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has anyone got anything to say about astrolingua. it an effect where you are chatting to for example a beautiful lass band you are able to tell her the star sign of which she was born under. for £11.00 don't sound to bad, but i need to know if its any good as don't wanna burn hard earnt cash.

Hmmmm... how many different one's of these are going to come onto the market I wonder?

The "Best" version of this that I'm aware of is Joshua Quinn's ASCENSION, it is the one all the big named pros are using right now. It's simple to do, innocent in appearance and kicks butt!

On the other hand, if you're just sitting down to a conversation with someone and you want to "impress them" at this level, it would be better to learn three or four versions of Ray Grissmer's "Whats My Sign"... I'd recommend Daniel Love's DREAM SIGNS actually, but it really takes some serious practice to cultivate. But as to the original anagram approach you can also find it in MIND, MYTH & MAGIC.

Are all the versions mentioned so far based on the branching anagram? I'd be interested in any which are not..

IMHO, having watched even a great perfomer probing their way around an anagram made them look like they were taking part in "an embarrasing version of Wheel Of Fortune*"

*Quote: Doug Dyment

Most folks do not work anagrams properly and it becomes rather apparent what they are up to. Daniel Love's system employs an anagram "like" method but it is unlike anything you've ever encountered, same can be said for David Lee's "LEATH Technique" though it does now work with star signs.

Chuck Hickcock has some very clever ideas in using anagrams mentioned in MENTALISM INCORPORATED II.

In that you've seen the weakness of the technique you now know what YOU must do to make it not look like you're playing Scrabble or Hangman. A clever and aware Mentalist can use this method in such a way as to send chills down your spine... you'll swear it's the real thing

For the sake of mentioning it, take a look at Alain Nu's ZODIESQUE (I forget which issue but it was featured in SYZYGY) you may also want to look into some of the advancements the guys at The Underground Collective have done with their "anagram" styled system (though similar, it's not the same thing) sold as SENSORY PROJECTION and I believe they have a couple of other systems out now of similar vogue.

Thanks for the references Craig - I will be following up and seeing what I can afford.

Is Syzygy interesting enough generally to warrant buying tomes? I see issue 57 carried ZODIESQUE which I can get for $2.50 as opposed to $200 for 5 vols (CUPS will get me I'm sure).

>>In that you've seen the weakness of the technique you now know what YOU must do to make it not look like you're playing Scrabble

I can see the problem but don't have a fix for it (yet - but I am thinking hard about this). I can see that getting the spec to apply his mind to 'seeing' vivid mental images is part of the misdirection.

As I said the performance of this 'feat' has never really appealed to me (I've had significant academic interest in the 'algorithm' though). But after a brief chat with my partner tonight I think I'll be investing some time (if not more money) in this. I have never seen her express any interest in 'my' magic, yet when I mentioned it is possible to develop the skill of intuiting someone's star-sign she got really excited and said "do mine, do mine"* She also suggested could I tell someone's Day of Birth (Mon, Tues, Weds..) from their personality (Based on the Rhyme: Monday's Child is Fair of Face..) I think she has a point, but I'll be using more mathematical skills rather than mentalist

It just shows even in this day and age, science isn't enough for a lot of people. They still need the "supernatural" in their lives.

As a maths geek I'll be pulling my notes out on "Directed Acyclic Word Graphs" (aka branching anagrams) and I will be writing some software to generate the "branching" for any word list. The hard part will be finding relevant word lists which are common knowledge and set in stone like the birth-signs. Having to present a hardcopy word list to the spec. would look so contrived.

Enough for now until I've done a lot more reading.


*Bear in mind I've been with her for years, we have four children together! I forget her birthday every year but KNOW she's a Gemini

There's already several software programs out for creating Anagrams... The Underground Collective's PANAGRAM is the one I use the most but I believe there are one or two free systems on line... I'll have to look around, been a long time since I've seen them.

Like I said, you really need to look at SENSORY PROJECTION from UC as well as their new "Book Test" systems using old Crime Logs, Pawn Shop Record Books, etc. This material will give you a whole new perspective on this technique as will the Daniel Love DREAM SIGNS system.

I can highly recommend Dream Signs. It is very clever, but as Craig says, it will need a lot of preparation to get it down right. The Underground Collective products are all wonderful and I recommend you browse their offerings. http://www.underground-collective.com.