Had a thought last night....

You offer to perform a demonstration of "faith healing." in a bizarre show.

A volunteer is asked up on stage. ( I would suggest using a real volunteer who actually offers to come on stage. You tell them nothing except that they will have to expose their naval.

You ask them if they have ever had a pain in their stomach (the answer is yes). You ask them if they have had a pain in their stomach RECENTLY

If YES, look worried and say "I think I might need to operate...."
IF NO, look worried and say "so you've had a pain but it went away? You might have damaged the nerves. I think I need to operate..."

"I will be operating in the forth dimension which enables me to look inside you without having to cut you open. Imagine two washers slide around on a table, existing only in the two dimensional space. If one of those washers discovered how to travel into three dimensions it would be able to rise up and travel ABOVE the other washer looking down into the hole without causing damage."

(Now if that's not psyeudo science I don't know what is!)

Have them lay down on a table and lift up their shirt a little. Wave a crystal over their stomach and play some new age music. Wash your hands in a bucket, show your hands empty and then plunge your fingers into their stomach. Blood starts running and eventually you produce a small flesh coloured cyst about an 3cm long and 1 cm thick. You remove the cyst, wipe away the blood, come out of your 'trance' and thank the person for their assistance.

The method? What piece of magic appratus can hide a small amount of water blood, is 3 cm long and 1 cm wide, flesh coloured and when covered with a little blood looks unrecognizable?

That would be killer for sure...everyone seen those quacks on tv exposes regarding faith healers...to see it up close and personal, and STILL be unexplainable on the part of the layman would be grand...

Pm me the details if you have time or desire...

Baba

I would imagine that the skeptics in the audience would be watching your hands like a HAWK so the gimmick would have to be ON your hand (like before you produce a silk) rather then in it (like before you produce a goldfish)

Just had another idea. Wet their stomach a little with warm water (blessed or whatever) and when the blood is added the water will mix and create extra blood.

I seem to recall that James Randi did a step by step expose of psychic surgery on one of his TV appearances. If you select a male with some avoirdupois, this can be most convincing.

Depending on what you want to produce, you could also play this for laughs.

Max

What you are describing is essentially "psychic surgery." The psychic surgeon also has pans of water and lots of towels on and around the patient. Obviously, a loaded TT can easily be hidden in the stuff surrounding the patient. The psychic surgeon may also have a tray suitable for displaying the "tumor" or chicken entrials that the operation yields.

Avoirdupois?

Oh you mean a fat man!

Sorry for being so insensate, obdurate and cerebally laggard!

Nicholas:

No sweat, as long as you weren't employing sesquipedelian circumlocution.

Ok maybe Im losing it here but I rather produce a rubber brick, wash it off as I switch it for a real one already in the bucket, when handing it to the spectator drop it just before he reaches so everyone hears the thud when that sucker hits the ground.

PS please hand me my medication!

Magickman

There must be 101 brick jokes to go with it.

Nice idea nicholas

I have thought of this before but here are some problems that bothers me...
does it might offend the volunteer.?
and the blood can be messy to stain his clothes and would he be willing to take off his clothes in front of many people?

could it be possible in the hand instead of the stomach? o it might risk the exposure of the gimmick...

have you already perform this? please share your thoughts...

peace....

-sinnead

How about causing the surgery to happen when he holds his own hands over his stomach, and you wave a knife from the other side of the room, this could be done a few ways, and also fit in with your presentation.

Since the impact of this thing is particularly strong on the audience, you might get away with using an unaknowledged assistant (I dislike the word stooge). The problem then becomes finding someone with enough extra flesh to be helpful who is also willing to strip in front of an audience.

Of course you dislike the word stooge. It only has six letters!

I think it would be good to ask for volunteers and if no one offers then grab a stagehand and use them. There is no reason for people to think stooge if you gave them a chance.

On reflection, I think Nicholas is correct, this would be stronger with a legit volunteer.

He is also correct in saying that stooge has six letters!

One would also want to wipe one's hands on a towel after the first incision. All kinds of stuff (including a brick) could be hidden in a towel. Of course, if your volunteer is male, be careful when you tell him you've removed his brick.

How about doing psychic surgery in reverse, and implanting something, and using an x-ray to confirm it afterwards.

this is a great idea but I think tou would be paying for someone's cleaning bill.

This is very very nice idea. so clever. definetely I will use this. thank you very much. I really apreciated.

Wow! Just think about going to your next funeral and doing this on the corpse. Maybe he died from some unknown cause that you just discovered.

Solves the problem of the audience thinking you used a stooge (who would die just to be in your show?), the volunteer being embarrased to be naked (he/she has been naked in front of a lot of people.), and having to pay a cleaning bill (no one is going to come back to sue and if they do just play this up as a resurrection effect).

Sorry, but since we were talking spooky, I just couldn't resist.

I like the idea of producing extra things after the TT.

Since you've already done the 'magic' people will relax and you can go to the second stage.

Had a look at Randi on the Carson show... I think he did EXACTLY this at one point.

In the Channel 4 series Faking It a Physics masters Student, Kevin McMahon , was turned into a magician in four weeks.

He went to the States to meet Penn and Teller and after a cringeworth attempt at a couple of tricks they offered him a ring from stomach effect to take back to the UK and perform. Essentially the load was in the bowl of water and a missing ring produced from the gore around the spec's navel.

All credit to Kevin who passed the test with flying colours and has now jettisoned physics in favour of full time magic.

http://www.kevinmcmahonmagic.com/about.htm

Kevin's sucess is impressive. He became a "Professional Magician" in only 4 weeks. It took me a lot longer than that.
Rich