Hey Docc,
I hope you have a chance to see this before your visit is over. I was talking to someone at my work today, he had been watching Penn and Teller's Bu** Sh** and was telling me about fake psychics and how people want to believe. He was obviously intrigued by the subject so I thought it would e fun to do a mini reading. I had him glimpse a card, glimpsed it and gave a short reading that revealed the card. He lied and said a different card, so I incorporated it into the reading. He was interested but not to impressed. I then tried projected force, that failed ( in hindsight I think he was a bad choice for this effect)>
My question (finally) is what do you think about this situation? Would you do a reading in this situation, or something else, or nothing? I obviously wasn't trying to convince him of anything, but I thought it would be a fun situation to give a great reading. I'm new to readings and I'm thinking that it was "OK," but not so great.
thanks

Posted: Sep 21, 2009 10:49pm
I think I unintentionally made it a challenge, but I'm not sure how to get around it.

Courtney,

Here's a little tale that illustrates my answer.

A year ago I was at a pool party in Coconut Grove. There were two stunning models sitting on the far side of the pool surrounded by admiring men. The redhead made eye contact and smiled. I smiled back, but returned to my conversation. The more I ignored them, the more they wanted attention.

Finally, a young man approached me and said that the girls requested that I come over and introduce myself. I replied that they needed to come over to meet me. They stayed put.

Eventually, I found myself on the far side of the pool and a conversation with the pair ensued. The models were from Croatia and in Miami for a shoot. My vocation became a topic of discussion and a demonstration was in order. I grabbed a little table, pulled it over, requested seven objects and did my E'voque.

Man! You would have thought the redhead had read the manuscript! She explained EVERY nuance in detail. When her friend voiced an opinion to the contrary, she chimed louder with clearer explanations! I responded that it was a "possible" answer, in an attempt to brush her off. But she would have none of it. I finally agreed with her and told her she was probably right. This made her angry. She wanted an admission that it was just a psychological trick, not my compliance.

Luckily my friend spoke fluent Croatian and tried to settle the situation. He's the best.

A couple of weeks later, I ran into them again and they didn't remember me at all! Now I'm not exactly forgettable, but I had made such a negative impression that they erased the incident from their memories. We became friends and all's well that ends well.

But the night of the party I reviewed my behavior. What had I done wrong? Were they skeptics? Were they angry at me before. No. I had forgotten a fundamental law of performing Real Time mentalism. That of getting their compliance. I had retrieved the table and performed in front of them as if I was a jester and they two princesses!

According to my friend Ray Hyman, Geller always made onlookers comply first. When asked if he could bend a spoon, he said he could, but not in "this" light, and moved the party elsewhere. I always make people gather the paper and a pen for a center tear. I (apparently) never carry a pen for SYSTEM 88, but make the sitter retrieve one. The participants, whether skeptics or believers must have some investment in the demonstration for it to have any worth to them.

By sticking to and applying this rule I was able to completely impress the same girls two weeks later.

This could, actually be one of the most important posts I've made all week. And I hope it answered your question.

Cheers.

Thank you so much Docc, that helped quite a bit and gives me a lot to think about.

Docc,

Pure gold and, of course, who of us never butchered something because we were TOO EAGER to perform only to end up being UNDERESTIMATED by the very people we performed for.

Yes, the Court Jester always too ready to please his majesty, is a perfect analogy...

And, yet, if something like that never happened to you is only because you haven't performed for long enough (I stole this last line from Ford Kross, with whom I usually agree).