The Freestyle Book Test

By

Greg Arce & Federico Ludueña

Copyright 2004
Remember, you shouldn’t be passing this
manuscript around… or we’ll find you
and then kill you.

There are some very evil ideas inside that

should be kept in the smallest of groups…
please keep it that way… or you know
what we’ve promised to do to you.

Get ready to make up your own

Freestyle Book Test.

2
TABLE OF CONTENTS:

BRIEF EFFECT EXPLANATION PAGE 4

METHODOLOGY & SUPPLIES PAGES 5 & 6
LIST OF EFFECTS PAGES 7 & 8
INTERLOCKING MNEMONIC LISTS PAGES 9 – 14
CONVERTING NUMBERS & LETTERS PAGES 15 – 19
PEEK BOOK CODING PAGES 20 – 29
DOODLES PAGES 30 & 31
COLORING LETTERS & DOODLES PAGES 32 & 33
WRITTEN IN NUMBERS PAGE 34
WRITTEN IN PLAYING CARDS PAGES 35 – 39
FILLED IN LETTERS PAGES 40 & 41
HIGHLIGHTED LETTERS PAGES 42 – 44
STAINS & BURN MARKS PAGE 45
REVERSE PEEK (UNDERLINED WORD) PAGES 46 & 47
NAMING OBJECTS PAGES 48 – 52
UNIQUE PATTERNS IN BOOKS PAGES 53 & 54
EXAMPLE USING PLAYING CARD PAGES 55 – 59
EXAMPLE USING PEEK PAGES 60 – 62
BANACHEK IDEA PAGES 63 & 64
PALMISTRY PAGES 65 & 66
EXAMPLE OF DOODLES PAGES 67 & 68
EXAMPLES OF PAGES IN THE BOOK PAGES 69 – 79
COMMENTS & IDEAS PAGES 80 - 83

3
 THE WHAT: You take out a paperback book and show
it around. You explain that it’s one of those books you’ve
had for a long time and even though it might not be
considered a classic, it contains many memories for you.

You’ve had it so long that you’ve marked it up with

doodles, numbers, random information and even circled
words that you thought were important… you even wrote
in playing cards on all the pages when you were bored.

Several things can now occur: You riffle through the

pages and a spectator calls “Stop”. You have him look at
the page he stopped at as you walk away. You proceed
to tell him many things about the page he is looking at…
words that are circled, letters you filled in, doodles that
are drawn on that page & the color you highlighted them
in; you can call out a random anagram you once worked
out with letters on that page and there happens to be a
large digit number on that page and you call it out, too.

Many of these same effects can be done while you

step away and have the spectator take control of the
book himself.

You have him call out his favorite card and tell him to
find it in the book. When he does, you not only tell him
what cards are near his card, but a lot of the same
information that you first got with a peek.

4
 This is a booktest you make at home and personalize
to your own history.

THE HOW: We are going to teach you various ways of

coding doodles, cards, colors, words, numbers and even
using magic abbreviations to give you instant information
to a peeked page.

We will work mainly with what we call “Interlocking

Mnemonic Lists.”

Many of these methods have never been seen and even

a few of the older methods have been restructured and
reworked.

We got the idea while playing around with Double

Vision. Lee Earle’s wonderful contribution was to apply
the method of “Mental Numbers”, by Vincent Dalban, to a
book test. We thought it would be nice to obtain all the
information possible from the page number.

And we will be using a peek method on the book so

this is the brief history of that method:

The first application of Francis V. Taylor's “Peek Deck”

to a book test was done by Paul Curry in "Out Of This
Phone Book". Then, Danny Tong developed the idea in
"Peek-A-Book". Finally, Larry Becker put together the
always efficient "Flashback" series. The Freestyle peek
differs from the above-mentioned ones in the sense that
it is not limited to indicating the first word(s) of the

5
left-hand page. We took an idea from "Any Page Book
Test", by Ronald Dayton (an idea, not the method), and
decided to circle or highlight any interesting word within
the body of the text. That word is coded and located in
the classic peek position.

You are going to pick your own book and get to know
it and then finally, you will be able to astound those
around you with the information in that book.

Each booktest will become unique due to the person’s

own history and life experience.

Since this is a one-book book test, some may want to

choose a Mass Market paperback, which measures four
and one-quarter inches wide, thus fitting comfortably in
any pocket. Also, poetry books provide more blank space,
but fewer words to work with. Your choice.

So go pick out a book that you like, bring some pens,

highlighters and your own history and prepare to make a
Freestyle Booktest.

SUPPLIES: a couple of pens, five highlighters (pink,

orange, yellow, green & blue) and a paperback book.

The word and number lists were basically taken from

“Thirteen Steps To Mentalism”, by Tony Corinda, pages 61
and 77, respectively.

6
 We will be dealing with various lists and mnemonic
principles, but you can vary them and even use memory
systems you already know.

First, here’s a list of the various effects you will be

making up in your book:

1.) Peek Book style coding to tell you various words

you have circled or underlined in the book.

2.) Doodles that will be drawn in on every page and

you can describe the doodle.

3.) Colors… each doodle and certain letters will be

highlighted in a color and you will be able to tell them
the colors without looking.

4.) Numbers… every other page will have a number

that will be a date, bill serial number, phone number,
model number or social security number… you will be
able to tell them what the number is for and the
exact number.

5.) Playing cards will be written in on every page and

you will either be able to tell them the cards around
the page they pick or, if using a memorized deck, you
will be able to know what page they are looking at
from a distance.

For memorized deck users, two playing cards are

not written into the book, but if they call those two

7
out you have the outs ready to go within the book
itself.

And from a distance, using their cards, you will be

able to tell the exact page they’ve opened in the book.

6.) Each page will have letters that you have filled in
when doodling in the book, so one page might have Gs
filled in and another might have Ps filled in… you will
be able to tell them what letters are filled in and how
many of them.

7.) Highlighted letters… you’ve also highlighted

letters on every page that make up one word such as
filling in H, I, V & E will give you the word HIVE… you
are able to tell them what color you filled the letters
in with & the word they spell out.

8.) You will be able to use stains in the book to code

yourself words or phrases.

9.) You will be able to tell a specific word that was

underlined at the bottom of one page.

10.) You will be able to tell what equipment the model

numbers are for and the names of the little dogs,
roads, planets, and whose phone number you wrote in
and the denomination of the bill you listed.

8
 Let’s start with the various mnemonic codes that
will give you numbers, colors & letters.

I will give you a few lists. You should pick the lists
and codes that are easiest to remember, or make one
up yourself that you’ve used in the past.

Here is the number code to translate to letters:

1 = D
2 = N
3 = M
4 = R
5 = F
6 = S
7 = T
8 = G
9 = P
0 = O

If you’ve ever looked at either Harry Lorayne’s

memory work or even the mnemonic codes in 13 Steps
then these should make some sense to you.

You might have other letters that are associated

with these numbers so use those instead.

Sometimes it’s easier to remember the letter

attached to the number because they both have similar
shapes or sounds like 5 has the beginning “F” sound in
its name while 9 looks like a backwards “P”. I use the

9
7 as a “T” because I picture two 7s back to back and
that looks like a solid “T” shape.

It will take a little bit of memory work, but once

you do it, these letters and numbers will be locked
together and ready for use later in the book test.

I’m going to presume you’ve practiced and locked in

the appropriate letter to number sequence. Now let’s
use the numbers to give us pictures or visuals of those
numbers.

Here is the list:

1 = Gun 6 = Tricks
2 = Shoe 7 = Heaven
3 = Flea 8 = Gate
4 = Saw 9 = Wine
5 = Hive 0 = Egg

Once again, if you’ve worked with these types of

lists, you’ll already have an easy time remembering
them.

It’s not that hard, as most of the names on the list

are just rhyming words to the number. Of course, four
is not an exact rhyme of Saw, but it’s close enough
and zero is easy to just picture as an egg shape.

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 Let’s now connect the colors to the numbers. If you
think of the basic colors as Red, Orange, Yellow, Green
& Blue then you have the letters R, O, Y, G, & B.

So you can remember that sequence by remembering

the name Roy Gib or some might remember it by Big
Roy then the colors would run blue, green, red, orange
& yellow.

We are going to give it as Roy Gib, but once you

understand what’s going on you can remember the color
in any sequence you’d like and match them up to the
numbers.

Here are the lists:

Color order:
1 = Red (pink) 6 = Red (pink)
2 = Orange 7 = Orange
3 = Yellow 8 = Yellow
4 = Green 9 = Green
5 = Blue 0 = Blue

About the list: Red is replaced by pink because it’s

harder to find a red highlighter than it is a pink one.

Once again, whatever makes it easier for you to

remember the colors and the order will be the best
way to set up your list. And you see that it is five
colors that repeat in the same sequence twice.

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 Here’s another list that coincides with the number
list & the mnemonic words associated with them:

1 = GUN, but think of handgun and your doodle will be

a HAND.
2 = SHOE, but think of a shoetree and your doodle will
be a TREE.
3 = FLEA, but think of a dog having fleas and you will
doodle a DOG.
4 = SAW, but think of a masked madman with a saw so
doodle a MASK.
5 = HIVE, so think of a beehive and doodle a BEE.
6 = TRICKS, so think of a magician and doodle his TOP
HAT.
7 = HEAVEN, so think of heaven & earth and doodle a
little PLANET.
8 = GATE, so think of a key to open it and draw a
doodle of a KEY.
9 = WINE, so think of a wine bottle and draw a
BOTTLE.
0 = EGG, so think of the chicken crossing the road and
doodle a ROAD or STREET.

We tried to make up things that are easy to

remember with each number, but if you have something
that jumps out at you when you hear a number then
draw that.

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 We will be using the actual original word that is
mnemonically tied to the number when we fill in, with
a color, & various letters, on each page that will make
up a word. It doesn’t make sense now, but I promise
by the end of this you’ll get it.

Let’s not jump ahead and continue the lists.

Now let’s see how we code ourselves numbers and

the item that number is associated with.

First, when you peek at a page you will always be

seeing the odd numbered pages… well, not always, but
usually. So the only numbers you will have to deal with
when remembering the long digits will be one, three,
five, seven & nine.

Here is that list:

1 = Will always give you a year. If the year is between

1000 and 1500 then you will always give it as B.C, but
if it is 1600 or higher you will give it as A.D. More on
that later.

3 = Will always be a bill serial number. Think of “as

phony as a three dollar bill” and you will remember it.

You will also be giving a letter that comes in front

of the serial number, but we will explain that later
also. Remember that bills have eight numbers so it’s a
long string of digits that you will be calling out.

13
5 = Will always be a phone number and sometimes the
area code.

It’s easy to think of fives as phone numbers if you

remember that in the movies all phone numbers are
given as five-five-five for legal reasons.

7 = Will always be a model number such as the kind

you find under a cell phone or other electronic
products.

We will also teach you how to give the two letter

model codes because most model numbers sound like
this MT – 4371… I like to make my model numbers
have six numbers, but that will be your choice. We will
teach about the letters in a bit.

9 = Will always be a social security number and you

can remember that by thinking that all social security
numbers have nine digits.

One thing that will change here is we realized that

no social security number starts with a nine so we
decided to invert the nine and get a six. Whenever you
are doing a social security number in the book you will
be inverting the nine and making it a six so the
numbers will always run something similar to 651-67-
3033.

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 So you’re wondering things like “How do I know
these long digit numbers?” or “How do I know the
letters associated with the bill serial numbers?” Easy.

You are using the numbers and the mnemonic letters

together to get you these letters. And the long
numbers are gotten by Vincent Dalban’s great idea
used in his Mental Numbers, found in “Practical Mental
Effects”, by Annemann, page 271.

Here are the basics: You peek at page 127. The first
thing you do is drop the first digit because we will
always just work with the last two digits of the page.

So now you have 27… now what? Well, your last

digit is always your key and a 7 tells you we are doing
a model number. We’ve decided that you will either
have a model number that’s either four digits long or
six… let’s say we wanted a six digit model number.
You start by reversing the two last digits of your peek
page… in this case it’s 27 so you reverse that to get
72… now you start adding two digits together so 7 + 2
= 9 so your third digit is 9; now add 2 + 9 to get the
fourth digit so 2 + 9 = 11, but always drop the ten so
the fourth digit is 1… now add 1 to 9 and that is 10,
but you drop the ten and it’s now 0 so the fifth digit
is zero… add zero to one and you get 1 so the six digit
is 1… all six digits would then be 729101.

15
 Let’s do another number. You peek at page 153 so
you know the 3 tells you they will be looking for a
bill’s serial number and bills have eight digits so now
we figure out the digits.

First, reverse the 53 because you’ve already dropped

the first digit of that number. You now have 35 which
you add to get 8 which you then add 8 to the 5 to get
13… now drop the ten digit and add the 3 to the 5 and
get 8… add the 3 to the 8 and get 11… drop the ten to
get 1… add 1 to the 3 to get 4 then add 4 to the 1 to
get 5 and finally add that 5 to the 4 to get 9…. your
serial number will read as 35831459.

Once again, when you see the last digit on your

peek page as one then you know it will be a year and
if the year is below 1600 then it is called out as B.C.
and anything from 1600 and above it will be written in
as A.D.

If you see the last peeked digit as three then it

will be a dollar bill serial number and that’s eight
digits long.

A five on the last digit of your peek page will give

you a phone number and you can do area codes or just
the number without the area code. How do you know
which one? I just ask.

16
 When I peek the page if I see it will be a phone
number I say, “I seem to remember I wrote a phone
number on that page. Is that correct? Good. Did I put
the area code? Oh, well, that’s going to make it
harder. Let’s see… the area code is…”

If you see a seven as the last digit on the peek

page then you know it’s a model number and I do six
digits, but you can do four… you decide which you
would like to do.

Finally, if you see a nine on your peek page then a

social security number is coming up and that’s nine
digits long.

Remember, we always invert the nine here so it

makes sense with the social security numbers.

Here’s an example: You peek at page 129 so the

social security number would be 628-08-8640. Did you
see how we inverted the nine and now used it as a six?

Did you also see how all the tens were dropped from
numbers that added to something over ten? 6+2=8,
then 2+8=0 by dropping the ten, then 8+0=8, then
0+8=8, then 8+8=6 by dropping the ten… then 8+6=4
by dropping that ten and 6+4=0 because you dropped
the ten. Do you see how we got 628-08-8640?

17
 I believe we’ve now covered what number to write
and on what peek page it is opposite of and how long
the digits are. It’s all starting to come together.

Now, how do we get those stubborn letters that are

in front of bills and model numbers? Easy. Your letter
to number code. For bills we will always use one letter
in front of the bill and for model numbers there will be
two letters in front of the numbers.

Here’s how you get those letters: Use the digit to

the left of your last digit on the peek page for the
bills; and the digit to the left and the total of the
two digits to get you the first and second letter of a
model number.

Some examples: You peek at page 243 so you know

the serial number of the bill is 43707741… you did
work that out? Right?

Now, the letter will be given by the number to the

left of the 3, on your peek page. In this case, the
number is 4 so in your mnemonic code a 4 is an “R” so
the serial letter and number would be R43707741… if
the page number had been 53 then the letter would be
“F”, if 63 then it’s an “S”… I’m sure you get it.

Now for model letters it’s bit more work, but not
too much.

18
 Okay, you peek at page 117 so the 7 tells you a
model number is coming up. You do the math and it
comes out to 718976.

For the two letters, the first letter works the same
way as a bill… in this case it’s a one so that’s a “D” in
our code system. Now add the 1 and the 7 to get 8
and that’s a “G” in our system. So the whole model
number would read as DG-718976.

What if when you add the two digits and you get a
number higher than ten…drop the ten. If the peek
page digits had been 87 then the first letter of the
model is “G” and the second letter is “F”… you dropped
the ten from fifteen to give you 5 which is an “F” in
our code. To complete this model number it would be
GF-785381.

So I think you now have the basics as to how to

code yourself a number and a letter from the peek
page and what the mnemonic code is for all numbers
and their letter equivalent.

Let me start working from the top of my list of

possible effects in your book… yes, it will be YOUR
book and in YOUR style… so we’ll work out all the
effects and how you are to write them into YOUR
book.

19
 1.) Peek Book style coding to tell you various words
you have circled or underlined in the book.

This is going to be an interesting one because

everybody’s book is going to be different in some way
or another. It will all depend on the book, your own
history and any abbreviations you find viable to code
things to yourself.

You will have to go through your book several times

and I mean SEVERAL times to get used to the words
and phrases that are common in the book.

Sometimes you’ll find a word or phrase that makes

you remember something. Or maybe you work in a
particular type of job that uses abbreviations for
things and you are used to seeing those abbreviations
and they conjure up a word or phrase.

For instance, you’re a cop and you always see M.O.

which stands for modus operandi, but that means
Method of Operation.

Well, anytime you see the word in your book that is

either METHOD or OPERATION then write M.O. in
handwriting on your peek page and underline the letter
of the word you are trying to code.

So if the word OPERATION is in your book then you

would put a line under the “O” in M.O. and when you
see that you can say to your spectator, “I remember

20
that I was curious about one word in that page… did I
circle a word on that page? I did. Concentrate on that
word. Is it, operation?”

This is where the freestyle of this book test comes

in. I don’t know what you know and I don’t have your
life history so it would be hard for me to tell you what
words, phrases, symbols or letters would bring up a
memory that could possibly clue you in to a word you
have circled in the text.

I will give you some of the ones I’ve chosen for

myself and I hope that will help you in some way to
come up with your own.

Here is a list and brief explanations as to how they

code me when I peek them at the corner of the page:

I.D. = INVISIBLE DECK. I will underline the “I” if

there is a word or phrase that either means INVISIBLE
or says something about someone not being able to see
something.

Of course, if you have a book that has to do with a

boat you might find the word DECK in the book so you
would underline the “D” in I.D.

Another thing about an abbreviation such as this

one, sometimes I’ll see a word or phrase in the book
that means, “to be visible to the human eye”. Well, in

21
this case I will underline the “I” and then put a little
arrow next to it pointing up which tells me the word is
the opposite of INVISIBLE.

VIB = VISION IN BLACK. This is a great effect for

drawing dupes by Ted Karmilovich. I will underline the
“V” if the word I’ve circled in the book is either
VISION or maybe something about looking or seeing.
Of course, if you have the word BLACK or DARK in
your book you could underline the “B”.

DL = DOUBLE LIFT. You might find these words in

your book so just underline the word that you are
trying to code yourself.

Hornet = That’s a great impression clipboard from

John Riggs and my book had the word CLIPBOARD in it
so I put “hornet” at the corner of the page and now I
know that’s the circled word.

MMM = MIND, MYTH & MAGIC. A great mentalism

book, but now each letter can tell me if I’ve circled
the same word in my book.

NFW = You know what that stands for and I used

the “F” to code one of the words in my book and they
come up frequently in my book.

MOAB = MOTHER OF ALL BOOKTESTS… another

great effect from Ted K. Now you can use that

22
fabulous book test to code you words like MOTHER or
BOOK or TEST.

DV = DOUBLE VISION can now help you with these

two words.

These are just a few. Think about all the other

abbreviations you know in magic and mentalism that
could code you many words or phrases.

Some people call Ammar’s card tapes EMCM so you

have four words you could possible find in your book
that can be coded with that string of letters and one
little line under the specific letter for each of those
words.

I come from the film world and I was a respiratory

therapist for five years. Over those many years I
picked up many abbreviations that now are meaningful
to me.

I use them in this booktest. I’ll give you those

abbreviations just in case you would like to use them:

“S” with a line on the top of it = the word

WITHOUT in medical lingo

“C” with a line on the top of it = the word WITH

“A” with a line on the top of it = the word BEFORE

23
 “P” with a line on the top of it = the word AFTER

PRN = stands for “AS NEEDED” in the hospital world

so whenever I saw the word NEED or NEEDED I put a
little PRN on my peek page corner.

NPO= “NOTHING BY MOUTH”, which is a warning in

a hospital that a patient should not be fed at this
time.

So if the word NOTHING was in my book I underlined

the “N” or underlined the “O” if the word MOUTH
appeared. I did use the little reverse arrow next to
“N” if the word SOMETHING or EVERYTHING showed
up in my book to tell me the word basically had the
opposite meaning to NOTHING.

HS = “HOUR OF SLEEP” in hospital talk so that

could clue me in for either of those words or if
someone was saying something about going to bed in my
book.

CPT = CHEST PHYSIO-THERAPY. This was an

interesting one in my book.

In the world of respiratory it is a medical procedure

in which the therapist massages a person’s chest and
back in order to make them loosen what is in their
lungs. Because it has to do with laying hands on the
upper body, I found many places in my book where
someone was either caressing someone that way, or

24
even punching or stabbing someone in the chest or
stomach.

I am able to see CPT then say, “Is there a sentence

circled in the book? Good. Just read it to yourself.
Hmm? I get the feeling it has to do with someone
moving their hands around this area.” Now I mime
moving my hands around my chest and back and that
ends up fitting any way that phrase was used in the
book… either in a loving or hurtful way.

Trac = TRACHEOTMY. This is an operation to open

an airway in someone’s neck.

I used this the same way I did CPT. In my book

there were times when someone was choked and times
when someone lovingly put their hands around
someone’s neck… this applied to either phrase.

DC = DECEASED. Whenever the words DEAD, KILLED

or MURDERED appear in my book I use DC to be a
reference.

ABG = ARTERIAL BLOOD GAS. This is something

done in a hospital to check the level of oxygen in
someone’s blood.

I found the word BLOOD several times in my book so

I would underline the “B” in ABG. I also found times
where someone took someone by the wrist or hand so I
didn’t underline any of the letters and that clued me in

25
that the person’s hand or wrist were being held… why?
Because that is what we do to get blood from a person
when we do an ABG.

REM = RAPID EYE MOVEMENT. This is used to

describe a stage in sleep so I used it anytime someone
was sleeping or the word SLEEP came up. But you can
use each letter for a specific word that might appear
in your text by underlining that letter.

Well, I have many more medical abbreviations that

make sense to me, but you get the basic ones I use.

Now let me give you some film terms I’ve used:

MOS = WITHOUT SOUND. Don’t ask why it was an

“M” instead of a “W”… well, let me tell you, it comes
from the old days when a lot of directors were German
and were working in the states. Whenever they needed
a scene to be shot and it didn’t need a microphone
they would yell, “Dis one is mitt out sound!!!” Basically,
“without sound”, but it became known as MOS.

Anyway, I used the letters to tell me when the

word SILENCE, or a phrase like “he spoke in a low
voice” was in my book.

Sometimes I found the word YELL or VOICE or even

SCREAM, so I would underline the “S” in MOS to tell
me it had something to do with something being heard.

26
 XCU = EXTREME CLOSE UP. Of course you can use
this to give you any of those words.

Beta = BETA TAPE. I used this one when I saw they

were talking about videotape in my book because most
people don’t remember there was such a thing as beta
tapes.

Ikegami = A type of video camera. I figured it was

obscure enough that I could code myself the word
CAMERA or VIDEO CAMERA.

Lav = LAVALIER. This is the type of microphone that

you clip onto a person and I found the word
MICROPHONE in my book.

INT = INTERIOR. Used in scripts to describe that a

location is inside so you can use it to code the word
INSIDE, INTERIOR or a phrase that has to do with
someone going into something.

EXT = EXTERIOR. Used like INT, but for the

opposite meaning.

So there are some basic code words I’ve used, but I

have many more that are personal to me and mean
something that you might not get.

27
 Here are some examples:

Jonas = JONAS GRUNDY. The actual name of the

Skipper on Gilligan’s Island so I use that to code the
word ISLAND, which appeared a lot in my book.

Sonny = SONNY FONTANA. A magician I met awhile

back that does an incredible shadow act so I use his
name to tell me the word SHADOW or SHADY is circled
in the text.

Otis = OTIS. He was the town drunk in the Andy

Griffith Show so anytime the words DRUNK, DRUNKEN,
LIQUOR or DRINK showed up I put Otis up there and
then mime raising a bottle to my lips to describe the
word I was getting.

SCUBA = SELF CONTAINED UNDERWATER

BREATHING APPARATUS. You’ve got five cool words
you can code yourself with that one.

Norton = ED NORTON. My book had the word

HONEYMOONERS and that’s one of my favorite
characters from TV history.

So you see how crazy this can get? Anything that

usually brings of an associated memory will work here.

You know Latin? Use some of those words. You have

a knowledge of shorthand? Time to use those skills to
code words to yourself. Got a handle on Morse code?

28
Well, start marking in those dots and dashes so you
know what you’ve circled.

Brush up on your Esperanto. Now your studies on the

Klingon language won’t go to waste. Know some dead
languages? Time to revive them.

Use anything in your personal bag of tricks to give

you clues as to what word or phrase you’ve circled on
a particular page.

The list is endless and only will end with your

memory. I should be able to open up your book and not
know much of what you are coding yourself… except
maybe what serial number you have on page 173.

And remember, you are putting your codes and

abbreviations on the odd page numbers, on the upper
corner, so that when you riffle and they tell you stop,
you can now peek at the page and the codes you’ve
written in.

29
 2.) Doodles that will be drawn in on every page and
you can describe the doodle.

So we’re into the second effect you can perform

with your book.

Do you remember the mnemonic list we started with

that gave you pictures associated with each number?
Now is the time you can start drawing pictures into
your book that you will later describe when someone
opens to a page.

ct
om ta
.c on
On any page that ends in one you will draw a HAND
@g ea m
il c
ic l co
and make it look like you just were doodling. On pages
ma se
c.

ending with two you would draw a TREE… for shoetree,

em gi gi
ov ma ama

remember? Pages ending in three will have you drawing

p
ag c

a little DOG. Pages ending in four will have a

n
:t bu chi

Halloween MASK of some sort. Pages ending in five will

2

have a BEE. Pages ending in six will have a little TOP

ma t .5

ol y
e- nt www

HAT or any kind of hat for that matter. Pages ending

il o

in seven will have a little PLANET drawn in. Pages

ending in eight will have a doodle of a KEY. Pages
Wa

ending in nine will have a BOTTLE drawn on them. And

finally, all pages ending in zero will have a ROAD or
STREET drawn in.

This is going to take more time and you should put

the little drawings in different spots on the various
pages. It should look like you were just doodling in the
book.

30
 When you’ve finished drawing in all the little
pictures it will be time to pull out your highlighters
and start coloring in the pictures according to the
mnemonic list.

ct
om ta
.c on
@g ea m
il c
ic l co
ma se
c.
em gi gi
ov ma ama
p
ag c
n
:t bu chi
2
ma t .5

ol y
e- nt www
il o
Wa

31
3.) Colors… each doodle and certain letters will be
highlighted in a color and you will be able to tell them
the colors without looking.

Remember that the list for colors to numbers was

this one:

Color order:
1 = Red (pink) 6 = Red (pink)
2 = Orange 7 = Orange
3 = Yellow 8 = Yellow

ct
om ta
4 = Green 9 = Green

.c on
5 = Blue 0 = Blue
@g ea m
il c
ic l co
ma se
c.

All the HANDS and TOP HATS are in pink because

em gi gi
ov ma ama

they fall on pages one & six.

p
ag c
n
:t bu chi

You will paint all the TREES and PLANETS orange

2

because they fall on pages two & six.

ma t .5

ol y
e- nt www
il o

All the DOGS and KEYS are painted yellow because

they fall on pages three & eight.
Wa

Paint all MASKS and BOTTLES in green because they

are on pages four & nine.

All the BEES and all the ROADS are painted blue
because they fall on pages five & zero.

We are always talking about the last digit in a peek

page number and, once you know what page they are

32
looking at, you can start giving them details of the
pictures and the colors.

You can now combine both lists to give you these

two effects of being able to say, when you know they
are on page 223, “I see a little drawing. Oh, I
remember I drew a neighbor’s dog on that page… is it
there? Good. Did I color it? Think of the color. Hmmm…
I see orange, but that’s not right. Wait… it’s yellow,
isn’t it? I know where the orange was coming from… is
there another drawing on those pages? Yes. It’s in

ct
om ta
orange, isn’t it? Yes. And I believe I was drawing the

.c on
dog’s favorite friend. I drew a tree there.” So you got
@g ea m
il c
ic l co
all that from just knowing page 223… isn’t that cool?
ma se
c.
em gi gi
ov ma ama
p
ag c
n
:t bu chi
2
ma t .5

ol y
e- nt www
il o
Wa

33
 4.) Numbers… every other page will have a number
that will be a date, phone number, social security
number, model number or bill serial number… you will
be able to tell them what the number is for and the
exact number.

I think we covered this one early on. Remember

that you will switch the two end numbers on your peek
page and start adding those digits to give you the
numbers on any page.

ct
om ta
So page 275 tells you it’s a phone number and it

.c on
could now be, including the area code, this number
@g ea m
il c
ic l co
(572) 910-1123… you can do the addition, right? And
ma se
c.

you knew it was a phone number because it was a

em gi gi
ov ma ama

five… a seven would have been a model number… and

p
ag c

you remember that model numbers have letters in

n
:t bu chi

front of them and you get those by the number to the

2

left of the end peek number then add those two

ma t .5

ol y
e- nt www

together to get the second letter.

il o

You’re getting it. It’s becoming old hat now… that

Wa

would be found on what page? Any page ending with

six and it would be pink in color.

34
 5.) Playing cards will be written in on every page
and you will either be able to tell them the cards
around the page they pick or, if using a memorized
deck, you will be able to know what page they are
looking at from a distance.

Two playing cards are not written into the book, but
if they call those two out you have the outs ready to
go within the book itself. And from a distance, using
their cards, you will be able to tell the exact page
they’ve opened in the book.

ct
om ta
.c on
Although you could get by with using any stack
@g ea m
il c
ic l co
system like Si Stebbins or the Breakthrough Card
ma se
c.

System, it would behoove you to learn a memorized

em gi gi
ov ma ama

stack because you can do so much more with it… in

p
ag c

general, and in this book test.

n
:t bu chi
2

We’ll just say that you are using a memorized

ma t .5

ol y
e- nt www

stack. Start filling in the cards at the upper areas of

il o

the pages.
Wa

So on the first page you will have the first card in

you stack, then the second card goes on page two… so
and so on. Stop when you reach page fifty.

On fifty you will put the fiftieth card in your stack,

but on page fifty-one you will start all over with the
first card in your stack. So you will only be using the
fifty cards from your stack and they will rotate every
fifty pages.

35
 Why? Well, it will be easier to figure out what page
they are at when they pass page fifty if all you have
do is subtract fifty from that higher number.

Think how easy it will be when they are in page 163

and all you do is remove one-hundred-fifty from that
number and now you know you are at card thirteen in
your stack. Think how much more difficult it would be
if you are subtracting fifty-two from that number to
figure out which card in your stack is now at the top

ct
om ta
of that page.

.c on
@g ea m
il c
ic l co
For those that don’t want to go to the trouble of
ma se
c.

learning a memorized deck, and shame on you because

em gi gi
ov ma ama

they’re great, then write the cards in new deck order…

p
ag c

sort of.
n
:t bu chi
2

Write in the cards using the traditional ChaSeD

ma t .5

ol y
e- nt www

order (Clubs, Hearts, Spades & Diamonds), but put them

il o

in Ace to King order. You will be able to do some quick

calculations and be able to tell where you are in the
Wa

book with this method, too.

So, if someone were on page 188, you would remove

one hundred and fifty from that number to get you 38.
Now see how many times 13 goes into that number and
you’ll find it goes almost three times, but is one short
so you were able to fit all the clubs, hearts and
everything but one of the spades in there so the card
they are looking at is the Queen of Spades.

36
 It’s a workable solution, but it would be so much
easier if you just learned a memorized deck.

But how will you know where they are in the book if
they don’t tell you the page. I guess you could guess
because it’s pretty easy to judge if they have turned
to something in the fifties instead of something in the
two hundred mark. But what if you want to know
exactly where they are? Hmmm? That’s not possible.
Well, luckily we came up with a way.

Remember, this is your book and you’ve had it for a

long time. People not only mark on the inside of books,
but on the covers and on the edges of the book.

Some people will write on the edge PROPERTY OF…

and this will be how you know. What I did was doodle
a couple of thermometer-looking shapes with little
hash marks on them. These hash marks weren’t
random… they occur on every fifty page segment.

So when I see them crack the book open and I see

two hash marks on the front cover side I know they
are in pages that are between 100 and 150. How do I
know the exact page? I ask. No, not that way. We
say, “What’s your favorite card? Three of Spades.
Okay, find one of the pages where I wrote in the
Three of Spades.” When they find their card I know
something about where they are in the book.

37
 Well, I know my Three of Spades is in position 38 in
my stack so it will be on pages 38, 88, 138, 188, 238,
288 and so on. When they find one of these pages all I
have to do is look at the hash mark and I know
exactly what page they are looking at.

See why a memorized deck will help immensely here.

If you are not doing a memorize deck, use Si

Stebbins or Breakthrough Card System. In this case,
write the fifty-two cards in, starting from the last odd
page in the book. You will always need a peek to
determine the card the spectator is looking at. Since
you wrote the cards from back to front, the card you
peek will tell you what card comes next in the system
you’re using… now go learn a memorized deck.

Since you know what page they are looking at

without even peeking, you can start calling out
information about that page like the doodles and their
colors, or the letters you’ve filled in… more about that
later. You can also tell them what card is opposite
there’s because you know your stack.

Anyway, if you do not know a memorized stack then

you will have to peek the page and card to start giving
out information.

One more thing about the cards… you left out two
of them. What if they mention those two cards? Well,
we’ve covered those outs. I wrote one of the cards in

38
the front of my book where the author wrote: “To my
mother, who always believed” and I continued the
phrase by adding, “in my 6 of Diamonds.”

So that covered one of my cards. I noticed that the

barcode on the cover of the book only had one 8 in it
so I underlined that 8 and drew a little “D” for
diamond next to it so that covers that card if someone
calls it out.

Be creative and find interesting places to put those

two missing cards.

39
 6.) Each page will have letters that you have filled
in when doodling in the book, so one page might have
Gs filled in and another might have Ps filled in… you
will be able to tell them what letters are filled in and
how many of them.

We are back to using our mnemonic list. Go back

and look at the list… ah, better yet, here it is:

1 = D 6 = S
2 = N 7 = T
3 = M 8 = G
4 = R 9 = P
5 = F 0 = O

What is going to happen is once you’ve peeked at a

page or used the card system to figure out what page
they turned to, you will start remembering that while
you doodled on that page you started filling in some of
the letters… and not only that, you remember the
letters you filled in and how many of them.

Here’s how you know that: Using the mnemonic list

you will fill in the appropriate letter that fits with
that number. So on page 158 you will fill in the Gs
because that page ends in eight.

40
 How do you do know that you filled in four Gs on
that page? You added the two digits 5 & 8 and that
got you 13 then you added the 1 and 3 to get you 4…
you will always get the amount to be 10 or less letters
to fill in.

If when adding you get to one then go up to ten,

but anything else you add up will always be ten or
less.

Examples: page 73 will have Ms filled in and there

will be ten of them filled in because you added the
three to the seven and got ten. Page 154 will have the
Rs filled in and there will be nine of them filled
because you added five to four to get nine.

Get how it’s working? Sometimes there will not be

enough of the correct letters on a particular page so
what we did was just write them in ourselves then
filled them in… you’re doodling remember, so what’s to
say that you didn’t just write in some letters yourself?

Most of the time you won’t need to do that.

So, in this new effect, when you either calculate the
page number, or peek at it, you will be able to say
what letters are filled in and how many.

Getting weird, isn’t it?

41
 7.) Highlighted letters… you’ve also highlighted
letters on every page that make up one word such as
a filling in H, I, V & E will give you the word HIVE…
you are able to tell them what color you filled the
letters in with & the word they spell out.

This is an interesting concept that gives you letters,

colors and a word you can call out and it’s all based on
the mnemonic list.

Here are the two lists you need for this:

1 = Gun 1 = Pink
2 = Shoe 2 = Orange
3 = Flea 3 = Yellow
4 = Saw 4 = Green
5 = Hive 5 = Blue
6 = Tricks 6 = Pink
7 = Heaven 7 = Orange
8 = Gate 8 = Yellow
9 = Wine 9 = Green
0 = Egg 0 = Blue

Using those words and those colors will allow you to

say, “I believe I was working on simple codes that day.
I think I made up a word using letters from many
words. Hmm? Are there a few letters on that page
that are colored in? Yes. I see it. I believe I used
orange? Yes. Okay, start at the top of the page then

42
go left to right, line by line, until you spelled out a
word using those letters. I remember I put them in the
order they came in the word. Have you done so? I got
it! You are thinking of Heaven!” So we know that this
page ended in a seven because that number is orange
and the word HEAVEN.

So go to your book and go page by page, and bring

your highlighters, then start filling in the correct
letters and colors to make up the words on this list.

On page one you will start at the top and the first
“G” you find you will highlight with pink then go to the
first “U” and highlight that in pink and then go to the
first “N” and highlight that… you’ve made up the word
GUN. Now you have to do it on all pages that end in
one.

When you’ve rested from that take out the orange

highlighter and go to all pages that end in two and
start finding the letters that will spell out SHOE.

You will do this for every word on the list and use
the correct colors that are on that list.

We’ve come to another bit of information you can

call out once you either peek the page or calculate it
via the card. When you know a person is on page 256
you can say, “Stop there! There’s bits of color on that
page and not just on the little picture. I see pink in
that page. It’s right! Okay, I know I filled in certain

43
letters with that color so start at the top and go
letter for letter… I think there’s a word I made out
there. Wait! I see it. There’s a “T”… then an “R”…
here comes a pink “I”… no, not that kind… the letter
“I” in pink… followed by a “C” then… it’s… it’s Tricks…
I spelled out Tricks!”

44
 8.) You will be able to use stains in the book to
code yourself words or phrases.

This is something you can use when you’ve peeked at

or know a certain page number and it will be up to you
as to where and what words you will stain.

How do you stain words? Use a straw with a dark

liquid and make a round stain around a certain word.
Do this only on certain page numbers so you would
know that if you are on any page ending in five that it
will have a stain around the word THE or ABOUT… try
to use very common words that you will find in just
about any page.

You can also use a cigarette burn mark to mark an

area on or near a word and on certain pages.

Now you can say when you know the page, “I

remember that day… my friend, the smoking fiend,
borrowed the book… he left a burn mark next to the
word SOMETHING.”

This is one of those “fly by the seat of your pants”

ideas that will work for some books and not for others.

45
 9.) You will be able to tell a specific word that was
underlined at the bottom of one page.

You will use a reverse peek for this method.

Go to the odd pages and underline one of the last

words at the bottom of that page. Don’t make it a
very long word or a very weird one. Once you underline
that word you will now write it in at the top of the
even page so you can peek it when you riffle the book
with the front cover facing the spectator.

But there’s a bit more to camouflage the method.

When you write in the word that is underlined you do
so by writing it in backwards. So if you underlined the
word KNOW on the odd page, you would write in the
word WONK on the top of the even page. Make sure
you write the first letter in capital because that
disguises the method even more and makes that
backward word look like either a nonsense word or
some funny sounding word. Try it and see.

And if that worries you then there are two other

ways of hiding the method.

First, you could decide to put other letters or

numbers between the important letters so now KNOW
becomes W82o3n9k. A little harder to spot the
method, but also makes it harder for you to work it
out on a peek, but try it.

46
 Second method would be to disguise the word as a
series of vertical words with the top letter being
important.

So now KNOW becomes:

W o n k
I f e i
L t e l
L e d i
n n
g

Of course, it will be hidden better when you

handwrite it in yourself.

47
 10.) You will be able to tell what equipment the
model numbers are for and the names of the little
dogs, roads, planets, and whose phone number you
wrote in and the denomination of the bill you listed.

Well, we are back to our lists, but now we can add

some more stuff that seems impossible that we would
know.

Let’s start: You are describing the little doggy

picture you drew and suddenly you remember the dog
had a name tag… and it does… and you call out that
name.

Well, you know all DOGS will be at pages ending in

three, but how do you know the name on the tag? Use
the number to the left of the three to get you a
letter from the mnemonic list.

So if the page number is 123 then you know the 2

stands for an “N” so always call that dog NIPPER or
whatever you can attach as a dog’s name with a letter
“N”. If it was page 253 then the 5 is an “F” so the
dog’s name can always be FIDO. See, it’s up to you to
figure out names that you can easily remember when
you know the first letter they will begin with.

How about the phone numbers and names? Same

thing.

48
 You know that phone numbers will always be on
pages ending in five so when you hear 225 you will
know it’s a number, but the 2 will tell you it’s an “N”
so decide all “N” names will be for NANCY.

Now you can call out the phone number and end by
saying, “Did I write a name with that number? I did.
Okay. Think about the name… send it to me. Oh, I
remember… I need to call Nancy on Tuesday.”

Now you can decide that all “D” names might be

DIANE and all Ms are MARY and all Ps are PAULA, Gs
are GINGER, Rs are ROSE, Ts are TAMMY, Fs are
Frankie, and so on…

Bills? The denominations? I’m sure you’re becoming

an expert at the Freestyle method and you’ve already
decided how to code it, but let us give you an example.

You already know that when the peek page ends in

three that a bill is written in there and you know how
to get the letter in front by the number to the left of
the peek page number. So now to get the bill’s
denomination.

Get ready to learn a new list. Don’t worry. Slowly it

will all become connected in your memory… trust us…
if we could learn this then anyone can.

49
 Here’s a new list:

1 = one dollar bill

2 = five dollar bill
3 = ten dollar bill
4 = twenty dollar bill
5 = one hundred dollar bill
6 = one dollar bill
7 = five dollar bill
8 = ten dollar bill
9 = twenty dollar bill
0 = one hundred dollar bill

Okay, when you look at the number to the left of

your key number on the peek page it will tell you what
bill you wrote in the book.

So page 73 is a five-dollar bill with this serial

number T37077415… easy as pie… well, not that easy,
but it will come with practice.

Now you can start by saying, “I wrote in a bill’s

serial number? Okay. Look at it. Wait. It was for a
five-dollar bill? Correct? Good. Now, look at the serial
number…” and you’re off.

And now for the model number and it’s associated

equipment. Yes, another list.

50
 Here’s that list:

1 = CELL PHONE. Think of a one-celled animal for one

cell phone.
2 = TELEVISON. Think of the “T” sound you make when
saying 2 and TV
3 = POWER CORD. Think of the three prongs you need
to plug one in.
4 = CAR PART. Think of a car as having four wheels.
5 = SOUND SYSTEM. Think of a 5 as having that “S”
shape for sound system.
6 = CELL PHONE.
7 = TELEVISON.
8 = POWER CORD.
9 = CAR PART.
0 = SOUND SYSTEM.

Once you remember the first five you should be able

to remember the other five and how they fall in the
numerical system.

Of course, if you want to get really crazy you

would come up with a different piece of equipment for
each number. Have fun.

Now if you peek at page 287, you will know that it

is for a power cord that has the following model
number GF-785381.

That pretty much covers it, but you could go wild

and give names to the liquor BOTTLES that fall at

51
each page ending in nine. And you could name the
BEES. Or give names to the STREETS and ROADS you
write in at each page number ending in zero. Or when
the page ends in seven and you know it’s a PLANET so
you could use the planets’ names as they go in order in
our solar system. So if you see a one next to the seven
you know the PLANET is Mercury, and a two would be
Venus, three would be Earth… and if you see a zero
next to the peek number then it’s the Sun.

Here are the names I gave my PHONE NUMBERS,

STREETS and DOGS, but you can use any name that
the letters conjure up because some are names from
my personal history:

Phone Street names Dogs

1 = Danielle 1 = Downey Street 1 = Dingo

2 = Nancy 2 = North Street 2 = Nipper
3 = Mary 3 = Main Street 3 = Moose
4 = Rose 4 = Ridge Road 4 = Rocky
5 = Frankie 5 = Fifth Street 5 = Fido
6 = Susan 6 = State Road 6 = Samson
7 = Tammy 7 = Toll Road 7 = Tiger
8 = Ginger 8 = Gate Road 8 = Ginger
9 = Paula 9 = Post Road 9 = Prince
0 = Oprah 0 = Old Road 0 = Otto

I think we’ve covered just about every combination

possible.

52
 I know this looks like a lot, and it is, but take it
slow.

First, learn the number list and how there are

mnemonic connections to words and numbers. Start to
add the color list to that. As you work with these two
lists you’ll start seeing how numbers and letters are
associated and the names will start getting easier to
remember.

One added thing since this is a Freestyle Book Test,

my book happened to have a certain look.

In my book, when a chapter started on an odd page,

there was no printed page number at the top of that
page. I immediately knew that was going to cause a
problem as that was my peek page so I decided to just
write it in.

After I wrote it in I noticed that now that was

more information I could have… now when I see a
written in page number I know that the long digit
number I’ve put in the book will have a question mark
next to it. This was just a personal effect I added.

So if I peek at page 147 and, I see I wrote that

page in, I can now say, “Is there a long number
written somewhere on those pages? There is. Good.
Look at that number. Hmm? Oh, I remember I wrote
done a model number on that page… Yes? And it was to

53
a car part? That’s also right. Let’s see if I can get the
number… it starts with two letters… “R” then a “D”…
Correct? Yes. And the number is 741561. Yes? Great!
Oh, I remember something else… I wasn’t sure what
car part I needed… didn’t I put a question mark next
to the number? I did. Thank you.”

You see how now I have a little bit more I can toss
in there.

You might find some oddity about your book. Maybe

there’s a weird font on some pages, or illustrations, or
chapter headings, or whatever… use any of these
things as possible ways to code you more information.

You will have to become very intimate with your book

so that you can learn its secrets that will then, in
turn, give you some secrets.

54
 Well, I know we’ve given you a lot of information to
absorb, but I also know you will eventually put it
altogether… I have and it seemed like it would be
impossible when we first started coming up with the
various effects.

I amaze myself now when I see or hear a page

number and realize how much information I know about
that particular page.

I’ll give you two examples so you see what can

happen with this book test:

1.) I hand out the book and talk about how this
particular book has been with me for quite awhile. I’ve
had it so long that I marked it up with various bits of
information over the years.

As a matter of fact, I’ve had it so long that I

believe the pages are etched into my memory. I
propose a test.

I explain that I wrote in playing cards on the top of

each page for fun, and I ask if the person holding the
book could just name their favorite card. They name
the Six of Clubs. I tell them to find it in the book.
They go through the pages and finally find it.

From a distance I see them crack the book open and

I know from counting my hash marks that they are
past page 150 and I know that my Six of Clubs is in

55
the 2nd position in my stack… so they are on page 152…
I already know so much.

Now I can start calling out things: “I believe I also

put another card on the opposite page… did I not? Yes.
Look at that card and think about it… hmm? It’s
another six… it’s the Six of Hearts. Correct?”

You know this because knowing they are on 152 then

your peek page would have been the opposite page, and
that’s 153, and the card at the 3rd position is the Six
of Hearts. Okay, so now you know your peek page
would have been 153 so you can start to give out
information that deals with your mnemonic lists.

“I believe I drew in some pictures on those pages… I

was just daydreaming and I drew in tiny pictures on
those pages. I did, didn’t I? Okay, stare at those
pictures… go back and forth from picture to picture…
look at as much detail as possible…Stop! I see, I drew
a picture of a little dog… not the best drawing in the
world… I’m not an artist. It is a dog, right? Good. And
to the left of the dog, on the other page, I drew a
tree… Yes? Good. Wait, I named that dog… oh, yes,
it was my neighbor’s big goofy dog… Moose. Right? Yes,
and I remember I drew him in yellow. Right. Oh, I just
got something… the tree was drawn in with an orange
marker. Yes? Thank you.”

Let’s cover all of this: You knew you were on page

153 so the 3 tells you it was a DOG drawn in and the

56
color it was highlighted with… both came from the 3
on the mnemonic lists. And the number also gave you
the dog’s name because 3 is an “M” and on my list
that’s MOOSE.

Since you also knew that he started to look at a

card on 152 then you also knew what picture was
drawn there because 2 is a SHOE that gave you Shoe
Tree which made you draw a TREE. The number gave
you the color ORANGE, which is second on the
mnemonic list.

By the way, you could have also used the 3 from

the opposite peek page to come up with a type of tree
so “M” could have been a Maple tree… you see how
everything can be connected? Let’s continue.

“Oh, wait… I remember I got a little crazy that day

and I filled in certain letters with my pen on both
pages… can you spot some of those letters? Good.
Hmm? Look towards the right page and just look at
those letters. I got it! I filled in the Ms on that
page… count how many… oh, I got it… I filled in 8 of
them… is that right? Good. Now go to the left page…
check out those letters… wait… wait… I did the Ns on
that page… and I believe I filled in 7 of them. That’s
right, too? Good.”

Knowing we were on a page ending with 3 told me

that it would be Ms filled in and then adding the 5 and

57
3 from that peek page told me I had filled in 8 of
those letters.

I also could tell that the page opposite that was

152 so 2 tells me Ns are filled and adding 5 plus 2
tells me 7 of those letters have been filled.
But there’s more to come…

“Oh, I see more colors… hmm? Oh, yes, I used my

highlighter that day to fill in some other letters. I see
yellow letters filled in on one page, but this time they
are all different letters. Can you find those letters?
Good. Start going from the top of the page and go
from left to right on each line… I believe I was
working on a code there and I highlighted letters that
would spell out a word. Go from each highlighted letter
to the next until you spell out a word. Can you do it?
You did. Good. Think about that word. Picture it in you
mind. Make an image if possible. Wait. I’m seeing
movement… like a strong force leaping or jumping… but
somehow I see it like a tiny black dot jumping up and
down… wait! Are you thinking about the word Flea?
Great!”

We were on 153 and the 3 gave us the word FLEA

on our mnemonic list and we knew that we had
highlighted letters that made up that word on that
particular page. We could now go to page 152 and
know that 2 is a SHOE so those highlighted letters
would be S, H, O, & E and we could have them think of
that word, too.

58
 “I just got the image of a number. Is there a
number somewhere written on those pages? Yes. Good.
Look at that number. Think about all the digits… run
them over and over in your mind. Hmm? I’m getting a
letter, too. That’s strange. Oh, I see. I’ve written a
bill serial number there. Is that correct? Yes. And it’s
for a one hundred dollar bill. That’s also right? Well,
look at the serial number and the letter associated
with it. See it all in your mind. Let me try to get it. I
see, it’s an “F”… Yes? Good… now the numbers… 3… 5,
8, 3… then 1, 4, 5… and finally… a 9. I got it? Great!”

We are on peek page 153 and the 3 three tells us we

are working with a BILL SERIAL NUMBER and the 5
tells us both that it is a HUNDRED DOLLAR BILL and
the letter that is in front of it, which is an “F”.

We call out the “F” then reverse the 53 to get 3 &

5 then add those to get 8 then add the 8 to the 5 to
get 13, but we drop the 10 to get the 3… we continue
by adding the 3 to the 8 to get 11 and drop the 10 to
get 1… add the 1 to the 3 to get 4 and then add the 4
to the 1 to get 5 to get a complete serial number that
reads as F3583145.

We’ve given out a lot of information about the page

they are looking at and we never even touched the
book.

59
 Let’s now do an actual peek.

2.) Hold the book with the back cover facing the
spectator. Riffle through the book and have them call
stop anywhere. They call Stop and you crack open the
book and hand it to them at that page, but as you do
you peek at the opposite page, which will be an odd
numbered page.

In this case, I’ll see page 237 and it’s handwritten

in. I also see that I put the letters “DC” and the word
JONAS and a “C” with a little line over it on the
corner of that page.

I now not only know all the things we’ve covered in

the first example like knowing that 7 tells me a
PLANET was doodled in and that planet will be EARTH
because of the 3 to the left of the 7, & Ts were filled
in on that page, & the number is a MODEL NUMBER
and the number 3 tells me the MODEL NUMBER is to a
POWER CORD, etc, but I also know that since the
page number was written in, I know that I have a
QUESTION MARK next to the MODEL NUMBER.

So I can start calling out all the various facts I

know about what is doodled or filled in on that page,
but I can also talk about words that I chose to circle
in on that page.

“Look over those pages. See if any words stand out

because I sometimes will circle words that mean

60
something to me on any given day. Did I do that there?
I did. Okay, look at those words. See if they mean
anything to you. I’m getting something… someone is
talking about death or being killed in some way… I see
one of the words as being about death somehow… is
that right? Oh, the word is Murder. Well, I guess
someone did die.”

“Look at another circled word… something with some

meaning. Try to picture everything that word could
mean to you. You got it? Good. Concentrate on that
word. Picture it in your mind. I see, water yet it isn’t
exactly about water, but there’s water around me. I
see some sort of large plant or tree… It’s a palm tree,
I think. Is that right? Are you seeing that? Yes. Good,
keep picturing the word. I feel alone like no one is
anywhere near me for hundreds of miles. I almost feel
like I have no hope… no chance of rescue… is this
something you are associating with that word? Yes! I’m
getting it… the word is Island. Yes! Great!”

“Okay, are there any other words circled? One.

Okay, look at that word. Try to picture it in your mind.
Say it to yourself over and over. Hmm? I’m not getting
an image. It’s like the word is not connected to
pictures or feelings… it’s some sort of generic word…
just look at each letter and send it to me. Oh, I get
it’s a short word… I’m seeing four letters… there’s an
“H”… an “I”… it’s… it’s With… the word is With.
Great!”

61
 So you see how much you can get out of those few
codes you give yourself?

Don’t just simply call out the words you now know…
make it a process. Give it emotions and pictures. Ham
it up!

You realize that these codes told me that the word

JONAS always tells me the circled word is ISLAND in
my book and “DC” is about DEATH in some way and the
“C” with a line over it is always the medical term for
the word WITH.

So there are two examples of what you can do with

your Freestyle Book Test.

62
 Go out and get a few books and start looking them
over. Find the unique patterns, phrases and words
within those books and figure out ways to code
yourself these images.

We’ve given you lots of ways of INTERLOCKING

MNEMONIC LISTS with letters, numbers and words, so
you should be able to come up with many effects with
books you already have at home.

Banachek did offer an interesting idea. You do this

test via a dual reality principle. You bring the
spectator on stage & talk about how this book
probably belonged to some student who put notes in it.

Now when you do the test with the spectator it

should look like you are actually calling out stuff that
is printed in the book and not merely written in. Of
course, the on-stage spectator can see that the stuff
is written in, but still won’t know how you know what
he is looking at while the audience believes you are
getting things from the printed page.

I think this idea from Banachek would play really

well on stage where everyone is viewing the same
effect from his or her own point of view.

To make the effect psychic, two main techniques are

used in our test: the riffle peek and the hash mark
peek (asking a spectator to mark a page and then

63
getting the peek while opening the book at that page
for another spectator). Basically, the objective is to
obtain the page number secretly. You could also use an
impression device and have someone write the page
number they will be opening to.

64
 One last thing: don’t just fill in the codes, numbers,
letters, names, doodles and phrases we’ve given you…
put in random letters and numbers and phrases all over
the book. This will be further camouflage the system.
It will really look like a book you’ve had for years and
wrote in random things.

One more last thing: you can draw one palm line in
every hand and name it. Here’s the code list:

Page ending in 11: the LIFE LINE… remember it as

having one life to live.

Page ending in 21: the HEAD LINE … remember it as

two heads are better than one.

Page ending in 31: the LUCK LINE… remember it as a

three-leaf clover for luck.

Page ending in 41: the FATE LINE… remember they

both have an “F” sound.

Page ending in 51: the HEART LINE… remember it is

the only word with five letters.

Page ending in 61: the LIFE LINE.

Page ending in 71: the HEAD LINE.
Page ending in 81: the LUCK LINE.
Page ending in 91: the FATE LINE.
Page ending in 01: the HEART LINE.

65
 The interesting thing is that now you can do a bit of
palmistry and cold reading with a book test.

Here’s an example: They turn to page 131 and you

say there’s a small doodle of a HAND, but you
continue, “I see that one of the lines of the palms has
been marked. Has it not? Right. I feel that you didn’t
pick this page randomly. You were drawn to it… no pun
intended. I feel you are wishing for something to
happen in your life. Some good thing is coming your
way. Maybe it’s time to buy that lottery ticket as it
seems Good Luck is headed your way.”

Basically, you can have tons of fun making your

Freestyle Book test.

Oh, for those that are artistically challenged… as I

am… I’ve made a few examples of the doodles on the
next pages. Please remember that I can’t draw a
straight line with a ruler, but that’s okay for this book
test… they’re just suppose to be doodles… not go up
on a museum wall.

I also threw in some pictures of some of the pages

in my book. You will get various pages taken with two
types of cameras so you can check out what the book
will start looking like as you fill in the information.

66
HAND TREE

DOG MASK

67
TOP HAT BEE

PLANET KEY

BOTTLE ROAD

68
Page 217: Jack of Spades, Planet = Mercury, HEAVEN is spelled out using orange highlighters
and filling in H, E, A, V, E & N on various words.
At bottom of the pager you will see LOCALS underlined and that shows the word that will
be peeked at when you look at page 216.
Notice that eight Ts have been filled in with a pen.
At the top corner you will see the letters “C” & “A” with lines over them, which represent
the words WITH & BEFORE.

69
Page 212: Notice the orange painted TREE and the highlighted letters S, H, O & E for SHOE.
Also, three Ns have been filled in with a pen using the Interlocking Mnemonic Lists to give
you “N” with the 2 of that page and adding 1 to 2 to get 3 Ns that need to be filled in.
At the top you can see the reverse word DOWN, which is now shown as “Nwod” and that
will be underlined at the bottom of page 213.
Page 213 told you that it was a bill serial number and the 1 told you that it would be a “D”
for the letter in that number. It is hard to see that I wrote one dollar next to the money
sign.
Since BLACK & BEFORE are circled, it tells me those word were coded on page 213.

70
Page 213: shows the VIB with the “B” underlined to tell me BLACK is circled somewhere.
Notice the yellow DOG named DINGO because the 1 told me to use a “D” for his name.
The word DOWN was underlined and was coded on the reverse peek at page 212.
The letters F, L, E & A have been highlighted in yellow to spell out FLEA.

71
 Page 174: The GREEN MASK is there because of the 4 & the letters S, A & W have been
filled in with a green highlighter because of the MNEMONIC CODE of 4 = SAW.
Notice the Ace of Hearts at the top which is my 24th card in my stack so I could see three
hash marks at the side of the book and know he is into the 150s so I add 24 to that and I
know the exact page he has opened to. Also, see the word NEW written in backwards at
the top.
Finally, can you see the PHONE NUMBER, NAME and QUESTION MARK all coded on from
page 175.

72
Page 175: It is handwritten in so that tells me the phone number will have a question mark
next to it. It is my Ten of Hearts card so using the hash marks I know that he is past page
150 and I add 25 to that to get page 175.
Notice the BLUE BEE below and the underlined NEW that will be peeked at in the reverse
page.
At the top, you can see ABG & DC so you know those are codes. The “B” is underlined so
somewhere on pages 174 & 175 I have circled in the word BLOOD. And the DC tells me
there is something about DEATH circled in one of these pages.

73
 Here is what the hash marks look like from the side of the book. Each space between the
marks represents approximately 50 pages… give or take five pages. So you know if you see
the 2nd hash mark you are near the 100th page, but if the card he has chosen is in the
beginning of the stack then you should know it comes after the hundredth page. For
example if he calls out 10 of Diamonds and the hash mark is on or near the hundredth mark
I know he’ll be at page 105 and not 150 or 50 because that card is fifth in my stack.

74
 Pages 148 & 149: Look at the Social Security number you would know because your peek
page ends in nine. The nine also told you a BOTTLE would be drawn & in GREEN. Notice the
REM at the peek page shows you circled something about sleep and the word is DREAM.
Also, NPO is on the top but with a line under the “N” and a little arrow to tell you it has
the opposite meaning so the word SOMETHING has been circled.
The word KNOW has been underlined at the bottom of 149 and you knew that by getting a
reverse peek at page 148 where the word WONK is seen.

75
We are in pages 136 & 137: The PLANET Earth is seen because the 3 in front of the 7 tells
us it is the third planet you have pictured. Underlined near the PLANET is the word GIVE
that can then be reversed peeked on page 136.
The seven in our peek page told us we put in a MODEL NUMBER and the three in front of
the seven told us it would be a POWER CORD.
Barely visible on the photo, I put NORTON on the top of my peek page because I circled
the word HONEYMOONERS.

76
Pages 250 & 251: MOS with a line under the “S” has told me the word SOUND is circled on
a page. Because our peek page ends in one then we know that a STREET or ROAD has been
drawn and the five in front of that tells me it’s FIFTH STREET in my list.
You can also see the underlined WATER at the bottom of the peek page which will be give
to me via a reverse peek on page 250 as RETAW.

77
 Pages 274 & 275: Notice I.D. at the top corner with the line under “I” and an arrow… I
know that I’ve circled something that has to do with the opposite of INVISIBLE and in this
case it’s APPEARANCE.
The number five in our peek page tells us it’s a PHONE NUMBER and it also, on my list, tells
me it is the name TAMMY.
We also know from the page numbers that a BEE and a MASK has been doodled in and their
COLORS.

78
 This is the beginning of Federico’s poem book he has started. Notice that he changed the
color list so that zero & five are PINK. Because there are fewer words in this type of book
he wrote in the necessary Fs & Ws to follow the code. He also decided that the five peek
page would code him a SNOWMAN instead of a BEE. So you see you can use whatever
doodles make sense to you with their numbers.
In this case, he still uses the five to tell him to write in a PHONE NUMBER.
All of his filled in letters still follow the pattern we explained in the book.

79
 COMMENTS & IDEAS

In making up this manuscript we keep getting other

ideas and comments… some come from other mentalists.

So we want to be as complete as possible so here are

some of the other ideas that have cropped up:

“There are mnemonic lists in every language, but you

are not providing them with the Freestyle Book Test.
Basically, Westerners will need to find or create an
image list, whereas Asians and Arabs will need to find or
create all the lists. My point is that Non-English speakers
should not be under the impression that this book test
will work in any language just as easily as it does in
English. It will work, but the user will need to do their
own extra research.”

“If you have a "Flashback" set, you may want to use a

one of the four books (not the fifth one) to make a
Freestyle Book Test. You could highlight words in the
MOABT paragraph. That way you will avoid the
awkwardness of the prose in said paragraph by directing
the spectator to one single word. Names are also an
option. For the right hand page, you highlight words that
you freestyle-code. You still can use all the Flashback
features, plus all the Freestyle features. The only
drawback is that page numbers will not be readily
available for peeking since they are centered in the
page.”

80
From Paolo Cavalli:

“Some different old looking newspaper cut pieces to be

found inside some of the pages of the book (let's say 25
or so).”

“They must be old looking (because they are then

perfectly congruent with the story of your old book full
of doodles, highlights, etc.”

“Also, if you make them look old with some coffee or

tea... You can get a second sneaky benefit from that...
YES! You can indeed artfully apply some of the coffee /
tea (even some ink blot!) on some of the portions of the
newspaper containing more little words and articles... so
you NATURALLY eliminate those words from being chosen
and you need less memory work in case spectator picks
up one of those pages in which a newspaper retail cut is
present... so less memory work...”

“Or... you could not mention those newspapers bits...

and, if someone CHALLENGES you to do that with the
newspaper instead of with the book... you can fake
apprehension about doing it and then go ahead and BLOW
THEIR MINDS!”

“Another idea is.... why NOT TAROTS? If you're going

to use playing cards... if you're going to use a sort of
palmistry... why not Tarots also?”

81
 “You could limit yourself to the 22 Major Arcana… two
benefits: Less memory links to do and people in any case
have no difficulty with the major Arcana while because
they are easy to imagine due to their pictures and what
they represent.”

Remember, the Freestyle Book Test is just that…

freestyle. Your imagination should run wild as to the
various ways you can code yourself and all the things you
could add to your book.

As a matter of fact, some people are gifted when it

comes to learning mnemonic lists and might even have a
list that runs up to a hundred or more where each
number is associated to a picture. Use it. Make every
picture in the book different if you can.

And don’t let a difference in language stop you. Try to

work out mnemonic lists in your own language that will
give you pictures and letters. You should be able to come
up with lists that work in your language with very little
effort.

For the sake of complete credits: In 1996, Max Maven

published an effect entitled "Quaranta", as part of his
one-man parade in the Linking Ring. There, he applies the
concept of interlocking mnemonic lists to a deck of cards
containing numbers, words, and images.

82
 Although the general concept is the same as in the
Freestyle Book Test, Maven's approach is different. It
does require a cue sheet and it connects the lists in a
different manner. We came across this material after
finishing the FBT manuscript.

We hope you find a good book to turn into your own

Freestyle Book Test and one day show us all of your
creative ways of using it.

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