Squared Anagram and Fuzzy Oracle Feedback
/I took the word list from your original example poem and threw those words into an empty crossword puzzle (a Michael Weber idea). I’ve been performing this all weekend with the Sweep revelation and it has been killing. I’ve done anagram work for decades and these are some of the best reactions I’ve ever received.
With only two “guesses” it’s so easy to play off a miss as a problem with the process.
Do you have any rationale for why I might be carrying around a partially filled out crossword puzzle without the clues in my wallet? —CS
I understand what you’e saying about being able to play off misses when you only have to have two guesses. If you get a complete miss on the first guess you can take a real step backwards and change up the procedure slightly. After that you will (in almost all cases) have nothing but hits going forward. Because of that, the first miss almost becomes invisible.
On the other hand, if your first guess is a hit, and your second is a miss, you can immediately write-off the first hit as “luck” and abandon the process for something else (something that doesn’t have anything to do with the letters themselves). In which case the whole letter guessing portion fades into the background.
The only other situation is that both guesses are misses, in which case you will change up the process and seemingly not know much of anything about the word they selected, when really you already know precisely what it is.
If you’re using the word list I introduced in that poem, you’re getting 32 rather that 16 possible outcomes by asking them, “Is this a physical object you can picture in your mind?” One thing to keep in mind is that that’s a question that can be asked at any point in the procedure. You don’t have to wait until after the guesses. So it may make more sense to you to ask it up top. Or between the guesses (especially) if the first guess is a miss.
As far as why you’re carrying around a partially filled out crossword puzzle without the clues, here is the best I could come up with… I would say it’s part of a skill building exercise by this guy who is teaching me some mind reading techniques. I’m supposed to carry around this crossword puzzle and try to fill it in without the clues, just by focusing in on the mind of the guy who wrote the puzzle (or the collective zeitgeist of the people who completed the puzzle). I’d say it’s a slow process and I only get an insight into a word once every couple of days. Sometimes I’ll stare at the puzzle for a half hour reaching for something that never comes.
This doesn’t quite get you to the reason why you’re having them think of a word from the puzzle and why you’re guessing the letters. But it gets you in the area of psychic powers, mind reading, and this crossword puzzle. So it shouldn’t be too difficult to switch to this effect. I might say something like, “This is very advanced. Trying to discern someone’s thoughts who isn’t in the room, and who had those thoughts weeks ago. There’s no one who can do that easily and consistently. But the hope is by practicing something very difficult that hopefully I’ll get better at the easier stuff. Like swinging two bats when you’re in the on-deck circle. Actually, here’s something a little easier we can try if you want to see this sort of thing in action.”
There you go. It’s not perfect. But it’s not bad either. Have the crossword puzzle in your wallet and you’re always ready to go.
Worried about remembering the possible options? You don’t need to be. Make a crib and take a picture of it on your phone. Then, after the second guess you can pause (before you shift to another process, or just as a break in the current one) and say. “Oh, actually, before we go further. Can I get a picture of you thinking of this word for my records? I like to go back and test myself with the picture at a later date." The idea that you would look at pictures of people thinking of words somewhere down the line in order test yourself to see if you can pick up on the words again is kind of interesting, and almost feasible if mind reading was a legitimate learned skill. Of course when you go to take the picture you would just get a quick look at your crib before or after.
Or maybe you take the picture of them before it all starts. Have them think of the word “dog” and take their picture. And then, later on, once you know the “hit/miss” combination for the word they’re thinking of, you pull up that photo to compare the “baseline picture” of them thinking of the word “dog” to them thinking of their mystery word. And supposedly that gives you some information by studying the differences. Actually you’re getting the information by looking at your crib as you pretend to look at their photo.
I’m just rambling here, so let’s move on.
I got these scrabble slam cards which you could use for a fuzzy process. They each have 2 letters, one on the front and one on the back. —LH
Ah, interesting. This could actually be really good.
Imagine the spectator is thinking of a word from a 16-option Squared Anagram set of words. You have them draw or write something specific on the back of a business card. Maybe some mysterious symbol. Or maybe the entire alphabet, but with all the letters drawn over each other. Or maybe a Ouija-board style planchette. Whatever it may be, you’re creating this unique business card that is supposedly going to guide you to some of the letters in their word.
You have the two necessary cards on the bottom of the deck. You give the deck a few riffle shuffles, just keeping these two cards in place. Then you double under-cut one to the top. Your spectator places the business card anywhere into the deck. And, using Bill Simon’s Prophecy Move (or something similar), it ends up between the exact two cards you need.
You say the card should be drawn to a letter in the word they’re thinking of. So you remove the business card and the two letter cards that sandwich it. First you ask about the letters touching the card. Then—just to be sure— you ask about the letters on the outside of those cards.
That way, with just one “impulse” (seemingly a location chosen by the spectator) you can narrow down all 16 options to one.
It would need work and the proper justification, but method-wise there’s no reason it couldn’t be usable.
I've really liked your recent posts on Squared Anagrams and think it's a great, unique idea. Thank you for sharing it.
One small thought that struck me was to get to two letters which are not adjacent in the alphabet, the target letters could be set opposite each other in a circle and a pendulum could swing between the two so that you have to confirm which (or both) the pendulum is indicating. —MC
Yeah, absolutely, that would work. You could either draw the alphabet in a circle, which would allow you to use non-consecutive letters (as long as they were approximately half the alphabet apart). Or, if the letters you needed to use weren’t across from each other in a circle naturally, you could lay out letter cards “randomly” in a circle, and just make sure the cards you need are opposite each other. Good idea.
I have one more anagram post chambered with a couple helpful tools. That’s coming Wednesday or Thursday. For those of you who aren’t into the whole letter-guessing kick I’ve been on for the past couple weeks, that should be the end of regular posting on the subject, for the time being.