![Muscle reading example](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a5/Muscle_reading_example.png)
Muscle reading, also known as "
Hellstromism", "Cumberlandism" or "contact mind reading", is a technique used by
mentalists
Mentalism is a performing art in which its practitioners, known as mentalists, appear to demonstrate highly developed mental or intuitive abilities. Performances may appear to include hypnosis, telepathy, clairvoyance, divination, precogniti ...
to determine the thoughts or knowledge of a subject, the effect of which tends to be perceived as a form of
mind reading. The performer can determine many things about the mental state of a subject by observing subtle, involuntary responses to speech or any other stimuli. It is closely related to the
ideomotor effect
The ideomotor phenomenon is a psychological phenomenon wherein a subject makes motions unconsciously. Also called ideomotor response (or ideomotor reflex) and abbreviated to IMR, it is a concept in hypnosis and psychological research. It is der ...
, whereby subtle movements made without conscious awareness reflect a physical movement, action or direction which the subject is thinking about. The term "muscle reading" was coined in the 1870s by American neurologist
George M. Beard to describe the actions of mentalist
J. Randall Brown, an early proponent of the art.
History
Muscle reading is also known by the names of those who have used it in popular performances. The success of one early performer,
Stuart Cumberland
Stuart Cumberland (1857–1922) was an English mentalist known for his demonstrations of "thought reading".
Cumberland was famous for performing blindfolded feats such as identifying a hidden object in a room that a person had picked out or ...
, led to the technique's alternate name of Cumberlandism. The fame of the
mentalist
Mentalism is a performing art in which its practitioners, known as mentalists, appear to demonstrate highly developed mental or intuitive abilities. Performances may appear to include hypnosis, telepathy, clairvoyance, divination, precogniti ...
Axel Hellstrom Axel Hellstrom (December 22, 1893 – July 22, 1933) was a German muscle reader, mentalist and stage magician. He redefined the art of muscle reading to such an extent that this technique, also known as "contact mind reading" and "Cumberlandism" ( ...
led to it widely being called Hellstromism. Performers such as
J. Randall Brown,
Erik Jan Hanussen
Erik Jan Hanussen, born Hermann Steinschneider (2 June 1889, in Vienna – 25 March 1933, in Berlin), was an Austrian Jewish publicist, charlatan and clairvoyant performer. Acclaimed in his lifetime as a hypnotist, mentalist, occultist and astr ...
,
Franz Polgar
Dr. Franz Julius Polgar (April 18, 1900 - June, 19 1979) was a renowned psychologist, hypnotist, lecturer and entertainer.
Family
The son of Julius Polgar, and Risa Kohn (1869-), née Kohn, Franz Polgar was born in city of Enying, in Fejér ...
,
Kreskin
The Amazing Kreskin (born George Joseph Kresge; January 12, 1935), also known as Kreskin, is an American mentalist who became popular on television in the 1970s. He was inspired to become a mentalist by Lee Falk's comic strip ''Mandrake the M ...
, and
Nader Hanna have also used muscle reading successfully in their acts.
In 1924, magician
Carl Hertz
Carl Hertz (May 14, 1859 – March 20, 1924) was an American magician.
Biography
He was born Louis or Leib Morgenstein in San Francisco. After becoming proficient in the art of magic, he toured America, Europe and Australia, which he had first ...
noted that "mind-reading is nothing but muscle-reading. In all the cases where the mind-reader is supposed to lead a person to a hidden object, the spectator is guided entirely by an involuntary movement of the subject's muscles." The mentalist
Washington Irving Bishop
Washington Irving Bishop, also known as Wellington (4 March 1855 – 13 May 1889) was an American stage mentalist. He started his career as an assistant under the muscle reader J. Randall Brown, but was most well known for his performance of t ...
could drive a car blindfolded by muscle reading techniques.
Kreskin, one of the most accomplished performers of muscle reading in modern times, can tell a driver where to go in a car while a subject holds his wrist (or vice versa). In one of his books he relates the technique to the children's game within which a hidden object is located by feedback of "hot" or "cold".
June Downey
June Etta Downey (July 13, 1875 – October 11, 1932) was an American psychologist who studied personality and handwriting. Downey was born and raised in Laramie, Wyoming, where she received her degree in Greek and Latin from the University of Wy ...
had studied the practice of muscle reading from a psychological perspective. She has been described as an expert on the subject of muscle reading.
"June Etta Downey (1875-1932)"
Society for the Psychology of Women.
Technique
The technique relies on the assertion that the subject will subconsciously reveal their thoughts through very slight involuntary physical reactions, also known as ideomotor responses. The performer can determine what the subject is thinking by recognising and interpreting those responses. Muscle reading may be billed by some entertainers as a psychic
A psychic is a person who claims to use extrasensory perception (ESP) to identify information hidden from the normal senses, particularly involving telepathy or clairvoyance, or who performs acts that are apparently inexplicable by natural laws, ...
phenomenon, where the audience will be told that by creating physical contact with the subject, a better psychic connection can be formed. In fact, the contact allows the performer to read more subtle reactions in the subject's motor functions that may not be apparent without contact, such as muscle control and heart rate.
Because muscle reading relies so heavily on the subject's subconscious reactions to their environment and situation, this technique is used commonly when performing stunts dealing with locating objects in an auditorium or on stage, and as such, it can be done 'clean' by the magician skilled in reading body language.
Performers often instruct the subject to imagine voicing instructions, which presumably amplifies the reactions of the subject, thus promoting the idea that the trick involves genuine thought transference or mind-reading. However the subject who is "thinking directions" has a physical, kinaesthetic reaction that guides the performer so that he or she can, for example, locate a specific place on a wall on which to place a pin, without prior knowledge of where the pin should go.
Knowledge of muscle reading is a technique that is also reportedly used by poker players to hide their reactions to the game, as well as to read the other players for potential bluffs and/or better hands.
See also
* Billet reading
* Cold reading
*Ideomotor effect
The ideomotor phenomenon is a psychological phenomenon wherein a subject makes motions unconsciously. Also called ideomotor response (or ideomotor reflex) and abbreviated to IMR, it is a concept in hypnosis and psychological research. It is der ...
References
Further reading
* George M. Beard. (1882)
''The Study of Trance, Muscle-Reading and Allied Phenomena in Europe and America''
New York.
*H. J. Burlingame
Hardin Jasper Burlingame (1852–1915) was an American magician and magic historian.
Burlingame had taken lessons from the magician David Tobias Bamberg. He later used the stage name "Jasper Bamberg" when he performed in Chicago.
Burlingame i ...
. (1891)
''Mind-Readers and Their Tricks''
In ''Leaves from Conjurers' Scrap books: Or, Modern Magicians and Their Works''. Chicago: Donohue, Henneberry & Co. pp. 108-127
*June Downey
June Etta Downey (July 13, 1875 – October 11, 1932) was an American psychologist who studied personality and handwriting. Downey was born and raised in Laramie, Wyoming, where she received her degree in Greek and Latin from the University of Wy ...
. (1908)
''Automatic Phenomena of Muscle-Reading''
''The Journal of Philosophy
''The Journal of Philosophy'' is a monthly peer-reviewed academic journal on philosophy, founded in 1904 at Columbia University. Its stated purpose is "To publish philosophical articles of current interest and encourage the interchange of ideas, ...
'' 5: 650-658.
*June Downey
June Etta Downey (July 13, 1875 – October 11, 1932) was an American psychologist who studied personality and handwriting. Downey was born and raised in Laramie, Wyoming, where she received her degree in Greek and Latin from the University of Wy ...
. (1909). ''Muscle-Reading: A Method of Investigating Involuntary Movements and Mental Types''. ''Psychological Review
''Psychological Review'' is a bimonthly peer-reviewed academic journal that covers psychological theory. It was established by James Mark Baldwin (Princeton University) and James McKeen Cattell (Columbia University) in 1894 as a publication vehi ...
'' 16: 257-301.
External links
*http://www.randi.org/encyclopedia/muscle%20reading.html - James Randi
James Randi (born Randall James Hamilton Zwinge; August 7, 1928 – October 20, 2020) was a Canadian-American stage magician, author and scientific skeptic who extensively challenged paranormal and pseudoscientific claims. Rodrigues 2010p. ...
on the subject
*http://dict.die.net/muscle%20reading/ - dictionary definition
Marom mor mentalist
{{Magic and Illusion
Magic tricks
Mentalism