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BETWEEN THE LINES + By Michael Murray

Copyright 2015 by Michael Murray All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in
 any form without written permission from the author and publisher. For further information please contact me via email at: [email protected]


Between the Lines + by Michael Murray Introduction: It was always my ultimate ambition to create an effect that could take place within my spectator’s mind. I am pleased to present you with the result of this ambition. Inspiration for this piece came from many sources, most notably Banachek’s Psychological Subtleties and Kenton Knepper’s Wonder Words. Special thanks must go out to my good friend Jonathan Pickard, who not only helped with the routining of this effect from the very beginning, but he also wrote the page to accompany it which is available for you to download and print from the following URL: https://www.dropbox.com/s/2yg4qfz1946r50c/BtLpage.pdf The Effect: A spectator is handed a page torn from a novel. After the performer briefly sets the scene, the spectator is asked to describe details of what the story involves. The page is then cleanly opened and read aloud. To the spectator’s amazement, the text accurately reflects the scene they constructed in their mind only moments before. The Secret: A number of psychological principles and techniques lie at the heart of this seemingly simple, yet astonishingly powerful effect. The downloadable page (see link above) for this effect has been specially written and includes the most frequently occurring responses from an extensive test audience, together with a number of outs and additional material. Careful wording and susceptibility of the described scene to stereotypes work to create bias in the apparently freely imagined image. In order to see these principles in action, let us first consider the accompanying script.

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Between the Lines + by Michael Murray The Script: As you read this script, it may be a good idea for you to visualise the events and to answer the questions as you go... We will then look at the subtleties used and the outs that are provided in the text. “Have you ever heard of psychometry? This is the supposed belief that psychics and fortune-tellers, when given a personal object such as a piece of jewellery, can tell a lot about its owner and the object’s history. Whether you believe in this or not, I’d like to try a little test with you. “I have here a page torn from a paperback novel. Chances are you haven’t read it — I got it recently from a local second hand bookshop. “What I’d like to see is if you’re able to gain any impressions of details of the story. I imagine you’ve never tried anything like this before, and I don’t expect you to get it all right, so I will just help you a little now by setting the scene. “What I want you to do is to imagine that you are standing outside an old-fashioned cinema, about to rush inside, and you’re looking up at the skies... “Just tell me what the weather is doing. “I would like you now to imagine going inside... What is the first colour that comes to mind? “I would like you now to picture someone sitting in the front row of the cinema. “Are you looking at this person from behind or the front?
 “If you are looking at them from behind, then you can see the rows of seats... “What colour are they?

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Between the Lines + by Michael Murray “This person is a male or female?
 “Roughly how old would you say this person is?
 “Move now so that you can face this person... Are they wearing glasses? “Turn towards the cinema screen and imagine a two-second clip of something speeding past the screen. It’s not a film you’ve seen before. I’m just looking for an impression of what you see there. “What happened in the clip?
 “Was the film in black and white or colour? “Was this person alone in the cinema?” The Hidden Influences: Let us now take a closer look at the script and see how we could have biased the thoughts and answers given: 1) The Weather – Chances are it would have been raining. There are a few reasons for this. Note the wording: “What is the weather doing?” is suggestive that something is happening rather than there just being clear skies. The words “rush inside” strongly suggest a desire to get in off the street, strengthening the impression of bad weather. Notice that the mention of skies (plural) also implies clouds. As an accompanying gesture, in performance you could hold your hands out as if you’re checking to see if it’s raining. This should be used subtly and shouldn’t look unnatural; just perform a simple open-hands gesture. 2) The Colour – Blue and red are statistically the most frequently chosen, and both responses are provided for in the text (see “Use Your Outs” later). 3) The Perspective – Standing at the back! Considering most cinemas have their entrances at the rear and you have only just arrived, this is almost a given. Your view of the cinema is almost certainly going to include the screen, and the fact that you can also

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Between the Lines + by Michael Murray see a person in the front row logically limits your viewing perspectives. 4) The Seats – The seats you looked at would hopefully have been red. This is a stereotype of old-fashioned cinemas, yet is still surprisingly impacting. There is also another subtlety which is at play here; remember you read “rows of seats”, which sounds like rose, which (luckily for us) are typically red. 5) The Person – This almost certainly has to be a male! How many times have you seen a woman alone in a cinema? You also state this person is a male whilst seemingly asking the question: “This person is a male or female?” 6) The Age – This is likely to be an older person roughly in their fifties. The period suggested by “old-fashioned cinema” bears associations with an older generation. Referring to the person as a “gentleman” also suggests venerability and maturity over youth and inexperience. 7) The Glasses – The odds are stacked in favour of glasses, however deliberately ambiguous wording actually allows you to work either response into a hit (see “Use Your Outs” later). Chances are that the person would have been wearing glasses, based on the fact that older people tend to have poorer eyesight than younger people. 8) The Film Clip – Chances are very high that you would have thought of one of the following: an old fashioned car, a train or a horse. This is due to your mention of something (not someone) travelling at high speed across the screen. This has a tendency to sway people towards a form of transport. Steam trains are also commonly associated with films of the era.

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Between the Lines + by Michael Murray 9) Colour or Black and White – This would have been a black and white film because, once again, an old-fashioned mindset comes into play. 10) The Others – The cinema was probably empty, other than the gentleman in the front row. Remember, you had asked the spectator only to imagine one person sitting in the front row by saying someone. You also reference the person (singular) at a later point, which will strengthen this suggestion. By not mentioning others in the cinema, you indirectly suggest their absence. With all of these questions and careful presentation, the odds are heavily stacked in your favour, but even the most attentive spectator is unlikely to score a 100% hit-rate. What then? Don’t Worry: What if your spectator doesn’t answer all of the questions correctly? No problem, we are about to explore how we can re-frame our spectator’s answers to fit what is written on the page. The re-framing is made possible in three ways. A) There are several outs, which are cleverly concealed within the text, which will allow you to adapt the information they give to fit the page (see “Use Your Outs” later). B) There are lots of details in the text. Only the matching details make an impact. You will find people have a tendency to pick up on the hits and skip over the misses. This predisposition to forget minor inconsistencies is an observation played on by cold-readers posing as psychics. You can aid the process by drawing attention to the correct answers they give and playing down bad responses as throwaway points. Don’t forget, a few misses will not impact the overall effect. C) Chances are that your spectator won’t remember every detail they are asked. Before you show the spectator the page, you will offer to recap the information given to you and, in doing so, you will

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Between the Lines + by Michael Murray summarise all of the hits. This way, all the correct information they give is freshest in their mind and any incorrect information is more likely to be forgotten. Reflecting On The Answers: The more you get to know this effect, the more you’ll come to appreciate the involvement on the performer’s part to interact with and guide your spectator in order to elicit the best responses. Note that the form of questioning is very closed. You’re effectively guiding your spectator with your question structures and statements. (For example, if you were to ask, “Do you see horses?” you’re far more likely to find there are horses than if you were to ask an open question such as, “Tell me more about what you see on screen.”) 1) “Just tell me what the weather’s doing.” Should they say it is raining, comment on it: “You’re getting bad, wet weather.” Should they say sunny, then don’t comment. 2) “What is the first colour that comes to mind?” Should they have said raining and the colour blue, comment on it: “You’re getting wet rainy weather and the colour blue?” Should they have said sunny and blue, comment: “You’re getting blue skies and the colour blue associated with the cinema?” Should they say red, then don’t comment at this moment but remember the colour. Should they say any other colour then don’t comment. 3) “Are you looking at this person from behind or in front?”

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Between the Lines + by Michael Murray Should they say behind, reply: “So that means you’re standing at the back of the cinema?” This is a leading question that gives an answer linking nicely with the text. Should they say front (unlikely), then don’t comment. 4) “If you are looking at them from behind then you can see the rows of seats... What colour are they?” Note that if red was the first colour that came to mind, you shouldn’t ask this question, as you’ve already got the hit (see “Use Your Outs” later). 5) “This person is a male or female?”
 Should they say male, then comment on it; “A gentleman.” Should they say a female (very rare), then immediately move on to the next question. 6) “Roughly how old would you say this person is?”
 Should they say fifties or sixties and have said male to the previous question, then comment, “The gentleman is roughly fifty or sixty-ish.”
 Should they say fifties or sixties and female, then comment as above without mentioning the sex.
 Should they mention a younger age, then state, “You’re getting the impression of a younger person...” Should they mention a much older person, then simply state, “You’re getting impressions of an older person?”

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Between the Lines + by Michael Murray 7) “Move now so that you can face this person... Are they wearing glasses?” Should they mention that they wear glasses, then mention, “They wear glasses.” Should they say they aren’t wearing glasses, say, “They aren’t wearing glasses.” (See “Use Your Outs” later.) 8) “What happened in the clip?”
 There are a number of answers here however should they mention: A Train - Then state: “You see a train on the screen?”
 A Car - Then state: “You see a car shooting across the screen?”
 Horses - Then state: “You’re picking up a strong link with horses from this page?” Gunfire - Then state: “You see bullet shapes speeding past the screen?” Wild West - Then state: “Do you see horses? Any guns? Are they firing them?” For any other comment not related to transport or something similar, then don’t comment. 9) “Was the film in black and white or colour?”
 Should they state that the film is in black and white, comment, “An older black and white film?” Should they state that the film is in colour then don’t comment. 10) “Was this person alone in the cinema or were there many others in there?” Should they state that this person was alone, then comment, “Pretty strange for a cinema?” Should they state that there are others there, then don’t comment.

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Between the Lines + by Michael Murray Thinking On Your Feet: The more you perform this effect, the more you will begin to think on your feet. You will get to the point that you are so familiar with the story on the page that a comment or wrong answer given by your spectator may be utilised at another point or adapted to fit. A recent example of such went as follows: Performer – “What happened in the clip?”
 Spectator – “It was a hold up at a bank with shooting and people were running scared.” Performer – “Move the film forward a little. What happens when the robbers get outside?” Spectator – “They jump into a getaway car and speed off!” Performer – “So you get a car speeding off and bullets?” This example hopefully illustrates how we can almost squeeze the information we need from the spectator! Use Your Outs: There are several outs subtly hidden within the text. Let’s take a closer look at those. You ask the spectator to name the colour after they have entered the cinema; this allows you to use their answer in two ways. If they named blue, then as you re-frame the answers you will state you associated the colour blue with the cinema and will later show them the line: “The cold blue paint...” Should they have named the colour red, then as you recap you will state that as they entered the cinema standing at the back, they pictured the colour red as they looked down towards the front. You

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Between the Lines + by Michael Murray will later show them the line: “... looked down across the red velvet seats.” There is a lot of leeway with the age of the person in the front row. Typically people will say the person is in their fifties, however should they say mid-forties or early sixties, then you will be covered with “fifty something”. The fact that you have “he looked much younger” included in the text also covers younger ages, too. This wording gives you ample room to play, depending on the answer given. Notice also how the reference to the glasses is non-specific: “Perhaps it was because his glasses now lay folded on top of his coat.” If they pick up on glasses, they are clearly present in the text. If they say the person is not wearing glasses, you confirm with “they aren’t wearing glasses.” Again, this
 is true in the text. Note how we can play upon the subtle difference between whether someone wears glasses and whether they are wearing glasses to make either answer into a hit. There are a lot of outs covered in the film clip text. A car and a train are both covered. The train is in the main body of page 103 and the car can be found
 in the final paragraph of page 104, subtly linked with the idea of shooting and bullets should they have mentioned this. Should they mention another form of transport, then you have the general transport theme. If they mention horses and or cart then you can comment, “You got a transport theme but also horses linked with the book,” and in doing so you can later point out the title of the book: Seven Steel Horses. Extras: Should horses be mentioned as you ask about the film clip, then ask quickly and forcefully, “Between one and ten, how many horses are there?” Should they say seven (statistically the most likely choice), then as you recap you are able to boldly state, “You picked up a

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Between the Lines + by Michael Murray strong connection between seven horses and this page!” This will later give the spectator the impression that they have somehow managed to pick up on the title of the book! Recapping: The spectator has now answered all of the questions, and in your mind you have evaluated their answers and where necessary have adapted them to fit. You are now going to recap the information given to you and at the same time twist it a little further in a rather subtle way. This re-framing process will change the way your spectators remember the effect. “Now let’s recap all of the information you have given me. If I include any extra information or make up any of your answers, then please stop me! “All I asked you to do was to imagine a cinema, and you created a scene in your mind, including the following...” Notice you mention that you will recap all of the information given, however you are only recapping the information that hit. This will fly by your spectator every time! A point you neglect to mention is that you asked your spectator to imagine an old-fashioned cinema but only mention the word cinema in the recap. This helps to change the way a spectator will remember the effect and also works to your advantage should someone join the group at the end of the effect. Should the spectator have said that it was a male sitting in the front row, as you mention the person state that: “You saw a gentleman sitting in the front row.” The more you do this, the more you will find that you can subtly alter the things people say to match the exact text on the page.

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Between the Lines + by Michael Murray Should the spectator have mentioned that the movie was in black and white, state that: “You imagined a black and white film without sound?” In all of the times I have performed the effect, I have never once been questioned on this! You will now talk through the scene that you had asked the spectator to imagine, including only the hits and information that you can work into the outs in the story. An example might read something like this: “Right, so we went into the cinema and the colour red came to mind. You found yourself standing at the back of the room and you could see a gentleman in the front row and he was, in fact, the only one there. When you took a closer look at the gentleman, you said he wasn’t wearing glasses and was in his late forties, but definitely younger than fifty. On the screen you saw a car chase with vintage cars flying by.” A spectator listening to this will be amazed by its accuracy. In fact, the above spectator scored only about 70% of the available hits, emphasising the importance of selectively recapping the information they give in making the effect stand out. The Revelation: After the re-framing and recapping processes, you are now ready to ask the spectator to quietly read the page with you. You are going to get them to skim through the text, stopping only at the correct details. To do this you will point at each line in turn, reading the correct information aloud. This will not only help the other spectators realise how successful this was, it will also help change the way the spectator will remember the events.

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Between the Lines + by Michael Murray What if: I have only ever experienced one spectator (a fellow magician/ mentalist) who I would have got less than a 75% hit rate with this text. After asking the first three or four questions, I was getting some poor responses. At first I thought that the effect was about to fall flat on its face, but then it struck me: another gentleman was by his side and so I asked him, “What impressions are you getting?” His answers were the opposite of his friend and were indeed the exact hits I was looking for. I quickly changed tack and mentioned that some people are better at this than others and had the page handed over, following through the effect with him instead. Upon further reflection, the fact that both people answered differently made more of an impact to the effect. This happened in the early days of testing, and should anyone experience this very same situation, I would suggest that you still get the second spectator involved in the effect by using either the Triangle/ Circle force (see “Optional Extensions”, “A Simple Shape”) or the watch idea (see “Watch Force”). Optional Extensions: Whilst the effect as described above is how I choose to perform it, I have nevertheless included a number of optional extras you may choose to use at your discretion as an extension to the routine. By all means, add to and adapt these ideas to fit your unique style, and if you come across any presentations you wish to share, don’t forget to let me know! Word Force: Just a few months before writing these instructions I was in a bar with my good friend Jonathan Pickard (who has helped me immensely with this piece!), and together we stumbled on a rather

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Between the Lines + by Michael Murray unique way of forcing a word from a page that I shall now share with you. Please note that the following force must be done nonchalantly and no emphasis must be placed on it! This is only to be used as an added extra or spooky coincidence! Ask that a spectator hold out his hand (see Figure 1). Gesture with your hand in the same way to ensure that your spectator copies! With your thumb over the word or words to be forced (see Figure 2), hand him the page, making sure that your thumb tip touches theirs. Figure 1 - The spectator holds out their hand, copying your demonstration. Figure 2 - The page is transferred to the spectator (top right). Your thumb tips briefly touch before you release the page. They are then holding the page at the position you forced.



 Figure 1

Figure 2

At this point the spectator will close the gap between their thumb and index finger, taking hold of the page. At this point all attention must be cast away from them. I personally use this opportunity to perform the Triangle/Circle force (see “A Simple Shape”) on a second spectator and, only after a suitable (time

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Between the Lines + by Michael Murray misdirection) delay, will reveal that the original spectator has somehow managed to place their thumb between the very same symbols! As mentioned above, this will only work providing you only gesture with your hand for the positioning of the spectator’s hand. Don’t say, “Hold your hand like this.” You must also apply the correct time misdirection so that the spectator forgets how they were handed the page. The Triangle/Circle force on a second spectator will be sufficient! You must also take care that the spectator holding the page does not change its position. If you are concerned, then you can always occupy his other hand with the watch (see “Watch force”). A Playing Card: The reverse page (104) also contains two references to a playing card — an added extra you may wish to incorporate. If you ask your spectator for a simple shape and they say triangle (a likely choice), you can have them draw a triangle on the back of a small brown envelope. Force the Queen of Hearts and have it placed into the envelope without revealing it. “We’ll come back to that later.” As a finale, you may have them read aloud paragraph four on the reverse. The combination of the triangle on the envelope and the forced playing card is astonishingly strong, far more so than either revelation alone. Should you wish to use the Queen of Hearts without the shape or envelope, it has been included on its own further up the page. Such a sure-fire addition can give performers still gaining experience with the effect something on which to fall back on. A Simple Shape: Many of you will be familiar with the Triangle/Circle force. If not, I recommend you pick up a copy of Psychological Subtleties 1 or 2 (see “Further Reading”). As an added feature we have included these two shapes within the text of page 104. This will allow you to force

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Between the Lines + by Michael Murray the two shapes. However, instead of one being inside the other as in Banachek’s version, one is above the other. Both are positioned close to the centre of page 104. A Number Between One And Ten: When asked to think of a number between 1 and 10, the most frequently occurring numbers statistically are 7 and 3. The title of the book is Seven Steel Horses and the chapter is Chapter Three. These can be found on the top of pages 104 and 103, respectively. The number 6 is also present in the first paragraph of page 103 as a time: 6 o’clock. Were you to ask for a number between one and ten, there is therefore more than a 1 in 3 chance of scoring a significant hit. Watch Force: Bev Bergeron has a fantastic effect titled “Predicting Time” (found in Mind Mysteries Vol. 1 – see “Recommended Viewing”), which allows you to secretly force a time on a spectator whilst they (seemingly randomly) set the hands of a borrowed watch. This allows you to reveal that a random time set by another spectator somehow manages to match the page number (1:03 PM converts to page 103). This also gives you a leeway of one minute, as there are two sides to the page! In Conclusion: I can appreciate that at first glance this seems like a lot to take in; however in performance you are only asking the spectator ten questions. These questions follow the natural path of the story, so by knowing the questions you will know the story and vice versa. You will quickly learn to think on your feet and, in doing so, will find that this will help you with other effects, too. Don’t be put off by the emphasis these instructions place on all the psychological subtleties. The bulk of the work has already been done

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Between the Lines + by Michael Murray for you in the preparation of the page, and many of the points made here are just ways of turning a good effect into a great effect. I recommend you familiarise yourself with the page to learn where your outs and information lie. Despite not needing any sleight of hand to perform, the effect is still far from self-working and the onus is very much on the performer to make this effect work at its best for the audience. That said, what may at first appear as a very bold and daring effect has been the subject of unanimous praise from audiences and mentalists alike. BTL Paper: For those who are looking for the ideal paper to print a copy of the BTL page upon, then look no further than a cheap book store. Most paperback books have additional blank pages at the back which can be carefully torn out and printed upon. To do this, print a test page on an A4 sheet and then carefully align your torn-out page with the printed text. If you place both sheets onto a window and allow the natural light to shine through, you will be able to see the printed text through the torn-out page. You can now use some clear Scotch tape to lightly stick the torn page to the printed page, allowing you to re-run it through the printer a second time. If you now repeat this with the opposite side, you will be left with a highly authentic-looking book page.
 DIY BTL: For those who have taken a shine to this routine, I would strongly suggest that you head over to YouTube and do a search for Family Fortunes (Family Feud in the US).

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Between the Lines + by Michael Murray Family Fortunes was a UK game show whereby contestants had to guess the top answers to a series of questions which were posed to the general public. The beauty of this show is that it provides us, the mentalists, with a whole host of ready-made “psychological forces”. The hard work has very much been done for us; all that remains to do is to put these into a context that makes sense to our audiences. So, what are you waiting for? Head over to YouTube now! Visual BTL: Quite some time ago I had the idea to make a self-working visual version of the “Between the Lines” effect. I will warn you that DVD authoring skills will be needed to produce this. If you aren’t technically minded you may skip over this section. To do this you will need to create a series of videos that all start with the same first frame in shot, and each of these will become a visual out which can be used depending on the spectator’s choices. If you now create a menu screen that has a visual backdrop, matching the same initial frame, it should appear that you have a paused video. If you now add some menu buttons to this, but have them situated below the visible screen, each of these can now be linked with a different out. With this you can then ask a spectator what they believe happens next in the video (a choice which is dictated by the outs you have filmed). Upon hearing their reply, you can use the DVD remote to secretly access the relevant “hidden” menu button and you can press play to reveal that the spectator’s choice was correct. By creating additional menu pages which match the last frame of each of the videos, you can give yourself an endless stream of video outs from which to choose.

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Between the Lines + by Michael Murray This should appear that you are pausing and playing the same video between the spectator’s choices. I sincerely hope that this makes some sort of sense to someone.

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