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The mind reading trick done on Pat’s podcast is self working if you have the formula. The effect works on a simple mathematical principle however the presentation camouflages the simplicity of the method.
I suggest following the below script pretty much word for word to begin with as there are pauses, breaks in speech rhythm and a strategically placed recap that reinforce the effect and take attention away from the actual method.
[ois skin=”Pat Flynn”]
The script
Think of any number between 1 and 10 but don’t tell me what it is.
Ok so you have a number in your mind, multiply that number by 9. So if the number you were thinking of was two, you would say two times nine which is eighteen.
You now have a total in your mind and there is a good chase it is a double digit number. I want you to add the two digits together to get a total. For example if the number is 35 you would add the three to the five giving you a new total of eight.
Have you done that?
Just so there is no way I can guess the number you are thinking of subtract 5 from the total in your mind. Example if you are thinking of seven and you subtract 5 you would be left with a new number 2.
Got it?
Now lest’s really mix this up and make it impossible, lets assign a letter of the alphabet to your number.
If your number was 1, the letter would be A, if your number is 2 then it’s B. In our example the number 2 becomes a,b.. it becomes the letter b.
Do you now have a letter?
You do, good!
lets now totally turn this upside down and add a new dimension to this. Use the letter in your mind and think of a country that starts with your letter.
Do you have country?
Now to make this totally impossible take the second letter of the country you are thinking about and think of an animal that starts with that letter.
Got one?
- Now think of the colour of that animal?
- You have a colour in your mind that I cannot possibly know.
- You chose a number in your mind
- You decided on a country and you picked an animal and colour.
There is no possible way that I could look into your mind and tell you what colour you are thinking of but I am going to try.
You are thinking of grey
If you wanted you could say “Grey Elephant in Denmark” but I have found the effect has more impact with just naming the colour.
Why it works
When you strip away the presentation you are left with a simple mathematical process.
Any number between, 1 and 10, when multiplied by 9 totals a two digit number and the digits when added together will always equal 9. example 2X9 = 18 and 1+8 = 9 or 6X9 = 54 and 5+4 = 9.
The wording of pick any number between 1 and 10 psychologically makes them only select from 2 to 9.
No matter what number thew pick the digits added together will always take them back to a total of 9. you then ask them to subtract 5 which will always leave them at a total of 4.
Assign to a letter, it is D.
There are not may country’s beginning with the letter D however every now and then (maybe 4 in 100) someone may select Dominican Republic. Not much we can do about this, the hit rate of people choosing Denmark is so high this almost never backfires however if it does, merely mention that mind reading is not an exact science and leave it at that. I suggest doing this to a group of people as you then increase your chances of at least getting a few minds read.
The second letter of Denmark is e and most people think Elephant when asked for an animal. the trick here is to not give too much time for this selection, if you look at the script you will notice the section where they select an animal is done with pace.
“Now to make this totally impossible take the second letter of the country you are thinking about and think of an animal that starts with that letter.
Got one?
Now think of the colour of that animal?”
By reducing the time they have to consider an animal you reduce the chance for them to explore the more obscure animals such as an eland.
All that is left for you to do is ask them to think of the colour and then you do a recap to throw them off the method and reinforce the impossibility of you knowing the colour. take a look at the recap section of the script and you will notice it only reaps what we want them to remember, there is no mention of the multiplication at all.
You have a colour in your mind that I cannot possibly know.
You chose a number in your mind
You decided on a country and you picked an animal and colour.
There is no possible way that I could look into your mind and tell you what colour you are thinking of but I am going to try.
So there you have it, a simple yet effective mind-reading trick that you can do.
Magic is an awesome hobby and works really well as a tool for getting people to remember you and your message. If you enjoyed learning this effect then please subscribe and I will send you a new trick each week. the lessons come with a video tutorial with presentation techniques so you can get the most from the performance.
[ois skin=”Pat Flynn”]