People really do exist that can read your mind.

happycats said:
I don't remember his name. We hardly ever spoke to each. He was a caucasian male in his 20's at the time. His name was a rather common white person's name though.
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So this guy 'reads' your mind and you don't even bother to get his name?
 
happycats said:
I, myself, am not a mind reader, however; I did come across a man about 15 years ago who played a mind reading game on me.

The Game:
He asked me a set of 5 questions. Each of which I was to think of the answer in my head. He would then write down the answer, and then show me his answer before going on to the next question.

Some of the questions I remember were:
1. Think of any number.
2. Pick any color.
3. If you could have any kind of automobile, truck, sportscar, etc., what make and model would you pick?

I played the game twice with him, the second time around I tried to make it harder on him by not repeating the answer over and over again in my head. Instead I thought the answer once only, then focused on thinking about a different subject altogether. Amazingly, he got all of them right. 100% accuracy on 10 questions in a row. I was quit frankly astonished and thought he was not of this world. At the time I had never even heard of such a thing...someone who can read someone's mind?!*. I remember I wanted to get up in front of the whole class and shout to everyone that "this man just read my mind!", but figured he would probably deny it, and just out of respect for what he showed me, I did not choose to do so. He was someone that sat next to me in one of my college classes, but we rarely said much more than hi and goodbye, if that. He had always kept to himself until the second to the last night of class. That's when he turned to me in class and asked if I wanted to play a game. It was the one chance to let me in on his secret I guess, because the next and last day of class was just simply coming in to pick up our score. It was simply amazing, yet somewhat frightening. I did not like the fact that all semester long he had been listening to my thoughts (like lusting after the teaching and picturing the teacher naked and such. Some thoughts simply need to be classified). He never told me that he did, but I'm sure he must have. He gave me his phone number and wanted to be friends after class ended, but I wasn't too keen on having a friend that could read my mind. I told a lot of people about my experience at first, but people found it hard to believe. Eventually, I stopped talking about it.

People like this really do exist. I am totally sane and am almost 40 now. I am not full of it, and would not waste my time making up such a story.

Something else: On the first day of each new class I took in college, I would get there early to get a good seat. As students slowly walked into the room, I would mentally ask certain people to sit next to me. I'm guessing a lot of people probably do this just for fun and for other reasons like wanting someone next to you that speaks good English. Year after year, class after class, no one ever heard my requests, until the class when I met the man I discussed above. I remember mentally asking him to sit next to me.... and he did. The classroom was still half empty at the time, and I thought it was odd that he sat next to me just like I had asked. I should have known right then, that something was up with him. And another thing.....Right before he asked me to play the game, I had just got done mentally laughing at him and mentally talking (one way only) to him about a remark the teacher made about him stating "people who have frequently been late to class will be getting a lower grade". I remember thinking the teacher may as well have asked him to come and stand in front of the whole class. He was the only one who was ever late, and he would always show up 5 minutes late to class. Of course I didn’t think he could actually hear me, but I guess he did, because that is when he asked me to play his game. I think he asked me to play a game to make a point that he could hear the things that I think about. That is what I think. It was a little spooky.
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Do you understand the implications of what you are saying?
Do you understand that a person with such real powers would be the greatest and most powerful person that has ever walked the face of this world? Do you understand the fame and fortune that would be inevitable for such a person?
I don't think you are grasping what you are saying.
I urge you to hear some of Randi's lectures that can be found on the internet regarding paranormal claims of people. The fact that you don't know how something had been done, does not make that claim a fact. Many people (scientists included) do not know how magic is done but that does not make magic real. It is still a trick. A very good performed trick.
Do you know how to make people disapear in front of your eyes? Make tigers fly across a room? make the statue of liberty disappear? make a blue deck of cards turn to red when all along you are looking at the deck? make people float in the air and saw them in two? or three?
The fact that we don't know this does not make it real. It's a trick and by definition is intended to fool you.

regards,
Yair
 
DJM said:
Let's see if I got it right.. He told you to think of something, and then he wrote down the answer. Did he show you what he wrote only after you told him what you thought about?

If that's the case, it's a basic mentalism trick that canyone can learn.. Always keep in mind that every time a "mind reader" writes the answer, there must be a trick involved.
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He asked me to think of a number. He would then write the answer down, fold it up, then pass it to me. I would unfold the paper to look at the answer. He did this over and over again. Is there a link you have regarding how this is just a simple basic mentalism trick, because I am still not convinced it is a trick.
 
I can't tell exactly how the thing you described is done because I wasn't there.. Magicians and mentalists always do thing during the tricks that you don't notice much, their job is to misdrect you after all. Perhaps there's something that you forgot since the, it's been 15 years after all.

I posted a link in my last post of a basic mentalism effect.. not sure if it's how that person did it, but it will show you that it's very easy to fool people who don't know how these tricks work.
 
happycats said:
He asked me to think of a number. He would then write the answer down, fold it up, then pass it to me. I would unfold the paper to look at the answer. He did this over and over again. Is there a link you have regarding how this is just a simple basic mentalism trick, because I am still not convinced it is a trick.
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Unfortunately, magicians tend to keep their tricks secret - otherwise they would be out of a job. The point about stage magic is to keep the audience in the dark about how it's done. Unsatisfying I know, but that's the way it is.

Be impressed by the mentalist's abilities to fool you. They work very hard at it. Applaud them, but do not fall into the trap that something you can't explain is therefore supernatural.
 
vexed said:
So this guy 'reads' your mind and you don't even bother to get his name?
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I used to know his name, but I have forgotten it over time. Maybe the college we went to still has his name on file as attending the class I am speaking of.
 
That's a good reason to think that if you forgot his name since then, perhaps you also forgot some small details of the mind game that you were talking about.. there are times when I watch a magic trick and find it so amazing, only to find some things that I missed once I watch it again.

So you shouldn't feel bad that a mentalist managed to fool you, that's his job after all. ;)
 
I remember that as a kid, we used to play this joke on people: It was three questions and I had a pre-written note with the answers:

Answer the first thing that comes to mind(urge them to be fast):
Name a tool.
Name a color.
Name a number.

The note would say:
Hammer
Red
7

Out of the 20 or so people I pulled this trick on I got only 3 or 4 people where the note didn't score 3 out of 3, with those people I scored 2 out of 3.

It's basic psychology/mentalism, not mind reading.
 
Would have been far more impressive without the specific prompts, don't you think?

For example, I once played a mind-reading game with a colleague from work a few years ago, and I told him that I was thinking of an item in my bedroom, and he had to draw a picture of it.

The item was a comical wooden model of a highlander soldier with a mop of black warrior hair. He was dressed in tartan.

Now this chap, who had never seen my house, let alone my bedroom, actually drew a picture of a Scottish Highlander, albeit not a comical representation.

Far more impressive than asking to think of a number or a colour.

I put the result down to an amazing coincidence, which of course does happen from time to time. Needless to say it was difficult to repeat his one success.
 
happycats said:
I used to know his name, but I have forgotten it over time. Maybe the college we went to still has his name on file as attending the class I am speaking of.
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Can't remember his name?

This was a long time ago, right? Well, his name should be bleeding obvious. He can actually read minds, so he is obviously feted as a worldwide star - the first man in all human history to be able to read another person's mind.

He's obviously a megastar, a household name. Crikey, everyone's heard of Sylvia Browne and she's as phony as a three-dollar note, so your guy must be more famous than god!

Here, I'll give you a kick start:

He must have been one of these blokes; did he mention teleporting?

psychic.jpg
 
happycats said:
He asked me to think of a number. He would then write the answer down, fold it up, then pass it to me. I would unfold the paper to look at the answer. He did this over and over again. Is there a link you have regarding how this is just a simple basic mentalism trick, because I am still not convinced it is a trick.
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Sounds overly complicated. Why fold it up to pass to you just for you to unfold it? It's not like there needed to be a big 'reveal' for an audience. Are you sure you're not misremembering this (it was 15 years ago) and he was doing the much simpler (especially for a 1 to 1 classroom trick) write it down on a pad and then turn it to show you...after you've given the answer? If so, it was a straightforward trick - pretend to write it down, get the answer, write the answer with a pencil lead under the thumb nail with movement hidden behind the paper. This simple trick can look extremely impressive.

If not that, then he may, as others have suggested, just been putting the most common answers down - you'll be amazed how predictable we are. Also once he started to get some wrong he'd have just explained how he was 'getting tired' or it wasn't coming through as clearly. Similarly a common technique when selecting numbers is to claim a partial hit if you just get some of the digits right.
 
Well happycats,

I'm a magician and if you think that that was real magic then you might want to see some emails i got from this nigerian guy saying he wants to give you $10,000000.

seriously though, much as i hate exposure i think in this case it will be ok.
there are a number of methods to this trick. one of the best is the one that has already been mentioned using a swami tip (google it). you secretly write the answer while the person is telling you.

e.g. magician: think of an animal
you: tortoise
magician prentends to write something down
magician: what was the animal?
you: a tortoise
as you say this magician secretly writes the word tortoise down using his swami gimmick
magician:that's weird because look what i have written down!

there are lots of other methods to this trick. without meaning to show off if that was enough to convince you he had real powers i just made a trick where i borrow one of your coins have you sign it with your signature, put the signed coin on my tongue so you can see your signature, swallow the coin completely, lift up my shirt, cut open my stomach with a scalpel, put my hand in my stomach, PULL OUT MY STILL WARM KIDNEY, give the kidney to you, have you cut it open and inside you will find your signed coin.
it's called shock magic but it doesn't mean i'm supernatural. just an example of what's possible using a little lateral thinking without having to break the rules of physics.
 
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happycats said:
He asked me to think of a number. He would then write the answer down, fold it up, then pass it to me. I would unfold the paper to look at the answer. He did this over and over again. Is there a link you have regarding how this is just a simple basic mentalism trick, because I am still not convinced it is a trick.
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Happycats: do you ever use an ATM card?
 
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I saw a very interesting thing on TV the otherday, involving a street magician revealing some of his best tricks.

One was "Think of an odd two-digit number between X and Y". I did, and I have to admit to a momentary frisson when he pronounced the number I'd thought of, and the one the mark had, too. The explanation, of course, was that statistically most people asked came up with the same number (I think it was 19). Psychology, not telepathy.

Then, he scribbled on a pad and asked someone to come up with a three-digit number. Any three-digit number. No restrictions whatsoever. This time, he asked the mark to tell him the number she'd thought of. After a couple of moments of patter, he triumphantly turned round the paper to reveal the number she'd thought of.

The secret this time was that the magician hadn't actually written anything on the pad at first, he'd just made scribbling motions above the paper. When the mark announced her number, the magician used a piece of graphite concealed under his thumbnail to write it on the paper and then show it to her.

On one more occasion, the magician got someone to write somebody's name on the bottom right of a piece of paper and fold it up. I can't remember all the details, but supposedly the mark "got it wrong" somehow, and the magician finely tore up the paper and tossed the tiny scraps aside. The mark did it again, and this time the magician set fire to the page, slapped it against his forearm, to reveal the relevant name seemingly burnt into his skin.

The secret was that although the magician seemed quite careless in shredding the "incorrect" paper, he knew where the name was written, and he didn't shred that bit. He then used a moment of misdirection to write the name on his arm with brown eyebrow pencil, and then smear it a bit. Hey presto, is that the name you were thinking of?

If I'd been at this party, I'd have asked the guy, say, "OK, what type of fish am I thinking of?", picking my own subject rather than just concentrating on his preselected categories. A real mind-reader should be able to do that, I'd have thought.
 
happycat, why do you find it at all remarkable that a man you'd played a game with should choose to sit next to you on another occasion?

Doesn't the game-playing event mean that you knew him well enough for him to think "oh, there's that easy mark, I think I'll sit next to him rather than on my own"?
 
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