The MetaScope Mind Reading Trick MetaScope, the Windows screensaver which you can download for free here, can be used to perform a very cool bit of mentalist magic. I have found this routine to confound even the savviest of spectators. You can even use it on those geeky/irritating "Mr. Computer Science" types and they will be utterly baffled - perhaps even more so than computer neophytes (who may already assume that computers can read minds...).

THE EFFECT

The Setting: A sea of cubicles at a large government agency, where nothing interesting has happened all day, or yesterday, or the day before... Ray: Hey Bob, wanna see my computer do something really amazing??? Bob: Sure, that sounds swell!! Hey fellas! We're gonna see something really amazing!!! A small crowd begins to gather around Ray, who is seated at his computer, which appears to be running a screensaver... Ray: Okay Bob, I want you to think of think of something highly visual, like a painting or a cartoon or a celebrity... Got it? What is it? Bob: Well, actually I'm thinking about X-RAY SPECS, you know those funny trick glasses they used to sell in comic books? Is that okay? (It is perhaps important to note here that Bob can think of anything, as long as it is visual in nature...) Ray: Yeah I remember those x-ray specs. Wow, that's pretty obscure Bob, but let's try it. Everybody - I want you to think really hard about X-RAY SPECS. Visualize someone wearing those X-RAY SPECS and looking at something, and try to see those x-rays coming out of his eyeballs. Make the picture in your mind really vivid. Okay? Meanwhile, I'm going to ask this computer a question. Ray: (types into computer) Please show us what Bob is thinking about Ray: Okay, I've asked the computer to show us what Bob is thinking about. Is everyone still thinking about X-RAY SPECS? Okay... Ray presses the ENTER key with a flourish. The computer commences cogitation... Ray: Okay... let's see what this computer is thinking... and... The screen goes black, and then begins to display different images of X-RAY SPECS, funny ads and cartoons showing a man wearing x-ray specs with wiggly rays emanating from his glasses. The pictures glide towards the viewers in an eerily dreamlike manner... Ray: Voila! The computer has read your mind, Bob! Bob: My garsh! How did it DO that? Ray: I don't know! Hmmm... maybe it works kind of like those x-ray specs... ya know?

HOW IT WORKS

In this jaded and cynical era, the most effective way for any magician to instill a true sense of wonder is to keep a few secrets. Suffice it to say that MetaScope pulls the images from the Internet using a search engine (like Google), and that Ray secretly communicates the search phrase ("x-ray specs" in this example) to MetaScope, in plain sight of the spectators, using a method similar to one used by performers since the 19th century.

The MetaScope User Manual contains complete instructions for performing this remarkable feat of illusion with MetaScope.

Metascope used to be sold as shareware, but is now free. Click here to learn more about MetaScope.