Another way of adding to the magic you create is to be able to comment upon the thinking processes that a person is using. N.L.P coined the word, Submodalities. These are the finer distinctions you can make about thoughts. People can think in pictures, with an internal dialogue and have ‘gut’ feelings about something. Submodalities are the finer distinctions within these areas.

Images have certain qualities, for example they can be: black and white or colour, you can be in the picture or not, the size of the image maybe small or big and the location of the image maybe in front of them or to one side. These are just a few of the distinctions that can be made with regard to the pictures that people can imagine in their mind.

It is the images that people make in their mind that this article is about and how you can use that information effectively in your performance to create more wonder.

People who prefer thinking in picture do different things with their eyes (while they think and talk for more information on eye accessing cues) and use different words when they speak (see a lit of words and phrases). There are many other ways to spot people who are visual or who favour the visual way of thinking. The eye accessing cues and predicates (the words) are two very reliably methods especially when use in conjunction with each other.

It makes sense to use someone who is highly visual when performing any kind of ‘think of an image’ or ‘draw something…then think about what you drew” kind of effect. (If you are going to perform any kind of ‘touches’ effect, or suggest that someone ‘feels’ something, while the magic happens in their hands it is best to pick someone who is highly kinaesthetic, that is someone who thinks with their feelings. With someone like this you will get a much better response when attempting to make them ‘feel’ something.)

With this you tell someone information regarding the picture in their mind that you could only know, if you were able to read their mind (or the signals their mind give off) and of course that is what you are going to do!

As with the Red circle, Blue Square and Green triangle effect, you are to watch the person’s eyes so as to gain the information. You have chosen a visual person so it is easy for them to visualise an image in their minds eye and with your words you encourage them to ‘focus upon’ the image in their minds eye, you will have them ‘look at it in detail’. By using these kind of word you encourage them to continue to make the image in their mind and as they do this you will observe differences.

The first and most obvious to spot is, where they are looking. You can tell the person that they are imagining something and picturing it here (left/right and up/down), while pointing to where they are looking.

Next you can look at the focus of their eyes. Are they focusing on something close to them or are they picturing this in the distance. This will then give you the ability to locate it in three dimensions in space (left/right, up/down and depth).

Also with observation you can tell whether it is a small picture or a large image, again by looking closely at the way their eyes are moving and the focus of them. Are they squinting or staring into the distance.

This all sounds much harder to do when written down, doing it with people is easy. As an exercise ask a friend to picture something in their mind and make the image close to them, and then picture the same thing in their mind that is a long way from them, look at the differences, you will be surprised how easy it is to notice the differences. Do the same with having them picture something small and something large.

Given that you know what the content of the image is you can make an educated guess as to whether it is colour (the most likely) or in black and white or darkness/shadow.

Being able to tell the person just these basics of Submodalities: the location in space: left to right, up and down and the distance to them, as well as that the image is in colour or shadows and how big the picture they are visualising is are very powerful convincers that you are seeing the images in their mind.

Try with a friend the exercise (big image/small image and location in space calibration) and then start to make predictions or ‘readings’ of the images in the person mind you are performing for and see what reactions you get.

The more information that you can tell someone about the thoughts in their head the more you are mind reading them and the more you add the reality of your mind reading them.

The Effect.

You are going to accurately tell someone (and all the assembled onlookers), which one of three shapes they are thinking of. You then repeat this with uncanny accuracy over and over again, much to everyone’s surprise. When I use this I use it as a prelude to bigger things…

What you are going to do is to ask someone to think of either a red circle, a blue square and a green triangle, and you will be able tell them which one they are thinking of.

But first you are going to calibrate their responses. Also for the first shape that you calibrate, you are going to suggest a number of things to the person and ensure that you have then in a good ‘state’ from which to calibrate their response. With the ‘performance’ you must be sure that you are eliciting a good response from them when remembering the shapes, this is helped by eliciting a good response at the beginning

So I will explain these two elements. These are not full explanations of every facet of each of these two steps (there are also a few other detailed subtleties that are missing from this text. I consider that I have laid out the foundation here and more than enough to perform it. It could quadruple the length of this article to write in full. If you are playing with this and having successes drop me an email and I will point you towards a few other ideas and elements of this effect…).

Calibrating shapes and colours

For this you are going to ask the person to think of three very different shapes and very different colours, for this they will have to think differently each time. For the red circle you are going to trace the outline of a circle about 4 inches in diameter, below shoulder level with you right hand at your right side. (Of course you can choose your own size, location and other subtleties as you wish). Just before drawing the circle in this position you will say something similar to:

“I want you to think of a red circle, [start tracing it with you finger] about this big… think of it about this big and make it bright red… this size, a shockingly bright, vibrant red colour.”

Now this indirectly tells the person to imagine it in that location. They look where you are drawing and you will keep their attention there for a couple of seconds. Nodding toward the circle, emphasising it with your voice, hand gestures, etc can all be used, as and when you need them in order to keep the person focusing upon the circle you are drawing with your hand just below your shoulder height.

As they are doing this you look at the position of their eyes and remember what you see about their eyes and face. Then break this thought. Stop drawing the circle, move, smile, change your voice, point to something else, etc and say something like:

“Ok great, now I want you to think of a blue square… Make it a sold colour, bold lines and solid in colour.”

Then you observe their eyes and face. If you had a camera and a computer you would photograph the person when they are remembering each shape and save the image. So instead you remember what you see (this also has the added benefit of increasing you memory skills). Also what we would do with a camera and a computer is to compare the two images and notice the things that are different, we would notice the biggest differences first and all the smaller details next. So again you need to make a mental note of the things that are different in their eye movements and facial expression.

Its time to break their state again and then ask them to think of the green triangle. It maybe that there is the smallest difference between where the person looks and the general differences that you observe with the green triangle compared to the blue square, but there will be differences. Again remember them, log them with the powerful complex computing power of your brain.

Next you break their attention from the green triangle and proceed. You ask them to think of any one of the three shapes, watch for their eye movements, depth of focus, face, etc and dramatically reveal their thoughts. It is at this point that you need to make sure they visualise the shape well. It is best here to use your language cleanly and directly. You want to have them keep it pictured clearly for a moment, you can tell them to see the colour and the depth of the colour (ovoid using the word ‘bright’ in your explanation (if you used the word bright as in the example above while having them think of the colour) unless you are intending to suggest that they think of the red circle). Alternatively you can instruct them to see the defined edges of the shape and this is to be done instructionally, or directly as a command with downward inflection in your voice so that they comply.

Because you have taken the time at the beginning to look closely (calibrate the person’s responses when they were thinking of the shapes), it is easy to notice the differences in their responces (they way they look) when they think of either of the three shapes and tell the person which one they are thinking of.

It takes very little practice, it is perfectly possible with no practice at all. Just do it and see for yourself how easy this is and how much you will increase your calibration skills with regard to how and what someone is thinking.

One of the simple things I demonstrated and explained to them also looks very magical, just like mind reading and well it is! So I’ve written it up.

You will surprise yourself at just how easy this is to do. In a social situation, in a bar, at home, in the office, out and about anywhere you can talk to someone, you can do this. To start with you can ask somebody you are close to in a comfortable situation to help you out, or you can just go for it and ‘play it big’ in a bar one evening!

Ask someone to tell you five things that they did last week, like: “cycled to work every morning” or “ate corn flakes and toast most morning for breakfast”. You ask them to tell you five things that they did last week, but to lie about one of them.

And you tell them which one was the lie.

You can repeat this again and again, remembering the other person was happy to help you the first time… what about the second time, or the third?

Always leave them wanting more! A very important concept that professional entertainers (the good ones) understand and use to their advantage, here it is worth remembering too. You can bore a friend of yours doing this over and over, or appear cool doing this just a couple of times. You can always find someone to practice with because: “I have invested a lot of my time and money learning these skills and wondered if you would be happy to help me benefit and get the most out of my investment, by helping me practice?” … ‘Yes’ … “Great, would you tell me five things that you did last week…”

As they happily rattle through the four things they did last week and the one lie, you simply watch for any break in pattern. From the NLP eye accessing cue model we know that people look upwards when they visualize, generally people look up to the right (your right) when remembering and to the left (your left) when imagining things.

So when you see someone look up to the right four times and up to the left once, you know that the time they looked up to the left side was the lie. This is a very simple example and chances are most of the time it won’t run like that. Maybe they will look down and to the right as you are looking at them (accessing internal dialogue, talking to themselves); just before they tell you things and look up when they tell the lie.

The point is to watch for a break in the pattern, as you try this and find how simple it is to tell when they are lying, you will see lots of variation in eye movement. The person may look up to the right (picturing an image), then down to the right (talking to themselves about it), and then down to the left (checking their feelings) before telling you. When they come to tell a lie they will do something different from this before talking.

The breaks in pattern are what you are looking for, try this it is so much easier than you might think…

I have had a few emails from some very angry/frustrated mentalists. Upset by the level of exposure of Mentalism on Penn and Tellers Fool Us T.V Show. It seams that there are a lot of mentalists that think it’s unfair that Penn and Teller used ‘code words’ and hidden diagrams to keep the secrets of magic but actively revealed Mentalism secrets.

This is just one such example email I received: The ironic thing about the show is that Penn said that they wanted to regain the wonder of being fooled. Then they went on the show and explained that: “it was a trick with a gimmicked deck of cards and the rest of it was Bullshit!” Thus ruining the wonder for millions of viewers!

There will always be people who like to spoil other people’s enjoyment of magic! I know of someone who told a 6 year old that there is no such thing as magic! I wondered if they also told them there is no Easter bunny, tooth fairy or Father Christmas!

The best thing for us to do is focus all of our energy creating unexplainable memories for people. Lets blur the lines between fantasy and reality even more! People believe what they experience. When I perform a coin bending routine, I use my skills as a performer and knowledge of hypnosis to stick their hand together before I let them open their hand to find a bent coin.

This is easy to perform it’s something a stage hypnotist will do to hundreds or thousands of people at a time (to people they can’t even see!). It’s easy but it adds so much to the performance. Sticking someone hands together or to the table is irrefutable proof that it wasn’t ‘up his sleeve’ or ‘a magic pack or cards’, it’ real, it’s amazing and it helps to blur the lines of reality and fantasy.

In other routines I have people’s fingers move apparently without their conscious ability to stop them before they close their eyes and allow an image to drift/float/fly etc. into their awareness.

When I have people forget their own name, after speaking to them for 30 seconds, it’s shocking. It amazes people and that’s our job, right?

Derren Brown performed the hypnotic plank effect, and when I saw the show the audience went wild for this bit. Because it’s obviously real. When someone can’t remember their name, move their hands or they become stuck to the spot, it’s because ‘real magic’ is happening.

Rather than getting upset or frustrated I think it better to concentrate on becoming better! Check out my post Some Real Magic Words for some real magic words that help you create simple genuine hypnotic phenomena. It’s time once again to update our art and take it to new levels!

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For more information about Rapport Master click here

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In some of my earlier video blog posts I detailed how I suggest different E.S.P shapes, playing cards and images using embedded commands. Here today is some information about the same subject, this time in the written form and discribing an application that you can practice anywhere, anytime! Great for honing your skills.
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An embedded command is a set of words that form a command (rather than a question or statement) that is hidden inside a larger sentence, enabling the command to be delivered with less conscious resistance. Embedded commands become more powerful when used in conjunction with ‘Analogue Marking’. When a command is hidden within the sentence structure and marked out by a subtle shift in rhythm, gesture, or voice tonality, it will become more effective. The idea is to modify your behaviour in a subtle way so as not to be consciously obvious.

The words do not even have to be next to each other in the sentence, just so long as you make them diffrent, and mark them out to the unconscious mind. If you alter your tonality too much it will become obvious to the person listening, so you need to be subtle. It is also useful to modify your behaviour in some other way like making direct eye contact on the words to be marked out and go back to just looking at the person’s face more generally for the rest of the words. You can also perform a discreet movement with your head, arms, or body language in some way on the commands..

Below is a simple example of this, that you can play with today (and tomorrow), and if you do achieve a success with this the first time you try it, great, build on it, think of real world applications for this technique. If you do not succeed first time and you do want to learn, do it again. This will work best when you have a good rapport with person you are talking to, if you do not have their attention or are just not en rapport with them wait until you are or do it with someone you have a good rapport with.
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So we will attempt (and succeed) in getting someone else to rub or touch their eye (this is a measurable response, something you can easily observe and not too out of place an activity for someone to exhibit). The following are just a few example phrases of the way you can use the words ‘touch’ and ‘eye’ in the same sentence, even right next to each other. Of course you are saying the word ‘I’ but it sounds the same as the word ‘eye’ (this is called a phonological ambiguity). Practice it, hone your skills, and have fun.

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“I said to him let’s stay in touch. I (eye) know he is the type of person who will call me…”

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“…strange turn of phrase that isn’t it, stay in touch. I mean when we are on the phone we aren’t touching are we, just talking!”

.“…he uses the phrase touch a lot, I mean with him it’s always touch base, touch on this idea, touch, touch, touch, I now know its because he is a very kinaesthetic kind of person, but it use to…”

Would you like to make a key bend while it’s on the table or in your spectator’s hand?

Of course it’s not really going to bend, you are going to use suggestion and influence to make your spectators think it is.

There is no hypnosis in this and it’s certainly not the effects itself. This is one of those secrets, one of those little touches that separate ‘the men from the boys/the amateurs from the pros’.

It’s one of the little subtleties that helps elevate you and your performance… and it’s so simple!

Professor Richard Wiseman and Emma Greening recently wrote a paper about studies on suggestion and influence regarding that classic PK effect  ‘bending a key’! Magic enthusiast Richard Wiseman discuses an experiment in which two groups were shown the same short film where a bent key was placed on a table, it was suggested to the first group that the key was still bending, while the other group, watched the same footage, with no suggestions.

It comes as no surprise to us magicians that the first group claimed to see the key continue to bend. As we performers are aware if we continue to tell our audience that the object is still bending, (especially while performing some clever little moves), the audience is more likely to not only believe this, but also to ‘see’ it.

Let us consider the use of the ‘continuing to bend’ suggestion, whether on the table or in the spectators hands. As a magician if your audience and volunteers believe that the object did continue to bend while in their hand or on the table, you have performed some amazing magic, you were not merely demonstrating sleight-of-hand but instead creating a really magical experience for them.

What suggestion? For this we rely on the ‘presupposition’. For example:

“Do you see it bending?” A close ended question, it is bending or it is not bending.

“As it continues to bend you might see it flicker in colour or get lighter for a brief moment or two?”

A presupposition that it is still bending, it is just a question of whether you are aware of the colour changing slightly or it getting lighter as it continues to bend. There is also an ambiguity here, when spoken in this sentence it is unclear whether you mean lighter in colour or weight, this further adds to compound the suggestion.

The simple formula is: Decide upon what you wish your spectators and volunteers to experience, then construct a sentence that can only be true if what you want them to believe is actually happening. Told you it was a simple formula!

The more presuppositions you use in one sentence the less able the conscious mind is able to keep track of them and the more the conscious mind is likely to accept them.

As you read over that last bit again (presupposes you are going to read over this again) and realise that you already use presuppositions (presupposition that you will realise this) and decide (presupposes you will decide) to take a few moments to think (presupposes you will take a moment to think) about new ways (presupposes there were old ways) of using them, either now or while performing (presupposition that you will do this either now or later) the more you learn (presupposes you are learning)  and the more fluent (presupposition that you are to some degree already fluent) you get at using presuppositions.

I hope you enjoy.

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If you want to take it to the next level and Memorise A Whole Deck Of Cards, then check out Ron Whites program. Here is an amazing video of Ron and he even gives you a few tips in this video.
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Check our Ron’s amazing Memory Program here