Joe,
I have no ideas about how the second trick is done. In the first trick, the
use of coins might allow for a view below the duct tape. I imagine the mind
reader made a big deal about the coins blocking any additional possibility
of "seeing." That would be the typical kind of distraction to make the
audience overlook the possibility that coins could actually be used to
prevent the tape from sealing off the lower part of the visual field. If
that is what is really going on then he would want the items that he is to
describe held low in his visual field, say below the level of his hands, but
reasonably close to his body. I don't have the skill it try it myself nor
the desire to loose my eyebrows. This trick is also sometimes done with the
help of a second party and an in ear radio.
Are you going to have your class test the hypotheses that you collect?
Dennis
-----Original Message-----
From: Hatcher, Joe
To: '[EMAIL PROTECTED]'
Sent: 4/3/01 9:31 AM
Subject: deciphering mindreaders tricks..help!
Hello Tipsters,
We fairly often have on TIPS demonstrations suggested that make
us
appear to be mindreaders, ostensibly to demonstrate critical thinking to
our
students, and to appeal to the latent ham in some of us. One hazard of
demonstrating such things to students is being viewed as an authority on
such matters....
Last week a "mindreader" came to campus and performed two tricks
which I've been asked to explain twice already; I was there and I have
no
idea how he did them. But I'll bet (or I'm hoping) someone out there
does.
First trick. MR puts coins over eyes and duct tapes himself
blind.
Asks for items from the audience to be collected by a student helper
(swears
she is not in on it). Items are held beneath his hand, and he, after
dramatic pauses, describes and identifies them. This also occurred with
a
ticket stub to a theater, which he correctly identified as having cost
$2.
Second trick. Takes a deck of cards held together by a rubber
band.
Tosses it to a member of the audience, tells to "crack" the deck and
remember the card seen. That person then instructed to toss the deck to
a
second person, same instructions, and to a third person. MR then
proceeds,
dramatically, to tell each person which card they saw (three different
cards).
The first trick I can imagine has the involvement of a second
party,
the second I have no clue.
Any help?
Joe
Joe W. Hatcher, Jr., Ph.D.
Professor of Psychology
Ripon College
Ripon, WI 54971 USA
