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I went to a friends engagement party this weekend, and did a few effects for a girl their (quite basic ones at that). THe reaction from her was as good as it gets, but for reasons that I will explain, i wasn't if I should feel good about it.
After I finished, she was sure i either had some sort of psychic abilities, or was playing with her mind. and obviously asked 'how did you do that?' I have had this reaction before, but this time it made me feel quite guilty, as she proceeded to get some crystals out of her purse and explain to me how these have helped her. And went on to ask if I did anything like that. What do you say to someone who reacts like that. I just kept quite, which made things worse!
This experience also brought another thing up that i have been thinking about. THis girl has had a bad few months, and having these crystals has helped her. In my opinion, and likely the majority of people on the forum's opinion, it is obviously some sort of plecebo. But my point is, if it helps, whether it be real or a placebo, is it not such a bad thing? But then i figure that this logic could be aplied to cold readers who claim to contact the spirits of the dead. And these people disgust me.
Any thoughts?

Tricky, to say the least!

All you can do in those circumstances is to borrow from Derren Brown and assure her that everything you do is real, it just isn't reality. Her crystals are obviously doing a superb job for her and nobody should try to take that away - the mind is a powerful instrument and deserves respect. If really pushed, you could show her how one of your simple tricks are done if you think it would help. I did this a long time ago with a young lad who'd inadvertently seen me doing the Haunted Hanky thing at a Halloween party and was convinced that the table 'wasn't right' afterwards. He should have been fast asleep but he wasn't! I found it easier to allay his fears by not only explaining how I'd done it but by giving him the hanky to do it himself and he was not only relieved but chuffed that he could do some magic as well. Totally against the rules of keeping the secrets but sometimes rules need to be bent like that it necessary.

as a former person who disgusts you (ages 8-12) and bon fidie psychic since 14, i can say that crystals have been sientificly proved to effect the background radiation (radio signals, electrical impulses, rfi etc) just like a radio tuner.
as our brain is a complex radio transmiter and reciever, crysatls tend to promote harmony with alpha wavws our basist frequencies and thus have a measurable carming effect even if the person is unaware of there placement so your first staement is based in fact so don't worry about that.

as for the second point charlaterns have foe centuries preyed upon belivers because of there specific psychological makeup that lends well to be conned and as a former cold reader and psychic / magician I'm in one of thoughs enviouse situations were i can be doing a magic trick say like the haunted key my favourate closeup opener and i will get an impression and naturaly follow that lead.
afterwards i will generaly state to the mark / subject that as a psychic but also a magician / cold reader i canot say which skill was imployed to tell her the imfomation had just imparted to her / him just that it happened and to form there own opinion which most of the time they believe that i have spooky powers, so its me and uri in the same boat.

Andy - that's a very interesting topic. I am actually glad that it has been brought up.

I love mentalism, it really seems to fit in well with the way I perform, although I should add that I have only done a few paid shows.

To catagorise for a moment I would say that there are three distinct settings.

The stage/parlour setting
The close up setting
The informal, sometimes one on one setting.

I would say that with the first two I have no issues whatsoever, and I try to make it all as believable as I possible can. By believable, I mean I don't want people to wonder how I do it, i want them to wonder if I have some sort of gift or even unnatural ability. I personally think that it is important with mentalism not to mix it with traditional magic as that would just make the mentalism "another effect" or worse still, "just a trick", so when I perform mentalism I put everything into it.

As I said, with the first two I have no qualms. However, peforming in a more intimate group, I try and lighten the atmosphere a little. The reason being is that as you mentioned there are people out there who take it very seriously, and if they found out that it was anything but real they would feel bad, as they would feel "tricked" and that you are making a fool of them. This is where the ethics question comes into being.

I have been in a similar situation where someone I performed a few routines for was convinced I was using suggestion and body language reading techniques. This was to the point that this person was going out and trying it for himself (and if I were to believe what I was told the techniques were working!).

Now this actually made me feel quite bad because if this person ever found out that the way I was doing it was just a "trick" - then he will feel very foolish, and I dont want to make anyone feel foolish. I suspect that this is the crux of your dilemma.

my only suggestion would be to be very aware of your audience, and of the power you actually have (as opposed to the power you pretend to have).

I am not sure of the effect you were actually doing, but one way to soften the blow as it were is that if you feel that they are taking the mind reading/power of the crystal methods too seriously, then just tell them it is "merely" body language and suggestion techniques.

I tend to actually work from the other angle. I claim it all to be suggestion, body language reading, muscle reading etc, but then I will add a few effects at th eend that couldn't possible be done with those techniques - just to make them think about things...

interesting question though.
The way I tend to work it now is that even if I start of hinting at mind reading, if I get into an uncomfortable situation I can easily say it was "merely" body language reading and suggestion I start

With the first two

i supose as i started as a cold reader first with a groupe of faith healers then my ethical boundries are a bit scued and since iv'e had to give uo the physical party side, most of the jobs i do are small groupes with a big slant to the psychic side which i don't have a problem mixing cold reading, psychic impressioning and balant magic principles, because thats what I'm asked to perform.

my shows generaly start out with a card reading sesion which is 90% reading and 10% precognition (stuff they told me earlier).
this is usualy followed by psychromitry (contact reading of objects) which is 60% real impressioning and 40%cold reading.

then psychic inspired magic, haunted key and such 100% fake well derr.

i do always start the session with a message that i will be combining genuine psychic skills and magical principles and that the opening segment will include some high leval hypnotic sugestion and conditioning, this is agreed beforhand and at the start so i don't have any ethical problem mixing my skills sorry if i ofend anyone but its hoe i get paid.

Andy, what effects did you perform to this girl?

I hope I didn't offend anyone with the comments about cold reading. Its actually something I am very interested in. It's just that I would not try to make grieving people think that I am talking to the spirit of someone who has died. It can be great entertainment if presented a bit more ethically.
THe effects I performed were just some card effects presented with a mentalism twist, a pyschological force and fingertip reading.
I don't think it helped that i used a patter about twins having some sort of sixth sense, as I knew this girl was a twin. I didn't push this fact as the basis of the trick, I just slipped it into the effect in a subtle way knowing that she would pick up on it. THe magic happens in the spectators head, not in the magicians hands.
As bananafish suggested, I did, later in the night try to push the body language/suggestion/psychology idea to her. THis made her feel a bit better, but she then felt that I was playing with her mind!
I suppose I should have had a clearer idea of how I wanted my effects to appear. I chose this girl to do a few effects on because I felt that she would give a good reaction. I just wasn't prepared for it.

none taken, er you were refering in part to me i hope.

a good out is to show her a card trick useing a classic force such as the counting force and say three other randomly chooosen cards all face down.
then use magicians choise to leave the original forced card which you had written down before the trick and given her to keep, after the reveal you can take her through the trick step by step ignoring the force if you want, showing her each time you subtlely dictated the play of the cards up to the reveal.
you can dress the explanation up with sutable psyco-babble or keep it simple but ihn the end she will not feel cheated but have a new found respect for how we are led through life by audio visual clues in adds and shops with out realising it.
i have found this to be a great out for when you get a weird one who thinks your the second comeing of the messiar, especialy for me if iv'e just done a real reading and don't want to be followed about by people wanting to touch me and be cured.
i jest but it has happened to me once, hen your twelve you dont want a thirty year old stalker.

Hi Andy,

At the end of the day you have to think to yourself the REASON for you doing magic. If the reason is to make people interested in what you do, then that is exactly what you have got! Many times I have been showing magic to people and sometimes people (mainly men!) have said the old line of "Its all just slight of hand"... what I then do is to choose someone more responsive to perform for, and make that sceptical person INTERESTED in what am I doing. I love it when I see people who are affected by magic.
Anyway back to the point, if after you perform this girl thinks that it is REAL or tells you about them crystals, then as long as she leaves happy and amazed then leave it as it is... magicians who say, "Oh I feel guilty as they think I can REALLY read minds".... isnt ALL magic just lies and secrets anyway??
I think the main point that I am trying to make is as long as you leave a long lasting positive impression on the person you are performing on... keep up the act! As they will soon lose that state of wonder if they think what they have seen is totally different!

Anyway... =)

Chris

Hi All,

I'm not really a mentalist but I'm interested in this thread. If you ever get the feeling someone beleives you have special powers and this is making you feel uncomfortable you could always use one of Banachek's lines and say, ''By the way, I'm using my five senses to try and create the impression that I have a sixth.'' However, you might not want to do this as you may feel your ruining the experience for them.

Tom.

''By the way, I'm using my five senses to try and create the impression that I have a sixth.''

It was Larry Becker who used this line on one of his DVDs. Can't remember what one it was for the life of me but I have always used itafter watching it. It takes nothing away from the performer whatsoever and I think gives even more respect to the act you are performing!!

There's also "I am going to use lesser known psychological techniques to give the impression of mind reading."

I think that's from Marc Paul.