JOURNEY

-
Seeing Through the Eyes of a Stranger
by
Jes Hansen
“For me nature is not landscape, but the dynamism of visual forces.”

- Bridget Riley
 JOURNEY

Copyright © 2018 Jes Hansen

All rights reserved. No part of this eBook may be reproduced or transmit-
ted in any form or by any means without written permission from the author.
INTRODUTION
Welcome dear readers of minds,

I want to invite you to take your audiences on a journey! The JOURNEY you are
about to discover is a corner stone of my current act. It is also my first release since
the highly acclaimed and limited Emotional Connector. There is always some time
between my releases because I don’t create for the sake of creating but for my
own performances and only a few years ago I decided to share the fruits of the
work with the community because I think that other performers can benefit from
these. I may not be a big innovator in method but that comes from the fact that I
don’t want to be clever but create lasting impressions with my audiences. What is
important in my work (in my own opinion) are the performances and full scripts
that I share. They are my main artistic output and are highly influenced by my
background as a professional actor and work in theatre. You will only ever receive
worked, theatrical material with my original performance script from me and the
JOURNEY is no exception of this.

I decided to not limit this release as I did with my last, even if this routine means
just as much to me as a performer. The main reason is that the last one was pirated
extensively and therefore the eBook spread even if I did not want that to happen
with my personal closer. So please get it from me or one of my resellers rather than
pirate shops. I won’t take this one off the market. That means a great deal to me
and I am very thankful for every person who obtains this eBook over legal ways.
But now to happier themes! I want to thank all the people who contacted me
about my material and shared their thoughts with me over the last year. I want to
especially mention Steve Wachner, Jacob Smith and of course Pablo Amira who
I still feel very connected with. Also, I want to thank my German friend Dr. Ralf
Fröhlich for supporting me and my art in many ways.

Another big thank you goes to Sudo. Not only for proof reading this work, but he
created an alternate method for this piece that I will outline later. More than that
he has become a true friend in the arts and he continuously blows my mind and
teaches me what being a mystery entertainer means.

A thank you goes to Peter Turner for inspiring me to create this routine through
his now legendary book Bigger Fish!

Now I will no longer hold you back from going on your very own JOURNEY!
Enjoy yourself and create memories.

Jes Hansen, Spring 2018

OUTER REALITY
“Welcome on-stage Charly! I hope you have enjoyed your evening so far. Do you
like to spend time in nature?”

She lets the performer know that she does indeed like to spent time in the wild.

“That’s wonderful and who doesn’t, after all. I have a second question for you.
Do you know these moments where the smallest of things you see sparks a world
of imagination? I think that’s something everyone has experienced in their lives.
Let me combine the two aspects of my question to a piece of imagination in your
very own mind. Please sit down in that chair and make yourself comfortable. Place
both feet on the ground and listen to me. On the table next to you lay a few cards
on which you will find different colours. Please take a look at the different colours
while I continue and make sure they are all with the colour downwards in a minute.”

Charly begins to turn around the cards on the table facedown and mixes them a bit
on the table.

“Our imagination is able to create worlds. Worlds that are completely imagined
but at the same time as real as stepping out of the door. The great authors and
artists have shown us what is possible and the moment we open a book a world is
unfolding in front of us. The abstract form of the written word becomes picture,
becomes smell, becomes emotion in us. We will now try something along these
lines!”
The mind reader takes a few steps back and addresses Charly directly.

“Charly, you have turned over the colour cards and know now that there were
many different of them. The colours on them will be the abstract information that
will be translated in a complex imagined thought by you in just a minute, but don’t
worry. Please take now one of the colour cards while I turn away and hold it against
your chest for a moment, so I can remove the other cards to prevent cluttered
results in what we are going to attempt”

After collecting the cards, the performer takes a few steps away from Charly and
proceeds.

“Please take a look at the colour now and don’t show it everyone else while doing
so! Now you have a colour in your mind. This colour will be the abstract thought
that will turn to a complex imagination in you mind in just a second.”

Soft and meditative music starts in the background as the mind reader continues.

“Please close your eyes for me now and leave them closed until I ask you to open
them. I want you to create a landscape in front of your inner eye with your chosen
colour as a starting point. Take the colour and see what landscape you would
associate with it. Make it a landscape you have visited for a clearer picture. Now
develop this mental picture and let it get clearer and more and more detailed in
your mind. Make it vivid, hear the sounds, smell the air and let it all come together
to give it a life of its own. Behind your eyes is now a fully formed image of landscape
that you have brought to life. Please nod if that is the case. Thank you!”
The performer inhales deeply and exhales slowly before closing his eyes too.

“Charly, I have now closed my eyes too. Sometimes, if someone in the same room
as myself develops a strong mental image I can pick up on certain aspects of it. It
may not be much because this is not under my control and has a lot to do with the
energies present on the day. I ask you to just keep concentrating on the picture in
your mind while I describe what I see. Please don’t interrupt me until I specifically
ask you a question. Please nod if you have understood that. Thank you!”

The eyes of the mind reader begin to flicker, and he seems to drift of in another
realm.

“This is quite interesting, normally the first thing I get is an impression of light
or dark. This time it is a bit different, but that may not be a problem. I smell
air. Very fresh air. And there is a warmth over my body. I hear something, but I
am not yet… wait now my body cools down, but the sounds did not vanish. This
happens sometimes but I am happy that it didn’t on this occasion. Now the thing
I mentioned earlier is happening, and I can see clearly the light. This has nothing
to do with the stage lightning, it comes from within me and in me it works like light
on a photographic paper. The noises set back in!”

The performer shields his eyes from the stage lights and proceeds after a pause.

“Now I feel that I am standing on something warm and its quite soft too. It does
not give me too much resistance when moving around.”
The performer moves carefully around the stage. He stops directly in front of the
end of the stage before falling. The audience takes a deep breath!

“A second ago I touched something with my feet that was very revealing. This gave
me a big leap forward in perceiving my surrounding with all my senses. All six! The
sound that irritated me a moment ago was the sound of, I believe, a bird. It is kind
of a shrill noise but embedded in a wash of a soft sound in the background. There
are people around us but not many. I think I have a pretty clear picture now.”

The eyes of the mind reader are opening slowly and adjusting back to the light.
He arrives back in the room and moves over to Charly that still sits in the chair on
stage with her eyes closed.

“Charly, I want you to slowly delete the detail out of you picture. Please make the
visuals blurry and let the sounds fate out. Let it all move backwards and return to
just seeing the colour you initially started with and then let even this fade out and
make your mind go blank. If you just see white let your eyes slowly open.”

After a short moment Charly begins to slowly open her eyes and orients back in the
room. Our mindreader continues.

“Charly, now you are back in the room with me has your trip into your imagination
been as relaxing as mine? Great. Am I correct in assuming that we were, just a
second ago, at a beautiful beach washed in sunshine?”

Charly laughs out in amazement and confirms the mind readers impression! The
mind reader retrieves the card and continues.
“Thank you very much Charly! You’ve been amazing. A great applause to Charly
while she is returning to her seat!”

Raving applause sets in. The light extinguishes.

INNER REALITY
I hope you enjoyed the performance of THE JOURNEY. It is an amazing
performance piece and keeps audiences captivated everywhere I’ve performed it.
I decided to write out the stage performance of this piece to illustrate its theatrical
potential. Of course, this routine is not limited in any way to the stage. Like most
Mentalism, this also makes an awesome close-up piece - even for intimate one-on-
one performances. There are some variations I make for that circumstance and
you can find my thoughts on that in the following chapter.

I will now give you the explanation of the routine as annotations in the performance
text. The text you already read in the previous chapter is greyed out. The explanation
is in black. These annotations should help you to understand everything you need
to know in the routine to be able to go out and perform it. To prevent clutter, all
the further thoughts on the routine - the performance and the methods, are to be
found in the next chapter so make sure to read that even if you think you understood
everything. These further thoughts where developed over many performances of
this routine and have some valuable content - especially if you want to perform it
out of the stage context I described until now.

Let’s get into it!

“Welcome on-stage Charly! I hope you have enjoyed your evening so far. Do you
like to spend time in nature?”

She lets the performer know that she does indeed like to spent time in the wild.

“That’s wonderful and who doesn’t after all. I have a second question for you. Do
you know these moments where the smallest of things you see sparks a world of
imagination? I think that’s something everyone has experienced in their lives. Let
me combine the two aspects of my question to a piece of imagination in your very
own mind. Please sit down in that chair and make yourself comfortable. Place both
feet on the ground and listen to me.

(These kinds of instructions are something I very regular use because I know it’s
power through my extensive use of hypnosis in all performance circumstances.
Checking for the compliance of an audience member is especially useful when you
attempt a routine like the one described in this pamphlet. Generally, it is always
helpful to check on your audience member before giving a performance of eight
minutes just to discover that the person is not able (or does not want) to follow
the easiest instructions. The repositioning of an audience member is a fast and
motivated way of checking the compliance.)

On the table next to you lay a few cards on which you will find different colours.
Please take a look at the different colours while I continue and make sure they are
all with the colour downwards in a minute.”

(The last two sentences are very logically placed and make sure that you do not
have to ask the idiotic question of “Are these normal?” or “Please check them
carefully!”, that are so unbelievably misplaced in mentalism that I won’t get deeper
into the matter now.

The cards are rendered normal in the eyes of the audience because you let the
spectator on stage handle them freely and that happens without pushing any more
attention to them than you must. Just continue with your script and let your audience
member do their assigned job. That is really everything that is necessary.)

Charly begins to turn around the facedown cards on the table and mixes them a bit
on the table.

“Our imagination is able to create worlds. Worlds that are completely imagined
but at the same time as real as stepping out of the door. The great authors and
artists have shown us what is possible and the moment we open a book a world is
unfolding in front of us. The abstract form of the written word becomes picture,
becomes smell, becomes emotion in us. We will now try something along these
lines!”

(The last sentence you just read is something I read for the first time in a routine
of Ben Blau. Since then, I’ve been in love with it and use it more than I possibly
should. Just for your information.)

The mind reader takes a few steps back and addresses Charly directly.

“Charly, you have turned over the colour cards and know now that there were
many different of them. The colours on them will be the abstract information that
will be translated in a complex imagined thought by you in just a minute, but don’t
worry. Please take now one of the colour cards while I turn away and hold it against
your chest for a moment, so I can remove the other cards to prevent cluttered
results in what we are going to attempt”

(Here lies the first and most important layer of the method. You are, of course, not
removing the cards to prevent clutter, but to find out which colour your spectator
on stage is holding at the moment. I use marked colour cards for that purpose.
How I made mine is explained in the next chapter. The available colours are
green, blue, yellow and white. I have more blue cards than green, yellow and white.
I first check if I am able to spot the mark on the card the audience member is
holding. In two of three occasions that is possible, and you are good. If not, you
just collect all the cards from the table - I most often use fifteen cards - and see
which colour is missing from the stack. Just note the colour and memorize it. The
moment you know the card, you are more or less done with your method.
If the audience member chooses:

• Green - you will describe a forest.

• Blue - a seascape.

• Yellow - also a seascape (but not include too much water information).

• White - a snowscape.

That is the core principle of JOURNEY! If you allow a spectator to construct an

imaginary landscape from one of the four given colours these will be the outcomes.
In a stage setting this works 100% of the time because of the pressure on you
audience member forces him to go with the first thing that comes to his or her mind.
In an intimate setting you may want to make use of a two way out for some colours,
but we will get into intimate performances in the next chapter. The moment you
know the colour, you instantly have the landscape and can leave method behind
and just perform. After all that’s what we love most, isn’t it?)

After collecting the cards, the performer takes a few steps away from Charly and
proceeds.

“Please take a look at the colour now and don’t show it everyone else while doing
so! Now you have a colour in your mind. This colour will be the abstract thought
that will turn to a complex imagination in your mind in just a second.”

Soft and meditative music starts in the background as the mind reader continues.

“Please close your eyes for me now and leave them closed until I ask you to open
them. I want you to create with your colour as a starting point a landscape in front
of your inner eye. Take the colour and see what landscape you would associate
with it. Make it a landscape you have visited for a clearer picture. Now develop
this mental picture and let it get clearer and more and more detailed in your mind.
Make it vivid, here the sounds, smell the air and let it all come together to give it a
live on its own. Behind your eyes is now a fully formed image of landscape that you
have brought to live. Please nod if that is the case. Thank you!”

The performer inhales deeply and exhales slowly before closing his eyes too.

“Charly, I have now closed my eyes too. Sometimes if someone in the same room
as myself develops a very strong mental image I can pick up on certain aspects of
it. It may not be much because this is not under my control and has a lot to do
with the energies present on the day. I ask you to just keep concentrating on the
picture in your mind while I describe what I see. Please don’t interrupt me until
I specifically ask you a question. Please nod if you have understood that. Thank
you!”

(The sentence “Please don’t interrupt me until I specifically ask you a question.” is
especially important to make the routine work in terms of method as well as well as
theatrical. The last thing you want is a spectator that interrupts you in the middle of
your description going “No. actually there are no birds.”. You now continue with
describing the landscape which fits the chosen colour.

I strongly advise you to create a personal script for them fitting to the landscape
surrounding you. For example, you can incorporate special sounds, flora and
fauna, smells or if it works a local landmark that fits into the description. You will
see in a second that what you describe has not essentially to be what the audience
member imagines to bring the routine to a very successful conclusion exactly as
described in the performance.)

The eyes of the mind reader begin to flicker, and he seems to drift of in another
realm.

“This is quite interesting. Normally, the first thing I get is an impression of light
or dark. This time it is a bit different, but that may not be a problem. I smell
air. Very fresh air. And there is a warmth over my body. I hear something, but I
am not yet… wait now my body cools down, but the sounds did not vanish. This
happens sometimes, but I am happy that it didn’t on this occasion. Now the thing I
mentioned earlier is happening and I can see clearly the light. This has nothing to
do with the stage lightning, it comes from within me. And in me, it works like light
on a photographic paper. The noises set back in!”

The performer shields his eyes from the stage lights and proceeds after a pause.

“Now I feel that I am standing on something warm and its quite soft too. It does
not give me too much resistance when moving around.”

The performer moves carefully around the stage. He stops directly in front of the
end of the stage before falling. The audience takes a deep breath!

(This is the kind of theatrics that are worth gold. Still the majority of mystery
entertainers would skip on this, but it is really what drives this routine home. You
can not improvise something like this but have to rehearse it again and again until
it looks fresh and created in the moment every time. Going through that kind
of trouble will have a great impact on how your audience sees you not only as a
performer but as an artist.)

“A second ago I touched something with my feet that was very revealing. This gave
me a big leap forward in perceiving my surrounding with all my senses. All six! The
sound that irritated me a moment ago was the sound of, I believe, a bird. It is kind
of a shrill noise but embedded in a wash of a soft sound in the background. There
are people around us but not many. I think I have a pretty clear picture now.”

The eyes of the mind reader are opening slowly and adjusting back to the light.
He arrives back in the room and moves over to Charly that still sits in the chair on
stage with her eyes closed.

“Charly, I want you to slowly delete the detail out of you picture. Please make the
visuals blurry and let the sounds fate out. Let it all move backwards and return to
just seeing the colour you initially started with and then let even this fade out and
make your mind go blank. If you just see white let your eyes slowly open.”

(These instructions maybe remind you of the end of a performance of hypnosis and
is exactly what inspired this passage of the script. It gives the process the meaning it
deserves. This is what transforms a routine into a piece of theatre – something we
should always strive for. Everything in this routine is about the imagination and the
possibility to create a complex imagined world out of abstract given information.
We don’t want to rush to the reveal here in any way. Take the time to make the
JOURNEY memorable for all your audiences.)

After a short moment Charly begins to slowly open her eyes and orients back in the
room. Our mindreader continues.

“Charly, now you are back in the room with me has your trip into your imagination
been as relaxing as mine? Great. Am I right in assuming that we were just a second
ago at a beautiful beach washed in sunshine?”

Charly laughs out in amazement and confirms the mind readers impression! The
mind reader retrieves the card and continues.
(Here now lays the final piece of method that we use to accomplish the impossible
feat of describing an imagined landscape of an audience member in minute detail.
The truth is we don’t or better put we don’t do exactly that all the time.

Most of the time your description will be really accurate and for two reasons. The
first reason is that we all, when asked to imagine a landscape, imagine very similar
archetypal kinds of landscapes. So, chances are that when you imagine a beach
your spectator will imagine a very similar beach right next to you. Its unbelievable
how similar we all are.

The second principle I employ to make sure that the imagined landscapes are
as similar as possible in our two minds is a popular mind trick. Don’t think of a
pink elephant! Now you will have thought of exactly what I asked you to not think
about. This will happen during the routine. If you describe the noises in your own
imagination your spectator on stage will have no chance but to incorporate this into
his or her imagination too. That is true for all the small details. While you asked
them to create a landscape in their mind you are entering theirs and form it the
way you would want it to be. I have created other material using this principle over
the last months and realised how powerful it is. I will leave it to you to develop this
further at this point in time. In this JOURNEY its just one of many elements that
work together to create a miracle.

For the case you are not 100% accurate in your description it doesn’t matter at all
because we make use of a clever ploy. Please re-read the question I asked Charly
in this performance. The question is “Am I right in assuming that we were just a
second ago at a beautiful beach washed in sunshine?”. To this question she will
answer yes. Peter Turner masterfully observed that this yes will give the impression
that Charly at that moment approves to the whole description of the landscape
while she really just says yes to the fact that she thought of the beach.

This really is no dual reality and nothing you will have to fear during performance.
As I described earlier the chances are very high that your imagined landscapes are
very much alike.

You are now finished with your performance and can enjoy your well-deserved
applause after sending your audience member back to her seat.)

“Thank you very much Charly! You’ve been amazing. A great applause to Charly
while she is returning to her seat!”

Raving applause sets in. The light extinguishes.

FURTHER THOUGHTS
In this section of the eBook you will find the parts of the methods that had no place
in the initial description in the context of the fully scripted performance. I hope
you will find all your questions answered in here that are still open after reading
the description. If that should not be the case don’t hesitate to ask me directly over
mail or social media. There are no stupid questions!

I want to begin this section with an alternate method for the routine. This method
is not my creation but was given to me by friend Sudo. I am sure you have heard
about him and his genius creations in our art. If not stop reading now and head
over to his website and get some of his work!

After sharing the routine with him, Sudo came up with an alternate idea to get to
know the colour by forcing it. The thoughts behind forcing the colour were several.
The first was to be able to force the ideal colour for the most descriptive landscape
every time. The second was so that cards didn’t have to be used and no marks
needed to be read. I liked the idea of this for two reasons. One being the fact that
I simply liked the visuals of his idea and second being the possibility to get to the
snowscape every time. I will outline why I like this outcome best in a moment but
first let’s get to Sudo’s solution.

He advised me to try using gem stones or coloured glass pebbles and a change bag
to force the outcome I want. To clarify for anyone not following a change bag is
essentially a two way out bag. We fill the first compartment with many different
coloured pebbles and the second one with many stones of the same colour. This
enables us to show all the stones different but force the outcome of the selection.
After Sudo gave me the idea I tried it in performance at a gig a few days later. It
really worked like a charm. I used a small black velvet two way out bag that does
not in anyway make you think of these awful magicians change bags.

I asked my participant to grab one stone and bring it out enclosed in his fist and
without looking. After the selection I threw the bag into my case and continued
with the performance. This is a very fair and direct way to get to the colour and
may be the best solution for you if you don’t feel comfortable thinking on your
feet when performing this. I will definitely keep this solution in my repertoire in
the future and it will be used. This will not replace the original method completely
because I love working intuitively on stage and create a unique experience for
myself and my audience. There are time and places where that is not suitable and
for these occasions I will get back to Sudo’s concept.

I mentioned earlier that I forced the white pebble with the change back which
leads to the snowscape. The reason to do so is because of the added reveal that can
be used when your spectator thinks of the snowscape. This is of course applicable
for the regular method too. The added reveal is a childhood memory of your
participant!

The concept behind it is essentially very simple. If you ask someone who already
thinks of a snowscape to think of a childhood memory there is not much to choose
from. They can go for a snowball fight or building a snowman. Again, through
the Ploy of the Pink Elephant you are able to direct the imagined memory in the
way you want to. The beautiful thing with adding this is the fact that you can get a
positive, direct response at several times while still describing the memory. Don’t
do it as a separate reveal make sure to interlace it with describing the landscape.
I leave it to you to explore this deeper from this point on. There is the potential
for miracles in here!

I will now close this section with the answers to some questions that are maybe still
on your mind.

What landscape do I reveal for each colour?

As already described in the main explanation here are the colours and the
corresponding landscapes:

Green: Forest

Blue: Beach/ Seascape

Yellow: Beach

White: Snowscape

(Optional colour: Orange with corresponds with a sunset that’s most of the time
located at a beach.)
I highly advise you to create a script for every possible landscape in advance.
This will ensure that you don’t have to make something up on the spot which
will enhance your performance quality massively and give you the possibility to
improvise on this basic framework.

What can I use as an out if I am unsure?

I personally don’t use outs in the stage setting. The only time I would fall back on
outs is in an informal close-up setting. In this case it occasionally happens that the
person you are performing for thinks for green of a meadow, for blue of a flower
field and for yellow of a dessert. This really happens very rarely but just in case you
could do a written revelation that incorporates physical outs. For example, with
the use of an index and pre-written index cards. For the reveal you just remove an
index card and write the name of the most likely landscape on it. Ask now for the
landscape. Should it not be the one you have written down just palm the right one
from you index and switch it with the previously written business card. That covers
this problem.

The problem with that is that you have to be very, very vague in the description of
the landscapes what takes a lot of punch out of the routine, so I personally would
try not to fall back on outs and just trust in your ability to nail it!

What changes do you make if you perform in a close-up context?

The main change I make when performing the JOURNEY in an intimate close-up
setting is checking with the spectator when going along with the presentation. For
example, when I describe the sounds I ask the person I am performing for if they
can hear that too. Or when I describe the texture under my feet I ask them to try if
they are also able to feel the same thing. All these is of course possible due to the
described Ploy of the Pink Elephant.

When performing this in an intimate situation I also make the description phase
longer and more detailed. In an intimate setting the reveal is actually the least
important point and the focus should be more on the shared experience and the
synchronized minds.

For the rest it works exactly as the described performance.

Which cards do you use?

For most of the time I performed this routine I used self-made cards from my
business cards which backs I coloured with Copic markers. I placed marks in the
back design of the card to inform me which colour is on the face. I had one set
with very bold marks for stage and another with very subtle marks for close-up
performances. These have now lasted me for over eight months and worked great.
So, if you are starting out to perform this or if you just want to give it a try this is
possibly the best way to go for you.

Currently I perform the routine with custom produced cards that look like taken
from a vintage colour chart. This ties in with a section in my performance where I
talk about my grandfather who was a painter. I sadly don’t have his original colour
charts anymore, but these look very much alike and fit perfectly to me and give the
piece another more personal note without directly mentioning it.
CREDITS
Peter Turner – Wish You Were Here

The inspiration for this routine came from performing Peters Wish You Were
Here on a regular basis for quite some time. I saw immense power in reinterpreting
the routine for my performance style that is very much focused around imagination
and hypnosis.

From there it evolved to what it is now. I don’t try to force the landscape anymore
and don’t use a reading in the context of this piece. Also, I wanted to make it a
longer full fleshed theatrical piece. I still perform Peters original routine as a short
piece in my close-up set.

Peter Turner – Confirmation Principle

Peter described the Confirmation Principle in his book Bigger Fish as well as in
many other of his video and written releases. It has become since then a staple
method of modern mentalism.

Sudo – Alternate Method

The credits for the alternate method described in this piece go to Sudo who came
up with it after I explained THE JOURNEY to him one evening.