La Vida

163

Reminiscence
"Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge? " Job XXXVIII 2 The Witchery" in Edinburgh, just next to the Castle, serves a starter of exquisite locally cured salmon with fennel sorbet and a sprinkling of dill. The icy, savoury joy of the sorbet has the peculiar effect of rendering the salmon hot and sweet to the yearning, proud tastebuds. The discriminatingdiner will be aware of cuisine that has him giggling with delight - this hors d'oeuvre has such an effect. When a thing of beauty presents itself in all its splendour and exquisitely wrought symmetry, sometimes one can only respond with Homeric fou rire. And 'I confess that as the following effect came together, it had me grinning like a twat. This is not to say that I have discovered perfection,but "Reminiscence" is for me something close enough for now. It has its origins in an effect by Kenton Knepper to be found on the 'Wonder Words' tapes, and perhaps beyond that in Docc Hillford's Q&A act that I had seen some time previously. I have taken the notion of ambiguous scripts and double-talk used in their effects to achieve some profoundly disturbing mind reading. The first time Iperformed this at a magic convention, I had a good few magicians and mentalists believe I was doing the real thing. Consider the following: A genuine volunteer is taken from the audience (this is a parlour effect) and gently hypnotised. Whilst entranced, she chooses an area of her life such as 'Romance', 'Health', 'Travel', 'Finance' and so on, by selecting a tarot-like card that corresponds to thatarea. She is told to build in her mind a picture associated with that area, which may be a memory or constructed from her imagination. Once she has a picture, she is told to step inside it and look around, noting as many details as possible. Nothing is written down or drawn by the spectator, and she need only answer the performer briefly from her trance-state from this point on. The performer closeshis eyes too and begins to describe the picture that the spectator is seeing. She confirms that the details are correct. Let us imagine that she has picked the 'Romance' card and is remembering a meal with a boyfriend from when she was eighteen. The performer is able to tell her precisely what she is picturing, and such things as the name of her boyfriend and the type of restaurant as he wishes,without using cold

reading. Using hypnotic regression he encourages her to experience the picture more vividly and is soon able to offer staggering detail such as the colour of the napkins, the music played in the restaurant and a description of the waiter. Some of this information he merely states and has her confirm. However, to ensure that the audience does not just think that she is merelyagreeing with whatever he says, he asks questions about the memory but writes down the answers on a whiteboard or pad, in full view of the audience before she replies. Once the picture has been accurately described, right down to the last detail, the performer suggests further tests. He asks her to think of a twodigit number, and then invites another member of the audience to join him. The secondvolunteer is hypnotised and given the pen and board. A demonstration of automatic writing ensues, where this second volunteer allows the pen to move across the board outside of consciousness. When the writing is finished, the board is turned around to show the number. The first lady then names the number of which she was thinking - and it matches exactly. Finally the performer asks her to think ofa celebrity, and he starts sketching a caricature on the board, again in full view. He finishes and the volunteer names the celebrity of her choice: the performer is correct again. Fin. This may sound impossible, and indeed I hope that it does. The spectator is not playing along or acting as a confederate, and she is genuinely remembering the information asked for. The effect can be repeated...