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Dream Signs.
eBook.

by Daniel Love.

Bought from: Lybrary.com ( http://www.lybrary.com/dream-signs-p-240.html )

Effect (as described by Lybrary.com)

"Dream Signs is an effect where you ask the participant to think of his or her star sign. You then proceed to name it. Quick, Simple and impromptu. This routine does not use progressive anagrams. You never ask him any questions. You do ask him to think of his or her sign and how it relates to other circumstances, but the spectator never utters a single word. Everything is based on a clever psychological subtlety. "


Ease of use: Once learnt very effective, but not for the inexperienced. I've been doing cold reading and psychological effects for many years, so I'd probably suggest this is for those with more of an interest in psychological mentalism.

Value for money: Hard to put a value on an ebook, but I've got a lot of millage out of this one. Definitely a great truely impromptu piece, no need for gimmicks or to carry anything around.

Positives: true impromptu effect, looks like real mind reading, does exactly what it says on the tin.

Negatives: requires effort and practice (mostly memory) on the part of the performer. Once this hurdle is overcome, it is fantastic. But do heed my words, its not an "out of the box" effect.

Rating: 9/10

Just thought I'd share my opinions on this effect as I've recently rediscovered my love for Mentalism and started performing outside of shows in impromptu situations, which has required me to rekindle some of the impromptu effects I'd not used for a while. Dream Signs was one of these. Anyway onto the review:

I bought this after hearing glowing reviews on other forums, from people I've got a lot of respect for (such as Craig Browning). decided to give it a chance as it's not expensive and the effect sounded clean.

The book itself is clear and to the point, there are a few typos (I notice these things) but what you would expect from most ebooks. Certainly dosn't distract from the content.

The effect, for a change, does play exactly as described in the advert.
You can literally walk up to a stranger, and without them uttering a word, you can know thier starsign within a few moments.

However, this is not an effect for the faint hearted. It requires practice, skill and learning. You're not going to read this once and instantly walk out and perform it. Yet the idea is clean and simple, and is very much worth the little effort it requries to memorise. It is one of the few truely psychology based methods available, and as such it requires a certain level of intelligence and understanding on the part of the performer.

In reality, if you commit yourself to learning this effect and have a reasonable memory and decent people skills, you'll be ready to perform this within a week of practice. What is also rather nice about Dream Signs is that as you develop with it, you also learn a whole lot about cold reading that is incredibly valuable in almost all other areas of Mentalism.

The principle behind the effect is very devious and clever. It's similar in some ways to a progressive anagram (which I've never been fond of), yet unlike a progressive anagram this feels much less mechanical or forced. If it had been a PA I'd have been ****ed off, but in reality I was very happy to discover a whole new concept.

I've used the basic concept myself and applied it to ideas other than StarSigns, and that is the true value of the manuscript. It's not one effect, its a way of thinking about mentalism. It's a simple idea, on the surface, but is incredibly deep the more you put your mind to it.

This is almost certainly not for everyone. Those who are used to effects that "do themselves" without any knowledge or understanding from the perfomers end, should steer clear. Those with an interest in psychology, nlp, bodylanguage and "Derren Brown" style mind reading, will probably love it, as I did.

The ebook itself is well presented, as much as they can be.



All in all, I'd give it a 9 out of 10.

Thanks for a great review. My only worry with this "routine" is that it can be asking a lot of the spec. There is a very real danger of half-way through the spec saying "hang on a minute, I'm a bit confused now" or worse the spec nodding and agreeing without really understanding what they're nodding and agreeing to.

There are also a couple of signs that don't adhere strictly to the questions. For example the sign for aquarius has at least two varients, one with a human involved, one without. This can lead to confusion.

I love the idea, but worry about the practicalities. Being able to divine someone's star-sign accurately is one of the holy grails of mentalism. I don't think this is quite there yet.

But a clever idea none the less.

Nice review, thanks. Judging by Paul's comments, it would appear this is not a surefire effect. Is that right?

Also, how accurate is the blurb? It states that you "never ask any questions", yet Paul has mentioned asking questions. I'm confused.

I agree with what you're saying, but I've used this for a few years now, and have very rarely had any problems. The nice thing about it, I find is that you can quite easily adapt it when you do notice issues arising with your routine.
I think Daniel did a good job of sharing what works for him, and on the whole I've not had to make many adaptions for my own style and experiences. But as with any good effect I think with a little thought, the effect evolves with you as a performer.

I'm hearing you with the aquarius side of things, on the whole i've not had many problems with that, and i've muddled things around a bit myself to rule out that issue altogether. Sure you've probably done the same.

I suppose what really makes this one of my favourites is that it's hugely developed my skills as a cold reader and i've been able to use the principles of the effect for many other things.

Replicant wrote:Nice review, thanks. Judging by Paul's comments, it would appear this is not a surefire effect. Is that right?

Also, how accurate is the blurb? It states that you "never ask any questions", yet Paul has mentioned asking questions. I'm confused.

No it's not 100% surefire, but it evolves with you, I'd say its 99% surefire for me. Of course there are always ways to cover your back.
It's a pure psychology effect, think along the lines of the things in psychological subtleties.

I dont want to discuss method too much, as it's not really on to do that in a public forum. But no you do not ask questions at any point.

It's only something like $15 if i remember correctly, so i'd suggest just grabbing a copy. It's one of those things that will give you food for thougth even if the particular effect isnt completely to your satisfaction.

But I think it is fair to say that:
The participant dosn't talk and the Mentalist dosn't ask questions.

I think Paul maybe just worded that in a way which would make sense to those who have read it. It's kind of subtle and cunning, but it'll make sense when you read it.

Thanks for clarifying. It sounds intriguing.

It's certainly a routine that has had a lot of thought put into it, and at $15 one can't really grumble (although the exchange rate is not in our favour at the moment). I guess the bottom line is how much time you are willing to invest into getting the routine to work for you.

themagicwand wrote:It's certainly a routine that has had a lot of thought put into it, and at $15 one can't really grumble (although the exchange rate is not in our favour at the moment). I guess the bottom line is how much time you are willing to invest into getting the routine to work for you.

Agree completely.
It's really something for people (like myself) who are into the psychological side of things. My background is very much in cold reading, body language and all that Jazz. I've always enjoyed using "the real stuff" alongside surefire effects. That way I find my performance and my explanations ring true to the audience. Not to mention that the more you practice genuine psychology and bodylanguge reading the rewards do start to show even in the effects that dont rely on them.

This isn't the "holy grail" as Paul says, but it is definitely firmly on the right path and with the right mindset and for those performers who throw themselves into the art, is a winner.

Craig Browning recommended this to me some time ago.
I got it and loved it.

Not sure why I never posted a review though!
Or did I...?

*potters off to use the search function*


EDIT: No I didn't

EckoZero wrote:Craig Browning recommended this to me some time ago.
I got it and loved it.

Not sure why I never posted a review though!
Or did I...?

*potters off to use the search function*


EDIT: No I didn't

I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on it.
I put of reviewing it for a while, kind of like to keep the good stuff to myself, then i realised that it dosn't matter too much, because it's an effect that needs a bit of practice and is more suited to the more advanced performers, and that kind of rules out the casual crowd who are looking for self working easy effects.
So thought "what's the harm", may as well share the good stuff with the people who'd appreciate it

themagicwand wrote:Thanks for a great review. My only worry with this "routine" is that it can be asking a lot of the spec. There is a very real danger of half-way through the spec saying "hang on a minute, I'm a bit confused now" or worse the spec nodding and agreeing without really understanding what they're nodding and agreeing to.

There are also a couple of signs that don't adhere strictly to the questions. For example the sign for aquarius has at least two varients, one with a human involved, one without. This can lead to confusion.

I love the idea, but worry about the practicalities. Being able to divine someone's star-sign accurately is one of the holy grails of mentalism. I don't think this is quite there yet.

But a clever idea none the less.

I've used it for several years now Paul, never had anything like that happen. Too, the method can be applied to other bits (which I've done) that are down right spectacular. I shared the info with Kenton Knepper (with Daniel's permission) and his comment was "we all have to retire sooner of latter..."

Yes, it takes some brass (confidence) but I've not once had it fail me (though I do understand where you might have said knee jerk)

DemonMentalist really needs to learn how to use the Search feature before posting however, this has been covered (several times) in the past.

One Important Note... Daniel does no make a dime off this book, he donates it all to charity (Green Peace I think it is). I wish more of us would think along such direction.

Hmmm. Perhaps I need to revisit this?

Sorry Craig I should have searched!

You mention knowing Daniel, I don't suppose you've looked into his other ebook In Leage With the Devil? I'm considering purchasing it on the strength of Dream Signs. But thought i'd see what the consensus is on it?

After reading this, I had to go and order the thing. (I KNOW I should stop reading the review section...)

The basic idea is superb and can be applied to topics other than Zodiac signs, as mentioned above, as long as there's a finite range of possibilities to choose from. I'm another one who dislikes progressive anagrams -- they're so obviously guessing games. This technique is a real development away from that.

I'm not very happy with the detailed routine as given, though. Can't go into much detail in the open forum, but surely someone who knows enough astrology to know their own sign will also be perfectly familiar with the standard English name for it. The description "tropical environment" describing Scorpio is a bit off-putting, since the words suggest jungle. I would substitute "somewhere hot", and even then it's easily missable, since it's impossible to underestimate the average person's knowledge of zoology.

Then again, the author says this is the way he does it, and it works for him, so who am I to nitpick?

Robbie wrote:After reading this, I had to go and order the thing. (I KNOW I should stop reading the review section...)

The basic idea is superb and can be applied to topics other than Zodiac signs, as mentioned above, as long as there's a finite range of possibilities to choose from. I'm another one who dislikes progressive anagrams -- they're so obviously guessing games. This technique is a real development away from that.

I'm not very happy with the detailed routine as given, though. Can't go into much detail in the open forum, but surely someone who knows enough astrology to know their own sign will also be perfectly familiar with the standard English name for it. The description "tropical environment" describing Scorpio is a bit off-putting, since the words suggest jungle. I would substitute "somewhere hot", and even then it's easily missable, since it's impossible to underestimate the average person's knowledge of zoology.

Then again, the author says this is the way he does it, and it works for him, so who am I to nitpick?

I think you need to re-read the manuscript a few times, Daniel explains each of those nuances and how, some of it is intended to throw people. Too, last I checked, most of the names given the Zodiac are Greek, not English.