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countrymaven Inner circle 1426 Posts |
Hi fellow magicians,
Last night I read some thoughts from Al Schneider about his intention of reality. Today, as I went on errands, I tried out a normal coin vanish with some subtleties. But I intentionally did it with an "intention of reality." I am not claiming to be an expert, but a lady I did this for thought I was a witch. The tiny routine for my vanishing coin to her shoulder (it was not really on her shoulder) has taken years of practice to add some small subleties. But my hat is off to Al, because not only was the lady spooked but the whole store almost shut down. Thanks Al, this principle may be ignored by many, but it is really a great secret of magic, and the only way to take "tricks" off the end of magic, and to elevate this art to appear as real magic. Again, I am not passing myself off as an expert. I am asking for your experiences with this principle. Thanks so much. |
countrymaven Inner circle 1426 Posts |
The reason why I posted this here is that coin magic is perhaps one of the most truly impromptu, "easy to get into" type of magic. It seems it is a good place to cover
Schneider's seminal I.O.R. I was shocked at how somehow, a lady's reaction to a simple routine, applying this principle, caused people to come out of the woodwork at this store. It was so hard to believe the strength of the spectacle over something so small, that I did not realize it until hours later. Thanks Al, we owe you for this principle. |
J-Mac Inner circle Ridley Park, PA 5338 Posts |
It will actually take you a lot longer to fully understand and implement this principle. Believe me!
Jim |
Mb217 Inner circle 9520 Posts |
…And perhaps even longer than that.
Welcome and good journey to you countrymaven.
*Check out my latest: Gifts From The Old Country: A Mini-Magic Book, MBs Mini-Lecture on Coin Magic, The MB Tanspo PLUS, MB's Morgan, Copper Silver INC, Double Trouble, FlySki, Crimp Change - REDUX!, and other fine magic at gumroad.com/mb217magic
"Believe in YOU, and you will see the greatest magic that ever was." -Mb |
countrymaven Inner circle 1426 Posts |
Thanks fellows. I want to make clear that I am not boasting about me, but about the principle. Actually, I had been familiar with this quite a while ago.
I had worked on it. But I kindly disagree with you all in this sense. What just happened to me shows what happens when the Intention of Reality just gels. Realistically, this will not work on everyone every time. Certain people are more sensitive to it, to your belief that something is happening when it is not. But I would humble like to suggest that what happened to me was a result of some long exposure to the principle, even before I knew of Al Schneider. I would suggest that this principle is something that can just come to you in a performance, when you just let go and let the Intention happen. And I also humble suggest that this thing does not work at your beck and call every time. It also depends some on the spectator, and other factors we are not fully in control of, for it to work in its maximal state. What I experienced for the type of small display I did, I believe, was the maximum that you could expect from my simple performance--a store almost shutting down, due to someone having seen some real magic. |
countrymaven Inner circle 1426 Posts |
Here is a copy of the I.O.R. in Al's words. Copied from this forum, currently on page 5.
__________________ Intention of Reality Before getting into the primary routines of several of my books, I like to present some philosophical information about performing magic. While these books are not always concerned with making coins disappear, that subject is used as an example of what Intention of Reality is. Often other magicians ask me how I make a coin look like it really moves from one hand to another when there is in fact no coin. I tell them that I paint a picture of the coin moving from one hand to the other. However, there is one little detail in the picture that is missing. That is the coin itself. The reason this works is that if all other details are present in the picture, the minds of the audience automatically fill in that one little detail. The device used to paint this intricate picture is called Intention of Reality. To begin to understand what Intention of Reality is, try the following experiment. Place a pencil on a table in front of you. Now pick the pencil up. Put it on the table and do it again. Actually do it again several times. While you do it, study your thought patterns. There is a point there when you intend to pick up the pencil. When you think that, actions flow forward and the pencil gets picked up. The pencil does not get picked up if you pretend to pick it up. The pencil does not get picked up if you believe you can pick it up or want or decide to. The pencil only gets picked up when you intend to pick it up. This concept is applied to magic when you take that thought process and use it to create reality for your audience. In magic, the audience is not aware that the reality they are observing is false. This bears repeating. During a magic performance the audience is not aware that some real thing they are observing is not actually real. This is true even though the audience knows that you are not really doing magic. In a stage play, the audience perceives that the actions, though appearing real, only appear real and are in fact not real. For example, a person might be shot and die in a play. While the audience cries over the person’s death, the audience knows the actor did not die. In magic when the audience sees something created with Intention of Reality they perceive that it is real. As mentioned the audience will realize, of course, that the effect produced is but an illusion. But at some point the audience will observe some reality that is not reality that is used to mislead their minds from the true method of the effect. Consider the creation of a coin in your hand when in fact there is no coin in your hand. After the effect is performed they will believe that somehow you extracted the coin from your hand without being able to detect this. The reality, however, is that you used Intention of Reality to create a coin in your hand after which you simply revealed there was actually no coin. The point here is that, when correctly performed, the audience will believe that a coin was actually in your hand. There perception then is that somehow you got the coin out of your hand to accomplish the illusion of magic. The thrust of all of this is to convince you that the Intention of Reality means intending something to exist. As we have introduced the use of this with coin vanishes, let’s focus on an intended coin in your hand as an example. The idea is that you have done some sort of move in which you have apparently placed a coin into your hand. There is nothing in your hand, but the audience is to believe that the coin is there. You can use your mind to intend the coin to be there. If you look at that feeling or thought that you use when you intend to pick up a pencil and apply that feeling to the intended coin in the hand, you have it. How is this developed? The first step is teaching yourself and/or your subconscious mind what the reality is that you wish to create. In the example we have selected here, we wish to create the reality of a coin being in your hand. The method is to hold a coin in your hand. While you do this you become aware of all the sensations and feelings of the coin being there. Move your hand up and down allowing space around the coin so the coin flops around in your loosely closed hand. Notice the weight of the coin, how the surface of the coin feels rough on the tips of your fingers. You also notice how your other hand behaves. You also notice the position of your head, your shoulders, and your arm and so on. You must become a master of what happens to your body while holding that coin. And you become aware of what your eyes are doing while holding a coin in your hand. You must study and be conscious of these things. Then you take the coin out of your hand and recreate all of those sensations, feelings and thoughts with your mind. You first teach your automatic side what the reality of the coin is then you use your automatic side to recreate those phenomena when there is no coin there. You first use the reality of the coin to do this. That is, you use the actual coin to teach your body and mind what is happening. Then you use your intellect and awareness to do this. The process requires a lot of study and time. Now, when you take the coin out of your hand and intend a coin to be in your hand, all of those things you studied while a real coin was there are turned on. You don't think about it, you don't pretend and you don't act. In fact, you don't do anything. For all the world is to know, there is a coin in your hand. You will find this quite amazing the first time you do it. You will find yourself holding a coin but there is no coin there. You will not pretend or even try to believe. But with the slightest intention there is a coin there. When you talk to someone, when you look at someone; your mind will be on the coin in your hand and you will make no effort to keep it there. It will simply be there. This is the Intention of Reality. It can be applied to any motion of deception. The recipe to accomplish this, as presented here, is to do whatever motion you wish to use for real. Do the event over and over, until your mind and body know every detail. Then you get your mind and body to duplicate that move during the performance of the deception. A great deal has been said of Retention of Vision. That is very pretty and powerful. However, it is not as powerful as the Intention of Reality for, during the presentation of a Retention of Vision move, the performer knows it is a move or knows there is an act to perform. The use of Intention of Reality requires no move. Also, moves like the Retention of Vision require that the audience actually see something. That is, during the effect there must be something there. With Intention of Reality there need not be anything there. In my e-book on The Theory of Magic I present the example of pretending to pick up a coin and causing it to vanish. There, the coin is left far behind. Then the "intended" coin is dropped into the hand and allowed to vanish. At the point where the coin is dropped into the hand the Intention of Reality can cause the audience to actually see the penny. Magicians have observed this and call it Retention of Vision. I must quickly point out that there is, in fact, no coin there. Yet, the observer sees a coin in my hand. Such is the power of this concept. Putting this into Practice While the above is quite interesting, it does not spell out the specifics of how these ideas a put into practice. Here are a few words about that. To get into this I must present an idea of how I believe the mind works. There are two sides to the mind, the Aware and the Automatic. Other disciplines will have there own names for these and their own definitions. I wish not to get into those philosophies so I offer my own words and definitions for them. The aware aspect is that part of us that is aware of what is before us and responds to it. When we think the thought “I” it is the aware part thinking that thought. The aware part observes and makes decisions. The automatic part essentially contains a number of actions that are waiting to take control of the mind and body when asked to do so by the aware side. An example is in order. When driving a car, you see a light and put your foot on the brake and stop the car. If you scan your memory for some recent time you did this, chances are you will remember seeing a stoplight at some point. You will tend to not remember stopping the car. During this process, your aware side saw the red light and told your automatic side to stop the car. It took over, moved your foot, applied exactly the right pressure and the car stopped right at the line by the light. The point of this is that the aware side observes and takes action. The aware side creates intention to take this action. The aware side intends something to happen, that intention is a message to the automatic side to execute whatever it is. To apply this to magic, an appropriate action of deception must be built into the automatic side. The entire complexity of the action is put there. Then during performance, an intention is conceived and the automatic side is directed to do its thing. Perhaps the major point of this is that the fact the automatic side is doing it causes that action to appear real to the audience. Indeed when this is mastered, whatever the deception action is, the aware side of the person doing it also observes it as real. This, at first, can be a bit disturbing. When you master this for the first time with something mundane as holding a coin in your hand, you are amazed that you really feel the coin there. You see, you do not believe the coin is there, you do not pretend it is there and you do not act as if it is there. You throw out this intention and you feel the coin is there. It is quite magical. With this understanding, however, how do we get that action into the automatic side? But then, even before we can address that, how do we determine what to put into the automatic side? The first task then is to decide what to put there. This is difficult for many books have been written on magic moves of deception. What you do is thus, another part of the equation. In general the answer is doing what is natural. In our example here, we are simply holding a coin in the hand. Once you have the action you wish to put into the automatic side, the act of repeating that action over and over is done to get it there. Thus, the transfer from the aware side to the automatic side is simple repetition. This has its own problems. This process can be painful and requires a great deal of time. Only the serious student will devote the time to do this. Many begin but many will quit before the task is accomplished. This task is made even more difficult if the person doing the practice does not believe the action being moved to the automatic side is a correct action to use. I have not been able to effectively communicate what must be done in writing. I have been quite successful at teaching this to many people. However, this is done in a classroom where I stand over each student essentially forcing them through the process. It is not always successful for people sometimes get up and walk out of the room because the pressure can be great. Unfortunately the only way to determine a correct action is to go through the entire process and see if it works. One aspect of the Schneider teaching method is that there is a process to accomplish getting some action from the aware side to the automatic side. This is a bit beyond the goal here of describing Intention of Reality. It really is just simple repetition until it gets there. Hopefully the forgoing sheds some light on the Intention of Reality. Before leaving the subject, however, I wish to push a bit more on a critical point. Most magicians understand the need to move a motion of deception into the automatic side. They, in general, do not understand the need to move an actual motion into the automatic side. This bears explanation. Consider a coin lap. Most magicians feel comfortable holding the hand near the edge of the table and doing the action. But do it as a real action. Simply rest your hand in that same position as if you were doing nothing. Most magicians doing this will feel very awkward. This is the Intention of Deception. You see it is not real. The audience can detect that this is not real. What all of the forgoing suggests is that you determine what your hand would do when it does that action for real. Then repeat it until it is comfortable and automatic. Then, when you intend to simply rest your hand on the edge of the table, it happens without further thought. This is Intention of Reality. In conclusion, to master a move both the real and motion of deception must be moved to the automatic side. Understand that the motions of deception are quite varied and depend greatly on personal preference. The attempt here is to show a basic procedure that must be practiced for the whole to work well. Al Schneider ________________ I apologize for the large post. but it would be wrong for me, not to help you to experience it, in Al's own words. Think about this: If magic does not occur in your mind, even if feigned, and is backed by simple, natural moves, the how can it occur in the spectator's mind? |
David Neighbors V.I.P. 4910 Posts |
In the Poff Die Vermon's Book of magic,in the first part Called " starting Right" Is also some GREAT stuff!
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countrymaven Inner circle 1426 Posts |
Dear David,
What would the Café do without you? You are one of the greatest contributors to coin magic. thanks so much |
David Neighbors V.I.P. 4910 Posts |
And thank you so much for the kind words! I do what I can!
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funsway Inner circle old things in new ways - new things in old ways 9982 Posts |
A couple of years ago I had some private email discussion with Al on this theme and other "pseudo sleights" such as using his Basic Vanish with no coin at all. He agreed that using the ideal of the "Audience knowing where the coin is" is better than "believing where it is." In order to get from "believing" to "knowing" the performer also has to "know," and that can be assisted by executing an actual transfer prior to make a false/pseudo one. Sadly, any discussions with AL are quickly derailed into a different direction (the mark of genius??) and I am sure he has more to offer on this theme.
In a 1932 manuscript a magician details using several pseudo transfers back-to-back to make the final reveal of nothing more powerful. Thus, when the audience "sees" the non-existent coin fall from hand to hand twice in a row the "knowing" increases and the other hand shown empty because it is. As a kid I learned that "the easiest coin to vanish is one that never was," but I can't cite a source. SInce no video can be made of such sleights this use of psychology (predictive vision) over gaff or Retention of Vision may become lost. Another thought partially mentioned above -- a Retention type sleight requires that the observer acknowledge the coin in the receiving hand hand. This mandates some reason for the coin to be there at all. If you want a coin in your left hand why not just pick it up with your left hand? A Predictive Vision sleight is so subtle that the audience may not ever remember that the coin was transferred at all (assuming the Reveal is not immediate). Not "better than" but certainly "other than" for some effects -- especially when an effect is repeated.
"the more one pretends at magic, the more awe and wonder will be found in real life." Arnold Furst
eBooks at https://www.lybrary.com/ken-muller-m-579928.html questions at ken@eversway.com |
vinsmagic Eternal Order sleeping with the fishes... 10957 Posts |
If you want to see this done in real time I suggest you look no further than Mickey Silvers work..
vinny |
countrymaven Inner circle 1426 Posts |
Dear Vinny,
What you just posted is so important, wow. You just said in a few words how to see a great principle put into action. If a picture is worth a thousand, a video must be worth a million. so let's all watch Mickey Silver to see what making magic "appear real" is like. Great post, really appreciate you man! |
fonda57 Inner circle chicago 3078 Posts |
I was standing line one day at a coffee shop that had a dish of small oranges and as the person in front of me left, I had picked up one of the oranges and just held it, then did a french drop style motion of putting the orange back into the dish. When the orange seemed to vanish, a woman standing nearby looked wide eyed at me.
I wasn't "doing a french drop" I was just putting the orange back.... |
countrymaven Inner circle 1426 Posts |
Fonda, these are the times that try men's natural lives. Displays like yours of the "supernatural"--I love it.
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