What would you guys say is the best couple of effects in this book?

Pg 314 before your very eyes...I like card tricks and this one stood out to me as being impromptu and utterly baffling to the layman when presented well. Of course there are tons of other classics in there too but that one is my favorite.

It's not the effects, it's the techniques.
Learn to pencil read. That's a proper mind reading effect.

I don't use any of the effects in this book, although they are good ones. Like Bev says, it's the techniques, not the effects. It's not the effects but the presentation.

13 Steps to Mentalism is densely packed with hundreds of effects, techniques, and other material about mentalism.

It is in fact an entire TREATISE on mentalism.

It's not the kind of book one purchases or glances at to find one or two tricks.

Steve Hoffman

A very good 13 steps thread:

http://www.themagiccafe.com/archive1/vie......forum=15

And the effects given are NOT even in most cases the best applications of the principles to which they refer.

They are just good and practical examples of the application of one or more principles explained in a given step. Period.

I find something new in it nearly everytime I look at it. Its one of those books you can pick up and reread after a few months and find a great effect. On of my new favorites is to ask the spectator to think of any 3 digit number. You pull out a sealed envelope that is taped shut, the spectator tears it open, inside is another sealed envelope which they can tear open. Inside of that is a postcard (they can pull it out) with the thought of number written on it.

Performing MENTALISM is NOT performing magic. It is NOT about "effects" - something you would learn if you were to read Corinda thoroughly instead of skimming it for tricks. The same goes for skimming Cassidy, Busch and most other hard-core mentalism books instead of reading it.
PSIncerely Yours,
Paul Alberstat

What Paul wrote is so true!

Anabelle

Magician - Someone who buys an impression device so he can see what the spectator has written and then make it appear out of a hat.

Mental Magician - Someone who buys an impression device so he can see what the spectator has written and then tell him what it is.

Mentalist - Someone who thinks that having to look at the impression left by the spectator is Plan B.

I truely agree with the three latter opponents!
Bev really pinpointed it!
So did Paul. I did not have any other books than Corinda and Annemann when I first started to looking in to mentalism many years ago. I guess it took 5 or 6 years indepth studying them, before I moved on.

My opinion is, that if someone is really serious about mentalism, they would never skim for tricks. For me, the effects mentioned in these books are exemples of the philosophy and psychology of mentalism only.

I see the same in Richard Busch's books, and know that I don't need any other books for years, after I got his.

Sven

Sven