; ; f'OIT OFFICE BOX 144 • FREEHOLD, NEW JERSEY 07728

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~L MANN ~zd'~ 1

(201) 431-2429

II

POST OFFICE BOX 144 • FREEHOLD, NEW JERSEY 07721

(L., be silent) Copyright by Al Mann Exclusives

"The fire that outlives the parent flame burns on and scintillates like through a glass of many colors." AM

The following are excerpts from letters written ~~ me by Leo H. Boudreau of Alexandria Virginia and dated, 9/25/8), 10/11/8) and 10/16/8).

Leo combine4 two AME principles, the Morse-Type code and the Tr-Id-EII, and created the most advanced method for the thought-reader, extant!

THE GENERAL EFFECT. Three, four or more spectators in the audience think of words and spell them secretly and silently. All participating spectators spell their chosen words at the same time! The Mental Marvel remains silent and divines the chosen words! All of theml

Nor EI In the following instructions Leo uses an "0" in place of the dot (.) or short word, and a "1" in place of the dash (-) or long word.

I have found it more convenient in actual performing to use the dot and dash when jotting down the cues for The Damned Thing and the Delphian Oracle. The reader may want to SUbstitute dots and dashes in Leo's notes.

Please do not pass judgement on this mns. until you have read it through and analysed it. ~ehind the following lines, lurks the material for miracles just waiting to be called forth.

~n ~~r:~eJ~cti,eJ": This short and sweet effect will in­troduce the reader to the type of methods used. But it is only

an introductory effect which will be followed by more advanced me­thods. But nevertheless this effect is a stunnerl

The technique revolves around composed sentences that Leo got through the aid of a computer. The sentences are made up of short and long words. The long words being twice as long, or longer than the short words. Here is one sentence. .

"With the noise that accompanies fame comes ins­tantaneous recognition; distinguished personalities seem, nevertheless, much preoccupied celebrating their good name."

So, let's say that you are entertaining a group of students.

,C-,.i'

~~:~ r-~! 1'f\.<J.. (' ,'~

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QUIN TACES AN AL MANN EXCLUSIVE

AN INTRODUCTION cont. ..

And that you have managed to sneak into the lecture hall and chalked the above sentence on the blackboard.

During your show you propose to do a thought-transference test. You ask one of the students to secretly choose four words together from the sentence and to secretly write the four words on four cards you hand him and which are marked from 1 to 4. He is to write the first word on card No.1, and the second word on card No.2, etc. When finished he is to pass card No. 2 to a second person and card No.3 to a third person, etc. He is to keep card No. 1.

All four persons are then told to close their eyes and to spell their word in their minds silently. They are also instruc­ted to spell the word only once and to open their eyes and stop concentrating when finished.

The Mental Marvel only has to notice which students kept their eyes closed longer. For example, say that the four words chosen were "the noice that accompanies." In this case the Mentalist notices that only one student kept his eyes closed longer. That is the fourth student. He then knows exactly what four words were chosen and he can tell each person what he or she is think-ing! The technique will become clear with what follows.

By Leo Boudreau

In my letter dated 8/14/83 concerning the Tr-Id effect, I raised the questions Can the participants be led through the sequential decision process without the performer having to callout the designs or colors directly? Finding an answer to this question has been of special interest to me. Although Tr-Id incor~orates many subtle principles, it remains a cleverly disguised blnary sorting routine. In order to better disguise the method used in Tr-Id, I propose using, as a back-up for the main effect with designs, the Morse-type code of long-short words, which code totally eliminates the need for CALLS. What remains simulates mindreading in its purest form.

Here is a brief description of the word test I propose. The performer writes a lengthy sentence down in a notebook or on a blackboard. Three volunteers are then asked to participate in an experiment. Each is asked to read over the sentence, pick at least four consecutive words -- any four words will do, and remember the words chosen. The volunteers may write down the words if desired to help them remember, but the writing should not be necessary. The volunteers are then requested simply to think of their words, to spell or merely pronounce the words mentally without uttering a sound and without moving their hands or lips. The performer eXplains that he will attempt to intercept all their thoughts simultaneously, and he then proceeds to do so quite convincingly by revealing the exact words thought of.

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III

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J QUIN TACES AN AL MANN EXCLUSIVE

THE QUAD-CYCLIC THOUGHT cont. ••

For this im~romptu presentation, I have concocted a sentence contain~ng long and short words arranged so that each consecutive group of four words in the sentence produces a different one of the sixteen possible combinations of a 4-bit code. I call it a quad-cyclic sentence. Here is an example I

"With the noise that accompanies fame comes instantaneous recognition; distinguished personalities seem, nevertheless, much preoccupied celebrating their good name."

Each of the short words contains 5 letters or less and only one syllable. The short words will be represented by "0". Each of the long words contains 11 letters or more and at least three syllables. The long words will be represented by "1". Any four consecutive words in the quad-cyclic sentence shows a different code combination. The 16 different code combina­tions, arranged in a numerical order, are shown belowl

PHRASE NO. PHRASE 1

0 1 0 l! 0 1 0

11

00D~ 2

0 0 1 1 0 0 1 1

4 8

0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0

For the presentation, the Mentalist patters that he will attempt a very difficult experiment in thought-reading and asks for the cooperation and absolute silence of everyone present. The three volunteers are each asked to choose any four consecu­tive words in the handwritten sentence and to tell nobody which ':ords they are secretly thinking of. As an exam~le, let's assume that participant No. 1 is thinking of "no~se that

r accompanies fame"; No.2 is thinking of "seem nevertheless much , ~~:occupied"; and No. J is thinking of "nevertheless much LOCCUPied celebrating". r

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QUIN TACES AN AL MANN EXCLUSIVE

THE QUAD-CYCLIC THOUGHT cont.

As in the Tr-Id effect, all the Mentalist needs is a sheet of paper or paper pad with as many numbers as there are partici­pants.

PARTICIPANT CODE 1 2 3

1 1

2 2 4 4 4 --- ---

8 8 8 --- -_ ••• __ 0. f------ ----- ------

TOTAL 4 10 13

The Mentalist instructs the three participants as follows& "I want you to :please close your eyes and relax for a moment. For the time be1ng. just relax, keep your ~yes closed, and listen closely to my instructions. In a few seconds, I will ask you to concentrate on the first word. Only when I ask you to do so, all of you will, silently and to tOUrselves and with-

out moving your lips, spell out the fIrs word, letter by letter, visualizing each letter. For example, if you were to spell my name. L-E-O (Here, the Mentalist is setting the pace for spelling the words), I want you to spell your words silently at about this same pace. I will attempt to intercept your collective thoughts as you visualize each letter. Don't worry about misspelling the word. Just spell the word as you remember seeing it. Spell the word only once. And then immediately erase the image from your mind ~ o~ening ¥tur Ares. O.K. Give me a second to prepare my own m1nd a b1 •

r1ght. Now spell the first word!" (The Mentalist observes the participants to see that they have understood his instructions. Each :participant should eventually open his eyes. In other words, this 1S just a test run.)

The Mentalist then says& "No. We'll try it again. Please close your eyes. I'm receiving a lot of clutter and noise. Remember, you will spell the first word once, without stopping, and immediately open your eyes to clear your mind. O.K. Spell the first word!"

(After his command to spell, the Mentalist counts silently to himself, 1-2-3-4-5-6-7, at about the same pace he set earlier in his instructions. At the count of "7", the Mentalist observes who among the participants still have their eyes closed. The Mentalist enters the digit 1 in each of these participants' columns. For instance, the Mentalist notices that participant No. 3 alone still has his eyes closed. So the Mentalist knows this partici:pant is spelling a long word and marks a "1" under the 3rd part1cipant's column.)

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• 5 QUIN TACES AN AL MANN EKCLUSIVE

THE QUAD CYCLIC THOUGHT cont. •.

The Mentalist then says. "I think I have it but let's try the second word in yOUI' phrase, Please close your eyes. Relax and clear your mind for a moment. Remember to open your eyes only after you've finished spelling the word mentally. Now spell the second wordl"

(Again, the Mentalist counts, 1-2-3-4-5-6-7, to himself at the same pace set earlier. On the count of "7", he observes who among the participants still have their eyes closed. The Mentalist enters the digit 2 in each of these partici,ants' columns, as dictated by the code. The Mentalist notices that participant No. 2 alone still has his eyes closed. So the Mentalist knows this participant is spelling a long word and marks a "2" under the 2nd participant's column.)

"Fine. Excellent. We'll try the third word. Close your eyes. Relax. Let me prepare my own mind. O.K. Spell the third word!"

(As before, the Mentalist observes who still has his eyes closed on the count of "7" and enters the digit 4 in each of these participants' columns. Participants No.1 and No.3 are thinking of long words, so the Mentalist marks a 4 in each of their columns.)

"Very well. Please close your eyes. We'll try the final word. Please visualize the fourth word. Now spell it!"

(The Mentalist does as before, counting to "7", observing which participants still have their eyes closed, but entering the digit 8 in each of their columns. Participants 2 and 3 are thinking of long words; hence, an 8 is entered in each of their columns.)

Now the Mentalist totals the digits under each participant and knows that participant #1 is thinking of phrase #4 which is "noise that accompanies fame"; participant #2 is thinking of phrase #10 which 1.S "seem nevertheless much preoccupied"; and participant #3 is thinking of phrase #13 which is "nevertheless much preoccupied celebrating." The Mentalist obtains this information quite easily by referring to a simple prompter list or from memory. Here is the prompter list:

0 8 4 2 9 12 14 15 'NITH THE NOISE THAT ACCOMPANIES FAME COMES INSTANTANEOUS

7 11 .5 10 13 RECOGNITION DISTINGUISHED PERSONALITIES SEEM NEVERTHELESS

6 3 1 MUCH PREOCCUPIED CELEBRATING THEIR GOOD NAME.

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QUIN TACES AN AL MANN EKCLUSIVE

THE QUAD-CYCLIC THOUGHT cont. ••

First, the Mentalist finds the phrase number on the prompter list. The word immediately below the number is the first word in the participant's phrase. The next three words in the sentence complete the phrase.

All is now ready for the dramatic reveiations. When done properly, words can be as strong as designs in their impact on an audience. I find that the least effective revelation at this point is to merely recite each of the participants' phrases. Instead, the Mentalist's knowledge of the selected phrases ought to be exploited fully to enhance the revelations and enchant the audience. Here are a few suggestions I (1). The Mentalist walks OVBr to Participant No. l.stares into his eyes, and directs him to concentrate on the third word. The Mentalist asks that he spell the word silently to himself. The Mentalist spells the word out loud, A-C-C-O-M-P-A-N-I-E-S. while the Participant merely thinks of each letter in the word. This will blow the Participant's mind. (2). The Mentalist knows that a couple of spectators have matching words (a fortuitous event that will happen quite often). and the Mentalist ought to exploit that fact. Participants No. 2 and No. 3 are each handed an art board and a black ink marker. Out-of-sight of the Participants, the Mentalist writes the word NEVERTHELESS in large. bold letters on an art board. No. 2 is asked to print his second word and No. 3 is asked to print his first word on their respective art boards. The Mentalist displays his printed word to the audience. The Participants then show tneir words, and of course they all match. (3). Out-of-sight of the participants, the Mentalist prints the words FAME, PREOCCUPIED, CELEBRATING in that order on his art board, ,which he displays to the rest of the audience. The participants are then asked to callout, or to spell out loud, each of their fourth words, beginning with Participant No.1 thru No.3. There are plenty of other equally effective methods of enhan­cing the revelations. One should concentrate on revealing individual words rather than the phrases as a whole.

NlETHODS FOR EXPANDING THE WORD LIST

I find the :performance with just one "quad-cyclic sentence" to be quite sufflcient and incredlbly convincing even to the most ardent skeptic. Nevertheless, it is nice to know that the same 4-bit Morse-type code may be applied to an expanded list of up to 16 different "quad-cyclic sentences". For those wanting to expand the word list, here is the frameworlc&

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QUIN TACES

THE QUAD-CYCLIC THOUGHT cont. ••

FRAMEWORK FOR 16 QU~D-CYCLIC SENTANCESI

7

AN AL MANN EXCLUSIVE

o 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 1 1 1 0 1 0 1 1 0 0 O. 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 1 1

1 0 1 0 1 1 0 O. 0 1 0 0 1 ~ 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 1 O.

1 1 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 0 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 O. 0 0 1 0 1 1 1 1 0 0

1 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 1. 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 1 1 0 1.

o 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 1 1 1 1 0 1 1. 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0

1 1 0 1 0 1 1 1 1. 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 O.

1 0 0 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 O. 0 1 0 1 1 1 1 0 1 0

o 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 O. 1 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 1 1 1 0 0 1 1 O.

o 0 1 1 1 1 0 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 0 0 01, 1 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 1 1 1

1 0 0 0 0 1 0 1. 0 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 1 0 1 0 1 1.

1 1 1 1 0 1 1 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 1 1.

Each "0" stands for a SHORT word; each "1" a LONG word. The underlined portion marks the first four words of each sentence and shows the 4-bit code that identifies each sentence uniquely by number. Participant No. 1 is asked to pick any sentence and remember the first four words in the sentence. These first four words are coded such that they will reveal exactly which sentence has been chosen (as in The Damned Thing). Now, Par­ticipants No. 2 and No. J are each instructed to pick any four consecutive words in the same sentence chosen by Participant No.1.

"'9clt,e'e S'ftta,6te~: One fabulous characteristic of Leo's quad-cyclic sentence is that all the short words have only one syllable and all the long words have three or more syllables. With that in mind, you can just tell the four spectators to each write down the first syllable of their chosen word. To concentrate and write it down. Mentalist pretends to have received some 'vibs' which he pretends to write down, but writes nothing. He then instructs the spectators to concentrate on the second syllable of their word and to write it down. By this action you now know who is thinking of the long words. and Immediately you say, "I will not watch your writing, I'll turn my back. Please, everyone wri te out your whole word again." You, of course already know the four wordsl This is, of course, assuming that you are only working with four words. You could, just as easily tell them to write down their words and you can tell who writes out short words and who long. BUT someone may assume that you are doing pencil reading. By using the syllables p that thought is dispelled!

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QUIN TACES AN AL MANN EXCLUSIVE

THE QUAD-CYCLIC THOUGHT cont. ••

A FINE POINT. The reader may correctly surmise that there may be a weak point in the Quad-Cyclic Thought method. That of telling the audience to choose "four consecutive words." To some wise ones in your audience, this may sound like some kind of a puzzle rather then 'thought-reading.' To circumvent that assumption, the following ruse is used.

fliJJIJ~i.a,te,d "af)"4a.~: Four spectators are told to choose any word secretly from

the sentence on the blackboard. They are instructed to write that One word down and to not change their minds. Mentalist then says that in order for him to perceive the chosen words, he must asso­ciate the words with neighboring words. So each person is then asked to write down the next three words after their chosen words.

NOTEI There is always the possibility that someone may choose the last word! So, for presenting this effect, only 16 words of the Quad-cyclic sentence are written on the black board.

After the four spectators have chosen their word and written it down, the Mentalist may say, "Supposing that you have chosen the first word of the sente.nce. Then you must write down the next three words. If you have chosen, say the last word - wait!" here the Mentalist fills in the last three words of the sentence which are 'their good name. I See the quad-cyclic sentence on page J. By this ruse the Mentalist has a good reason for asking the spectators to write down the next three words. For the Asso­ciated Thought, you say.

*** The pro-Mentalist always sees to it that the weak points of

any effect are well covered or eliminated. Leo and I discussed this at length. One weak point in these effects is the 'force sentence' the Quad-Cyclic Sentence. From this discussion, the following correspondence resulted p with some very good points stressed by Mr. Boudreau.

tJJ. ~~ok,4 4t11-d ?~~'~~b: d~ed 10/11/8J from Leo BOudreau.

Excerpts from a letter

Dear Al. I appreciate your taking the time to evaluate my manus­

cript. I value your professional judgment and advice. I like your idea of printing a hardcover book or a set of three books (with the quad-Cylic sentence). - A well designed book or set of books will enhance the method, as you point out in your let­ter, by allowing the spectator to choose freely from among many sentences.

I consider the "cyclic sentence" a powerful new tool in Men-

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QUIN TACES AN AL MANN EXCLUSIVE

OF BOOKS AND THINGS cant • ••

~alism. As far as I know, this concept is original with me. The 1dea came from an old mathematical curiosity involving a string of colored beads. - To an audience it seems as if the specta-tors have a completely free choice of any word in the sentence (They have. AM). The audience, including even many mathemati­cians, will be left without a clue as to how all this is possi­ble.

I developed the framework for 16 quad-cylic sentences (page 7) with the help of a friend's IBM computer. This framework dictates exactly how the long and short words must be organized into 16 sentences, a to~al of 304 coded words!

The sentence I disclosed in my last letter is, what I call, a perfect quad-cyclic sentence. By perfect I mean. (1). The sentence contains just long and short words with

no intermediate-length words. You will note that the long words are all approximately twice as long as the short words.

(2). Every consecutive word group in the sentence shows a different code combination. (A word group will herein­after be referred to as a phrase.)

(3). The sentence contains exactly 19 words forming exactly 16 different phrases, each phrase comprising 4 adjacent words. The phrases produce all 16 of the possible quadruplet code combinations.

My sentence was designed (i.e., gimmicked) to possess all the desirable characteristics mentioned above -- and then some. It is unlikely that any naturally-occurring sentence in the English language would ever be perfect. that is, possess all the above characteristics. But the Morse-code Mindreading effect may be performed with sentences that fall far short of perfection and that can be found in virtually any book with a bit of effort.

The Mentalist ought to make the effort to find and then record (on a prompter list) at least one suitable sentence for several, if not all, the books on the New York Times Bestseller List or some other well-known book list. This the Mentalist may do while reading the books, which has its own rewards aside from creating the ultimate book test. By finding just a few of these sentences in a series of ungimmicked books, the Men­talist will always be ready to perform a most incredible book test.

I will now describe how one may find appropriate sentences in any ungimmicked book. I will also explain how to perform both a quad-cyclic and a tri-cyclic check on each candidate sentence to determine its suitability. It is really quite simple and worth the effort considering the final outcome and the many opportunities that come up for making use of this informa­tion.

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QUIN TACES AN AL MANN EXCLUSIVE

OF BOOKS AND THINGS cont. ••

Of the three characteristics listed above. I consider the first to be the most important. There ought to be a sizable and clear separation between the lengths of the long and the short words. This separation between longs and shorts is the starting point in the search for a suitable sentence. To improve the chances of success, the candidate sentences cannot be too wordy -- a dozen words or less is about right. (If one discovers a longer sentence, that's great. However. please note that even the perfect quad-cyclic sentence has no more than 19 words, and the perfect tri-cyclic sentence has no more than 10 words. Keep in mind also that the search for good candidates in an ungimmicked book is not the search for perfection.) So, while reading a novel for example, the Mentalist must train his eyes to spot any sentence having not more than about a dozen words and having only short and long words.

Recently, as I read The Dis~ossessed by Ursula LeGuin (Avon paperback, 6th printing, 1 75), I recorded the following candidates: Page 2, Line 1: "It enclosed the universe, leaving Anarres

outside, free." Page 8, Line 19: "Figuring all this out heartened him

immensely." Page 160, Line 25: "He had not expected any subtlety of mind

from her." Each of these candidates contains only long and short words (no intermediate-length words), and the words possess about a 2-to-l ratio in relative lengths. In checking the suitabi­lity of the last sentence above, for instance, one must first mark each short word with a "0" and each long word with a "1".

0 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 HE HAD NOT EXPECTED ANY SUBTLETY OF MIND FROM ~R.

Next, while reading left to right, one must isolate each group of four words and record its code.

HE HAD NOT EXPECTED = 0 0 0 1 ~D NOT EXPECTED ANY = 0 0 1 0 NOT EXPECTED ANY SUBTLETY - 0 1 0 1 This is the -EXPECTED ANY SUBTLETY OF = 1 0 1 0 QUAD-CYCLIC check. ANY SUBTLETY OF raND = 0 1 0 0 SU3'l'LETY OF MIND FROhl = 1 0 0 0 OF i'vIII'~D FROM HER = 0 0 0 0

Clearly, the candidate sentence passes the QUAD-CYCLIC check because each phrase produces a unique code. The sentence pro­duces a total of 7 out of the 16 possible code combinations, vlhich is not bad at all for an ungimmicked sentence. Now, by converting the binary code of "O's" and "l's" to a more recognizable form of number (with the help of the chart I included in my earlier letter), one gets the following:

I

-QUIN TACES

OF BOOKS AND THINGS

0 0 0 1 = 8 0 0 1 0 = 4 0 1 0 1 = 10 1 0 1 0 = 5 0 1 0 0 = 2 1 0 0 0 = 1 0 0 0 0 = 0

It is now a simple list.

cont. ..

11

AN AL MANN EXCLUSIVE

matter to enter the sentence on a prompter

THE DISPOSSESSED BY LEGUIN (AVON PAPER)

P. 160, 8 4 10 5 2 1 0

L. 25: HE HAD NOT EXPECTED ANY SUBTLETY OF MIND FROM HER. QUAD COUNT = 6

The QUAD informs the Mentalist that the spectators may pick any four adjacent words in the sentence. The COUNT = 6 tells the Mentalist that, during the presentation, he should count silently 1-2-3-4-5-6, and on the count'of 6 or thereabouts he must observe who still has his eyes closed.

A TRI-CYCLIC check may also be executed on the same sen­tence to determine whether or not the sentence would be suitable in a mindreading effect where the spectators pick only three consecutive words. ----HE HAD NOT - 0 0 0 -HAD NOT EXPECTED - 0 0 1 -NOT EXPECTED ANY - 0 1 0 -EXPECTED ANY SUBTLETY = 1 0 1 This is the ANY SUBTLETY OF - 0 1 0 TRI-CYCLIC check. -SUBTLETY OF MIND - 1 0 0 -OF MIND FROM = 0 0 0 MIND FROM HER = 0 0 0

Obviously, the sentence fails the TRI-CYCLIC check by producing the same code, 0 1 0, for the phrases NOT EXPECTED ANY and ANY SUBTLETY OF. The sentence also produces an identical code, o 0 0, for the three phrases HE HAD NOT, OF MIND FROM, and MIND FROM HER. (Later, I'll explain how a certain amount of code duplication can be tolerated.) Thus, the sentence is not suitable for use in a TRI-CYCLIC effect.

As a further demonstration of how to check the candidates for suitability, I will next analyze the sentence on page 2 of the LeGuin novell

o 1 0 1 1 110 IT ENCLOSED THE UNIVERSE, LEAVING ANARRES OUTSIDE, FREE.

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QUIN TACES

OF BOOKS AND THINGS

QUAD-CYCLIC CHECK o 1 0 1 101 1 011 1

111 1 1 110

= = = =

10 13 14 15 7

cont. ••

12

AN AL MANN EKCLUSIVE

TRI-CYCLIC CHECK 0 1 0 =- 2 1 0 1 = 5 0 1 1 - 6 -1 1 1 - 7 -1 1 1 = 7 1 1 0 = 3

As a rule, a tri-cyclic effect, which requires the spectators to select any 3 consecutive words in a sentence, is easier to present and is preferable to the quad-cyclic effect requiting the selection of at least 4 consecutive words. In the example above, the sentence produces a unique quad-cyclic code for each group of four words. Nevertheless, I find the tri-cyclic version to be preferable in spite of the code duplication, 1 1 1, in the nhrases UNIVERSE LEAVING ANARRES and LEAVING ANARRES OUTSIDE. This duplication is, actually, quite insig­nificant because anytime the Mentalist adds the digits for a participant and obtains a total of 7, he will know immediately two of the participant's words - namely, LEAVING and ANARRES. Although an ambiguitJ exists as to the actual phrases involved, two overlapping words are still revealed by the code. If the Mentalist concentrates on revealing individual words rather than phrases as a whole, he will not be handicapped by not [cnowing exactly where the words appear in the participant's phrase.

Moreover, the I~entalist may discover the exact phrase in­vol ved, UNIVERSE LEAVING ANARRES or LEAVING ANARRES OUTSIDE, by simply asking the participqnt a question such ass Do your words include UNIVERSE? Better yet, the Mentalist may formulate a Call, as in the Tr-Id ELL effect, in which he asks the participants to close their eyes and concentrate if and only if he calls out one of their words. UNIVERSE should be one of the words called. The Call is great way to resolve ambiguities caused by multiple code duplications, It is far superior to fishing for answers.

Thus, the sentence on page 2 of the LeGuin novel may now be added to the prompter list under the heading, The Dispossessed.

2 5 6 7 7 3 P. 2, L. 1: IT ENCLOSED 'rHE UNIVERSE LEAVING ANARRES OUTSIDE FREE.

TRI COUNT = 5

By following the procedures outlined above, the IVJ.entalist may construct a PROI\'lPTER LIST in a pocket-sized notepad, for exar:1ple I that contains sui table sentences for many different

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QUIN TACES AN AL MANN EXCLUSIVE

OF BOOKS AND THINGS cont. . . popular boo~s. These should be books that one is likely to run across ~n many homes. They should be books that the performer can ask the spectators to bring with them to the performance (e.g., books on the New York Times Bestseller List). The spectators themselves may then choose one of the availabaetitles during the performance. And the Mentalist may then announce the page and line numbers where a quad-or a tri-cyclic sentence for the chosen book will be found. (The sentence could be forced but this is not necessary under t~e circ~stances.) !he Mentalist then ~erforms the Morse-code M~ndread~ng effect us~ng the totally ung~mmicked and apparently freely chosen sentence.

***

In a letter dated 10/16/8), Leo touched on some more worthy ideas relating to Quin Taces. One of them mentioned Hoy's 'Bold Approach,' wherein the Menta­list picks up any book and has someone choose any page and then he reads a sentence (?) from that page. Actually the Mentalist justs pretends to copy the Quad-Cyclic Sentence from the book!

Following are excerpts from the letters

Dear AI,

I've just read your letter of 10/12/8). The force is indeed the weakest part of the Mindreading effect, although I don't view the "force sentence" in quite the same way you do. I will elaborate further on this aspect of the Mindreading effect. I will suggest several options that, I hope, will alleviate some of your concern in this area.

Regarding the "force sentence", the idea of organizing the coded words into a meaningful sentence just seemed to me far more deceptive than presenting the coded words any other way. I may be wrong but I believe audiences are very suspicious of objects such as books that can be gimmicked in all sorts of clever ways, especially when the Mentalist himself introduces the books. Such objects tend to cast unnecessary suspicion on the proceedings. On the other hand, I don't believe that audiences can readily accept the possibility that a complete sentence can be gimmicked, especially a sentence that they can see, that makes sense, that is written on the spot before their eyes, and from which, apparently, any group of words can be chosen. It defies conventional logic. (If the performer likes the bold approach.-a disciple of the David Hoy school of Mentalism--then the performer might pretend to extract the sentence from any book handed to him by a spectator).

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QUIN TACES

THE SEVENTH COLUMN cont. ••

14

AN AL MANN EXCLUSIVE

Please understand, Al, it was my intent that the manuscript dated 9/25/83 disclose the simplest version I could conceive of performing the Morse-code Mindreading effect. I wanted the effect reduced to its bare essentials. Thanks to the quad-cyclic sentence, I believe I achieved my goal. A virtual "miracle" was thereby created that can be performed anywhere, anytime, without props, without even a prompter sheet (the memory work is really quite trivial). As a result, all I need to read minds convincingly is just one other warm body willing to think I That's all. Thanks to the quad-cyclic sentence, the participants have a free choice of any group of words and not just the first few words at the beginning of the sentence. This is a potent principle. The overall method is so subtle, the impact so profound that I believe virtually any audience must conclude that the effect is impossible without actual mindreading. I also believe that other Mentalists already aware of the long-short word code will be dumbfounded by this new presenta­tion. They will be fooled even with the quad-cyclic sentence fully exposed and staring them in the face.

I agree that, in the simplest version of my effect, the sentence must be forced. I prefer to view the force, however, as a limited range force of 19 different words. And my method of performing the effect focuses upon individual words. Actually, this force is not very different from the force used in Tr-Id ELL, which requires a limited range force of 9 colored designs, or from the use of an ESP deck, which limits the range to 5 symbols. Unfortunately, I can't see how we can get away from using a limited force of one kind or another. The quad­cyclic sentence seems the most logical, innocent, and streamlined means of presenting the list of force words from which parti. cipants may make their selections.

AI, I agree with you that, in presenting the quad-cyclic sentence, the Mentalist may find it awkward explaining what he means by "four consecutive words." Many participants may not have any idea what the performer means by "consecutive words" and why this should be so important in the first place. This difficulty, howc;ver, can be largely overcome by proper handling and carefully worded instructions. The performer should instruct the participants as followsl

"AD you can all see, this sentence is quite long. It contains many different words. I want each of you to pick just four words in this sentence. Here is how I want you to do it. First, each of you please read the entire sentence to yourself. O.K. Now, re-read the sentence and stop at any word. Change your mind if you like. 3ut please pick a word before you get too near the end of the sentence. O.K. Do it now. Have all of you picked your words? Fine. This will be your first word. Please remember it. Now I would

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QUIN TACES AN AL MANN EXCLUSIVE

THE SEVENT H COLUMN cont. .•

like you to read the next three words in the sentence. These are th e three words that immediately follow ~our first word. You should have no difficulty here 1f your first word is not at the end of the sentence. O.K. Please remember these three words as well. These are your second, third, and fourth words. Now re-read the four words to yourself and please commit them to memory. Tell no one what they are." (If any writing is done to aid the memory, then the performer ought to substitute the word "write" for the word "remember" in the instructions above.)

Each participant, invariably, will pick his first word from among the first 16 words in the sentence. To guarantee that this does happen, the Mentalist could ask each partici­pant to think of any number from 1 to 16 and count to that position in the sentence for his first selection. I, personally, don't like counting, and I don't think it's necessary here. This would be overkill. Should a participant pick his first word from among the last three words in the sentence. the Mentalist may simply ask him to back up a bit with his first selection so that he has LI- words available. The instructions themselves should prevent this problem from occurring altogether.

Before I came up with the quad-C¥clic sentence, my word list took a different form. It consisted of 4 sentences dis­tributed over 16 separate lines. This list cannot be enlarged as easily as the quad-cyclic scheme, so I discarded it. But I am presenting my original word list nevertheless for whomever may prefer it over the quad-cyclic sentence. This list is arranged in a column much like newsprint ( a carry-over from The Six Columns).

As you can see, the first four words in each line are coded according to the long-short word scheme (as in The Damned Thing). When using this word list, the Mentalist asks each spectator to pick any line and to remember at least the first four words in the line. In this list, the long words contain a minimum of 10 letters instead of 11 letters as in my quad-cyclic arrangement. Otherwise, the presentation is the same as that described in my original manuscript, with each line now carrying a unique phrase nwnber. I should emphasize, however, that the quad-cyclic sentence is quite a deceptive and powerful new tool. It should not be relegated to the scrap heap too quickly.

All things considered, AI, I don't quite share your concern over the "force sentence." There are many effective ways to diseuise the force if necessary •

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QUIN TACES AN AL MANN EKCLUSIVE

THE SEVENTH COLUMN CONT.

*7lte t;i(/llll/lf,,°c.lted ~&lafA.-n'/

1 110 7. Unscrupulous Congressional politicians have

101 0 5. rapeatedly made predictions about our

o 1 1 0 6. most deplorable unemployment that quite a

001 0 4. few idle manufacturers have totally rejected.

1 100 3. Theatergoers everywhere loved this mighty

1 000 1. entertaining story about many really

o 100 2. scary encounters with one savage

o 000 O. great white shark run arnock and eating tourists.

000 1 8. Good ideas, like organizing all NASA

o 1 0 1 10. space astronauts into appropriate technical

100 1 9. disciplines, were more complicated than

110 1 11. previously anticipated by a~ministrators.

001 1 12. Most newly successful publication houses now

o 1 1 1 14. print comicbooks containing superheroes and,

101 1 13. surprisingly, alert principals nationwide have

111 1 15. wholeheartedly encouraged subscribing straightaway.

(a). There is the bold approach mentioned earlier according to f{OY.

(b). A truly ungimrnicked sentence from an ungirnmicked book may be employed as I've explained in my ADDENDUM.

..

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QUIN TACES AN AL MANN EXCLUSIVE

DISGUISING THE QUAD-CYCLIC SENTENCE cont.

(c). By calling attention to the many different words in the sentence and directing the selection to individual words rather than consecutive groups or phrases, the Mentalist may shift the focus from the sentence itself, which is merely the carrier of the words. (d). The single cyclic sentence may be replaced by 4 non-cyclic sentences arranged in 16 lines if desired, which enlarges the effective word list somewhat. (e). A greatly enlarged word list comprising 16 different cyclic sentences may be stored, say. on a movie slide and projected on a screen during the performance. Or the 16 sentences may be printed in a pamphlet, broadside, or newspaper, all of which alternatives may be preferable to and cheaper than the set of hardcover books that I consider inherently suspect anyway. (f). Several or all 16 of the cyclic sentences may be hand­printed on a large blackboard or on several art boards dis­played on easels and distributed across the stage. If enough sentences are visible, then only the first four words of each sentence need be used during the experiment (as in The Damned Thing) •

~gzt!/z'ed,'6te ~f!)(J}e-T,! Here, Leo Boudreau details

his method for working the effect mentioned under 'An Introduc­tion.' Leo states that in his opinion, this item may very well be the fastest, most astonishing mindreading stunt ever conceived.

I per­formed the effect a few days ago for friends using my original 16-line word list, which I've had printed up on a wallet-sized card. I performed the trick rapidly three times in succession, and still nobody could believe it. A truly miraculous quickie. And all this is possible as a result of only a slight change in the original effect.

At least four participants are necessary for this new version of the Mindread~ng effect. The participants must remember only one word apiece instead of four, and each participant spells only that one word during the performance. This n~\'l version can be used anywhere the original effect can be used. I will explain the effect in connection with the 16-line word list

** shown on page 4 of this letter. (The numbers, of course, don't appear on the wallet-sized card I hand to the partici­pants. These numbers are for my benefit only, and they appear on my prompter list.)

The Mentalist aslts Participant #1 to pick any line on the

** word list is on page 16 here.

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QUIN TACES

INCREDIBLE POWER cont. .•

18

AN AL MANN EXCLUSIVE

card and to remember the first word on that line. Participant #2 is asked to remember the second word on the same line. Participant #3 is asked to remember the third word, and Participant #4 the fourth word. For instance, let's assume Participant #1, after scanning the card, picks the eleventh line down from the top, "disciplines, were more complicated than." Therefore, Participant #1 remembers "disciplines." Participant #2 remembers "were'; Participant #3 remembers "more." And Participant #4 remembers "complicated." Altogether, the four participants have in mind a number will be revealed to the Mentalist after inlY one silent s~elli~. As a result of this one silent spell ng, lne Mentalist w~11 a so know the exact word each participant has in mind. .

For this version of the Mindreading effect, all the Mentalist needs is a sheet of paper or paper pad with as many numbers as there are participants and a single column for adding code digits. Each of the four participants will have assigned to him a different code digit.

PARTI- CODE ADD CIPANT 1 1 1

1---

2 2 ~-

3 4 4 8 8

TOTAL 9 1---

As can be seen above, each participant is assigned a different code digit. Thus, anytime the Mentalist notices that the par­ticipant is spelling a long word, he enters that participant's code digit in the ADD column. As in the original effect, the Mentalist, after counting silently to "7", notices who among the participants still have their eyes closed and places their code digits in the ADD column. For instance, the Mentalist notices that Participants #1 and #4 still have their eyes closed. So, the Mentalist knows these two participants are thinking of long words and marks a "1" (the code digit for Participant #1) and an "8" (the code digit for Participant #4) in the ADD column. Now the Mentalist totals the digits in the ADD column and knows that the participants are thinking of phrase #9, which is "disciplines, were more complicated than." In just a few seconds, therefore, the Mentalist can determine the exact words in all the participants' minds after onlt ~ %uiCk silent saelling. AI, please ponder this awhile. never efore realize that mindreading could be so quick, direct and

simple.

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QUIN TACES AN AL MANN EXCLUSIVE

1!!e.U'~t(;i~ '1/u14#Z ~A : Leo's Quad-Cyclic Sentence on page 1 and J which contains'

19 words, can be made into a Revolving-Quad-Cyclic-Sentence, simply by dropping the last three words so that the sentence con­tains only 16 words and ends on the word 'celebrating.'

Here it is againa 'With the noise that accompanies fame comes instantaneous recognition; distinguished personalities seem, nevertheless, much preoccupied cele brating.

Or perhaps the reader can construct his own 16 word sentence that follows the same long-short-word relationship.

Now you can ask anyone to choose any four words in any part of the sentence. They can even start with the last word and then continue from the begining of the sentence and attach the first three words. Recommended is the effect called 'Associated Thoughts' on page 8. The revolving sentence above forms a con­tinuous chain of coded words in groups of four, no matter where you start as long as you read forwards.

t1fI2a.A.d "!!t',z,4.~e4dj,l4,q" In which the Mental Marvel reads the minds o#eight persons at once as they concen-tratel MEr HOD a Please refer back to page 16 and the line of words marked "0." This line reads, 'great white shark run amock and eating tourists.'

Now if you ask someone to write out that sente.nce, assuming that he had a secret choice (or any other sentence that contains 8 or more words, with the first four words coded) and to pass out cards with one word on each to eight persons, then you can divine all eight words simply by divining the first four words.

You, of course, have all eight persons concentrating and may even t'ell the last four persons to just think of their words, etc.

This is the dynamic concept used in 'The Damned Thing.' Once the code words are known then you also know the whole paragraph and can do with it many miracles like asking the person to read the whole paragraph and then telling him that you detected that one of the words was a proper name or a city or date, etc.

The best way to perform any effect in magic or mentalism is of course the easiest and most simpler methods. The reader will have to experiment with several modes of presentation and patter until he finds the easier method for him. This author has found that the easiest method is by telling the persons to write down their thoughts. The long and short words are easily detect­ed. For personal reasons, some spectators refuse to close their eyes to concentrate. In that case the Mentalist tells the per­son to please write down his word, etc.

-

...

>. ,. ,. "

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QUIN TACES AN AL MANN EXCLUS IVE

The reader may favor the follo­wing approach to the quad-cyclic sentence. Members of the audience make up a sentence that is used for a thought reading experiment!

MErHOD. Prepare four large cards. Two are blue and two are red color. The blue cards contain a type-written list of long words of three syllables each and of about 12 or more letters.

The red cards contain one-syllable words. These cards are passed out into the audience to four persons

widely separated. The audience is informed that they will be asked to form a sentence by choosing words from the cards.

The bulk of the audience are not aware that only long and short words will be used and all assume that the persons holding the cards choose words that appeal to them and that these words could be of any length!

The Mentalist then says let's start the sentence with the word "The -." He then asks one of the persons holding a red card to choose any word from his list. That person chooses another short word. A third short word and a fourth short word are chosen.

You must inform the audience that the sentence need not be intelligible. That it can be constructed of unrelated words. But you emphasize the point that it is the audience who is choosing the words. After the first four short words are chosen, you then point to a person holding ablue card and tell him to give you a 'word.' Please note that you never mention 'short' or 'long' when asking for the words.

Now you follow the code of the long and short sequence to construct a revolving-quad-cyclic-sentence! of 16 words.

Here is the code. Short-short-short-short-long-short-short­long-long-long-long-short-long-short-long long.

WITH DICTIONARIES. For a more dramatic presentation p pass out 16 dictionaries throughout the audience and have each person open his or her dictionary to any page. You then go around and pick out words from the pages chosen! Ask the person holding the dic­tionary to say if word is actually on that page. You of course pick either short or long words as needed!

?'~via.u!d ~4(/,eJ~;'Ce.' Discussing the Tr-Id-ELL principle with Flavian, the star of New Jersey's cable TV station, 'Journey to the Center of Your Mind,' Flavian suggested the fol­lowing idea which is worthy of note and most practicle.

You use two bags of 'trinkets,' or tiny toys like rubber ani­mals, etc. One bag contains trinkets that spell with a short one syllable word like, 'cat,' 'dog' 'house' etc. The second bag contains trinkets that spell with long words like, 'Hippopa­tamus,' 'Rhinoceros,' etc. These trinkets are freely ch~sen by anyone and placed into the correct short-long sequence!

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QUIN TACES

A HISTORY

21

AN AL MANN EXCLUSIVE

In 1961, a year that seems like eons past, I started col­lecting notes and ideas for creating the 'Master Book Test' which resulted in Codex-X.

Every thing I knew about book tests was joted down, includ­ing Dick Himber's idea of making the longest word of the first sentence of every chapter a force word.

I also joted down the idea of using the nadir of Himber's idea which was of using also the shortest word of the sentence as a force word. A combination of long and short words for the first sentence of each paragraph was also pondered with the idea of telling the spectator, "The first word you are reading is a long word and the second word is a short word!" Even if the Mentalist did not know at this time what the words were, the revelation of the long and short word was by itself a 'hit~'

But it became impossible to doctor up the context of Codex­X any further so the idea of long-and-short words was shelved.

Eighteen years later, after Codex-X was placed on the mar­ket, The short-lang-word idea was restudied which resulted in The Damned Thing which was released in 1980.

Further study revealed that the short-long code which was an adaptation of the Morse-Code of dots and dashes, could be applied to any book. All the Mentalist had to do was to locate a book with about 10 chapters and then study the first four words of each chapter for a possible code. The Code was used also in Six Columns (1982). With this idea Flavian was able to read the thoughts of one person over the telephone by using the Wall Street Journal! The Delhian Oracle was also coded in like manner (1983).

Tr-Id is an elaboration of "The Abstract Thought- from LORANT (Long Range Telepathy) which was published in Classified and which in turn was an elaboration of "This is It." from Phoenix No. 94, by Don Medley.

In 1983, Leo Boudreau used his scientists mind to create the mind-shattering silent code which the spectators sent to the Mentalist unknowingly, telling of what design they were drawing and in what color! This was released as Tr-Id-ELL.

With mathematical precision and by the aid of a computer, Leo Boudreau then combined principles from both Tr-Id-ELL and the Morse-type code to create Quin Taces which is to date the most advanced method in the art of pseudo-thought reading extant!

Thinking as a mathematician, Leo's thoughts are profound. He also proposed the 'Complementary Principle' which utilizes the code in a reversed fashion, so that the effect can be repea­ted. In that method, the Mentalist notices who used the short words in spellingl instead of the long words.

f. tt/n/fm Have {JfJ~ .~