I was thinking of a Zen "Matrix" effect using one of those cute little desktop "Executive Zen Gardens."

Imagine going through a brief ritual of raking the sand, placing the stones - and then launching a Matrix routine with the stones...

Has this been done before, to your knowledge?

http://www.amazon.com/Bonsai-Executive-D......02C6OOLG

Thoughts?

I have an idea for this. I'll do some thinking on it and send you an e-mail.

Thank you, Bill!

I was cooking up a Zen Koan storyline...Koans are used to bypass rational thought and gain insight through intuition and paradox...which fits well in a magical effect.

But something tells me your idea will be much better!

Posted: Jan 12, 2011 10:47am
Bill,

Your idea is better - it's great!

Thank you!

I really like the idea of this. It's very good "sight". Please develop it
-Lee

outofsleight.com

It's just a seed. It's up to you to make it grow!

And what better place than in a garden.

Thanks, Lee.

So far, no one has come back to me with knowledge that this has been done before.

Bill Palmer may post his presentation idea later tonight.

As I am not a professional performer, I asked Bill to share with all and let people develop their own spin.

If feels good to give something back to the Ever so sleightly denizens!

This is not a complete routine, by any means. It is just a "seed" as I mentioned before.

Here are a couple of ideas concerning the desktop sandbox, etc.

First, I think that it might be of value to explain very briefly what Feng Shue concerns. One of my favorite quips about this is: "If you really want to have fun sometime, go into an esoteric bookstore and tell them that their Feng Shue books are all on the wrong side of the room."

Then take the stones out of the box and perform the matrix routine. Explain as you do it that the stones are supposed to be arranged in the configuration that best fits them, your mood, etc., but that sometimes it takes more than the stones to get it right.

For example, sometimes there is one stone that is just more influential than the others. It seems to dominate the others. And do two assemblies with the other three stones assembling with the dominant stone. At the end of the third assembly, then the stones all disappear.

Finally, you say, "Well, this indicates a major problem. It means I must start over." And as you rake the sand, the four stones reappear from the sand, one by one.

I can't say too much since this is open, but might I suggest those wonderful black stones on the market that are equivalent to "loadstone" as a benefit to this routine. If anyone wants a clarifier, PM me.

Cheers!

I had not thought of that, but I have a large number of them that I got when we were at the IBM convention in San Diego last summer. The gift shop at the hotel was closing, so they had a "twofer" sale on the bagged stones.

My thought was that with the right extra gimmick, you could do a very clean vanish of all four stones after the assembly. Then duplicates could "reappear" in the sand. Though I'd be curious to hear what you had in mind for the vanish (if anything, I know you were just throwing out ideas); PM or email me, if you'd rather.

Stone beads could all be connected -- a fact disguised by the sand, and all four stones could vanish at once

You don't nead to have them strung if you work with what conjurermat is referring to. You can make all four vanish at once with his idea.

Pu. I have some of those too -- just looking at alternatives and where/how they might reappear

I think this discusion is more for magicians with more knowledge than myself but I love this one. Way to think outside the box!

Just don't show it to your cat. You don't want your cat thinking out side her (cat) box!

Good Point Bill!

The load stone idea sounds like a perfect idea. Had the same thought. Stones moving themselves around as though done through PK! Another thought is to have a thumb tip. Use it for the sand and scoop up a rock pretending to get sand with it really just letting it run through the fingers. Then as the rock reappears elswhere sand simultaniously falls from the other hand. A double matrix illusion! You could even use colored sands and a bowl of water. Now I want to do this and come up with my own version!

Check out Doug Henning on the Muppet Show:
http://www.56.com/u44/v_NDI4NjUwOTc.html

That would be a great touch as well. The only thing is how would you load a shell. I am not talking about stuffing them either.