Mercutio
1st November 2006, 07:56 AM
Please do not disclose any secrets in this thread...but I wouldn't mind a bit if you disclosed them to me in PM.
So the deal is, one of my daughter's friends went to see a "psychic show" at the University last week. The Evasons (http://www.tnhonline.com/media/storage/paper674/news/2006/10/30/News/psychic.Duo.Gives.Magic.A.New.Meaning.As.Astonishe d.Crowd.Packs.Granite.State.Ro-2410801.shtml?norewrite200611010934&sourcedomain=www.tnhonline.com) returned to UNH after a sold-out show last year, and did many of the things I have seen others do at TAM, like As part of the performance, Jeff chose an audience member named Chrissy, who owned a cell phone. Tessa stood with her back toward the audience and had her choose one phone number from her list, telling Chrissy to think really hard about the number. Astoundingly, Tessa was able to come up with both the number and the name of Chrissy's friend. Chrissy held her hands to her face, astonished at what Tessa was able to do.
Jeff chose many audience members randomly to take part in the mind-reading phenomenon. He had parents and students take out objects that meant something to them, and had Tessa blindfolded. She guessed their names, what the object was, and what significance the objects had to them. Tessa was even able to figure out the name of the person who gave the object to them and the serial number on a ten dollar bill.
But the bit that scared my daughter's friend was their final act. Tessa chose a woman named Paula, and asked her to come onto the stage. She was asked to have either a member of her family participate with her, or a person chosen at random. Paula chose her daughter, Ashley.
Jeff asked yet another person to participate, this time someone who was into photography. The person who was chosen was asked to take a picture with the Polaroid camera given to him. When given the signal, he was going to take a picture of Paula from the chest up so that there was a lot of the white space behind her.
Jeff told Paula to relax and think about the day she got a visitation from the ghost. "In a few moments you are going to see certain things of your imagination," Jeff told Paula. "You may feel a sudden change in temperature . . . you may feel like someone has touched you . . . if any of this happens, please remember." Jeff gave the photographer the signal, told the audience to focus on the white screen in back of Paula, and the picture was taken.
When the picture developed, Jeff showed the audience, and many gathered around the stage to see that there was a face behind Paula. When Paula was asked to identify the face, she said it was her mother, and started to cry from the thought that she made a connection with her mother who had passed away. (the paper goes on to give the obligatory quotes from people who did not believe until they saw this...)
Now, I am guessing there are probably several different ways this could have been done (this based purely on knowing there are multiple versions of many tricks), but it is clearly not something I have any experience in or expertise about. But my daughter's friend asked me specifically, because I teach a course on belief in paranormal. I told her I would ask some more knowledgeable people; she said "please do, I am really freaked out about this!"
So...any info? Does it sound like a known trick that she could find if she bought the right book? Or the right gizmo? Anything at all that I could tell her to calm her down...
(I see that they are fairly well-respected, although one magic forum had a rant about their ineptness by none other than our old friend Mark Lewis! If he hates them, they must be good!)
Their website is here, (http://www.evason.com/index.html) if that helps any.
So the deal is, one of my daughter's friends went to see a "psychic show" at the University last week. The Evasons (http://www.tnhonline.com/media/storage/paper674/news/2006/10/30/News/psychic.Duo.Gives.Magic.A.New.Meaning.As.Astonishe d.Crowd.Packs.Granite.State.Ro-2410801.shtml?norewrite200611010934&sourcedomain=www.tnhonline.com) returned to UNH after a sold-out show last year, and did many of the things I have seen others do at TAM, like As part of the performance, Jeff chose an audience member named Chrissy, who owned a cell phone. Tessa stood with her back toward the audience and had her choose one phone number from her list, telling Chrissy to think really hard about the number. Astoundingly, Tessa was able to come up with both the number and the name of Chrissy's friend. Chrissy held her hands to her face, astonished at what Tessa was able to do.
Jeff chose many audience members randomly to take part in the mind-reading phenomenon. He had parents and students take out objects that meant something to them, and had Tessa blindfolded. She guessed their names, what the object was, and what significance the objects had to them. Tessa was even able to figure out the name of the person who gave the object to them and the serial number on a ten dollar bill.
But the bit that scared my daughter's friend was their final act. Tessa chose a woman named Paula, and asked her to come onto the stage. She was asked to have either a member of her family participate with her, or a person chosen at random. Paula chose her daughter, Ashley.
Jeff asked yet another person to participate, this time someone who was into photography. The person who was chosen was asked to take a picture with the Polaroid camera given to him. When given the signal, he was going to take a picture of Paula from the chest up so that there was a lot of the white space behind her.
Jeff told Paula to relax and think about the day she got a visitation from the ghost. "In a few moments you are going to see certain things of your imagination," Jeff told Paula. "You may feel a sudden change in temperature . . . you may feel like someone has touched you . . . if any of this happens, please remember." Jeff gave the photographer the signal, told the audience to focus on the white screen in back of Paula, and the picture was taken.
When the picture developed, Jeff showed the audience, and many gathered around the stage to see that there was a face behind Paula. When Paula was asked to identify the face, she said it was her mother, and started to cry from the thought that she made a connection with her mother who had passed away. (the paper goes on to give the obligatory quotes from people who did not believe until they saw this...)
Now, I am guessing there are probably several different ways this could have been done (this based purely on knowing there are multiple versions of many tricks), but it is clearly not something I have any experience in or expertise about. But my daughter's friend asked me specifically, because I teach a course on belief in paranormal. I told her I would ask some more knowledgeable people; she said "please do, I am really freaked out about this!"
So...any info? Does it sound like a known trick that she could find if she bought the right book? Or the right gizmo? Anything at all that I could tell her to calm her down...
(I see that they are fairly well-respected, although one magic forum had a rant about their ineptness by none other than our old friend Mark Lewis! If he hates them, they must be good!)
Their website is here, (http://www.evason.com/index.html) if that helps any.