365 Days #305 - The Basic Principles of Kreskin's E.S.P. (mp3s)

MP3:
01 A Basic Introduction To E.S.P. (3:49)
02 The Pendulum And How To Use It (4:18)
03 Testing Your Accuracy With The Pendulum (1:54)
04 The Sex Detector (1:20)
05 The Lie Detector (2:32)
06 Brothers And Sisters (2:00)
07 The Uncanny Test (2:22)
08 How To Catch A Murderer (5:04)
09 Using Your Imagination To Test Your E.S.P. (5:04)
10 Imagination And Swallowing (2:34)
11 Setting Up The Seance For Table Tilting (1:37)
12 The Phenomenon Of Table Tilting (8:24)

Many years ago (the late 90's to be exact), I worked at Kinko's. This is where I met Hans (hi Hans!) One day Hans and I were hangin' at his pad, the "Sweat Lodge," when I began to browse his record collection. This one jumped out at me and we arranged to transfer it to MiniDisc. I am eternally grateful. I'm still not sure what to make of Kreskin. We all know that the human brain is like...umm, really smart and stuff, but is this some kind of magic? He's made a career out of "reading minds," but is this really possible? So many questions, so little time.

It seems that this album followed in the wake of a successful board game of the same name for Milton Bradley. You don't need the board game to follow the exercises here though, just a spirit of adventure and basic skills in listening and comprehension.

For those of you who choose to try some of these (especially the table-tilting), PLEASE, relay your experience via the comment section of this post. We are most eager to learn your findings.

Technical Notes: This is a digital transfer (from MiniDisc to the hard drive.) Since the nature of this recording implements no stereo spectrum, these files have been rendered in Mono, at the highest resolution possible for an MP3 (128kbps.)

- Contributed by: Spaceboy

Images: Front Cover, Back Cover
Images (alternate scans in shrink): Front Cover, Back Cover

Comments

[MrFab]

Awesome, thanks!

Sadly, Kreskin can't read minds, no-one can, but you can learn his tricks. Like ask someone to think of a number between 1 and 10 then say "You're thinking 7" beacuse most people think 7 for some reason.

Kreskin, like other "mentalist" magicians can "pencil read" - watches your pencil as you draw something then tells you what picture you drew. Or just guess - most people draw a house. Pretty basic, but still freaky. Try it!

[Middleman]

For those who haven't heard of this (seems to be many). I'll never forget listening to this happen on Coast to Coast AM in my little dorm room, late at night in Eastern PA.

"As you may recall over the last several weeks, The Amazing Kreskin, performing magician and mentalist (and a childhood hero of mine), predicted the most amazing UFO sighting of the century would take place this past Thursday, 6-6-02, between the hours of 9:45pm and midnight in the skies over Las Vegas (where he just happens to be performing currently) and would be witnessed by hundreds--if not thousands--of people. Backing up his claim was the promise of $50,000 to charity should the UFOs NOT show up.

Hundreds of people camped out and watched the skies continually, most carrying cellphones, preparing to call in to Art Bell (and other media) when the event transpired. Art Bell himself set up a webcam aimed at Las Vegas to get his own photographic evidence.

Nothing happened.

In last Friday night/Saturday morning's appearance on The Art Bell show (Coast-to-Coast AM, 970 WFLA, Saturday morning, 6-8-02, 1:00am, Tampa time) Kreskin appeared in the opening segment of the program presumably to defend himself. What I learned about this hoax was shocking and possibly the worst career move of Kreskin's life. Apparently, during the day, he issued a press release, that Art read on the air, stating that the UFO sighting prediction WAS A TOTAL FABRICATION in order to prove people's suceptiblity to suggestion post 9/11. In other words, Kreskin claimed he was worried what a terrorist could do---with abilities as a "mentalist" similar to his own--if tempted to stage a similar stunt. So this was a cautionary demonstration of some sort. About the $50,000? Kreskin claims that at about 11:05pm, there was a sighting of a couple of "green glowing objects" spotted by some people AFTER ALL THE MAJOR CAMERA CREWS HAD PACKED AND LEFT, but that one object was photographed by a stray newsman. That footage was broadcast on the local TV station which was presumably viewed by "thousands of people". Kreskin claims that this validated his "prediction" and he owed nothing.

Art Bell was furious. He dismissed the whole stunt as "lame, lame, lame". He dismissed the "green glowing objects" story as an even lamer attempt to avoid paying the money to charity and reminded Kreskin that his own press release states that the whole event was a charade. Kreskin stammered excitedly about some point he was trying to prove about terrorism. Bell wasn't buying any of it. He accused Kreskin of "deception" over and over (I think he felt "used"). Kreskin continued to mumble excuses.

And then, Art Bell banned Kreskin--live on the air--from EVER appearing on his program again. There was a bit of a pause, and then Kreskin hung up on Art.

I think the last time I ever heard of anything like this--banning guests--was the David John Oates affair (once-frequent guest on reverse-speech who got wrapped up in that awful Art-is-a-rascist/child-molester hoax) years ago.

Was this supposed to be a publicity stunt by Kreskin? If so, I think it's backfired horribly. He could've saved face by giving the money to charity anyway. But, as of this writing, no.

This is a hideous way for a talented veteran performer and Las Vegas staple to mar his long career (he's close to 70). I've followed Kreskin for well over 30 years and am (was) a big fan. The skeptics who were never that thrilled with him to begin with (he claims genuine psychic abilities), are going to use this against Ufology (one more hoax everyone eagerly bought). Ufologists are obviously going to be offended with how little respect Kreskin pays to the field (he only used it for publicity). Other magicians/mentalists, who are likely scratching their heads over this incident (as I am) have got to be asking themselves "what the hell was he thinking?"

This taken from: Nolan B Canova's Pop Culture Review

[Mickey Mephistopheles]

Penn Jillette on Jonesville Station in 2002, making reference to Kreskin and the "ESP test kit" at about the 34 minute mark, as well as the roots of his skepticism.

[Richard Brandt]

I saw Kreskin perform a couple of times, back in the 70's and 80's; he was on a campaign in those days to demonstrate that there was no such thing as a "hypnotic state," and that testimony under hypnosis was notoriously unreliable. (Considering its frequent use to uncover "suppressed memories" of alien abduction and/or abuse by Satanic cults, not an unreasonable hypothesis.) So it's discouraging to hear of his Las Vegas escapade; even if well intentioned, the offer of a reward and subsequent weaseling out is lamentable. (He used to offer a similar reward if you could prove he had "confederates" planted in his audiences.)

[spaceboy]

yes, i remember the coast to coast show. never heard how it turned out though. thanks middleman. he was on jimmy kimmel not long ago and pretty much blew his mind (and mine) with some sort of book trick. something like he would ask jimmy to pick a page and before he turned to that page he would know the first sentence...i suppose that could be explained away thru memorization.

[snarfdude]

Stunts or not, you gotta admit he is a showman, and certainly has entertainment value. I saw him earlier this year for the second time. He had problems with the "find my paycheck in the room" kicker trick at the end of the show, blaming it on audience member who was trying to trick him and throw him off. who knows if that was the truth or not, but the second time around, it worked.

I don't get too serious into believing UFO's or otherwise, but I see kreskin as a fun time out for the entertainment value. Art Bell, well....

[ToM]

I actually own this one. Woo hoo! One of my first and favorites.

[psychopathywizard]

128kHz isn't the highest quality mp3. If fact, it's the lowest I can usually tolerate.

[Adrian Saw Sydney Magician]

A lot of people have varying opinions on Kreskin.
While there are many more arguably successful mentalists only known within the world of magicians...why is Kreskin so commercially successful, while other (arguably) better practitioners have never been heard of by the general public? He's a classic "every man" - not a mysterious mentalist wearing black and a mask. much more accessible to the general public.