Bonus: Sign to Sign

Sign to Sign was the first reverse sun sign divination I developed a few years
ago. I offer this routine as a bonus as it's best to have various ways to accomplish
each premise in our repertoires. Because this routine uses an extremely popular
method of forcing, I don’t expect readers to be blown away. What I think readers
will enjoy is the clever scripting and justifications in place that separates this
routine from others that use this misused tool. The main tool that's used for this
reverse sun sign divination miracle is the app Digital Force Bag. Please don’t skip
this section if you think you know how this routine is done. I know, I know, I can
already hear the groans of using apps to accomplish our effects and Digital Force
Bag has the problem of being associated with really basic and trivial routines that
make some performers even hate the app. Think about it, how many Digital Force
Bag routines have you seen or read on the facebook group that stick to its basic use
of forcing irrelevant listed items just to predict it as the “kicker grand finale”. I
don’t know about you, but I’m sick and tired of watching “new” routines mental
magicians create that are nothing more than variations of,
“Inside this envelope is an image of Tom Cruise in Cancún and if you focus on his
hand he’s holding the 4 of Clubs.”
I hate seeing these types of routines as they are not creative at all and it's
pretty clear in my eyes that a lot of DFB owners fall into this trap. More often than
not, the forcing lists these mental magicians create are given no proper social
context as to why they even have the list to begin with other than, “I want to
predict the outcome of 100 celebrities, locations,etc.” and it's also pretty clear most
of these performers have no clear sense of proper character/performance
development. However, with the scripting in place and how we are going to be
using DFB in this context fixes all problems, creating a spontaneous performance
of two-way telepathy.

Preparation
Obviously, as this is a DFB routine, the only set-up required is to create a list with
all twelve zodiac signs. This is how I have crafted my list just to subtly suggest
further for participants that I used this list to remember important details for each
of the signs:
With this list crafted, set your sun sign as the forcing option in the DFB settings
and you now have a self-working psychic miracle in your pocket!

The Script
“Just out of curiosity, without telling me what yours is, how much do you know
about astrology?”
This is a gauging question I ask participants I feel like performing a reverse
sun sign divination for. If they admit to knowing a fair bit about astrology, I
tend to use the Beautiful Soul method. For those who admit to not knowing
 much (yet expressing an interest to learn more about it), I find myself using
the Sign to Sign method instead. In this case the participant will admit to not
knowing much about astrology.
“Ok, that's fine if you don’t know much about astrology. Admittedly, I didn’t know
much about this oracle either until a few years ago. If you are down for it, would
you like to play an easy game I created that I used to first learn how to read star
signs from people?”
The participant agrees to play. If they don’t agree, segue into something else
or don’t perform anything for them at all.
“I will be the first to admit that when I first tried guessing star signs from people, I
was wrong all the fucking time! This is because things such as star signs, names,
and drawings are quite complex thoughts to be able to read from anyone! When I
first decided I wanted to learn how to read people, I realized real quickly I had to
start small and divine simple thoughts such as shapes, colors, and numbers before
I was ready to even think about guessing any complex thoughts! A long while ago,
I created a list of all the zodiac signs alongside basic information such as their
element category and a few simple traits so that in my spare time, I could
memorize them. I also numbered them so that I could have people think of their
sign’s corresponding number and send that to me instead.”
These lines of scripting is what justifies the performer having this list on their
phone. One common topic that's discussed with DFB routines is thinking of
ways of making sense as to why we have these lists on our notes app. I,
amongst a quite a large number of performers, absolutely fucking hate it
when someone just randomly has a list of ‘100 random celebrities’ on their
phone. In regard to my personal journey into Mentalism, this small
explanation does ring true for the most part. When I first got into Mentalism,
I genuinely believed that Mentalism was all psychological forces! The first
things I learned how to do was proplessly force thoughts such as the number
seven, a triangle and square, and the colors red and blue! It wasn’t until later
in my studies that I learned of mechanical methods to be able to divine
thoughts such as names, countries, PIN codes, etc. Anytime I am performing, I
always attempt to include moments of truth to not only make my
performances more authentic, but to also balance out the fact I decided to
dedicate a lifetime to an artform that requires me to be a pathological liar!
“If you overthink this too much then your chances of getting this completely wrong
increases… allowing your intuition to take charge, allow a number between one
and twelve to come to mind that you think belongs to my star sign… give me a nod
when you have a number in mind.”
The participant confirms they have a number in mind. For these styles of
routines, it is vitally important to craft moments in which the participant
genuinely feels like their process to land on a thought REALLY matters. This
is another thing I think is missing from DFB routines. In 99% of DFB
routines, performers quickly ask for the participant to name a number, they
proceed to quickly que the force to that number, and proceed to reveal their
sealed envelope of Tom Cruise in Cancún holding the Four of Clubs. I will
admit I used to do the very same thing back when I used DFB for similar
trivial routines. The next line of scripting uses a common ploy us mentalists
use in order to create an extra hit during a direct divination. Within the
contexts of this effect, this ploy will instead be used to really solidify to both
the participant and the surrounding spectators the importance of following
what their intuition is telling them.
“Just to verify a hunch I’m getting from you right now… did you overthink a little
bit and think of two numbers before finally landing on one?
Very rarely do I get a participant who claims they stuck with one number
during their entire intuitive process. When this does happen I say something
like,
“Okay great! You followed my first instruction to not overthink this process as I did
say before that overthinking tends to drastically increase the chances of being
wrong in life.”
With the more likely outcome of the participant confirming they struggled
between two numbers I say something like,
“So right now you have two possible numbers in mind. To be honest, this does
increase your chances of being wrong. Focus on these two numbers for me and
take a deep breath in… and breathe out. Take your time and using only your
feelings, which number do you think has a higher chance of being the correct
choice?”
Let's say for this example that the participant chose the number nine as their
answer. With this number known, que the force to this number and open up
the list.
“Before we take a look at the sign that’s at number nine, let’s see where you could
have been if you chose the other number, which was…?”
The participant says their other choice was four.
“If you were to have chosen four instead then the sign would have been…
Capricorn. I will tell you right now that I am not a Capricorn…”
Performer now directs their attention to the audience.
“Out of curiosity, is there anybody here who is a Capricorn?”
Nobody confirms
“Good thing you didn’t choose four then! If you were doing this intuitive
experiment with anyone else here, you would have been completely wrong going
with that number. Based purely on all of your intuitive decisions, you felt that nine
made the most sense, which is…Scorpio. Be honest with me, if you were to find out
that my star sign was Scorpio, how would you feel?”
The participant claims they would freak out if they were able to correctly
divine the performer’s sign. Same as in Beautiful Soul, the performer exposes
their astrology bracelet confirming Scorpio as their sign!

Another Method For Two Possible Numbers

Using a Peter Turner stock line that is layered throughout his body of work, this is
another way to make the participant think of two numbers that gives the whole
routine that therapeutic vibe,
“What I’m feeling from you is that when it comes to making important choices in
your life, you tend to struggle between your head and your heart more often than
you’d care to admit.”
Participant freaks out the performer reveals something as personal as this!
“Don’t say these choices out loud, but using your head, which encompasses logic
and reason, land on a number between one and twelve. When you have this number
in mind, do the exact opposite and land on another number using your heart, which
encompasses intuition and emotion. Please remember these two numbers.
Reflecting on previous choices you’ve made so far in life, which part of your being,
your head or your heart, has led you to making the most wrong decisions in life?”
The participant says they tend to make the wrong decisions due to following
their heart too much
 “So the next time you have a decision to make that will influence a major part of
your life, go with the outcome that the logical part of yourself is telling you to do.
With this mind, what was the number you generated using your logic and reason?
Que the force to this number and proceed to show them the sign that
corresponds to their ‘heart number.’ Proving this to be incorrect will reinforce
for the participant to stop making decisions based purely on emotional
factors. When I use this line, I give them a short reading that empowers the
participant to make smarter decisions in the future, no matter which aspect of
self they say leads them down to making incorrect decisions.

Additional Idea #1
If another spectator’s sign has been harvested before performing Sign to
Sign, quickly switch the force to the proper sign. With this set-up done, Sign to
Sign can be used as an app-based version of In Your Feelings.

Additional Idea #2
If the participant’s sign has been harvested, the words placed for each sign
can be used for a word divination as well. The method I use to easily divine a
thought of word comes from Dee Christopher’s project Zodiac (which at the time
of writing is available at PenguinMagic.com). For each of the signs I do have the
words memorized due to a memory pegging system. However, in situations in
which a brain fart squeezes its way out, a quick glance at the notes list will
instantly tell me what word the participant will eventually choose.

Additional Idea #3
I have been having a lot of fun using Sign To Sign to force someone I have
pre-showed amongst a number of other participants in order to make a Spectator
Selection seem fair. The reason why this particular person was chosen for a larger
effect is not because the performer randomly picked them out of the crowd, but
because this person was able to successfully divine the performer’s sun sign!