The item:
A Book long since unavailable, now in e-book form. Psimatrika by Leo Boudreau. An absolute treasure for the serious mentalist.
Cost:
$19.00 US
A small sum for the value of the material covered. You can download it as an e-book.
http://www.lybrary.com/
Difficulty: 1-5
A definite 5. This is not the kind of thing that just any Joe Blogg will be able to perform, let alone present properly. Although no actual sleights are necessary, an extradinary memory is required to make this 100% effective. That being said, once you have grasped the main idea, you will be able to perform some really outstanding-completely-impromptu mentalism with borrowed items!
Review:
I have had this gem in my possesion for a while. I am a little bit reluctant to let word get out with regards to this book, as I feel that the material is really that good
Firstly I will give an example of one of the more basic effects possible.
You borrow eight business cards and proceed to draw a symbol on each one (or you can have people call out symbols). You mix up the cards and hand out the cards for mixing by a spectator. Each of your eight spectators get a card, and then an opaque envelope which they proceed to place their card in. The envelope is sealed. The envelopes are placed in a pile which is again mixed.
You as the mentalist not only divine what symbol is in each envelope, but to whom each envelope belongs to!
The envelopes are not gaffed/marked in any way and may also be borrowed. You never see the symbols again (in any way) once the packet of business cards is turned over.
No joking!!!
As was already stipulated, it is rather a lot of work to wrap your mind around this ingenius principle, but once mastered you are limited only by your imagination. This is seriously powerful mentalism.
Other routines explicitly stated are:
The green odyssey: You ask spectators to each take out paper money of the same value. They proceed to write down their bill`s serial number. You collect the money and begin mixing it up. A spectator mixes it up. You then carefully give each person their bill back with or without the aid of sight (depending on whether you want 'memory' or 'psychic intuition' to be the source of your power).
The alpha wave pack: A pack of 64 cards with random letters are handed out for mixing. A spectator proceeds to deal the packet into 4 piles. Selects a random pile (no force) and deals that into 4 piles. The spectator chooses one of these piles. The spectator is asked to make a word with the letters given. You divine the word without ever seeing the letters! You can be half way across the room! They check the cards and they are all different and cannot reproduce the same word. Can be repeated with different outcomes each time!
There are more routines contained within this wonder.
Overall:
I highly recommend this book to anyone who takes their art seriously. It will give at least one new effect for your routine as well as give you that invaluable anytime, anywhere test with borrowed items for even the most hardcore skeptics. Beware, this comes with a price of many hours of work to become fully acquainted with the material.
All in all, a brilliant piece that deserves attention.
