Enigma Follow-Up

An email from supporter, Mike L.

Did you ever settle in with a way to perform [Christian Grace’s] Enigma? I’ve had varying degrees of luck with it myself sometimes getting a good response and sometimes they seem to understand that I’m somehow figuring it out based on the information they’re providing. Did you work out a way around that?—ML

When I first started working on this, my goal was to hide that they were telling me directly the positions of the vowels. How could you do this? Well, my initial bad idea (which would hopefully lead to a good one) was to have two stones or two coins or two other small objects. One would be for vowels and the other for consonants. And I would tell the person to take them under the table and focus the energy of their letters one at a time into the stone and then hold it out in a fist in front of them. Hold out the consonant stone for consonants and the vowel stone for vowels. Now, if one of those stones is magnetic, then I could use a “which hand” magnetic coin detector to tell if they were thinking of a vowel or a consonant without them knowing I know.

That method might “solve” one problem, but it creates others. It would slow down the effect a lot. It would require you to carry stuff with you (the great thing about Enigma is you just need your phone). And it still doesn’t address why they have to differentiate between consonants and vowels in the story of the effect.

I realized that what I really needed for this was a reasonable “why” for that differentiation. If you don’t offer them some semi-logical rationale, then the only potential reason you’re giving them is that you need to know this information to figure out their word. Which… you do. But you don’t want toe emphasize that for them.

So I took a two-pronged approach to this that I think helps justify the need for them to differentiate vowels and consonants, while also seemingly diminishing the importance of that information to you.

Part One

After they think of the word, I tell them they’re going to try and project that word to me letter by letter. And I tell them that they’re going to sort of push the thought of each letter to me while imagining the sound the letter makes. And I mime like this.

“Vowels are very difficult to pick up on, because the sound they make can be so amorphous. So I want you to push the vowels at me with two hands, which will give me a better chance of picking them up.”

This is the “reasonable why” that I’m offering up. In a world where I’m picking up on some kind of “energy” from the letters they’re thinking of, it makes sense that vowels might be more difficult because (in English, at least) the same vowel can be pronounced in many different ways.

“So, if I was going to send across your name, it would be like this: L - A -U - R - E - N.”

Part 2

After making sure they understand what’s requested of them, I have them start sending me the letters. After a couple of letters, I stop them.

“Okay. Hold on. I’m getting distracted by visual elements. I just want to focus on the energy. Start over.”

I now tilt my head down and shield my eyes.

Do you see what I’m doing here?

I’m suggesting to them that I don’t need to see what they’re doing (that I don’t need to see when they’re indicating a consonant or vowel, or how many letters they’re sending).

But I’m not saying, “I’m going to cover my eyes so I can’t see.” That would be too easy for them to question. And not easy for me to prove. So I don’t try to prove.

Instead of saying, “I’ll be able to pick up on your word, despite covering my eyes.”

I’m implying: “I’m covering my eyes to make it easier for me to pick up on your word.” (By blocking out distractions.)

Why would I lie about doing something I’m suggesting makes it easier for me? You see? It becomes a trickier thing for them to deny in their mind.

With my head like this, I can still see down and out a little bit, and I can still see if they’re sending a vowel or a consonant.

When they’re done, I wait a few beats. They will usually wait a second or two and say, “I’m done.” They have to “inform” me because I’m apparently not looking. If they don’t say anything after a couple of beats, I say, “Are you done or did we lose connection?” This statement works with the “reality” of me not looking, but also me being able to pick up on the energy they’re sending.

After this, I can reveal what they’re thinking as per the original.

The benefits of this are, as I said, it justifies the differentiation of consonants and vowels, while also downplaying your need to know one from the other. On top of that, it doesn’t require the person to touch you at all. So there’s no potential awkwardness or hygiene issues which can arise depending on who you’re performing for. And also, “sending” the letters in that way just feels good. It feels better than “dealing out letters into the air” or touching fingertips or whatever. Shooting out thought energy from your hands feels powerful and feels “right.”

Best case scenario, they believe they didn’t directly give you any information about the length of the word and location of the vowels. Worst case scenario—even if they don’t buy into any of this—they still haven’t given you any more information than you’d get from them performing Enigma the standard way.