Richard Busch - The Destiny Response

What some are saying about The Destiny Response ...

"A very thoughtful look at the Holy Grail of mentalism ... creating the illusion of'the real thing.' If I could speak like Richard writes. I'd be a true mindreader. This is important, thought provoking material for the serious practitioner of the art of mentalism. Outstanding!" ... Larrv Becker

"Richard Busch has done it again. Unlike any other writer I know, he truly understands how to give meaning and substance to an effect. taking it from the mere realm of tricken to a stunning work of mystery and astonisliment. The right word here, the right word there, a logical reason for what we do. Richard Busch is (he master at this type of i presentation " ... Banachek

mentalism more powerful and meaningful. CorreclK"clone, persons who liave participated in an astonishing demonstration in which they were psychologically vested will be thrilled by the experience and anxious to tell others. This in not true for most of the routines many of us do. The Destiny Response is not a book of mental secrets, but rather a book of performance secrets." ... Barrie Richardson

"The Destiny Response is a compelling work that proposes an essential approach to mentalism that personally involves our audiences in a way that is both meaningfu l and re levant to them. Richard Busch accomplishes this through both a fascinating discussion of evocative communicative concepts and the practical application of compelling mysteries from his personal repertoire. In my opinion, The Destiny Response marks a major step forward in the advancement of the art of mentalism."... Joe Zabel

RICHARD BUSCH proudly suggests

THE

DESTINY

Awakening the Experience of Shared Connection

Between Performer and Participant, Including

The Royal Force and The Doctor's Force

Foreword by Bruce Bernstein

Written and Published by Richard Busch

To Dr. Milton H. Erickson ... for setting me up to bring his hypnotic

communication to mental ism.

He taught me what to say.

To Mister Fred Rogers

... for setting me up to bring his neighborhood

communication from childhood to adulthood.

He taught me how it should feel.

To Cynthia Busch ... for setting up the most important

communication of all. She taught me what it meant.

All rights reserved. No part of this manuscript may be scanned, reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transmitted in any form electronic or mechanical, or photocopied or recorded by any means now known or to be invented - without the expressed written permission of Richard and Cynthia Busch.

If you Xerox, disclose, or expose my work in any way, you are a thief and will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. You will have revealed what is sorely missing and empty in you, that you seriously lack character and respect for the worth of other peoples' hard work and creativity.

Editing and Photography by Cynthia Busch © 2004 Copyright by Richard and Cynthia Busch

PREVIEW OF COMING ATTRACTIONS

Foreword by Bruce Bernstein 4

The Destiny of Man 8

The Destiny of Mentalism 9

Ericksonian Indirection 12

From Equivocation to Evocation: 18 The Destiny Response

More History 22

DESTINY! (Impromptu) 25 Including: The Royal Force

DESTINY! (Stand-up) 30

DESTINY! (At The Table) 31

The Destiny Effect 34

DR. DESTINY (and Variations) 37 Including: The Doctor's Force

THE RB WAVE VARIATIONS 40

Coda 45

Mentalism by Richard Busch 51

Foreword by Bruce Bernstein

As I sit at the computer, a cup of steaming tea off to the side, eyes focusing on the screen as my fingers start to type as if having a life of their own, my mind starts reviewing the contents of this book as it searches for what to write.

Slowly, the sounds that I've been aware of seem to slowly sink into the distance, as I wonder what specifically I should mention in this foreword.

Of course, I know I should mention that besides being a friend of mine, Richard is a prolific author/creator, and that he's been awarded the P.E.A. Creativity Award. But his past accomplishments, no matter how stellar, should have little to do with what you read here.

Of course, as you hold this book in front of you, eyes focusing in on these words, thoughts are coming into your consciousness almost as if they too have a life of their own. Probably not aware of the weight of the book in your hands, or even the style of typeface used (at least until I mentioned it!), what you are most curious about is exactly what secret information you're about to be taught.

After all, if you are reading this, you're a mystery performer of some type. Mentalist, Magician, Hypnotist, Psychic, or even all of the above. You must be wondering if there's going to be a secret, technique, or effect that will be the perfect addition to your repertoire. Somewhere inside of you, there's probably also the thought that maybe it won't, and some more of your hard-earned money will go up in smoke on another book of pipe dreams.

Exactly what thought comes into your mind first, I can't be sure, but since you're still actually reading this foreword, I can be fairly certain that I've somehow managed to relate to you as a person - an actual living breathing human being. I hope that I may have even managed to evoke an image of a man, sitting at a keyboard, sipping a cup of tea, pondering what to say about a good friend's creation.

And even more so, I hope you feel that I have acknowledged you as a living breathing person with hopes and fears.

Well, let your fear go, and feast upon the information within these pages. Whenever I lecture for Magicians and Mentalists, a point I always bring up is that I believe most of us couldn't

describe the people we work with after we're done "using" them in our presentations.

What Richard has done in these pages, is to point you in the direction of how to have people relate to your performances by having the "magic" start from within them! He enlists history, theory, and effects to describe ways to help cause them to actually feel things happen that seem magical, and that may serve as a motivating force that involves and encourages them to actually want to participate!

Not only does Richard share with you his passion for this type of effective two way communication, but also introduces a larger than life influence for all of us who are interested in how the human psyche works ... Milton H. Erickson M.D. Stories of him abound - some probably quite accurate, and others I imagine to be quite blown out of all reasonable proportion. But even if only 10% are true, his was still a towering figure. But I'll let Richard tell you more about him in the following pages.

But I will tell one story I do believe to be true.

Erickson grew up in Wisconsin, and as a young man had developed a most interesting experiment in human behavior. After a heavy snow, he woke

up early and walked along a well-traveled road. Although the road was straight, a fresh cover of snow concealed it. Milton proceeded to walk a serpentine path that approximated the path, but did not follow it exactly.

He found a comfortable place to sit and watch as people proceeded to travel their familiar, well-known path. But they followed his footsteps, not the old, usual path they had followed for years!

If you find this type of thinking as interesting as I do, then read on ...

Bruce Bernstein Chicago, IL

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Richard Busch congratulating Bruce Bernstein on winning his P.E.A. Creativity Award.

The Destiny of Man

Is everything that happens to us in this world entirely chaotic or left to chance? I don't believe so, no, although it may often seem that way. Is everything inevitably pre-determined? I leave that to you. We certainly live in an apparent sea of perilous uncertainty, but that is the tuition we pay for having a meaningful swim or a drowning death. If life is this invitation to swim, then the challenging waves can be used to either get our attention to awaken greater seafaring qualities in us, or the rocking waves will further lull us into an even deeper underwater sleep.

However you think our world is set up, whatever happens is a mysterious mixture of causes and conditions, largely uncontrollable, often unfathomable. Yet, no matter what happens, we all, always have at least some choices, the freedom to assign a frame of meaning and (hopefully) quality responses based on our own perceptions.

It is here that we define our own quality of life experience and grow (or not) as we discover what our own destiny is and shall be. For we do not ever get to directly choose our own destiny. It is only based on the level of our own sensitivity, awareness, and choices, ... that our destiny inevitably finds us.

Depending on our own human qualities of inner awareness and resourcefulness, we experience our life and destiny as it forms and reveals itself to us, as if in a dream. This is part of our human condition. What and how we do with it and choose to connect to as a result is up to us, individually and collectively. Whether we eventually wake up or the dream

becomes a nightmare is also up to us. As long as we breathe, our dream and the possibilities here continue.

But the point I want to make is, either way, something deep inside each of us is and has always been invited to (re)awaken. There is always an invitation to be more aware and sense something from deep within ourselves. That is a common destiny we all share, even as mystery performers.

The Destiny of Mentalism

I believe we are at a crossroads these days in mentalism. On top of significant problems of exposure and thievery, too many others trivialize and dumb-down the art. The media and internet aren't helping either and only magnify and intensify many other issues. What slowly happened to magic is more quickly happening right now with mentalism. Dumbed-down magic is for kids. Do that to mentalism, and it is dead. What will it take to keep performance mentalism fresh and less trivialized now and in the future? What follows are my what, why and how.

My solution in these pages is to make it and keep it more relevant to people. Whether by appealing to the inherent curiosity and wonder that what we do just may be real, or the fallacy of personal validation, we must not sink to a level of tricks and puzzles. As I've written before, there are two kinds of wonder:

Wondering how is weak mystery - for children. Wondering if is profound mystery - for adults.

How can ethical mentalism more strongly matter and connect to people without making outlandish claims? How

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can mentalism summon a deeply human, personal response from within an active, involved participant? As I see it, the basic rules haven't changed all that much over the years. Here is what I mean, in just a preliminary working model.

PM + IW = PR-» MPI

Profound Mystery + Involved Wonder = Personal Relevance which yields Meaningful Participant Involvement.

But the times are always changing, and not necessarily for the better. People get bored sooner and want more than ever before. Attention spans have dramatically shortened. Listen to how fast we speak today as compared to an old 1940's movie or a classic 1950's TV show. Notice the slower pace and longer pauses for reflection between actors in years past. Authentic listening and paying attention are lost arts in our "modern" world as so many race to get in the next and then, last word. Forgetting content (and you usually should), notice the incredible speed on the internet chat lines where "experts" click in their bottomless opinions and "louder-and-longer-I-can-top-you" reigns supreme. This is an exhausting game without end.

These days, frantic, jaded people are speeding. They've seen and heard it all. Like it or not, it will take more care and greater creativity and ingenuity to reach over-stimulated people whose popular music has to be deafening in order to be heard. What of those who watch so called "Reality TV" in order to feel anything? Without a laser light show, watching people eat almost anything, or voting to decide who they will many (good grief!), numbed, superficial people will be quick to yawn through, change channels on, or turn off boring mentalism. Since what we

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do is largely an internal, invisible process without benefit of fireworks, cannons, and skywriting, we must somehow really connect to and hold attention. Mentalists can no longer be borderline magic puzzle doers or else, the audience will do their own magic, ... and disappear. The times won't permit otherwise. We must adapt and have a meaningful hook that matters - the evocation of MPI. And the best way I know of to effectively elicit that type of relationship via communication, is to start getting hypnotic.

The photo above is very special for two reasons. (1) It captures the youthful zest of a young man who is delighted just to be standing. You see, it is the only surviving photo of him on his feet because he had poliomyelitis. (2) This is also a photo of the most important and influential hypnosis figure of the 20th Century, Milton H. Erickson, MD.

II

Ericksonian Indirection

Consider these few words. Murder. Death. Mourning. War. Agony. ... They are just words, but they evoke an inner response of sadness. They could also have been happy words. Millionaire. Sex. Tasty ice cream. A trusted friend. The memory of what it was like to go to the baseball game when you were a child. ... These are all called Direct Suggestions. They grab attention. They openly evoke rich imagery. Direct suggestion was primarily what "hypnosis" was all about 75 years ago. Those days are over.

Allow me to speak to you now not just as a mentalist, but as a trained hypnosis professional. Every day of my life, I use and embrace the modern approaches to the general (though nonexistent) hypnotic model as developed by the noted psychiatrist Dr. Milton H. Erickson (1902-1980), the father of medical hypnosis and modern hypnotherapy. Ericksonian hypnotherapy is the state of the art and science of modern clinical hypnosis. He is also the father of Indirection, or Indirect Suggestion in therapy.

For our specific puiposes, let's just say that Ericksonian Indirection is the not so obvious evocative language of fables, stories, and Zen koans, the type that purposefully draws you in (or on) to something just out of awareness. In therapy, this has richly enormous implications well beyond the scope of these pages. Just understand that when skillfully done, the indirect style of communication becomes more effective and dependably irresistible than

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direct alone. Ericksonian hypnotherapists like me depend on an appropriate mix as we do and say the many things we do and say. More important ly to you, the "out of awareness" quality of effective covert communication, when properly presented, just happens to fit so well into elegant mentalism, it becomes a work of artistic beauty.

Why is this so? Because when done correctly, it leads as it deceives, flying just under conscious radar. And most of life is unconsciously determined (out of awareness) anyways. Did you consciously know that?

Milton Erickson fully knew it. He was quite the genuine magician in his own right with a hugely infamous reputation amongst his university and medical colleagues of being a modern-day miracle worker who seemed to not only read minds (and of course influence them as well, both in and out of his off ice), but he was credited with controlling others physically (their actions and behaviors) and influencing their thoughts as well.

People were actually quite spooked about just being in his presence, or of even shaking hands with him. They knew that when they sat down at a table and passed him the ketchup without one word being spoken, which chair they sat in and the mustard remaining untouched was le fait accompli. He positively knew things about patients and people that indeed seemed to border on the miraculous. He could theoretically have done much of it while blindfolded because he listened as well as he observed, better than anyone.

His only stage was life.

His only props were people.

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Eacfi person is a unique individual. Hence, psychotherapy should be for-

individual's needs, rather than tailoring the person to fit the Procrustean bed of a hypothetical theory of human behavior, 3 3

Milton H. Erickson, M,D.

The truth of the matter is, Milton Erickson was doing suggestive mentalism on the highest of possible levels with MPI before anyone! He called it "building response potential." In so many ways, he was clearly ahead of his time. And he loved it. I know this first-hand, because Dr. Erickson was my teacher's teacher. From a psychiatrist to a clinical psychologist to a hypnotherapist and psychic entertainer. And now my readers, to you.

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N.B.- A few others have visited related issues before. Some of it has been interesting and worthwhile. My hat is off to those whom I respect and admire. Unfortunately, much of what's been released is so full of blatant technical error, misinformation, and misuse, my hat is back on. In many instances, the language, terms, and applications reveal more naivete and misunderstanding than anything else. The hypnotists who read parts of an Omiond McGill

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book back in the 1950's have been replaced more recently by those who purchase one woefully inadequate book/VHS/DVD they can't possibly understand. Typical entertainers have no business reading advanced clinical books, playing therapist, removing fears via mentalism routines, etc. It's preposterous! Some apparently feel that if they can find the letters NLP on their keyboard, they automatically become healthcare professionals with a new toy. Many these days don't understand that what was meant to be subtle is being ruined by overuse, overestimation, and misapplication by those who were never meant to even hear of it. These aren't tricks but techniques not to be misused.

Too often it seems that a magician's double-lift is shown more regard, respect, and preparation than anything even remotely hypnotic. It's often a damaging, hurtful trivialization that continues to both cheapen and demean legitimate hypnosis. Feebly understood techniques (old and new) have become iffy tricks and pipe dreams on one side of the stage, as the ever lowering public's perception of what masquerades as hypnosis continues to sink deeper and deeper down the toilet on the other. From a hypnosis professional's standpoint, this is a sham and a damn shame!

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That strange collection of items is still actually used by some "hypnotists" to put people "under" or "asleep," so they can "reprogram" their minds and "impose their will" on them by reading generic scripts and selling them tapes. If you see any of these artificial props being used or hear dated, backward notions like these being uttered, please do not support nor perpetuate them in your presentations.

Would you believe that people can come to my office, lose the misconceptions, sit in a comfortable chair, are invited to simply look at these two statues and "do" nothing? Would you believe that after just a few seconds and a few words, with eyes either open or closed, they can gently and elegantly go into a very lovely state of inner focused calm and comfort that feels like a massage from the inside out. No props or externals are necessary; only the evoked tunnel of attention that connects two people is. Believe it!

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From Equivocation to Evocation: The Destiny Response

In Peek Encores (2003), I identified the need and methods for making an important shift to switchless, tearless, instant access billet work. In The Destiny Response, we will highlight Evocation. I see both as continuing important advances in the Art of Mentalism. It is important to understand that this is meant not just in terms of method, but in terms of evoking a more meaningful participant involvement, MPI. I believe that the planned elicitation of loaded, evocative responses from our participants is part of our destiny as mentalists. ... We'll get to eliciting a participant's destiny shortly via many suggested effects and the various ways of performing them later on. They all teach richly rewarding techniques you will apply often.

Advancements aren't just about methods any more. Methods alone per se mean far less than many of us commonly think. We're talking now about advances in approaches and presentations.

Methods don't move, hook, and pull people in. Approaches and presentations that have MPI do!

In Peek Performances (2001), we discussed at length not only many different types and classifications of peeks, but two types of equivocation as it has developed from the early days of Gene Grant (The Mental Key, 1956, and Phantinism ... Revisited in Phantini's Challenge Mental Act, 1981) and what I referred to as "the singularly most influential source on the topic," Phil Goldstein (Verbal Control: A Treatise On The Under-Explored Art of Equivoque; Technique and Application, 1976). Using

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theory and performance pieces, I mentioned equivocation over both Selection and Interpretation. In Selection Equivocation, the choice is covertly guided. In Interpretation Equivocation, the choice is free, but multiple outcomes are well planned for.

When I say going from Equivocation to Evocation, we sweeten the pot with MPI. Here's an important point that at first may seem paradoxical to you. The participant does not choose anything! Like destiny, the choice seems to come out of nowhere to the participant, not the usual way a magician might say "take a card" and thus a card gets chosen. Or a mentalist might say, "touch any one of these five coins." Why must a participant always have to choose, touch, or take anything? The pattern is so well known, even expected, and therefore not necessarily interesting nor entertaining anymore. Odds are, many people may silently be thinking: "Oh yeah, I've seen this one before. If I choose it and hide it, I already know he can find it. That's the magic trick." ... Certainly, we can be much more than "finders" who do tricks.

The choices I am suggesting arrive from the opposite direction and are generally experienced and realized out of awareness. They are evoked, elicited, unconsciously summoned, and invited from within. They feel as if they had to be exactly as they are, blown in on the very winds of the fates themselves! Here is the next phase of our formula.

PM + IW = PR-» MPI ■» TDR

Profound Mystery + Involved Wonder = Personal Relevance which yields Meaningful Participant Involvement, the highest form of which is The Destiny Response.

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When such choices appear and find the participant (not the other way around), they will come and matter more because they silently arrive on a train of private thought from within. That's TDR. The thoughts are more compelling because they are self-directed and seemingly unrestricted.

Best of all, they will tend to bypass conscious resistance to any perceived influence or manipulation from the performer! This is TDR and these are huge implications! Take as an example, those famous 5 coins ...

"Please, allow your hand to slowly hover over the coins. That's right, just move it freely back and forth, back and forth. As you allow your hand to keep moving and inevitably get lower towards a resting place on a coin, allow the hand to slowly lower, but only as quickly as you may sense a direction coming directly from within yourself. For any interesting psychological or physical reason you may sense or feel, allow your hand to, very slowly, discover exactly where it wishes to go. That's very good. And it just may become curiously fascinating for you to discover which coin your hand finally decides to settle on. Because as of this moment, you truly don't even know yourself!"

Now that's ever so evokingly Ericksonian, right from my office. It's just a sample of the evocation of TDR in action that may be altered (only slightly) to individual taste. Now, it's your turn to have a go ...

• Let's say you want to do an impromptu book test from Peek Performances (2001). How might you now be more able to effectively invite a person to pick up a book, look at the thousands of words in it, and then, for whatever psychological reason, feel drawn to just one image?

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• You wish to have someone write down virtually anything they can think of, anywhere at all on your twice folded business card a la The Zen Billet in Peek Encores (2003). What might you say to invite literally any thought in the world to just appear out of nowhere in their mind seconds before they record it?

• You're about to perform In Search Of The Unknown from Number ... Please ? (2002), on stage, stand-up, at the table, or on the phone. How might you set up a participant's experience of literally feeling summoned by any two digit number that reaches out to them?

So, how did you do? As you keep reading and gaining understanding and experience with this, you just may become surprisingly delighted yourself to discover more and more effective ways to dependably elicit this response.

Obviously then, these types of unique TDR experiences can be applied to a huge number of effects in mentalism. They will seem fresher and more alive to even jaded audience members. Believe me, they haven't "seen this one before." They couldn't have, because the "it" hasn't come forth from within them yet. The "it" is a warm, fuzzy, unique experience they will feel, enjoy, and remember.

The whole point of TDR comes down to this: it's all about the participant and their inner psychological experience. Whatever happens should feel as if it was an inevitable process of discovery. It was meant to be. It couldn't possibly have been any other way, because it was destined. It's fate. As some of us say, "it's bashairt!" ,

Think of it like this ...

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When a participant typically chooses an object, it is very much an EXTERNAL happening. It's "out there," perhaps without much involvement and really not all that important. It might even rate an unspoken "so what?" But when a participant experiences The Destiny Response, it's INTERNAL. It is richly personal and humanly intimate. Which would you rather experience, external or internal? Which would you rather facilitate in your performances?

In life, we are hard-wired to experience many responses. It comes with being human. Fight-Flight Response. Stress Response (our response to stressors). Relaxation Response. Sexual Response. ... The Destiny Response can be just as powerful as any, ... errrr, except that last one.

More History

A charmingly petite work was written by the late Orville Meyer called Telepathy In Action (1961). It described an act that was very little known, under appreciated, and not performed by anyone except for Orville himself who had pieced together what he had witnessed many years before. He fully credited the precise workings of the demonstration to the originator he saw perform them, Professor George Lyman, author of Exploring the Labyrinth of the Human Mind which revealed all. After Lyman died, Meyer adopted the act, wrote it up himself, and occasionally performed it doing brief demonstrations. I had the pleasure of meeting Orville at a P.E.A. Meeting of the Minds. What a delightful character he was. The exact concept in Telepathy In Action isn't mine to tip, but it cracked open a door we are currently walking through. And yet, the concept remained largely unknown and therefore unappreciated and not performed.

Enter my old friend Ford Kross of Irvington, New Jersey. Ford (pictured above between me [L] and Larry Becker [R]) never met Lyman and Meyer only once (when I did), but he wrote a very small though important work called Suggestive Mentalism Introduction (1987). In it, he fully credits Meyer and strongly advances Professor Lyman's premise beyond both men. Kross's wonderful line (once again quoted with his kind permission) is especially powerful in this type of dialogue. "I'm going to reach out and touch your mind with my mind. When you feel my mind touch yours, nod your head."

Ford actually performed this particular act successfully for many years in his career along with his work as a psychic entertainer, hypnotist, astrologer, and tarot reader. Above all else, he entertains people, claiming he is "as psychic as anybody else." Suggestive Mentalism Introduction is just 14 modest pages of text. I understand he charges $175 for it. Kross subsequently put out follow-up notes called It Ain't Body Building Suggestive Mentalism Part II, and to

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complete the trilogy, Suggestive Mentalism, A Continuation (1995 copyrighted by a man named S. Kraus).

At the time of this writing, Ford still sells his Suggestive Mentalism series for $210 and then, only after screening each potential buyer. He thinks that much of the concept, an estimation he bases on its value to the performer who can both understand and present it. We will turn Suggestive Mentalism's direction around 180° and evolve it further.

It's time we move on now as promised from the theoretical evocation of TDR, our destiny as mentalists, to the participant's DESTINY!, the first effect being used as a teaching example and the various approaches to it. But first, a quick word about it. DESTINY! is not a card trick and must not even for a moment be thought of or presented like one. It is an approach to straight mentalism that in this example happens to use common faces, numbers, and colors. That's a strength! In fact, I'm counting on it! Any other pre-existing bias or expectation a performer may have will, I'm quite sure, be projected out and reflected back as, "oh yeah, he did a card trick." So please, allow this teaching tool to come alive. It's all about the evocative team of TDR and you. If you understand this and sell it big, you're well on your way to many more powerful presentations of countless kinds. Remember this! O.K.? Good! ... House dark. Find your mark. Curtain up. Chord from the orchestra. Amber spots. And you're on ...

DESTINY! (Impromptu)

This is a pet, one-on-one effect of mine. It can be done absolutely anywhere, anytime, even on the phone because it is absolutely prop-less. I've been honing it for years. It could be performed as a thought projection, as my friend Richard Osterlind does with his wonderful Miracle Thought Projection from Dynamic Mysteries (1999). But as you'll see, I go the other way for many reasons, internally, from the inside out. TDR always comes from and is experienced from within. Related approaches have resorted to many good methods over the years such as special wallets, cases, pumping with branching anagrams, the necessity of further tries, gaffed cards, cards with writing on them, etc. Each different stratagem had its own charm. This version of Destiny! uses no cards, or anything else for that matter.

"Would you like to have a wonderful unconscious experience now, something that comes from deep within yourself? You would? Great!"

"As you know, playing cards have many different universal symbols on them that can be easily recognized and remembered. There are reds and blacks. Numbers and faces. Different suits. Highs and lows."

"But for now, I just want you to allow your mind and imagination to be free and open, like a blank white screen or a freshly fallen snow. ... There is nothing else for you to do right now, except breathe ... and be quite still."

"NOT yet, take your time, but in about another 15 seconds or so, I'll ask you to begin being very sensitive to a slowly

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emerging image of a mystery card that may, little by little, come to you from deep within your own mind. You may at that time literally feel your imagination actually reach out and embrace a distant, vague image that most naturally comes to you. It will feel as if it was destined to come to you, and you alone."

"NOT A BLACK CARD, ... like an ACR . . . o f Spades, that's a little too common. But only now, allow a HIGH, worthy, powerful poker card to comfortably ... warmly ... come easily to you. That's right. Remember it. Embrace it. Feel that it is your destiny to do so."

"Oh my, I'm honestly sensing something emanating from within you ... something round, like a circle and a stick."

"Hmmm ... let me quickly just pretend to turn my invisible card around and mark a place inside your invisible deck of images. ... There. I can't get any closer than that. It's done."

"I just inserted the Queen of Hearts. What was your card? The Queen of Hearts! Really!? That's amazing! Thank you for sharing your private thoughts with me!"

OK - a great many things just happened here. First of all, you must take care (1) to choose the right participant who knows something about playing cards and (2) is sincerely ready, willing, and wants to participate in this wonderful unconscious experience you are in fact seeding. If you have any doubts at all about these two conditions, then you have the wrong person. Do something else, do it with someone else, or take a pass and do nothing. This is too intimate to push through or rush. Remember, you must screen and learn to develop good judgment. Practice screening people

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whether you're going to perform it or not. If you don't develop this intuitive screening for "TDR people," you won't like the result. This effect and the process to present it requires voluntary permissive evocation. You can't force it on the wrong people. Even so, it uses what I call ...

The Royal Force

In the Osterlind solution (which he calls his "hundred-thousand dollar" effect), Richard avoids the faces. He projects a number card. As a follow up, he uses a truly brilliant strategy also used in a somewhat related way by my P.E.A. friend Dr. Bob Baker in an effect called The Real Thing from his book Shared Thoughts (1989). I was privileged to actually see Bob perform it for a room full of P.E.A. members, most of whom do not even prefer the mention or thought let alone sight of a playing card. Be that as it may, Bob created a sensation. Bloody marvelous!

The Royal Force is the force of a high or face card. Not to be confused with Bob Farmer's wonderful Pentacle Force" from Tsunami (1987), my Royal Force is not statistical. A high card pops into their mind because you suggest it. Properly presented with my suggestions (language), it is virtually infallible. But which Ten, Jack, Queen, King, or Ace? The Queen of Hearts will usually but not always be chosen. And why does it work as experience proves it does?

Here, we must go back to Ericksonian techniques and revisit not only what was said, but exactly how I said it. We rely on what are called embedded messages, also known as bracketing or interspersal technique. When statements are delicately marked out by tonal shift, pause, a subtle shift in body position, or even just a glance or raised eyebrow, our

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hidden messages tend to be more easily received. It's a very subtle art unto itself that is very effective when properly understood and elegantly presented. Believe me, this is not a (ugh) "card trick" or for the kids. It is real mentalism! In one setting or another, I've been doing it for over 25 years, when the quality of peoples lives (and more) hangs in the balance. I know and respect its power.

Let's have another look at exactly what I said, only this time, with full awareness (a rare commodity these days).

"NOT A BLACK CARD, ... like an ACE . . . o f Spades, that's a little too common. But only now, allow a HIGH, worthy, powerful poker card to comfortably ... warmly ... come easily to you. That's right. Remember it. Embrace it. Feel that it is your destiny to do so. "

Number cards are eliminated because you suggested a high, powerful, worthy card. All black cards (26) and all 4 aces are eliminated because my suggested language marked it that way (by briefly pausing and accentuating the embedded messages) when you logically dismissed the lone Ace of Spades. Thirty cards just "went unconscious."

Here then are my multiple outcomes for The Royal Force, the eight probable red cards that are left. Remember, you had said:

"Hmmm ... let me quickly just pretend to turn my invisible card around and mark a place inside your invisible deck of images. ... There. I can't get any closer than that. It's done."

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The reversed card serves triple duty with three possible roles to play. And what exactly does "I can't get any closer than that" mean?

1. QH - Bingo! An exact hit. We always reverse and insert the QH. It is the most popular and therefore likely TDR hit. The unconditional love (heart) of a mother (Queen) is usually the most comfortable and warm. Say: "Oh my, this is quite remarkable. The Queen of Hearts, an exact match! You really can't get any closer than that!"

2. JH or KH - You marked the adjacent position in their deck exactly where their merely thought of card would be. Refer to it as being "face to face" with their card ... as if their invisible deck was in sequential order! Say: "Why that's incredible, that's in the exact face-to-face position with your exact card. No reversed card can possibly mark a position any closer than by being face-to-face with it!"

3. 10H - This is a pictorial match. You sensed the image of a circle and a stick, and that is exactly what both a 10 and Queen look like. Say: "This is really eerie. I sensed a sticky and a circle and that is exactly what your Ten of Hearts is, plus the matching color and suit!" If they bring up the Queen of Hearts, refer to her as "my calming card of reflection. She helps me focus my mind." You might add: "/ couldn't reverse your IOH, even in pretend, as you already placed it in your mind." Think about it - the QH is the only other red, heart, stick, and circle, and you absolutely can't get any closer than that! ...There you have it. The three most likely hits, and three statements of precision accuracy. You're covered.

If the Ten, Jack, Queen, or King of DIAMONDS are called, the language is nearly identical. Additionally, your QH is

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referred to as "the exact mate of your QD. " If the JD or KD are called, your QH matches the color and still marks off their card's face-to-face position. If the 10D is called, then mention the exact match of color and the circle and stick. Obviously, ignore the suit.

If any of the black high cards are called, just stress the dialogue of the main symbols. This has never happened to me, nor has anyone ever selected a low, number card because I screen well and use great care when I present it. But if it did happen, I'd recommend two things.

1. Say that "your card represents some very interesting psychological tendencies, " immediately go into a character reading, and move along. If asked, say "the QH is my calming card of reflection. She helps me focus my mind." Remember, they have no idea what the original attempt was going to be, or that there even was one. You never announced anything specific. A good character reading can be "a wonderful unconscious experience, something that comes from deep within" a person and connects with their conscious. No one but you will ever know that things were suddenly changed. But you will. So, make the most of this "opportunity" by turning it into a learning experience.

2. Go over what went wrong. Either you picked the wrong person or you need to reread, review, and rethink the delicate approach necessary in order to present this properly. Believe me, it's worth your best efforts.

DESTINY! (Stand-up)

Same effect. Same method, since the impromptu version can be done anywhere. However, as you are present when

you do this version, you may occasionally wish to consider a few alternatives. For example, writing QUEEN OF HEARTS on the back of your business card, a $20 dollar bill, a cocktail napkin, or in a pinch, inside a ladies closed hand. Instruct her not to open her fist and look until after you tell her to (and she's named her card).

You may put one lone card (QH) on the table (remember the character reading out!), on a person's hand, or in a pocket or blouse. Or, you may use the whole deck. Previously place one queen on top (face-down), a second reversed (face-up) in the middle with a third (face-down) adjacent to it. The fourth is between the cellophane and the back of the box (face-out). Since you know which queen is where (DCHS or CHaSeD), you either turn over the top card (from the top, #1 position), spread the face-down cards, spread the face-up cards, or turn the box over. With this version (and the next), there can never ever theoretically be an issue of color or suit. All are represented. And in the next one (which will find favor with many), there is a bonus kicker awaiting, no matter what suit is called.

DESTINY! (At The Table)

Here's the easy preset: Remove both Jokers, and the Royal Straight Flush (10,J,Q,K,A) of each suit (DCHS), and a low-indifferent number card, let's say it's the 3 of clubs. That's a total of 23 cards. Otherwise keeping the rest of the deck face-down, place one Joker face-up in the middle. That is the only face-up (reversed) card. Put the other Joker face-down on the bottom. Arrange the 10,J,K,A of each suit together, in order. You now have four Straight Flushes (minus the queens). In your favorite DCHS order, place one

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incomplete straight flush on top, one on either side of the reversed Joker in the center, and the last one on the bottom. Next, place the 3 of clubs on top of the deck. Lastly, on top of that, the 4 queens in your DCHS order. That's it. Your pre-set is complete. You may even want to put a small identifying mark on the card box so you'll know this deck from any other.

Check: Everything is still all face-down, except the reversed Joker in the center. The 4 queens are on top followed by the indifferent card, followed by the first incomplete straight flush, one on either side of the reversed Joker, and the last one is on the bottom with a face-down Joker right above it.

Put the cards in the box and put them away. You won't be needing them for awhile. Now you're ready to begin ...

With no cards in sight (!), say to your participant (as you make a sideways gesture with your arm and hand):

"Can you visualize 52 cards in a straight row right across the table? No? Well, I know it's hard to see what isn't there. Tell you what, let's make it easier. Can you visualize just 5 cards in a straight row right across the table?"

Only now, produce the closed card case. Remove the cards, and deal off just the top 5 cards in a row. Put the box and rest of cards off to the side. For ease in picking up cards, I often put them on top of the box, sideways, like an "X." You understand of course that unbeknownst to anyone else, the 4 queens (in your known DCHS order) are on the table, followed by the 3 of clubs.

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"Maybe this will help now, by using just the backs of any 5 cards."

As before, do The Royal Force. To assist your participant in firming up her mental imagery, ask her to name aloud just the suit. When she does, casually slide the queen of that suit forward. Take a breath and appear finished. As you scoop up the remaining 4 cards with the indifferent 3 of clubs on the bottom, table those 4 cards also off to the side but squared up and faces up, so that only the indifferent card shows atop the squared up talon. This is an important touch. It nonverbally suggests that those indifferent cards were in some random order.

Announce that the 1 face-down card on the table IS their unannounced card (!) as you casually move the other 4 cards off to the side. You just sense it. Coincidence? You knew they'd wonder. The fact is, you've had this inkling for quite some time. Prove it by removing either the next 4 cards or the appropriate 4 cards marked off by the Joker (depending on suit, from the top, middle, or bottom). Spread the quartet, 2 in each hand, scoop up "their" card; and drop the 5 again (still face-down) on the table, in plain view. When ready to end, turn over the 5 cards, and spread them so that the perfect order is revealed. You not only removed their exact unannounced card, but you set up, in advance, their Royal Straight Flush cards as well!

Notes: It's easy to replace and keep the cards in order for a quick reset. Just remember to regard the 5 cards as nothing more than 5 backs. After you slide ahead their lone "unannounced card" move aside the other 4 as described, act finished. Really enjoy the moment. You're already sitting on an apparent miracle. When the time is right, set up and detonate the surprise kicker ending.

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The Royal Flush ending, by the way, is a differently introduced and presented handling of an idea in Bob Fanner's Tsunami (1987). To my knowledge, the basic premise of bringing in the royal straight flush is his and should be fully credited to him. It appears here in print with his kind permission. Thanks again Bob! Working effects in reverse like this with one-ahead/one-behind methods are classic, but this Bob Farmer twist was and is sheer brilliance.

The Destiny Effect

So, you've effectively elicited TDR. Someone in front of you has a thought in mind with all of their own personally internal, intimate, and psychological nuances in place. She's tasted her own inevitability. She's met her destiny. Her experience is ripe! ... So what? ... Now what? ...

In order to fully mature, The Destiny Response needs to transform into The Destiny Effect! It wants to. It yearns to. As I've mentioned before, TDR is an internal, unique experience about and for the well-seeded participant.

TDE is a transformed connection; a living, breathing, fully completed circuit elicited by the mystery performer, of the participant, reflected back to the performer, and so it continues for as long as attentions and memories permit. TDE isn't just about "killer" material. That's EXTERNAL.

From Duality to Unity. It's all about making a completed INTERNAL connection. Here at last is our finished formula.

PM + IW = PR ■* MPI ■» TDR ■> TDE

Profound Mystery + Involved Wonder = Personal Relevance which yields Meaningful Participant Involvement, the highest form of which is The Destiny Response. When it is transformed and connected to the performer, going from Duality to Unity, it becomes The Destiny Experience.

Back on the first reel (pg. 20), I first began asking you to start thinking about TDR in various performing situations, for many different effects. As you can now appreciate, these types of TDE connections can be applied to an enormous number of effects in mentalism. In fact, it could be opined that it is THE effect and goal of mentalism!

As an example, let's go back to my Zen Billet from Peek Encores (2003). You're inviting the participant to go inside themselves and literally allow any thought or appropriate image in the world to just appear out of nowhere in their mind seconds before they record it on your business card.

I might say something like: "Did something just pop into your mind out of nowhere? Really? Wonderful! Quick, jot it down here on the back of my card and refold it before it pops away or you might otherwise forget it. As you write it externally, keep it internally too, on that great blackboard in your mind."

And now, the connection ...

"This free-floating thought or image has traveled a long way to come into your awareness. It must be very powerful in some way, as are you. Please, mentally share it with me now. Visualize it. Really see it. ... Say it aloud silently in your mind and project it to me." And so on as you wish ...

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For a mentalist to connect any more profoundly with another person, in some states you'd have to be married or at least 18 years of age.

Sharing. Non-Duality.

This is the powerful connection stuff that T believe makes the process of effectively revealing information in mentalism come alive and authentically matter, not the latest overly hyped gimmick, gizmo, or move. TDE validates the entire encounter. Without some meaningful hook (" ... and while I'm speaking only for myself, I do so unanimously!" - thank you Mrs. Slocombe), we're back to tricks and puzzles with challenge and adversary.

Non-Duality. Unity.

When TDE merges with mentalism, the presentation is no longer just an "effect" of repackaging and repeating information, but the very real experience of feeling a shared connection between performer and participant without any challenge or adversary. Thoughts in mentalism arise in order to be shared! In doing so, they bring seemingly separate, incomplete individuals together to become whole!

Unity. Sharing. Oneness.

Well now, this will have to wait for another time and another place.

In the meantime, take these techniques and let them mature to come alive in your performance. Apply them as skillfully as you do appropriately. Evoke them. Perform them.

After all, it's the PERFORMING ART of mentalism. 36

DR. DESTINY (and Variations)

Here is another teaching example, this time, using 5 or 6 regular business cards. All of the cards are blank on the non-printed side, except for the one destined to be placed on the participant's hand.

Numerous pathways to this general type of effect have appeared in the past using a great many different approaches like Olram Subtlety, double lifts (from top and bottom), various counts, the glide, dealings and recounts, rough and smooth, special cards, you name it. My solution is quite different. It requires NO MOVES. Just The Destiny Response. And it always ends 100% clean. I first introduced the principle in print to my P.E.A. colleagues back in 1999. It is called:

The Doctor's Force

As we all know, "Doctor" is commonly abbreviated as "DR." and therein lies this easy to remember mnemonic:

D = Drawn. R = Remove.

In this case, a number is not chosen, but a participant will find herself being drawn to a number and that is the number that will be removed. Here it is in action, beginning with the 5 business card version.

Fan 5 business cards, printing sides up, blank sides down. The force card is positioned second from bottom (or fourth from top). It will have any message you wish written on the blank, concealed side. It is the only card written on.

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As you hold the fan of business cards in one hand vertically, amend your TDR language to invite the participant to "be very sensitive to the emerging image of a digit, either 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5. Feel your imagination actually reach out and embrace the digit you feel drawn to. It will feel as if it was destined to come to you at this moment. ... Whatever number you sense and name aloud is the number we will remove."

The beauty of this method is direct simplicity itself. The multiple outcomes for the named numbers below will revolve on the various interpretations of "remove a number."

1- From the vertical fan, remove and table the first business card on the left. Bring the fan to a horizontal position, let the next (force) business card fall onto the participant's palm (or table) by removing the finger holding it from below. Drop the remaining business cards on top of the first (tabled) card.

2- From the vertical fan, directly remove the second business card (from the left).

3- From the horizontal fan, remove the top 3 cards, and invite the participant to place the next business card on her palm.

4- From the horizontal fan, directly remove the fourth business card.

5- Same action as with #1, but counting to the fifth card from the top and removing it. Next card is again forced.

Obviously, no matter what number is called, the result is always the same. All cards are kept printing-side up throughout. To end, reveal all the blank sides of the business cards first, then invite the participant to turn over the card on her own hand, read it, and keep it.

Virtually any message can be used - an initial, a name, a greeting, a ghostly materialization, a company product, their sponsor, a corporate logo, etc. Any 5 objects can be written down so a target object can be thought of. Or cities or countries can be written. Become a remote viewer by sketching a famous image at the destination, or predict one. For stage, use bigger cards if you wish.

Discover some secret information? Prepare in advance a message on one of your business cards and you're set to create a sensation. Like devilishly sneaky pre-show? If you know you will soon be in someone's office, arrive early, steal, prepare, and leave their card behind. Later, you can notice and nonchalantly pick up 5 of their business cards from the card stand on their desk and perform Dr. Destiny. Being one-ahead is a mentality! No time for advance work? Do your best Al Jolson impression of "Swaa-mee, How I Love Ya, How I Love Ya, My, Dear Old Swami."

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Instead of business cards, pay envelopes may be used to guarantee a result, for example in a bank night type routine. Anything that can be sealed in a secretly marked envelope can be forced from a group of other items.

The point is, anything meaningful that can be written on a business (or larger sized) card or sealed inside a pay envelope can be called upon to lure a participant to sense it. That's the presentational hook to play towards.

Earlier, I mentioned that 6 business cards can be used. The position of the force card is exactly as before. Think for a moment about how this could be done, and remember, no sleights. Whatchathink? Here is my solution. Mark the blank faces of all the cards with a digit from 1 to 6. Put them in any random order. Just make sure that the force (message) card is marked #3, still second from bottom. Now any number named will handle exactly as before with the 5 business cards except that #3 will require a bottom number orientation. Just withdraw the force card. The ending will always first display 5 blank cards (1, 2, 4, 5, and 6). Only their card (#3) will be seen to have a message.

THE RB WAVE VARIATIONS

Back in 1999, I shared my impromptu version of the now classic B'Wave by Phil Goldstein in Vibrations (P.E.A.). Based on the same wonderful effect, RB Wave (my initials, not red/black) used 4 regular playing cards and The Doctor's Force language. The impromptu variations that follow are performed with 6 cards, 1 card, 1 coin, 1 invisible card, and apparently, even less. I include them here because they all powerfully invoke TDR/TDE.

• From a mixed pack, hold and spread the cards facing you (backs to the participant). Up-jog any high black card, a red 3, and then any 4 high black cards. You may wish to make the up-jogged high black cards all faces, or even a Royal Straight Flush.

When all 6 cards are up-jogged, strip them out, table the deck, and hold the fan of 6 cards in Dr. Destiny position (backs toward the participant). Performed as previously taught, the lone red card will always end up on the participant's palm. But that's just the bare working.

Dr. Destiny language comes into being by making 1 factual ' statement and then asking 2 questions. Here's the presentation with the amended TDR language. Otherwise, it's the same handling. Begin by looking at the faces of the fan and saying:

"Right now, I am looking at and thinking of a small numbered card."

That's quite true. Doctor's Force either the 3H or 3D. I like to choose red because it seems to be the more popular choice. Red outscores black as a population stereotype.

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"These 6 cards were born 3 red and 3 black. Be very sensitive now to an emerging sensation of either red, or black. Feel your imagination actually reach out and be drawn into the experience of either color. ... When you sense it, name it aloud. "

This is called the "illusion of choice." If RED is called, the participant will get the forced red 3, the card you said you were thinking of. None of the other cards are low number or black! If BLACK is called, the target red card will be placed by you, face down. All the other black cards go on the participant's hand since she was drawn to them. The language fits. Everything is true. The force was done exactly as previously discussed.

"... be very sensitive to the emerging image of a digit, either 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6. Feel your imagination actually reach out and embrace the digit. It will feel as if it was destined to come to you at this moment. ... Whatever number you sense and name aloud is the number we will remove."

No matter what, in this variation, the participant is congratulated for not only sensing the very card you were thinking of and locating it, but separating it from the others as well.

By now, I hope you are starting to better understand the charm and power of this type of evocative language. With practice, you'll be able to elicit "wonderful unconscious experiences that come from deep within" your participant!

Here are 3 final teaching examples I will leave with you as a homework assignment. Think about them over time. They are very strong performance pieces and quite elegant. They

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use the same approach and The Doctor's Force language as before. The real difference is the "look" of them, and that I will only briefly describe. When you really understand what follows, you will understand why they are so special.

• A single (back up) playing card is seen sticking out of your pocket or casually lying on the table, possibly inside a small envelope. The name/sketch of the force card could also be concealed on the back of your business card or a cocktail napkin. Everything else that follows is "invisible."

Pretend to hold up a fan of 4 queens in one hand, then divide them into 2 reds in one hand, 2 blacks in the other.

Admit that you can't really see them at all, so maybe your participant can help. Ask which color they feel drawn to. Reds? Hang on to them. Mime letting the blacks fall away into nothingness. Blacks? Hand them to the participant as a

souvenir but keep staring at the invisible red cards you've retained. You still can't see them but would very much like to. Announce that maybe there are still too many to see clearly, so one card is named and removed. Stare intently at the invisible force card, letting the other one fall away. Keep staring! It is only then that the real force card is slid into the grip of your fingertips and thumb (back showing). Dramatically reveal it! ... Yes, the deck could have the 2 red queens in its center, one reversed and the other next to it. A face-up or face-down ribbon (or hand-to-hand) spread would reveal the target in the center. But that would unnecessarily stress the cards and not showcase the thought process and evocative approaches we are studying and developing together. Opt instead for the power and elegance of 1 card.

• Or, pretend to point to 4 invisible US coins: a penny, quarter, nickel, dime. Fan them in 2 hands as penny/quarter and nickel/dime. Doctor's Force the force coin. I don't want to introduce any sleights here, but if you can simply do the above with the force coin palmed in a known or glimpsed heads/tails orientation, you can not only produce the target coin but offer an honest choice of heads or tails as well! Either open your hand letting one known side show, let it fall the other way for the reversed side, or cup both hands together and/or make a mystical pass and let the coin fall onto the other hand to reveal either side.

Some of my regular readers may want to apply the red marker or X'ed coin ideas in Double Equiv-O.K. (Peek Performances, 2001). Others may want to give the drama a surprise twist and end as in The Sense of Mind Over Matter (2001). For a truly empty hand variation, a marked adhesive Avery Label may be stuck to the palm of your hand or concealed behind your removed watch. It will bear

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the name of a Doctor's Forced invisible card or coin. So many possibilities to consider and choose from.

• Lastly, for an infallible full-deck think-a-card without visible cards, combine both forces. Holding up both hands, Doctor's Force either color and then the suit. Royal Force any invisible Queen, your choice. Over the phone, have your strange premonition of peanut butter written down as "pb" (in lowercase) and later inverted to reveal the QD.

As with love, patience and wisdom, the potential for The Destiny Response lies awaiting within us all. To awaken it, practice the many approaches, patterns, and types of evocative language I've suggested in these pages. Their presentation is your ongoing homework assignment.

Coda

Well, once again our short time together has drawn to a close, for now anyways. Time always seems to do that, doesn't it? But before I go, may I share with you a few concerns? '

I truly hope that releasing this type of approach as I've learned it, do it, and have done it for so long wasn't a foolish idea. It is very near and dear to me. It represents just a tip of one mammoth iceberg whose philosophical and psychological wisdoms I embrace. The lives of countless people have been changed for the better, in part, with some of these very approaches. So, I truly hope that the evoked sensation I've named The Destiny Response will not get misunderstood, overstated, or trivialized just as much as I hope it will be understood and performed beautifully as I

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intend. In this sense, I think I know how Professor George Lyman, Orville Meyer, and Ford Kross may have felt.

These are admittedly advanced techniques for experienced mystery performers. Much of what I do is like that. Therefore, I'm hoping that you and my other serious readers have realized all along that the "effect" given here was really The Destiny Effect and never per se just a card trick, a coin trick, or any other "trick" for that matter. All the routines presented were offered as teaching tools so you can apply their principles in your mentalism. And please, unless you are a trained "hypnotist," don't overly refer to "hypnosis." You will more than likely only perpetuate misunderstanding or something silly, as so many do.

Our discussion all along has really been about TDR, its importance, how to evoke it, and how to transform and connect it to TDE. This has been my whole point, to be applied in the context of effectively revealing information as part of a very wide range of entertaining mysteries. By effective, I mean with a higher degree of awareness to evoke a connection that meaningfully and powerfully captivates attention, because it is self-directed and compelling without any obvious manipulation or influence for the participant to resist.

"Psychic" readers know very well about the importance and power of this type of connection. They know people yearn to feel understood and be connected. This is just one reason why even very average readings seem to work so well. Unfortunately, far too many entertainers have long lagged. behind in this regard, usually finding greater interest in chasing methods and fooling/outdoing their fellow magic club tricksters and chat line buddies (both false audiences) than connecting with a real audience of real people.

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Frankly, that the "psychics" know so well what we do not has always both amazed and disappointed me.

Participants in good mentalism are not passive as some spectators are when they watch poorly presented magic. The necessary focus and attention to think of something, be it a word or phrase in a book, a suggestion or direction to mentally experience anything, is essential. In some circles, it is sacred! Whenever suggestion and imagery are employed, there is immediate opportunity for The Destiny Effect and Response to come into play and richly connect the players involved.

In and of itself, any written word or symbol is nothing. But when it is experienced and pictured in the mind (properly nurtured by the performer), then what freely comes to the participant (as if by destiny) is a minor act of creation. It is unique and alive. It is fresh and important because it is their thought being experienced in that very moment. With human beings, when it's personal, it matters.

With that connection, mentalism sparkles, becomes alive, and joyfully dances across the stage. Without a connection, mentalism is still and approaches meaninglessness.

With that connection, you could read from the phonebook and sizzle. Without a connection, we're back to - at the very most - magic tricks and puzzles. Let's grow beyond that.

Generic mentalism is never as good as you have the capacity to make it!

As a mature mentalist, you have the capacity to be, and not to ... not be!

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Invest your time and energy to legitimately study, master, and apply these techniques over time. I'm afraid they can only be properly performed at or past a certain level. Think of that not as a warning, but as an invitation, an opportunity from me to you. C'mon, go ahead. Take it to a higher level. Do it right as I suggest, and your work will never be the same if you really understand and correctly apply what I've given you here. The presentational possibilities are enormous and limited only by your imagination.

Your destiny to be a more powerful mentalist awaits. Believe it. Don't rush the process, cheat it, or trivialize it. You'll soon be able anytime, anywhere, to powerfully access and connect with parts of people inevitably untouched by common tricksters.

Take it to the irresistible level of non resistance. Accept my invitation. You are summoned.

It is part of your destiny.

I bid you every good wish with TDR (the process) and TDE (the result). May they both feel as if they were destined to happen!

If I can answer any questions or ease a concern, I'd be honored to. Please feel free to contact me.

That is part of my destiny.

Remember earlier how I metaphorically characterized "modern" man's world as one of chasing externals like a sudden burst of fireworks (pg. 11)? People believe they will light up their world. But will they? Can they over time?

Consider this. That exciting external flash actually blinds us into only thinking it will light up our world. The fact is, fireworks can't last because they dissipate. They are composed of qualities and ingredients that can't last. No matter what their color or design, fireworks are transitory, impermanent, literally over in a flash. They can never light up anyone's world for very long. The thought that they can is merely a reflection of our own fantasy in the late night sky.

Evocation on the other hand is like the inviting softness and warmth of a candle's gently burning light. Its flickering glow comes from the internal tunnel of attention and awareness within. That endures. Sacred stuff indeed. I'll see you in the receiving and sharing of that light.

That is our destiny.

Richard Busch Summer, 2004

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The destiny of my dreams