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Mind reading

Chapter 17: What Willie Said.
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About This Book

A practical manual reveals that popular stage mind-reading feats depend on muscle reading and involuntary physical cues rather than psychic forces. It gives step-by-step methods for locating hidden objects while blindfolded, selecting and handling a cooperative subject, sensing subtle resistance or leaning to guide movement, and applying the same cues to identify piano keys or letters on a board. The volume stresses practice, audience selection, and avoiding skeptical accomplices, offers performance tips and common failure explanations, and frames the techniques as teachable conjuring methods rather than supernatural phenomena.

What Willie Said.

The minister, it was expected, would spend the evening with the family, and Mrs. Williams was most anxious that her little boy should appear at his best.

“Now, Willie,” she said, “Dr. Schultz will ask you your name, and you must tell him it is ‘Willie.’ And he will ask you how old you are, and then you must say, ‘Five.’ And he will want to know where bad little boys go, and you must tell him, ‘They go to hell.’ Do you understand?”

Not content with a repetition once or twice, Mrs. Williams drilled him again and again in the answers.

Dr. Schultz came as expected, and, after a short conversation with the hostess, lifted the child on his knee, and said:

“Well, my little fellow, can you tell me your name?”

Imagine the surprise of the reverend doctor, when, like a flash, came the answer:

“Willie. Five years old. Go to hell.”