talkmagic.co.uk

Whenever I go and work at my local Adventure playground the children always approach me with requests for magic tricks.
After the third visit, with the same kids asking me for magic, I was running low on tricks I wanted to perform.
So I thought I'd be a little daring and try the stigmata effect with a psychological number force (five).

I told the kid ot think of a number and then squeeze my wrist, I showed him the mark with the five developing and asked him 'Can you see the number you though of?' He said 'Yes.' showing growing amazement I said 'It was a five right?' He told me it wansn't and that he had thought of and could see a two. I looked and said oh yeah (I couldn't see the two).

Interestingly, after that the child and another child watching tried it themselves on though of a number (4) and squeezed the other kids wrist and sure enough they both saw a 4. The other child even predicted it before it was revealed!

Now maybe they were putting me on when they did it (they didn't know how the marking was done), but they tried it again and it failed so I think this ocourance was genuine.

Of course I'm not saying that when you squeeze someone wrist the number your thinking of will come through it was undoubtedly a coincidence, but it might be likely that the person will see the number they were thinking of without you having to mark (or you might want to try to make and ambiguous number mark)

So give it a try, ask someone to think of a number and see if they can see it in you wrist after it gets good and blotchy with blood, tell me how it goes.

To my mind presenting something of this sort for youngsters isn't exactly what I'd call "responsible"...

Ok... I do understand the 12 year old "Tom Sawyer" type lad and how "gross" might work for them along side the surreal, which Stigmata can be seen as. But we are likewise looking at the idea of "blood" and as you've seen, the kind of thing kids will try and potentially hurt one another over... especially if they did catch you doing the set-up... they may try it on themselves and get a bad cut followed by a serious infection (given the fact that a child's hands & nails aren't exactly sanitary).

I'd caution anyone doing this and blister type effects on people under 16... you may think it's harmless and cool but it could come back and bite you in the butt... especially when it comes to the perspective of certain parents in today's world... here in the U.S. a demonstration of this sort could literally get you thrashed by religious fanatics... bear in mind, I lost a job because the patrons thought I used black magic when I presented my Sponge Ball routine let alone something as macabre as Stigmata.

It's something to think about.

Craig Browning and spongeballs...?!

I don't know about the litigation that Craig Browning is talking about, but Luke Jermay and Kenton Knepper have used similar ideas before.

Knepper's Time Travel and Luke Jermay's Twisted Palm are related to the idea of having people see what they actually don't (one in methodology and the other in effect).

Thank you Craig for your concern but there is nothing to worry about in that aspect.

As I said in my post, the children didn't know how the trick was done, they simply squeezed there own arm, and believed that's all I did.

Also as you said, you live in America, the rules are slightly different. While its true that there are some panicky parents as well as some legendarily stupid laws regarding children's health and safety, there is still a (moderately) more relaxed view around what is acceptable for children in the Uk.

For starters, and as I mentioned, I performed this in an adventure playground, I did this trick while standing in front of a large campfire three of the 10 year old's had made.
While performing a card trick, a twelve year old was chopping wood into small bits of kindling with an Axe. So I imagine cutting there arm wouldn't be that high a concern on the parents or child's list.

The fact is that adventure playground recognize the necessity for a child to take risks, and facilitates an opportunity for that to happen in an environment where people with knowledge and training can help if something goes wrong. It also provides the children with some personal freedom instead of regulating and organizing there lives around the schedules of adults. (Time to go dear, time for a bath, time for school, time for bed, I'll take you to the playground for half an hour then I have stuff to do etc) Children are allowed to arrive and leave as they want, unless under the age of 6. And what has been made apparent over the last 50 or so year's adventure playgrounds have been in England, is that children are not stupid nor suicidal.

A child will very rarely misjudge how dangerous something is in comparison to there ability's. Nor will they purposefully hurt themselves or others. How many years of experience do you really think you need to know that cutting your arm hurts and is dangerous?

Anyway I don't want this thread to turn into a debating circle about right and wrongs with children and magic. I was more interested in discussing the implications and possibility around the stigmata effect.

I respect the fact that your more experienced with mental magic and psychology and if you have advice or concerns about the effect I will listen and respect your opinions on the subject. I however have been interacting and working with children for some odd eight years (professionally and personally), and am studying Playwork, a course not just looking at what play is, but what it means to be a child both locally and globally.
Children are far more aware of the world around them than many adults would care to recognize. Ask a nine year old all in England the swear words they know, I guarantee you they will know them all.