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Psychophysiological Thought Reading
Or Muscle Reading and the Ideomotor Response Revealed
By Banachek
Magic Inspirations
ISBN: 0-9706438-1-0



Cost
£32.99
http://www.magictricks.co.uk/shopexd.asp?id=4431


Difficulty
(1=easy to do, 2=No sleights, but not so easy, 3=Some sleights used,
4=Advanced sleights used, 5=Suitable for experienced magicians only)

5
Takes a VAST amount of practice and a whole lot of showmanship to pull this stuff off properly.


Review
The retailers blurb: “On one side of this 180-page hardcover is a reprint of H.J. Burlingame's 1907 paperback release "How to Read People's Minds" which includes some history on muscle reading and how it works, along with a fascinating section on training your dog to read minds!
Give the book a flip over and you have Banachek's "Psychophysiological Thought Reading"! This section not only covers more details on the history of muscle reading, but also teaches updated effects using muscle reading as it is performed today by performers including Derren Brown, and Banachek himself. These effects are used onstage and close-up in routined and impromptu performances.
Laminated hardcover, 180 6" x 9" pages with new illustrations by Earle Oakes”

It is because of books like this that I so LOVE Mentalism and the world of wonder it has opened up around me.

Chapter One gives a brief history and detailed instruction of how to develop this skill. Yes, a skill. There is no “trick” to this, it is all done quite literally “hands on” and requires a great deal of practice but is worth every second spent learning.

Chapter Two swings (pun intended) into the world of pendulums and even offers a tantalising glimpse into the world of Progressive Anagrams.

Chapter Three introduces us to the spooky world of Ouija Boards. This is a very short chapter but there is one little pure gold nugget of information with regards to making the glass (or Styrofoam cup) move without anyone touching it!

Chapter Four touches on (pun intended (again)) Table Tilting as performed by psychics of yester-year at dark, dingy séances.

Chapter Five is about Dowsing Rods and how the theory of dowsing can be utilised in the performance of Mentalism effects.

Chapter Six goes of at a slight non-magical tangent explaining a little about how this skill has been used by the “Scientific Community” for quite legitimate (if somewhat misguided) purposes.

There is even a wealth of additional books to follow up with in the Further Reading Section.



Overall
This book is amongst my most treasured. This is the sort of book I would be loathe to “lend” to any of my friends. Why? Because it is TOO GOOD.

Despite LOVING this book I would not recommend it anyone who is not serious into the whole Mentalism thing.
It is a prime example of where Mentalism separates itself into its own genre of magic.

Awesome book but not for the faint hearted!

You may want to familiarize yourself with the SEARCH button here at the forum (and most others) so that you aren't replicating things... this book has been reviewed to death and most recently.

Strange.
I did have a quick nosey around first but only came up with a couple of allusions to the book on Miscellaneous but nothing in the way of a "review" as such.

If I've managed to unwittingly duplicate something then I will take the slap on the wrist.


I've double checked and searched "psychophysiological" and according to my search, no-ones done a book review on this yet...

yeh, I looked in the review index and it isn't there..

Could just be confusion between different forums. Great Review anyway so thank you for that!