Does anyone have this effect? How is it? Is it like what the ad says? Please give a review. Thanks!

I had it but sold it on. The idea is good but it never worked when I tried it. There are mistakes in the book and there are restrictions on where the spectator can read, often people read from the wrong part of the book.
He did a follow up, don't know if that is any better?

I wrote a detailed review for Visions when it first was released. It's no longer up there, so here's a copy:

Lee Earle’s DreamTest
$74.97 post paid from SYZYGY, http://www.lee-earle.com/esp

reviewed by Andy Leviss

Just in time for a late holiday gift to the mentalism/magic community, Lee Earle has released his new entry to the field of book test effects, DreamTest. According to the ads, a spectator opens a book to a random page and reads a few lines. He visualizes an image of what he reads, and you are able to draw what he is thinking without him saying a word. It doesn’t stop there, however. As you are doing this, you toss another book out to another audience member and have him open it up and concentrate on one word. After you show the drawing, you write one word below it. Asking him to name the word, they match. Finally, offering that that word may have been too easy, you ask him to find a harder one and you are again able to reveal the word with no questions asked.

Sounds pretty impressive from the ad, but how does it hold up in the real world. Needless to say, I was anxious as I awaited the package in the mail. I know that anything from Lee is usually pretty good, but I was curious as to this thing. It almost sounded too good to be true. As for that effect as described, however, it couldn’t be more true. The first spectator truly does pick any page. You do start drawing without him saying a word. You do, however, need one piece of information from him, but as is typical of Lee’s instructions this is covered in a rather devious way – a way your audience will never pick up on.

The second and third revelations are in effect what the ad says, but might not be exactly what you pictured when you read the above description. The specator does not open the book to a random page for the two word revelations – it’s not forced, however, and it’s again perfectly logical in the context of the presentation (I don’t want to get too specific as that will reveal a big part of the method). I just don’t want you to get the wrong impression of that from the ad. As a note, most of the audience WILL likely go home thinking that it was a random page – it’s one of those little details they often don’t pick up on or remember.

What does your $75 get you (aside from a killer mentalism effect, of course)? One specially gimmicked book, and a companion ungimmicked best-selling paperback novel for the second and third revelations. The gimmicked book is the same physical size as a typical paperback novel, and looks just like one. The book is devious in it’s workings – it practically does all the work for you. The one thing that I do notice is somewhat odd about it compared to most paperbacks is that the pages are printed on a nice bright, smooth paper stock, whereas most paperback novels (including the other book in this set) are printed on more of a newsprint type stock. When asked about this, Lee Earle said this was a conscious choice to make the book more durable so that it stands up to handling throughout many, many performances. It looks a bit odd to me, but I’m doubtful that any audience member would think anything of it. Another note that won’t affect performance but did surprise me was that there are a few typos throughout the book, including a misspelling of the co-author of the book’s name (Lee used the text of an unpublished novel as the carrier for his brilliant gimmick). I’m not sure which is correct, but the spelling on the cover is different than the spelling on all of the interior pages. Again not something a spectator would likely notice, but I mention it for completeness.

The instructions for the routine are well written, clear, and thought out. As an added testament to the boldness typical of Lee’s material, they are bound as the preface to the gimmicked book. Lee’s idea was that the best place to hide something is in plain sight. While this may be so, and with good audience management it will not be a problem, it seems like a needless risk to me. Why not just print the instructions separately in case a spectator does happen to flip to and start reading those early pages? In addition to the routine above, Lee offers a method for doing the first revelation (the drawing) as a solo piece without the two words.

Now for the murky part of the review. In addition to the description of the effect, the ads and packaging for this make a number of direct claims that I think need to be addressed. First, it states that it is “not the same drawing every time,” and as such is great for repeat performances. Yes and no. It’s not always the same, but there’s a decent chance that your spectator will end up with the same or a similar drawing in a repeat performance. It’s a chance thing, but there is a chance of duplicating. You can (and should) customize the drawings for each show to keep them different, but there is a chance that if you were doing repeat performances in a short time span, you could run into a problem. It’s again an unlikely problem, but it does exist.

Second, what about the “no pumping” thing? Again, yes and no. You don’t directly ask any questions or pump for information, but you do need a key bit of information to complete your revelation. As I mentioned before, however, this is brilliantly covered in the presentation and your audience will never remember it, so technically it’s not exactly “pumping”.

“No duplicate passages”? Not word for word duplicates, no. There are, however, very similar passages throughout the book, but since your spectator won’t be reading the book page to page, they won’t see these.

“No gimmicks”? Well, except for that whole gimmicked book thing.... I think Lee meant no external gimmicks, but this is something that should have been clearer in the ads. The ads do mention that a gimmicked book is used, though, but the packaging, which is where this claim is made, doesn’t.

“No anagrams, no number forces, no sleights, no pre-show work, and no impression devices” are all 100% true.

One problem that is worth pointing out with the third revelation is that in certain circumstances it may require the spectator to count down up to nine lines from the top of the page to a specific line. Depending on your spectator, this seems like there’s a definite chance of error here. Most often it will only be four lines or less, but it can reach up to nine on occasion.

All in all, I highly recommend this effect. It’s going right into my mentalism show, and deserves a look by anyone seriously interested in mentalism. This may not, however, be the best choice for someone who is less experienced with effects like this, as it will require a well-developed sense of audience management. There are a few stretches in the ads and packaging, but nothing that will majorly detract from the effect. It’s still an incredibly powerful piece of mentalism, and one of the best book test effects I’ve seen.

--Andy

Andy, Isn't Lee's Hidden Agenda essentially the Dream Test with the mistakes corrected? Wtih different books of course. Are the other issues mentioned above also addressed in this release (the liklihood of reading from the wrong part of the page)?

I don't have "Hidden Agenda", so I can't speak for that. I wasn't inclined at the time it came out to spend another $70 or so on another one just to find out the differences. If anybody has it and can tell me if the fixes are worth spending the money again, please do tell.

For those who read my review above, when I initially posted it, I included a statement referring to Max Maven's effect, "Autome", which was somewhat incorrect. Since it was, and doesn't really relate to Mr. Earle's effect, I've deleted it.

I just wanted to post to point out that misstatement (that being that Mr. Maven's effect isn't repeatable for the same audience; it of course is, if you use one of the many alternative books available, as Mr. Maven so kindly reminded me, something I should have mentioned) for those who read the review before I edited it.

--Andy

Andy,
Could you PM me about the mistakes in the book please. I have been using this for a while now and the only mistake I have come accross is the one covered in the errata supplied with the book. Many Thanks,
David

David,
There was no errata supplied with my book, so I can't answer that. Most of the mistakes I've come across are typos, nothing that detracts from the effect, but that make the book look a bit unprofessional. I've heard of other mistakes in the cues, but I haven't come across any of those myself.

--A

Thanks for the reviews! They are very helpful.

I used to have it but sold it for two reasons even if it is a good book test.First i do not perform so much for english language speakers audience and second i prefer impromptu book tests than with gimmicked books.Mine came with errata.