Influence: The Holmesian Reframe

This is a very simple reframe that takes a trick out of the realm of “influence” altogether. It’s certainly similar to ideas explored by others, but I think there is a way to do it that makes it feel more legitimate and less like just hollow taolk.

The premise of the Holmesian Reframe is that they’re not being influenced by these subtle cues that have been placed around them, instead, they are subconsciously taking in and perceiving these cues. Their mind wasn’t swayed by some little thing off in the distance. Instead, their mind keenly picked up on that thing.

We have Spectator as Magician tricks and Spectator as Mind Reader tricks. This reframe is, essentially, Spectator as Sherlock Holmes.

This requires a bit more explanation for the participant because the idea is that they’re absorbing this information and processing it subconsciously. If you don’t make that point to them then they’ll think, “What is he talking about? I just picked this thing at random. I never even noticed that half-finished crossword puzzle on the coffee table.” (Or whatever cues might be lying around.)

To make this premise really effective—as I suggest for other “Spectator as” premises,—there needs to be something that happens that allows for this person to achieve these feats. They need to go through some process or ingest something or listen to something unusual or something like that. Maybe they listen to some audio track that supposedly has a hypnotic suggestion that expands their attention and deductive abilities briefly. Maybe they go through some meditation process that does the same. Or maybe it’s a pill. Or whatever.

There just has to be some sort of reason why they now have this ability when they didn’t have it at any other point in their life.

The process of how they acquire this temporary ability is what will make this a memorable experience. That will be the physical/tactile/firsthand part of the experience for them that they can look back and remember. Since they don’t really have this ability they can’t actually remember the feeling associated with it. But they can remember the taste of some concoction they had to drink, or the sight of some strange imagery they were subjected to, or something like that.

The nice thing about this reframe is that it completely flips the script on an influence effect. It elevates the spectator’s cognitive abilities rather than diminishing them.