This is a presentation framework for "Absolute Free Will" by Gabriel Werlen.

A student is browsing the bookshelves in my classroom and notices a copy of Karl Fulves’ “Easy Magic”.

“What’s this?” she asks.

“Oh,” I laugh, “I forgot that I still had that. When I first started teaching I thought that I could use magic tricks to make kids more interested in whatever the lesson was going to be. I quickly realized that most of those tricks are just the same ones that you learn when you’re like five, and also that 16 year olds didn’t think a coin vanishing and then appearing behind their ear was the miracle my parents did when I was young. I dumped it back on the bookshelf within a couple of days and it’s been sitting there ever since I guess. Let me see if there’s anything interesting in there that you might be interested in.”

I scan the table of contents quickly. “Oh yeah, I totally forgot about this. I can’t even remember if it even worked. You wanna give it a try?”

She nods.

“Ok, we just need like 3 smallish objects, things we can hold in our hands. I think I’m supposed to ask you some questions first, but I can’t remember exactly, so, uh, let’s see: Are you more of a cat or dog person? (She says cat). Ok, who is a musician you really like right now? (She says Taylor Swift). Great, and, um, let’s see…what is your favorite season? (She says summer). Sweet, me too. Ok, based on those answers I think you’re going to choose…”

I trail off and write down something on an index card and fold it up (I just guess here as to what she might choose. Being wrong isn’t going to matter at all).

“Now, grab 3 smallish items and put them on my desk in any order you want.”

She looks around the room and grabs a lego figurine, a pencil, and her phone. She puts them on the desk in that order.

“Ok, great. Do you want to change any of those? No? Cool. Ok, well this is supposed to just kind of work by itself, but it didn’t.”

I show her what I had written down. It says “Phone, book, crayon”.

“I guess I got one of those and was pretty close on the crayon/pencil thing, but I don’t know, I told you the book is intended for five-year….oh, wait, I totally forgot one thing. Hold on.”

I open my desk drawer and grab a starburst candy. I pop it into my mouth and chew it.

“I was supposed to do this first, no wonder it didn’t work. Give me a few seconds.”

I grab another index card and write something down. I look at her and hem and haw. I look at the objects in front of us, and then write something else on the card, and fold it up (This is when you would use Gabriel’s written template (being sure to substitute in the chosen items) and folding technique).

“Alright, I think this might work. Let’s imagine we are in a little play, and these 3 items and you and I are props and characters in the play. I’ve written down the last line of the play for you to hold onto. Keep it safe because I’m going to want you to check my work when we are finished.”

Then go through the process outlined in A Double Tour by Gabriel Werlen.

“Wow, I can’t believe that worked. Maybe this book is halfway decent after all.”

If she seems interested, I let her keep the book, if not, I just toss it aside on my desk. If she wants to look through the book, but can’t find that trick, I just say it must be from another book or something.

Thanks to Gabriel Werlen, and He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named for inspiring this presentation.

Thank you for this beautiful presentation!

Thanks for posting such a gem of a presentation. It really has got my creative juices flowing.

Neil

Yeah, the brilliance of Gabriel's idea is how adaptable it is to different circumstances. I'd love to hear what you come up with Neil. I don't think there is a facebook group for this, but if people shared what they are doing with Gabriel's framework, I bet we would get lots of really cool ideas.

I am toying with Patrick Redford's Ring, Wallet, and Watch (found on his Sunrise download) as a follow up. Not sure how well it will play out or if it will be a case of 'gilding the Lilly'.

Hi The_Mediocre_Gatsby,

That really is very nicely thought out! I like your approach to routining (i.e., thinking it through by actually writing it up).

And of course, thanks for remembering us here and letting us see what you came up with.

Thomas Henry

I think Ring, Wallet, Watch would be a great follow up Wravyn. I would build in an extensive time delay between the two things (a month, six months, a year) so that they don't seem samey. I'm not familiar enough with Redford's effect to know if this is possible, but I might call the person I had shown Absolute Free Will to, and blabber excitedly "Dude, you're not going to believe this. I'm getting better at it. Quick..." and go into Redford's thing. If possible, make sure it doesn't work. "*** it. What happened...oh, starburst. Such an idiot. Hold on, I've got to run to the store." Call your friend back 15 minutes later clearly chewing something. "Ok, let's try this again". Do Redford and bam.

I love how you did this trick because it seems that you still don’t remember how to do the trick which adds to the randomness and overall credibility of the effect.