People really do exist that can read your mind.

[Belz...]

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.

Yeah, we call it "guessing".

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?

Easy. There are answers that simply almost automatically come up.

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.

Actually, there's a way to get around this.

1. Think of any number : 41091
2. Pick any colour : Lavender
3. What make and model would you pick : Ford Pinto.

He'll never guess that.

someone who can read someone's mind?!*

Nope.

It was simply amazing, yet somewhat frightening.

That's because you're somewhat gullible.

People like this really do exist.

Yes. We call them con men.

 

[happycats]

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"?

I'm a little confused by your question, but when you pick a seat in class on the first day of class, that is your seat for the rest of the semester. So from the first day on, we always had the same seats, therefore; always sat next to each other.

 

[Mick Houlahan]

Well happycats,

I'm a magician ......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
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.

Dannagain - there's no need to expose techniques just to disabuse this fellow of his silly beliefs. You hate exposure? Apparently not, if it allows you to exhibit your expertise to strangers. Sorry, but you're not a magician.

 

[Monza]

Happycats, I find two things intersting. 1) You were asked to verbalize an answer before his answer was revealed, and 2) his answer was written down. If it was true mind reading, why go through all these actions? He would just tell you what you were thinking and you would only have to confirm yes or no.

Such extraneous actions are only necessary to facilitate the true method. As someone previously pointed out, there is a method of secretly writing down the answer. I can say there is also a method that does not require writing anyting in secret, and the questions/answers can be very detailed and obscure. This method does require that the answer be written down, and would work nicely with the sample questions you provided.

Also, keep in mind that your memory may not be exactly what happened. People tend to forget details. I know people will incorrectly describe a trick even immediately after I have performed for them.

PS: For those interested, the method I describe above is common among mentalists. I first learned this at a lecture from Danny Archer.

 

[tkingdoll]

I'm a little confused by your question, but when you pick a seat in class on the first day of class, that is your seat for the rest of the semester. So from the first day on, we always had the same seats, therefore; always sat next to each other.

I assumed that you told the two stories in the order they occurred. That is, he played the mind-reading game with you before the seat incident.

In which case, why wouldn't he sit next to someone he knows?

If the seat incident occurred first, then was he a stranger to you? If yes, why were you wishing for a stranger to sit next to you? If no, why is it remarkable that he would choose to sit next to someone he knew?

Also, you claim that you got to each class early to get a "good seat". Could he not also have been looking for a good seat? Good seats tend to be grouped together...

 

[happycats]

I assumed that you told the two stories in the order they occurred. That is, he played the mind-reading game with you before the seat incident.

In which case, why wouldn't he sit next to someone he knows?

If the seat incident occurred first, then was he a stranger to you? If yes, why were you wishing for a stranger to sit next to you? If no, why is it remarkable that he would choose to sit next to someone he knew?

Also, you claim that you got to each class early to get a "good seat". Could he not also have been looking for a good seat? Good seats tend to be grouped together...

No...he did not play the mind reading game until the second to the last day of class. Yes, he was a complete stranger to me. I wished for certain people to sit next to me because there were a lot of Phillapeno's with severly bad accents along with improper English attending the same college. Sometimes, depending on which class I took, students would sometimes have to get into groups with people next to them to do some one on one group discussions, which was a nightmare if you had someone who barely spoke English. As far as the fourth paragraph you wrote, I did not have to get to class early for each class. Once you pick your seat on the FIRST DAY, it will always be your seat. As far as why he didn't sit next to someone he knows, he didn't have any friends in the class as far as I could tell. In this particular class, in was an evening class, mosty with working adults as students in their late 20's to 30's.

I just want to tell everyone thank you for the great links. I have already researched some of them, and will soon get to the ones I haven't. It helps in trying to make sense of this.

 

[happycats]

I never told the man my answer until he passed me the paper first. Only then did I tell him if he was right or not. At the time of the game, the teacher was giving a lecture, and everyone knows how upset a teacher can get if two students are having a conversation while the teacher is giving a lecture. The class was silent, except for the lecture. That is probably why he wrote the answer down, then passed it to me. I remember for the auto question my mental answer finally came down to a Toyota Truck. When he passed the paper to me, I remember him saying "I don't know if this is the right answer because you were thinking about so many different cars" So this confirms the fact that I did not give him my answer until he gave me the paper. Because if I had given him the answer first before he passed me the paper, he would not of said what he did.

 

[DJM]

I remember him saying "I don't know if this is the right answer because you were thinking about so many different cars" "


Dude, this is what mentalists say when they are not sure if the trick will work or not, mostly during psychological experiments like someone here said earlier.

If he got your answer right then he's a mind reader.. If he got it wrong, he's still a mind reader because he just said that it might not be the right answer. He can't go wrong either way.

Stop for a second and think why would he ask to you think of cars or colors, instead of letting you think of anything that you want. That's what a real mind reader would do.

 

[dannagain]

Dannagain - there's no need to expose techniques just to disabuse this fellow of his silly beliefs. You hate exposure? Apparently not, if it allows you to exhibit your expertise to strangers. Sorry, but you're not a magician.

well first of all the swami tip that i exposed is well known, and had been mentioned before on this thread. randi himself has exposed various well known magic tricks in order to show that people who claim these are real are lying. that's what i was doing. i wasnt exposing the swami tip for no reason just to show off i was doing it so happycats could realise that what he saw was not 'real' magic.

if you're trying to suggest that i committed exposure by posting an explanation of an effect that i invented (which is what you quoted) then you're full of crap and you obviously didnt read the description. that's all it is: a description of an effect NOT a description of the method of an effect (which would be exposure). i'm never going to tell anyone how i do the signed coin to kidney trick because i invented it and i love it.

 

[Ethan Thane Athen]

well first of all the swami tip that i exposed is well known, and had been mentioned before on this thread.

That was me. Apologies if that's not de rigeur but, as I've seen it explained on tv on several occasions, I assumed it wasn't a big secret.

You'll note I didn't explain the Derren Brown trick I'd sussed out on the NLP thread, so I'm not all bad! ;o).

 

[dannagain]

exactly, the swami tip is well known and there are in fact a lot more fiendish ways of doing the same trick without having to use one (the methods of which i would never expose). if the swami tip hadn't been mentioned in this thread then i would not have talked about it but since the 'damage' had already been done i really don't think it was all that bad of me to elaborate on it.

 

[Mojo]

I never told the man my answer until he passed me the paper first.

Do you ever use ATMs?

 

[aggle-rithm]

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.

Yes! People often embellish their memory of something like this. It's part of the mentalist's craft to set the situation up so that you think something has happened that hasn't happened -- similar to the way some documentary makers (initials MM?) convince you that they are claiming something that they aren't actually claiming. People make assumptions and fill in missing gaps with their own imagination.

 

[thatguywhojuggles]

I used to do a trick that went like this.

Me: Think of a person's name and write it on your piece of paper, and I'll do the same. Got it? Now fold up your paper and toss it in the box.

(We both write on a small piece of paper and fold it up and toss it into the box. then I would take both papers, open them and read them both)

Me: Very interesting...

(then I re-fold the papers and toss them back in the box.)

Me: Okay, now think of a 4 digit number and write it on your piece of paper, and I'll do the same.

(we both write, fold, and toss in the box.)
(then I would take both papers, open them and read them both)

Me: Very interesting...

(then I re-fold the papers and toss them back in the box.)

Me: Okay, now lets do a color. I'm not good with colors, so lets keep it simple, pick either black or red, and write that down, and put it in the box.

(we both write, fold, and toss in the box.)

Me: Go ahead, take all the papers and compare them.

(he would open each piece of paper and discover matching names, number, and colors on the papers written by each of us.)

-----------
Yes, I know it's a simple trick (though its amazing how many people it fools), but it sounds a lot like the one described in the OP. And if it was 15 years ago, he may not remember the sequence of events in the right order.

 

[Monza]

...And if it was 15 years ago, he may not remember the sequence of events in the right order.

That's it exactly. People do not remember the details of the trick, mainly because the details are not (seemingly) important. They also tend to remember the conditions relating to what they felt were the limitations, rather than the actual limitations.

In one of Randi's books (The Truth About Uri Geller, I think) he describes a man telling him about witnessing an impossible escape several years earlier. The man described the time, place and the absolutely impossible conditions. Randi said that the escape could not be done under those conditions described. The man stated they absolutely were, because he remembers exactly, and the conditions were as he remembered. Randi then explaned he should know because the man performing the escape so many years ago was Randi himself.

 

[idunno]

You can see this same trick in the video here:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=A1Xop411uKE

He makes her think like he just read her mind, but it's only an illusion.

didnt notice, can you explain?

 

[Beady]

In one of Randi's books (The Truth About Uri Geller, I think) he describes a man telling him about witnessing an impossible escape several years earlier.

The way I remember the story , Randi and a friend were discussing one of Randi's escapes. The man described what he remembered, Randi corrected him, the man insisted, Randi showed himn a film clip, and the guy said something on the order of, "I could have sworn...!" It wasn't the Uri Geller book, I've never read it; maybe "Flim Flam"?

 

[dannagain]

so happycats, now we've all seen derren brown do the weirdest stuff ever without claiming he's psychic, can you see how that guy [playing the game with you all those years a go a. isn't that impressive and b. clearly wasn't psychic?

 

[Mick Houlahan]

well first of all the swami tip that i exposed is well known, and had been mentioned before on this thread. randi himself has exposed various well known magic tricks in order to show that people who claim these are real are lying. that's what i was doing. i wasnt exposing the swami tip for no reason just to show off i was doing it so happycats could realise that what he saw was not 'real' magic.

if you're trying to suggest that i committed exposure by posting an explanation of an effect that i invented (which is what you quoted) then you're full of crap and you obviously didnt read the description. that's all it is: a description of an effect NOT a description of the method of an effect (which would be exposure). i'm never going to tell anyone how i do the signed coin to kidney trick because i invented it and i love it.

Sorry, Dannagain - I had missed the previous post, probably because it didn't give the actual name of the item in question. (And trust me, this item is unknown to the vast majority.) As magicians, though, we really should avoid public exposure - it's just bad for business. However, I hereby officially withdraw my "you're not a magician" in view of the fact that you're the inventor of "Signed Coin to Kidney."
As for YOU, Ethan Thane Athen.... YOU'RE not a magician. Take that.

 

[chillzero]

I never told the man my answer until he passed me the paper first. Only then did I tell him if he was right or not. At the time of the game, the teacher was giving a lecture, and everyone knows how upset a teacher can get if two students are having a conversation while the teacher is giving a lecture. The class was silent, except for the lecture. That is probably why he wrote the answer down, then passed it to me. I remember for the auto question my mental answer finally came down to a Toyota Truck. When he passed the paper to me, I remember him saying "I don't know if this is the right answer because you were thinking about so many different cars" So this confirms the fact that I did not give him my answer until he gave me the paper. Because if I had given him the answer first before he passed me the paper, he would not of said what he did.

Contradictions.

He wasn't talking to you, because the class was silent, and yet you remember him saying something to you?