Practical Mind Reading
	Sensational Feats <  Previous Contents Next  >

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:

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 the 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 Least mental Resistance.

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.

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 the 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.

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.

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 to 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.

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.

In concluding this part of the book, we wish to warn our students against some of the so-called "Mind Readers" who are traveling around the country giving exhibitions of so-called Mind Reading which while interesting enough in themselves are nothing but cleverly disguised 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, or 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 propose 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 about the counterfeit, there are many good works published on "Legerdemain" which will satisfy his curiosity.