talkmagic.co.uk

Making someone ill is hardly entertainment and could easily open an insurance can of worms. I'd leave well alone.

Staring at someone is one way of performing a hypnotic induction.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kC8nVTEuJS0

Discombobulator wrote:Making someone ill is hardly entertainment and could easily open an insurance can of worms. I'd leave well alone.

I agree up to a point. Derren's presentation is fairly self-limiting - the participant is in control and can stop whenever he wants. The show presents it as a "staring contest" but we don't quite see what the participants are actually told to prepare them for their ordeal. Worth noting that they went all the way out to Port Meirion to film this, and only walked away with a couple of minutes of footage. Judging by the rest of the series this ought to have been the staple of the episode, in the same way that the Russian scam in Blackpool was. We have one mild and one extreme reaction, and then that's it.

damianjennings wrote:Hi I want to learn an effect where the person kind enough to help me out on stage is made to feel horrible and the audience laugh at them

Any ideas?

As a dig at my question, I've got to say I cant really blame your attitude towards it. Making someone feel awful for laughs is not something I intend to do. The presentation of it wasn't done in a humorous way and I wouldnt dream of doing it so.

However, with anything like that I cant help my intrigue towards it. I wouldn't be learning magic if I wasn't interested, wouldn't you agree?

It's a bit of a non-starter to be honest. There's no trick to it. It was just a staring contest. Being good at staring is actually something that can be learned quite easily. Some people get freaked out when they're stared out, but most people don't. You stare at enough people and some will get freaked. As has been hinted at, the DB film crew went away for a jolly with a load of people. DB stared at them all. One freaked and one felt mildly uncomfortable. The hundred (or whatever) others did not and their footage was not used. This was TV Land, not the real world.

What, you mean these TV shows are heavily edited and only show the reactions of the small number of people who actually respond "properly"?

And I thought it was all real.

There's a few physiological responses that mirror that sort of thing, that can be achieved with inaudible frequencies and things like that. Kind of like brown noise, but that's a different trick.

I've actually be looking at ways of making noise that is inaudible to human ears, but illicits an uncomfortable response. Silent dog whistles (my original idea) have proven to be wholly unsuitable. Bloody things aren't inaudible at all!

Looking for ideas? Rather than having to gen up on electronics, I'm really looking for an off-the-shelf solution using an item that is actually designed for a completely different purpose. Electronic devices to keep birds away from airports, that kind of thing? Any ideas???

madvillainy wrote:There's a few physiological responses that mirror that sort of thing, that can be achieved with inaudible frequencies and things like that. Kind of like brown noise, but that's a different trick.

The Brown Noise evokes images of Eric Cartman and Yoko Ono.

That was comic genius.

Pete

themagicwand wrote:I've actually be looking at ways of making noise that is inaudible to human ears, but illicits an uncomfortable response. Silent dog whistles (my original idea) have proven to be wholly unsuitable. Bloody things aren't inaudible at all!

Looking for ideas? Rather than having to gen up on electronics, I'm really looking for an off-the-shelf solution using an item that is actually designed for a completely different purpose. Electronic devices to keep birds away from airports, that kind of thing? Any ideas???

Try the brown noise. I mean it is your intention to cause people to poop their pants during a seance session, and the brown noise does just that!

There was something the government was thinking of putting in place a few years ago that emits a very high frequency sound for dispersing, as I remember it, "gangs of youths".

The sound can only be heard by people under a certain age with average hearing though, and I think the idea was tossed out. There might be something similar out there as a security product though.

There's an app for phones which produces a high pitch noise that only young people can hear. Think there was a free version out on Iphone plus one you can pay for. There was also (included) an alternate noise which can be heard by anyone which is supposed to simulate the high pitch one so everyone can experience it.

Russ

Sounds aren't really as effective as people make out. High pitches noises are basically annoying, low pitched noises do make you uncomfortable but not enough to be used for a trick by itself, and brown noise - as well as being very audible - does not make you uncontrollably empty your bowels as South Park might have you think :p

My idea is to use a sound not normally audible to humans (or barely audible at least) to induce a sense of something being there just out of reach/earshot. This would be as part of a seance, so in the pitch black with a lot of other psychological subtleties going on.

I believe the initial research into the spooky effects of low frequency standing vibrations was triggered by the apparent haunting of a new research lab. There was an air-conditioning fan that was kicking out the vibration, giving people a sense of being watched, and edge-of-vision hallucinations. It wasn't until someone was repairing a fencing foil, and saw it begin to sway, unaided, in the vice, that they realised there was a physical cause.

Oh, don't get me wrong it can be a nice addition to other subtleties and effects, I just don't think it's much good on its own. But I could be wrong here and people might truly feel very uncomfortable with just 'hearing' the sound, would be interested to know if this is the case