All Rights Reserved

All Rights Reserved

 Dedicated to - My Parents
Sincere Thanks to –
Al Koran
- for his Routine with Billiard Balls. I believe it was called
either Color Psychology or Mento-Spheres. My obsession
with that routine led me to create BEHIND MY BACK.

Paul Wilson
- for his YAMFACAAN, which led me to SAY “STOP”.

You
- for reading this.

Vikash Rathi & Varsha Rathi

- for always being there when I wanted to try something
new. In other words, my test dummies.

Rajiv Jain
-for making international payments for Decks, DvDs &
Books.

Deepak Mishra & Waseem Mohammed

-for being my trusted magic buddies.

Subhajit Chattopadhyay
-for snapping the best ever pic of mine that is in the end.

Last but not the least

White paper, Blue pen, Desktop, Electricity, etc.
 Contents
HAVOC
TIME FRAME
VISION
BEHIND MY BACK
SAY “STOP”
BONUS

I don’t claim the things written in this e-book to be my original, but these are something
that I have discovered independently over the past few years and used it regularly. If the
ideas mentioned here turns out to be of someone else. I will be happy to pass on the
credits.

Some of the images used here have been suitably modified to hide the identity of the
persons in it. However, they have been used with permission of the respective persons.
 HAVOC
Effect
At a house event or a party or an occasion or a show, you walk up
to a stranger and call out their name, their partner’s name and
their occupation, the school they studied in, their last vacation
spot, hotel they stayed in, the room no. in which they stayed,
their honeymoon destination, things bothering them and millions
of other things and also the things that even their close friends
are unaware of. Sounds impossible??

Well it’s not!!

Introduction...

This is something that I have been performing for quite some

time. It fetches me great reactions each and every time and has
never failed on me. Initially I did this as a quick demonstration of
my thought reading abilities (which is totally not true). But now I
have included this as a tool to aid my Q&A Act.

Although the secret to this is simple but it’s something that is

overlooked and under-used by many. The day I performed it for
the 1st time, I got booked for 11 more shows in a single hour after
the end of the show. Something like that had never happened
with me before.

This does requires an elaborate pre-show work to perform for

every single performance. I perform it only for those with whom I
have chances of getting more business or people upon whom
majority of the audience trusts in, because I am lazy. Although
the limitations to this are huge but whenever it can be done, it
will never disappoint.
Basic Secret...
The secret to this is simple. So simple that almost all of us use it
in our daily life. The secret to this is social networking (facebook,
twitter, LinkedIn etc).

Also your favourite search engine plays an important part in

successfully executing this technique.
* From here starts the short journey which will teach you almost
everything that you can do with this simple secret. I have
mentioned almost as the teaching here is not complete. You will
discover new ideas and methods of getting information as you use
this in your performances.

(Here I will discuss how to find out information from only

facebook. As I am only a facebook user but I feel that with a little
thought this can be easily adapted to other social networking
websites)

What you need??

Although I feel that this is unethical but still there are people who
maintain fake profiles on social networking websites.

You too need to make and maintain few. For my personal

performances I have 3 female profiles and 3 male profiles.

[Note: - I don’t make any foul use of such profiles and also
wouldn’t recommend anyone. This is for pure entertainment
purpose]

Notice I have italicized the word maintain above. You will have to
maintain those fake profiles. Keep it updated once or twice a
week. Don’t keep that profile inactive.
Types of profile:-

a) Female profile 1- A person who is bold, good looking, sexually

attractive.

b) Female profile 2- A person who is also good looking but doesn’t

have too much of attractiveness, has a good education
background. She is Beauty with Brains.

c) Female profile 3- A person who is just like a girl next door.

Everything about her is normal.

d) Male profile 1- A cool, handsome, cute & tall guy. The type of
boy that every girl desires.

e) Male profile 2- A person who is just above average but has a

good behavior and is a decent person.

f) Male profile 3- A person who is totally normal. Nothing is too

special about him.

I recommend you to ask your 3 female friends to make 3 female

profiles each and 3 male friends to make 3 male profiles.
The age of the profile persons is something that I leave upon you
to decide. I usually perform for ages between 20 and 40. So, I like
to keep them between 24-30.
For profile pictures you can get many pictures of aspiring models
from internet.
Qualifications of the fake person profile is something that I can’t
comment on you will have to decide on your own what
qualification you want that person to have.

Selecting your volunteer..

Once I am booked for a show, I try to find out who the chief guest
of that event is or the special persons in that event or the person
who is trusted by all. Eg: In a corporate meeting the special
persons will be the Chairman/ Directors/ Managers. In a family
event it will be the head of the family.
How to find out such persons??

Facebook has a section for “Event”. If you open it you will find the
people whom the requests has been sent for attending such event.
Usually the creators of the events or the person most active in the
Event Page are the important persons (you will have to judge it
yourself). Do read the ABOUT section of the event page and other
posts to find people who are important.

If you fail to find any, then simply ask the event organizer that
who will be the chief guest, tell him you want to do something
special for him. I have never got a negative reply on such query.
And I think you too won’t get a negative reply on such query.

Make a list of all such persons and send them friend requests
from all the profiles.

Don’t send them all in a single day send one or two in a day. Most
of them easily accept it because they know that they are known
by many but they don’t know them all.

Getting into profiles...

1. I am not sure over this but I have heard that when you poke
someone on facebook and if that person pokes you back then
you can view their profile without being in their friend list.
2. Most of the people also do not keep everything hidden from
public. So you can use it to you advantage. Here too you can
view their profile information without being in their friend list.
3. Be in their friend list and obtain the information.
Getting the information...

Once the friend request is accepted, go through the profile

thoroughly and grab every piece of information you can use.

Go through the following things:-

 ABOUT ME section
 PAGES LIKED by him
 His STATUS POSTS & COMMENTS on it.
 Types of PICTURES SHARED by him.
 PHOTOS & VIDEOS UPLOADED by him & people tagged in it.
 Family members & Friend List
 Recent Activities
 Movies & TV shows etc.

This should give you an idea what kind of person he/she basically
is. Also DON’T FORGET TO READ THE TAGLINES OF THE
PHOTO OR VIDEO. This too says quite a lot about the person.

Troubleshooters...
If there is no event page or the person is not on facebook??
In this case, you have two options-
a) Drop the idea of performing this, Or
b) Try to get the names of few other persons who will be present
there from the organizers & search for those names. If you have
seen that person before, match the profile picture with the person
to ensure that you are looking at the correct profile.

Performing at an informal/casual situation?

If you are performing this at a situation where there isn’t much
time to prepare then go through the profiles of many people
present there and grab information for a few profiles. You won’t
need to send them requests as many of us don’t keep everything
hidden, few of the things are accessible by the strangers. The only
thing that you need is their names.
How to get names in a situation where there is little time for
preparation?

Here are few ways how I get names:

a) Stalk them and wait until someone calls them by their name.
b) Ask their friend or the event organizer.
c) Ask someone whom you have seen them talking to, somewhat
like this.
“I think I know him, I just don’t remember his name, can you
tell me?”
Or, Say a false name-
“Is that person <false name>, I think I know him? And they will
answer you with their real name.”
d) In some situations you might find people wearing their
IDENTITY CARDS. Then Simply read off the name.

Perform for whom?

I perform this for people from whom I have scope of getting more
shows because the preparation takes time.
Advices and Warnings:-
 Make sure that no information is repeated or there is no
evidence that would suggest that the fake profiles are
connected (eg. Being in each other friend list)
 Don’t perform this with persons enjoying celebrity status or
known by many because people might think that you are just a
fan of that person and have been following him from quite a
while, which will totally give off the effect.
 Although I don’t prefer this but you can start chatting with that
person and ask about him. But be sure to lie when he asks
about you and do remember what you have said and from
which profile.
 Don’t make any unethical use of this tool.
 Never exchange phone numbers.
 Don’t overuse this.
 Make sure the facts they mentioned in chats (if any) and
statuses are supported by evidence (eg. photos or comments
from friends and family)
 When I perform I ask your spectator to just go blank and then I
feed the information into them. I am comfortable with this type
of presentation.
 When performing in front of audience don’t go for too much
personal details (eg. Personal details of their spouse etc.) It
might embarrass them.
 Be aware of the fact that what you are saying and where you
are saying.
 I am not responsible if you get yourself into trouble when or
after using this in your performance.
Illustrations
Pages Liked-
Often so happens that the recent pages liked by the person say
about his recent mental status. You can also use that for your
benefit.

Status 1-

Feeling Bored at office. Desk Job is so boring...

From this status update one can say-

The person’s workplace or the work itself doesn’t interests him.

His mind is somewhere else while working.
He doesn’t likes sitting behind the desk the whole day.
He isn’t satisfied with his work and wants to do something
different.
He wants a break from his work.

Status 2-

Does someone have an ebay coupon? I want to purchase a

Nike shoe.

He recently wanted to purchase something from the internet.

He want satisfied with the price charged to him or it wasn’t fitting
into his budget.
He was in need of a shoe.
Photograph 1

In this photograph, I can see that the volunteer is in it. Hence this
photograph is genuine. The information from this can be-
 Sometime in the past he went to a place with big statue of the
Hindu God Lord Shiva.
 The Statue of Lord Shiva was one that was sitting down in a
Dhyaan Mudra (In a state of Meditation)
 The color of the statue was off white.
 Our volunteer wasn’t alone when he went there; he was
accompanied by another person. (if the person is tagged in the
photo then name that person)
 There were quite a lot of fences all around (zoom on the picture
and you will find many chains used as fence)
 The background of the statue is artificial.
If you have been to the place then it’s even better you can use the
information you have and surprise the spectator. Also you can
Google up the place and expand your knowledge for this effect.
The place in this picture is KEMP FORT, Bangalore, India.
Photograph 2

Here the picture doesn’t say much but it’s the description that
gives the information like.
 There is quite a lot of air pollution around his home.
 His home is in an industrial area.
 One can see factories from his home’s terrace.

If the person mentions the name of the factory and the location,
then you can again Google it up and obtain other information and
use it for your effect.
Photograph 3

Now here is an image that says absolutely nothing. The

description to the image might help. If there is no description,
personally I wouldn’t consider this image because the photo
quality is quite good; to me it looks like a professional’s job. So
until my volunteer is a camera guy, I wouldn’t proceed with such
image.
If the description and the comments give me indication that my
volunteer was here then I would search this place on the internet
and obtain information for my performance.
Practice Sessions..
Status 1
Watched <XYZ movie>. What a lovely movie. Enjoyed a lot. Must
watch.

Status 2
iPhone5c is out. Can’t wait to get my hand on this one too.

Status 3
Being Vegetarian is my choice and not obligation. I live in a
democratic country, I can turn into a Non-Veg whenever I want.

Status 4
Its summer again. Time to use Deo. Nasty sweat smell all over the
clothes. I hate summer.

Photograph 1
Photograph 2

Photograph 3
Photograph 4

My approach to the above…

Status 1- Whenever I read such a status. I try to find out about
the movie. The type of movie itself will tell a lot about the person.
Whether he likes Romantic, Action or any other genre. If the
movie is a recent one then I assume that the person hasn’t seen
any other movie after that and I can use it.
Status 2- This status tells me that the person here knows about
latest mobiles etc., and he is also an apple fan. The words “...this
one too.” makes me believe that the person has owed an iPhone in
the past.
Status 3- Here the status says, that the person is a vegetarian. It
can be assumed that someone might have made fun of his being
vegetarian, which offended him and he wrote such a status.

Status 4- I would generally ignore such status because it tells

nothing personal. Everyone hates summer for the sweat etc.

* Do read the comments on the statuses for further

information.

Photograph 1-
In this image the picture doesn’t says much except the fact that
the person knows about the existence of Mysore Palace.
However, the description written clearly gives indication that the
person has been there and has snapped this picture by himself.
Now, you can search on the internet about Mysore Palace and
obtain information about the palace and other things inside it to
pick up details that you can use.

Photograph 2-
These types of images need judgment because not everyone gets
access to pose infront of such artillery (in picture: battle tank).
There is a possibility that the image has been modified.
Since the image itself doesn’t says much apart from the fact that
the person might have been to a military area sometime or has
come quite close to military battle equipments.
Personally, I avoid using such pictures, until description is
mentioned and if it seems legit to me.

Photograph 3-
Often so happens that an image doesn’t says anything but it has
some road sign or bill board or anything else that indicates about
the location of the picture.
This image might seem to be nothing except two persons standing
and posing at a random hill. But it you look at the bottom right
corner. There is something written “OOTY T…” Now without even
reading the description of the image you can understand that this
picture was taken at some hill of one of the famous hill station of
India called OOTY. Here again you can search on the internet
about OOTY and obtain other information after reading the
description and comments on it.

Photograph 4-
Superficially this image says: a) the person isn’t scared of cats, b)
it is a possibility that the person is an animal lover but definitely
a cat lover.
If you look carefully at the surroundings of the cat in the image
then it seems to be dirty and filthy, it doesn’t seems to be
someone’s home; which gives an indication that this cat might not
be someone’s pet. It’s a wild cat, which in turn means that the
person would have no hesitance in patting a wild cat that lives on
streets.
 TIME FRAME
About…

This is a forcing technique of a particular time on clock without a

watch or any other prop whatsoever.

Secret…

The technique used here is bold, but I still somehow it works for
me and I am sure that it will work for you too. Use it confidently
and you won’t face trouble with it. I say confidently because you
have to be confident when forcing the time. There should be no
sign of nervousness on your face (drawing too much attention on
face might fail this technique).

Apart from the above mentioned 3 things are important-

i. The person you are forcing time onto (the person should not
be drunk)
ii. The words you speak;
iii. Your finger positions (mainly your thumb and index finger
positions).

I will explain how I perform it and I think that should explain the
method behind it.

This is how I begin executing TIME FRAME:-

Sir! I want you to clear your mind. Done so?? Thank you.

Sir! I want you to imagine my face to be the face of a clock.

Imagine these spots to be the hour positions.
**The images below show my finger positions.

12 3

6 9

And my nose as the center of the clock. Okay!

Once I get their affirmative reaction. I continue..

I want you to see a time on my face.

As I say the above I make the forced time in front of my face using
my thumb and index finger (say 03:00, as in picture below) for a
second or two and then..

Withdraw my hand to a natural position.

(natural position for me is…picture below)

After a second or two, I ask them again..

Are you seeing a time on my face?

 And make the same thumb and index finger gesture again, but
this time for a little longer and wait until I get an affirmative
answer.

And you are done forcing the time onto the volunteer.

One advice to keep in mind-

Make sure no one is standing behind your volunteer else they
might also follow your actions and both of them will end up with
the same time and it might not be that good.

You can also force other times by just changing your hands from
left to right and also by changing the position of your thumb and
index finger.

Changing hand Changing finger position

A short effect using TIME FRAME…

Invite two people on stage. Excuse one person on one side of the
stage and secretly (making sure that no one else listens) tell him
to write the time you are going to force on a piece of paper.

While he is doing it announce to the audience that you have

asked him to write a time on clock.

This leads them to believe that the choice of 1st person is free.

Turn towards 2nd person standing on other side of the stage and
force the desired time onto him.

In the end ask 2nd person to call out the time and then ask 1st
person to reveal what he has written.

They both match impossibly.

# The words written in ITALICS are not exactly what I speak

during my performance. Since I speak a different language I have
translated my patter to English. You can use the translated words
in your patter or a different one, but make sure that the essence
of both is the same i.e., forcing the time.
 VISION
This is a card forcing method that plays with the concept of dual
reality. What it looks like is - The magician spreads a borrowed &
shuffled deck hand to hand while looking away. The spectator
peeks at a card and takes the deck back. The magician turns
back and still he is aware of the spectator’s peeked card.

What audience (not the volunteer) sees…

You hand out a deck to a volunteer ask them to shuffle and then
cut until they are satisfied that everything is fair. Take back the
deck spread it at their eye level from one hand to the other while
looking away from the spectator and ask them to look at a card.
Once done give the deck to them, turn back towards them and
you know their card.

Explanation…
You take back the deck from them and in a larger action or any
other casual natural movement you peek at the bottom card.
You can also openly turnover the deck and look at the bottom
card because no one is expecting anything yet.

Now since you know the card, you can proceed with this
technique.

Here is how I proceed with this technique.

I begin to spread the deck infront of their face i.e., eye level and
while looking away say..
 I want you to look at a card..Your card..

RIGHT LEFT

(Here the index finger positions of both the hands are important.
One Right hand’s index finger should not reveal any other pips &
the Left hand’s index finger should not hide the bottom card’s pip
i.e. Q♣)

By the time I am saying your card I tap the bottom card (force
card) with my Left hand’s index finger a couple of times. This
makes the volunteer believe that the bottom card is their card.

After about reaching the middle of the deck I break the pack in
two halves (right hand along with cards in right hand drops down
to the side and left hand is still at their face level) and ask them…

Do you have your card locked in your mind..??

As I say the above I tap the bottom card again (making sure that
no other pips exposes in the process) and after getting an
affirmative answer, I close the deck and the force is complete.
Alternatively, you can also spread the deck from right hand to left
hand (like in picture below). This will save you few worries and
allow you to display the deck more freely. And don’t worry if a few
cards get revealed in the process of spreading (like in picture 5♥ &
9♥) you are spreading the deck fast so it they don’t get a good
chance of spotting it.

RIGHT LEFT

Belief of the audience…

The magician spread the deck in front of the volunteer and he
simply chose a card off that spread. It could have been any card.

Belief of the volunteer…

He could have cut the deck anywhere, and any card could have
landed on bottom.
(Make sure that you establish the above fact in their mind by
making them cut the deck face-up once. The fact that you are
spreading the deck hand to hand might seem odd to the volunteer
but time they ignore it, because it makes no sense to them)
 BEHIND MY BACK
Effect…
Spectator selects 4 cards. You turn your back towards them. They
shuffle the 4 cards and hold 2 in each hand. With your back
turned towards them you are able to call out the sum of the
values of the card in each hand. You even proceed to identify the
cards and the hand in which they are.

Explanation…
The 4 cards are forced cards, any of these combinations will do:-
a) 2,3,5,6 b) 3,4,6,7 c) 4,5,7,8 d) 5,6,8,9
For explanation purpose let’s consider the combination is 3,4,6,7
You need to memorize the suit of each card.
From a face down deck force 4 cards anyway you want (I riffle
force the 1st card and also hand out the next 3 cards)
Turn around and ask them to shuffle the cards and when done
hold out two cards in each hand.

(somewhat like in picture on the left,

the two rectangles on either side are
the cards in each hand and the gray
area of the rectangles are the backs of
the cards OR in any position
where if you turn back towards them
you won’t be able to see the faces)
In our case of 3,4,6,7 there are 3 pairs possible:-
a) 3,4 & 6,7 b) 3,6 & 4,7 c) 3,7 & 6,4
You now say them to select any one of the hand and add the
values of the cards in that hand.
Once they are done, proceed by saying-
The number you are thinking is 10. Isn’t it ??
If they say YES, then the pairs are c) 3,7 & 6,4
Here sum of both the pairs will be 10

So it doesn’t matter which hand they are looking at.

If they say NO, continue by asking-

Am I off by 1 ?? OR Did I miss by 1 ??
If they say YES, then the pairs are b) 3,6 & 4,7
Here the sum will be either 9 or 11.

You can straight away say- the number is 9 isn’t it ??

If they say yes then the sum of other hand has to be 11.

If they say no, then simply say I was talking about the sum of the cards in the other hand.

If they say NO, then it’s a) 3,4 & 6,7

Here the sum will be either 7 or 13.

You can repeat the same presentation as you did for the pair b) 3,6 & 4,7

At this point you know which pairs of cards are in the volunteer’s
hands. Now, it’s time for knowing which pair is in which hand.

Suppose the cards are 3♣, 4♠, 6♥, 7♦.

You tell them that now you are going to call out the names of the
cards.
You call out any of the 4 card (say 7 ♦) and ask him to hand it to
you. As they are handing it to you, you simply turn back slightly
to notice which hand lost the card 7♦. If you get this then by
simple logic you can find out which hand the other pair is in
because you already know the pairs.

# I like to include an alphabet card amongst the top 4 cards that

are to be forced and then the 5th card is the last number card.

(3♣, 4♠, A♠, 6♥, 7♦)

This gives me an opportunity to ask them-

I hope there are no alphabet cards in your hand..??
They reply- Yes..

Then I simply hand over the 5th card (7♦) by saying-

Place it on the table and take the next one..

Once they look, I ask again
Is this an alphabet card too..??
They reply- No..
And from here I proceed with the effect. It’s my belief the
introduction of an alphabet card enhances the illusion in their
mind that everything is fair.

In the end, I also call out the alphabet card (A ♠) that was out of
play the entire time.
 SAY “STOP”
This particular effect can also be presented as a Card At Any
Number effect. I came up with this while experimenting with
PAUL WILSON’s YAMFACAAN.

After you have made them select a card (say A♠), returned to the
deck and controlled it top.
Once here, ask them to call out stop at any point and you proceed
to deal the card one by one from one hand to the other (as in
picture below).
When they call out STOP-

Take the cards in your right hand and place it at an up-jogged

position on top of the cards in the left hand (as in picture below).

Spread the card hand to hand saying-

“You could have stopped me anywhere”
At this point, two things will happen at once..
a) Obtaining a pinky break above their selection
b) Positioning the index finger for the upcoming dirty work.
(For explanation purposes I have set aside the rest of the cards,
all the following moves will happen underneath the spread)
Once done, gather all the cards above the break (picture below)…

And as you proceed to lay them onto table or give it to them again
saying….“You could have stopped me anywhere”…you flush their
selection with the deck (picture below)…

and later hand out their selection saying you stopped me here
and the card you stopped me is <their selection> (in our case A ♠).

A short 25second Youtube video link that might help in

understanding this better-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdNasQlRasY
 Bonus
Mental rock paper scissors

I came up with this a week back and haven’t yet performed it. It
looks like a regular Rock Paper Scissors game, just played
differently. This is just 1 phase.

Effect…
The performer hands out an envelope to someone containing
something. He asks another person to make a choice between
ROCK, PAPER or SCISSORS and change it as many times they
want.

In the end, after the person says out his choice and the performer
directs the person holding the envelope to open it. No matter
whatever is the choice, the performer always wins.

Explanation…

What you need is a piece of

paper and a pair of scissors
and a pen to write on the
paper and also an
envelope.
The secret is in the way the items are placed in the envelope. The
envelope contains a pair of scissors and a paper (with something
written I prefer writing- “I knew you were going to chose ROCK
and leave the PAPER & SCISSORS for me”) wrapped around it with
a rubber band.
You seem to be winning the game because of the way you present
the items in the envelope each time.

If the person calls out:

ROCK = Tell him that before coming up to perform you knew what
his selection is going to be. That’s why you placed the other two
items as a prediction before you began. Open the envelope and
bring out the paper and the scissors individually.

PAPER = Bring out the scissors along with the paper (don’t make
a big deal about it, simply pull it off the scissors and ditch it in
your pocket, make it seem that it was there for safety). Here you
are genuinely winning because you have scissors and the person
chose paper.

SCISSORS= Do everything like you did in PAPER, just play the

end as a prediction.

Abhinav Bothra
abhinavbothramagic@gmail.com
http://www.facebook.com/abhinavbothramagic