This is a review of "Psychophysiological Thought Reading" By Banachek. This book can be purchased as a combination with "How to Read People's Minds" by H.J. Burlingame. I will be reviewing the Banachek portion of the book, which describes methods for muscle reading and how it can be used to find things, write things, and find out other things people are thinking of.
The Effect
This book focuses on forms of muscle reading. It shows how you can hold someones arm while walking around a room to find an object they hid, and also how to do this in a non-contact form. It also show how to write out letters and numbers a person is thinking of by being in contact with a person. The book also discusses finding out what a person is thinking of: Example: Run through the numbers one through twenty, and find out which they are thinking of. It also includes a portion of using a pendulum for mentalism effects. The book displays methods of both contact and non-contact psychophysiological thought reading
Cost
Assuming most of you will purchase from MagicTricks.co.uk:
£32.99
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)
4
Review
I thought the book was emensly helpful! It was the first book I have read on any form of muscle reading. Banachek is very good at explaining things in this book. He also goes in depth in giving many different methds for each performing idea.
His ideas on both contact and non-contact thought reading are very detailed. He takes the reader through, step by step, explaining little things they might notice. He has obviously benn doing this sort of reading for years. He explains how to act if different situations come up. His explainations include good and detailed drawings to go along with them. For every explanation there is a detailed and very understandable drawing to go along with.
The explanation for drawing out what someone is thinking was expanded on quite a bit in the book. I found this part to be complex, and at times a bit vague, though it does give credible methods that can be used, and these methods only add to the richness of the book.
The book also contains ideas for performing with certain Pendum methods. These ideas seem realistic and detailed. Personally, I don't think that they fit the sort of things I would want to do. But that's what's great about the book: It gives so many great ideas that you cam find many that work for you!
This book contains helpful and detailed explanations for each idea and method. This book is full of great ideas! He explains tha you need to practice a lot of course, and how to practice these things. He is a great teacher in this book, and leaves you feeling able to complete many muscle and thought reading stunts.
Overall
Its a great book, with fantatic and realistic methods, along with rich and complete explanations, and helpful tips. A must read for anyone who wants to perform muscle reading! 10/10
-Ben
