use it or not. I may try to just get the camera to zoom in on the tract itself when filming it on March 15- or only use the poster sized version if can't get it to work any other way. By the way, if you have a magic poster that you have designed on your computer- print it out or better yet take it over to Office Depot on a memory stick- Office Depot will then blow it up to a very large poster size for a very low cost.

Roger,

They should still have one called "Mind Game"...it's based on the Princess Card trick. It's pretty cool and would be a great addition.

Mike

Ray Comfort is a huge fan of magic, secular and gospel. I've performed at their place for he and some of his team sharing gospel magic effects I've created. I even took his Celebrity Bills and created a "Svengali Deck" and showed it to him and that was on his weekly website broadcast for a week. "Which Square is Darker?" is one of my favorite tracts...and I'm sure he will have them restocked soon.

As for the illusion, you can find it on the internet in places so you can start with a much bigger illustration if you wish to have a large one.

I am not as crazy about "Mind Game" the one based on the Princess Card trick as that is revealing a magical secret. Optical Illusions are the best for giving away...and he has a track of those as well. "World's Best Optical Illusions" is its title and apparently it is currently in stock. At least before I hit the enter button on this.

><> J

I have the "Mind Game" tract in my office tract rack- so from time to time someone will comment on it- and are actually temporarily fooled by it. So that's good. But Kif is right- the last sentence of the tract reveals how this simple (too simple for me- I never really saw much of the appeal of this effect anyway) "trick" is accomplished. The "Which Square is Darker- A or B" tract is much nicer- and a real fooler. You can type in the words "Optical Illusions" in your search engine and it comes up at multiple sites- but still many people have not seen it yet and/or don't remember it. So I think this tract could become one of my favorites. I gave some out at church yesterday- it instantly was being passed around.

Hey Kif- have you ever used the "tract sign" of the growling dog available from http://www.livingwaters.com : The one that states "Take One If You Dare?" This sign could be used by close up performers doing card tricks? Might be incorporated as part of a cute routine... or the performer could take the sign out just before someone selected their card for a laugh, etc.. I don't have the sign, but it's priced at only a dollar- so would be worth the purchase to check it out. It is on the LivingWaters site under "misc" variety items (not books, training materials or tracts) in their "Store" section.

I had never seen the Tract Sign before...very interesting. That could be a lot of fun to have...

The "Which Square Is Darker?" tract is back in stock at http://www.LivingWaters.com I cannot recommend this tract highly enough- it is my favorite one. I handed out a bunch at the Kalamazoo Gospel Mission last Sunday after a program- the tracts were getting passed around by people immediately wanting to show other people the optical illusion. Staple an invitation business card to the back inviting folks to your church's Easter service- and you are all set. Places like Office Depot now design a card for you on the spot- and can get it delivered in just a few days. It was a piece of cake to have a special invitiation card made up there with a full color Lighthouse on it (the name of the church I am a member of is "Lighthouse Community Church" in Kalamazoo)- I was all set to go for only pennies each. Give it a try- studies show that friends, coworkers and neighbors will come to your church if simply personally and sincerely invited- especially at Easter time.

This perceptual illusion by MIT cognitive scientist Edward Adelson also appears on page 55 of the May/June 2011 issue of "AARP The Magazine".

"Which Square is Darker" is on sale this weekend at http://www.livingwaters.com (April 1-3). They are 25% off...If anyone is interested in obtaining a package or two...

That is a great deal- that tract really is a good one! I just ordered a ton of them when they came back into stock- I cannot recommend it highly enough. By the way, I enlarged the tract on my color copier to legal size for a "display"-can use this larger display to show more than one person at a time the illusion- and then give out the tract afterwards if you like. Could be a neat part of a "busker" set too. Thanks Kif- I may order some more now. By the way, Living Waters will send the tracts regular mail at very low shipping costs- you have to ask for it I think if you call them- but then it is not tracked or insured by them.

Don't know about shipping...I just tend to drop by their place and pick them us considering we are in the same city. Ray is a neat guy...and really loves magic.

><> J

It really is a great tract, but the shipping is killer.

I just ordered this from their website. I also got several other tracts and the postage seemed to be appropriate for all of my items, but I'm sure the 'box' isn't that large. Thanks for the update on this item!

If ordering off the web site- I believe everything is sent using fast UPS. Once I called LivingWaters directly to place an order and asked if I could use cheaper snail mail- and they gladly did that which did save me a few bucks.