Hi all,

Any ideas how one could use mentalism or bizarre magic to evoke briefly the emotion of despair / anguish / depression? I can make them anxious, angry, happy, feel psychotic, warp their thoughts... but this is one area I'm still trying to work on -> I was thinking of using mild guided imagery... but then I don't want to actually cause harm... I want someone to experience let us say a ghost's feelings - why they thrrew themselves off a cliff or something - but only a taste - afterwards we'd help lay the ghost to rest...

I should explain my "act" a bit more...

I teach a lot and my actual area of academia is education scholarship. I've actually developed an entire workshop using magic/mentalism to simulate psychiatric symptoms.. so I have things like anxiety conditions, psychosis of various types, creating gambling cogntions, body dysmorphia, memory impairment etc. etc...

And yes - since I am not a sadist - I have never gone into depression simulation becuase I keep thinking it might come off horribly... but then again - everyone in my field was worried about me trying magic and improv theatre to get some experiential learning effects - and it went over like crazy... I'm performing these things all over at different conferences...

The one area I haven't tackled or can come up with that would be "safe" is depression / mania... (oh yeah, my anxiety stuff is mild but effective - I DO NOT use PHOBIA or WEB )...

So after wracking my brains, I figured I would ask you all -> (magicians helping magicians!)... as I was figuring maybe some of you might have done it as part of trying to get an emotional response to a story...like why a ghost exists and in life it was depressed etc...

Currently - my plan is to use pure narrative guided visual techniques and try to get people to imagine what depression might be like... e.g. the darkness, the abnormal horrible feelings, etc... and then bring up the lights and get them to think about it...

This is all in the service of battling stigma -> you see, when a "healthy" (in quotes) person finally can get a taste of what it might feel like to be mentally ill or trapped in an addiction, it does create a bit of empathy!

I'd put in depression in the middle of anxiety and psychosis to keep "the show" moving along!

So, that is how this came about!!!!

Bruce

An hour of rope magic while using patter straight from the instructions - that should lead just about anyone to despair.

Wait, that was boredom. Sorry.


Richard

I think Karl Fulves covers this in one of his 'Self Working' books.

Everybody has different experiences that affect them.
Just ask them:
Was there ever a time when you felt....
It will save a lot of time and ease you into a more personal approach.
Cheers
TJ
:)

You have the reality with you. Probably 10 - 15 % of the audience will have that feeling on a regular basis (before your show . In that respect Teejay is right, ask them.
But I guess you are targeting those who are more unfamiliar with the feeling? A mild hypnotic situation will probably easen the effect. Typically the reactive emotional response is easier to evoke - the contrast. Create a very extatic positive surprise and then take it away? You could get anger, though. Loss is one situation most people have been in and can recall. The question is if you will go there. Jermay has an element of that in 7 deceptions : "Cold Emotion". I had once a person who draw the 'Sorrow' card and associated with loss of a loved one. No doubt it evoked the emotion, but not very entertaining!

If these feelings are being evoked for the sheer drama, then I would simply describe how it is that the ghost came to have these feelings. A story, well told, will elicit the emotions in your audience. They will be able to empathise. A way to add punch to that emotion might be (at least initially) to convey the idea that the ghost had no way to go back and undo what had happened...or had no way to resolve issues...it was too late now that the individual had passed on. That kind of not being able to do anything about a situation, the fact that the situation seems hopeless, is a frequent contributor to feelings of depression. Of course, this would be turned around and things would be nicely resolved as you reveal (to your audience) a way to "lay the ghost to rest" after all.

Thanks for all the thoughts... I shall go ponder in my cave for a while!