Influence: The Simulation Reframe
/This is a reframe that I’ve only dipped a toe into so far, but I think it has promise.
The idea is that instead of them being influenced by something outside of them, it’s their choices that are altering their surroundings.
The notion here is that they are authoring the simulation and their thoughts are becoming manifest in the world around them.
Yes, I realize this is a bit of a wild idea. But people like crazier presentations. I’ve never met someone who was like, “I’m sorry, I’m not interested in being immersed in some fantastical story. Instead, I’d like to hear about the difference between a magician and a mind reader.”
So, as an example, let’s imagine a standard influence effect.
We’re at a bed and breakfast for someone’s wedding weekend.
I ask to try something with you and I spread through the faces of a deck of cards. Then I have you touch the back of any card. You pull it out and look at it.
I show you my prediction: “You Will Choose the Ace of Diamonds.”
My prediction is right.
I then say, “You see, I didn’t actually predict the Ace of Diamonds. In reality, I influenced you to take it. When I spread the cards, your subconscious picked up on the location of every card. And when I told you I was going to have you select any card—I don’t know if you’ll remember but I sort of gestured towards my chest. And when I spread the cards toward you at the beginning, it was in a way that put the portrait behind me just in your line of site. What’s on the chest of the woman in that portrait?”
A large single diamond shape. Ah! You were influenced to choose the Ace of Diamonds by this well placed portrait.
With the Simulation Reframe, I would first start by telling you the idea some people have that we’re living in a simulation and our choices and thoughts end up creating the simulation around us. And what we think of as “coincidences” are really those decisions and thoughts being made manifest in the world. The simulation has to essentially re-write itself after every choice we make. It’s the reverberations of those choices that we’re seeing in these little coincidences.
I show you the deck of cards and then have you touch the back of any card. I ask you if you want that card, the one above it, the one below it, or another one altogether. Whatever you decide I slide that card out for you and show you what would have happened if you’d chosen the card above it or below it or whatever. You turn the card over and it’s the Ace of Diamonds.
“Okay,” I say, “Now we look for evidence that your choice has altered the world in some way.”
For instance, I find a pad that I had been doodling on earlier and notice that some of the lines look like an Ace of Diamonds if you look at it just right.
I see that the video of sports highlights on my laptop is paused on Anthony David. “AD?” I ask. “Could this be one or am I reaching?”
Finally, you notice the large diamond on the necklace of the woman in the picture.
The fun thing about this reframe is that instead of me reciting a list of things that supposedly influenced you, we’re searching around together to find these things. They’re as much a surprise to me, apparently, as they are to you.
And, as far as stories go, “The universe is changing itself based on your whims.” Is perhaps the exact opposite of, “These outside factors are influencing you.”
Now, imagine sometime later I ask you to send me a video you shot on your phone of me doing some stupid shit when we first got to the bed and breakfast. You send it along and I take a look at it on my phone.
“Holy shit…,” I murmur, “Check this out. Remember that thing we did with the cards at the bed and breakfast? Remember we saw the Ace of Diamonds in a few things around the room and there was that portrait of the woman with a large diamond-shaped pendant? Look at that portrait before you selected the card.”
You look. She just has a ribbon around her neck, no pendant.
Proof that your choice altered the universe.
This is just an example, not something I would necessarily suggest doing exactly this way. But if you wanted to, it would just involve sneaking a framed portrait into the place you’re staying. It doesn’t need to be wall-sized. Just something you can put on a desk or end table. These sorts of things aren’t uncommon in small boutique hotels or B&Bs.
First plant the one without the reveal in it when you first get there and, at some point, have the person you’re going to perform for take a picture or video of you with that image in the background. Then, when you have some alone time, swap the image out for the one with the reveal in it.
As I said, this is just an example. You can reframe many, if not most, influence effects in this manner. For this presentation, I think a few “reveals” of the information are all you need.