Dai Vernon is from Canada, or was born there.

Dogs can read minds, far more efficiently than any mentalist.

There are scientific studies that prove, dogs (domestic loved ones) can tell when its owner is on his/her way home. They also show distress before you leave, and long before there are obvious signs such as packing your bags.

I think we can learn alot from animals.

I do believe that I can read a thought of word that someone is simply just thinking of. I've done it on many occasions.

Open up a bit.

-George Tait

It appears now that people are "bragging" their mental talent.

This input is not contributing to an intellectual discussion. leave the "ego"

I may be fairly new to mentalism, but I never thought I'd hear anyone in the field suggest they really were 'gifted'. Unless of course deluding yourself is an aid to presenting what you do as real.

Now there's a thought, I wonder how many, if any, mental gymnasts have started to believe in their power as real? Perhaps a run of 3 or 4 lucky coincidences such as SHRINK describes above could leave the performer confinced that his abilities have become truly extra-sensory.

Come to think of it, one or two Derren wannabe's, using the it's all psychology, NLP, memory training and intellectual prowess approach seem to have come to believe that they are indeed blessed with IQ's the size of credit card numbers and could influence the rain to fall upwards if they chose to.

By the way, why is it, that as I read through the archives of this forum, I always feel like someone is messing with my head?

Muggy

MOzerian theres also scientific studies that claim geller is the real deal.

Muggy, I wanna be derren brown if it means I get the fame and cash! HECK YEAH!

Alain Bellon: "I don't know how Bill Palmer does it. But I certainly have methods to do it."

Alain, with the greatest of respect to you, I can safely say you do not have a "method" for telling me EXACTLY what I am thinking if you were to walk up to me right now. (Remember: that scenario was the subject of the original post that started this thread). You may well have a method of revealing a thought that may be in my mind under certain conditions and constraints (or you may be able to hypnotise me and make me think of a particular word) - but that is a totally different matter to walking up to a man in the street and telling him to think of ANY word (exerting no other influence on him), and then correctly telling him (and being able to do so in repeated trials of this experiment - i.e. not "getting lucky") what word he is thinking of.

Please don't tell me that "there are things I don't know" that make this possible. There are not (if there were - James Randi would be 1 million dollars lighter by now). And I am NOT being "closed minded". On the contrary - I am very open minded, and I am also rational and intelligent. I do not believe our own magical "hype" (the pseudo explanations we give for our magic) - as several people here (such as Horsey-Man) seem so ready to do. It does not make them look "learned" or clever. It just makes them look silly. Why do some magicians take their "powers" so seriously? As magical entertainers, we are all con-men of varying degrees, and let us not forget that.

Sariel: "I don't know why on earth so many people here (magicians and mentalists that do IMPOSSIBLE stuff) are being so close minded."

Sariel - please see my comment above. As magicians and mentalists, none of us do the impossible. Rather, we do what is possible (by certain clever, disguised methods of trickery or people-manipulation) and make it look impossible. There is a big difference. When was the last time you did something that is impossible? By its very nature, you cannot. And no-one can.

George: "I do believe that I can read a thought of word that someone is simply just thinking of. I've done it on many occasions."

You may well have done it on several occasions, and you may well therefore believe that you have the general ability to do that. But that does not mean that you do actually have that ability. You should be open to the possibility that you have no such ability, and that you have been very lucky with your guesses.

I'll leave the last word to Muggy, who said...

Muggy: "Perhaps a run of 3 or 4 lucky coincidences such as SHRINK describes above could leave the performer confinced that his abilities have become truly extra-sensory. I may be fairly new to mentalism, but I never thought I'd hear anyone in the field suggest they really were 'gifted'. Unless of course deluding yourself is an aid to presenting what you do as real."

Just for fun, and because I like a challenge (i.e., steering this thread towards something REMOTELY helpful), how about we re-phrase the original question?

Does anyone know of a method to leave the spectator BELIEVE that's what happened? I.e., can anyone direct us to a source of methodology that would leave the spectator in a position to relate the experience as: "He asked me to think a word, held my hands, looked into my eyes and told me the word."

This would, of course, preclude the use of books, lists, etc. I suppose we could include writing the word down (opening possible methods up to peeks, CT's, impression devices, etc.) and then HOPE the spectator simply forgets they wrote it down...lol...

So, any info...?

E

MisterE21... good luck with this - although there's no need: Just ask Bill Palmer and Lord of the Horses. They can do this sort of thing (or so they say) for real.

One can reveal a thought-of word (that has not been written down) using contact mind reading combined with a little guess work.
I have done this on several occasions.

Steve, whilst the effect in question may seem impossible, the focus here should be on an effect that is remembered and perceived to be just as impossible as Alex originally described.
The effect happens solely in the minds of our audience, which means if they percieved the effect to be, "I just thought of a word and he told me what it was", then that is exactly what happened.

That's exactly what I mean Stephen!

We've all probably had the experience of doing something for someone and then, at a later date, hearing a retelling of that effect. I haven't had it happen with a mentalism effect, but it's happened many times with cards...

Part of our job, as I see it, is to craft not only the EXPERIENCE but, inasmuch as we can, the MEMORY of that experience.

Smiles!

E

Stephen - Yes, I agree with that. It's always interesting how people tend to mis-remember what has happened, through correct presentation/wording etc. (Thanks also for your PM - interesting methods).

Ok chaps, I've been reading this post with increasing astonishment and it would appear that this joke has gone a bit too far. I cannot believe mentalists of the calibre of Alain and Paolo are claiming they can tell me ANY word I am thinking of WITHOUT writing it down. Piffle! If that is the case, I will challenge you to do so under test conditions. I'm serious. If this can work then it should also work over the phone. Try it on me.

I can see the point of view of the audience in that it is what they see and what they remember but ultimately this is not a dual reality effect nor is this a cleverly disguised force or fishing sequence. This was claimed to be a direct and clean piece of mindreading. Think of ANY word and the person guesses it.

Let's all admit this was a prank and end it ok?

Why all the ruckus?
Why the hostility to people who seem to have ideas of their own?

I don't get it...

Essentially, just because I don't know how someone does something that doesn't mean I am certain it's impossible.

A lot can be accomplished, especially by those who open their minds to possibility. Saying you have a way of reading any word, nothing written down, even if it's not true, may inspire someone to come up with a method.

Let's all keep our dreams huh?

/fl00f

Anyone else able to fly without wings. got to go my dog has flown out the window. little bugger.

A canine helicopter? That's GM dog food for you.....

I cannot admit it was a prank because it was not. Simple as that.

The immaturity of some people simply made them challenge me (or Alain, or Bill) while other people (even if they admitted they were skeptics, and rightly so!) took a wise route and decided to PM me... and I think I can affirm here that, without explaining the HOW in detail, they could post here saying that I did not throw them thru some loops but instead I've told what the implications of the effects are on people as well as giving them some directions on where they could / will find some detailed info on how to perform that.

And, yes, probably alexcahill post was a joke for the 1st of April... but this does not mean that other people cannot do that.


This is my last post on this subject here, so do what you want of it!

Alain will answer for himself if he will decide to do so, otherwise always remember what Dunninger said...

Paolo

James,

Helicopter. That was it. That was my word. And you did that with no cold reading, guessing, muscle-reading or back-tracking. And you didn't even know you were doing it. And you don't even have a wizard's hat. I am amazed. Mind you, I've probably remembered it all wrong and mis-represented what really happened.

Lol Steve!

Paolo, I apologise if my last post appeared scornful about your claims. I hear you are an excellent mentalist and I am not trying to deride you or to belittle your abilities as I am not closeminded and wish to be amazed as much as the next person but there are certain things that appear a little too outlandish and this is one of them. To recapitulate, are you saying the following is possible? -

1. I have a free choice of any word at all. I think of this word and hold it in my mind.
2. I do not write this word down.
3. You tell me this word straight up without fishing, asking me to do anything, without any dual reality.

A one word answer will do Paolo. Yes or no?

If yes, then you are perhaps the best mentalist in existence. If no, then why don't you PM me with the conditions (linguistic or physical) that you would impose?

I'm not trying to be difficult or unreasonable. Where I come from, you don't make claims you can't back up. I would love to be proved wrong on this and if you can then I unreservedly apologise and I will kneel at the altar of the Lord of the Horses until the end of time but I don't think I am. If you cannot perform the feat as stated then you should have said so: 'I can perform this feat but only if I ask you to do this and this...etc'. Sorry to be so sceptical but I think I speak for many here when I request than any claims be accurately made.