The Project on Word Transmission

I have something for you today that is a combination Hook, premise, justification, and (potentially) a trick in itself.

It’s this site here, which simply consists of images of words written on business cards with a little information attached to each image. It is, apparently, some site that is devoted to a project related to “word transmission.”

I’ve purposely left the details of what any of that means as vague as possible, so you can fit this site into whatever story you want to make it about. More on that in a moment.

As a Hook

You’re checking out your phone while waiting for a friend. Maybe they’re meeting up with you at a bar or cafe or perhaps they just stepped away for a moment to use the bathroom.

When they get to you, you’re scrolling through this site. Maybe they’re nosey and they’re like, “What is that?” And the Hook is set.

If not, you can show them a picture (with the information scrolled off the screen) and ask them something like, “If you had to guess, how old would you say the person who wrote this is?” Or whatever. Either way, you have their focus on the site.

As a Premise

So this site exists, but why does it exist? This is where you come up with some kind of story for your presentation. Obviously it has something to do with learning to pick up on words, in some manner. But how exactly this site came together is going to be up to you to convey to them.

Is this something you and a group that you’re a part of have been putting together?

Or is one person behind this site and they’ve been collecting these images in their travels? If so, who is that guy and what’s his story?

Is it part of some kind of research project? Or just a mentalism rehearsal tool?

Example

Maybe your friend asks you what the site is, and you say, “Oh… it’s a little hard to explain. Okay… let’s try something. Think of any word—any word at all, no restrictions. Now forget that word and think of a second one. Got it? Okay now forget that one and think of a third. Last time. Forget that word and think of a new word.

“So that’s the fourth random word I had you think of. In mentalism [or psychology or linguistics or whatever your premise may be] the fourth word someone thinks of is kind of like a black hole. You can learn to get pretty good at guessing the first word people will think of. And if you know enough about them, you can often intuit the second word they’ll jump to. With years of practice you can begin to recognize the patterns in picking up on the third word people will think of. But the fourth word is just… a void. It’s completely unpredictable there’s no rhyme or reason behind what people think of as their fourth word. So it’s almost impossible to pick up on that thought because it’s like you don’t even know what you’re looking for.

“But I’m in a group of people that is trying to crack that code on the fourth word. So this is a collection of 'fourth words’ from people around the world. The idea is that if we get enough minds looking at it from different angles with enough examples to look at, we’ll eventually being to spot the patterns. We all send in our pictures of the words people thought and every month or so they get uploaded for everyone to study.

“Wait… do you remember what your fourth word was? Can I get you to write it down for me?”

As a Justification

Whatever story you come up with, this site of pictures of words written down on business cards certainly justifies why you might have someone write a word down and then why you might take it back.

After they write their word down you take it back and place it in your wallet saying something lie, “Thanks. I’m going to put it away because I don’t want to accidentally get a peek at it. Tonight I’m going to take a picture of what you wrote and send it in. But for now I want to be in the dark about what it is so I can try something out with you.”

You had them write it down because apparently that’s part of the process that dozens of people around the world are doing for this particular project. You took the card back because you need to take a picture of it later on. Those actions are pre-justified by the existence of this site.

As a Trick

Those of you with the Xeno app will recognize this is a Xeno site which also works with the Inertia Pro app. Those of you with knowledge of those apps already know what this means. If you’re not familiar,, what it means is that the spectator can look at this site on their phone and you can peek whatever they’re looking at and you can force any particular entry on them as they swipe “randomly” (with them looking at the screen and the phone in their hands).

Combine this site with Xeno, Inertia, and a peek wallet and you could have a three phase one-ahead type of prediction routine where you seemingly predict three thoughts but no one ever has to name what they’re thinking of at any point in the routine.

I don’t really do routines with multiple phases myself. But I do perform “long-form” routines that take place over multiple interactions. So maybe the first time the site is introduced I use Xeno (or Inertia) and I’m able to give them the sex and general age range of the person they’re thinking of who wrote the word. Part of the reason for having the name, age, and location data that goes with each photo is to allow for these “lesser” reveals. You can also pick up on things related to the handwriting style, ink color, cursive or print, etc.

The next time I see the person a couple weeks later, I say I’ve been practicing and now I’m able to pick up on whatever word on the site they’re thinking of.

Then a month or so later… “Remember that site we were looking at with the words written down? Well, I think I’m read to try that now with any word at all. Can I get you to write something down here….”

Those effects together build nicely. It starts with a simple tick where you’re able to pick up on the sex and age range they’re thinking of. This is mildly impressive, but saying, “I think it’s a guy in his 30s” is a fairly minor effect.

But when you come back a second time and directly nail the word they’re thinking of—from dozens of options—that’s going to feel much more impressive.

Then, sometime later, you’re able to remove this trick from the screen into the real world and do it with any word they can think of.

Those tricks are all similar enough to belong in the same “storyline” but also different enough to not feel like the same thing, over and over. And at the end, you bring it full circle by telling them you’ll be sharing their word with the group in the next “collection” of words, which ties everything together nicely and connects separate performances that happened over weeks (potentially) into one cohesive whole.

[Thanks to Xeno-master, Dan R. for putting the site together for me. And thanks to everyone who submitted images so I didn’t have to attempt to write in dozens of different handwritings, when I can barely write in one.]