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The Effect

Imagine being able to go into a pub/room/performance and being able to start writing out accurate impressions before even saying a word. Or even spicing up your book tests making them more impromptu, or just giving yourself more of an air of a Mind Reader. That is what this book is about. It is not just a set of 'tools' (infact, I would loosely call it 'tools' anyway) but more like the modern manual for the serious mentalist/psychic.



Cost

$45 www.wonderwizards.com


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)

It is hard to guage the difficulty of this book. I would say that there are multiple levels to the information, alot of it is definately a 1, but some of it would get up to 4. So... 1-4.

Review

This is probably one of the better books I have read on this style of magic in a while. Kenton and his team have alot of great ideas on how to build your image as a Mind Reader. The material can be applied across the board for ALL areas of mentalism and even straight into magic. If you want to be able to go into a room and claim to read minds, whether you want to take a mystic or a psychological point of view you will impress. Even if you just want to make your card tricks a little more impressive by adding a few tidbits of readings here and there.

This information is not cold reading. Though in a way it is a bit like Wonder Words meets Cold Reading. (Ala completely cold / wonder readings) But a large step further. This information is very bold and takes a 'pair' to attempt to pull off some of the suggestions given. In either case the book is built full of outs anyway so it makes missing fun. The material is far away enough from Cold Reading that alot of people familure with the methods of Cold Reading would be completely fooled.

I highly recommend this book to anyone wishing to build their act. It is full of information from little tips on the microcosmic aspects your act to full processes of making very specific readings and 'Knowing' everything about your audience.

Remember kids, Kentons stuff is not for everyone. It is for risk takers. I can remember when I first read his stuff and saying to myself, 'Now way. what knob would fall for this.". This is definately one of those publications. It is one of those books I can see alot of people getting, and putting in their drawer feeling slightly cheated. Then, 6 months to a year later being bored, maybe slightly drunk, and pulling out the book and flipping through it. Finding the gems, and then ultimately realizing the whole book is a gem of wonderful knowledge and applying it into their complete act.

Overall

I give this book a [9.5/10].

A very well done review

Thank you

Dean

Thanks for the review - this is something I'll be getting soon. As I've said elsewhere before, I'm a big fan of a lot of Kenton's stuff and this sounded brilliant. A lot of Kenton's stuff does require you to just do it, as anyone who's read Kentonism will know (especially Pure Kentonism - the brilliance behind his ideas is enlightening, as is the simplicity of some of his stuff; I went out and did his Pure Kentonism and got some amazing reactions - have to be careful though, as he says in his disclaimer at the start).

He's got some interesting new material out and Mind Reading is one which is shaping up to be a good read.

Thanks again for the review!

I received this book yesterday so I can't make too much comment. My initial impression after skimming through the book isn't too positive, but it does look like there's some valuable information in it. I often feel like I'm in the story of the Emporer's new Clothes when I read Kenton's stuff - not sure how much of the time I'm being BS'd into believing this is good material
I must admit I expected a bit more in terms of binding, layout etc. for $45. I'm sure the information is worth it - but if you look at the likes of Banachek's psychological subtelties - at least it's a decent looking book, with a content's page etc.

Anyway - it's too early to pass judgement. I need spend some more time with the book.

!!!WARNING!!!

If you are new to Mentalism or just someone that plays around with it, you have no business getting this book! It is ADVANCED approaches to Reading techniques and presentation that require solid showmanship skills as well as a firm foundation (experience) in linguistic as well as Reading technique.

Yes! It is a most excellent approach to doing this type of work and in the hands of an experienced pro, it's an awesome approach. It is not in any way practical to the novice however.


This is a perfect example as to why you need a Mentalism section in this forum; discussion on this type of product won't easily be understood by those NOT versed in actual mentalism.

This is a perfect example as to why you need a Mentalism section in this forum;

We're working on it!

hmm - you should've told me that a week ago
Ah well - the damage is done.

Craig Browning wrote:If you are new to Mentalism or just someone that plays around with it, you have no business getting this book!

That is true of a lot of Kenton's works. I'm still waiting to get this but it's looking to be a great read. If you're interested in reading Kenton's material it's probably best to start with some of the more accessible work, especially if you're fairly new to mentalism. You do need to have a good understanding of mentalism to appreciate his works, but they produce incredible reactions.

Can't wait!

ok - despite Craig's warning, I've started reading this book
One word - Awesome. This is really good stuff. The first chapter didn't do it for me, but now I can't put it down. It's going to take a while to assimilate and start using the information (like a year or two) but I'm really glad I have it as part of my collection. Worth every cent..

Craig Browning wrote:If you are new to Mentalism or just someone that plays around with it, you have no business getting this book! It is ADVANCED approaches to Reading techniques and presentation that require solid showmanship skills as well as a firm foundation (experience) in linguistic as well as Reading technique.

Now I know you know your stuff, but surely this is just going to encourage lots and lots of people to go out and buy it?

Or maybe that's the point?

Ok... you have a point there... the old "Forbidden fruit syndrome" but let me bring a few things to the fore....

Everyone wants to learn how to do things people like Kenton, myself and a couple of others you have lurking around here, have done for years and get similar results. Truth is, it takes YEARS of studying and cultivating these skills and even then, they dont' always work.

For many years Mentalism was looked upon as being the proverbial icing to the cake... what topped out an older magician's career. The reason for this centered on the fact that the older performer had the life experience as well as the showmanship foundation required for an artform that don't exploit the psychological principle, but rahter twists it and puts it into action. The paradigm between how mentalism is presented, why things are done a certain way, our willingness to take risks (and not have things work out "right") is completely opposite of what magic is. In the one, you elicit belief and an investment of the self; in the other (magic) you suspend belief and evoke the imagination encouraging it to join you on a journey of sorts, where everything is possible (even though you know it's all make beleive.)

Unlike Magic, mentalism stems from a more recent aspect of history in which the things it brings into fruition are seemingly real and allied to either the auspices of one's soul (religion, spirituality, occultism, etc.) or the prowess of the human mind (science, psychology, NLP, etc.) The chief illusion presented by the mentalist is the one created around his/her self as being "unique" and "empowered" be it via education and science or some spiritual peculiarity. Either way, when it is presented properly, it comes off as being "real" and that's is the goal, even for those out there telling the world that it's all fake.

Bottom line is, Mentalism is unlike magic in that it is not something that delivers "instant gratification" and too, techniques (such as those outlined in this particular book) are not the kind of thing that's going to work each and every time you attempt to use them. Anytime you get into linguistics and acts of suggestion, you are moving into a field that involves perpetual trial and error and thus, you better be able to think fast and recover in a natural manner.

Of course, and with the increasing availabilty of "instant gratification" over the internet many people feel that they have become incredible magicians very quickly as they have bought something that allows them to do something totally impossible, and all they needed was the secret and ten minutes or less of practice.

Clearly the true magic comes from experience, and only with true experience do you learn the audience handling techniques and performance subtleties that will enable you to use certain parts of the art convincingly and without blowing it completely. Unfortunately, since the first steps come so easily these days, the only way for some people to learn that they are trying to progress too quickly is to over-reach and fail completely with something that they know should be fantastic. However, by doing this they naturally end up damaging the art in the eyes of their audience.

Is the new way, ie buying tricks over the internet to perform for family and friends, and the great difficulty in finding a true mentor for those of us who became hooked in this way eventually going to cause a schism within the art though? It seems to me that there is a tendency towards the formation of an elite who, by virtue of their own talent, knowledge and experience, inadvertantly end up sneering at those who scrabble to atain their first firm steps on that very same path that these elite once trod themselves. As a result of this, of course, disclaimers such as yours will become commonplace, with the good intentions of keeping the "real work" (god how I hate that phrase) for only those who can deal with it, but result in simply increasing the desire of those already pushing too hard to have the very best. The only way to stop this is to not publish, or to severely limit publications, which then harms the development of those who are capable but who have no mentor to guide them or to pass on the knowledge. So is there really an answer?

Sorry about that, I appear to have gone off on a tangent!

i got this over the weekend..all i can say is - fantastic...

i can see untold uses for this, its as important to me as Kentonism and Trance This is...im looking to forward to re-reading this at least another half dozen times and making some notes and slowly adding elements of it to what i do...

love it...

I can't figure out what I like best out of that book... I've used THE COMMITTEE Headline Prediction idea a great deal since I first got that book along with some of the other thinking... there's just too much to take in all at once or even over a year's time (as the case seems to be).

This is by far one of the best contributions made by Kenton & Co. and quite possibly one of the more important intermediate study guides now available to the aspiring student of MENTALISM.

im investigating further into the subconcious booktest ideas at the moment, superb...

and just jotting down some phrases and the two seperate words will be such a good little tool to use, along with some of the business card stuff from Kentonism...

i feel the honeymoon period with the book will last a long time...