Matt Mello – The Decode Project

You know that I respect your opinion, Maddy, but as we’ve already discussed, I have to disagree with you.

What I find to be most interesting is that you don’t view Train Tracking as going through a “50 questions” procedure, as that’s exactly what you’re doing. Real mindreading would look like, “Think of something!” followed by immediately revealing the thought. Really, anything short of that can be viewed as oddly out of place.

A great, logical presentation for T.T. doesn’t suddenly eliminate the suspiciousness of asking them (and having them answer) a ton of questions. As Michael has suggested, after performing T.T. ask your audience, “For $100, do any of you have any clue how I might have done that?”

I would be willing to bet $100 that there will be people who say, “It must have had something to do with the 50 questions you asked.”

Is T.T. amazing? Yes, absolutely.

Is T.T. likely the greatest word guessing system that we currently have available? Again, I would say yes. But there are many people who don’t have that kind of cash, or the memory/will to learn Train Tracking. I view this project, and these systems, as a perfect compromise for those people.

As for logical presentations, I present “Cipher” as a mental game of hangman. “You’re going to think of a secret word. I’m then going to have you think of letters in the alphabet, and I will attempt to guess your word.” This is a perfectly logical presentation, as this is exactly what happens in a regular game of hangman. It makes just as much logical sense as your presentation for T.T.

If I wanted to change things up each time, I could go straight from “Vowel Hopping” or “Rowing” into “Cipher”, but I taught the system as provided in order to make it as easy as possible for my spectator to follow along with. It’s easier than T.T. and neither the spectator, nor the performer needs to say any letters aloud. I view that as a big win for propless word guessing.

From my experience with these techniques, I can tell you that I’ve fooled tons of people using them.

Of course, I never offered them a $100 incentive to work it out. But again, make that offer after T.T. and see just how often your audience answers, “Real mindreading!”