Wukfit wrote:P.s refraction is much the same as reflection...
Hmmm... not so sure I agree there! Reflection is light bouncing off an object, which is usually attributed to mirrors, but almost all objects reflect light—which is how we see them!
Refraction is light passing through an object and having its' properties or course change.
The effect, HITH, has now become for me (with our aforementioned freak weather) something of a showpiece. Not once has it been questioned, not once has it failed to raise a reaction of some kind—always positive.
It's not a trick per-se. It's for me a prelude to a trick, usually an impromptu mind reading effect. If done as a stand-alone, I would find it weak. But if you weave it into, for example, a card divination, or a 'thought transfer', it can be pretty effective. For example...
Seige's HITH routine
Tell a spectator you are going to plant a thought in their mind. You are going to take a thought from your own mind, and put it in theirs. For this, I have a simple ID in my pocket, which I take out and hand to the spectator...
"In the deck I have turned over a card. I know what it is, and I have known since this morning. I have made a point of visualising the card as a large billboard, and imagined me driving past the billboard. I've done this several times today, imagining driving past that card, 8 feet tall, and it is now a firm memory in my head"
You proceed to line up for the HITH and say:
"I am now going to try and send that vivid thought—remove it from my mind and place it into yours—if you look carefully at the shadows, you will see the thought leave my head and enter your own"
You perform HITH, and the spectator sees a 'hole' in your shadow, supposedly as the thought leaves your head. You then 'close' the hole as you explain that your thought has left, and it's void has been erased. You have now forgotten the memory, as you've successfully 'uploaded it' to their mind. Ask them to watch their own shadow, and they may see the thought appear...
"Now, the thought is in your own head. Imagine driving down your usual route to work, or the shops, or through a city centre. There's a billboard there... and on the billboard is a card... see the card, see the colour and the value. Now drive past again, and again, in your mind... until the card you see is the same one. You are now thinking my thoughts."
They will hopefully play along (yes—they will!) and at this point you ask them to name the card out loud. You cleanly take the deck and show one card to be turned the wrong way, and ask them to take the card.
"Again, before you turn the card over, please name the card you saw on the billboard..."
When they turn the card over, of course, it matches.
Conclusion
HITH is a very powerful part of the above routine. It gives a new excuse for me to use the ID. But then again, I tend to think outside the box. Usually if something is handed to us on a plate, i.e. a self-working packet effect, most people just perform it as-is.
HITH is NOT a self-working miracle. In my opinion, it is icing to a perhaps dormant magic cake which you've yet to eat. It can be VERY powerful, but only if you think about it. Using it as-is is rather an anti climax, but used as part of a performance—rather than AS a performance, it will serve you well.