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I've been doing quite a bit of reading of late, from 13 Steps, Practical mental Magic and Paralies to even a few books on hypnosis. But I wondered if anyone can reccomend (from personal experiance) a good book for completely "hand free Mentalism".

Most of my illusions involve some kind of prop, whether it be an impression device, or a bag with 7 keys in it; but I want to have more psychological illusions without the use of anything other than words - and perhaps a pen and paper.


I'm sure there's plenty of books out there, but I don't know where to start. Any suggestions?



Tom
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I'm hearing good things about Naked Mentalism. The Naked Book Test is certainly very good if performed well

I don't think, other than a few techniques such a Naked Book Test etc, you can get much more hands free than a few sheets of paper and a pen.

With 4 or 5 squares of paper, Cassidy does a full 15 minute routine which is absolute astonishing.

It uses one or two moves and that's it. No gimmicks, no secret pens etc, just moves in Anneman and a real thought about presentation.

Works by Theo Annemann are worth searching for this kind of stuff.

If you don't just read "a few books on hypnosis" but are in this theme there are plenty possibilities right on the edge of hypnotism and mentalism.

Even so it is worth reading the works Kenton Knepper or everything you can get of Jerome Finley.

With a substantiated basis on psychological forces (read Banacheks Psychological Subtleties) you are able to build some miracles bare handed of cause.
Jon Thompsons Naked Mentalsim books offer an other very interesting approach.

There are plenty of other possible ways to achieve effects bare handed.
But it all depends on your skills, knowhow and personal style.

Cheers
Th.

If you're happy using paper and a pen, get Switchcraft by Elliot Bresler (apologies if I've misspelled that). Seriously, it's about a million pages long, is full of great stuff, and costs about £15.

And he keeps sending supplements. It's getting silly how much material there is in it now.

I second the Switchcraft comment. It's very good and has to be best value-for-money ever. Can't comment on Naked Mentalism, but I do own the Naked Book Test and provided you are willing to put the work in to learn it, you will have an absolute cracker of an effect at your disposal. Seriously, it's as close to real magic as you're likely to get without getting burnt at the stake.

Hoy Book Test - dead easy to perform and, if performed correctly, the specs will swear blind that you never went anywhere near the books at all

Sean

Eshly wrote:I want to have more psychological illusions without the use of anything other than words - and perhaps a pen and paper.

Imp pads, SW's etc (both of which you have asked about recently) are invisible props because only the performer knows about the gimmicks. So why do you want to perform prop-less magic? Is it because you don't want to use things spectators think are props or because you don't want to have to carry props around? It's easier to keep a SW, dodgy wallet or imp pad in your pocket. Or buy one of Tomo's books.

Ted wrote:

Eshly wrote:I want to have more psychological illusions without the use of anything other than words - and perhaps a pen and paper.

Imp pads, SW's etc (both of which you have asked about recently) are invisible props because only the performer knows about the gimmicks. So why do you want to perform prop-less magic? Is it because you don't want to use things spectators think are props or because you don't want to have to carry props around? It's easier to keep a SW, dodgy wallet or imp pad in your pocket. Or buy one of Tomo's books.

Because I like variety, and because I don't always have things on me.

There is always a few scraps of paper around and that is all you need.

A pen and a pad. Everybody has pen or pencils at their house and everybody has little sticky papers at their home as well.

Eshly, can I suggest that you ssssllllooowwww down for a minute. I keep reading your posts on how to do this or what's the best that. Youo seem to be skipping from one thing to another without really taking anything in. Go back to Corinda, the first step is full of propless mentalism. Read it and learn it, I spent a good month or so on each of those steps really learning them and taking them on board. Learn one thing well before you start worrying about what's next.

If you really want to go 'propless', go for a Stealth Assassin wallet. I use one as my regular day to day wallet and, in doing so, always have a 10-15 minute routine on me - and no-one suspects a thing.

Sean

Hmm, - my personal interpretation of "propless" is a little different.
Maybe it's because of my limits in your language, ...
... but my definition would be no props.

- No wallets,
- no billets,
- no cards,
- no nothing but my head and the head of a participant.

Just an illusion of mind.
But as I said: Maybe my understanding is limited, ...

Cheers
Th.