If any, Do you guys make your own subliminal type of influence? Like making the spec think of something you want?
Mentalists Here
- Thread starter Johnlawl
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I do a bit of cold reading on occasion for fun. look for kenton knepper's "completely cold" probably the best and shortest book ever.
Believe it or not, the best book I've read on suggestion is Derren Brown's "Tricks of the Mind". He goes into an explaination of hypnosis and suggestion without all the "esp, pseudo-science" nonsense.
Professionally, I'm a salesman, so I'm really interested in the whole persuasion and influence thing. As far as I've found, the best sources for ideas on suggestion and "subliminal" influence that could be applied to magic are Richard Bandler & John Grinder's "Trance-formations" & their "Patterns of the Hypnotic Techniques of Milton H Erickson"). Or for something more specifically magic-based, Kenton Knepper's Wonder Words CDs and accompanying workbook are good. Although, as OwnerM says, Derren Brown's "Tricks of the Mind" is a good basic introduction, as is "Building Blocks" by Luke Jermay and "Sleight of Mind" by Ian Harling & Martin Nyrup.
Personally I don't do any structured suggestion-based routine, but I occasionally do stuff like making people forget their name, imagining a card to be a different one and that kind of thing, which, when you learn the fundamentals of suggestion and have a bit of practice, are fairly simple to pull off.
Personally I don't do any structured suggestion-based routine, but I occasionally do stuff like making people forget their name, imagining a card to be a different one and that kind of thing, which, when you learn the fundamentals of suggestion and have a bit of practice, are fairly simple to pull off.
Subliminal influence doesn't always work... obviously. If you know something about your spectator, even maybe just their job, you can wrap the conversation around a certain subject, but keep it at a distance. Talking about different things but leading them where you want them to go is very difficult and requires a lot of social skills.
Max, I would dispute that "subliminal influence", or presumably what I would call suggestion, doesn't always work. Obviously it doesn't work if you do it wrong, but if you follow the steps that are required to acheive compliance with any given suggestion, and make sure at each stage that your subject is responsive, then every single suggestion will always work. The difficulty comes with gauging your subject perfectly and analysing feedback regarding whether or not they are responding as you would wish, which is a lot more difficult than the basic process of suggestion.
I know how to force the spectator to think of the 3 of diamonds. I'm working on it. I got it too work about 2/5 times so far. The other tiimes were close, but they picked the 3 of hearts or 3 of clubs.
You have to be really confident though. The 2 times I got it right was when I was relaxed and comfortable with my spectators and didn't seem nervous.
Also it's hard to practice this stuff. You need to just go out and perform even if you get it wrong.
You have to be really confident though. The 2 times I got it right was when I was relaxed and comfortable with my spectators and didn't seem nervous.
Also it's hard to practice this stuff. You need to just go out and perform even if you get it wrong.
Which is basically what I meant when I said that you need killer social skills in order to accomplish suggestion or subliminal influence. It won't always work because different people think in different patterns. If you have the time to continually reinforce the thought or idea that you are subliminally pushing you will be much more successful.