TRUST SCIENCE

“Google right now, is muscle reading real? The idiometer response, scientifically, it's real. You can see things in people that will give away the answer. I create a very specific scenario that looks impossible, and I create an impression of being able to do everything. You can see things in people that will give away the answer if you know how to observe the physical parameters.”

“I've never met somebody who was a mentalist, who was good at the start. It's very similar to stand-up comedy. You rarely find someone who's been doing stand-up comedy six months, who's incredible and is headlining Madison Square Garden. There were 10 or 20 years of work to become an overnight success for most of those people. The same thing applies. It's the same core skill.”

“Google right now, is muscle reading real? The idiometer response, scientifically, it's real. You can see things in people that will give away the answer. I create a very specific scenario that looks impossible, and I create an impression of being able to do everything. You can see things in people that will give away the answer if you know how to observe the physical parameters.”

“The statistical likelihood that four children could die from SIDS is in excess of one in a trillion. As the children had all been growing normally and their autopsies identified no sign of disease, Dr Opphoven believed that all four of them had been suffocated by the last person to see them alive– Kathleen Folbigg.”

“The key thing to understand that's different between a psychic and me, is what I'm doing is learnable, repeatable, and based in science. You can't teach someone to be a psychic. I've never met a psychic that could teach me to also be a psychic. I can explain to you the method of everything I do. Most other mentalists can explain to you how I do most of what I do. There is a method, a set of steps.”

“The key thing to understand that's different between a psychic and me, is what I'm doing is learnable, repeatable, and based in science. You can't teach someone to be a psychic. I've never met a psychic that could teach me to also be a psychic. I can explain to you the method of everything I do. Most other mentalists can explain to you how I do most of what I do. There is a method, a set of steps.”

“I've never met somebody who was a mentalist, who was good at the start. It's very similar to stand-up comedy. You rarely find someone who's been doing stand-up comedy six months, who's incredible and is headlining Madison Square Garden. There were 10 or 20 years of work to become an overnight success for most of those people. The same thing applies. It's the same core skill.”

“When it came to the unexplained death of an infant, one was a tragedy, two were suspicious, and three most likely pointed to murder. After reviewing the case, one police psychologist concluded, If natural causes are eliminated, then, in my opinion, Kathleen Folbigg became angry and frustrated with her children's crying and need for constant attention to a point where it overwhelmed her.”

“I've lived with the shame of coming and changing that story, he said. I've felt that I couldn't protect those children in life, and I certainly didn't protect them in death. With Craig back on their side and agreeing to testify against Kathleen, the detectives were finally ready to make their move.”

“I think knowing how to build rapport, how to establish trust, same things that a hypnotist can do, same thing a good salesperson can do, the same thing that a great con man can do, are very important. If you can't get people to trust you and work with you, it won't work. I'm not hypnotizing people to cluck like a chicken. We're having a fun experience together. So you're winning them over.”

“I think knowing how to build rapport, how to establish trust, same things that a hypnotist can do, same thing a good salesperson can do, the same thing that a great con man can do, are very important. If you can't get people to trust you and work with you, it won't work. I'm not hypnotizing people to cluck like a chicken. We're having a fun experience together. So you're winning them over.”

“Google right now, is muscle reading real? The idiometer response, scientifically, it's real. You can see things in people that will give away the answer. I create a very specific scenario that looks impossible, and I create an impression of being able to do everything. You can see things in people that will give away the answer if you know how to observe the physical parameters.”

“The light varied with a periodic irregularity. The chronometers aren't working exactly right out here, so I can't give you any explanation in terms of hours, but I find a number irregularly recurring changes in light intensity and character, and that proves the presence of a number of planetary bodies circling the star. That's the only way one could explain the fluctuations for the G-type star is a steady type.”

“The press published some of the most damning expert opinions from the police statement of facts, including Dr. Ophoven's belief that the odds of all four Folbigg children dying of unexplained natural causes was one in a trillion. Accompanied by the excerpt from Kathleen's diary in which she compared herself to her murderous father, it didn't take long before she was considered guilty in the court of public opinion.”

“Stutzman's face twisted into an even more exaggerated grin. This, he said, is mutiny. I'm taking over. He laughed at them. No, you're calling the crew. They're with me. Damn you! shouted Chambers, taking a step forward. He halted as Stutzman jerked the pistol up. Forget it, Chambers, you're just second man from now on.”

“His brain hummed with dreams. Old dreams revived again. Old dreams of conquest and of empire. Dreams of a power that held a solar system in its grip.”

“I think knowing how to build rapport, how to establish trust, same things that a hypnotist can do, same thing a good salesperson can do, the same thing that a great con man can do, are very important. If you can't get people to trust you and work with you, it won't work. I'm not hypnotizing people to cluck like a chicken. We're having a fun experience together. So you're winning them over.”

“The lie is that I can read people's minds. I can't. I wish I could. I'm crafting a narrative which in your mind plays out in such a way, kind of like the way a magic trick works, but the contract is different with the audience. It appears to be just a test of wills where I've trained my mind to see and observe things about you or influence you in such ways that the method seems to really be mind reading.”

“Manning thinks he can keep us out here, but he's wrong. We'll be in the solar system less than a week after he gets there. Chambers stifled a gasp, tried to speak calmly. You mean this? Of course I mean it. I don't waste my time with foolish jokes. You have the secret of material energy. Not that, the scientist growled. But I have something else as valuable. I have the secret of Manning's drive. I know what it is that enables him to exceed the speed of light, to go ten thousand times as fast as light.”

“That, said Craven, isn't our sun. It has planets, but it isn't our sun. Chambers stepped quickly to Craven, reached out a hand, and hoisted him from the chair, shook him. You must be joking. That has to be the sun. Craven struggled free from Chambers' clutch, spoke in an even voice. I never joke. We made a mistake, that's all, I hadn't meant to tell you yet.”

“Just a little matter of variation in the alloy, Graven explained, crystallization of the alloy, forming those little prisms and pyramids. As a result, you get a surface thousands of times greater than in the old type. Helps you absorb every bit of the energy.”

“The key thing to understand that's different between a psychic and me, is what I'm doing is learnable, repeatable, and based in science. You can't teach someone to be a psychic. I've never met a psychic that could teach me to also be a psychic. I can explain to you the method of everything I do. Most other mentalists can explain to you how I do most of what I do. There is a method, a set of steps.”

“Combined with Kathleen's diary entry from the night Caleb died in which she enthusiastically wrote, Finally Asleep, Professor Berry believed it was possible that Caleb had not only been smothered to death, but also smothered on a previous occasion from which he was able to recover.”

“Spectroscopic examination. That collector-field of ours gathers energy just like a burning-glass. You've seen a burning-glass, haven't you? He stared at Stutzman, directing the question at him. Stutzman shuffled awkwardly, unhappily. Well, Craven went on, I use that for a telescope. Gathered the light from the suns, and analysed it.”

“The lie is that I can read people's minds. I can't. I wish I could. I'm crafting a narrative which in your mind plays out in such a way, kind of like the way a magic trick works, but the contract is different with the audience. It appears to be just a test of wills where I've trained my mind to see and observe things about you or influence you in such ways that the method seems to really be mind reading.”

“The lie is that I can read people's minds. I can't. I wish I could. I'm crafting a narrative which in your mind plays out in such a way, kind of like the way a magic trick works, but the contract is different with the audience. It appears to be just a test of wills where I've trained my mind to see and observe things about you or influence you in such ways that the method seems to really be mind reading.”

“I've never met somebody who was a mentalist, who was good at the start. It's very similar to stand-up comedy. You rarely find someone who's been doing stand-up comedy six months, who's incredible and is headlining Madison Square Garden. There were 10 or 20 years of work to become an overnight success for most of those people. The same thing applies. It's the same core skill.”