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Hidden Things
Slash, Hack, & Saw

Mysticum Artium Magister

The Inner Eye

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LARRY KUEHN

A TKFT Book
Gainesville, Texas, USA
Dedicated To The Memory Of Ed Fowler
The Master of The Modern Séance
And a wonderful Erle many years.

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Contents

Acknowledgements
Foreword [11
TF Preface V
hapter 1 The Primrose Path 1
hapter 2 The Séance As We Know It 7
Chapter 3 Some Thoughts About This Approach 13
Chapter 4 The Opening 9E
(Ehapter 5 She's BACK! oF 37
Chapter 6 Twenty QuestionsiOr More 43
Chapter 7 Scrying Versus Staring 61
Chapter 8 Scrying Time & The Apparition! 61
Chapter 9 Wait, There's More! 71
Chapter 10 Alternatives i
Chapter 11 Traveler Butts In 85
Interesting Statistics About Americans 89

Continuing Education 91
Acknowledgements

These are the people who generously offered me input

as [ was hammering away trying to get the following thoughts
straight. Writing becomes easier when you have friends that
will suddenly say “What if???” when you are trying to main-
tain logic and make things understandable for other people

tp perform.
(=

& In no particular order they are Terry Tyson, Jim Magus,

yd Auerbach, Christopher Thisse, Pete McMillan, Banachek,

Richard Busch, Rob Orander, Mark Edward, Mike Glide and

lando Santos. And Yitzhak Schlomi who turns my beautiful

pages into a snowstorm of Red comas’and crossed out words.

3 XS

E Please look at the treas rove of papers available

online about skeptical thinking and fooling people. One
authored by Ray Hyman, Professor Emeritus of Psychology at
The University of Oregon in Eugene, Oregon is essential for
learning about doing Cold Readings. Yes, Cold Reading is a

very doable thing to use on Sitters during a Séance.

Of course there is the inspiration from others who are

no longer with us such as Ormand McGill, Bob Cassidy, Tony
Andruzzi, Dennis Marks, Larry White, Carl Heron, Ed
Solomon, Al Mann, Ned Rutledge, and Ed Fowler.

Finally as always Shelly, my wife with her Journalism

Degree spilling correction notes and typo alerts with glee-
ful abandon attempting to make me appear literate. She also
uses purple ink to get my attention!

[1
Foreword

One of the finest conspiracies ever created came from the

sophisticated mind of the unknown person that composed the childish
rhyme, “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never

harm me.”

7 “Words will never harm me.” Ain't that cute?

r=
There are few things in our world more powerful than

Qords. Words are what bind us together into a civilization. They are
dso what tear us apart. They make us fall in love and they can break

our hearts. Words are used to create thoughts and ideas in the minds
of people, and these lead to ivi that create or destroy.

his is something deeply understood in the worlds of politics and

religion. Words are the tools dd utld power; and control others.

SP
In the following pages, you will find a collection of words put
forth by Lary Kuehn. These words will show you how you can ethi-
cally manipulate the thoughts and beliefs of individuals for joyously

dark entertainment purposes.

If you follow what is written in this book, you will be able to

create the illusion in the minds of people that they have encountered
a ghost. Now, that is an all-around appealing idea, isn’t it? I mean,
who wouldn't want to have that kind of experience? And what ma-
gician wouldn't want to be able to create that kind of experience for

people?

The good news is that you don’t have to use high-tech expen-
sive CGI-laden Augmented Reality to pull this off. All that’s really
need are a handful of simple props and those

[1]
powerful tools... words. You will use these to set the proper mood and

fill the minds of your participants with imagery and suggestions that
will kickstart their imaginations and point them in the right direc-

tion to encounter spirits.

The only drawback to this approach is that it is not completely

foolproof. The methods presented in this book are a bit fragile. For-

tunately, this book is being written by a man that is speaking from

experience. What he is writing about are not unproven theories. No,

he bad been road testing and refining this material for decades. Sim-
Bly put, it works.

tore

When Lary performs, be often does so as his alter-ego 1.

Fverett Bookings I11. This persona is not something that Lary hides
ehinds. He doesn't try to lose himself when performing as 1. Everett.
istead, Lary bas found himself in this here He has taken ele-
gens of his own personality and merely amplified them. The result
that be is a real person, and there3s nothing “put on” about him. He

comes off as a charming and engdging man that bas been places you

didn’t know existed, seen things beyond your imagination, and knows

things that you could not comprehend. All of this makes bis spectators
lean in and eagerly go wherever he takes them.

Lary is about to take you on a journey. I have no doubt you

will enjoy the ride. Absorb what be has written in these pages and
before you know it, you too will be bringing forth the spirits.

Todd Robbins
May 2020

V
Preface

Have you ever had a brain jolt come along that ap-
pears as an innocuous question and then turns out to not
be simple at all? That's happened to me on many occasions.
Usually after several weeks of banging on my forehead, I end
up sitting down and writing out “what if “ questions. Inevita-
bly this leads down a rabbit hole with more questions. They
al have answers that seem to fit somehow, but when they
don’t, that means a big something is missing.

Obviously after more major headaches you begin to

fealize that you better create some sort of a story that con-

fects this jumble into a logical Seagence. That always seems

£0 be how my books have startegddife.

No

Here is the questionghat sprung the trap this time.

What is the most dynangse thing you could do to END a

Séance? From my viewpoint, that seemed pretty simple. |
wanted people to believe they had actually seen a Ghost! |
already knew an easy way to make that work.

Oops, some small details appeared to be missing.

What is the actual narrative that will lead to the point of a
simple solution? Oh, and this whole performance must be
clean of expensive gaffs and rigging. It needs to be a one-per-
son show, but one helper is nice. They are there to only help
seat the people, be pleasant, and finally show them out.

This Seance needs to be flexible so that you can make

changes between performances in case you have repeat cus-

tomers. You should be able to change things totally on the fly

if needed during the actual show.

V
This becomes the time to start an intensive refresher
course into the history of Ghosts, Spooks, Séances, and cul-
tural traditions, and finally sitting down and letting words
spatter all over blank pages.

Attempting to sort all of this out is enough to make a

grown man want to Scry!

Lary Kuehn
May 2020

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Chapter 1
The Primrose Path

The moment you start to delve into the history of

Séances, you'll discover that practicing spirit communication
has had more than one branch. In fact it has been split into
different styles and then followed different paths for centu-

es. The word itself originated from an “old French” word

Beoir” meaning “to sit”. By the 1700s the English meaning
nsitioned into becoming “a group of people gathering

together to communicate with ghosts or spirits”.

3 &

neept of Spiritualism became

actice. The American Heri-

amore organized religious ps?

tage® Dictionary of The Engl
it, when used as a noun;as “A meeting of people to receive
spiritualistic messages.”

Services as they were sometimes called took two main

formats. One was an inspirational lecture finally resulting
in questions being answered by a departed spirit though a
medium. The person making contact might be the speaker
or in many cases, a second person. Regardless, the person
who was making contact was acting as the medium or go-
between the spirit world and the living world. Of course this
led to many debates between various factions or groups as
to who was the most “gifted” in making “real contact” with

departed souls. The craze quickly covered the U.S. and then
the U.K.

Perhaps the prime example of how offshoots and cons

1
developed is the story behind Helena Petrovna von Hahn. At
age seventeen she married Nikifor Vladimirovich Blavatsky

who was in his forties. However, the marriage only lasted

about three months. Yet after the divorce she continued to
use his last name for the rest of her life as Helena Petrovna

Blavatsky:

When her father attempted to bring her back to St.

Petersburg from Odessa she ran away. At the age of seventeen
she smuggled herself to Constantinople sometime in 1848.

Then in 1873 she suddenly appeared in New York. Wherever

she bounced from and landed, she would create more wild
Gstories and methods of separating people from their money.
This was also the beginning of her preference to be referred
=t0 only by her initials H.P.B. She probably sets the all time

record for being exposed and then simply denying everything

before moving on to her next scheme;

3
3 Throughout her life she gever accepted responsibil-

ity for what she did. It was always the fault of people out to
“destroy” her. Ironically ifraddition to her inner circle, oth-

ers would loyally continue to support her regardless of how

blatant her current scheme became.

Her specialty was coming up with “secret” religious

societies, all of which possessed special knowledge that was
available only through her. The most famous became The
Theosophical Society founded in 1875. Followers were kept
up to date by letters from her giving them instructions which
must be obeyed in able to remain in the favor of the “mystic
ones". Also H.P.B. used these letters to scream about her
Innocence no matter what the real or imagined cons were
she was being accused of at any one time.

Then she wrote a two-volume set of books Isis Un-

C———————————eeeeeeeeeees
2
veiled. Amazingly people with occult-slanted ideas seemed

to love them. This was in spite of the books being an

attack on mainstream Spiritualism. The New York Times

even refused to review the books because they were so

unreadable.

During this period she began to look for a new ter-

ritory to replenish her shrinking money supply. She began
writing to wealthy Hindus in India. By nature, these people
are very polite, so they wrote back. H.P.B. mistakenly took
this as a welcome to come and plunder. A few of the upper
cfass helped her but the British Colonials living there were

ot impressed by her antics.

2 She began to really bore down on her followers to get

them hooked on The Great Mahatmas. Of course in order to

protect themselves these “Masters ’ upposedly lived in mys-

ti¢al Tibet. People who visited hein India would occasion-
dlly see a fleeting person in the®

1etiiouse and were told it was a

Mahatma delivering a message for her. In reality, it was only

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one of her servants dresséd all in white.

&

To enhance the mystery further she built an “inner

sanctum” in the house to act as her astral post office. Here
she could send and receive messages from the holy ones.
Letters or notes were always found in a previously empty
large locked mailbox in middle of the room. Later it was
discovered that there was a secret entry into the room with
sliding panels in the box so H.P.B. could slip in correspon-
dence addressed to individual believers to keep them in line.

Finally out of money again, she returned to London

attempting to create and maintain new groups that would
be completely loyal to her. This core group was known as the
E.G., standing for Esoteric Group. As always if they got out of
favor with Madame, she then formed a new bunch known as
the I.G., meaning Inner Group.
The I.G. members supposedly received extremely
sensitive knowledge about the most secret of all holy orders,
The Theosophical Society. She never gave up on that one.

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Helena Pétrovna Blavatsky

Over her career she literally conned people on four

different continents. At the very end, as an old a frail woman,

H.P.B. continued to justify her extreme actions until her passing

on May 8, 1891.

Some theories have suggested that Madame Blavatsky and

her creations have led to the mega-sized contemporary evan-
gelical groups we have seen since the 1950s. Her con jobs might
even be the root basis for a concept that Jim and Tammy Faye
Bakker developed. Gather a crowd, convince the audience you
have a direct connection to a higher way of life, and then for a
generous donation, the donors will achieve the answers they are
looking for in their own existence. The end result will also be be-
ne oie to communicate freely with entities at this much higher
evel.

ee ————e
4
Sadly it's nothing but a con job, always ending badly.
The Bakker’s empire collapsed, Jim Bakker went to prison
and Tammy Faye divorced him while he was behind bars.

While she never faced any charges, her second hus-

band Ron Messner was also convicted of financial fraud.
After many more emotional and financial struggles, she died
from cancer in 2007.

Jim Bakker was finally released from prison and soon,

ith new wife Lori, was up running new versions of various
Yeams. They are now based in the Branson, Missouri area
@long with both his TV show headquarters and a store. In
fdarly March of 2020, the N.Y. Attorney General's office issued
& Cease-and-Desist letter to stop his store from selling an
fnproven medical tonic “Silver Solution” as a cure for Corona

Virus.

LLY
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Chapter 2
The Séance As We Know It

With the emergence of the Fox Sisters in 1848, the

idea of sitting around a table holding hands and asking ques-
tions of the spirits began. Since it was the Fox Sisters, the
questions were answered with raps. This format is suppos-
edly the first one to involve people being in a darkened room.
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Kate and Margaret Fox

All sorts of wondrous manifestations would now

begin to take place in that setting. Regardless of the venue,
it didn’t take long for rampant fraud and showmanship to
arrive. Who exactly invented the idea of getting one hand
loose in the dark to help create a manifestation is lost to his-
tory. The result was always the same. By taking advantage of
people trying to contact someone who had passed over to

7
the “other” side, it was actually about making money, not
about offering emotional support.

Eventually a written report about these shenanigans

was published by a group of University of Pennsylvania
faculty members. It alerted the public that fraud was behind
every case they had investigated. The report was known as
researched and written by The Seybert Commission. Re-
vealed in its pages were the methods for making messages
appear on blank slates, rapping sounds, and the movement of
inanimate objects untouched by humans. They even exposed

Ane “tricks” of ghosts appearing in photographs beside living

Subjects.

&

The “true believers” in Spiritualism attacked the un-

isiling of the fraud in 1887 so vocally that the commission
disbanded and stopped all future investigations. Ironically
fhe report itself had been made po 5 with funds from

an endowment left to the University by a gentleman named

Henry Seybert. He was well § now n as being a devoted
Spiritualist! oF

Meanwhile around the world, the practice of fore-

telling the future was plugging right along. Suddenly both
contacting spirits and fortune telling merged into a conglom-

eration that resembles what many people today think of as

being a Séance.

This union eventually evolved into our own niche in

the entertainment industry. So you may call it Spirit Theater,
Ghost Hunting, Ghost Collecting or An Evening of Paranor-
mal Experiences, basically all are just different names for the
same thing. Even better this also gives us a historical back-
drop to perform our own variations before an audience.

Many scholars have suggested that fortune telling

ee ——— a ———————— eee pm

8
originated in Egypt. Others have proclaimed India or even

Turkey as the source. Because of the languages used to

describe the various methods, Romania seems to be the
origination point where the variations mixed together. This
makes sense in that many Romanian family groups or clans
became known as the Roma or Gypsies. In fact the Romanian
word for Séance is Spiritism (pronounced spira-tay-see). As
a culture they became associated with fortune telling in the
minds of many people as they traveled across the countries
of Europe. The Irish referred to them as Travelers as a way
of tipping off others to be careful when doing business with
These wanderers.
< . |
0 Regardless of the origins, they established patterns
Jor the methodology of foretelling what the future would
Bring. Or simply, in trying to explain why something hap-
ened the way it did! Naturally, every change adopted seems
Bs become the one “true” wager another particular group of

—slevotees.

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With this bucigbunt in mind, consider the structur-

ing of your own act. Since I have a hardheaded Druid type
neighbor, a lot of what follows is from his influence. Actually
this is also the same focus that T. Everett Bookings, III fol-
lows from a psychological angle. Obviously you will create
your own ideas, but using this general outline may speed
things up as you refine your own performance.

Who are you? Maybe you prefer to play a mystic from

a different culture. Perhaps you are a scholar presenting
an educational experiment into paranormal thinking. Then

again, you may be simply recreating a person from a differ-

ent era.

My personal ideas line up with those of Everett be-

cause I can be myself. | am someone who has a curious bent

9
for liking to discover ghostly things. So far | haven't been
tarred or feathered for promoting a new woo woo religion to
con people out of money. I want people to think that maybe

ghosts and spooky things really do exist around us. By pro-

fessing to be a collector of spooky tales and objects, this
becomes logical to an audience. It also is a scary, yet enter-
taining, experience that people actually enjoy. This can be a
case of where your age helps fuel people’s imagination by
reinforcing that things are based on actual past adventures,
or alternatively, that youthful exuberance is fine because it
shows you enjoy excitement by discovering things as you

advance in life.

The biggest reality is that you need to practice not

only your effects and script but being convincing. If things
at you do or say are logical and plausible, then that grows
ur believability to others. This really’pays off at the end of
fo performance, when your eudighce actually feels that
ey HAVE seen a real ghost!
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And yet you still a eSthe same person they first met

when you walked into the room. Your power of suggestion

will be more powerful than any gaff or electronic toy. This
doesn’t mean you must put sitters into a deep-state clini-
cal trance, only craft your words and actions to cause them
to suspend their own disbelief during your performance. It
takes a lot of thinking on your part about how to get people
to naturally go along with what you are telling them, but
the main idea is keep things simple. Simplicity helps incline
them to react the way you want them to.

JXOLC

How should you handle the “fortune telling” aspects

of the performance? Once again -- repeat to yourself -- that
this is not a show of Mental Magic predictions done in a
darkened setting. Remember that “fortune telling” is still

considered a crime in some countries or even our own

EE ————

10
states. Prognosticating the future for a person is something I
don’t touch under any circumstances. Fortune Telling doesn't
do anything to help scare an audience for entertainment!

Instead take a look at the history of how people have

attempted to foretell the future. This is not contradicting
what I said earlier but to suggest tools to consider using to

help s summon something from another plane. However, there

8 v real difference between doing a “personal reading”

and “te ng: ortune”, This avoids the stigma of vou being
if 1) . . . .
eferred to as a “fortune teller” and eliminates the illegality
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6
Chapter 3
Some Thoughts About This Approach

Unlike most books (including those I've written) this

one concentrates on creating the end of the performance.
When you think about it the ending, good or bad, is actu-
ally what most people will remember. Even though you may
have performed some nifty effects throughout the show, the
closing has got to hit a high note that lands it.

Consider how many agonizing performances you've

seen where the star appears with a bang in a flash of fire
and smoke. Boy do people like that! They probably don't
remember how dramatically exquisite the closing was using
all those shiny ring things for forty-five minutes and then,
finally, they all became linked together. In fact what they
really remembered was the flash and bang at the start of
the show. The clown act with the twisted balloons that usu-
ally followed was almost a relief! The amazing and magical
opening had totally cancelled any hope for a memorable
ending. That should NOT be your intent. You have to start
simply and then build logically to the climax.

Continue using this line of thought to focus on one

thing. You want people to honestly believe that somehow a
ghost has made its presence known. If the setting is the tra-
ditional form of people gathering around a table, you prob-
ably will have eight to twelve as an audience. If only four
or five of them feel they have witnessed an encounter, then
the others will begin to think that they also experienced the
same thing. By the time you close the Séance, most will

EE ———— EE — EE —

13
feel that an otherworldly shade or spirit really did pay a visit
during the evening.

Begin by making up your own mind as to whom you

are trying to contact. Is it a male, a female, or a child? You
make your own choice. The person you have chosen then
becomes the cornerstone for your script. Now start to craft
the effects you need to make contact with the “ghost” you've

chosen.

In general, for your performance an old-fashioned

dining table with four legs is ideal. The problem is that you
may have trouble seating more than about six people around
it and you also need a seat at the table. This means if you
aren't performing at a fixed location, you have to drag a table
wherever you are going to perform.

Consider using a round table. A sixty-inch table seats

eight people or a seventy-two inch size will seat ten. These
really aren't that expensive to buy from a Big Box store and
are also the standard tables used by zillions of restaurants
and hotels. If you perform at a venue that already has them,
you are home free. The trade off is that the number of people
you can have for sitters is not always going to be the tra-
ditional twelve people plus you as the performer. But, you
won't have to supply the chairs either. You can even get the
right size of tablecloth at Walmart on the cheap and bring
your own. It should drape down so that the lower edge is
about a foot above the floor.

Your table size will determine the size of the audience.

Also, this may mean that you need to book two shows an
evening. However if you think back to the beginning of this

book, part of the overall concept is you won't have a bunch

of props to reset.

EE

14
Or, you can work with a different layout entirely. |
actually measured a table in a favorite restaurant the other
day. It was very heavy and was four by four feet square. The
four chairs were proportional for the size of the table. How-
ever, it worked out I could fit two more chairs at two corners
so there would be five people seated at the table along with
myself. My space was the broadest, but that works fine and
gave me the little extra space to stand or sit as I place and
shift things on the table top. To keep you from being con-
fused here are illustrations of the actual layouts. In every
case your chair is the one at the bottom.

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If you added three more chairs on each of two sides

set them back about thirty inches from the people grouped
around the table. This gives you a total of eleven customers
and that means more revenue for you.

15
See the difference the maximum size makes? But you
have to make the call based on the size room where you are

performing.

Your focus is to always keep the structure simple and

on the path to the ending of the Séance. Actually there can be
multiple venues for this type of performance, but the reality
of what you want to accomplish is not going to usually work
as well in an auditorium. Going to the “lecture hall” format
might slip you from a Séance into a religious or con meeting

mode.

The ideal way is always going to be in using the in-

timacy of twelve people sitting around a table. You are the
thirteenth acting as the facilitator or medium. Possibly you
might perform your show as a slightly larger piece of inti-
mate theatre, but this format might force you into having to
create a more visual "bangs for the buck” performance.

[ am a big believer in having an assistant to escort

people into the room and seating them at the table. They can

easily ask people to sit with someone other than their nor-
EE —————————————————

16
mal partner. The assistant explains that Séances appear to be
more successful when people aren’t next to a person they al-
ready know. He or she also explains any other do’s or don'ts
that are required for everyone to experience an interesting
evening. This is all done as gentle suggestions to improve the
chances of having a “spectral visitor” join the group.

All your planning should be on how to make this so

the outcome is simple and totally clean. No elaborate or
expensive gadgets are needed. You are aiming at ONE target,
making people think they have actually SEEN a ghost. Of
course there are other things that we will do to make this
OCCUr.

In this suggested format you aren't dependent on hav-

ing to perform in total darkness. That means no more worry
about people actually holding hands and then you doing a
“slip a hand free” medium’s grip maneuver.

Don’t form the traditional hand-holding ring. This also

takes care of things like any COVID-19 concerns The Sitters
may have.

In fact don’t even mention holding hands. State as you

begin talking that tradition “tells us” that everyone occasion-
ally may be asked to place their hands flat on the table in
front of them. This helps to create a powerful force in com-
bining their energy and enhancing contacting a “ ghostly
visitor”. Don’t forget, you also use salt to create a circle of
protection for safety around the entire audience, just as your
assistant wiped the table down to make sure it was clear of
any negative forces that might have been left behind.

All of this B.S. gives you the flexibility of people having

their hands available to assist in other aspects of the Séance.
An example is if you choose to do a pendulum in a bottle

17
thing, they have been told that they may need to place their
hands flat on the table to interact together. Little things like

this help make the show fluid from both their own and your
perspective.

As the lighting gets dimmer and you are getting closer

to the “Stare” they will never realize you have been depriv-
ing them of some of their senses using the darkness and
your words. Technically this is sensory deprivation. Nobody
has said you can’t be sneaky with some of the things you do

during the evening!

The scent of flowers is useful, but it should be subtle.

Only a whiff of a floral smell helps plant the idea that a shade

has visited briefly.

By sitting around the table, people also tend to be

drawn deeper into what is happening. A person’s natural re-
action will be pushed the same way as someone else’s that's
in close proximity. Repeat mentally again that if three or four

out of twelve people think something is “happening” then

the odds will increase that several more will start believing

the same thing. This is known as Emotional Contagion.

You partially set this up by explaining how spirits

are inherently curious. Tell them that like the small candles
flickering and with everyone speaking softly, a soft bell-like
sound may help entice one or more ghosts to pause for a
visit. Some historians over the years have suggested that
certain spirits become attached or attracted to a certain
number as well.

Now begin to explain about the ways of communicat-

Ing or summoning a ghost or spirit. Depending on people’s

culture there are various techniques to use to establish con-
I

18
tact. In all cases the basis is about showing respect for the
departed.

Here are a couple of examples to illustrate this type

of cultural background. Both of these are firmly grounded in
respect for those who are no longer among the living.

Perhaps one of the earliest known rituals is the Tao-

ist practice of burning Joss Paper seen in various Oriental
Cultures. Archeologists generally have dated this starting
around 1000 BCE. Depending on the country, the traditions
vary from showing respect for the departed to the worship
of special gods to even making sure the person will have
wealth in the afterlife.

Some translations call the paper offerings being

burned as ghost or spirit money. One example is the sale of
the various types of paper used in Taiwan for Joss burning.
[t was reported to be over $400 million dollars and that es-
timate was for 2014 alone. In 2020 no one knows how much
will be spent there for Joss paper. Now take all the other
countries that practice these beliefs and multiply. There is
a lot of financial respect for ancestors scattered around the
globe!

One of the simplest forms of Joss paper is a rough

sheet made from bamboo pulp with a rectangle of gold leaf
in the center. This is usually burned “as is”. It is intended to
appease wandering spirits that do not have families to pay
respect for them. The highest use occurs during the Hungry
Ghost Festival which is an annual festival celebrated on the
15th day of the Ghost Month which is the 7th month in the
lunar calendar. It is believed that these wandering spirits
have been released and return to visit the living and roam
about the earth.

14
Another major celebration of respect for the departed
Is the annual Dia de Los Muertos. This festival has its foot-
Ings dating back long before being discovered by the Con-
quistadors in 16th century Mexico. By that era the roots for

this celebration had already spread from the Aztec Empire

throughout much of Meso-America. This region encom-
passes the other countries of Costa Rica, Belize, El Salvador,
Nicaragua, and Honduras. Soon, it was down into Bolivia,
Brazil and Peru and the rest of South America.

Ironically it was not well known or even practiced in

Northern Mexico or the U.S. until the 20th Century when the

Mexican government declared it a national holiday. Today

the custom is also beginning to be celebrated in other parts

of the world including Australia.

Since the 1960s it has become very familiar in the

United States. Unfortunately many people look at it as an ex-

tension of Halloween. The reality is that this is a celebration
for the lives of departed family members. It covers a period
of three days starting on October 31st (All Hallows Eve)
remembering departed children. The celebration continues
on November 1st and 2nd. Since November 1st is also All
Saints Day on the Christian Calendar this is considered to be
when the adult spirits return to visit. Finally November 2nd
is All Souls Day when the emphasis is shifted to visiting the
cemeteries.

Families create altars in their homes and decorate

graves in the cemeteries. The relatives place food, drinks,
and items that were favorites of the departed on these small
altars. The main focus is a celebration of joy and remem-
brance of loved ones. The flower of choice is the rich golden
orange of the Mexican Marigold. Everything from a favorite
brand of cigars to the departed’s drink of choice is provided
as a sign to let the loved one know that they are missed.

te ————————
20
Assuming that you are now all seated, it is time to
set the table. All of the needed items should fit into a rather
small wooden box. Alert! Don’t jump off the deep end by try-
ing to age the box to the point of appearing to be hundreds
of years old. It should be a plain wooden box that shows a
little wear. The contents are also very simple.

a. Four red glass votive candleholders.

b. Red Wax (solid red wax, not just coated) Tea

Light or Votive Candles. Make sure that they are
Un-scented!

c. Box of small wooden matches (these are still

found in most grocery stores)

Using wooden matches makes it easier to light

the little candles in the small glass holders.

d. A small bottle or even something like an Aspirin tin

filled with Salt.

e. Small Port Glass - These look like a small wine

glass. They are about 6 inches tall.

f. Pendulum - your choice as to what it looks like.

A single Quartz Crystal on a short chain is fine. A

small locket is also good if you have decided you are
going to contact the shade of a child or an elderly lady.
Just dumpster dive in nearly any "Antique Mall” booth
and you should see piles of them in showcases. Even
the drop from an old chandelier to tie it to an old
possibly haunted house.

g. A small brass or chrome plated bowl for use

as an ashtray. Indian Food Markets usually have

these for a couple of dollars.

h. Black River Rock —- Mine measures about

3” long by 2” wide by 1 1/4" thick. This rock

must be solid black, not dark grey and be highly

polished and smooth. I use colorless furniture

grade Beeswax to coat and shine the rock to maintain

the gloss. The shiny surface is very important.

21
i. Red Velvet drawstring bag to hold the rock.
You need one that is a size that will hold a Tarot
deck. I'll explain why you need one this large

later.

j. A small pad of paper. Plain white or yellow

Post-it® Notes are fine. The 3” x 3” size is perfect
for our use. Even better is because everyone at
the table is used to seeing them all of the time.
Naturally you have a ballpoint pen so they can
write something. Also cut some 5 x 3 index cards
in half. They should be plain on both sides. You
need a stack of fifteen to twenty of these small
cards to make them appear in scale to everything
else on the table.

k. Four or five paper clips.

l. Corsage pin. Go by a florist shop and ask if they

will sell you several. You need them to help your
son or daughter (or some other child) with a
science project. Note that I suggest you offer to
“buy” the pins. The pins cost the florist money

so be sincere and offer to pay for the pins. Actu-

ally, have NEVER had one accept any money yet.
It's not the cost but the principle that shows I
understand they are in business and I am asking
them to give me something so I don’t have to buy
a case full of pins.

m. Cigarette Lighter - Sure you have the small

wood matches but a Lighter works better for
one-handed setting something on fire if you need
it.

n. Breath Mints or a breath spray. You use this

before you meet your audience. Good breath

will play a key part in one of the effects you may

want to consider for your performance.

22
0. A small flat piece of clear plastic measuring about 5”
by 7”. You can usually find these at any Hobby Lobby
or other craft store. Just look for them as a replace-
ment for picture frame use. It will act as a small place-
mat under the wine glass on the table.

If the above looks like a “don’t forget to pack it list’, that’s

exactly what it is!

You would be amazed at how many “professional per-

formers” forget to follow this simple rule. It is as stupid as
forgetting to have the oil changed on a car which leads to a
very sick engine.

23
24
ie

Chapter 4
The Opening

Here are some of the things | say to The Sitters. This

doesn’t give you every tiny syllable or inflection, but should
give you the feel for setting the right atmosphere. Please
don't memorize my words as your script, but use them as an
outline to create your own persona.

Start with how you walk into the room and approach
the table. Be relaxed and let your body language telegraph
that you are a nice person and not a demagogue attempting
to convert them to a religion. Remember, there has been no
previous introduction of you personally to the group. Your
assistant has already left the room about three or four min-
utes before you enter. This is not a performance that needs
an MC to mess things up. It definitely isn't a corporate gig
where a CEO has to say something. This is your show, so you
own it!

Pull back your chair and sit down while setting your
box on the table. Don’t say a word!

Begin to set objects on the table and then quietly start

to speak to the guests.

“Do you believe in Ghosts? I do!

“My name is T. Everett Bookings, but call me Everett.

This evening we are going on an adventure to a borderland

world. It’s inhabited by beings that no longer reside among

£5
the living. Yet the barrier between those beings and ourselves
IS very thin. In fact most of us don’t realize this unseen curtain
is even there. These beings are always very close no matter
where we are located.

“Tonight our goal is to attempt to make contact with

spirits from this unseen world.

“You see am a Ghost Collector. am not a Ghost

Hunter. I don’t enjoy hunting anything! Growing up I noticed
other people collecting things. You know stamps, coins, auto-
graphs, just stuff. never did figure out what the girls collected
though.

“Then I read a book at the library about ghosts and

their stories. That's when I decided 1'd like to collect Ghosts! I
could try and attract one, find out as much as I could, and then
go try to find another one to communicate with.

“This certainly isn’t as easy as you think it might be.

In fact, after over seventy plus years I'm still collecting and
learning about contacting these beings. For one thing they are
shy. Some of them are lonely. Or, they might be looking for an
old love or a family member. Many are attached to a specific
location or attracted to an object. They want to hang around
to see what's going on or even help protect an item. They all

have a story connected to them. What we want to see is if we

can find out what that story is about.

"Of course there are others who really are “free spirits’,
so to speak. They just love to zoom about and see the world

non-stop from a different perspective than when they lived in

a mortal body.

"The fun part for us is when you have “someone” un-

known show up for the party that isn’t what or who you were
a

26
expecting. That does happen on occasion.

“My premise behind collecting is very simple. If ghosts

do exist, then we should be able to contact them! The key
behind making contact is you need to find out about a poten-
tial ghost. Then you try to entice it to make a sign or use some
form of communication to indicate its presence.

“This theory does not entail elaborate rituals or a for-

mal summoning to be successful. It does require a sense of pa-
tience, willingness to research old stories or local lore, and to
attempt to make contact with a specific entity. Sadly most of
the time the one you are trying to contact may not be around.
But, another buzzing past may stop for a visit!

“Here are some answers to questions you may already

have in mind. We are not attempting to contact the departed
friends or relatives of anyone seated here tonight. Don’t even
ask!

“We are not going to do anything that would upset any

of you OR any ghosts or shades that we might contact. We are
not going to ask any spirit or ghost contacted about what the
future may hold. And we certainly don’t intend to be insensi-
tive to anyone'’s religious beliefs.

“Over the years I have found that it helps tremendously

when you have an object present that relates to a ghost. That's
why I brought along a few objects that I feel may have connec-
tions to some entities 1'd like us to try and meet. Many of these
items have no relation between each other. Their only con-
nection is that they each belonged to someone or from a place
that no longer exists in the world that we now know. Even
if an object doesn’t have a specific relationship to a ghost, it
might remind them of something that they did have a connec-
tion with in the past.

27
“We are only trying to see if we can make contact with
the other side and if those spirits will signal some sign of their
being with us in this room.

“If we are successful tonight and make even a single

contact, then we have as a group “collected” a Ghost! It really
will be a shared experience among all of us.”

Your emphasis is always slanted toward it being a

shared journey between The Sitters and you. In fact as you
do different segments of your act, make a point of asking dif-
ferent people, especially the ladies, to assume the role of the
Medium for a few moments.

Open your box and take out the bag holding the black
rock. Place it on the center of the table. Set the four votives,
each holding a candle, at four points around the bag. Each
should be about twelve inches away from the bag. Make sure
one of the candles is between your seating position and the
bag. To make it simple, set-up four candles around the bag
in a simple North, East, South, and West arrangement. Each
one is about the same distance from the bag to a sitter. You'll
understand why this is important later in the book.

Remove your box of matches and light each candle as

you place it in position. Finally close the matchbox and lay
it on the table about twelve inches to your left on a slight
diagonal.

"I'm not superstitious, but salt has always been used as

a circle of protection. So while I don’t expect anything to go
wrong, why take a chance? Also everyone needs to be still and
silent since we are trying to open this very elusive and fragile
portal into the other world.”

Take out your little container of salt and cast a “circle

EE ————

28
of protection” around the table. Again leave the container on
the table. I personally use a small bottle with a cork to hold
the salt. I pour a little pile into my hand, set the bottle down

and then take tiny pinches of salt to gently “toss” around.

You are only being symbolic, not adding salt to a meal. Don’t
aim at the sitters, just the space in front of them.

You now select several other objects from the box.

Set them so you can easily pick something up and then hand
it on to another person. Even if you don't use a certain ob-
ject during the performance, if it looks a little strange that
helps heighten the atmosphere by just sitting there. Here is a
couple of examples and how you rationalize having them.

One object is a black feather from a crow. In Native

American and many other cultures, the crow has always
been a type of courier between the real world and the spirit
world. So merely having this feather you found may help in
the evening's quest to pierce the veil. Yes, you can use the
feather in an effect, but in this case it merely is an item that a
ghost might recognize.

The same is true of a skeleton key. You don't need to

make it turn over or use it for a pendulum though you could
do both. Your explanation is it supposedly came from the
home of (insert the name of your ghost) and perhaps that
might be an object of interest to that spirit.

Remember that everything you place on the table

represents Ghost Bait. Just because you can create a bunch
of miracles with a few of them is beside the point. Don’t
cross that line! Otherwise you'll create a mishmash of tricks
only worthy to butcher before a local “magic” club. If you do
want to use an item then substitute it for something else to
perform. Don’t overload the Séance with so many tricks that

it becomes obvious you are out to fool The Sitters. They will
————————————————————————————————— ee memes pn

29
catch on VERY quickly that you are only playing games with
them. Everything needs to flow from one thing to the next.
You have to make the whole performance cohesive and logi-

cal with the focus on collecting a new ghost.

This is where you start to “set-up” the audience men-

tally using Synchronicity. The reason I put that in boldface
type is because this is a secret weapon you can use in a lot of

situations.

[In 1998 Banachek touched on this idea in his “Psy-

chological Subtleties”. The concept was originally conceived
by Carl Jung in 1952. He coined the word to mean a casual
coincidence between two different events or thoughts. Our
specific use of this idea is to embed verbal cues into the
minds of The Sitters. We are going to use words that they
will associate to begin acting as keys to make them subcon-

sciously bring “ghosts” into their minds.

Begin this by explaining that a number of factors are

involved in attempting to contact a departed being. Even if
a person doesn't say something aloud, their thoughts may
transmit a positive message to a potential “visitor”. Here is
a sample of the type of phrasing I suggest to help implant a
ghost in The Sitters’ subconscious minds.

"Try this little exercise along with me. This is how all
of you can contribute greatly to our being successful tonight.
First relax and clear your minds for a moment. Shut your eyes
for a few seconds and relax. Now open your eyes and stare at
the table. Think of a big juicy apple sitting in front of you. In
fact, imagine there is a sign next to it that has the word
APPLE printed in big bold letters. Is that firmly imprinted in
your minds? Now clear those images away.

"This is where the association of other words will help

EE ————————

30
you see images or recall things more clearly when a thought
enters your mind. So when I mention the words fruit or red_or
even juicy does that big bold image of the word apple easily
pop into your mind? Of course it probably does!

“This same principle may help us succeed tonight. Try

this and imagine the word GHOST printed in those big bold
letters. Again concentrate on retaining that word mentally.

“If tonight you notice something wispy seeming to pass

by or even just some other thought, that mental connection
increases the chance you may actually be seeing a ghost your-
self. This is because you now have opened up you own mind to
what is known as “heightened awareness” of everything tak-
ing place around you.”

This is JU Boing to strike some of you as pustly

audacious. It's beca . Ing VQ
that these words relate to a Ghost. There i is a subtle differ-
ence though. In this early phase of your performance you are
telling them this up front. However in the later segment of
the Séance where you are working on their minds to imagine
they are seeing a Ghost, the words will be worked into the
comments you are making in a different way.

Here are a couple of examples. First is how I phrase

something when I'm using the example of an Apple and link
that to fruit or red. But using Ghost as the example I prob-
ably will say it like this: “If I say “gray” or even “fleeting” you
might think of a spirit or apparition.”

Later in the performance when they are all staring at

a rock by flickering candle light, the word is used or implied
in this context.

“I think I just sensed something fuzzy that glided over

the table.”

31
Gliding and fleeting basically convey the same concept

except for speed. So as keying a thought you have planted

in people’s minds, they will relate them to being the same

thing. And “fuzzy” also works since it implies a ghostly im-

age.

Here are some more words and phrases to relate with

seeing a Ghost. Even though they are different they become

interchangeable based on how you use them.

Gray, a pale color, flying, fleeting, moving by, moving

across, flicker, flickering for a moment, spirit, shade, Ghost,
Apparition and on to many more similar but different words

and phrases.

This all may have struck you as wild but it does work!
Start by writing a long list of words that could relate to see-

ing a Ghost.

This use of words becomes the point you use to build

toward the final experience of seeing a ghostly “something”.
Your participants should feel like they are important and
are all playing a part in helping to contact the other side.
From this standpoint, most will agree that pendulum work
is an ideal "team builder” to encourage mental participation.

Sounds silly, but it does work!

Using this scenario, begin with a little “how to use

one” pendulum demo. Everyone around your table probably
already knows how the pendulum works, but tonight they
are told that they will be assisting in “piercing the veil” into

the unknown with the pendulum.

Since this is the actual beginning of the Séance, place

your pendulum, the little rectangle of plastic and then the

EEE ——————— RR RE ER RRRREREREREEEEEEESSESEN

32
Port glass on the table. If you haven't done so already, ask
someone to turn off the lights in the room. The flickering
little candles and darkness help create your desired atmo-

sphere.

[ use the Quartz crystal as the pendulum. During your

story, reaching into the box and take the locket out and lay
it on the table explaining that we will try to contact a young
girl. In the shop where you discovered the locket, the owner

told you that this one had belonged to a child.

Using the locket also gives you something to increase

the mystery and suspense. But you need to read a few more
paragraphs to see how sneaky this type of thing becomes.

Place the empty Port glass in front of yourself on the

flat rectangle of plastic. Next suspend the pendulum down
inside of it. Make it swing back and forth and begin to make
little dings of sound on the sides of the glass.

Hand the pendulum to someone else sitting at the

table. Move the wine glass and its plastic placemat over and
ask them to see if they can “will it” to ring four dings just as
you did. Remember you are speaking to everyone in a very

33
relaxed tone. Always express vocally that they are doing it

perfectly. In fact, you say you'd like them to try and push this
to a higher level. Think of this as giving quiet enthusiastic

praise about how well they are doing!

Have that person pass the wine glass, placemat, and

pendulum on to another sitter. You ask them if they too will
aid in attracting a spirit. Explain that now they are assuming
the role of the Medium in helping to attract a spirit. Leave
the pendulum and glass with this person.

Take a few of the white cards out of the box and pass
one to another sitter along with your pen. Ask them to write

a number between One (1) and Ten (10). Then they should
place the card writing side down on the table. (Notice I said
writing side down, NOT face down. This phrasing is one of
those touches that make them mentally decide that you Are

Not doing a stupid card trick.)

Repeat this again with another two or three of The

Sitters. You now have several people, each with a secret
number they have written down laying in front of them. You
do not know what they have written on the cards. No one
else knows either!

This is the point where you start to fly parts of the

whole show completely on autopilot. Ask your designated
“medium” to suspend the pendulum down into the glass.
Then when you say “Start” you want the people who wrote
down a number to start mentally willing the pendulum to
ring the number they selected that many times inside of the
glass. Remind them that they each made their own choice of
a number between One and Ten.

Everyone is requested to remain quiet. Tell your

medium to lower the pendulum into the glass and see how

34
many dings the pendulum makes. When they feel that the
pendulum wants to stop chiming, just lower it all of the way
to the bottom of the glass.

When the dings stop, announce the number of times

that you counted that it rang. The number is hopefully seven
(7). Ask the people who wrote down a number to turn their
cards over. Everyone should see that several have written a
seven on their card.

Statistically seven is the most often chosen number

between one and ten. People just randomly select it since
it pops into their heads as a lucky number. Pure random
number generators will occasionally give 9 a shot but people
still pick 7 because of the “luck” factor. It still seems like an
obscure number to most people. Remember that in a casino,
seven is the most likely number to appear on the roll of a
pair of dice. Then think of all those slot machines witha 7 on
their bars. Of course a computer in a tech center is “telling”
the slot machine when it can line up three 7s and finally let
you win a jackpot.

Earlier | mentioned the oriental calendar Ghost Mont

as being the 7th one in the lunar cycle. There is bound to be
a cross-cultural thing in that somewhere!

The main point is that you are playing with the odds
in your favor in this experiment. What if the pendulum only
dings 5 times and only one person wrote down five? No big
deal because you weren't doing a prediction type of magic
tricky thing. Everyone in your group was assisting in seeing
if the atmosphere is starting to become conducive to making
contact with a spirit. Don’t feel like you have failed because
you haven't gone out on a limb by predicting something.
This is when you suggest that communication seems to now
beginning to take place mentally through a “portal to the
unseen world” or whatever you want to call it.

35
36
«

Chapter 5
She’s Back!

[t's time to take the next plunge to see if contact is

being made. This particular spirit has appeared in my previ-
ous works. In The Bigger Book of BOO! she even had her
very own Séance. I like to use the name Cassandra simply
because it sounds in keeping for a gentle era. Plus the odds
are that someone at the table is not named Cassandra or
even knows someone with that name.

This is a twisted take on an L & D effect, but one

where you are going to select the departed person to try and
contact. Take your Post-it!® Notes out and lay the pad before
a sitter you haven't called on previously. Tell them you have
a particular “shade” in mind that with previous groups has
frequently appeared during the sitting. Her name was Cas-
sandra Potter and she was a curious little girl who passed
away in the early 1900s. As to why and what happened to
her is not actually known. According to some people she
was somehow “gifted” and help cure sick people. This was
all only local lore as no obituary per se appears to exist.

Ask the sitter to write the name Cassandra on a

page. Tell them to remove the sheet from the pad and fold
it into quarters with the writing hidden inside the folds.
Hand them a paper clip and tell them to secure the folded
slip. Have them do this four more times but using different
names of their choosing and again each time handing them a
paperclip to secure each slip.

SZ
Nothing suspicious so far has taken place. Take a
handkerchief from your coat breast pocket and ask them to
spread it flat in front of themselves. Ask one sitter to gather
them up and place all five little paper-clipped notes on the
handkerchief, Tell them to pick up the handkerchief by the
four corners so it becomes a bag holding the slips of paper.
While they are holding the bag above the table, request that
a person next to them place their hand inside the bag and
mix the slips. This person is now asked to begin handing the

slips to you one at a time.

As you take the slips, lay them out in a circle. Pass

your open hand over and around the circle about eight inch-
es above the slips. Begin to pick up slips in a random order
until only one is left. Take the other four packets and thread
them on the corsage pin. Hold the impaled slips above your
little bowl or ashtray and set them on fire.

While all this is going on, you softly murmur for

Cassandra to make herself known if she is joining your circle
of friends. Ask one of the sitters next to you to pick up the
single unburned slip of paper and pass it to another person.
That person is instructed to open the packet and read the

narmne.

Yes, it bears the name Cassandra. Success!

[ have forgotten who first created this method of iden-

tifying the chosen slip of paper. Personally I've been using
this method for many years to locate a name or something
written on a specific slip of paper. | vaguely remember it
as appearing in Annemann’s Jinx but | haven't located this
particular explanation in my copies. Possibly it was an idea
of Stanley Jaks or even was published in MAGICK by Bas-
comb Jones. Bob Ostin did write up something similar using
a roughed staple in Pabular in 1974, Regardless, the main

38
thing is the gaff is invisible to a spectator.

Look at this picture. Notice how the end of one paper

clip has rough gouges in the metal. I take a small file and
simply drag it two or three times across the end of a paper-
clip. Your eyes really don’t see the grooves but your fingers
will feel them!

Top clip is gaffed

[ gaff a bunch of paper clips in a single sitting. Then to

keep the gaffed ones separate, I clip about seven un-gaffed
paperclips together. For every “chain” of regular clips I put
a rough-ended one on the end. Now | have a bunch of little
chains with a gaffed one on one end of each chain. I keep all

of the extra sets in a paperclip box and pull out a new one
when its time to reload my props for another show.

In the Séance, the handling is very simple. Have the

person write the name Cassandra on the slip, fold it and then
hand them the “rough” end paperclip to secure it. Then you
hand them un-gaffed clips off your chain one at a time as
they write and fold the additional slips.

Obviously after someone else has jumbled them

39
around in the handkerchief “bag” everything is fair from the
viewpoint of your sitters. As you are handed each slip, by
touch locate the one with the rough end. Remember where

you place it as you lay all of them out on the table.

Pass your hand above them pausing to gather the oth-

er slips in a random order and hand them to another sitter.
When this is done take them back and impale them on the
pin. Strike a match and set them on fire over the little bowl.

Ask another one of the sitters to pick up the last re-

maining slip, open it, and read the name out loud but softly.

Amazing, contact has been made indicating that Cassandra

is around! You can certainly mention that you sensed Cas-

sandra might be near when you passed your hand over the
pieces of paper. You also say something to the effect that you

even briefly thought that you smelled the scent of Violets.

Do Not do a follow-up line like “Did anyone else notice it?”
because that phrase is needed later in the performance. You

only suggest it with a simple unstated question by the way

you look at a couple of The Sitters.

So people either have smelled the scent of flowers or

they didn’t. Odds are one or two really did smell the odor.
They probably will say something about it right then or
possibly later. Keep reminding yourself that your power of
suggestion is doing the heavy lifting instead of a bunch of

electronics.

In case you haven't guessed the locket did the sneaky

work. Inside the locket is a small piece of absorbent card
stock. You place just one or two tiny drops of scented oil on
the paper and put it in the locket. While the locket is lying on
the table, the smell of Violets will seep into your gathering.
You don’t want an over-powering odor because a whiff is all

that it takes.

40
What makes this even better is that the right kind of
card stock needed is free! Go into any department store with
a Perfume Department. There you'll find a stack of “test”
cards ready for you to spray or put a drop of scent on so you
can “smell test” which ones you may consider purchasing.
Take some blank tester cards home and trim a few pieces to
fit inside the locket. You are now set to put a drop of scent
on it. Place the little card into the locket when you pack your
box to take to a performance. If you are using something like
a watch fob to attract a male ghost choose coffee, leather, or
even tobacco for the scent.

a —— = ar

Introducing elements like the sense of smell can be

done in several other ways. One is to put a couple of drops
of the oil on a small square of tissue paper. Wrap the locket
or something else like the watch fob in the tissue. When you
unwrap the “whatever”, simply leave the paper lying on the
table. The flower scent or manly aroma will permeate a
small amount of space. That is all that’s needed.

Or, place a small sachet in the box. Bring it out of the

box and pass it around for the Sitters to sniff. Explain that
you've found that this can be helpful in attracting a ghost
that is drifting around at this very time. This method sounds

41
simplistic, but you are really setting the stage so that the
Sitters are becoming receptive to your story. You can even
say it seems like the scent is getting stronger. The implica-
tion is that the scent is working and Cassandra is being
attracted!

42
:
t =
a

Chapter 6
Twenty Questions Or More

This is the point where we leave performing effects

and concentrate on how to make our ghost seem to appear.
I'm sure if you are reading this book, you can come up with
your own number of effects to use in reaching the finale.
Actually, there are more ways than just one to accomplish
our goal. This is where you can seriously play with various
ideas. You decide which ones are the best for your own per-
formance.

The reality is that most spooky ideas end up using

some of the same principles, but different objects to accom-
plish your aim. Both flexibility and variety are the keys to
giving a coherent flow to your performance.

['ve mentioned using soft murmured sentences from

time to time. Take a break to explore this chain of thought.
What should you say when you are trying to ask a spirit to
join you or ask it a question you'd like answered?

Some performers feel you can be as brash or be loud-

ly blatant if you want in dealing with a ghost. I would differ
that if you really are attempting contact with a shade, you
need to show respect for it being “a departed soul”. Think-
ing logically a paparazzi attitude will be just as off-putting to
a departed entity as to a living person!

The focus on this type of Séance is to convince people that

they may have had contact with a ghost. This doesn’t mean

43
that the performance can’t have scary overtones. It should
have some but they need to be subtle exclamation points to
create the atmosphere. You are not performing a re-creation
of a 1950s Midnight Spook Show in a movie theatre.

To address this point in the Fall of 2019 a good friend

posed a very valid query about asking questions of departed
beings. What should those questions be? A list was started
in a private online forum and it continues to grow. After all,
no one wants to seem pushy and offend someone on the

other side of the veil. If you say the wrong thing you might
accidently summon up a Demon. That could really wreak

havoc on the evening! However if you do want to try and go

“bizarre” that is your choice - - summon away! Imagine the
fun you will have stuffing some cheesecloth that glows in the
dark into a pouch like a street performer wears. Pull it out in
a darkened room and tell everyone its’ ectoplasm!

Here is the initial list that started the conversation.

Jump right in and add more as you come up with additional
questions that might be appropriate. The secret is keeping
“like” queries in simple but separate categories. The follow-
ing illustrates some examples. But you don’t actually need to
question a ghost if you don’t want to. Your Sitters don't have
the slightest idea how to summon one anyway! Do remem-
ber to ask politely (please!) so that you don’t irritate them.
Ghosts are picky!

Yes-No Questions:
Spirit, are you there?
Are you willing to communicate with us?
Can you understand us?
Are you happy (or sad)?
Are you a child?
Are you young?
Are you very old?

44
Did you have children? (If appropriate.)
Have you ever been married?
[s there something we can help you with?

Some Alternative Questions:

Will you please tell us your name? (And, can you please tell
us your last name?)
Please tell us the date you were born?
Would you please tell us where you were born?
Can you tell us where you currently reside, please?
Please tell us how you feel?
[s there something you would like to communicate to us?
What makes you happy?
What makes you sad?
What is your best (or worst) hidden talent?
What bad things have you done in the past? Please confide
with us.
What is your favorite pastime?
Is there a message you would like to convey to a specific per-
son? Can you please tell us who?
Are you watching over one of us? Protecting one of us? Can
you please tell us who?
Would you please tell us what was/is your profession?
Can you tell me something you have done that you are proud
of?
Please tell us the most rewarding thing you have done?
What is the luckiest (unluckiest, funny, dangerous, etc.),
thing that has happened to you?
Do you have siblings (or children)? What are their names,
please?
Would you please tell us the name of your best friend? (Wife,
husband, children, etc.)
What is the most adventurous thing you have done?
Do you have a favorite song (game, musical instrument, dish,
book, poem, etc.)? Would you please tell us what it is?

45
Do you play a musical instrument? Please tell us what you
play?
Do you have a favorite flower (perfume, scent, etc.)? Can you

please tell us what it is?

[s there something we can help you with? Please tell us what

we can help you with?

Is there some information we can provide you with? What

does this information pertain to?

What is the hardest lesson you've learned?

Did you reside here?

Did you follow someone here today?

Is that person male/female/sitting/standing?

Will you join us tonight?

Questions To Avoid:
When did you die?
How old were you when you died?
When you were alive (fill in the blank)...?

Are you male or female?

How old are you? Will you please tell us your age? (Some

people are sensitive to this question.)

What do you want your epitaph to be?
.. or other questions phrased in the past tense.

Like many techniques used in doing spooky stuff,

things such as questions may be an underlying key in sell-
ing the story to your audience. Now concentrate on how you
want the ghost to answer your query. Maybe it's with slates.
Or perhaps a disembodied voice whispers something that
only one or two people hear. You can always keep the pendu-
lum swinging for the Yes or No questions but that might get
boring.

Regardless if you are asking questions, the final ques-

tion asked must be “Will you join us tonight?” You can
now start leading them into “seeing” or “sensing” the ghost

46
joining the group at the table.

What might seem the easiest is to use the Ouija Board

but DON’T! The major reason is you would now have to re-
arrange the whole table layout. The four votive candle cups
flickering away are there for a reason as is the “centerpiece”
bag holding the rock. Why in the world would you want to
completely break a setting that The Sitters have become
familiar with seeing?

An even bigger reason is, even in our present 2020

age of enlightenment, there still are people who honestly
believe that the Ouija Board is EVIL. Seriously, these people
have deep-seated religious feelings that it is guided by the
Devil. Ironically these same people usually have a side that
lets them accept and enjoy how you are entertaining them.
The Ouija is simply too fine a line to try and cross without
someone later roasting you to other people that you are
dealing in occult rituals. Use it and you might be nailed in
your pocketbook and your reputation as an entertainer
diminished. It's your choice but proceed with caution.

There is an alternative that [ refer to as “Ouija Lite".

That means dressing something differently. You simply don’t
refer to this as using a Ouija Board for communication.

The origin of the Ouija and planchette dates to the last

half of the 1800s. It became popular to the extent of becom-
ing the method of choice for communicating with the spirit
world. Of course people began creating their own versions.
One method was that people would make alphabet cards and
place them on a table. Then they would place a glass upside
down in the center and the glass would scoot over to differ-
ent letters to spell the message.

In a very bad, low budget supernatural “thriller”

movie (The Uninvited made in 1944) is a scene of people

47
using a wine glass in this manner. Even William Castle, the
King of the schlock horror movies used it in one of his films.

In modern times [ believe Paul Voodini was one of the

first to suggest using an upside down wine glass instead of
the traditional planchette to point to letters on flash cards
based on which way the glass slid. Pete McMillan suggested
to make it even simpler oy eliminating the cards. SHB.
glass indicate “Yes” or “No” by the direction i . This is
simple, easy, and effective.

You use the piece of flat plastic listed as “0” in the

packing list earlier in the book. It is just what it looks like, a
clear flat piece of plastic. Lay it on the table and think of it as
a small placemat. The reason for the piece of flat plastic is to
eliminate any friction between the mouth of the wine glass
and a tablecloth. Take the wine glass used in the pendulum
routine and turn it mouth down on the plastic. You now have
a wine glass planchette that will glide smoothly on the table.
If the table is bare wood and doesn’t have a tablecloth cover-
ing it, you prone won't pats the plastic.

Upside Down

48
Demonstrate this by placing your fingertips on the
bottom to show how the lightest pressure causes the glass
to move. Pass the glass and piece of plastic over to another
sitter and ask them to set it up just like you had done. It
needs to be placed between them and the center of the table,
placing their fingertips on the bottom of the glass like you
did. Explain that you will ask one or two questions directed
to any “unseen ghost” that might be hanging around in the
room.

Have them concentrate on the glass moving of its

own will. If it moves slightly away from them that will indi-
cate a “Yes”. If it moves slightly back toward them it means
“No”. Now the ideomotor phenomenon will take over when
you ask your questions. Don’t let this scare you because the
wineglass will probably move away from them. That signi-
fies the ghost is present!

If they get a “No” motion then that's ok as well. Just

ask another question. You only need to ask two or three
questions maximum. So if everything is a negative then the
group hasn’t attracted a ghost yet. You can even ask if some-
one else at the table would like to try to make contact. That
second person will usually get a “Yes” as you begin to ask if
the ghost is joining you. It really is funny that the way people
think will make them give you the answer you want. And,
you never used the words Ouija Board!

This is the time to be totally confident in your own

powers. The actions you take and the words you say are the
dynamite for selling what follows.

You need to completely understand the ways that our

ancestors have called on the spirits. You'll need to expand
and learn about other techniques and teachings to be

49
competent but the following explanations will give you a
start. Then we'll end with what I personally feel is the best
for our use.

50
2]

Chapter 7
Scrying Versus Staring

Scrying is a general term sometimes called crystal

gazing or crystallomancy. This method supposedly allows
one to “see” psychic visions or receive impressions using a
particular medium, such as a Crystal ball or seeing some-
thing reflected on a polished black surface such as Black Ob-
sidian. If you can find Golden Obsidian shaped like a mirror
that will work too. Regardless of the “tools” employed, Scry-
ing is a powerful psychic tool.

Gazing history goes back as a documented practice to

3000 BCE in China. In that case they used cracked eggs for a
form of Scrying and divination. From the Oracles of Delphi
to the Cradle of Mankind in Africa other practices and tech-
niques were also being developed. Many historical methods
are still used for divination. In our case we are using it to
contact the shadows and shades that have gone on to a
different world than ours.

The reality is that we aren't Scrying at all. That word

is defined in The Merriam-Webster Dictionary as: “The art
or practice of concentrating on a glass or crystal globe with
the aim of inducing a psychic state in which divination can be
performed.

Actually the technique we will use is better described

as “Staring” because we aren't trying to see “inside” a rock or
sphere to foretell the future. We are convincing people that if
they stare at our mystical polished object, they possibly will
see a being from the other side of the veil. However, let's cut

51
ourselves some slack because stare is not a very sexy or
spooky word to use.

If we are not going to use these techniques for telling

about the future, then why are we trying to contact beings
on the other side? It's for our own knowledge about the pos-
sibilities of an afterlife without trying to summon anything
up for ritual or religious reasons. We are not attempting to
find out what our future fate may be or anything that has so
far eluded theologians and scientists. We are only trying to
catch a glimpse of the other side of the veil because we are
curious. Sell it this way and you are home free and nobody

will get upset.

Mirrors - Using a mirror is perhaps the most popular

form of Scrying. It’s also called Catoptromancy. It involves
relaxing your vision and staring at a dark reflective object.
After a while, images and scenes will begin to emerge. Think
of the old saying “Mirror, Mirror on the wall”. Gazing into a
mirror is still a very popular method among the cultures of
the Far East in attempting to predict both fortunes and con-
tact departed ancestors.

Venus At A Mirror (detail)

DL
This particular technique for gazing goes back at least
to the Middle Ages. Artists have used this theme in numer-
ous paintings such as Venus and Cupid by Velazquez and Ve-
nus At A Mirror by Rubens (preceding page). In our own time
frame Norman Rockwell used it in his illustration Girl At The
Mirror in 1954. In each of these cases the mirror symbol-
ized an attempt to portray what the future might hold for the
viewer.

The infamous Dr. John Dee (1527 - 1608) used a

polished piece of Obsidian shaped like a hand mirror for
gazing. Supposedly Horace Walpole later owned this same
mirror. Walpole claimed to have obtained it personally from
Dee. It now resides in the permanent collection of the British
Museum, however the provenance has never been actually
determined.

Dee also had a “Shew Stone” that was used for Scry-
ing, which now resides in the collection of the Science Mu-
seum also located in London. Like so many other questions
about Dee, what was his connection to the mining source of
his mirror?

The primary source for Obsidian, which is volca-

nic glass, has always been Mexico. It ranges in color from
a Green to Blue, Yellowish, and shades of Grey and Black.
Objects that were carved in Black were associated with the
underworld. Numerous shiny polished Obsidian objects have
been discovered during archeological excavations in the
Basin of Mexico. This is where the religious sites of the Pyra-
mid of the Sun and Pyramid of the Moon are located. Some
items dating from around 600 CE are displayed in the Museo
Nacional de Antropologia in Mexico City. Other techniques
range from knives and spearheads to a figurine from
Teotihuacan.

53
Wax - Carromancy is accomplished by dripping hot
wax onto a water surface. It's as easy as having a small bowl
of water and then letting the hot wax from a burning candle
fall onto the liquid. You then interpret the images into words
as they are formed from the cooling wax. Actually, this is a
fun thing to try!

Clouds - Also called cloud gazing, this method of Scry-

ing involves observing clouds and the shapes they form. In
this case the weather is being used to gather information or
knowledge. This divination by interpretation of cloud forma-
tions is actually based on atmospheric conditions. Think of a
Meteorologist on TV telling you whether you need to wear a
raincoat tomorrow. Historically, this practice was thought to
have been used by Babylonian Priests. Under the name Aero-
mancy, Moses condemned it in the book of Deuteronomy.

Regardless, today most people use this as a form of

relaxation and an aid to meditation rather than fortune tell-
ing. But the science we call Meteorology does show a form of
fortune telling that is accepted by modern society.

Water - Sometimes called Hydromancy it is divination

by means of the motions or appearance of water. This re-
quires staring into water so images may be perceived after a
period of time. Objects such as pebbles can be dropped into
the water to create ripples. These ripples are then interpret-
ed as well as any perceived color changes.

[n many instances, some “readers” have dropped

small tumble polished gemstones into the water. They then
do interpretations of the pattern the stones have formed
along with the motion of the water’s surface.

Oil - This form of Scrying involves pouring oil into a dish of

ET rE eo me Ss iil

54
water. The Scryer then observes the light reflected off the
oil and interprets answers to queries from the pattern or
shapes formed on the water. Some people have suggested
rubbing it on the body, or coating a cup or plate with a thin
layer and looking at how light reflects from the surface.

Fire - Pyromancy This may be the oldest form of

Scrying. This simple technique involves gazing into fiery
flames for visions. It can be done through the use of a single
candle or an oil lamp. Bonus points if you use a bonfire but
use caution so you aren't arrested for being a pyromaniac!

Here is the easy way to attempt this technique. Sit in

a dimly lit room with an appropriately colored candle and
perform your deep breathing and centering. Focus your vi-
sion on the center of the dancing flame. Don’t worry about
staring too intently. Let your eyesight tell you the most com-
fortable distance. Allow yourself to see the flames dancing.
Listen to the hiss, sizzle, and crackle of the flames.

The fire may choose to speak though images and or

audible means as well. As you mentally focus on the ques-
tion, listen to the flame and watch as it dances, in order for
the fire to give the answers you seek. Thoughts and ideas
may pop into your head, seemingly unrelated to anything
you are seeing or hearing. Use your notepad or a journal to
write these things down for future interpretation. Whether
using a candle or larger fire, you might want to look at the
smoke right after the flames have gone out. If you didn’t use

a candle, you might even try Scrying for answers in a larger

fire’s ashes.

Smoke - Capnomancy sometimes called Libanomancy.

As smoke rises from fire, the various shapes formed are
conveying messages to the observer. The smoke can be from

nearly any source such as a campfire, a candle or even if a

eee RRR

99
column of smoke rises straight up from the flames indicates
“good”. However, if large clouds of smoke are bellowing that

suggests trouble may be pending.

Crystal - This is the stereotypical form of Scrying, but

nonetheless very effective. It involves the use of a crystal
object (usually a sphere or globe) to gather special mean-
ings. A crystal is usually thought of as Quartz but many other
gemstones are formed as crystals. Non-crystalline gems are
Pearls, Amber, Jet, Coral and others.

In the Séance scenario I suggested earlier using a

black rock. Here is an option to consider. Instead of a black
rock, use a sphere of Black Obsidian. You can usually find a
2 1/2” diameter one online for around $40.00. If you want
to emulate Dr. Dee, purchase a flat round or oval cabochon.

Simply search online under Black Obsidian.

You can even use a polished slightly domed, round of

glass 70mm in diameter. These are called a Concave Watch
Glass and are used by labs to let small amounts of liquid
evaporate to help determine what is the liquid's composi-
tion. They usually come packed by the dozen. Again do an
online search to locate a source. When you get a package,
spray the “inner” concave surface of one with high gloss
black enamel. Be sure and first cover the “domed” side with
masking tape. When it's dry, take off the tape, turn it over
and place it flat on the table. You now have a great domed
shiny black surface for Scrying.

Better yet, get a can of Krylon® Looking Glass Silver

spray paint. Again spray the inside (concave) side. When its
dry and turned over you have a mirrored section of a dome
which is a fantastic look. Remember, you must spray the op-
posite side of the glass to create the mirror effect. Use this

process only in a well-ventilated area.

56
Eye - This is unusual! Also called Soul Gazing, this
form of Scrying involves looking deep within a person's eyes
and observing the reflections. The eyes are used as a “portal”
to the spirit world inside of the person you are staring at.
This almost sounds like a bad pick-up line in a single's bar!

We are constantly receiving messages from other

realms, it is only a matter of consciously recording these
messages. By becoming more aware of our psyche, we try to
develop greater understanding. If the information doesn't
immediately make sense, don’t worry, put it aside for a few
days. Let your unconscious mind process it and maybe it will
make sense eventually.

Fe RE EE © TT an]

57
Understand that we are only playing with words, but
depending on the context of the setting and your script, the
words will have very different effects on The Sitters. This

gives you an idea of what you might see as a “sign” for for-
tune telling or it could be an indication that a “shade” may be

floating about.

Imagine that everyone is gazing at the candle flame.

[f the flame is strong and steady then, from a fortune-telling
viewpoint, this could indicate that a person will be steady in

handling a personal challenge that's coming up.

However, if we are trying to attract a spirit to join us

or make its presence known, you relate that the steady flame
means that there aren't any obstructions that will prevent a

visit from beyond.

Suddenly the flame seems to dance and flicker a little.

Ah ha, a ghost is trying to join our group! Reality is that the
flame is doing the same burning thing, but depending on
how YOU DESCRIBE IT, is how you make it work to create

the ghost.

Remember earlier I laid out specific instructions

about placement of the candles on the table. This was in
reference to the distance between the object in the center of
the table and the space to a candle and finally to where you

are seated at the table.

Beware, this is not a trick or electronic gadget. No IT,

no rubber bands or springs and not everyone will notice it
happen. This is fine because it is what real journalists call a
“Hey Martha!”

The expression refers to “ye olden tymes” when

people actually read a printed newspaper. The husband in

58
the household would be reading and come upon a particular
interesting item and call to his wife, “Hey Martha! ” He would
tell her to be sure and find the item when she read the paper.
That is how the news would then be spread so other people
knew about the juicy tidbits. It’s also referred to as gossip in
print!

If only one person spots this happening, they will

mention it to another and they will become convinced they
saw it too.

Near the beginning, | say “If you sense anything during

the Séance please say so out loud; we may be able to leverage
that sign that a spirit is trying to to make itself known into
communicating directly with one of us.” This ensures The
Sitters that it is not only okay, but desirable, to mention they
saw or felt something. It also leads finally to “determing” if
you and the guests can actually glimpse a visitor or a spirit.

29
60
Chapter 8

Scrying Time & The Apparition!

Pronounce it correctly “scry ing” as in “cry” not scree ing.

In our case we aren't using our centerpiece prop to

Scry, per se. It is only an object to focus our vision and atten-
tion on by Staring at it, not trying to visually penetrate into
it. This is because in the darkness and flickering candle light,
the eyes of the sitters will begin playing tricks on them. In
this environment they are told to stare at the “centerpiece”
known to us as the “prop” we placed before them. They are
told to relax their vision and begin to see what is taking place
on, and immediately around, that object. They are instructed
to breath in a slow rhythmic manner. Doing this in a dark-
ened room also varies the sensitivity of their eyes. This

begins to affect how they see the object and the area immedi-
ately around it.

Here is the beauty of seeing a ghost using this Séance

format. In this case you only have one basic concept to learn.
However, you can have several variations and the only thing

that changes is your own choice of the prop you place in the
center of the table.

Below is a list of things that will all work equally well.

The only real requirement is that it must have a polished
surface. The surface is the key to having something for the
flickers of light to bounce off of and then reflect back as
occasional flecks of light to The Sitters’ eyes.

['ve written about this effect in several forms in every

EE ——

61
book I've written, starting with Flickers as a manuscript be-
fore [ wrote Bigger Book Of BOO! The reason is that science
is doing all of the work except for the words. You can use
different objects to fit totally different stories.

Black River Rock

Black Obsidian or Black Chalcedony

Rock Quartz Sphere

A cluster of Rock Quartz crystals

A glass of Water (I am not kidding)

A bowl or glass holding ice cubes

A mirror (silvered or black) so now you can begin to

intertwine this with Brynmore’s “Roxxane Effect” if
you decide to go that route

A small polished Brass Bell

A small Statuette

The choices are almost endless, but you need to place

your object on a Red surface. If your choice is too large or
awkward to fit in a bag, use a Red napkin or even a Red
breast pocket handkerchief.

The Black Rock seems to work the best for me. Then
why should the bag be Red? Because in the darkened room
and with the flickering candles, the contrast between Red
and Black helps trick the brain into thinking the rock is pul-
sating. Just like a beating Heart!

Now, its time for some fun and you get another oppor-
tunity to create a “Hey Martha!” moment.

You have set the bag in the center of the table. The
four votive candles or tea lights are lit and placed around the
objectinaN, S, E, W, layout about 12” inches away from the
mystic whatever. This is the spacing I use. | make sure one of
the candles is in front of me 12 to 18 inches away. It works

62
like this, the object is in the center of an imaginary circle
with four little lighted candles, each set about 12 inches
away from it. Then there is another 12 to 18 inches between
the candles and the people seated around the table.

ne
.
££
|
: i
a = ]
L J
we sd

The photo is a not-to-scale, overhead look at the lay-

out. This placement doesn’t show any of the other “things”
that are also on the table.

[t's time to convince The Sitters that they are seeing a

Ghost. Leave the rock in the bag for a little longer, positioned
in the center of the table.

The phenomenon used is known as “persistence of

vision”. This application was taught to me during a casual
visit with Ormand McGill in 1981. Here is a definition from
A Dictionary of Film Studies by Annette Kuhn and Guy West-
well released in 2012 by Oxford Press. “The capacity of the
eye to maintain an image on the retina for a moment after the
image has disappeared.” This is the reason that individual
drawings appear to flow sequentially one after another and
then become animated.

For us the idea is that in a darkened room, if you stare

at the flame of a candle and then shift your gaze to an area of

———

63
darkness, your eyes will retain or persist in seeing that glow
isolated in the darkness. It will only be a fuzzy whitish blob
and will fade away. THAT is the Ghost! So if you suggest (a
Synchronicity word) to The Sitters that you think you saw
something wispy in the darkness and did any one else see it,
that is what usually happens. They will glance into the dark
and most of The Sitters will see a blob. Quickly reinforce
verbally that it might be Cassandra. In fact, softly ask again
“Cassandra, are you with us?”

The preceding paragraph is why I alluded to saying

the words “did anyone else see it” because this is the point
you need to say it, not before this part of the Séance. Only
say this phrase once.

But what you said using a Synchronicity factor word

that you planted in their minds starts to kick in. They are
beginning to believe that some entity is joining the party!

Now we combine the persistence of vision effect with

what Carl Herron (Brother Shadow) called The Black Rock
Ritual. He used it in a mythical religion he created titled The
Path To Roodmas. Of course, this “religion” had a monthly
newsletter called The Path to keep believers informed. Since
Shadow was Shadow, the whole scam was a cross between
Pagan, Catholic Mass, and Bizarre. It was very heavy on the
ritual side. Basically, this had something included that would
offend everyone in one-way or another.

In Mysticum Artium Magister | used this in a similar

style to what follows. However, in this application I use heat
instead of cold as the scare at the end. The effect is used here
in the context of a different pacing style. This is really is how
you get The Sitters to see the ghost.

To keep the “heritage” pure about The Black Rock Ritual,

64
this is a copy from a four-page routine that Carl mailed to me
and a few others in February of 1991. This is what he said as

to its origination:

i have heen asked, by a number of people, Just what 13

the "Rlack Rock Pirual®™. It comes from the boox, "Mind
Games" by Robert Masters ana Jean Houston, anda I's
publ ished by Delta, a division of Dell Publishing. It
seems that 1t 1S not to easy to find these days, though
certainiy worth the search.

I first saw 1t performed by that Master of Bizarre

Magick, Masklyn ye Mage at an early Invocational. It
made a profound impression on me, and I have been using
jt ever s|hce.

So in reality Tony (Masklyn ye Mage) was doing it

before Carl. But, Carl wrote it down.

Regardless, if you don’t know the ritual is simply get-

ting everyone to stare at a shiny Black Rock by candlelight.
Carl also wrote a chant that people would repeat over and
over while they stare at the damn rock. More than one would
begin to see the rock begin to pulse like a slowly beating
heart or wisps seeming to float across its surface. This is
nothing but pure suggestion and B.S. and it works.

In your Séance this is the point you take the rock out
and lay it on the bag.
Look at the combination of things we've put together.
We have four small flickering candles. Also we have every-
one staring at the rock. The flames are faintly being reflected
on the surface of the rock. Yes, the rock is black, but we have
it resting on a red cloth bag. That black on red supplies the
visual contrast to pull this off. This is where you suggest
that the rock “appears” to be pulsating.

After another minute of so of the rhythmic breathing

and everyone staring at the rock, you suggest an entity may
have floated by in the room. It may seem to have possibly
entered into the rock.

Here is what | came up with to act as a “perhaps” an-

swer to my question of “Are you here?” There is one candle
positioned on the table between the rock and myself.
Remember everyone, including you, is staring at the rock
and everyone has their hands flat on the table. At the start
you suggested that they use slow rhythmic breathing as an
aid in their journey to the borderlands of Summerland or
wherever.

This breathing then becomes the “Hey Martha”

because you are also breathing along. You have specifically
told them to gently inhale through the nose and then exhale
through the mouth. Tell The Sitters that they need to do this
very quietly. Now in your sincerest whispering voice ask
Cassandra if she will give you a sign.

The big difference is that you inhaled as much as you

possibly can and then exhaled strongly (but quietly) through
your lips. In fact your lips are only about two millimeters
apart. When you demonstrated this to them your lips were
about a half -inch apart. That is a big difference.

You direct the stream of air at the upper inside rim of

the votive glass.

66
Suddenly, the flame will flicker from your exhaled
breath bouncing around inside the glass. I've even caused
the little flame to go out. You Do Not Call Attention To
This! However if someone else notices and says something
then as Jeff Foxworthy says, “That's A Sign...” and spooky
stuff has happened. Did you see that Martha?

The arrow in the photo shows exactly where you need

to aim your breath. This sounds simple, but it will take more

practice than you imagine. You need to exhale silently, you

can't pucker our lips or do an: ning facially audibly tc

always use a breath spray before performing.

Several years ago Banachek and I played around with

a number of the weird things that you can do using this tech-
nique. One example was to make a straw roll across a table
or on the bar. Yes, we were indulging in adult beverages at
the time. This expanded into becoming a PK Touch routine
using selective breathing. A simple technique can go a long
way and have multiple uses.

Don’t forget to also use your “body language” to push

a sitter’s mind into thinking they see a spirit. The technique
is something that takes practice on your part to pull off. This
is only done once and its use is determined by your own

67
sense of timing. Think of it as being written as part of your
script, but it is performed as a movement, not spoken dialog.

Everyone is sitting around the table staring at the

rock. All hands are flat on the table and people are breathing
rhythmically. Your head is slightly tilted down as you stare
at the rock. Suddenly lift your head up about a half-inch and

quickly shift your eyes to the right. Don’t say a word. Imme-
diately return your head to the original position.

That one small move and the glance will be noticed

by a couple of the people sitting at the table. You just tele-
graphed loud and clear that you saw “something”. When this
move is combined with the words and phrases you've used
to key silent visuals to the Sitters, it reinforces the idea that

they are seeing things appear and then disappear in the

darkness.

By now you should have convinced two or three sit-

ters that they have seen something. Congratulations, you
have achieved your target of making people think they actu-
ally saw a ghost or “entity” from beyond.

Pause and lean back in your chair. Begin to say that

you feel that the sitting has been successful. You personally
felt that an entity had been present even if for only fleeting
moments. This is also where you can say that you saw the
rock appear to move or pulse a little. Perhaps a slight grey

veiled “something” floated across the table and into the dark
for a few seconds. Don’t “Gild the Lily” too much!

Since you are beginning to close down the show, use

your Synchronicity words again in your sentences. Those
words serve to reinforce or even MAKE some of the sitters
believe that something did take place during the evening!

[ suggest even asking them to tell everyone what they saw

68
or felt. Keep on nodding in agreement with the comments.
Don’t string this out! It maintains your rapport with them
before you “disappear” for the evening.

69
70
Chapter 9
Wait, There's More!

Now you need something to act as the ending punctu-

ation mark for the Séance. In the haunted house genre this is
referred to as the “Jump” moment. That's when a customer is
leaving the attraction and they “think” the scary stuff is over.
No way that will happen because that's when another mon-
ster jumps out of the shadows to give them a final reason to
scream.

Start to gather some of the objects you have placed on

the table and put them back into the box. Take a little coaster
out and place it over each of the votive holders to snuff out
the candles. Leave the one in front of you still burning.

While this is going on you softly begin reconstruct-

ing what has taken place for The Sitters. Outline what you
all have done together and that you feel some form of con-
tact has taken place. Drop another one of the synchronicity
words into your comments.

Let's sneak in another quick surprise. Terry Tyson

came up with this idea years ago and gave me permission to
use the concept. Your instinct may be to overplay this, but
don’t or you will be sent directly to clown entertaining hell!
There are a couple of requirements for doing this effect. The
main one is that the table needs to have legs spaced that
will allow you to be seated and be able to slide a foot over to
touch against the table leg nearest you. The second is that
you need to have a gimmick fabricated.

a ——————

71
Tell the Sitters that it is time to “close the portal” to
the borderland. You don’t want anything to be trapped on
this side permanently. Ask them to all join with you and
place both hands flat on the table in front of themselves.
Everyone needs to remain silent and mentally think the

word “Close” over and over.

What the hell, let's make the table tip a little!

This now becomes a situation of whether the table

where you are performing the Séance is large enough to

work around. The kind of table called a “farm house” style
works well. These are usually big suckers because they were
made to seat a large family and the hired help. The good
news is that even though these are heavy tables, it's not a

problem because the gimmick is so insidious.

For this gaff you need to go to a metal fabrication shop

and have the following item made specifically for you. It
shouldn’t cost more than $15.00 maximum. This is so simple
and such a small job you may have to wait two or three
weeks for it to be ready. They aren’t going to be inclined to
stop work on a major wrought iron gate to bend one little
piece of scrap metal for you. Talk nice and they might rush

and do your job to simply get rid of you!

The gimmick is simply a piece of flat iron about one

and one quarter inches wide and about three millimeters
thick. It is bent like the illustration shows. The top is one
inch then a bend of one and a half inches and finally the
three quarters of an inch that slips under the table leg. Prior
to the show, you slip the end under a leg close enough to
reach with your foot. Now when you press down with your
foot on it the table will rise up slightly. Barely tap it! You will
be amazed at how heavy the table can be yet only a tiny bit

of pressure will cause it to tilt up a little.

EE

72
N

Warning! You are not going to be starting a table tip-

ping routine. Just do it one time only and that will be plenty
to surprise your sitters. Goodness, its’ another sign that
“something” has been present at your gathering. Less Really

[ suggest this should be done as you begin to pack

up your toys. Think of it as a little prequel to the final end-
ing. It's as if a spirit is just letting you know they have been
there. Make a little throw away comment like “Now that was
interesting!”

Even if someone looks under the table, the gimmick is

so small they won't notice it. Just pull your foot back and you
can even look under the table and not see it. If you choose,

you could ask the sitters to look too. (Honestly, | wouldn't if |

were you.) After the small shock of the table suddenly lifting
up about one inch you are now going for a real shocker.

The only thing left in the semi-darkness is the Black

Rock lying on the red bag. Ask a lady, who earlier had been
designated as one of the evening's mediums, to hand you the
rock. She does and immediately drops the rock. Heck, she

FE
may even scream a little. This is because the rock is hot to
the touch. That will come as an unexpected shock to her!

Pick up the rock and comment that something ob-

viously has caused this. Heavens it must be some form of

energy that the “visitor” passed into the object and to make

itself known.

The little secret is pretty simple. It will take a modest

amount of practice on your part. Earlier I mentioned that the
bag for the rock must be large enough to carry a Tarot pack
inside. The reason is that along with the rock, the bag con-

tains a “Heat Pack”.

Specifically, these are the ones to look up: Emergency

Zone Reusable Hand Warmer. They measure 3x5 inches so
now you see why you need the Tarot size bag to keep the
rock in. These are very inexpensive ordered online from
Wally World or outdoor stores that carry a lot of camping
supplies.

This heat pack is one of the reusable types. They have

a small metal disk inside that you press to make it “click”.

74
The “click” starts a chemical reaction that will pro-
duce heat. It will take about thirty minutes to really heat
up but unlike the disposable kind, these may stay hot for as
long as two hours when they are kept in something like the
bag. You'll need to experiment several times to see how long
it stays very hot. This is the joy of them being reusable. You
don’t need a new one after every Séance. But if you are doing
two shows a night, you need an extra ready to go. That's no
problem since they are usually sold in pairs.

Before your performance, start a pack heating and

when it’s hot slip it into the red bag. Next put the rock in the
bag and pull the drawstring shut. Place it in your box. By the
time you start your performance the rock is nice and toasty
warm. Being a rock it will retain that heat for quite a while
even after you remove it from the bag. Since you placed the
rock on top of the bag that also helps keep it warm from the
heat transferring up through the cloth.

Your learning curve is taking a hot rock out of the bag

and not reacting that you have something hot in your hand.
You will not burn yourself but you need to become used to
the rock being hot when you hold it. This is VERY effective
and scary to the lady. When you pick it up after she drops it,
you also remark that it seems to have become hot. Say this
must be the proof of contact you could only have hoped for.
If for some reason it has cooled down you just make a com-
ment when you take it that it seems rather warm to you. Did
she notice that as well?

Maybe you think having the rock hot is too demonic.

Well this particular brand can also be frozen in the freezer
and it then becomes a cold pack. If you go this route wrap
the pack in about two turns of Saran® type wrap. This helps
trap any moisture that forms on it as it starts to melt down
to room temperature. Simply don't click the disk if you are

Ia
going the cold route. If you are doing a second show the

same evening, keep the second frozen one in a foam six-pack

cooler.

This incarnation is sort of a 2020 update to The Cold

Side™ that I created for Mark Edward to use in the Houdini
Séance at the Castle back in 1994.

Whether you use it hot or cold, when you get home all
you have to do is drop the bag into a strainer suspended in a
pot of boiling water for about twenty minutes. The “crystals”
will return to a clear liquid state. Let it cool and then dry it
off. It's ready to use. You can make something hot by just
clicking the metal disk and the chemical reaction starts the
process. Or, freeze it for the cold, cold heart idea. Regardless

always boil one that’s been used for heat again to reset and
change the crystals to a clear liquid.

Now is the time to “close” the portal you opened

through the veil into the unknown world. I'm going to sug-
gest something very simple rather than ritualistic. Make a
direct statement to the ghost that visited. Simply thank them

for making their presence known and to have continued

pleasant journeys.

That should be enough!

Finish packing your box. Stand up, thank them, and

say good night. Immediately leave the room. Hopefully, you
still have the helper that ushered them into the room and
seated them around. The helper comes in and turns the
lights back on and he or she also thanks the sitters for com-
ing. Of course you might prefer to stay and answer people’s

questions. But then you also run a chance of being tied up for
a long time.

EE ——————————————

76
k

Chapter 10
Alternatives

One very practical reason for the style of this type of

Séance concept is to give your show maximum flexibility. By
following the premise that your whole performance is fo-
cused on the ending, you can build toward that by including
a variety of effects.

Here's the warning. This does not mean you now

convert this into a magic or “magick” show. Variety does not
mean using everything in your closet, but that selections are
available for use. This means you can remove or add differ-
ent effects flawlessly. It also allows you to alter content so
that if a sitter has seen your Séance previously, they are now
seeing a different show.

The best example I can think of for this was seeing

Jay Leno perform at his favorite venue The Comedy & Magic
Club in Hermosa Beach, California. When he appears there
it is usually on a Sunday night. While he was still doing The
Tonight Show on NBC after the MC introduced him, he would
stride onto the stage clutching a stack of 5 x 3 note cards.

He would explain that he had spent the day in his

pajamas reading through stacks of current newspapers from
all over the World and U.S. When something struck him as
funny or strangely comedic, no matter what the subject, he'd
write it on a card. Later he would run through the things he

had written down to see what he might be able to turn into a

joke.

And now, we the audience were going to help him

determine what was or wasn't funny. If we laughed like crazy

77
at something we could be sure we'd see it twisted and then
used on his show during the following week.

This became tremendous improvisational scripting

on his part. If something didn't make us laugh, he’d just toss
that card on the floor. He would hold onto the “keepers”
with his other hand. After about thirty or forty minutes he'd
thank everyone for being there, walk off the stage and leave.
Naturally a staff member was quickly picking up the tossed
away cards. No mementoes for us mere mortals to grab!

Behind the back curtain is a hall that runs to the rest-

rooms one way and the other way is out a back door. There
always was a rather large serious looking man blocking the
hall leading to the exit door. If Leno didn’t get the door fully
closed as he left, you would know he had exited the club
from the sound of a loud motorcycle or pickup roaring and
screeching out of the parking lot as he headed home.

As to the “funny” cards that were keepers, another

assistant back stage would take them from Leno as he went
down the hall. The assistant would put them into the hands
of the show writers the next morning for refining. Those
jokes really were used during the next week's shows.

This is not a suggestion for you to turn your Séance

into a comedy act, only an example of how Jay Leno used
one format that created unique shows because the material
(stories) always changed.

Look at the items you have in your box of mysteries.

Each one might have the potential for use in a performance.
Just look at what you placed on the table. You can alter your
routine and never miss a beat by changing the format. Pick
up items and incorporate them as the evening progresses.
This skill comes from practicing and creating good story

78
themes that will intertwine.

Think of the old saying: “Only the names have been

changed to protect the innocent.”

When I said that I use the Rock Quartz Crystal for

the pendulum, you might choose to use the locket. You can
do that with only a few words changing in your storytelling
script. In fact, you can start by telling The Sitters about no-
ticing the faint scent of violets possibly from the owner. You
did put the scent in the locket didn’t you?

The end of “seeing” the ghost always uses the same

methodology. As the object being focused on, you may decide
to use a crystal ball while I prefer the Black Rock! Regardless
the object is removed from the red bag. It is placed on the
bag when you remove it for people to stare at. In the closing
you return it to inside the bag. Here are the two objects side
by side to compare if you choose not to use a Black Rock.

Spheres like these usually are very affordable as long as

they don’t go over about gomm in diameter.

Certainly either one will work equally well. On the left

is a sphere of Rock Crystal Quartz and at the right is the same

79
size sphere fashioned from Black Obsidian. Both were pho-
tographed on the important red bag to “let the color contrast
by candlelight” work in your favor while you continue to
persuade The Sitters they have seen a Ghost.

If you do have a Black Rock, a Quartz sphere, and a

Black Obsidian sphere you can immediately use the Jay Leno
technique to have a “new” routine for three different per-
formances. He only changed what was written on the cards
from week to week. You only change the object in the center
of the table leaving the overall show format the same. It’s

amazing how easy this becomes.

Other Things To Consider

Here's another use for the table lifter gizmo you had
crafted. If you are doing a Pendulum In the Bottle routine
as part of your Seance, you might have trouble getting the
pendulum to start moving. The lifter is your secret weapon.
[ have never had to use this for the bottle, but if I suddenly
saw that the table was a “ten ton gothic special”, I'd slip this
little jewel under a leg near me. Just the very slightest press
down will start the swinging. I'm saying that only a small tap
one time about 1/8th of an inch will be plenty. This is such
a tiny movement of the table that none of the sitters will no-
tice. They'll be too wrapped up watching the pendulum start

to swing!
Another Martha

This is one of those simple effects that has appeared

in many forms over the years. No one knows when a match-
box first jumped or moved and appeared anywhere in print.
There were versions in abundance in the 1930s and new
ones still show up occasionally. Probably every child in the

world has learned how to make this work, so this is no great

EE EEE III E——————————

80
secret. However, in our world of ghost magic it can be used
in a different context. And we don’t mess with Invisible

Thread!

For this you will need a strong magnet. You also need
the well-known ACE™ type of bandage to strap it to the top
of your knee. This PK type of magnet is so strong that it will
work through a one-inch thick wood tabletop. It is not a toy
and I am not responsible if you get hurt handling this
type of magnet or harm anyone else when you use it.

Dump the matches out on the table in front of you.

Next take a small “button” style magnet (flat round) and glue
it to the bottom inside of the drawer in the matchbox. This
magnet came in a two pack from Home Depot.

mm

Remember earlier I mentioned placing the matchbox

on the table a little to your left after lighting the candles?
That box has just been sitting there untouched. It has be-
come something The Sitters see, but don’t notice. Now they
will see something because while they stare at the rock
position your left knee over under the box. Lift your knee
upward under the table, but don’t make contact with the
underside of the table. The magnet on your knee is so strong
that when it gets within two inches from the wood, the
“push” of the magnetic field will make the box jump. Resist
your temptation to make it slide all over the tabletop. You
just want it to rise up or jump a tiny bit. Don't say a word.
Keep staring at the rock. I promise that someone else sitting
at the table saw the matchbox move. Hey, Martha!

81
Make sure the polarity of the little magnet glued in the
box is opposite to the polarity of the big magnet on your leg.

An easy way is take a black permanent Sharpie and

print UP on the big magnet. Notice that I keep mine in a
round plastic snap-lid box which makes it easier to handle
without sticking to another metal surface in your traveling

gadget bag. B

SNE el pipe. ig a
. _. | :
4

Ly. a

You are responsible for what you tell security at the

airport as to why you need to carry a magnet this strong
with you. Again use caution with this type of magne
pecause it will destrov a persor acemaker!

Other Thoughts

Consider having some background music playing be-

fore you enter the room. You don’t need anything elaborate.
Think in terms of a simple Bluetooth self-contained speaker
playback unit. One that I personally like is the Anker Sound
Core Mini 2. The model number is A3101. They are afford-
able from Amazon, Walmart, or Target. Plus it only measures

2.6 x 2.6 x2.6inches.

Simply transfer your music from your computer or

cell phone to a micro chip like a SanDisk 32GB micro SDHC

Flash Memory Card With Adapter.

High tech geniuses are not needed. Simply slip the

82
micro card in the slot and have your “assistant” push it all
the way in to start playing before beginning to seat people.

As to music, | strongly suggest something like Pieces

froides: Trois airs a faire fuir by Pascal Rogé on the album
After The Rain — The Soft Sounds of Erik Satie. It is very relax-
ing for setting the mood and opening people’s minds to what
you will be telling them during your performance

83
84
k

Chapter 11
Traveler Butts In

Think of this as a Lagniappe, which is the Cajun word

for “a little something extra”. Actually this happened when I
first started writing this book, the doorbell suddenly rang.
Some of you already know that usually means my eccen-
tric neighbor Traveler has decided to make a surprise visit.
That's exactly what it meant this time!

As normal he just barged right on through the door

and made himself comfortable. He didn’t waste any time by
informing me he wanted me to start on a new continuation
of his journal like he conned me into doing back in 2008. I
explained to him I was busy working on this project and be-
sides since he hadn't been seen in years, what the heck was
going on with this sudden appearance.

Let me assure you I am not leading you down a dif-

ferent path because what you are now reading is too impor-
tant not to finish properly. Naturally he informed me that he
already knew what | was doing because he had been peering
over my shoulder and reading every word I typed. He had
just been in one of his invisible mode things so he wouldn't
disturb me.

However HE had a thought of a new twist in starting

this Séance since I was so busy with the ending. Of course

if would promise to help him on his “new next project” he

would share his idea so | could include here.

Traveler's logic never fails to let reality get in the way

85
of his own schemes. Actually, this really is neat and works
like a charm when you add it to the introductory remarks
covered back in Chapter 4. It does help draw some of The
Sitters into the web you are spinning. In our case you have
already told them you will be attempting to cross through
the invisible veil between our world and the “other” side.

You might want to insert this sequence just after you

open your box, but before setting items on the table. This
little idea shows The Sitters how they will be looking at
things from a totally new perspective than previously. And

the only things you need are already in your prop box. They
are two or three of the half index cards (mentioned in Item j)

and the corsage pin (Item 1).

“Many people have asked me over the years if there is a

way to actually see through the veil. Possibly, but [ don’t know
of a sure way. However, [ can give you a peek at what it might
be like.”

Take one of the half-index cards and using the corsage

pin, put a hole through the center.

“I'm sure that all of you have heard of Pinhole Cameras.

One of the earliest descriptions of this type of camera without
a glass lens was in a book by Scottish inventor David Brewster.
In 1856 he wrote about “a camera without lenses, and with
only a pin-hole” in his book The Stereoscope.

"So to give you an idea of what seeing the other side of

the invisible wall might be like, I thought that it might be simi-
lar to a picture taken without the normal lens. This is what |
mean. Here is a piece of an index file card and a corsage pin.
I'm going to use the pin to make a tiny hole in the center of the
card.”

Take another item from the box. Lets say it’s the box

86
of matches. (Item c) After all you are going to be using them
to light the candles in moments. Place the box on the table in
the center so that everyone can easily see them. Remember
that at this point the normal room lights are still on.

“Notice how you can see this box of matches and even
part of the table top. But now if you shut one eye and then use
the other eye to peer through the pinhole you can barely see
the box. In fact all you see is a tiny round blob of color.

“On the one or two occasions that I think I may have

had a glimpse of the other side it has appeared as a fuzzy
small patch of something that then suddenly disappears. Its
like the appearance of the matchbox you observe through the
pinhole.”

The following two pictures are the matchbox on the

table. Both were taken from the same spot except that the
second one has a card with a pinhole in the center covering
the lens. This is exactly what The Sitters see when they look
at the box of matches without the card and then with the
card.

This little effect has been one of my favorite spooky

tools for a number of years. To the best of my knowledge

this idea has never been used in the realm of magick before.
87
Think of all the effects that have told you to ask an au-
dience to imagine they are looking through a door seeing an-
other whatever! The pinhole card now acts as that imaginary
door, but in the spectator’s own hand. It helps them visualize
another time and place yet they actually can see part of that

hidden world.

The physical involvement with the card opens them

up to let you plant the sneaky verbal clues into their sub-
conscious using Synchronicity a few moments later. They
don’t realize you have been setting them up to IMAGINE.

88
Interesting Statistics About Americans

Percentage of Americans That Believe in:

34% GHOSTS

37% HAUNTED HOUSES

549% ALIENS

41% ESP

13% ASTROLOGY

21% BIGFOOT

209% REINCARNATION

77% ANGELS

21% WITCHES

65% OUIJA BOARDS ATTRACTING DARK ENTITIES

SOURCES: Live Science, Washington Post, Destination America and CBS News

Profile of an Experiencer

The average experiencer typically has one or more of

these characteristics:

Female

AB- or O- blood type

Some Jewish or Native American ancestry

Speaks English

High IQ

Scores high on empathy

Deeply introspective

Sensation-seeking

Leans Democrat

Lives in an ambiguous or threatening environment

Had trauma in their past or a recent loss
Unaffiliated with any particular religion

SOURCES: Pew Research Center, Exopolitics, Psychology Today and Open

Psychology Journal

89
90
Continuing Education
Here are some interesting sources for your review. A
couple of the sites may get you going down rabbit holes for
months. All of them were suggested for this book by Loyd
Auerbach. So who is he? Here's what Wikipedia has to say:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loyd_Auerbach

He is a member of PEA and also teaches the online

course “How To Choose A Psychic” for The Rhine Education
Center.

Sites

https: //www.ghostclub.org.uk

The Incorporated Society for Psychical Research

https: //www.spr.ac.uk

Survival After Death

SurvivalAfterDeath.org.uk

https: //www.newthinkingallowed.com/Listings.htm
links to a lot of interesting videos

https://www.foreverfamilyfoundation.org
complete with a list of certified mediums

Windbridge Research Center

http://www.windbridge.org

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