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Introduction Ormond McGill, best known for his Encycliopedia of Stage Hypnotism,
wrote this as an intended companion to said book.
It discusses contact mind-reading, practise methods and routine ideas.

Price £6.99 from amazon.co.uk

Key points To enjoy this book, its important to understand two main points I devined from his autobiography

1. Ormond was a professional magician with a hugely succesful career
as a touring stage magician, mentalist and hypnotist.
2. He was a BIG believer, or at least a keen investigator, in the occult.
Telepathy, psychokinesis, magic, prana, cosmic love etc.

Now, as a result of our near god-like power obtained by less than honest means, we magicians are often quite cynical and
tend to follow the 'magic, suggestion and showmanship' route, as perhaps we should. At least the magicians I have met do this.

I mention this because on amazon the reviews mention the high
volume of psychic jargon that is present in the book.
This is true, however while Mr McGill
was a keen believer in the paranormal, a lifetime of performance
left him savvy enough to realise that a physical explanation for stage mind-reading was probable.

As a result, the book provides a useful method for muscle-reading,
advise on practising,
Routines for close up muscle reading,
Advice on creating a show using the method,
Great routines such as 'the floral tribute,'
and PR tips.

But in addition, it contains evidence for 'real' telepathy,
mind reading experiments,
alternative theories,
meditation exercises,
and alot of occasionally hard to decipher psychic jargon.

In conclusion, the book is detailed. Some might say it is a little too
detailed, and so it is more of an 'edutainent' book than a 'how-to' book.
But Ormond knew his subject matter well, so if you want to make contact mind-reading one of the primary centrepieces of your conjuring rodeo,
this book wont disappoint, and for a very cheap price.

Though I never got to know him exceptionally well, I have spent a fare amount of time with "the Great Ormando" (as his friends referred to him). He was first and foremost a Hypnotist and author of some 80+ books on that topic alone... most of which were clinical application and related studies NOT stage work.

He was a good friend of Lee Grabel who was one of the two primary people to follow in the Dante legacy (Lance Burton is Lee's successor). As I recall it was Lee that encouraged Ormond on the magic side of things but it was the Mentalism element that really caught his favor because it worked so well with Hypnotism... which he literally wrote the book on when it comes to stage Hypnotism (Real vs. the Bluff Techniques). Arnold Furst and Orville Meyer, as I understand, were frequent partners in his shows and related endeavors. . . I don't know that Dean Hankey is on this forum, I know I invited him over, but he knew Ormond quite well... he was one of the master's students when Dean was going for his hypnosis certification with the state of California; it would be he that could give you the most insight into this amazing little man (I believe Ormond was only about five foot four inches... just slightly taller than Doug Henning I think).

Thank you Mr. Browning.

Ormond McGill seems to be one of the near legendary figures of magic,
and its always fascinating to find out more about these people.

I spoke to him on the phone once but never met him. I thanked him for the knowledge I had gleaned about "hypnotism" from his books and he said "I am glad it was useful to you"

I have a suspicion that he knew hypnosis was a load of old cobblers despite all the guff in his books. I base this on a little story I heard about him giving a lecture to magicians somewhere about hypnotism and becoming very mystical and chattering about trance states and suchlike. When he came offstage someone said to him, "Ormond. Do you really believe that stuff you spouted on stage?. He is alleged to have replied
"Of course not"

It does make one wonder.....................

Sounds Cool. Shame I prefer card magic and I just cant get into mind reading.

You know, I've been playing around with it,
and I think contact mind-reading can go great with card magic up to a point.

If you have a subtle, quick and tough to spot card force,
you can practise your muscle reading with confidence,
knowing that you at least know the idendity of the card if life isnt playing along.

I used to do this close up, scattering the cards along the
table and narrowing it down to three or four cards,
then scattering those cards to
the four corners of the room and practising stage muscle reading for the finish.

I dont think you can build your defining mind reading act
out of it easily, and it would be hard to be a reputable mentalist
in this fashion, but for building your chops its a good show.

I have had this book for some time - while the stage hypnotism book is excellent - I found the mind reading book to be very strange and of no use (to me) whatsoever - I am glad that you can buy it for £7 now as I paid a lot more for it and found it a total waste of money.