PRACTICAL MIND-READING/PART 7
LESSON VII.
SENSATIONAL FEATS.
In addition to the feats
given in this work, which, together with their countless variations, form the
stock in trade of the majority of the professional Mind Readers, there are a
number of other feats essayed by the public performers which we have seen fit
to group under the general title "Sensational Feats." These feats are
described here in order that the student may understand the nature of them, and
the manner of their performance. But we consider such feats suitable only for
the sensational advertisements of the professional performers, and always
dependent upon more or less spectacular accessories, and attended by even
dangerous features in the case of the driving feat. And therefore we do not
offer them for reproduction by the private student, or the parlor demonstrator.
The principal Sensational Feats performed by the professionals, are as follows:
THE DRIVING FEAT.
This
is performed by the performer, blindfolded as usual, driving a team along the
public streets to some selected point, which point is usually a hotel
previously selected by a public committee. Upon reaching the hotel the
performer goes to the hotel register, turns the pages and finds a name
previously selected. The performer receives his impressions from members of the
committee who are seated beside him on the carriage seat, with their arms on
his shoulders, or having hold of his hands, or even connected with him by wire.
The feat is really a spectacular reproduction of the familiar feats described
in previous chapters, and the principles governing it are precisely the same.
The Transmitters impress the direction upon him, and he follows the line of the
Least Mental Resistance.
THE COMBINATION LOCK
FEAT.
This
feat is employed either separately, or in connection with the Driving
Feat. It consists in the performer opening the combination safe of a hotel or
some business establishment. In this case the Transmitter must know the
combination perfectly, and his mental impressions acting upon the performer
give him the cue to turn "right" or "left" or
"repeat" as the case may be. Of course one must have cultivated a
great degree of sensitiveness to mental impressions before he will be able to
receive and respond to the direction impressions in this case. And yet almost
any person by following the directions given in this work, and carefully and
repeatedly practicing the various feats and demonstrations given herein,
may be able to reproduce this feat of the professional performer, who is in
constant daily practice, and who is able to devote his entire time to the work,
as his "bread and butter" is concerned therein. Once the
sensitiveness is gained, the details of the work are nothing more than those
employed in any of the "finding" or "drawing" feats herein
described and explained.
THE OFFICE DETECTIVE
FEAT.
In
this feat the public committee picks out an object on the desk, or about the
office of some one of its members, the office being located some distance from
the place of meeting. The performer then rushes along the public streets,
dragging the Transmitter with him, until the office is reached, then up stairs,
and into the room selected, and up to the desk, or other place, and lo! the
object is found. Divesting this feat of all its sensational features, the
student will see that it is merely a variation of the ordinary
"finding" feat performed in the parlor. It creates a great sensation,
but there is nothing more wonderful about it than about the simplest
"finding" feat.
THE POSTOFFICE FEAT.
Another
feat favored by some of the professional performers is that of having a letter
placed in a post-office lock-box, the key of which is given the performer at a
point some distance from the post-office. Rushing through the public streets,
dragging the Transmitter with him, the performer finds the post-office in the
usual way, and then locates the lock-box, into which he inserts the key and
extracts the letter, thus triumphantly completing the feat. This feat, as every
student will see, is merely a variation of the simpler feats manifested in a
sensational manner for the purpose of public advertisement.
THE FIRE-ALARM FEAT.
This
feat is another "free advertisement" demonstration, in which the
performer, with the permission of the city officials, discovers the location of
a certain fire-alarm box, and turns on the alarm with the key which had been
previously loaned him. Some public officials allow this test to be performed,
using it as a test alarm for the department as well, and the sight and sound of
the clanging fire-engines, the smoke, and confusion following upon the
sensational Mind Reading demonstration is calculated to cause great excitement
and interest in the town, which usually results in packed houses at the night
entertainment. But the test is really nothing but a variation of the simple
"finding the spot" demonstration, with sensational accompaniments.
VARIATIONS.
We
might enlarge our list of "Sensational feats," but to no real benefit
to the student, for they are all cut from the same cloth, and are but
"improvements" upon the simple parlor feats. If the student wishes to
do so, he may invent a dozen similar feats, just as sensational and just as
effective. The purpose of the sensational feat is primarily to gain free
advertisements for the public performers. As scientific demonstrations they
have but very slight value.
"FAKE
DEMONSTRATIONS" EXPOSED.
In
concluding this part of the book, we wish to warn our students against some of
the so-called "Mind Readers" who are travelling around the country
giving exhibitions of so-called Mind Reading which while interesting enough in
themselves are nothing but cleverly devised devices intended to counterfeit the
genuine phenomena. The majority of these performers have a series of cleverly
arranged "signal-codes" by which the confederate conveys to the
"Mind Reader" the name and description of the article handed to the
former by some one of the audience. One of the principal performers in this
line in this country had a signal-code of over five-thousand objects, which he
and his confederate had carefully memorized. This code was worked by the plan
of asking the blindfolded "Mind Reader" to name the object. You
can see the possibilities of this when you remember the many different ways in
which the same question may be asked, and when you remember that each word, and
combination of words, conveys a distinct and separate meaning to the
blindfolded one.
Others
employ sleight-of-hand, and legerdemain, in order to produce the illusion.
Prepared pads of paper upon which questions are written, and similar means, are
commonly used in such exhibitions. We do not purpose going into this matter in
detail, for such is not the purpose of this work. But we think it well to call
the attention of our students to the same, in order that they may get a clue to
some of the various counterfeit exhibitions of Mind Reading which are being
advertised by some of the public performers. There are other public performers,
however, who give fine exhibitions of the genuine phenomena. The student of
this work should have acquired a sufficient knowledge of its underlying
principles to enable him to distinguish between the genuine and the spurious
when he sees an exhibition. If any wish to know more of the counterfeit, there
are many good works published on "Legerdemain" which will satisfy his
curiosity.
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